“Half-baked Reasons for a War”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with American expert for the Middle East, Kenneth Pollack, about Saddam’s reaching out for nuclear power, his dangerousness to the West and American preparations for the storming of Baghdad:

“At the moment, the President is being torn to and fro by two different factions within his administration: the hawks and the doves. … It was a mistake to put the main focus on the search for weapons of mass destruction, instead of on a broader range of possibilities for containing Iraq. … Weapons could be hidden in millions of places. Also, the Iraqis have a pretty good sense of our reconnaissance capabilities since we provided them with intelligence material in the 1980s, during the war between Iran and Iraq. … The more troops we deploy, the quicker the war will be over, the quicker Saddam will be brought down, the fewer victims there will be on our side and the Iraqi side, and the less harm Saddam can inflict on his own people and the region as a whole. … North Korea demonstrates what is at issue. … The amount of unrest that develops in the Middle East will depend crucially on how we conduct the war and how we rebuild Iraq again afterwards.”

“Making the Strong Stronger”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with the head of Bertelsmann, Gunter Thielen, 60, about the end of the “golden boy” era in world-wide top management, the headaches of the entertainment giant, the chances of the TV show “Germany in Search of the Superstar”, and the new role models of his company patriarch:

“I prefer to grow through my own efforts, and I favour several smaller purchases rather than one big deal. For instance, I could well imagine that our US publishing company Random House might take over the book division of AOL Time Warner, which is now becoming available. … I would prefer to be the number one again, but not at the price of our debts being far too high. … I think the mood in Germany is far worse than the actual situation. … We view the market strength of Bauer as being a great danger. We have to reinforce our television segment very quickly. … We are only expanding the Internet in places where it supports our traditional business. … Many managers make the mistake of constantly trying to restructure weak areas. I think it’s much wiser to make the strong stronger, for instance by means of the small purchases I mentioned earlier.”

“Properly Deboned”

Medicine: US companies like trying out new technology on Germans. Now patients are complaining that a robotic surgeon has bungled. Like Robodoc, many new products by foreign companies are used in Germany although they have not yet been licensed in their country of origin. Manufacturers treat German patients as their guinea pigs in order to then use the results obtained to impress the far stricter US licensing authorities, for example – provided the results really are positive. The computer was designed in the 1980s at the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, for machining engine parts. In 1990 the first hip operation was carried out, on a dog. The researchers then received a preliminary license from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to try out the device on human beings too. After the test phase looked promising, they applied for a regular license in 1993 – which has however so far not been issued.

“Music Is Like Love”

In-depth interview with Russian pianist Yevgeny Kissin about his international career, his life in a family clan and his secret passion for poetry:

“Even at the very start, many musicians declared that I wasn’t really a child prodigy at all. That term is usually used for a very different kind of child – technically brilliant, but artistically rather shallow. I, on the other hand, was in the eyes of others a mature interpreter, and that at an age of less than ten. … I had just turned 20 and suddenly I had my family on my back, so to say. Not as a burden, Heaven forbid. But I did become their only source of income – that’s remained the case until today, I feel responsible for their well-being. … I enjoy reciting poetry and prose, it’s as if you were playing music.”

“Media Mobilisation”

Propaganda: The American government is trying to arouse the enthusiasm of its citizens, the Arab world and Western journalists for its second Gulf War, with the help of PR strategists and specific disinformation. A year ago, Powell got himself some professional assistance in order to polish up the image of the USA brand, hiring Charlotte Beers, one of the most successful women in the US advertising industry. While Beers is responsible for the visible, “white” marketing, in other words a relatively transparent form of political propaganda, the US government hired John Rendon for the “black” (“New York Times”) campaigns, for psychological warfare – including disinformation. John Rendon has been working on the anti-Saddam campaign since 1992, supposedly his biggest coup. To ensure the suggestive force of the images, the US military will once again share out a few hundred places to loyal media partners, headed by accomplished Gulf War producers such as CNN and Fox.

