----------------------------------------------------------- EUROZINE NEWSLETTER 07.2009----------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article of the month: In God's name 2. Timothy Snyder on the ignored reality of the Holocaust 3. Ralf Dahrendorf: 1 May 1929 - 17 June 2009 4. Find what you didn't know you were looking for 5. New articles
----------------------------------------------------------- 1. ARTICLE OF THE MONTH: IN GOD'S NAME----------------------------------------------------------- On 26 March 2009, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution condemning "defamation of religions" as a human rights violation. While similar resolutions have been adopted in the past, this one is different in that it no longer ignores Article 19 -- the right to free expression. "That crucial human right has now received a mention, albeit in a context which misleadingly equates defamation of religions with incitement to hatred and violence against religious people," writes Miklós Haraszti, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, in an article first published in "Index on Censorship".
Proposed by Pakistan on behalf of the Islamic states and promoted by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the resolution adopts the language of human rights so that the proposal sounds compatible with the advanced multiculturalism of liberal democracies. In doing so, writes Haraszti, it "cements oppressive governments' control of speech through cultural taboos and blasphemy laws, and at the same time glorifies and internationally acknowledges them in the vanguard of promoting tolerance."
Importantly, the resolution also helps "moderate" governments counter claims by radicals that they are not true guardians of faith. "I happen to remember these games from my time in the closed civilization of the communist one-party state," writes Haraszti, "where pluralism consisted of factional fights inside the Politburo of the Party. The technique was called 'overtaking from the left' [...] and never simply meant tough talk."
Haraszti's indignation is tangible when he describes the hypocrisy of the UNHRC in passing the resolution, yet failing to prohibit the promotion of religious violence: "I do not see any moral difference between ordering a contracted killing of investigative reporters like Anna Politkovskaya and issuing "fatwas" that call for murdering writers or journalists. [...] So far, none of the names of the instigators of these "fatwas" has appeared on wanted lists, not even in the countries which, I am sure, would extradite the masterminds of Politkovskaya's murder, if found. That is the HRC resolution's longest shadow."
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-19-haraszti-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 2. TIMOTHY SNYDER ON THE IGNORED REALITY OF THE HOLOCAUST----------------------------------------------------------- Now published in Eurozine: historian Timothy Snyder on the "ignored reality" of the Holocaust, based on a speech delivered at the Eurozine conference "European histories" in Vilnius. "Auschwitz" and "the Gulag", as symbols generally considered adequate to the evil of mass slaughter, locate the history of twentieth century totalitarian violence either too far West, or too far East, writes Snyder. The fact is thereby obscured that over a period of twelve years, between 1933 and 1944, some 12 million victims of Nazi and Soviet mass killing policies perished in a particular region of Europe -- one defined more or less by today's Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Snyder's article questions some of the fundamentals of the (western) European perception of twentieth century history and has serious implications for European memory politics today.
All articles from the Vilnius conference: http://www.eurozine.com/comp/focalpoints/vilnius_european_histories.html
http://www.eurozine.com/authors/snyder2.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-snyder-en.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 3. RALPH DAHRENDORF: 1 MAY - 17 JUNE 2009----------------------------------------------------------- Ralf Dahrendorf, the sociologist, philosopher and politician, passed away in Cologne on 17 June. Only in May, he published an article in "Merkur" on the financial crisis. "Developed capitalism demands elements of the Protestant ethic at the workplace, and the exact opposite outside work, in the world of consumption. [...] The economic system destroys the preconditions of its own mentality. [In the late nineteen eighties] capitalism, which had already mutated from parsimony to consumption, started its fatal move towards profligacy." Though not going so far as to advocate a return to a Protestant ethic, Dahrendorf suggests a return to medium-term thinking, deliberate planning and stakeholder instead of shareholder accountability -- to a "responsible capitalism".
Dahrendorf's "After the crisis: Back to a Protestant ethic?" (in German): http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-05-05-dahrendorf-de.html
http://www.eurozine.com/authors/dahrendorf.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 4. FIND WHAT YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE LOOKING FOR----------------------------------------------------------- If you have visited the Eurozine website recently you will have noticed a slight change to our layout. Some of our specially featured content now has its own home in the website's right column so you can find it more easily, quite literally "right" at your fingertips. Among the items that are featured in the right column you will see our focal points, editor's choice and the Eurozine conferences.
