In the run-up to the Cultural Asset Alarm conference that will take place in Rome, Eugenio Scalfari, founder of the newspaper La Repubblica, calls on Italians not to let control over the country's cultural assets be taken from the public domain: "Culture runs the risk of becoming the weakest link in the chain and falling victim to the current financial crisis. Culture and research are seen as optional, and the planned budget cuts will fall above all in these areas. Yet what people fail to recognise here is that government spending in these areas is an investment, not an expenditure. The appraisal and preservation of our cultural assets has a direct effect on our economy because they are linked to tourism, one of our major sources of income. ... And federalism will only worsen the cultural devastation as long as public opinion fails to proclaim saving our culture civic duty number one." (11/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Eugenio Scalfari

The Dutch VSB Bank is cutting its budget for culture funding by 30 million euros as a consequence of the credit crunch. Other sponsors of culture have also announced austerity measures. Will Minister for Culture Ronald Plasterk "now open his treasure chest", the national newspaper NRC Handelsblad asks. "No. There's no reason for the state to step in and socialise the art sector when the private sector is unexpectedly hit by economic recession. The government creates the conditions for a long-term flourishing of cultural life. It does so through institutions, money and sometimes good rhetoric. With this good rhetoric Plasterk can convince sponsors that the culture sector should not be allowed to become the first victim of the recession. But he must avoid conveying the impression that the state will step in when other parties pull out. The credit crunch affects many sectors of society, including culture, too, unfortunately." (11/11/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Cultural Policy, » Netherlands

On the online portal of the weekly magazine Respekt, chief editor Martin M. Šimečka and Petr Třešňá write that Milan Kundera's memory seems to be very weak indeed. Kundera, who is suspected of having denounced an opposition figure to the Czechoslovak secret police in the 1950s, has until now maintained that he is entirely unacquainted with the people involved in the case. This statement is at odds with the fact that he personally dedicated a book to two of them, Iva Militka and Miroslav Dlask, in 1953. "Written on the inside cover of the book are the words: 'For Mirek and Iva (illegible), Milan'. It is highly unlikely that someone could write such a dedication without knowing the recipients. Of course it could be that Kundera did know them but can no longer remember them. But then it is legitimate to ask what else he has blocked from his memory." (11/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Martin M. Šimečka, » Peter Třešňák

Serbs earn an average income of between 300 and 400 euros per month. The designs presented at the Belgrade Fashion Week are thus beyond the means of most Serbs, Germany's tageszeitung writes: "Belgrade rocks, no doubt about it ... . Even though you don't often meet young Serbs in Paris, Berlin or Kraków. They can't just catch a plane because they need a visa first ... . Things were very different in Tito's times, when the Yugoslavians were the only ones in the Eastern Bloc to have passports. ... There's plenty of young talent here, but basically they don't stand a chance. ... The 'farmers' don't go for that kind of thing. They have no understanding of the latest designs of the young fashion avant-garde. ... Most young Serb girls ... can't afford it anyway. They count themselves lucky that a branch of the Spanish fashion chain Zara has opened. Young, up-to-date, affordable European fashion, designed after quietly taking note of the shows in Paris or Belgrade. It's only once people start copying you that you know you've made it." (10/11/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Public Culture, » Europe, » Serbia
All available articles from » Martin Reichert

The liberal weekly newspaper Respekt, which initiated the debate surrounding the internationally acclaimed writer Milan Kundera's purported denouncing of an opposition figure in Czechoslovakia, takes a critical view of the recent declaration of solidarity for Kundera by a group of international authors: "They are not concerned about facts, but about [Kundera's] reputation. ... Are there different rules for famous writers than that for ordinary mortals? Even if one can detect in Kundera's books traces of the fate of Miroslav Dvořáček [who was sentenced to 14 years in a labour camp], one can find no concrete proof. However the issue here is not what Kundera wrote, but what happened. What we have is a police protocol [which incriminates Kundera] and Dvořáček's fate. In a country where hundreds of thousands of innocent people were jailed and sentenced to forced labour, it is our duty to investigate how such things could happen." (10/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Tereza Brdečková

