Monday 15 January, 2007

Der Tagesspiegel 15.01.2007

A week before the elections in Serbia, Hungarian-Serbian writer Laszlo Vegel has the following to say about the country's political landscape: "The politicians are again promising miracles. The democratic opposition is promising swift EU accession for Serbia. The extreme right opposition is promising to win back Kosovo. And the majority of the ruling parties under the Kostunica's leadership is even claiming that there is no need to lift a finger to bring about these miracles, as they will take place quite naturally. Europe will soon realise its mistake. With the exception of a new, small liberal-democratic party, no one in Serbia is calling for the necessary to be done, which means giving up Kosovo, pushing through reforms, and moving in the direction of Europe.


Die Tageszeitung 15.01.2007

Boris Reitschuster, Moscow correspondent for the German weekly Focus magazine, is convinced the Russian secret service is behind the rising pressure to which he is being subjected as author of the book "Putin's Democratorship", reports Melanie Zehrahn. The page for his book on Amazon, for example, has become a battlefield in recent months. "Econ Publishers suspect that the readers' comments are being sabotaged. 'The reviews are not only similar in their aggressive tone, but also in their phrasing.' One comment has already been removed by Econ, a political publishing company from Berlin. Under the pseudonym 'German Lover' one reviewer accused the author of being an unqualified liar and a 'devil worshipper'. Econ's lawyer has condemned the comments as false statements and defamatory criticism amounting to a breach of Reitschuster's personality rights. And Amazon has responded by removing the relevant passages."


Saturday 13 January, 2007

Die Welt 13.01.2007

After a long absence, Romanian author Carmen Francesca Banciu visits her hometown Bucharest, noting considerable changes since she was last there: "Bucuresti is a wasp's nest. A beehive. A swarm. It reeks of money. Of profit. Of hope. It jingles. It glimmers. It hisses. Moneymaking has become the number one pastime. A game and an obsession. People's eyes light up as they count the banknotes. And at the thought of how to multiply them. Money changes hands everywhere. In the malls. In the banks. In the exchange offices that have sprung up all over the city. Bucharest is too small for its affluence. The city is choking with people. With cars. I have to roll my suitcase along the street because the sidewalk is blocked by parked cars. The traffic is an adventure. Crossing the street is a test of courage. Riding a bike is suicide."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 13.01.2007

Three writers describe global migration in the Mediterranean for the literature and arts supplement. Italian-Albanian author Carmine Abate sends in a short story: "The desire to flee the country was tangible, as unstoppable as water surging through a broken dam. 'The Berlin Wall has fallen, and the regime that's massacred us for 45 years will fall as well. I'm getting out of Albania,' young Gojari told his father. He couldn't wait for a crack to open so that he could emigrate to Italy. 'They've blown up the Stalin statue in Tirana,' he enthused. 'And there's an uprising in Kavaja.' His father, on the other hand, tried to bring him back down to earth, reminding him of the brutal police attacks and the young people who'd been killed or thrown in jail. He didn't want his son to leave. People caught leaving the country illegally risk the death sentence, he said."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 13.01.2007

Vogue author Esma Annemon Dil has mingled with Beirut's glitterati: "When dating, it makes no difference which of the eighteen officially recognised religious groups you belong to. Everyone needs plenty of tricks up their sleeve to spend the night with their loved one. 'On the one hand this double moral standard gets on your nerves, but on the other it livens up relationships,' says an investment banker who hopes her boyfriend will propose to her tonight. But first, all eyes are turned on the man on TV. 'Silence!' someone shouts, 'the clairvoyant!' … No fireworks go off at New Year's. 'Our skies have been full of explosions too often,' explains Mary, a Christian Maronite who sympathises with Michel Aoun's Hizbullah Coalition. 'Be careful, she's one of them!' says Marc, a Druse, pointing in the direction of the demonstration downtown. A Sunni computer specialist shouts: 'Terrorist!' 'You ass,' Mary replies, before kissing her fiancé."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung 13.01.2007

Joachim Güntner has been having thoughts about victim culture in Germany. On the one hand, for decades now the Germans have been cultivating "a culture of recognition with nothing but good intentions concerning victims. Women as victims of male violence, black people as victims of racists, gays as victims of homophobes, non-smokers as victims of smokers – all of these can, at least on the mezzanine level of moral discourse, count on understanding for their problems." On the other hand, victims have never been more despised than today – and not only among rappers. "'Opfer' (German for 'victim') has been appropriated as a term of abuse right across the board [in Germany]. Even the left-wing radical anti-Germans and those nostalgic for the GDR who write for the Jungle World paper gloat in their distance to victim culture. The retrospective empathy for those killed in the Luftkrieg and the mourning for the bombed Dresden are brushed aside with a snide 'Germany, you victim!"