"A Risk is also a Chance“

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with Ulrich Schumacher, Chairman of the Board at Infineon, Germany’s largest chip manufacturer, about the disaster that the befell high tech industry, Infineon’s prospects without former parent Siemens and what his business has to do with car racing:

“We have always warned against exaggerated hopes. It is normal to advertise an IPO … Internationally, we are still considered to be an exemplary,successful IPO in the high-tech segment … Our branch has always been characterized by strong fluctuations: sometimes you’re the model boy, sometimes the dunce. We just have to live with that … Our branch is and will remain a growth market with very good prospects … We have been the number one manufacturer of secure chip cards for banks, pay TV and telephones internationally for three years now … With assets worth over nine billion euros, Infineon has a very strong base.”

“Moving Into the Global Village”

Third World: Africa is experiencing a surprising cell phone boom. Thanks to rental mobiles and a rapidly growing mobile phone network, nearly half of Uganda’s population has access to cell phones. Country dwellers do business and warn of impending epidemics by cell phone – and even participate in radio talk shows. Experts consider the telecommunications market in Africa to be the world’s most rapidly expanding. In order to guarantee at least a basic coverage of access demand, the regulation authorities have established a relief fund. Telephone companies must invest one percent of their profits in the development of rural mobile phone networks. The state invests a million dollars a year. The World Bank has pledged five times that amount fornetwork expansion.

“Fight Fire with Fire”

Viruses: “Benign” computer viruses designed to knock out network bugs are set loose often. How harmless are these defences really? Experts are divided, but history seems to pronounce the sceptics right. When the first supposedly beneficial worm was let go in the Xerox Research Center in Palo Alto in 1982 in order to service computers there, it promptly wriggled out of control and crashed a hundred computers – like a paramedic gone wild. There is one thing in favor of “good” intruders: like their foes, they function on their own and thus can react very quickly, unlike anti-virus software requiring constant updating by users or supervisors.

“A Check Drawn On the Future”

Deutsche Telekom: Last week, the series of problems attained a new climax. For the first time, Telekom presented a deeply red balance for the last business year – and a record loss of around 3.5 billion euros. However, Telekom wants to drastically reduce this gigantic debt over the next few months. It all depends on whether and how quickly the industry’s optimistic prognoses for growth in the multimedia mobile communications era are fulfilled. At least in comparison to most of its competitors, Telekom’s chances are not bad.

“Rehabilitate or Shut Down?”

Dornier: A foreign corporation whose managers did not even know where Oberpfaffenhofen is located until recently may save the aircraft manufacturer: the US aircraft and weapons giant Boeing. At an extra company meeting on Monday, the principal shareholders will decide if the US corporation will be allowed to buy into the mid-size firm. “If Boeing says no”, an upper level Dornier manager warns, “our management will have to file for bankruptcy soon.”

“All Warning Lights are On”

Automobile industry: Studies by the Technical Control Board, polls in technical journals and consumer researchers in Germany and the US indicate that the cars with the stars are no longer as good as they were a few years ago. That strikes at the heart of the Mercedes-Benz brand name. Does the car manufacturer from Stuttgart have a quality problem? Management is taking the signs seriously.

“Wasteland around the Light of God”

Kabul: The civil war destroyed two oases that once served as historic meeting places for Afghans and Germans. During a secret mission in 1915, politicians in Berlin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs began a subversive effort to induce Afghanistan, a British protectorate, to change sides. Kabul’s cautious rulers, strengthened by generous British gifts of gold, preferred to keep to a policy of neutrality. When Amanullah ascended to the throne in 1919 and wrested Afghanistan’s independence from the British Empireafter a short fight, the hour of the Germans had struck. They were highly welcomed as partners by the reformist king for his modernization programs, which, however, soon collided with the atavistic tribal traditions in the heart of Asia. Former king Zahir Shah also pinned his hopes on the Germans and gingerly pursued modernization. But then the storms of war came, devastating the country and killing millions. Hardly anything has been left standing in what was once the most beautiful place in the Hindukush.

“We are Wolves”

Georgia: Chechen fighters, Islamists and criminals have transformed Pankisi Gorge in northern Georgia into a lawless area. An anti-terrorism campaign threatens to exacerbate the situation. President Shevardnadze hopes for salvation from abroad. The Americans, who have been equipping and training Georgia’s secret service for the past several years, are now preparing Georgian troops for the Battle against Evil. The Georgians, who have a reputation in the Caucasus for being clever and phlegmatic rather than great warriors, prefer tocounter the problems in Pankisi Gorgeby means of defensive containment rather than brutal attack.

“Deadly Truth”

Nigeria: A woman is to be stoned to death because she has born a child out of wedlock. An appellate court is to rule in the case. The sentence will decide the boundaries of religious freedom and whether a type of justice last practiced only under the Taliban in Afghanistan and in Iran may endure in Nigeria’s North, populated chiefly by Moslems.

“Architecture is not Important”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the builder of Brasília, Oscar Niemeyer, about the duties and mistakes of architects, the world after September 11 and his love of Rio de Janerio:

“At present, we are experiencing one of the worst moments in the history of mankind, total violence, total contempt of all human beings and the sovereignty of states. We know that capitalism is in a state of crisis, that capitalism must be overcome … And Bush and the Americans dump bombs on all these defenceless cities in Afghanistan, and hardly anyone in Europe protests against it … If society is more just some day, then the architect’s job will be more important. He can realize the large building complexes required by society. … [Rio] is poorly planned: the beaches were made smaller and often packed with ugly buildings. … But I like this chaos, the Cariocas’ style of freedom, the soccer, the bars, the conversations with friends, the beach. That is life.”

“Masters of Time”

Archaeology: Mysterious cones of gold turn out to be prehistoric sorcerers’ hats - the great-grandfathers of Merlin and Harry Potter who studied the heavens 3000 years ago. The conical hats were worn by magicians that Wilfried Menghin, director of the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History, calls “masters of time”. Employing their caps in “oracular, obscure ways”, the priests determined the right time for sowing, planting and reaping.“These were people with holy knowledge that could see into the future.” Researchers are electrified by the new theory: between the 14th and 8th centuries B.C., a religion previously unsuspected by anyone was practiced in the area between Bavaria, Britain and the Basque country.

“Silence in the Frontal Brain”

SPIEGEL interview with Gerald Hüther, neurologist from Göttingen, about hyperactive children, nerve connections in babies’ brains and possible long-term damage caused by Ritalin:

“The image of evil television is too simple. Some children are simply born with an extreme oversensitiveness. If these kids aren’t able to try out their boundaries and still count on the support of an adult for all of their problems, their brain development suffers. … The frontal brains of ADHS children have poorer circulation and consume less oxygen and glucose than those of normal children. Fewer nerve cells are active in the frontal brain of a hyperactive child. … If Ritalin hinders the optimal growth of the nerve structure – as results from tests with rats indicate – former Ritalin patients may develop problems as early as 40 years of age instead of 70. I have to fear that in the near future, we will see ever younger Parkinson patients.”

“Eruptions in the Dollhouse”

Musicals: The first opera based on a novel by Ernst Jünger has been produced in Mannheim. The project is intended to be a renewal of musical theater “on all fronts”. The Catalan go-getters “La Fura dels Baus” have staged – direction, sets, costumes - the international premiere of the peculiar opera “On the Marble Cliffs”.

“The Last Guerrillera”

Revolutionaries: The story of Tamara Bunke, who died at the side of Ché Guevara in Bolivia, is the stuff of which books and films are made. Hollywood, also, has discovered it. But the 90-year-old mother of the partisan fights against anyone who sullies her daughter’s legend.