According to Berthold Kohler, Angela Merkel's first 100 days in government have been positive, but now problems are looming: "At the moment, the coalition is still reaping the benefits of the chancellor's self-assured, bet unpretentious performance on the international stage and the fact that, as chancellor, she hasn't had to get involved in small internal disputes. However, until now, she hasn't had to face any really tough challenges, either in foreign or domestic policy. This will change if the Iran crisis escalates, or even if the postponed conflict surrounding Germany's public health insurance system isn't resolved soon. The laurels she has earned so far could soon wilt." (01/03/2006)

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"She's surprised Germany and Europe," observes Stefan Hudec on the 100th day of the grand coalition. He goes on to praise Angela Merkel's performance so far. "She's cut an excellent figure on the international stage and earned widespread respect. ... However, in Germany she's been less successful. With the exception of the reform of the federal state, she has achieved nothing. Meanwhile, the Germans are expecting inevitable changes - reform of the pension and public health system and the reduction of red tape. There are still five million unemployed in Germany. Nonetheless, there has been a general improvement in the Germans' mood and they are more optimistic about the future." (01/03/2006)

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In Prague's largest paper, Zita Senkova also focuses on the problems Angela Merkel's government is having on the domestic front. "Until now, the slogan 'priority for jobs' hasn't got any further than the CDU's election manifesto... Deutsche Telekom is planning to cut 30,000 jobs and Volkswagen is planning 20,000 redundancies. Over the past decade Germany has lost two million jobs in the industrial sector. There are fewer jobs in this sector today than before German reunification. The Germans are counting their pennies and economising. All in all, Merkel's first hundred days in government have been characterised by few words and even fewer deeds." (01/03/2006)

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Columnist Daniel Vernet evokes a 'state of grace' for the German chancellor. "Mrs. Merkel today enjoys a favorability rating of 80%. Were a new election to be held on Sunday, the Christian Democrat would come close to obtaining an absolute majority of seats in the Bundestag - a feat achieved only once in the history of the Federal Republic, by Konrad Adenauer in 1957. ... The Germans like the idea of a national compromise that allows them to resolve their problems, even if the government is yet to tackle the reforms that everyone deems necessary. The secret of the success of Germany's first female chancellor is tied to the image of composure, thoughtfulness and pragmatism that she projects. ... During her first appearance at a European Council meeting, she assumed the role of mediator between the Union's new and old members." (01/03/2006)

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The Danish daily at the origin of the controversy over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons has decided to reprint the "Manifesto against Islamic totalitarianism" published by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in its March 1st issue. Prominent among the text's twelve signatories are Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie and Bernard-Henri Lévy. "After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism. We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all. The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field." (01/03/2006)

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In an interview with 'Berlingske Tidende', Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has accused the media, the economy and culture of lacking principles and capitulating in the Muhammad cartoon dispute. The South African Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu argues that the current crisis could have been avoided if Rasmussen had agreed to meet the eleven Muslim representatives shortly after the cartoons were published. "The cartoons are seen as a symptom of a much more serious illness. If relations between the Muslims and the West were different, these cartoons would never have been drawn in the first place – and even if they had, the whole issue would have been dealt with differently. No basic right, not even the right to freedom of speech, is absolute. They always entail certain obligations." (28/02/2006)

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In the wake of the controversy over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, Sami Naïr, a professor of political science, argues that it is necessary to take into account globalisation and multicultural societies in the debate over freedom of expression. "This historic situation, which is occurring with such intensity for the first time in human history, requires us to become at once more aware and to make a great effort to act responsibly. Becoming aware means appreciating the fact that peoples' identities have become the main catalyst, that they are veritable social and political dynamite. And, consequently, it means understanding that the question of identities must not be taken lightly, and that we must not turn it into a strategic and political face-off between human groups." (01/03/2006)

