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Polityka | The Economist | L'Espresso |
The New York Review of Books | Tygodnik Powszechny | The Times Literary Supplement | Le Nouvel Observateur | ResetDoc | The New York Times
Polityka 10.06.2008 (Poland)
In an epic conversation, Jacek Zakowski talks to Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first premier of the new Poland in 1989, about the controversial transition period, the cautious dreams harboured at the time, the rise of the Fourth Republic of the Kaczynski brothers, Radio Marya and the League of Polish Families: "To a certain extent, it was hanging over us from the start. After the success, I think, lots people wanted a piece of it. This resulted in the alliance of foolhardy intellectuals, with their dreams of starting anew, and politicians, who had been searching for a new start to quell their frustrations at not being able to lay claim to the first one, and all the other people who were dissatisfied with the changes. Just remember that as early as 1992, the Olszewski government claimed to be a new start. They could not accept that the new start happened in 1989. And in 2005, the old political new-start scheme joined forces with the very real weaknesses of the whole transformation. And then on top of this, the entire post-communist camp had completely failed ... What was lacking, in my opinion, was some form of social compensation to offset all the changes taking place and the new differences that were emerging. The people who had held the political stage compromised themselves. But then to just go and destroy all that, was no remedy. It was an even stronger poison."
The Economist 09.06.2008 (UK)
Jeff Bezos continues to set the pace in a rapidly changing book market. Following the successful introduction of the e-book reading device Kindle, he is now pushing Amazon's print-on-demand business. A clever move, as the Economist explains: "The costs of printing and shipping paper and cardboard are rising... Print-on-demand (POD) is now cheaper than standard printing for runs of fewer than 1,200 copies, and the threshold is rising quickly. And if consumers become more price-sensitive, e-books may become more appealing. This week's Kindle bestseller, a political memoir by Scott McClellan, a former White House spokesman, can be downloaded from thin air in less than a minute for 9.99 dollars. A paper copy costs 15.37 dollars on Amazon's website, and will not be in stock for three weeks."
There are reviews of a new thriller set in China, two books about European cathedrals and the polemic, "Crush the Cell", (publisher's website) by US counter - terrorism expert Michael A. Sheehan, which warns against panicking over terrorism on the grounds that: "Most terrorists are amateurs. Al-Qaeda is overrated. The 'War Against Terror' is not the World War Three."
A special technology supplement deals, among other things, with the opportunities and problems presented by 100-dollar laptops, new behavioural advertising based on surfer surveillance and revolutionary new web navigation techniques.
L'Espresso 06.06.2008 (Italy)
The Indian woman will conquer the labour market, predicts Elisabetta Horvat. Impressive examples for the economic rise of women include Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, India's richest woman who runs biotech giant Biocon. Women will be able to cash in on their family-management skills in the workplace, and patriarchy does not have such a strong hold, Horvat writes: "Over the past decade the numbers of women in higher education has increased five-fold. According to official estimates, the number of women working in the software sector will have risen to 45 percent by 1012, up from today's 39 percent. While only one in ten employers is a woman, the number is rising steadily. But the biggest change is in stock corporations." At Germany's largest software company, SAP, only 30 percent of employees are women."
The New York Review of Books 26.06.2008 (USA)
Israel Rosenfield and Edward Ziff introduce the work of French neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux, who has not only established how good nicotine is for neuroreceptors (smokers tend to suffer significantly lower rates of Alheimer's and Parkinson's) but also how addicted our brains are to dopamine. "But opiates, alcohol, cannabinoids, nicotine, and other drugs can also increase the release of dopamine and subvert the normal function of the reward system. A rat given infusions of cocaine into the brain following the pressing of a bar will persist in pressing the bar repeatedly in preference to consuming food or water. Sugar, too, can be addictive. Indeed, the National Institutes of Health is now studying whether foods high in fat and sugar should be classified as addictive agents, in the same category as nicotine, alcohol, and cocaine."
However desperately Robert Mugabe continues to cling to power in Zimbabwe, Joshua Hammer does see some signs of change. "During my previous clandestine visits to Zimbabwe, the Meikles was a no-go zone, a favored haunt of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), Mugabe's ubiquitous domestic spying agency. But now dozens of unaccredited Western journalists flocked here to attend daily MDC press conferences: despite initial anxieties about a roundup of reporters, it soon became clear that the CIO had little interest in such matters, at least for the moment. 'The fear factor has eroded,' I was told by John Makumbe, a respected University of Zimbabwe political analyst and an MDC supporter. He was, for the first time, meeting openly at the hotel with pro-democracy activists, human rights workers, and foreign correspondents. 'The CIO are still around, of course, but they are discouraged, disenchanted. They have lost the will to fight.'"
