Die Zeit, 15.09.2005

In the last issue of Die Zeit before the election, the Austrian writer Robert Menasse (brother of writer Eva Menasse whose article on political engagement you can find on our site here) guides us through the peculiarities and paradoxical knottings of contemporary politics. And no matter whether Merkel or Schröder wins the election, Menasse believes, the people's votes are no longer worth anything. "National parliaments have been robbed of all their powers and the higher-ranking supranational EU parliament has never been given democratic power. Democracy has been trickling away into this gap for years. When the Nazis branded parliament as a 'Quatschbude' (babble room), it was a fascist challenge to enlightened democracy; today it is a depressing statement of fact."

The paper also features a detailed report by Bartholomäus Grill on superstition in Africa, where the ever-present fear of ghosts and witches is seen as a decisive restraint on development. In Congo, for example, "there is a morbid fear of pretty young girls. They are called 'kamoke sukali', sugar dolls, and are said to transform themselves into femmes fatales, to seduce their fathers and tear off their testicles. It is also said that enchanted women give birth to little witches in the form of electric eels, or that monster foetuses crawl out of them. Aids orphans, street kids and child soldiers are often accused of using black magic."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 15.09.2005

"Probably no election campaign in the last 20 years was as dominated – below the surface – by social questions as the one now coming to an end", says Axel Honneth, director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, in an interview with Harry Nutt. "The problem is that none of the parties has a concept of social justice complex enough to bring equal opportunities, work-dependency, generational discrimination and ecological considerations together in a rational and comprehendable framework. Almost all the parties are still operating with one-dimensional concepts of justice that concentrate for example on performance, equal opportunities or need, instead of taking the step to a multi-dimensional concept that is indispensable for the future. Much more intellectual work remains to be done here, over and above what party theoreticians can point to today."


Die Tageszeitung, 15.09.2005

In spite of some verbal jousting on the pages of the feuilletons (see here and here), Dirk Knipphals does not believe writers play any role in the election campaign. But, alongside the roar of the political fray he has identified a small and rather resentful debate about the principle of whether writers should participate in election campaigns at all. "Opportunists – government cronies – utopians in ivory towers – muddle-headed realpolitikers – slackers. The roles are allocated immediately even if nobody really fits the picture. Chunks of movable scenery like in boilerplate are lying around for the actors to hurl at one another. Anyone is welcome to join in but the experience is hardly pleasurable."


Berliner Zeitung, 15.09.2005

My next movie will be a horror film, director Christian Petzold, whose film "Gespenster" (ghosts) has just started playing in German cinemas, told Anke Westphal. Petzold talks about the latent violence in his work. "I'm sure you know 'Halloween' – I always discuss this film with the cameraman before I start a new film, because 'Halloween' manages to let the present look like the scene of a crime before anything has even happened. The places in the film always look as if they have violence written into them, but you can't quite put your finger onto it, something might have happened there already."


Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 15.09.2005

Sandra Kegel is outraged at the practice in Bremen of sending unemployed people to work as daycare attendants. But she does find it typical: "The most highly-qualified university teachers are relieved of all duties related to young people, and are not even required to supervise post-doctoral students. In this respect you at least have to say the Bremen model is consistent, whereby the most poorly qualified are good enough for the youngest learners. But underneath lies a misunderstanding very common in Germany. The truth is, the younger the children, the more complex their learning processes, and the more qualified their teachers have to be. In Germany the opposite is the case: the younger the children, the lower the level – and often quality – of the teachers' training."