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In a fear-inspiring essay, social scientist Wolfgang Sofsky describes an potential influenza pandemic which will kill an estimated 180 to 360 million people. "The air we breathe – the medium of infection – has no boundaries. Quarantine and hygiene, the tried and tested weapons against tuberculosis, are almost useless against the flu. Closing the airports and cordoning off individual districts will at best delay the invasion. It will hardly be possible to maintain traffic blockades over a longer term... Smuggling of goods and people will take off, as populations flee to the supposedly virus-free zones. The authorities will have to use local vigilantes to stop the migrants. Although it itself declared the state of emergency, the executive will risk losing its sovereignty and its monopoly on physical force will erode. The police and support staff will desert because the public services will also be decimated by the plague." (01/03/2006)

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In the uprising of October 1956, the Hungarians tried to free themselves from Soviet repression. The Red Army marched in and put an end to the revolution. Historian Domokos Kosary is the director of the commission that is preparing the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of this historical event and explains in an interview with Zsolt Greczy the significance of the uprising: "It was the first, shocking warning to the Soviet Union that the occupied countries were not prepared to put up with everything. We Hungarians played a pivotal role in bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union. It would be unreasonable to expect western Europe and the US to make amends [for their passive stance]. What's really important is that the revolution's historical and international significance is recognised by the international community. It's very gratifying that the uprising of 1956 was successful: although it was quashed at the time, Europe's interest in winning back the eastern half of the Continent from the Soviet Union prevailed." (28/02/2006)

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According to Stefan Bratkowski, honourary president of the Polish Journalists Association, the country's Muslims, the Tartars, could bring the opposing sides together in the conflict triggered by the Muhammad cartoons. He points out that Poland is the only country in Europe in which Muslims have lived in peaceful coexistencce with Christians for over 500 years. "Our Muslims, in particular, could be more successful than anyone else at establishing a dialogue between the cultures. ... The whole provincial world, us included, could learn from these unusual pioneers how to make progress through their own efforts. They can also tell the world that in Poland Islam is not a newly imported product which is leading to an identity crisis among the third generation, but something with a century-long tradition." (28/02/2006)

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After yesterday's heavy sentences in Belgium against militant members of the Revolutionary Turkish group, DHKP-C (extreme-left), in accordance with anti-terrorist legislation, the editorial writer asks: "The judges attack organisations, and at the same time they attack their members, even if we are talking about people who have no direct involvement in murder. The justice system is acting on the basis of a law that is being interpreted retroactively, and with great zeal. ... This 'terrorism', too broadly defined, is a concept that lacks serious foundations. It does not allow us to convict people and organisations. Especially if 'the act of engaging in propaganda' is a convictible offense. Were all the anti-apartheid activists or those who supported the Salvadoran guerilla fighters in the 1980s potential terrorists?" (01/03/2006)

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All available articles from » Walter Pauli

As part of his election campaign, Silvio Berlusconi went off [to Washington] to seek the support of George Bush, who offered an expression of friendly feelings. For Vittorio Zucconi, the newspaper's U.S. correspondent, this is Berlusconi's ultimate election act. "This support was the objective of the visit, which comes too close to the elections not to be perceived as an electoral propaganda exercise. ... That a whiff of the Italian election should waft into the Oval Office - the setting of so many more or less noble historical episodes - was foreseen. But the White House found itself obliged to correct the impression that it was overeager in its endorsement of the Cavalieri. For diplomatic reasons, it [the White House] ended up clarifying the fact that the president's personal esteem should not be interpreted as the endorsement of a party by the U.S. government. This scenario was predictable." (01/03/2006)

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Columnist Martin Wolf suggests the failings of Europe's current welfare state outweigh the benefits. "The time has come for Europeans to ask themselves the unthinkable: can their vaunted social model endure? ... The European state is maternal: protective but also infantilising. Its high taxes and benefits discourage anybody from doing too well, while ensuring that nobody does badly. Its services are available to all, but are also mediocre and inflexible ...For all its much discussed inefficiencies, the trial and error of the market economy proved more effective, because it was more creative and flexible, than Soviet planning. While a far smaller error, European social democracy looks increasingly unworkable in the long run." (01/03/2006)

