Issue 113
August 2005
Contents
A real nightmare
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The influential BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" argued that al Qaeda is largely a phantom of the US national security apparatus's imagination. Even before the bombs in London, the thesis deserved scepticism. The Bush administration in fact ignored Islamic terrorism before 9/11
Goodbye to the '68ers
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
In 1998, 30 years after the student uprisings that politicised a generation, Germany's "1968ers" entered government. Expectations were high but the red-green coalition's achievements have been limited. Their liberalising effect on Germany in the decades before 1998 will be the 1968ers main legacy
Political climate
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
It is possible to accept the findings of the intergovernmental panel on climate change that global warming is a reality, and has a big man-made element; and also to believe that Kyoto is not the right answer
Hard-wired for corruption
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Corruption is not a sleazy add-on to the global arms trade. It is central to procurement decisions and makes the industry far bigger than it needs to be. If corruption could be tackled, the industry would dwindle to its irreducible strategic necessity
A Muslim journey
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
British Islam is dominated by culturally and theologically conservative south Asians. But the London bombs may help to make it more open to those who want to engage with the modern world
Last dance for Cuba
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
As the Ballet Nacional de Cuba comes to London, British audiences will have perhaps a final chance to behold one of the country's great cultural institutions—stuck in a timewarp, but glorious nevertheless
A British jihadist
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Hassan Butt, a 25 year old from Manchester, helped recruit Muslims to fight in Afghanistan. Like most of the London bombers, he is a British Pakistani who journeyed from rootlessness to radical Islam
Explaining Ahmadinejad
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
How did a hardliner defy expectations to win Iran's presidency?
Muhammad's example
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The key figure in the struggle between Muslim reformers and fundamentalists is Muhammad. Ordinary Muslims must be allowed to think clearly about the Prophet's moral example
Sudan's chance
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The recent death of John Garang is a shocking setback to Sudan's peace process, but not a fatal one. The Bush administration deserves much of the credit for the peace deal signed in January, and if it keeps its nerve, can help preserve the peace with Garang's successor
Emu's bite
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Just as Europe's leaders start to deal with the fallout of the constitution's failure, another crisis is around the corner - Europe's economies are in crisis, and the euro is aggravating the problem
Beyond grievance
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
After the bombs, the politics of Muslim grievance must receive more critical scrutiny
They will change us
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
If our way of life makes us vulnerable to terrorism, we need another way of life
Blueprints not bombs
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Federalism, oil and Islam dominate debate as 70 Iraqis rush to write a constitution
Too much credit
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Labour has overpaid poor families by £2 billion, but this is no cause for celebration
The captured state
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Elites in the Asian tiger countries run the state in the public interest. In most of Africa, elites run the state in their own interests. Matthew Lockwood has written the best Africa book this year
Just give us the facts
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The Times Guide to the Commons used to be Britain's bible of psephology. But the new edition substitutes froth and chatter for tables and data
East end ephemera
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
London's east end has thrown up many great storytellers. But is the tradition now dead?
Dead to the world
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Television coverage of world affairs has been reduced to a diet of dissociated disasters and human interest. Now here is a plea for more serious news-gathering
Widescreen
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Trauma is natural to cinema. In fact, film narrative is structured like traumatic experience. It was cinema editing, after all, that gave us a term for intrusive memory
Private view
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The Serpentine's Rirkrit Tiravanija show is the final proof that Duchamp's idea of the "readymade" is dead. Can't artists stop molesting ordinary objects?
Musical notes
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
Paul Daniel's last appearance as the ENO's music director was a triumph under the circumstances. And the ENO forgets the point of performing in the vernacular
Men of Ireland
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
A lifetime after leaving, a man returns to his home village to settle an account with the old priest
France profonde
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
There are two ways of looking at the CAP: the British view that it is a French stitch-up, or the French notion that we must protect family farms and cultural heritage
Brussels diary
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
The European commission still doesn't know how to do silences. Blair wows the European parliament. And watch out for the Gillingham FC conspiracy
Notes from underground
28th August 2005 — Issue 113
For once the underground was the central character in a London drama, and for once we hadn't done anything wrong. A few of us were even heroes