“Finals in Caracas”

Venezuela: In spite of all the initiatives, no end of the Venezuelan crisis appears to be in sight. The country is on its knees, brought to the brink of ruin by an amateurish president, and striked to pieces by an opposition that has not learnt from its mistakes. At least it has asked its followers to stay at home today, to prevent bloodshed. President Hugo Chavez is not addressing the issues of unemployment and the poverty of the country. If at all, only to make “counterrevolutionaries” responsible for them. Every day, housewives beat their drums in protest against the rampant poverty under a president who has prescribed the revolutionary phrase as a staple food. Protests are being voiced against his military nepotism, the corruption and the gradual undermining of an independent judiciary.

“Operation Freedom”

Reconstruction: Crushing the Taliban represents the only triumph of the West in its war against terrorism – one year later, Kabul has become a city of ruins for adventurers in search of a fortune.

“The Representative”

Diplomacy: Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gunter Pleuger, will be assuming the chairmanship of the Security Council and will have to join in the negotiations over war and peace. All his life he has been in training to represent the decisions made by others, even if he is of a different opinion.

“Brain Size Isn’t Everything”

SPIEGEL in-depth interview with palaeoanthropologist Richard Klein about the genes of primeval humans, their battle with Neanderthal man, and his own theory about the sudden emergence of culture:

“It would be very exciting to know which genes distinguish human beings from chimpanzees. And we would have to date those genes. That way we could trace the history of behavioural evolution. Recently, for example, a gene was discovered that is up to 200,000 years old and plays a role in our powers of speech. I predict that further genes will be found which changed the way human beings thought, and that these are 50,000 years young. … My – admittedly controversial – hypothesis is that about 50,000 years ago, there must have been a genetic change in human beings in Africa. This mutation was necessary in order for modern behaviour to be possible at all, and it sowed the seeds for culture. … Suddenly human beings in Africa started to live differently, and to hunt differently. They built complex graves. They produced art, clay figures and paintings. … Homo sapiens proved to be the better hunter and gatherer [compared with Neanderthal man]. His groups were larger. He had better weapons. He probably had spears that could be thrown, whereas Neanderthal man used hand-held pikes. … Compared with Homo erectus, Neanderthal man was in fact very intelligent. But he wasn’t as clever as the human beings that displaced him.”

“The End of the Crackling”

Radio: The virtues of digital radio have been greatly extolled, but so far listeners have remained unimpressed. Now, however, digital radio has been awakened to new life – in the almost forgotten wavebands of short and medium-wave transmissions. A world-wide consortium of electronics companies and radio stations wants to introduce the new radio service this year – under the name of “Digital Radio Mondiale”, or DRM for short. A suitable radio receiver is already available. But the crucial DRM chip which computes the audible sound from the digital signal is not yet cheap enough. The consortium would like the price of the new radios to be no more than 25 euros above that of conventional radios. This will only be possible once the chips are manufactured in large numbers.

“My Body Was As If It Were Dead”

SPIEGEL interview with Austrian skiing star Hermann Maier about his critical injury after a motorbike accident, the long road back to ski racing and his complicated relationship with his fellow countrymen:

“At the site of the accident I thought my leg was going to be amputated. In hospital my hopes grew that everything would turn out all right again. … [Asked whether he knew that his life was in danger:] No. Certainly not. Everything hurt, but I thought that was just part of it. Because of the bruises, dead muscle cells were carried all over the body. My liver count went haywire. But you don’t notice organic things like that. … Lots of things in my body still don’t work together properly. I still have no sensation at all in my right foot. From my lower leg, where a one-centimetre thick piece of skin was grafted, right down to my toes. When I slip into my ski boots I feel a sensitivity deep down, and pain too, but superficially I don’t feel a thing. That makes it difficult for me to tell how the ski is running. … I don’t care about all the people who had their doubts. What was much more painful for me was that I was accused of announcing my comeback simply for PR reasons. I’ve never approached the media, they always came to me. … Undoubtedly it makes one appealing to come back after suffering some huge blow. Being a serial winner or winning by a two-second lead makes you unappealing.”

“Death in the Promised Land”

Crime: In Bavaria, an au-pair hanged herself after suffering severe abuse. A new law makes young foreign women fair game. In March 2002, the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, liberalised the placement of young family helpers from abroad. Until then, contacts between host families and au-pairs were only made via vetted and authorised agencies or charities that had a special licence issued by the Federal Institute of Labour. Now anyone can set up an au-pair agency. What services their German employers really expect of their au-pairs is of no interest.