Issue 121
April 2006
Contents
If torture works...
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The debate over torture is not as simple as it seems. Those of us who oppose torture under any circumstances should admit that ours is an unpopular policy that may make us more vulnerable to terrorism
University challenges
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The debate about British higher education will soon hot up again. The sector cannot continue as a nationalised industry. The best alternative is not privatisation but a mixed-economy partnership, as in the US
After Berlusconi
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
April's Italian election should see the defeat of Berlusconi and the return of a fragmented centre-left coalition. Below the surface there is a "silent yearning" for a modernised Christian Democracy, yet no new generation of leaders to embody it
Working girls
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
For the first time in history, women in developed societies can take up any occupation or career they please. This has brought enormous benefits. But it has also had some less positive consequences—the death of sisterhood, a decline in female altruism and growing disincentives to bear children
That's China!
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
After seven years building up a magazine empire in China, I had it stolen by the state. I lived in the grey zone that is China's media business and, despite my commitment to the country, paid a high price
Craig Venter
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The maverick who led the private-sector human genome sequencing now has plans for clean energy. He says he never aimed to "privatise" the genome and thinks science and commerce can be best friends
Flogging folios
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
For the second time in three years, an institutional library is selling off a copy of Shakespeare's first folio. As libraries increasingly place their antiquarian books online, could this signal the beginning of a trend?
Close encounters
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
How can we in Britain learn to live together more successfully? We should cultivate an "encounter culture," in which it becomes easier to interact with others. This may require compulsory community service for young people
Mésentente cordiale
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
A new book brilliantly dissects the fraught history of the Anglo-French relationship
Tories remade
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
A leading supporter of David Cameron responds to last month's Thatcherite critique
Back to 1967
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Hamas's failure to recognise Israel will not be an issue if Palestine itself is recognised
Trust vs efficiency
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Why is it that the NHS can deliver the goods, and yet still not command public trust?
Farewell Ali
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Can we trace Mississippi blues back to Africa? Ali Farka Touré thought so
Keep on whipping
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The Power inquiry suggestion of reducing the power of whips is populist and wrong
Beyond the grave
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The Yugoslav tribunal has not been undermined by the death of Slobodan Milosevic
The network biography
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Biography used to investigate the nature of talent; now it explores the social networks and collaborations through which reputations are made
Split-screen Russia
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Russian cinema is not so much repressed as divided. Some films dwell on a glorious lost order, but others are unflinchingly critical of the new one
The threat from Europe
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Jeremy Rabkin's paranoid anti-European tract has one redeeming feature. It is utterly clear about the US conservative approach to world politics
Widescreen
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
In Mexican cinema, a single kiss, or an act of oral sex, can express a vast social gulf. The Mexicans are penetrating Hollywood with an aesthetic of class division
Private view
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The Rembrandt Research Project has produced the most radical debunking of artistic authorship ever. Do we now accept that the studio is greater than the artist?
Smallscreen
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Jeremy Isaacs's memoir contains a chapter on the making of The World at War that stands alone as a testament to the collaborative nature of great television
Musical notes
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Riccardo Chailly is sick and tired of young conductors and singers, but his move to the Leipzig Opera and Gewandhaus Orchestra is a welcome one
Sogbo's wife
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
What am I doing here, teaching villagers about Aids and craving one of their women?
Out of mind
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Mick, John and Leonard are all chronic alcoholics. Are they just "addictive personalities," or can they make up their own minds?
Washington watch
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Bush is beleaguered, Cheney is on the way out and the GOP look set to lose at least one house in November. But watch out for a bigger Pentagon
Common law
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
I managed to get Mr V acquitted because the law distinguishes between arrestable and non-arrestable offences. Or at least it did until earlier this year
France profonde
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
José Bové's civil disobedience campaigns against GM crops are respected by many French people. And France is yet to ratify a 2001 EU directive on GM
Out of Africa
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
Kinshasa's general hospital has stood through revolution, civil war and civic breakdown. It is a touchstone of change in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Brussels diary
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
John Monks, Europe's top trade unionist, rises to the challenge of the services directive and keeps the east Europeans happy too. And Michel Barnier is back
Notes from underground
23rd April 2006 — Issue 121
The ticket clerks have by far the worst job on the underground. Being rude to customers is the best way for most to restore their battered self-esteem