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"Jussi Vilkuna refused to remove a comic strip about the Danish cartoon dispute from the website of the Finnish culture magazine 'Kaltio', and has now been fired", the newspaper reports. "Yet the cartoons weren't directed against Muhammad or Islam, but against what Ville Ranta, the cartoonist who drew them, sees as the subservience of Finnish politicians. He drew a cartoonist engaged in a discussion with Muhammad, whom the cartoonist covers with a mask so as not to violate the command forbidding images. The country's president, prime minister and foreign minister made an "official apology to the Muslim countries, thereby demonstrating their subservience in order to avoid getting mixed up in the cartoon row. As Ville Ranta's cartoons featuring the masked Muhammad were on the verge of being published, some of the magazine's major advertising customers cancelled their standing orders for 'Kaltio'. The publisher gave his editor an ultimatum: either the cartoons go or you go. Vilkuna was forced to go, and cartoonist Ranta is also suffering the consequences of his actions." (01/03/2006)

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Wieslaw Kaminski, rector of the University of Lublin, has banned an exhibition of provocative photos at his university. The exhibition was to be part of the programme of events accompanying the "Human Rights in Film" festival. According to Kaminski, many people would have found the exhibition offensive. The photos showed T-shirts printed with statements such as "I've had an abortion" or "I didn't mourn the death of the Pope" or "I'm a Jew" printed on them. More than a dozen artists, including actors, writers and directors, who wore the T-shirts in the photos, protested against this censorship in a joint appeal published by the daily: "We're shocked. For the first time since Poland has been a democracy, our work has been censored. We feel that this is a danger signal... Democracy and freedom have not been given to us to keep forever. We must fight to protect them every day if we don' t want to wake up one day as slaves... We accept that not everybody will like the T-shirts. But we refuse to accept this attack on the freedom of the word." (01/03/2006)

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All available articles from » Izabela Filipiak, » Władysław Frasyniuk, » Agnieszka Holland, » Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, » Krystyna Kofta, » Weronika Kostyrko, » Zofia Kulik, » Kazimierz Kutz, » Krzysztof Materna, » Anna Mucha, » Piotr Najsztub, » Maria Seweryn, » Kamil Sipowicz, » Maria Szabłowska, » Kazimiera Szczuka, » Kuba Wojewódzki

The Spanish writer Julià de Jòdar has just finished a trilogy devoted to the disappearance of the proletariat in post-Franco Spain, with his work, "El metall impur". In an interview with Rosa Maria Piñol, he explains the role of her work in helping preserve the history of the country's working class. "Fiction is just one component in the reconstruction of historical memory; it is a product of the narrator's subjective viewpoint. A short story can offer guidelines, visions, models of moral conduct, or even recreate the ways in which we speak. But it cannot supplant history as a science. Nor can it take the place of passing on this collective working-class heritage orally, within the family unit, or at the individual or national levels." (01/03/2006)

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Allegations by two historians that author Dan Brown plagiarized material from one of their works for his best-selling thriller, The Da Vinci Code, raises troubling questions for journalist Magnus Linklater. The case is currently before London's High Court. "I'm worried. If borrowing plots is to be forbidden, where does that leave me, and, indeed, the rest of the literary world? ... T. S. Eliot thought that plagiarism in the hands of a good writer was an artform: 'Immature poets imitate; great poets steal,' he said simply. Shakespeare purloined his best plots from Holinshed. West Side Story was stolen from Shakespeare. Paradise Lost is shamelessly based on Genesis. Martin Luther King plagiarised part of the doctoral thesis which became, later, his finest speech. Zadie Smith makes no bones about basing her latest novel On Beauty on E. M. Forster's Howards End..." (01/03/2006)

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