Newsweek International articles from February 2003

Newsweek International archives from February 2003

Renewing Europe.(Letter to the Editor)
February 3, 2003... Many readers of our Dec. 23 report on the changing of Europe took us sharply to task. "Chucking Mozart for McDonald's?" sneered one. "Europe is about Shakespeare and the Sistine Chapel," wrote another. One who agreed with us said, "We need to...

The Cronies Return.(banking and Indonesia's economic challenges)
February 3, 2003... Protesters bring back powerful memories for Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Her father, former president Sukarno, was pushed out in 1966, in part by angry mobs. The man who engineered his downfall, Suharto, was forced to step down...

London Calling.(Russians in London, England)
February 3, 2003... Three centuries ago, at the age of 26, Peter the Great came to London. The Russian tsar toured the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London. Dressed as a sailor, he strolled incognito through the streets of 17th-century London, enthralled...

No Magical Solutions.
February 3, 2003... A casual visitor to Argentina might not realize that elections are looming. Voters are scheduled to go to the polls on April 27 to choose a new president--but such is the cynicism felt by ordinary Argentines about politicians that no candidate...

The Anti-Davos.(World Social Forum )
February 3, 2003... There were Trotskyites and transvestites, Senegalese drummers and Mayan sun worshipers. Poster images of Lenin and Fidel Castro peered over the crowd, while a knot of chanting Chileans insisted over and over that "Allende is present"--a...

Chinese Dragon.
February 3, 2003... Dinosaur fossils are so plentiful in China's Liaoning Province, even the locals are part-time paleontologists. When fossil hunters from Beijing came looking for evidence of ancient creatures, they picked a spot in the middle of rolling...

Frozen by Uncertainty.
February 3, 2003... There are two kinds of economic forecasters, the Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith has said. Those who don't know what they are doing, and those who don't realize it. Today there aren't many left in the second camp. Doubt reigns. The...

'War Solves Nothing'.(Mahathir Mohamad)
February 3, 2003... For much of his career, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has enjoyed poking a finger in the eye of the West, pitching himself as a spokesman for the world's smaller nations. Yet initially at least, he was also one of the Muslim world's...

Japan's Book Battle.
February 3, 2003... Japanese publishers say they are getting clobbered by an unlikely upstart: the local public library. It was not until the 1970s that public libraries first appeared in Japan, and while still relatively rare in remote areas, they are growing...

Hell's Bugs.(chlorinated solvent consuming bacteria)
February 3, 2003... Tim McHale doesn't have to go far from his office to do his fieldwork. "All I need to do is reach out my window and scoop up a sample," he says. Dozens of C-5 cargo jets sit on the airstrip of Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, about 300 feet...

Curse of the Sea Snail.(South Africa struggles with abalone poaching)
February 3, 2003... As the boat nears the beach at Hawston Harbor, a group of South African plain-clothes cops wearing jeans and sneakers jump out of a double-cab pickup truck with shotguns and handguns drawn. But the poachers, seven or eight of them, must have...

Talking The Talk.(language translation for foreign basketball players )
February 3, 2003... It's the middle of the first quarter at the Denver Pepsi Center, and Brazilian rookie Maybyner (Nene) Hilario is on fire. Fresh off the bench, the 6-foot-11 center grabs a defensive rebound and heaves it down court to a teammate for an easy two...

Culture for The Masses.(Gilberto Gil)
February 3, 2003... In the 1970s, Brazilian composer and musician Gilberto Gil helped invent tropicalismo, an irreverent style of pop music that drew on samba, bossa nova and American rock and roll. The Brazilian military thought it was subversive, and the left...

'More Craft, Less Smoke'.(Norman Mailer)
February 3, 2003... "The Spooky Art," Norman Mailer's book about writing, appears on Jan. 31, his 80th birthday. Since his debut novel, "The Naked and the Dead" (1948), Mailer has written 31 more books. He has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. He has directed four...

The Water is Wide.(Irish-American relations in the wake of bank fraud)
February 3, 2003... O'Clery is the North America editor of The Irish Times. Most of the time I don't really think of the United States as a foreign country. In Ireland we regard America as the next parish after Galway. We all have cousins here. We speak...

Perspectives.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2003... "Cool down. We are good friends and allies." German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, on U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's dismissing France and Germany as the "old Europe" "This looks to me like a rerun of a bad movie. And I'm not...

Periscope.(includes multiple articles)
February 3, 2003... Terrorism Man on the Run One of the most wanted terrorists today is a 36-year-old Palestinian Qaeda leader known as Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, who has been linked to recent Qaeda activity and possibly even Iraq. Wanted by Jordan since...

