One of the main reasons for allowing Beijing to stage the Olympic Games was the hope that it would lead China to improve its human rights situation, writes Tøger Seidenfaden, editor in chief of Politiken newspaper. But China has not played along, he comments: "In 2002, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, said that the committee did not intend to hold the event in China if it did not better its human rights record. Those were empty words, and a study carried out by Amnesty International shows that there has been no improvement whatsoever in the key areas. Forced labour and arbitrary imprisonment are the order of the day, for example. We must continuously point out to China that it violates the basic human rights - both at official and unofficial meetings. If the IOC cannot or does not want to deliver this message, then it is up to those who attend the games to do so. Perhaps that would make an impact." (30/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Tøger Seidenfaden

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung doubts that the Olympic Games will bring cultural rapprochement between China and the West: "One reason for the widespread Chinese misunderstanding of Western criticisms is that for all the petty egoism in China, the primacy of 'higher goals' has been taught there for centuries. Patriotism is considered more noble than freedom. Individuals do what the family and the state want, and not vice versa. Most people see human rights as a requirement for development and prosperity, but not as an individual entitlement. At the same time, facile prejudices about 'the inhuman yellow China' are increasingly making a comeback in the West. ... Certainly, the Chinese have had little say politically until now, but the majority do not see themselves as oppressed. And indeed, their lives have become more modern and even more free in many respects. ... Conflicts fed by ignorance and prejudice only benefit hardliners on both sides. Even now it seems as if security obsessed Chinese functionaries would prefer to ban all foreigners from the Olympic Games, and replace international understanding by Chinese patriotism rooted in a feeling of indignation. It looks as if the motto 'One World - one Dream' may be rewritten as 'Two Worlds - one Dream'. This might better reflect reality in certain areas, yet it would mean losing out on a terrific opportunity." (30/07/2008)

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The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung criticises the Chinese reaction to the Amnesty International report: "When the Chinese government responds to international criticism by saying that the human rights situation in the country is much better than it used to be, it is not entirely wrong. Under Mao China was a kind of national prison, which is not the case today. However, the hope that China, which sets such store by prestige, would become considerably more liberal prior to the Olympic games was delusory. In that respect criticism like that from Amnesty International is appropriate and certainly not 'a pack of lies', as the Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman was wont to call it. One should not scoff at security measures taken before events like the Olympic games. ... Internet censorship and obstructing reporters even in [politically] harmless situations completes the picture of a leadership that lacks any kind of sovereignty." (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Social movements, » Crime and Law, » China

In a report published on Tuesday the human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe Thomas Hammarberg called on the Italian government to abandon its rigid immigration policy. La Repubblica agrees: "[According to the report] the new Italian immigration measures do not take account of human rights and have stirred up a new wave of xenophobia. ... These are not just arbitrary words. ... The criticism of the European parliament has now been followed by criticism from the Council of Europe as well. But the only organ that can call Italy to account is the EU Commission, which is still waiting for the information promised by [Italian] Interior Minister Roberto Maroni on the package of security measures. ... The indictment [proves] the government's inability to deal with immigration (not a new problem), which could actually be coped with using existing laws." (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Minorities, » Crime and Law, » Italy, » Europe
All available articles from » Alberto d'Argenio

Over the past few days the files of the erstwhile communist military intelligence in Czechoslovakia have been opened and the names of those recorded there published on the Internet. Among those listed are the names of four current MPs as well as high-ranking military officers. The files do not reveal whether they indeed worked as spies or were rather victims of the secret police. "Nonetheless the information is interesting," comments the liberal daily Mladá fronta DNES. "Not because of the names but because it reveals how deep the quagmire was into which the communist regime led us. ... Let us wait until the members of parliament have opened all the files, as they have promised to do. This is the best thing that can be done with them."    (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Crime and Law, » History, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Luděk Navara

Gaspar Llamazares Trigo, secretary general of the Spanish Party Izquierda Unida (United Left), criticises in the daily El País the immigration policy of the Spanish government and the EU: "What use is it if a state gives immigrants the right to vote but throws their family members and countrymen into ethnic prisons with the blessing of fortress Europe. The latter is erecting great barriers and throwing the keys to its closed gates at the migrants. ... We do not accept this progressive populism, just as we have always condemned xenophobic populism. The deportation of eight million people ... remains an open issue. All democrats and left-wingers must act against directives like this and also against Sarkozy's Pact on Immigration and Asylum, Berlusconi's criminalisation of immigrants and ... the swing to the right of the Spanish government regarding immigration policy." (30/07/2008)

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According to a report published yesterday in the daily Dziennik the Polish authorities have allocated 30 Roma children in the city of Nowy Sącz to a special school although only three of them fall into the category of children that should attend such schools. The liberal left-wing daily Gazeta Wyborcza voices its dismay: "This contempt towards minorities puts Polish schools in a bad light. We must be committed to dispelling prejudice and train our teachers - including those at nurseries - in matters of intercultural integration. If the government does not tackle this problem now the class of intellectual Roma that is currently educating itself will force a solution. But it is the children who will pay for the time wasted."    (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Education, » Integration, » Minorities, » Poland
All available articles from » Lidia Ostałowska

