The latest from signandsight

This is somewhat sad news – I had hoped signandsight would expand their coverage rather than contracting it. Still, this is a most useful source of news, political and cultural from Europe.

Dear readers…

We’ve been online since March 15, 2005, delivering a daily press review of the German language feuilletons. Starting in October, we will only be able to provide a weekly summary, “From the Feuilletons,” and two rather than three full-length articles per week. Here.

From the Feuilletons
Saturday 29 September – Friday 5 October, 2007

Russian satirist Viktor Shenderovich describes the deathly stability under Putin. Amitav Ghosh expresses his faith in the Burmese monks. The Rugby World Cup has French philosophers weak at the knees. Günter Grass would do it all again, but not with the FAZ. Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke says his country is building its future at the price of its past. And Robert Wilson has introduced Japanese horror manga to the Threepenny Opera. Here.

Magazine Roundup

The New York Review of Books declares Iran the winner of the Iraq War. NZZ’s Folio magazine is thrilled at India’s 2,000 dollar car. In Telerama, Belgian artists express their worries about the division of their country. Elet es Irodalom analyses populist trends in Hungary and Poland. Al Ahram debates the sense and nonsense of the fatwa. And L’Espresso shows how cabaret artist Beppe Grillo is opening up the democratic potential of the Web. Here.

Translating the hate preacher

Director Romuald Karmakar has made a film which reveals the Islamist mindset. Based on the lessons delivered by Imam Mohammed Fazazi, whose mosque in Hamburg was visited by the 9/11 pilots, it stretches for over two hours and provides almost nothing for the eye. Preciselythis, says Eckhard Fuhr, makes it so effective. Here.