Axis of Good?(Letter to the Editor)
February 10, 2003... Fareed Zakaria's year-end article on China's new alliance with the West met with some skepticism. Some complained that China sells weaponry to nations supporting terrorism. Others were more hopeful: one reader praised the Internet for bringing...

The Waiting Game.(world economy braces for war against Iraq)
February 10, 2003... Few business people are willing to make the case for war too bluntly. They are, after all, human. Yet after President George W. Bush warned Iraq last week that it has "weeks, not months" to disarm, fighting looks not only inevitable but...

The Myth of Empire.(Spain's Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power 1492-1763)(Book Review)
February 10, 2003... At the end of the 16th century, a solitary Spanish galleon plowed the Pacific between Asia and Acapulco, risking a perilous crossing to bring silver back from the Americas to Manila, where East Asian traders gathered. For 200 years, Spanish...

Europe Splits.(over whether to support United States military policy regarding Iraq)
February 10, 2003... What a difference a fortnight makes. In mid-January, George W. Bush had hardly an ally in sight as he moved toward war against Iraq. Even his staunchest comrade in arms, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, looked wobbly to some. There he was,...

The Most Precious Curse.(necklace aids in rhythm control form of contraception, Philippines)
February 10, 2003... For Wensley and Lilian Hidalgo, the choice was clear. The devout Roman Catholic couple living in the misty northern Philippine city of La Trinidad couldn't afford to have a third child. "No more children! Life's too hard now," says 40-year-old...

Children of the Revolution.(social results of economic change in Eastern Europe)
February 10, 2003... Maciej Mataczynski and a free-market Poland were made for each other. Fluent in English and German, trained at Harvard and The Hague and now teaching international law at the University of Poznan, the 27-year-old Pole is a model of...

Finding the Asian Within.(self-help seminars take off throughout Asia)
February 10, 2003... Stephanie has always had a problem with self-esteem. But when her shyness threatened to stall her career, the young Singaporean took a very American step. She enrolled in a self-help seminar, spending five days--and nearly $600--to learn how to...

The Land of Opportunity.(Argentinian immigrants settle in Spanish villages)
February 10, 2003... The El Maestrazgo mountain region in Aragon is one of Spain's most desolate and underpopulated areas. There, in the tiny village of Aguaviva, Marcelo Martinez and Gilda Mazzeo, 35-year-old transplants from Buenos Aires, have been learning to...

The Long Road Home.(immigrant themes and depictions in European movies)(Column)
February 10, 2003... In all the column inches spent on the growing gap between Europe and America, one crucial difference always gets missed: Europe doesn't have a "Godfather" trilogy. No saga of immigrants knitting themselves into modern society via corruption,...

Memoir With a View.("My Passage From India" by Ismail Merchant)(Book Review)
February 10, 2003... The Indian half of Merchant Ivory Productions got his start in a scene worthy of one of the duo's opulent period films. Ismail Merchant was only 13 when Bollywood starlet Nimmi invited him to the Bombay premiere of her first picture, "Barsaat."...

The Story of Ralph Lauren.(unauthorized biography of the designer)(Book Review)
February 10, 2003... It all began with a tie. At least that's what Ralph Lauren would like you to believe, says author Michael Gross in "Genuine Authentic" (HarperCollins), his gossipy, unauthorized biography of the designer. Gross believes otherwise: that Lauren...

A Terrible Secret.(filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dardenne)(Interview)
February 10, 2003... Jean-Pierre Dardenne, the elder brother of the successful Belgian filmmaking team, is in an excitable mood. He's on the phone, but his tone is ample and enthusiastic; you can almost see his hands waving over a cigarette and a Jupiler, the local...

'Move to the Moon'.(possible scenarios if war against Iraq proceeds)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2003... British and American losses mount as street fighting rages in Baghdad. CNN and Al-Jazeera broadcast harrowing images of war casualties. Responding to unrest at home, Arab governments cut oil production and Western access to their military...

The Luxury Bubble.(luxury goods industry falters)(Industry Overview)
February 10, 2003... Shoppers lined up outside Tokyo's glitzy boutiques would seem to signal that all is well in Asia's pre-eminent luxury market. Unless, that is, the crowds have turned out to cherry-pick overstock items at cut-rate prices--as they did on Jan. 17,...

Why War Won't End Our Jitters.(impending war and the U.S. economy)(Column)
February 10, 2003... Let's call it the "excuse du jour." For three years, we've heard serial explanations for the economy's weakness. The latest is a looming war with Iraq. Aside from increasing oil prices, the war specter (it's said) has created huge uncertainty...

