"The German police did a great job breaking up a terror plot against American targets", writes the daily in its editorial. "The arrests came a day after the Danish police nabbed eight people in another, apparently unrelated plot. Thinking about what might have been is always frightening, but the lesson of the European arrests is that sound police work is capable of combating terrorism without resorting to extra-legal or unconstitutional measures. (...) Once again we are reminded that terrorism does not always have a mountain hideout or an infrastructure that can be wiped out by a smart bomb. And the sad news is that hatred of the United States has grown, not abated, in the six years since the inferno of 9/11, due in part to the arrogant and misguided policies of President George W. Bush's proclaimed war on terror." (11/09/2007)

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Emiliano Lamo de Espinosa, professor of sociology, considers that "9/11 marked the beginning of a new era, not only of jihadism, but also of globalisation. ... In this new world, the question is who should be entrusted with the fight against terrorism and with which means? There is only one answer: a strong alliance of dependable democracies, the core of which can only be the transatlantic alliance. ... Islamist fundamentalism is a serious political and safety problem, but it is not a strategic threat and it cannot be compared to what the communist threat was. ... The main threat of the new century is less terrorism, which will doubtless continue, but rather that of a new international order precariously balanced with large and medium nuclear powers, that are also vying for natural resources." (11/09/2007)

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Jiří Sobota describes US policy since the September 11 attacks as "six lost years". "The United States played right into bin Laden's hands. But instead of focusing all its energy on catching or killing the brains behind the attack for these despicable crimes, in its usual fashion the US plunged itself into a large-scale war that had nothing to do with al-Qaida... Hundreds of thousands have died in Iraq, two million people have fled the country and another two million have been hunted out of their own homeland. Add to this the trampling of its own moral principles - the redefinition of torture and the creation of 'black holes' where the laws do not apply - and you have a terrible situation. Today it's easier than ever to convince part of the Muslim population that everyone has joined forces against them and isn't treating them fairly." (11/09/2007)

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On the sixth anniversary of September 11, the newspaper points out that the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on 30 March 2007 calling on member states to make it a punishable offence to mock Islam, and in particular its mention in connection with terrorism. "There were no protests from democratic nations. The resolution was accepted without question and this makes it hard to be optimistic about the future... The Muslims' and Islamists' aggressive posturing as victims is not the only problem. As long as the leaders of the West's democratic states continue to regard their God as a political sparring partner there is little chance of establishing a secular world order in which religion occupies its proper place." (11/09/2007)

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It's precisely because he keeps the people of the Church and the ecumenical movement at a distance that the Pope is so popular, writes Isolde Charim following Benedict XVI's visit to Austria. She notes that he refuses to allow Catholicism to be translated into modern semantics and therefore constitutes a fixed point in the continuum of time. "He has positioned the Church as an anachronistic institution - to the detriment of left-wing Catholics but to the delight of the general public. For while liberal Christians criticise the lacking or even shrinking democratisation of the Church, others have long since accepted it as an undemocratic, dogmatic institution... 'Event Catholicism' caters to this yearning for the institution in an ideal way. It offers people the opportunity to consume the institution of the Church without having to join it. This doesn't only require a dogmatic institution, the golden rule here is: the more dogmatic, the better. This is why the churches are empty but the papal masses are full." (11/09/2007)

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For a television series entitled 'New Europe', british actor Michael Palin traveled throughout Eastern Europe to explore how the region and its people have developed since the fall of the Berlin Wall. "I found that the confidence gained from EU membership has made an enormous difference. ... It's a sign that they're once again being taken seriously as European players (Hungay, Poland, Lithuania and the Czechs having at times had great and enlightened empires in Europe). ... Instead of seeing east and central Europe as a mysterious world into which I, as a westerner, could never be fully initiated, I now see it as a cultural political extension of my world. The bond of history and proximity is stronger than any ideology. We have much more in common than what has set us apart. It's a bit like discovering a long-lost branch of your family. We shall doubtless still quarrel as families do, but at least we can get together for a party every now and then." (11/09/2007)

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Poland has used its power of veto to prevent October 10 from being declared "European Day against the death penalty". Jacek Holówska, a philosopher at Warsaw University, writes: "In my opinion the protest against the European day against the death penalty was aimed at forcing the states of Western Europe to change their stance on abortion and euthanasia. This moral blackmail seems uncalled for. It exploits human life for political purposes. The government seems to be saying - although it won't admit it - that we would agree to ban the death penalty if abortion and euthanasia are banned at the same time... You can't seriously argue that the moral status of a foetus is equal to that of an adult person - although you can state that both were created by God. For agnostics and atheists this argument is irrelevant." (10/09/2007)

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38 trained doctors from India are currently on their way to Denmark to work in South Jutland, where there is a critical shortage of medical personnel. A hospital in the Danish city of Horsens had posted an ad in the "Indian Times" looking for doctors and received over 700 applications. The newspaper comments: "It's an ethical dilemma when a Western society tries to secure its own prosperity by attracting skilled workers from the poorer parts of the world... The Danish government's development aid strategy makes no provisions for developing a constructive relation between development aid policy and immigration policy. The sole aim of aid to developing countries is to ensure that people stay there. The hospital in Horsens is doing everything possible to make them leave." (11/09/2007)

