Issue 42
June 1999
Contents
Pramoedya
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's leading novelist, was jailed for 14 years under Suharto's New Order. Before the June elections, he reflects on Indonesian politics and writer's block.
Rasputin's ghost
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
In a decaying Russian village, I meet Rasputin's "great grandson" and spend the night with a babushka who has lost so much
Christ in China
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
There are signs of a new religious fever in China. Ten years after Tiananmen, even some of the dissidents exiled in America are finding a new purpose in evangelical Christianity.
Delightful failure
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Salman Rushdie has produced his most vital novel since "Midnight's Children," yet it is a post-modern failure. The critical reception of "The Ground Beneath her Feet" points to a growing unease with the kind of novel Rushdie now write.
The party of God
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Recent elections in Algeria and Turkey have highlighted the reluctance of elites in Muslim countries to allow fully free elections, because of fear of losing power to Islamic fundamentalists. But it does not follow that Islam and democracy are incompatible?
Pluralism v populism
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Britain is sleepwalking into a constitutional revolution. There has been little Britain-wide debate on the rationale or implications of the changes. Nor has the pluralist logic of the new system of checks and balances been fully accepted by a New Labour government with centralising, populist instincts
anarchy.com
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
The internet is a precious achievement. But as its reach extends into more of our lives, so does the fear that it is undermining national standards in everything from crime prevention to taxation. If politicians around the world cannot agree on some basic rules, a backlash will force them to act.
John Rawls
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
In 1971 a reclusive American academic revived liberal political philosophy with "A Theory of Justice." Why did he write it? And why was it applauded and then ignored by the left?
Why everyone hates the west...
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Kosovo is a reminder that despite the end of history, most of the world still resents the west
Except in Sofia
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Bulgaria shows that even in the bloody Balkans, it is possible to choose peace
The bloody truth
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Padre Pio's stigmata has just won him beatification from the Pope. But was he just a neurotic?
Three pianists
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
How CAR Hills came to discover that there is no one way in music.
Frippery and feeling
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
An 18th century French playwright who has more to say than it seems.
A slight Hitch
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Martin Walker is caught in the middle of an extraordinary political feud between two of his closest friends, Christopher Hitchens and Sidney Blumenthal
Broadcasting history
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Lawrence Freedman defends the BBC's Cold War series against charges from American conservatives of "moral equivalence" between the two superpowers.
Modern times
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Is this the end of the world? All my friends are dying, and Fergal Keane's sanctimonious voice drones in the background.
Previous convictions
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
I used to be a perfectionist, but I now realise that it is the plague of modern life
These islands
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Spain's model of "asymmetrical devolution" may not be very encouraging for those who want devolution to come to a rest.
The prisoner
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Terry Waite arrives unexpectedly in our prison for a poignant ceremony
Brussels diary
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
Romano Prodi might choose a Brit as voice of the commission. And how about Chris Patten as Viceroy of Kosovo?
Letter from the Nuba mountains
20th June 1999 — Issue 42
The Nuba of southern Sudan have a remarkably tolerant form of self-government despite more than ten years of war with Khartoum.