Setting Sail For History.(Ellen MacArthur attempts to break circumnavigation record)(Interview)
February 10, 2003... In December, British sailor Ellen MacArthur won the Route du Rhum, a prestigious singlehanded race from France to Guadeloupe, in record- breaking time. She was the first woman ever to win. The victory earned the 26-year-old worldwide renown,...

Leaps of Faith.(faith based charities, religious schools)(Column)
February 10, 2003... Cutler is a columnist for Nerve.com and Salon.com. The small upstate New York village I call Bluestone is a geopolitical speck of a place. It's so small, so slow to change, that from its vantage point larger trends sometimes stand out....

Perspectives.(quotations)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2003... "I didn't expect for this to happen. I don't have a son." Eliezer Wolferman, father of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, in a radio interview shortly after the space shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry "The course of this nation does not...

Periscope.(current events around the world)
February 10, 2003... NORTH KOREA How to Confront Kim? For the Bush administration, the worsening nuclear crisis in North Korea is turning into an exercise in frustration. For years, conservatives inside the administration have longed to face down the...

Spin City.(the SlimX CD player from iRiver)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2003... Its reputation doesn't have the oomph of Sony or Samsung, but the South Korea-based iRiver has been making stylish digital music players for three years. Now it's selling the SlimX 400, an affordable and sleek second-generation MP3/CD player, a...

A Perfect Getaway.(visiting Paris, France)(Brief Article)
February 10, 2003... Planning a trip to Paris this Valentine's Day? Thirza Vallois, author of the new book "Romantic Paris," has a few tips: HOTELS The charming La Vie en Rose, a repurposed barge docked near Notre-Dame, has room for two guests, and only...

If It's Rocking...(Volkswagen Eurovan)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 10, 2003... When I was a kid, I lived up the street from real hippies who trod barefoot, listened to the Strawberry Alarm Clock and plastered their VW bus with flower-power stickers. But the VW Eurovan doesn't look anything like old magic buses; the white...

A Cold or the Flu?(Brief Article)
February 10, 2003... It starts with the sniffles and a scratchy throat. Soon your throat is full-on sore, your head is pounding and you're coughing like you're someone with consumption. Is it a common cold or the more sinister flu? The three S's--stuffy nose, sore...

A New Food Pyramid.(Letter to the Editor)
February 24, 2003... Our Jan. 20 cover story on the perfect diet impressed many readers. "You've done a service--the seeds of disease are sown in infancy," wrote a pediatrician. A surgeon claimed, "A vegan diet controls diabetes." And a reader who lost weight...

A Nation Bound by Faith.(religion in United States)
February 24, 2003... With her nation at the brink of war, Anne Summers is searching for answers. The 35-year-old software engineer follows the debate over Iraq. But like a lot of Americans, she also does something else. She prays. So it was, on a frigid Wednesday...

The Great Divide.(United States, Europe divided over Iraq)
February 24, 2003... They bear witness to the wars that raged across Europe in the last century--and to the blood of Americans who lost their lives in them. They stand in the thousands upon thousands, overlooking the beaches of Normandy, and amid the rolling hills...

Praying to Angry Gods.(Kashmir dispute)
February 24, 2003... For some extremist Hindus, going nuclear was a near-religious experience. After India tested a bomb in 1998, an influential right- wing Hindu group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), wanted to organize religious pilgrimages to the test site in...

War on Two Fronts.(United States, Turkey negotiate on Iraqi war)
February 24, 2003... Call it mission creep, with potentially disastrous consequences. When the Pentagon first proposed launching a major U.S. assault on Saddam Hussein from Turkey, Ankara countered with a scenario of its own. To cope with an anticipated wave of...

The Gangs Of Belfast.(Protestants, Catholics turn to organized crime)
February 24, 2003... Twice in recent months, John Gregg survived bomb attacks on his home in Belfast. On Feb. 1 his luck ran out. Traveling back from a football game, the powerful local boss of the paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and a colleague were shot...

Out for Revenge?(Venezuelan general strike)
February 24, 2003... Under the heat of the midday sun, a strong smell of urine rises from the sidewalks of the once fashionable Sabana Grande district of Caracas. Street stalls selling pirated CDs assail the eardrums with clashing rhythms. Cafes where the...

Stuck in Time.(telecommunications industry)
February 24, 2003... Something really strange has happened since the last crash. Nothing. When the dot-coms imploded in March 2000, the money fled to telecom stocks--real companies with real business plans that would lead the real Internet Revolution. Carriers old...

