“Like the Mafia”

SPIEGEL cover story: Germany, the banana republic. Continuing revelations about the Cologne “garbage affair” are hurting the SPD (Chancellor Schröder’s party) badly in a federal election year, and the Social Democrats are under suspicion of corruption in other cities, too.

Corruption among doctors: Illegal price agreements and accusations of corruption as well as increasing profits among pharmaceutical companies due to ever more expensive medications are causing health care costs to shoot through the roof.

“The US Wants World Supremacy”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with British historian Eric Hobsbawm about global American dominance and its limits after the attacks of September 11, the age of extremes and the upcoming war against Iraq:

“In Washington the attacks helped to crystallise the American policy which has been in development since the end of the Cold War; namely the policy of establishing yourself as a dominant power in the world. … One reason to be very worried about the present American policy is that they don't seem to have any long term plans, they don't appear to be thinking it through - throwing burning matches into the entire region between the Nile and the Chinese frontier as it were, which is an enormous area with lots of explosives in it. … It seems to me that the old idea in Europe, that there's a natural family relationship which links the United States with Europe, is no longer valid. This is a hangover from the Cold War days; there is no Cold War. And consequently Europe should make up its own policy. … Europe needs integrated forces which do not depend on the US to intervene - like in the Balkans. What it does not need - since it is no longer threatened militarily - is a defence treaty like NATO."

“All the Arabs Stand by Us”

SPIEGEL interview with Iraq’s Minister of Trade, Mohammed Mahdi Salih, about the planned US campaign against Baghdad, the senselessness of UN sanctions and his country’s confidence in the support of its neighbors and the good sense of the Europeans:

“We still suffer heavily from the international sanctions. We lack medicines, over a million children have died of malnutrition. … All countries, including our European partners, will have to accept heavy [economic] losses if they do not cooperate with us. But in the meantime, they are cooperating again. … All of the Arab countries have worked hard together in the Arab League to prevent an attack on us – at any cost. They all stand by us.”

“Dance on the Edge of the Volcano”

Iraq: Strange alliances along the Tigris River – while the pressure from abroad is intensifying, Saddam Hussein is closing ranks internally. There is wealth in Baghdad, but no political oppostion.

“Zero Hour in the Middle Ages”

Reconstruction: After 23 years of war, Afghanistan is a huge pile of rubble. The country hopes to catch up to modern times with the help of the developed nations, butmines, warlords and bureaucracy hinder rapid progress. The global club for the reconstruction of Afghanistan at present includes 60 governments, seven UN institutions, two international funds, one coordination committee, 30 Afghan ministers and an as yet unknown number of international corporations, humanitarian aid organisations and interested political tourists who all want to have their say in the rebuilding of a country lacking in everything, including a telephone network, a mail system, good roads, transportation, schools, hospitals, and food. In Afghanistan, home to 21 ethnic groups and numerous tribes, an archaic federalism rules that requires everybody to palaver with everyone else before any decision can be made.

“Danger of Short-Windedness”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with mail-order entrepreneur Michael Otto about environmental protection and eco-friendly products, social standards and the necessary rules for globalization:

“Entrepreneurship is important – however, it carries a moral responsibility towards employees and society. … Growth is necessary to improve the standards of living the world over. And we must preserve the environment for future generations. … We have to subsidize eco-friendly products at least for a transition period, because we need to make a certain amount of them to be able to start cost-efficient production. … I see no alternative to globalization. It is the only chance for the poorest countriesto advance. However, we must set up rules to prevent the type of developments opponents ofglobalization fear.”

