Construction of the Elbe Philharmonic is underway, with its opening planned for autumn, 2011. Hamburg?s creative artists are not alone in seeing a new landmark for their city in this spectacular concert hall....
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In Merkur, Christoph Türcke defends blasphemy against its critics. Flemming Rose of Jyllands-Posten defends the publication of the Muhammed cartoons in Blueprint Magazine. In Outlook India, actor Aamir Khan refuses to distinguish between murdered Muslims and murdered Hindus. Die Weltwoche travels to Entropia. In Elet es Irodalom, Laszlo Darvasi explains what makes a brilliant Hungarian footballer. Stephane Zagdanski and Theo Klein argue about anti-Semitism in the Nouvel Obs. Marie Antoinette was the victim of a media hate campaign, reports Il Foglio. And Heti Vilaggazdasag wants to purge the Hungarian Academy of Sciences of dead wood.
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Polityka takes a look at the blogging scene in Poland. Elet es Irodalom asserts that it is possible to say no in a dictatorship. In Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy asks why Peter Handke found his way onto the programme of the Comedie Francaise in the first place. Al-Ahram charges Europeans with ethnic absolutism. And Canada's Walrus is worried about Germany's Linda.
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Historian Richard Pipes explains in Plus - Minus that the Russians don't in fact want an authoritarian state. Outlook India fears for the banana. In Espresso, Andrzej Stasiuk portrays the Kaczynski brothers as a double Sancho Panza. The Nouvel Obs bewails the decline of French cinema. Le Monde diplomatique bewails the decline of French literary criticism. Painter Howard Hodgkin explains in The Guardian that he hates painting. Die Weltwoche is amazed at young people, sex and the Web. Al Ahram documents a dispute about the Bahai faith. In Journal Culinaire, Adolf Loos rails against Vienese cooking. And the New York Times publishes a magnificent article on the universal digital library.
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Orhan Pamuk defends freedom of speech as a universal human right in the New York Review of Books. In Folio we learn who will win the FIFA World Cup. In Der Spiegel, Elke Schmitter pokes fun at big German men's fears of pauperism. Clarin attacks the miserable state of leftist intellectuals. In The New Yorker, a priest tells how he was a classic case of 4-1-9 rip-off. Gazeta Wyborcza wants to rescue Polish liberalism. The Spectator talks about mortification with a celibate numerary. In Le Point, Malek Chebel calls the rejection of flesh un-Islamic.
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In The Guardian, A.L. Kennedy outlines the perils of reading naked. In Die Weltwoche, Salman Rushdie defends the right to call other people idiots. For L'Express, Europe is anti-Enlightenment. Leon de Winter writes in Elsevier that we should fill our tanks with ethanol to outfox the mullahs. Merkur says new music should bridge the gap between itself and the listener. The Economist looks back on the life of filmmaker Shin Sang-Ok, who was abducted to North Korea to make films for the "Dear Leader". The New York Times is thrilled with Gary Shteyngart's novel "Absurdistan". And David Sedaris warns against gifts in The New Yorker.
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In The Spectator, Boris Johnson visits China and is fazed by charming Chinese and a squid. The Canadian Walrus Magazine gleefully witnesses charred bags of soy milk in a firebombed greengrocer's. Outlook India celebrates the capital of classification. The New Yorker cuts up a whole pig. Przekroj presents a new Polish newspaper purporting absolute objectivity. In Gazeta Wyborcza, historian Anna Wolff-Poweska laments Poland's image as a farrago of frustration. Die Weltwoche describes the political climate in Iran. A train journey reveals to Il Foglio the similarities between Prodians and Berlusconians.
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The New Republic imagines atomic weapons in the hands of former child soldiers in Iran. Espresso can't get too euphoric about the election results in Italy. Nepszabadsag thinks that conservative politician Viktor Orban has gone so far right, he's back on the left. The TLS is searching for British intellectuals. In Le Monde diplomatique, sociologist Lahouri Addi takes a bitter look at Algeria's attempt to confront its history. In Le Point, Bernard-Henri Levy tries to make sense of the silence over the crimes of white against black Muslims in Darfur. The New York Times counsels everyone to put their tissue on file before somebody else does.