Explore Eurozine's new layout: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-05-05-dahrendorf-de.html
http://www.eurozine.com/comp/FocalPoints.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/comp/editorschoice.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/comp/focalpoints/vilnius_european_histories.html
----------------------------------------------------------- 5. NEW ARTICLES----------------------------------------------------------- Martin M. Simecka Still not free Why post-'89 history must go beyond self-diagnosis The dissident generation of the 1970s and 1980s produced a body of work unprecedented in Czech history. Yet its monumentality stands in the way of an uncompromised interpretation of the communist past, argues Martin Simecka. 02.07.2009
This article is now available in English and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-05-29-simecka-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-07-02-simecka-lt.html
Stefan Jonsson The first man On the North, literature and colonialism Nordic countries might not have a "classical" colonial past, writes Stefan Jonsson, yet a "northern colonialism" does exist. Any understanding of it must start with Nordic culture's view of nature and the myth of the "first man". 01.07.2009
This article is available in English and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-07-01-jonsson-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-07-01-jonsson-sv.html
Tatiana Zhurzhenko The geopolitics of memory The controversy around the statue of the Soviet soldier in Tallinn in April 2007 provided a striking demonstration that memory politics is less about the communist past than about future political and economic hegemony on the European continent. 29.06.2009
This article is now available in English, Estonian, Lithuanian and Ukrainian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-05-10-zhurzhenko-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-06-12-zhurzhenko-et.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-02-zhurzhenko-lt.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-29-zhurzhenko-uk.html
Timothy Snyder Holocaust: The ignored reality Auschwitz and the Gulag are generally taken to be adequate or even final symbols of the evil of mass slaughter. But they are only the beginning of knowledge, a hint of the the true reckoning with the past still to come, writes historian Timothy Snyder. 25.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-snyder-en.html
Ariel Kyrou, Yann Moulier Boutang "Beyond Google" As the internet becomes as ubiquitous and invisible as electricity, the limits of engines such as Google need to be questioned, write Ariel Kyrou and Yann Moulier Boutang. 25.06.2009
This article is available in French: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-25-boutang-fr.html
Eurozine Review So what's our problem? "Hungarian Quarterly" divines the future of the forint; "Index on Censorship" gives libel law a bad press; "Samtiden" doubts whether Norwegian police women are any freer with the hijab; "Le Monde diplomatique" (Berlin) applies the belt to Europe's cordon sanitaire; "Mittelweg 36" sees solidarity outgrow the nation; "Roots" says yes to Europe, but not at any cost; "Kulturos barai" does not dismiss the idea of a new Lithuanian Grand Duchy; "Le Monde diplomatique" (Oslo) calls the European elections a farce; "Rili" wants to keep the market out of universities; and "Fronesis" explains what 2°C means in an expertocracy. 24.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-24-eurozinerev-en.html
Theresa Wobbe From nation-building to market-building Georg Simmel's concept of "society as unity of the diversity of forms and degrees of sociality" opens up a non-national perspective on society. What is the structure of the sociality of the EU and what are the social forms that allow for a self-stabilization of this system? 23.06.2009
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-23-wobbe-de.html
Charlotte Wiedemann Myths of migration Although the EU cannot keep people from sticking to their West African traditions of mobility, EU member-states apply every possible means to achieve their aim: to prevent Africans from entering the EU, writes Charlotte Wiedemann. 23.06.2009
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-23-wiedemannc-de.html
Miklós Haraszti In God's name A new UN proposal condemning "defamation of religion" cements oppressive governments' control of free speech while still sounding compatible with the advanced multiculturalism of liberal democracies, writes Miklós Haraszti. 19.06.2009
Zoltán Farkas Hungarian bubbles Despite the horror-stories, Hungary's budget deficit at 3 per cent of GDP and its public debt at just above 70 per cent do not fare too badly in a global comparison. "So what's our problem?", asks Zoltán Farkas. 18.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-18-farkas-en.html
Eurozine News Item Theory and practice: Habermas at eighty "Blätter" celebrates Jürgen Habermas' eightieth birthday on 18 June with an issue dedicated to the influential social philosopher. With contributions from Seyla Benhabib, Axel Honneth, Oskar Negt and others. 17.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-17-newsitem-en.html
Andrei Plesu The Left treading on the Right "The Left is impudent, cheeky," writes Romanian philosopher Andrei Plesu in "Dilema veche". "It hides the Gulag behind a veil of 'historical necessity'." A provocative statement that has prompted a response from the Hungarian political scientist G.M. Tamás. 16.06.2009
This article is available in English and Romanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-plesu-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-tamas-ro.html
