Newsweek International articles from February 2009

Newsweek International archives from February 2009

Car Trouble.(International Edition; LETTERS)
February 2, 2009... Readers were inspired to debate the troubles of the U.S. car industry by our Dec. 22 story "Southern Comfort." A former autoworker wrote that letting the industry fail would be worse than letting banks collapse. Another writer defended Detroit,...

Cheaper Isn't Better.(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Ruchir Sharma; Sharma is head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. As the global recession deepens, Asian nations can no longer export their way to prosperity. Over the past few months economic trends...

An Unclenched Fist.(International Edition; AFRICA)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Scott Johnson; With Jason McLure in Addis Ababa Barack Obama has a unique opportunity to bring something resembling stability to Africa's Horn. As a state, Somalia has racked up more failures than any other on the planet. So...

The Danger Across the Border.(International Edition; POINT OF VIEW)(mexico)
February 2, 2009... Mexico is no failed state, but on several fronts the government may be losing ground rather than gaining. Over the past several weeks Mexicans have become obsessed with what they believe is an American obsession that Mexico has become or...

Always a Bridesmaid.(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)( euro )
February 2, 2009... Byline: William Underhill The U.S.-led financial crisis was supposed to give the euro a new leg up. But it wasn't meant to be. Ever since its launch back in 1999, admirers have pushed the notion of the euro as a rival to the dollar: in...

Bomb Shelters Into Bars.(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)(China)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Megan Shank Innovative developers in Shanghai are giving old buildings new purpose. This year rings in the Chinese year of the bull--a good marketing hook for an old Shanghai slaughterhouse turned art hub. Constructed in its...

Good News in Dhaka?(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)(Bangladesh)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Jeremy Kahn Democracy returns, raising hope that Bangladesh can halt the outflow of immigrants--and terrorists. Bangladesh is typically seen as one of the world's worst basket cases. Desperately poor, racked by environmental...

French Roast.(International Edition; THE LAST WORD)(Christine Lagarde)(Interview)(Excerpt)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Christine Lagarde Until this year you could not be a 'self-employed' person. Such a status did not exist in French law. We changed that. Since September 2008, French economy minister Christine Lagarde, 53, has spent about four...

Tick Tock.(The Good Life; GENEVA WATCH FAIR)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Nick Foulkes The watchmakers at last week's Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva were in a philosophical mood. Georges Kern, chief executive of IWC, quoted Darwin in presenting his company's new line of diving...

More Than Watches.(The Good Life; GENEVA)(Brief article)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Nick Foulkes Even a serious horolophile like me tires of looking at watches at some point. So thankfully, the SIHH is held in elegant Geneva, where I managed to have a mighty good time even when I wasn't at the fair. For...

A Pendant to Match Each Watch.(The Good Life)(Audemars Piguet's Lady Royal Oak watch, Franck Mullerk's Crazy Hours Color Dreams and Omega jewelry)(Brief article)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Sana Butler Women in possession of a dazzling watch have long had trouble figuring out what jewelry to wear with it. Now there's an easy answer: pieces designed by the watchmakers themselves. Audemars Piguet has reinterpreted the...

Perspectives.(International Edition)(Quotation)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Quotation Sources: The Washington Post, New York Times, BBC, The Daily Mail, Reuters, New York Times "It's kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari." Team Obama spokesman Bill Burton, on adapting to the White House's...

Israel Has Fewer Friends Than Ever, Even In America.(International Edition; AFTER THE GAZA WAR)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Rod Nordland; With Christopher Dickey in Doha and Sophie Grove in London Israel has never been more isolated. Its best friend, the United States, had vetoed 41 Security Council resolutions condemning Israel in the past three...

By the Numbers.(International Edition; PERISCOPE)
February 2, 2009... Global optimism about Barack Obama has soared since last fall, but some countries remain skeptical that the United States president can deliver on his promises. A look at the numbers, from WorldPublicOpinion.org: 67 Percentage of...

Mother's Helper.(International Edition; PAGE TURNER)(Miltown)(Brief article)
February 2, 2009... Byline: Tony Dokoupil America's all-time favorite pill isn't for birth- control, according to historian Andrea Tone. It's a potent little tranquilizer called Miltown, after the New Jersey hamlet where it was born in 1955. The original...

No Laughing Matter.(International Edition; Fast Chat)(David Denby )(Interview)(Brief article)
February 2, 2009... American critic David Denby has had enough of the insidious, sarcastic banter typical of today's Internet culture. His rebuttal? "Snark," a polemic against modern insult talk. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Kurt Soller: What prompted "Snark"?...