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In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh describes the American plans for a regime change in Iran. Orhan Pamuk tells the story behind Gentile Bellini's portrait of the Sultan Mehmed II in The Guardian. In Clarin, Gianni Vattimo demands respect for the principle of "love thy neighbour" in democratic systems. Le Point sees only losers in the protests against the labour market reforms. Polityka explains the difficulty of building a museum in Warsaw without a building, a collection or employees. The TLS tells of the most bleak and bloated parts of the former Soviet Union.
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In Merkur, Tony Corn discusses World War Four. Outlook India investigates India's secularism crisis. In Folio, Paul Parin stresses the beneficial effect of speed, morphium, alcohol and cigarettes for the elderly. Malek Chebel and Jean-Paul Charney quarrel in L'Express about the reformability of Islam. Ian McEwan praises the poets of science in The Guardian. In Polityka, Adam Krzeminski calls Europe the continent of neurasthenics. Peter Nadas reflects on ambiguous sentences in Elet es Irodalom. And The Economist commiserates with France.
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Juan Villoro praises the greatest soccer player of all times in Lettre International. Amos Oz explains in L'Express why you can only separate, and not reconcile Israelis and Palestinians. In Die Weltwoche, Joe Zawinul draws parallels with the Vienese dialect and walking the bass line. Michael Ignatieff outlines in Prospect why there's no alternative to banning torture and coercive interrogation. In L'Espresso, Amelie Nothomb tells how television has been the undoing of our system of values. Paolo Flores d'Arcais explains in Literaturen why only chickens call Berlusconi a fascist. And Hamid Dabashi, who teaches at Columbia, pinpoints Al Ahram what's wrong with the West.
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Secularists aren't interested in social justice. That's why Islamists are so successful, writes Al Ahram. Feridun Zaimoglu tells Spiegel Online why more Muslims are turning European. Outlook India says Indian Muslims should not be pushed aside. Gazeta Wyborcza lauds Janusz Anderman's new novel about opposition in communist Poland. Seamus Heaney stands up in defence of W.B. Yeats. Die Weltwoche unpicks Finkielkraut's complexities and The New York Times eavesdrops on a high-speed debate.
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The New Yorker observes a slinky alien: Hedi Slimane of Dior Homme. Muslims make no differentiation between knowledge and belief, fears Tahar Ben Jelloun in Le Monde diplomatique. Muslims in Denmark could face the fate of the Tutsis, warns Al Ahram. In L'Express, the Israeli poet Haim Gouri looks back on the Six Day War. Poland is the EU's anguished aunt, writes Bronislav Geremek in the Gazeta Wybrocza. Foglio describes the erotic pleasures to be won by voting for the wrong party. Le Point raises a toast to Berlin and Foreign Policy prophesies the fall of China.
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Five years after the debate in Poland on Jedwabne, the Gazeta Wyborcza concludes that only those who committed the crime feel safe. The New York Review of Books presents the most cunning poker player in the world. DU celebrates Bach. In Polityka, Andrzej Wajda would like to see more films on Poland today. The Nouvel Obs congratulates the Nouveaux Philosophes on their 30th birthday. In Die Weltwoche, Kurt Vonnegut points to the shortcoming shared by all presidents.
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In Literaturen, Friedrich Kittler reflects on the Ancient Greeks' love of their gods. For Prospect, Aatish Taseer spent a few months at the Abu Nour University in Damascus, getting to know foreign students who have elected to study Islam. In Nouvel Obs, Jacques Derrida tries to figure out why he feels embarassed standing naked before his cat. The New Statesman offers a portrait of the Chinese artist Song Dong, who builds cities out of cookies. In Merkur, Jan Philipp Reemtsma deals with the matter of freedom of the will. In Elet es Irodalom, the writer Krisztian Grecso tells the story of a Hungarian Jew who was nearly lynched for ritual murder in 1948. The New York Times visits a former Taliban spokesman at Yale.
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In the New Republic, Amartya Sen warns against confusing multiculturalism and plural monoculturalism. In Espresso, film director Luc Besson talks about blond angels and Paris. The Gazeta Wyborcza reports on a Swedish insult to Polish honour. The New York Review of Books tells how election defeat is hampering Hamas. Nepszabadsag critices the Berlin Film Festival for showcasing German cinema. In the TLS, Christopher Hitchens recommends a book on the failures of intellectuals. And Al Ahram calls the Danish film "1:1" a gesture of reconciliation to the Arab world.
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