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1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: WALKING ON THE DARK SIDE
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After the 7 July bombings in London, the British government assured the public that no amount of intelligence could have averted the attacks. A week later, it went to the Council of Europe seeking approval for a series of surveillance measures, including the biometric ID card. This was, in effect, an attempt to introduce an unpopular policy through the backdoor. Welcome to the dark side of "international cooperation".

International cooperation between governments took off in the 1990s with the development of global communication networks and the globalization of trade. After 9/11, it reached new heights, with the UN, Nato, the Council of Europe, the OECD, and the G7/8 all supporting international anti-terrorism measures. Negotiating in this new climate has become so unproblematic that increasingly international bodies are governments’ first port of call.

Now, policies that affect civil liberties, above all in surveillance, can be justified on the domestic front on the grounds that they fulfil international standards. The process is known as "policy laundering" and has made inroads into daily life more than is known, writes Gus Hosein of the UK civil liberties watchdog organization Privacy International.

"Rather than run the gauntlet of democratic procedures and submit themselves to the scrutiny of their citizens and fellow politicians, governments around the world are choosing to make their decisions behind the closed doors of ever more obscure international bodies where their citizens cannot enter and accountability is nil. Discussion is kept to a minimum and contentious or controversial views are discouraged. The real work of government is now done at international organizations with their decisions handed down at summits in the form of press releases. Government by treaty and international agreement -- without the whiff of a vote or smell of dissent."

This article is taken from "Index on Censorship" 3/2005, entitled "Big Brother goes global" and guest-edited by Gus Hosein. The articles in the issue, all available in Eurozine, deal with topics from biometric identity cards to the shadowy practice of "rendition", from global DNA databases to intellectual property politics. The authors share one conclusion: it's time that institutions ensuring democracy adjust to the massive shift of power on the political stage.

"We must be wary of claims justified by 'international obligations', the need for 'international cooperation' and 'harmonization'", writes Hosein. "As long as governments fail to show the same eagerness for more progressive regulatory regimes -- on global debt and the environment, for instance -- we must question their zeal for collaboration in other areas."

This article is available in English at:

>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-hosein-en.html

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2. CONFERENCE IN ISTANBUL
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The 18th European Meeting of Cultural Journals in Istanbul, entitled "Neighbourhoods", will open this Friday, 4 November, with a speech by award-winning author Orhan Pamuk. The following days will be filled with panels and discussions looking at various sides of the theme.

Find more information and a complete programme at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-08-30-newsitem-en.html

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3. NEW ARTICLES
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Eurozine News Item
FACES OF ISTANBUL
Articles from "du" reveal facets of the city that has been the battleground of Turkey's modernization process.

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-newsitem-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-newsitem-de.html

Elif Safak
THE POWER OF THE COVERED WOMEN. ISTANBUL'S FEMININE DISTRICT
A pink halo hovers over Istanbul's traditional district of Üsküdar, where many of the monuments, mosques, and fountains were built by or for women.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-safak-de.html

Hanna Rutishauser
WHOEVER HAS A HOUSE SURVIVES. LIFE FOR MIGRANTS TO ISTANBUL'S SUBURBS
The "Gecekondu" are houses built semi-legally on public land. "Gecekondu" districts sprang up on the outskirts of Istanbul in the 1950s; now they are an established part of the cityscape. Meanwhile, Istanbul's suburbs keep expanding.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-rutishauser-de.html

Georg Brunold
EUROPE'S INVENTORS OF THE FIGURE OF MOURNING. A MODERN HISTORY OF TURKEY'S GREEK MINORITY
The Greek minority in Turkey has suffered since 1920. Today, the EU represents their greatest hope for better prospects.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-brunold-de.html

Klaus Kreiser
ARRIVAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. ISTANBUL AND MODERNITY
Istanbul's Ottoman heritage has been fighting a losing battle against modernization since the 1920s. For most residents of the city today, there is no alternative to a Western way of life.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-kreiser-de.html

Jan Philipp Reemtsma
NEIGHBOURLY RELATIONS AS A RESOURCE FOR VIOLENCE
A micro-analysis of neighbourly border-making enables an understanding of how politics instrumentalizes neighbourhoods' potential for violence.

This article is available in English and German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-reemtsma-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-11-02-reemtsma-de.html

Adam Phillips
THE FORGETTING MUSEUM
An obsession with memory blinds us to the abuses of memory, and to the uses of forgetting, argues a leading British psychoanalyst.

This article is now available in German as well as in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-phillips-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-06-24-phillips-en.html

Carlo Ginzburg, Trygve Riiser Gundersen
ON THE DARK SIDE OF HISTORY. CARLO GINZBURG TALKS TO TRYGVE RIISER GUNDERSEN
"I consider literary modernism first of all as an attempt to discover new forms of truthfulness. In that respect it is highly relevant to me as an historian." On the problems of relativism and the duty of the historian.