The Most Influential.(Letter to the editor)
February 9, 2009... Our year-end cover package profiling 50 of the new global elite elicited many responses. While some hailed trailblazers such as Barack Obama and scientist Jay Keasling, one questioned the omission of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Another...

The Revenge Of The Near.(International Edition; ASIA)(India)
February 9, 2009... The 11/26 attack on India was no 9/11--and India's reaction must also be different from America's. Urban Indians love the idea of a global, borderless world, where flows of trade and services trace virtual geographies. Who can blame them?...

France Goes Postal.(International Edition)(Olivier Besancenot proposing change from France's Communist Revolutionary League to New Anticapitalist Party )
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tracy Mcnicoll The rise of an unlikely politician highlights the country's deep identity crisis. EUROPE From financial cataclysm to the greatest recession in modern memory, this global crisis has been a story of mass,...

Why America Is Lost in Space.(International Edition; BUSINESS)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Benjamin Sutherland Strict rules on U.S. military technology have helped boost Europe to the top of a $100 billion industry. "Contaminated by American technology" makes for a curious but enlightening description. For most of...

No Celluloid Escape.(International Edition; MOVIES)(documentary movies)(Movie review)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Michael Levitin Documentaries reign at the Berlinale, where gritty, low-budget films reflect the grim global mood. In "The Yes Men Fix The World," a man posing as an Exxon executive shows up at an oil conference in Calgary and...

Tasteful Vegas.(The Good Life; DINING)(Restaurant review)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tara Weingarten I am unapologetic about my affection for Las Vegas. Sure, Sin City represents everything that's tacky about America: garish design, fanny-pack-toting tourists, an overabundance of pinkie rings. But it's fun if...

Back for Another Venture.(The Good Life; STEVE WYNN)(Encore)(Brief article)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tara Weingarten Sin City's most prolific visionary is at it again. The man behind the Bellagio and, more recently, Wynn Las Vegas is back with Encore, a posh 2,034-room resort on the Strip. But don't expect a megalithic neon road...

Driving It All the Way Home.(The Good Life)(2009 Quattroporte S)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Tara Weingarten WINNINGS They don't build those bacchanalian palaces out of thin air, of course. They're assembled with the billions of dollars gamblers let slip from their clutches. But the fortunate few who walk away from...

Perspectives.(International Edition)
February 9, 2009... "Start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating." U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking to Al Arabiya news channel in his first interview with a foreign news outlet, on his instructions to his new Middle...

Hunger May Be the Worst Fallout From the Recession.(International Edition; FOOD CRISIS)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Rana Foroohar Fears over global hunger are back, this time driven by both high food prices and plunging incomes. As the global recession deepens, unemployment is rising, but the price of staple foods is not falling with other...

Turkey's New Tilt.(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)(Brief article)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Owen Matthews and Sami Kohen Is Turkey shifting away from the United States and Israel, and toward Arab radicals? For years, its military has had close ties with Israel's, and Ankara has acted as a gobetween for Jerusalem and Arab...

Gloomy Brits.(International Edition; RECESSION-WATCH)(Britain)(Brief article)
February 9, 2009... Byline: William Underhill For the longest faces in the global recession, try Britain. According to polling network WIN, pessimism over short-term prospects is higher in the U.K. than any other country but Japan. Small wonder. The housing...

Icon to Ice-Cream Flavor.(International Edition)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Jessica Bennett OBAMAMANIA In these grim times, there's one sector that's thriving: the retail trade in all things Barack Obama. Marketing experts estimate "Obammerce" is already a multimillion-dollar industry that could...

A Turbulent Century.(International Edition; WORTH YOUR TIME)(Sashenka)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 9, 2009... Byline: Owen Matthews Sashenka is the rich, spirited daughter of a Jewish industrialist, growing up in Petrograd during the First World War. She's also a revolutionary who reads Marx after lights-out at the Smolny Institute for Young...

A Bloody Battle.(Letter to the editor)
February 16, 2009... The deadly clashes in Gaza drew impassioned responses from readers on both sides of the issue. Arguing that Hamas is not solely at fault, one said, "Gaza has been made a prison by the Israelis." Another defended Israel's action, saying, "There...

Out From The Shadows.(International Edition; SOCIETY & THE ARTS)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Sophie Grove In London, Charles Saatchi unveils bold and biting new works by Middle Eastern artists. In Ramin Haerizadeh's photo montage "Men of Allah," bearded figures pout and lounge languidly among intricate Persian...