Further articles: What is American about American art, asks John Updike, and concludes that it perhaps lies in its having "no ideas but in things". Elizabeth Drew tells the story of Vietnam veteran Jim Webb, who went on to become first a writer and then the Democratic Senator for Virginia. Now he has now been named as a possible candidate for Obama's vice president. There are reviews of the exhibition "Sacred Bronzes of Southern India" at the Royal Academy, Marguerite Duras' memoirs "The War" and Errol Morris' Abu Ghraib film "Standard Operating Procedure".
Tygodnik Powszechny 08.06.2008 (Poland)
Next week will see the publication of a book by two historians from the state "Institute of National Remembrance" (IPN), which apparently details Lech Walesa's alleged activities as an informer in the seventies. The announcement itself has been enough to spark heated discussions, polemics and open letters from the advocates and opponents of the so-called process of lustration. Pawel Demirski, who is directing a play about "Solidarnosc" leaders, sketches the importance of the Walesa legend for younger generations: "I wish young Poles would stop fearing political engagement. Lech Walesa could be a modern icon for a new workers movement, a subject for discussion not only among intellectuals but among factory workers and corporations as well. It is a pity that it seems this scenario will not play out in real life. Walesa exists in their general memory, but he is a dead symbol, one that does not motivate them to change the world. (Read the full interview in English here)
Dariusz Nowacki read Krzysztof Vargas' book on Hungary, "Gulasz z turula", with interest. "The Polish reader discovers that Poland's hapless history is relatively harmless compared with the catalogue of injustices suffered by other nations. It makes you want to weep when you read about the fate of the Magyars, their national character and their twisted psyche, their absurd dreams of long-gone power that will never return."
The Times Literary Supplement 06.06.2008 (UK)
What critic today still dares to vilify comics, detective or horror stories? Prompted by the arrival of two new books on genre literature, David Hajdu's "The Ten-Cent Plague" and Michael Chabon's "Maps and Legends", Michael Saler announces the arrival of a "cultural turning point". "Genre films and books are no longer a minority interest. They top the bestseller lists and popularity polls: we are all geeks now. The establishment's disdain for genre, and the populists' suspicion of experimental techniques, are largely things of the past. Generations weaned on cultures 'high' and 'low' have become the producers and arbiters of the arts, enabled by the expansion of the internet since the early 1990s. (Even the 'establishment' is being overtaken by the less euphonious but more democratic 'blogosphere'.)"
Le Nouvel Observateur 05.06.2008 (France)
Should we fight globalisation? On the tenth anniversary of the anti-globalisation network Attac, its founder and now honorary chairman Susan George discusses the question with economist Elie Cohen. When asked whether globalisation is benefiting or harming the poor, George replies: "No one would deny that certain numbers of Chinese people, who yesterday were shut out of consumer society, are profiting from it today. But we can see a rise in inequalities throughout the world. (...) And in a limited world we cannot continue to consume like we did in the 19th and 20th centuries. Unfortunately Indian and Chinese growth has decided to follow our bad example, instead of going straight into the 21st century, which could have been possible." On the question as to who controls the world market, Cohen answers: "I am amazed that you still credit multinationals with such enormous power. The world has changed. If you had asked me ten years ago which was the most powerful company in the world, I would have said Exxon. But Exxon and Total are dwarfs in oil production, their leading role is over. The world is controlled by the producing countries, who have complete control over their production. The multinationals by contrast control just 15 to 20 percent. If you look at stock market quotations, you see that Chinese and Arab oil companies are way up there. The world has changed from the bottom up."
ResetDoc 09.06.2008 (Italy)
Right or left is no longer the question when it comes to solving problems caused by globalisation, explains sociologist Zygmunt Bauman in an interview. "Globally produced problems can be only solved globally. Local changes of governments won't bring us closer to their solution. The only thinkable solution to the globally caused tide of existential insecurity is the matching of powers of the already globalized forces by the powers of politics, popular representation, law, jurisdiction. The solution, if at all conceivable, is a re-marriage of the now divorced power and politics – but this time on a higher, global, planetary, all-humanity level."