The election of the first black US president faces rappers with a dilemma, writes NRC Handelsblad: "Now that Obama has the election victory in his pocket his hip-hop fans are exuberant. But they are celebrating too soon. 'Their' victory after years of fighting for the rights of African-Americans presents them with a peculiar conundrum. They have their first black president, but the same man represents the establishment against which rappers have been battling for years. They will have to search for a new institution and new social issues to make the target of their protests. For the time being they'll have to relegate the theme of the social disadvantages of their fellow black citizens to the closet." (07/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Michiel Bles

The Süddeutsche Zeitung cites a comment by architect David Chipperfield that the Wow Factor, or the iconic buildings of star architects, will become collateral damage of the financial crisis. German car maker BMW, for example, will no longer be able to finance buildings such as its "BMW World" designed by the Austrian design firm Coop Himmelb(l)au: "The decline in profits, fears about the future, the mood of crisis and the crisis of identity among the large-scale buildings which are in fact meant to establish identity is not only affecting BMW. ... Of course it applies also to all other sectors - precisely in the order in which the economic crisis, as a systemic crisis, is spreading. ... Architecture, as a natural producer of spatially operative images and at the same time as a natural - that is non fictional - ally of the real economy, is taking on a symbolic role. Brandname architecture operates with systems of signs and the means of rhetoric. For that reason it will suffer in the crisis not only because it will lack financial resources in the future, but also as a supplier of symbolism itself." (06/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Gerhard Matzig

The declaration of solidarity by eleven internationally acclaimed writers with Czech author Milan Kundera, who stands accused of having denounced an anti-communist agent to the authorities in the Stalinist Prague of 1950, is incomprehensible, writes the conservative daily Lidové Noviny: "Why are the writers so stauchly supporting Kundera, who himself has remained silent, although they have no knowledge of the facts? ... For a long time we were told that in coming to terms with the past we must follow the example of Germany, where just twenty years after the war the youth started asking questions about their parents' involvement in the Nazi regime. Those were uncomfortable questions, certainly. Now, almost twenty years after the Velvet Revolution [virtually non-violent system change in November 1989], the younger generation here is questioning their parents. And what happens? They are being chastised by their country's intellectuals - including Václav Havel - and by the leading lights of the literary world." (05/11/2008)

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All available articles from » Zbyněk Petráček

The abolition of tuition fees in Austria from next summer semester on will not be a boon for social justice in the country, the daily Die Presse writes: "A particularly grotesque aspect of the current situation is that polytechnics will be allowed to charge fees as well as impose limits on courses of study. And despite, or perhaps precisely for this reason, they, as well as private institutions some of which charge very high fees, are experiencing a sharp rise in demand for places. The fact is that the 'no-barriers' free university education model cannot make up for the lacking infrastructure at universities, the overcrowded auditoriums and invisible teaching staff. Such problems will only intensify as a result of the recently decided and totally nonsensical increase in the number of medical students. After all, one can't simply extend the 'patient population' for these training courses at will. ... Thanks for easing the burden of the middle classes, but couldn't one have found a more sensible approach?" (05/11/2008)

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More from the press review on the subject » Education, » Austria
All available articles from » Martina Salomon

Eleven prominent writers, including four Nobel laureates, have made a show of solidarity with Milan Kundera, who is suspected of having denounced an anti-communist agent to the authorities in the Stalinist Prague of 1950. The conservative daily Lidové noviny publishes their declaration of solidarity, which talks of "the honour of one of the greatest novelists alive being besmirched on at the very least dubious grounds". In their appeal the writers declare: "We feel the need to express our indignation at this smear campaign and our solidarity with Milan Kundera." Among those who signed the declaration were John M. Coetzee, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Orhan Pamuk, Philip Roth and Salman Rushdie. (04/11/2008)

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