G.M. Tamás A response to Andrei Plesu "Undoubtedly, leftwingers exist who can find excuses for the Soviet penal universe. But I don't regularly discuss matters with them". G.M. Tamás responds to Andrei Plesu's assertion that "The Left [...] hides the Gulag behind a veil of 'historical necessity'." 16.06.2009
This article is available in English and Romanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-tamas-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-plesu1-ro.html
Andrei Plesu Some comments to G.M. Tamás "Undoubtedly, leftwingers exist who can find excuses for the Soviet penal universe. But I don't regularly discuss matters with them". Thus responded G.M. Tamás to Andrei Plesu's assertion that "The Left [...] hides the Gulag behind a veil of 'historical necessity'." Plesu adds a concluding comment. 16.06.2009
This article is available in English and Romanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-plesu1-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-16-plesu1-ro.html
Tymofiy Havryliv Literary perspectives: Ukraine Longing for the novel In Ukraine, the demand for engagement with the recent past has produced a series of novels that are better described as autobiographies. But, asks Timofiy Havryliv, is autobiography equal to the task? 15.06.2009
This article is now available in Czech, English, German and Lithuanian: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-15-havryliv-cs.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-06-28-havryliv-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-06-28-havryliv-de.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-05-29-havryliv-lt.html
Toril Moi "I am not a woman writer" About women, literature and feminist theory today In the 1970s and 1980s, many women found the female in literature inspiring; but then Nathalie Sarraute snarled in an interview: "When I write I am neither man nor woman nor dog nor cat." Toril Moi finds that since then the discussion has gone nowhere. 12.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-12-moi-en.html
Göran Rosenberg Back in the ghetto The Israeli Right nurtures the image of the nation of Israel as a bastion under eternal siege but fails to see that Israel is laying siege to the Palestinians. The window of opportunity opened by the Oslo agreement has been closed for good, fears Göran Rosenberg. 10.06.2009
This article is now available in Czech, Danish, English, Lithuanian, Norwegian and Swedish: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-10-rosenberg-cs.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-11-28-rosenberg-da.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-11-09-rosenberg-en.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-04-10-rosenberg-it.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-11-28-rosenberg-no.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-11-09-rosenberg-sv.html
George Blecher A nation like any other Western Europe holds Israel to impossible standards Since the conflict with Lebanon, there has been a sense among Western intellectuals that Israel has crossed some moral boundary line. But western European rhetoric holds Israel to impossible standards of perfection. 10.06.2009
This article is now available in Czech and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-10-blecher-cs.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-10-13-blecher-en.html
Seyla Benhabib Cosmopolitanism and democracy From Kant to Habermas Justice within and justice beyond borders is increasingly interconnected, writes Seyla Benhabib. In the cosmopolitanism of Jürgen Habermas, who turns eighty on 18 June, "the will to include the Other, regardless of national origin, has been present from the start". 09.06.2009
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-09-benhabib-de.html
Ewa Hess, Hennric Jokeit Neurocapitalism Neuroscience is the leading science of the twenty-first century, write Hennric Jokeit and Ewa Hess: "The basis of this claim is the maxim that all human behaviour is determined by the principles of the activities of neurons and the way they are organized in the brain." 09.06.2009
This article is available in German: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-09-jokeit-de.html
Marek Seckar, Avraham B. Yehoshua I always try to be an optimist Interview with A. B. Yehoshua "Host" talks to Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua, a Zionist but also an uncompromising critic of Israeli policy who advocates the return of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians: "History has taught us that everything is possible." 09.06.2009
This article is available in Czech and English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-09-yehoshua-cs.htmlhttp://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-09-yehoshua-en.html
Eurozine Review Happy birthday, Mr Habermas "Host" talks to a Zionist advocate of the two-state solution; "Blätter" celebrates Jürgen Habermas' eightieth; "Ord&Bild" hears voices; "Esprit" chastises Europe for its political cowardice; "Edinburgh Review" punctures some myths of Scottishness; "Akadeemia" fathoms Estonian identity; "Osteuropa" puts Moldova on the political map of Europe; "Arena" walks the fine line between art and crime; "Merkur" analyses the neurocapitalist self; and "Varlik" tires of jumping visa hurdles. 09.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-09-eurozinerev-en.html
Will Brady Homecoming 2009 "Whether you're a Scot, of Scottish descent, or simply love Scotland", Homecoming 2009 is for you. Yet scotophiles should make no mistake: the reinvented Highland culture that emerged in the 19th century was but a "tame accessory to British unionism". 05.06.2009
This article is available in English: http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-06-05-brady-en.html
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