Since Kosovo's declaration of independence on 17 February 2008, 43 of the 192 member states of the United Nations have recognised the state. However, recognition by further countries has now come to a standstill. The Slovenian daily Dnevnik analyses the causes. "The prime minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, has optimistically declared on several occasions that the country would soon be recognised by more than 100 states. ... But since June 13 (the date of the latest recognition of Kosovo by several states) there have been no other countries willing to join the ranks of the 43 countries that have accepted the existence of Kosovo as a state. And there are several reasons for this. ... The Islamic countries most of which one would expect to recognise the new state do not want to do so because they believe Kosovo is a creation of the West, and above all the United States. Numerous African and Asian countries have their own problems with territorial claims and fear that Kosovo could be held up as an example for separatist movements in their own countries. ... So Kosovo's diplomat's have a lot of work to do in the next few months if they want the number of states that recognise the country to increase." (30/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Blerim Shala

In view of the worldwide energy crisis the weekly Kapital urges a change in attitudes to global energy consumption: "If electricity production is not increased several times, poverty cannot be combatted. According to the World Bank there are two billion people who get by on less than two dollars a day. According to the former Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan, 1.6 billion people live without electricity. ... To date mankind has experienced a couple of revolutions that have fundamentally changed our way of life: the invention of electricity, for instance, and the development of new information technology. The next revolution facing us is connected with how we use energy. If it does not take place, a gloomy scenario threatens mankind. We should ... 'capture' the natural power of the wind and the sun's rays and use them. The need for new energy sources will bring about such a permanent change in our consciousness that human beings will no longer be consumers of nature but equal partners. Homo Sapiens is thus facing an intellectual revolution, which will take place parallel to the energy revolution." (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Energy Policy, » Global
All available articles from » Jasen Pekunov

The Doha round talks for a new treaty that would liberalise global trade have collapsed. "A tragedy? Not necessarily," The Independent comments. "The hopes imposed on Doha were always greater than the practice would bear. The slowdown that would have made an agreement more timely economically also made it politically more difficult. There is still plenty that can be achieved at the bilateral and regional level. Is it the end of the story? Again not necessarily. Good progress had been made in Geneva, not least in the agricultural concessions offered by the EU and the US. The point is to try and protect the weakest and most vulnerable while the rich – and the fast-enriching – sort out matters between themselves." (30/07/2008)

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The Spanish airline Iberia and British Airways have announced their plan to merge. El Mundo considers the move a landmark decision in this ailing economic sector: "There can be no doubt that a merger of this scale will stimulate a realignment in the air travel sector, where national airlines bearing the flag of a country are now obsolete. [This is particularly true] in a crisis like the present one in which soaring fuel prices and tougher competition following the rise of budget airlines have shaken an industry which some experts predict will see the loss of around 100,000 jobs by the end of the year." (30/07/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Infrastructure / Travel and Transport, » Corporations, » United Kingdom, » Spain

According to Rzeczpospolita, Romania is the first post-communist country to introduce the subject "History of Communism" into its curriculum. Historian and expert on the Soviet Union Paweł Wieczorkiewicz of the University of Warsaw praises the move in an interview with the newspaper and calls for the subject to be taught at Polish schools. "Without this knowledge young people are vulnerable to extremely primitive emotions that may be very noble, but at the same time are very naïve. The generation that was educated after the era of communism has no access to information about this period. Consequently young people are sometimes convinced by cheap arguments dating back to the times of the People's Republic which they find fresh and innovative, when in reality they are worn out and false. ... Teaching both the theory and the reality of communism could act as a vaccination and make young people immune to it." (30/07/2008)

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In an open letter, the Romanian-German writer Herta Müller recently criticised the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in Berlin for inviting as speakers Romanian intellectuals who worked for the communist secret service Securitate. The political scientist Vladimir Tismaneanu calls for the integration of the accused: "In no other country of Eastern Europe has there been such an obvious regrouping of the nomenclatura and such a vehement offensive against supporters of an open society as in Romania. A lustration would have solved this problem. ... But since things look different in reality we must decide what to do with the ex-informers. ... Do they have a moral right to participate in social institutions? ... The ICR programme is based on the rules of academic competition, not on political biographies. Of course, an informer past is repulsive to anyone with any sense of morality. But the ICR is not a court of morals. And Herta Müller might have taken a welcome and therapeutic step if she had asked the two ex-informers what they thought about using their position as cultural authorities to return to the leading ranks of public life." (30/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Vladimir Tismaneanu

The author Geoffrey Wheatcroft complains in the Financial Times about the British attitude to alcohol. All over the country he describes as "quite a sight; drunken 18-year-olds shrieking and vomiting as they stagger out of pubs and clubs.... But it was ever thus. We 'decorous' English have in reality always been a most dissipated and licentious people. Our literature celebrates drinking – see Shakespeare's Falstaff – and public drunkenness was a political topic long ago. ... In the late 19th century, moralists pronounced that 'drink is the curse of the working classes', (which Oscar Wilde nicely and very truly inverted as 'Work is the curse of the drinking classes'). ... It is ironical that Labour, which succeeded the Liberals as the party of the left and even the party of Protestant puritanism, has now become the party of "the Trade,” pushing through deregulation of drinking that the Tories would have shrunk from. ...In Gladstone's time, Dr Magee, the Bishop of Peterborough, expressed the fine Tory sentiment that he would rather see England free than England sober. If he could now take a look at, say, Peterborough on a Saturday night, he might think again." (30/07/2008)

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All available articles from » Geoffrey Wheatcroft