Pick of the Web
Serbia: the election that wasn't
The presidential election in Serbia was a washout, and not only because of the rain: more than half of the electorate failed to vote, forcing a rerun in January. Two years after the popular rising that toppled Slobodan Milosevic, why the apathy?
A Congressional vote is not a national mandate
The US legislature has sanctioned the president to assault Iraq. George W. Bush has won a political victory, but the American people have yet to speak.
Vltava and <i>Ma Vlast</i>: nature raises the stakes
A young Czech family have returned to Prague after the devastating floods, to face, what their parents too once faced, the task of resurrecting a submerged nation.
Campaign $ to Chinese Capitalism
The Cuban Missile Crisis and Readers’ Responses
After Bali, the need to understand
The massacre in Bali was the most terrible in a series of recent incidents that reveal al-Qaida’s continuing activity. From Yemen to Kuwait and Pakistan, is the entanglement of the US in the Islamic world actually serving the group’s long-term strategy? If so, the vital need at this critical moment in the ‘war on terror’ is not more rhetoric, but deeper understanding.
Democratic culture and extremist Islam
Are Islam and democracy incompatible? The evolution of a radical Turkish Islamic group in Germany suggests that the pursuit of ‘fundamentalist’ goals can itself create the space for a rational appraisal of tradition. By seeking truth in origin and scripture rather than history, successive generations of Islamists may be drawn – even despite themselves – towards a more flexible commitment to a network society of social individuals. This may not yet be democracy; but it is reformation.
Where is Islam going?: responses to Werner Schiffauer
Werner Schiffauer’s intimate study of the politics of a Turkish Islamic community in Germany was part of the Europe and Islam series of talks. At London’s Goethe Institute in July, Werner Schiffauer and Deniz Kandiyoti discussed with the audience the prospects for ‘reformation’ in Islam, the relation between citizenship and diaspora politics in Germany and Britain, and the consequences for democracy of educational and generational change in Muslim communities.
Fox-hunting, homosexuality, and protest: a rejoinder to Adam Lent
Protest in defence of a minority’s rights in a democracy - whether hunters or homosexuals - is justified. But only one of these activities is under legal assault in Britain.
Play fair: the evolution of copyright
Since May under the deliberately provocative title ‘the people vs copyright’ we have been discussing copyright laws in the digital age. Bill Thompson ponders, summarises and wraps up the debate. If things are moving as quickly in the intellectual property rights world as he suggests, whether it stays wrapped is open to question.
Six days in September: mass demonstrations and British democracy
The huge pro-countryside and anti-war demonstrations in London escape the bounds of social theory. More significant, they pose a new and radical challenge to Britain’s shrivelling democracy.
Brazil on the brink of change
Due in part to the severe cuts in welfare and social services under Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the president of Brazil since 1994, life in the favelas (the poor districts surrounding Rio de Janeiro) has deteriorated noticeably. Criminal elements and drug traffickers have seized control of the favelas in recent years, displacing and murdering respected community leaders. Earlier this year, Benedita da Silva, a black woman from the Workers Party, became governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro and launched a crackdown on the drug lords and criminal elements. She has reduced the homicide rate by 35 per cent, which means that 500 fewer people will die compared to the year before.
The new urban landscapes
The Dutch urban planner and political scientist Maarten Hajer wrote the pioneering work in environmental theory, ‘The Politics of Environmental Discourse’ (1995). His and Arnold Reijndorp’s new book, In Search of New Public Domain, is likely to offend many traditional landscape sensibilities (perhaps especially in the UK, the land that modernity forgot) – for Hajer finds not only virtue, but occasionally beauty, in the new public spaces of the 21st century: airports, shopping malls, theme parks and popular festivals. Here he asks some searching questions about the social and civic importance of these new landscapes.
Haji A.J.: returning to Afghanistan
After ten years in exile from the Taliban, this Afghan farmer has returned from Pakistan to his once prosperous farm. Now his harvest is not grapes and wheat, but unexploded shells.
Jumping into the shining dark: the hope of European enlargement
Is the enlargement of the European Union a beautiful design or a runaway train? On both sides of the existing frontier, resentment and cynicism flourish. For the process to work, a shared, positive European identity must be nurtured – one that supplements, not cancels, the distinct national qualities of our common, continental home.
Romanian gold & Chinese dinosaurs
Romanian goldmines bring tears to the eye of the head of the World Bank; hacktivists strike gold with a grant to further their purposes. Finally, a glance at the Indonesian economy post-Kuta attack.
Less is more: digital terrestrial television for the public good
The merits of digital terrestrial television (DTT) cannot be calculated in the here-and-now. More efficient use of the spectrum will inevitably increase its worth for everyone. As for David Elstein’s obsession with the possibly questionable political genesis of DTT – frankly, who cares?
Terrorising Bali
The massacre of tourists on an Indonesian island is also a test of the core principles of openDemocracy.
'London Latino': from the margins to the centre
For more than two decades, the new cinema movement, officially launched in Viña del Mar, Chile, in 1967, staunchly fought off the Hollywood model of production and audience reception. Alternatives were devised to distribution and exhibition, which challenged and altered the dominant patterns of cinematic culture. Their influence is still felt today, not only in film production, but also in the established academies, amongst the critics and in the state–funded agencies for the development of national cinemas.
Islam's women under Western eyes
International events suffer peculiarly from the impact of the mass media on the formation of ‘public opinion’. Unlike home reporting, there are no alternative channels to balance the ‘message’.
The media not only constitutes almost the sole source of information for the images and attitudes that they create. They also perpetuate historically inherited stereotypes and cultural imaginaries that form part of the national collective memory bank.
The imperial imaginary
Brazilian dreams and African queens
Caspar Henderson, Globalisation editor of openDemocracy, opens a virtual window on the global agenda of power and protest. Read Caspar’s GLOBOLOG each week at openDemocracy.
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Conference coverage from 50.50
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
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Paul Rogers on Global security
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Lis Howell On broadcasting
Dan Hancox Revel, Riot and Rebellion
Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
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