A Modern Chekhov.(International Edition; SOCIETY & THE ARTS)(Tom Stoppard)(Interview)
February 16, 2009... Tom Stoppard's adaptation of 'The Cherry Orchard' is timely, though he won't admit it. Tom Stoppard's terrific new adaptation of "The Cherry Orchard" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York seems especially resonant today. In...

To Save the Chinese Dream.(International Edition; WORLD AFFAIRS)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Mary Hennock A crumbling job market for college grads threatens the centerpiece of a nation's hopes for prosperity. Everyone's familiar with the American dream: work and study hard and you'll get ahead. But China has its own...

Revive The Saudi Peace Plan.(International Edition; POINT OF VIEW)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Abdul Rahman H. Al-Saeed; Al-Saeed is a Saudi academic whose writing has appeared in a number of Arabic newspapers. The fallout from the Gaza crisis could be enormous. But so could be the benefits of peace. History is filled...

What Japan Got Right.(Global Investor)
February 16, 2009... It's often forgotten that once the Japanese government started meddling in the economy, it worked. Japan's experience dealing with financial crisis in the 1990s has often been used as a cautionary tale for the U.S. The story is fairly well...

Betting It All on the Farm.(The Good Life)(Stockholm Furniture Fair and Milan Furniture Fair)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Michael Cannell If design acts as a responsive gauge of the moment, what can we expect in reaction to this period of economic distress? The furniture and lighting designs that debuted at the Stockholm Furniture Fair last week--and...

Bedding Down in A Barn.(The Good Life; ARCHITECTURE)(farmhouses )(Brief article)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Michael Cannell Farmhouses and other rustic structures are enjoying an upswing. Like any trend, the rustic-building revival is a reaction against what came before--in this case the clean, hard-edged surfaces of modernism. That...

Perspectives.(International Edition)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Sources: Nbc Nightly News, Times (London), USA Today, BBC, Times (London) "If the taxpayers are helping you, then you have certain responsibilities to not be living high on the hog." U.S. President Barack Obama, who last week...

The Palin of Israel.(International Edition; AFTER GAZA)(Orly Levy)(Brief article)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Kevin Peraino Never mind Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni. Israelis are chattering about the candidacy of Orly Levy, a 35-year-old former fashion model running for Parliament from the state's hard-right Israel Beitenu party....

The Great Kebab Wars.(International Edition; ITALY)(Brief article)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Mauro Suttora The Tuscan city of Lucca, famous as Puccini's birthplace, doesn't need any more publicity--especially if it carries the taint of "culinary racism." But that's the accusation being lobbed in response to Lucca's ban on...

Hey, Watch Your Mouth.(International Edition; WORTH YOUR TIME)(Eddie Marsan )(Brief article)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Jennie Yabroff When Eddie Marsan appears onscreen in "Happy-Go-Lucky," I can't take my eyes off his mouth. His character, Scott, an enraged driving instructor, is the antithesis of Poppy (Sally Hawkins), the film's sunny...

Iron-Man Theater.(International Edition; STAGE)(Hotel Medea)(Theater review)(Brief article)
February 16, 2009... Byline: Sophie Grove Operagoers often brandish their tickets to Wagner's "Ring" cycle like a badge of honor. But in the latest twist in theatrical one-upmanship, "Hotel Medea," at London's Arcola Theatre, is a six-hour endurance test of...

Asia's Bright Spot.(; LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 23, 2009... Our Jan. 19 article on China's economic success drew mixed responses. One attributed the success to a "unique brand of socialist democracy." Another contended that we didn't tell the whole story, noting that "there are multitudes of beggars and...

The Kremlin Vigilantes.(International Edition; RUSSIA)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova As anti-immigrant groups grow more violent, they get more explicit support from Russian authorities. One day this winter a trainload of migrant workers from Uzbekistan arrived at a railway...

Sarkozy's Next Big Battle.(International Edition; POINT OF VIEW)(Nicolas Sarkozy)(Viewpoint essay)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Leo Michel; Michel is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C. French refusal to integrate fully into NATO has limited its influence on the alliance's direction. In March...

The Islamists Show Their Hand.(International Edition; TURKEY)
February 23, 2009... When Turkey's justice and development party (AKP) first took power in 2002, it tried to reassure moderates fearful it might chip away at the country's secular, democratic and pro-Western values. The AKP renounced its Islamist heritage and began...

