Monday 21 August, 2006

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 21.08.2006

American author and attorney Louis Begley (homepage) had this to say about Günter Grass and the Waffen-SS: "One would have hoped that during his humiliating avowal, Grass might have cast off the role of the moral apostle for which he is all too famous. I have to think about the shockingly absurd anecdote he told about the first time he was confronted with direct racism, when he heard a white American soldier calling his black comrade 'nigger'. Was Grass seriously expecting that anyone who might have heard mention of German racist propaganda before and during the war and who possessed a glimmer of common sense would have believed him?"


Die Welt, 21.08.2006

Manuel Brug spoke with Croatian star pianist Ivo Pogorelich, who will soon release his first recordings after an eleven-year silence. Asked how he responded to the death a decade ago of his wife and teacher Aliza Kezeradze, 21 years his senior, Pogorelich answers: "I had to reinvent myself. She was so demanding. She clothed herself in art, she absorbed it, imbibed it. She was so universal. She had it all: a good birth, education, beauty, talent, friendliness. She outshone everything like a comet. Sure, you could never relax around her, she was always active. Even in death she remained the princess she was by birth. She had cancer of the liver. Her liver exploded when she died, and with her last kiss she showered me with black blood. I looked like the phantom of the opera. My hair was completely clotted. I didn't want to wash it off. And while we were being condoled with champagne, there I was still covered with her blood. But everyone understood. It was like Jackie Kennedy, who didn't want to change the suit that was covered with her husband's brain. I was happy so early in life, I knew that now it was time to get active. It just took a long time."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 21.08.2006

District libraries are now called "Idea Stores" in London's Tower Hamlets, as Lilo Weber learns from David Adjaye's latest creation in shining green, blue and white. "The snaking bookshelves are an Adjaye signature, and they also feature in the Idea Store Whitechapel. It's all about getting away from librariness. Visitor numbers give credence to the concept. While libraries throughout the country are complaining about shrinking user numbers, Idea Stores are booming. According to Sergio Dogliani, head of the Idea Stores, the smaller outlet in Chrisp Street has an average of 1,400 visitors daily, and the larger one in Whitechapel as many as 1,800. The latter is worth visiting purely for the view. From the cafe on the fourth floor you can see right out over the city to the Swiss Re Tower in the West, the supermarket and the council estates in the North and the chaotic mix of warehouses and service companies in the South."


Süddeutsche Zeitung, 21.08.2006

Alex Rühle sends home a breathless report from Mumbai on the city's beauty, confusion, injustice – and on the tourists who are always looking for the wrong thing. "The only place you can find tourists at all is in Colabar, the hugely expensive southern tip of the peninsula. And as punishment you're immediately surrounded by street hawkers: 'Balloons? Drums? Or do you want a nice woman, very spicy?' Two Dutch men recovering from the day's hubbub in front of the 'Strand Hotel' are slightly horrified. They want to leave and head north to the Himalayas, in search of the 'spiritual beauty of this country,' as one of them actually says. This is in itself one of the biggest mysteries: why Europeans come to India, of all places, this cultural hybrid machine, this country where cultures have intermeshed for 3,000 years, to look for purity. And why they then tramp through this wonderful Moloch feeling piqued, even personally offended, because the people don't joggle down tow-paths on ox-carts, but sit instead along the wall on Marine Drive discussing whether there shouldn't finally be a helicopter shuttle service from the airport to the city centre."

Christiane Schlötzer reports that the Greek Cypriot government wants to prevent "Akamas", the first Cypriot film ever to be chosen for the Venice Film Festival, from being shown there. In the film director Panicos Chrysanthou tells the tale of a romance between a Turk Cypriot and a Greek Cypriot and takes a critical view of the EOKA resistance movement. "Basically the whole story doesn't fit in with a heroic picture of the island's history where it's always those on the other side of the dividing line who are to blame for the division of the island. Moreover, Chrysanthou has a Turkish co-producer, Dervis Zaim, with whom he has done several other projects. For him, the island's conflict is like a prism through which he observes the world. The terms 'Hybris', with their original Greek meaning (injured honour) and 'Metro' (measure) are his leitmotifs. He says: 'I'm interested in the question of how far an individual can go to free his country or defend his honour. Is it permissible for him to blow himself and others up to achieve this?'."


Saturday 19 August, 2006

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 19.08.2006

Political scientist Herfried Münkler reflects on the "awkwardly asymmetrical constellation" in the Middle East conflict: "No sooner had the recent Lebanon war started than the Israelis were confronted by demands for a proportionate armed response. That this demand was not also directed at the Hizbullah could mean two things. One, that as the attacker Hizbullah was already acting 'disproportionately'. Or two, that it was Israel's military superiority that made a 'disproportionate' response possible in the first place, while no one expected Hizbullah – considered militarily weak – of being capable of a 'proportional' response at all. And so as soon as they arose, the demands for proportionality were caught up in an asymmetrical confrontation. In concrete terms: calling for proportionality meant taking sides against those of whom proportionality was being demanded."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 19.08.2006

Author Thomas Pynchon (more) is famous for his books and his invisibility. And now this: according to Slate, Pynchon "has personally posted a precis of his new book 'Against A Day' on Amazon.com" Andrea Köhler reports. "At least the synopsis of his novel, which until that point had been untitled, was signed with author's name. But who was this person calling himself Thomas Pynchon ? A phantom, with the aura that comes only from a combination of hearsay and retreat, the master of self-mystification appeared last January on the American TV series 'The Simpsons' with a sack over his head. And, like so much in Pynchon's vicinity, the text soon had a sack thrown over it and disappeared from Amazon's list – only to reappear soon after. What happened?"