Economist.com Cities Guide: Zurich Briefing - October 2005

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Laying out the welcome mat

Just over half of Swiss voters backed plans to ease labour restrictions on people from the European Union’s ten newest member states in a nationwide poll on September 25th. Zurich was one of 19 cantons and half-cantons to vote in favour of the proposal (seven voted against), with 59.4% of Zurchers expressing their approval. Switzerland’s parliament had already given the plan the go ahead. But the right-wing Swiss Democrats, warning the country could be flooded with cheap labour, forced a national vote on the issue. Despite ostensibly supporting the Democrats, many Zurich-based members of the Eurosceptic Swiss People’s Party ignored the party line and claimed a No vote would damage the country's economy.

In a separate local vote, Zurchers agreed to increase the tax deductions granted to families with children, but not by as much as was originally proposed. The Christian Democrats had called for an increase to SFr10,800 ($8,355) per child (from the current SFr5,400), but in the end settled for an extra SFr1,400 after voters came out in favour of a milder counter-proposal put forward by the cantonal government.

Sour grapes

Proposals to build Switzerland’s first nuclear-waste repository came one step closer to reality in September, when two panels of experts concluded that a site in the wine-growing region near Zurich could offer safe storage. The Swiss government’s nuclear safety inspectorate (HSK) and the independent Federal Commission for the Safety of Nuclear Installations agreed on an underground site for radioactive waste some 650 metres beneath the village of Benken, north of Zurich. According to the HSK, the site will remain stable for at least 1m years.

Switzerland's department of energy said that the report did not constitute a final decision, and pointed to studies being carried out in the cantons of Aargau and Solothurn. The Swiss government is to decide on the site in 2010, and construction is not expected to begin before 2040. Any decision would have to be approved in a national referendum.

Wheat wars

Scientists at Zurich’s Federal Institute for Technology published the results of a controversial experiment into genetically modified wheat in September. Christof Sautter, who led the project, claimed to have boosted the crop’s natural resistance to fungi by 10% after conducting the world’s first outdoor test of the KP4 gene, in a sealed-off field near the village of Lindau, just outside Zurich.

The experiment was intended to take place in 1999, but met with fierce opposition from local residents, farmers and environmentalists. The critics won a federal court injunction against the project in March 2003, only to have the decision overturned by the government seven months later. The project was three times more costly than its original budget, largely because of local opposition.

Switzerland’s “GM-free agriculture”, a lobby group, criticised the results, claiming that natural farming methods produced higher resistance to fungi at a fraction of the cost. The group is now calling on the public to back a nationwide moratorium on genetic experiments in a vote scheduled for January 2007.

Remembering Needle Park

During the late 1980s, Platzspitz Park, a patch of greenery opposite Switzerland’s national museum in Zurich, was dubbed “Needle Park” for the groups of drug addicts who congregated there. In the 1990s, the park was cleaned up, but the problem persists in Zurich, a fact highlighted this month by a display of photographs by Michael von Graffenried. The Swiss photographer recently spent 18 months chronicling the lives of addicts in the city, and is displaying his images in Platzspitz Park. Mr von Graffenried claims that since the clean-up, Switzerland’s drug problems have simply gone underground.

Watch that tram!

Police and traffic authorities have launched a campaign to increase awareness of the potential dangers of Zurich's trams. Even on zebra crossings, the city's 70-tonne trams, which need three times as much braking distance as cars, have the right of way over pedestrians. But not all pedestrians seem aware of this: over the past year, three have been killed and 26 injured by oncoming trams—half of all traffic-based pedestrian deaths in the city.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Zurich Film Festival

October 5th-9th 2005

Zurich's first annual film festival opens in October. The focus of this five-day, privately funded event, held at the Plaza cinema and at the College of Art and Design, is on new talent. Eight film-makers from all over the world have submitted their debut features for consideration for the festival’s “Golden Eye” award. The newcomer theme is reflected in the festival’s “Debut classics” series, with screenings of early works by established directors (highlights include Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs”, Jim Jarmusch’s “Permanent Vacation” and Jean Luc Goddard’s “A Bout de Souffle”). English-language subtitles are provided for most of the films.