Japan Takes a Bath.(Tokyo spas)
February 24, 2003... An odd scene out of Japan's past is rising right by the trendy neighborhood of Odaiba, facing Tokyo Bay. It is a vast spa complex, and inside are meticulous reproductions of the streets, eateries and shops of the Edo period (1603-1867), the...

Truth, Beauty and the Double Helix.(DNA-related art)
February 24, 2003... Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles is author of the forthcoming "Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space." Daniel J. Kevles is Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale University. It's pitch black and framed in gold, but it's undoubtedly a...

A Partnership Made in Heaven.(Dolce and Gabbana)
February 24, 2003... Inside the new Dolce & Gabbana store on Milan's fashionable Corso Venezia, a group of trendy twentysomethings sit around a sleek cafe, throwing back espresso. Across the hall, a Sicilian barber gives a dapper businessman a quick trim in a...

The Sole of Sexiness.(shoe designer Christian Louboutin )
February 24, 2003... Jennifer Lopez drapes languidly across the December cover of Harper's Bazaar tacked to the bulletin board in Christian Louboutin's Paris headquarters, kicking up her scarlet-soled silver strap sandals. "She looks so great there, doesn't she?"...

Psychedelic Psyche.(Christian Lacroix)(Interview)(Excerpt)
February 24, 2003... During next week's Womenswear shows in Milan, Christian Lacroix will present his second collection as head designer of Pucci, the fabled old label synonymous with swirling geometric patterns in vibrant colors. The stakes are high: founded by...

Asia's Moody Hero.(Tony Leung Chiu-wai)
February 24, 2003... Tony Leung Chiu-wai is stuck in traffic. It is the height of the evening rush hour, and the Hong Kong actor is trying to reach the offices of Wong Kar-wai, who is directing him in the mysterious "2046," a film with no script. Leung won't...

A Delicate Reprieve.(monarch butterflies)
February 24, 2003... When the storm of January 2002 struck, the small group of scientists who monitor the return of the monarch butterflies to the Trans-Volcanic Mountains in central Mexico each winter didn't think it was any big deal. A bit of snow and freezing...

DNA, Five Decades On.(James D. Watson)(Interview)(Excerpt)
February 24, 2003... James Watson was just 24 years old when he helped make the discovery that would earn him, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins a joint Nobel Prize in science. Exactly 50 years ago next Friday, Watson stood in his Cambridge University office...

A Case of Hit and Run.(cricket in United States)
February 24, 2003... A Pakistani friend in New York sent me an unusual invitation for the second Sunday of February. It seems that one expatriate or another was hosting a World Cup party at his home on Long Island, marking the start of the six-week World Cup of...

Perspectives.
February 24, 2003... "Fight the agents of the Devil. God will give us victory." Audiotaped voice believed to be that of Osama bin Laden, calling on Muslims throughout the world to unite behind Iraq "She wasn't going to recover. It was kinder to euthanize her."...

Periscope.(current events)
February 24, 2003... United States: Of Politics And Panic Duct tape was adhered to America's consciousness last week, as if it were the only thing holding the country in place. On Monday, the U.S. government told citizens to stockpile food and water and to...

Taking Toto On The Road.(traveling with pets)
February 24, 2003... On paper, Ruggles seems like your ordinary world traveler. He's been to France, Germany, England, Costa Rica and Canada. He's hopped over from his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to Mexico at least half a dozen times. He's even got...

Snowshoes Are Chic.(Brief Article)(Buyers Guide)
February 24, 2003... Who says winter sports have to be extreme? If you can walk, you can snowshoe. Once an activity for burly backwoodsmen, snowshoeing has become one of the fastest-growing winter pursuits. Modern snowshoes have aluminum-alloy frames and synthetic...

Botox's Bad Side.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2003... Nine months after its rollout across the United States, Botox is making headlines again--and this time the news ain't pretty. Sure, Botox gets rid of those lines between your brows. But patients say new wrinkles show up in other places. It's...

Fitness / Gear.(Brief Article)
February 24, 2003... There's still snow left in winter, but--trust us--bathing-suit season is just around the corner. Need some guidance getting off the couch? Tip Sheet's Jennifer Barrett checked out some of the newest high-tech sports gear. Palm Tungsten:...

Uncorked / Chilean Wines.(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
February 24, 2003... Chile remains a reliable producer of good-value reds (especially for the Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and merlot). But quality is rising fast, and so are the prices; top vintners now charge upwards of $50. Too steep for your taste?...