This article is now available in German as well as in English, Norwegian, and Portuguese at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-ginzburg-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2003-07-11-ginzburg-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2003-07-11-ginzburg-no.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-20-ginzburg-pt.html

Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA (V)
Last week, Ivaskevicius reached the edge of the Arctic Circle. Now he presses on to Lake Inar and enters Christmas card heaven. Then it's west into Norway to meet the Sami people -- if only someone would point them out to him...

This article is available in English, Hungarian, and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-ivaskevicius-hu.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-31-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Charlene Smith
EVERYONE IS FAILING THE VICTIMS. AIDS AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN SOUTH AFRICA
The biggest human, social, and economic problem in South Africa today is the extremely high rate of Aids-related illnesses. This catastrophe is caused by men and made a social taboo, especially when sexual liberality is understood as a licence to rape women.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-28-csmith-de.html

Joseph Algazy
THE ARAB ISRAELIS AND THEIR INFERIOR RIGHTS
Because Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, life for the large Palestinian minority is precarious. People of Arab origin have inferior rights and fewer economic chances. Only the 165 000 Bedouin are worse off.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-27-algazy-de.html

Eurozine News Item
BIG BROTHER GOES GLOBAL
Post 9/11, governments are increasingly tailoring "international standards" to ratify domestic policies that intrude on civil liberties. Welcome to the phenomenon of "policy laundering".

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-newsitem-en.html

Gus Hosein
WALKING ON THE DARK SIDE
Governments increasingly use international cooperation as a means for "policy laundering", having unpopular policies ratified by international bodies and re-introducing them at home. Nowhere is this happening more than in public surveillance.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-hosein-en.html

Christian Möller
THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN IGO
But does the OSCE live up to its self-proclaimed mandate as an exceptional inter-governmental organization?

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-moller-en.html

Tania Simoncelli, Helen Wallace
SPIRALLLING OUT OF CONTROL
The widening net cast by rapidly expanding DNA databases catches the innocent with the guilty, and scoops up whole families without their knowledge or consent.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-simoncelliwallace-en.html

Joe Stork
THE THIN END OF THE COOPERATION WEDGE
The practice of "rendition", whereby suspect individuals are transferred for interrogation to countries that practise torture, is one of the darkest aspects of international cooperation.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-stork-en.html

Barry Steinhardt
THREE CHEERS FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
The US has often looked to Europe as a role model for how civil liberties should be protected. But three examples show that the Wild West legal regime is rubbing off on Europe.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-steinhardt-en.html

Tony Bunyan
UNACCOUNTABLE EUROPE
Three significant pieces of legislation suggest Europe is "sleepwalking into a surveillance society".

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-25-bunyan-en.html

Zeynep Devrim Gürsel
BITING MY TONGUE
Now Turkey's EU accession process is officially underway, has the job of Turks become to win the hearts and minds of the Europeans?

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-24-gursel-en.html

David Fewer
THE GENIE IN THE INFORMATION BOTTLE
The US smuggles its own intellectual property protection standards into trade agreements with developing nations. But resistance is gathering.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-24-fewer-en.html

Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA (IV)
The fourth part of the Lithuanian novelist's homage to a part of the world that until the 1990s lay beyond reach across the Baltic Straits. In part four he journeys to the north of Finland, stopping off at the middle of nowhere before pressing on to the edge of the Arctic Circle.

This article is available in English, Hungarian, and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-24-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-24-ivaskevicius-hu.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-24-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Andrew Wilson
HOW TO HAVE BECOME A NATIONALIST
From hard-line Soviet to touchy-feely populist, Belarusian president Lukashenko has ploughed an erratic political course. If Russian subsidies continue to fall, his nationalism might turn out to be genuine.

This article is now available in Belarus as well as in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-21-wilson-be.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-09-28-wilson-en.html

David Banisar
THE IRRESISTIBLE RISE OF A RIGHT
In the past ten years there has been a global movement towards freedom of information at national levels. Now international organizations must subject themselves to the same standards they demand of others.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-21-banisar-en.html

Marcus Bensmann
DEMOCRATS, CLANS, AND APPARATCHIKS
The revolt in Kyrgyzstan in March 2005 and the massacre in Andijan in Uzbekistan have led to very different developments. In Kyrgyzstan, it looks as though a civil society could develop from the chaos. In Uzbekistan, the old despotic regime could use the brutal suppression of insurgency to tighten its stranglehold.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-20-bensmann-de.html

Simon Davies
THE COMPLETE ID PRIMER
In the face of strong resistance, the British government is introducing a far-reaching ID card. Other countries' experiences of similar systems could be instructive.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-20-davies-en.html

Karen Banks
SUMMITRY AND STRATEGIES
Much is at stake in the final meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society, but stakeholders don't see eye to eye.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-19-banks-en.html

Ramune Marcinkeviciute
THE ENERGY OF TRANSIT. THEATRE IN NON-TRADITIONAL SPACES
Performances in disused industrial buildings, prisons, foyers, or on the street: in central and eastern Europe, experimental theatre is booming like in western Europe in the 1970s.