The New York Times 08.06.2008 (USA)
The Sunday Magazine contains a dossier on the "new city". Darcy Frey visited the Netherlands' craziest architects office, MVRDV of Rotterdam, and its co-founder Winy Maas. One of the ideas they are pursuing is "vertical gardening": "Noting that the Dutch pork industry consumes huge swaths of land - Holland has as many pigs as people - Maas proposed freeing up the countryside by erecting sustainable 40-story tower blocks for the pigs. 'Look - it's a pork port,' he said, flashing images from PigCity, his plan for piling up the country's porcine population and its slaughterhouses into sod-layered, manure-powered skyscrapers that would line the Dutch coast."
In other articles in the dossier, New York Times architecture critic, Nicolai Ouroussof asks whether artificial cities such as Dubai will ever be able to compete with the likes of Paris and New York. And Jon Mooalllem explains the art of "guerilla gardening".
RSS
The era of the book is over, publisher's editor Tom Engelhardt declares in The Nation. In the New Statesman Jonathan Derbyshire turns his thoughts to Weltliteratur since Goethe. In Polityka, Adam Michnik praises the Communists for passing their exams in Polish patriotism. Difficulty as a virtue has abandoned the realm of literature to be embraced by the computer game, John Lanchester writes in the London Review of Books. Standpoint takes Germany to task for its love of Russia. The New York Times tells the story of Mexico's victorious battle against the "culture of poverty". The Economist honours H.M., the man without memories.
In Outlook India Arundhati Roy analyses the nature of terrorism. In the London Review of Books, Tariq Ali describes an "honour killing" in his own family. In the Observator Cultural, the writer Mircea Horia Simionescu describes how useful it is to be the victim of infidelity. Elet es Irodalom examines the detrimental influence of the primitive Janos Kadar. In Gazeta Wyborcza Victor Erofeev wishes the credit crunch would hurt Russia more, so that it would be forced to change. In Lettre International Peter Nadas describes the legacy of simulation which had the Eastern Bloc in its grip. The New York Review of Books publishes the Chinese "Charter 2008".
In Al Ahram, Aijaz Zaka Syed calls upon Muslims to confront the terrorists in their midst. In Atlantic, Gao Xiqing tells the Americans to be nice to their money-lenders. In Przekroj Lech Walesa explains that he has to be top dog. In Nepszabadsag Laszlo Lengyel defines Hungary as bottom dog. In Merkur Dina Khapajewa explains how the Russians use WWII myths to repress memories of the gulag. The TLS maligns journalistic moralising. And the Spectator salutes the gentleman pirates of Somalia.
Outlook India investigates the attacks in Mumbai. In Salon, Martin Simecka outlines the difference between ex-communists and true dissidents. The Walrus pines for the wild Jews. In Przekroj, Dorota Maslowska warns about the imminent combustion of Polish society. In the TLS George Walden consoles hedge fund managers with tins of excrement. Umberto Eco buries himself in a dictionary of onomatopoeia. In the Nouvel Obs, Paul Virilio meditates on the omni-polis of the modern nomad. Sex ain't revolution the Nation declares, with an eye on Iran. The Wired watches Charlie Kaufman bleed. And the New York Times lifts the veil on the world's most powerful censors: the Google Three.
The American magazines - The Nation, the NYT, New Yorker - focus their attentions on V.S.Naipaul. The Nation also reviews Roberto Bolano's forgotten novel "2666" which, the Economist is astounded to reveal, is flying off the shelves. The Hungarian magazines take the temperature of the cold war between Hungary and Slovakia. Prospect waits for the bubble of bubbles to pop. Jose Saramago outs himself as a flush-faced blogger in El Pais Semanal. Dubravka Ugresic tells the Gazeta Wyborcza why Serbo-Croat is a throroughly modern language. And in the New York Times Kevin Kelly hurtles towards screen ubiquity.
Portfolio portrays the dark prince of Wall Street, who saw the storm coming, while the sun was still shining. In the Guardian, Jeanette Winterson explains why a tough life needs tough words. Polityka criticises the Catholic ideology officers monitoring Polish schools. Magyar Narancs is concerned about Hungary slipping back to the Stone Age. The New Republic eyes the collection of forceful characters on Obama's staff. And in Monde diplomatique, Juan Villoro describes a Mexico in the grip of a drug-induced here and now.