“The End of Those Days”

Medicine: Researchers in the US are looking at something that for centuries has been considered the very basis of womanhood: menstruation. They are trying to stop or at least reduce the monthly period, acting on the theory that too many menstrual cycles could cause cancer. One of the main supports of their chief argument is the field research conducted by Beverly Strassmann among the Dogon, a tribe in Mali. The anthropologist discovered that nature intends menstruation to be the exception in a woman’s life, not the rule. Many women will certainly agree with the menstruation opponents, as many of them are the biggest enemies of “the curse”. But for many women, the period is not a pesky evil, but the basis of their womanhood. For these women, it seems likely that the attempts to stop menstruation are a continuation of earlier attempts by the patriarchate to at least control, when not banish all too womanly phenomena from society. And indeed, such attempts have been made since ancient times.

“Secret in the Taiga”

Aerospace: For the first time, Russia has opened the doors of its insulated space center Plessezk to others. The military base, however, is still off-limits. The Russians have accepted a foreign partner in their station. The Astrium consortium has invested 40 million euros in the modernization of parts of the run-down facility. Of course, the Russians are chiefly interested in attracting western capital. Thus, foreign customers will be seen more frequently in Plessezk in the future. Eurockot, a German-Russian firm based in Bremen, has already registered four more satellite launchings in its order books. All this foreign influence rubs even younger members of the military aerospace forces stationed in Plessezk the wrong way. They fear the loss of power and influence.

"Black Box in the Cargo Hold“

German aviation security: An easy game for terrorists – while security guards fish out every nail scissors, only very few bags are checked for bombs. “It will take at least two more years until the considerable construction changes” for comprehensive security controls are finished, says one of the employees charged with security planning for Germany’s biggest airport, Frankfurt. Yet the machines that can detect even plastic explosives in luggage completely automatically already exist.

“A Ballet Full of Harmony”

SPIEGEL interview with French movie producer and director Jacques Perrin about his new documentary, “Nomads of the Air”, and the art of flying with birds:

“It is an overpowering experience to burst through the clouds among a swarm of birds and face the vast emptiness of the sky. That fulfils an age-old dream of humanity, Icarus’s desire for freedom and escape. … The birds led us, we led the birds, the animals and our aircraft responded in the same way to the wind, like in a harmonious ballet. In a certain sense, we even had the impression that the birds were communicating with us. … What birds do in flight seems effortless – climbing, floating, diving, it is all tremendously impressive and full of touching beauty. But then we realized how tired they become after two or three hours. We had fastened small microphones on the necks of some of the birds to record the sound of their flapping wings. Then we noticed how heavily they were breathing.”

“Death in Paradise”

Movies: Sixty years after his puzzling suicide, a thriller is being made about Stefan Zweig’s last days in Brazil starring Rüdiger Vogler, a frequent actor in Wim Wenders’s films. Vogler, 57 years old, has not had a big international career. He appears vulnerable, clueless, complicated, mysterious – perhaps that is why the director, Silvio Back, is convinced he has found the ideal actor for his movie, which is financed by Brazilian entrepreneurs and arts channels. Stefan Zweig is still one of the most widely read and internationally successful German authors. It is less well known that he spent the last year of his life in Brazil and wrote what is probably his best story and also his moving autobiography there. Zweig’s last weeks: a spiral into revulsionagainst life, revulsionagainst the world, its downward movement interrupted by mere short moments of re-awakening hopes and pleasures. Back’s film is not a thriller in the traditional sense, but a phantasmagoria – in a long, trance-like sequence of a voodoo ceremony, for example, Zweig senses his approaching death.

“I want to Learn German”

SPIEGEL interview with writer Susan Sontag about images of suffering, intellectuals and literary heroes:

“A famous man with a certain intellectual impatience offends no-one, whereas a woman is seen as a monster. Also, it often makes absolutely no difference how I act and what I say – it is a foregone conclusion anyway. …Since the war in Yugoslavia I have been thinking about how we deal with pain, also with the images of pain. A long time ago, in my essay “On Photography”, I supported the thesis that the constant illustration of suffering, particularly in war photography, which has played such an important part since World War II, dulls our perceptions and weakens our sensitivity by repetition and intensification. I do not believe that any more. Of course, there is a voyeurism of suffering, but on the whole we are actually shaken by the visualization of pain.”