This article is available in English and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-19-marcinkeviciute-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-19-marcinkeviciute-lt.html

Karl Schlögel
VOYAGE TO BRNO. AN ARCHEOLOGY OF THE INTER-WAR MODERN
Central eastern European modernism in the 1930s was an aesthetic declaration of war on the style of the defeated empires. With the resurgence of "civil Europe" after 1989, the White Modern has renewed significance.

This article is available in German and Hungarian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-18-schloegel-de.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-08-30-schloegel-hu.html

Denko Maleski
MACEDONIA'S NATIONALISMS
Macedonia's steps to political pluralism are still endangered by nationalist ideologues.

This article is now available in Macedonian as well as in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-17-maleski-mk.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2003-11-17-maleski-en.html

Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA (III)
The third part of the Lithuanian novelist's homage to a part of the world that until the 1990s lay beyond reach across the Baltic Straits. Here, he looks to Finland, a nation, like Lithuania, with a history of embattled independence. Over a round of drinks he discovers that's not all the Lithuanians and the Finns have in common.

This article is available in English, Hungarian, and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-17-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-17-ivaskevicius-hu.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-17-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Norman Lillegard
SPIRIT AND THE END OF ART
Has the end of art arrived? Norman Lillegard reflects on philosophical thoughts about art and searches for the spirit in it.

This article is now available in Slovene as well as in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-14-lillegard-sl.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2003-02-25-lillegard-en.html

António Sousa Ribeiro
THE REASON OF BORDERS OR A BORDER REASON? TRANSLATION AS A METAPHOR FOR OUR TIMES
How does translation affect and change our notions of multiculturalism and cultural identity?

This article is now available in Macedonian as well as in English, Bosnian, Portuguese, and Turkish at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-13-ribeiro-mk.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-07-18-ribeiro-pt.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-10-05-ribeiro-bs.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-01-14-ribeiro-tr.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2004-01-08-ribeiro-en.html

Bülent Somay
WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF THE REAL, PART II
As natural and human disasters continue to jeopardize the cohesion of societies around the world, arguments challenging assumptions about "civilization" are as important as they are uncomfortable.

This article is available in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-12-somay-en.html

Denko Maleski
MACEDONIA'S ROAD TO FREEDOM
The political columnist talks about the forces hindering democracy in Macedonia, and about the plight of the Roma, who in Macedonia face severe disadvantage.

This article is available in Macedonian and in English at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-11-maleski-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-11-maleski-mk.html

Marius Ivaskevicius
MY SCANDINAVIA (II)
The second part of the Lithuanian novelist's homage to a part of the world that until the 1990s lay beyond reach across the Baltic Straits. Here, he remembers his first trip to Sweden, where he learned the meaning of an honest day's work and fell in love with a blonde in an Opel. And how different Sweden seemed when he returned ten years later as a writer.

This article is available in English, Hungarian, and Lithuanian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-10-ivaskevicius-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-10-ivaskevicius-hu.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-10-ivaskevicius-lt.html

Harold Bloom, Ieva Lesinska
BREAKFAST WITH BRONTOSAURUS. AN INTERVIEW WITH HAROLD BLOOM
"Partly from encountering wisdom, I have to say I have no wisdom." American literary critic Harold Bloom talks to Latvian journal "Rigas Laiks" about his twenty-ninth book, "Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?"

This article is available in English and Latvian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-07-bloom-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-07-bloom-lv.html

Jan Plamper
THE SCHOOL OF LIFE. ON A GERMAN ATONEMENT PROJECT IN ST PETERSBURG
What the four elderly women from St Petersburg told the author about Stalinism and National Socialism while he worked as their carer in the early 1990s is today at the centre of the debate on national memory.

This article is available in German at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-06-plamper-de.html

Märt Väljataga
WHY STUDY LITERATURE?
Literary studies in Estonia has taken a crash course in twentieth-century theory. With mixed results, says the editor of cultural journal "Vikerkaar". Now literary critics should stop baffling one another with jargon and aim at a wider readership.

This article is available in English and Estonian at:
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-05-valjataga-en.html
>>http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2005-10-05-valjataga-et.html