Who will be India's Obama? asks Outlook. The New Yorker looks at the tricky relationship between Obama and civil rights activism. The Guardian is stunned by the seething cauldron of neuroses that was the Wittgenstein family. Tygodnik Powszechny stares into the eyes of Polish Jews on film. Al Ahram introduces the ambitious online project of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on Egypt's history. In Radar Rodrigo Fresan puts bestsellers in the dock. Vanity Fair meets the top news provider of the future: Bloomberg.
Shortly before his death, Studs Terkel calls for more reg-u-lat-ion in the Huffington Post. The Spectator shines a light on the China Poly Group - an arm of the People's Liberation Army, with a strong interest in art. The Observator Cultural compiles a dossier on the writer Mircea Nedelciu. The New Statesman looks into Chinese-Muslim relations in Kashgar. Umberto Eco finds suicidal tendencies in Italian terrorism. The New York Times portrays Lauren Zalaznick, the creator of "layered" TV for savvy urbanites. And in the New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith sounds the death toll for lyrical realism.
The new Slovakian internet magazine Salon translates articles from Miroslav Kusy, Rudolf Chmel und Gaspar Miklos Tamas on the tension between Hungary and Slovakia. In Portfolio, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen tells newspapers to scrap their print editions. In Le Point Emmanuel Todd foresees the return of Marx and Bonaparte. The Polish papers report on the Kundera affair. The TLS introduces lit crit as practised by a militant pro-capitalist. In the Weltwoche Paul Scheffer talks about the boomerang effect of immigration.
In Nouvel Obs, Oliver Roy explains what fundamentalists of every stripe have against culture. In Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan celebrates the golden age of journalism (we're in it). In ADN cultura, Paolo Coelho says we should look at Britain's history to worrying about internet piracy. For Commentary, the financial crisis is the fault of the state. For the Economist, the Milan Kundera case is just a drop in a toxic cloud.
The Observator Cultural introduces Stelian Tanase, a world champion of storytelling. In ResetDoc, the Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas recites his credo. In Lettre International, a Russian woman describes her childhood in a labour camp. In Esquire Mikhail Khordokovsky describes the Russian nomenklatura as the result of a process of natural annihilation. In Dissent, Carlos Fraenkel talks about teaching philosophy in Indonesia. In the Guardian Margaret Atwood sings the praises of Alice Munro. The Walrus visits Josef Skvorecky. Przekroj introduces Jacek Duka, the new Stanislaw Lem. And the Economist answers the call of nature. 
Protect investors from themselves, cries the New York Review of Books, in tune with George Soros. Teach the Roma how to work, calls Nepszabadsag. In La vie des idees, Historian Roger Chartier shows how the digital age has returned the book to its medieval state. The Economist thinks it has seen the light for the music industry. In Standpoint, tenor Ian Bostridge pops a rock 'n' roll bubble. Jonathan Littell goes to Georgia for Le Monde. Bollywood is to India what Dante was to Italy, says Outlook India. And the New York Times visits a rosy-cheeked Kleiner Perkins. 
In the Nation, Joseph Stiglitz is not buying anything the Bush administration is selling. L'Express introduces the "black book of publishing". The Times Literary Supplement warms to the unlikely Ukraine defender, Archduke Wilhelm Franz von Habsburg-Lothringen. Literaturen travels to Kamering with Austrian author Josef Winkler and his pepper spray. HGV has the end of lonely thinking in sight. And The Economist is keeping a beady eye on Total Information Awareness.
Portfolio portrays the billionaire Raymond Harbert who is knocking ever louder on the New York Times's door. In Espresso, Umberto Eco has a good old chuckle about downgrading. In the Gazeta Wyborcza historian 
Rupert Murdoch is fantasising about reaping sweet revenge on the New York Times, Vanity Fair believes. The New Yorker describes the sticky situation of the Putin-critical radio station Ekho Moskvy. The Spectator describes the impossible situation of bloggers in Iran. Le Monde diplomatique prints a posthumous text by Jacques Derrida about rogue states and how to outfox them. Outlook India celebrates India's rise to nuclear standing. And the Atlantic thanks the Met's Philippe de Montebello for never underestimating the public.