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On Monday, September 10th, most Flemish Members of Parliament rejected the initiative of the extreme right-wing party Vlaams Belang, which would have liked to see a vote in favour of a referendum on the division of Belgium. "Did we really believe in an affirmative vote? No. But if there is just one salutary element of the abhorrent spectacle of a Vlaams Belang marginalised for months that treated itself yesterday to a media-hyped comeback, it is that it forced the Flemish parties to extract themselves from the thick, ambiguous fog that they had deliberately maintained around Belgium's final destination," comments Bétarice Delvaux, chief editor of the French-speaking daily. "Nothing, of course, has been resolved. Because nothing guarantees that the separation will never happen. And a compromise remains to be constructed between absolutely opposite conceptions of the role of the Belgian State. But symbolically, yesterday, a gesture was made. To recognise this is the least that can be done." (11/09/2007)

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Columnist Philip Stephens sees parallels between today's debate on a possible UK referendum on the EU revised treaty and debate in 1975's UK Parliament on Prime Minister Harold Wilson's proposed referendum on Britain's two-year-old membership of the European Union. "Wilson's government saw an opportunity to end Labour infighting over Europe. Margaret Thatcher, newly installed as leader of the Conservatives ... put the counter case. In those days, she was a staunch believer in parliamentary sovereignty. She was also firmly pro-European. The principled argument she made against a referendum remains as valid today as it was in 1975. ... Referendums, she said, sacrificed parliamentary sovereignty to political expediency. In a system such as Britain's, that threatened minorities by trading liberal democracy for majoritarianism. 'Perhaps the late Lord Attlee was right,' she observed, 'when he said that the referendum was a device of dictators and demagogues.'" (11/09/2007)

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"We took the risk of integrating Christopher Blocher [into the government by naming him in the Swiss Federal Council], and it has to be said, difficult though this is for some to admit, this has been a failure", writes Danièl Miéville as Blocher and his right-wing populist party the Democratic Central Union (DCU), are at the centre of debates in the election campaign leading up to Swiss general elections on October 21st. "Far from giving up the demagogy of party leader, federal councillor Blocher has added to political conflict. ... We are proud of our political system of consensus, of the cohabitation of languages and of cultures, as well as different political convictions, of our capacity for compromise, the simplicity of our magistrates who can walk safely down the street, of a unique political culture, a 'Sonderfall', [Swiss exception], in a word. The way things are going, to satisfy the passions of its leader, the DCU is destroying this culture. Do we want to let them go ahead?" (11/09/2007)

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Eduardo Damaso denounces the excesses of British press covering the case of Madeleine McCann, a British child who disappeared in Portugal last May. "The tone of the British press on the McCann's return to the UK is generally wildly enthusiastic. ... The atmosphere surrounding this affair is like the final stage of a gigantic rescue operation of British soldiers in Afghanistan; or as if this were the return home of heroes or British citizens narrowly escaped from a third world death's corridor. There is nothing to be said about how each country deals with its national pride. It's fine for them to go ahead and shout it out to the whole world. It is far more difficult to accept the deluge of criticism poured aver another country [Portugal], its institutions, its citizens, the way it functions as a democratic state." (11/09/2007)

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The appointment of Fabiano Fabiani, a centre-left press manager, at the head of RAI, Italy's public television station, provokes the anger of the centre-right, which is threatening to interrupt all dialogue with the government and asking President Napolitino to intervene. For the editorialist Giovanni Valentini, who stresses that RAI is the navel of Italian political life, political cleavages need to be overcome. "Television viewers, those who pay taxes and maybe even a subscription, do not wish to have a public service that is either left or right wing. They are rightly asking for an autonomous, independent and quality televison: less violent, less vulgar and less banal ... . Television that represents an alternative to private television, capable of resisting the invasion of advertising. Basically, a RAI that belongs to citizens, not to the government or to political parties". (11/09/2007)

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The autonomous Metelkova culture centre in Ljubljana is celebrating its 14th anniversary. It was founded following the withdrawal of the Yugoslavian People's Army from a former military complex. In 1993 there were plans to close it down to make way for a car park, but artists occupied the building in protest and since then it has become a kind of free zone. "Sometimes Metelkova seems like a sleepy place, at other times it seems a little strange amidst all the monoculture. But it's the only place that is truly urban in our quiet capital. It's the place that makes Ljubljana a city. Foreign travel guides write about it. Even progressive artists from New York held Metelkova up as an example when they were negotiating for exhibition space with the local authorities. Modern art needs public spaces." (11/09/2007)

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All available articles from » Ico Vidmar

A number of sculptures from the Soviet period have recently been added to the collection set up in the park surrounding Maarjamäe palace in Tallinn, which belongs to the capital's Historical Museum. The Estonian newspaper questions whether this "theme park" is a good idea: "Whether we like it or not, these monuments are part of our history. The exhibition helps young Estonians understand how strongly politicised the city was during Soviet times. We mustn't forget the past because by keeping the memory of the terrors of the past alive we can ensure that history doesn't repeat itself... Nonetheless, how the Historical Museum will react when someone comes to lay flowers at one of the monuments remains a delicate issue." (11/09/2007)

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