An Island, Lost At Sea.(International Edition; EUROPE)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Stryker Mcguire Britain is obsessed with its 'special relationship' with the United States. It's time to let go. Since the end of the Cold War, London has raised the same question every time a new head of state moved into the...

Take Away Their Mercedes.(International Edition; NORTH KOREA)
February 23, 2009... Past sanctions on North Korea, like those banning luxury goods, haven't worked because states cheated. Last September, satellite photos of North Korea revealed construction of a large new missile-launch facility near the Chinese border....

No Rest for the Weary.(International Edition; FRANCE)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Tracy McNicoll Nicolas Sarkozy wants to make working on the Sabbath legal. God help him. If Nicolas Sarkozy were God (and many of his critics suggest he'd like to be), you can be sure he wouldn't rest on the seventh day of...

How America Can Turn China Green.(International Edition; CHINA)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Fred Guterl; With Craig Simons in Beijing The U.S. ignored Beijing's request that it pay 1 percent of GDP to help China go green. It shouldn't. Gao Guangsheng has an odd sense of timing. In late October, as the global financial...

How To Tame Hamas.(International Edition; THE LAST WORD)(Interview)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Mustafa Barghouthi This time is different because Labor has just 13 seats! Where is the left in Israel? Where is the moderate peace camp? You'd think that Mustafa Barghouthi, the Palestinian cardiologist-cum-reformist...

One Last Splurge Before I Save.(International Edition; TOP SHELF)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Sameer Reddy; Reddy is the editor of The-Comment.com, and a fine artist based in Berlin. If I could just have that Ettore Sottsass glass-top table, then my future would still be bright. It's been tough to ignore the alarming...

Ignoring the Biggest Mistake.(Global Investor)(financial protectionism)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Holger Schmieding; Schmieding is European economist at Bank of America Securities Merrill Lynch. The main threat to commerce is not old-fashioned tariffs or subsidies. It's that stricken banks are bringing money home. Eighty...

Dressed To Recess.(The Good Life; FASHION)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Sameer Reddy Before Yves Saint Laurent revolutionized the world with his first pret-a-porter collection in 1966, fashion was a luxury that fell under the purview of the select few who could afford to spend thousands of dollars on a...

Where to Acquire A Model Wardrobe.(The Good Life; SHOPPING)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Sameer Reddy Nothing induces the urge to shop more than attending top-tier fashion shows in glamorous cities. No wonder high-end retailers often choose Fashion Week as the time to open their new boutiques. I managed to check out a...

Perspectives.(International Edition)
February 23, 2009... "You can argue that the men have made a right mess of it, and now the ladies should have a go." Economist Howard Archer, during the British Parliament's interrogation of former banking CEOs, suggesting that women should step in to clean up...

Hey, What Would Mr. Obama Say?(International Edition; A UNIPOLAR WORLD)(Barack Obama)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Stefan Theil America is back. That's the message the Obama administration is sending to foreign capitals. The new team has moved quickly to repair America's image abroad, promising to suspend torture, close Guantanamo and join the...

Ranking Bank Losers.(International Edition; CRISIS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Barrett Sheridan Everyone is aware--sometimes gleefully so--that the global recession was made in America. Wall Street served as the beating heart that pumped toxic debts into global circulation and almost wrecked the entire...

Comrades, It's Time To Overthrow The Czar.(International Edition; CAR TROUBLE)(usage of the title in reference to government officials)(Brief article)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Devin Gordon IF AMERICAN HISTORY is any guide, the movement to create yet another federal-level "czar"--this time for the auto industry--should send a clear signal to U.S. consumers: buy Japanese. Forget for a moment that it's...

A Look at Farm-to-Fork.(International Edition; WORTH YOUR TIME)(Our Daily Bread)(Brief article)(Video recording review)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Jesse Ellison The idea of little piglets living out their days in a darkened factory until they're fat enough to be sliced, diced and smoked is, well, uncomfortable. How surprising, then, that discomfort plays only a minor role in...

Our Risky Genome.(International Edition; THE BIG IDEA)(It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick)(Brief article)(Book review)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Katie Baker The clash between our genes and our contemporary lifestyle is making us sick. That's the premise of "It Takes a Genome," which examines how the slow pace of genetic evolution and modern environmental stresses have left...

The Digital Helper.(International Edition; TECHTONIC SHIFTS)(i-concier)
February 23, 2009... Byline: Akiko Kashiwagi The aim is to combine GPS, Internet and personal data with smart software to tailor information to the individual. Who wouldn't want a personal assistant? In theory, a gadget that could provide instant advice on...