For information on the festival’s programme and tickets, visit the official website.

More from the Zurich cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Sydney Briefing - October 2005

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Latham bites

The diaries of a has-been politician have scandalised Sydney’s establishment. Mark Latham led the federal Labor party to its fourth successive election defeat last October, and retired from his western Sydney constituency earlier this year. In “The Latham Diaries”, published on September 19th, he turns on his former colleagues with a venom unprecedented even in the bear-pit of Australian politics. According to Mr Latham, Kim Beazley, his successor, conducted a campaign of “smear and innuendo” against him, while the Labor party itself is “irreparably broken”.

Commentators have reacted scornfully to Mr Latham's invective. Many in Labor blame his performance for the party's election loss, and the media has portrayed him as arrogant, embittered and self-delusional. Mr Latham seems unbowed (especially as sales of the diaries are running hot), but the affair is no help to his former party, which is slowly rebuilding under Mr Beazley for the next federal election, due in 2007.

By the by

September brought trouble for the Labor government of New South Wales (NSW), Australia's most populous state. In three by-elections in Sydney, NSW's capital, held on September 17th, Labor suffered a sharp rebuke: the party retained all three constituencies, but with far slimmer majorities. The loss was smallest in the seat of Maroubra, where Bob Carr, the popular former state premier, stood down. However, in Marrickville, an inner-western constituency, the Green Party scored 40%, and in Macquarie Fields, in Labor’s traditional western Sydney heartland, the conservative Liberal Party increased its vote by almost 10%.

This is bad news for Labor, which has held power in NSW for ten years. Commentators interpret the results as a backlash against the government's patchy performance in managing the state’s transport, hospitals and schools. Labor has much to do to ensure it retains office in the next state election, due in 2007.

Big brother comes calling

John Howard, Australia’s conservative prime minister, has been one of George Bush's staunchest backers in the war in Iraq, to the dismay of many Australians. He came under more fire in September, when the country deported an American peace activist. Scott Parkin, a history teacher from Texas, had been in Australia since June, loudly criticising the mission in Iraq before participating in an anti-globalisation demonstration in Sydney in late August. Without warning, he was detained in Melbourne on September 10th and sent back to America three days later.

Civil-liberties groups are outraged, especially as the government has yet to explain its actions. Authorities seem to be in a tough mood: a day before Mr Parkin was arrested, Mr Howard announced a strengthening of anti-terrorism laws, giving police powers to detain suspects for 48 hours and to fit them with tracking devices for a year.

A chapter ends

Sydney’s literary world is mourning the death of a local icon. Donald Horne, a writer and critic who coined the expression “the lucky country”—now a standard description of Australia—died in Sydney on September 8th, aged 83. The expression came from the title of his first book, published in 1964, which portrayed a country he saw as blessed with material wealth, but run by people with “gummed-up” imaginations. It was followed by 26 more titles, spanning a career that made Mr Horne Australia’s most prominent public intellectual. He was dictating another book just before his death.

Mr Horne was a leading champion of republicanism. His commentary could be sharp—in “Looking for Leadership”, published in 2001, he described John Howard, Australia's prime minister, as “an apparition from the Dreamtime Fifties” with “a compass that was set backwards”. His passing will be marked in Sydney by a wake at the Mitchell Library, to which Mr Horne bequeathed his extensive papers.

A feast for the eyes

After property investment, Sydney’s second obsession seems to be food, and with good reason—the city’s restaurants rank among the world’s best. The culinary scene's bible is the “Good Food Guide”, published annually by the Sydney Morning Herald, in which the best eateries are graded with between one and three chefs' hats. When the 2006 edition was launched on September 5th, the biggest gasps came from the downgrading of Rockpool, a smart seafood restaurant, from three hats to two. Neil Perry, Rockpool’s creator, described the move as a “kick in the guts”. Matthew Evans, the guide’s editor, justified the demotion “by an occasional clumsy pairing when we’re used to finding excellence”.

Nevertheless, Rockpool remains in a high league—the guide awarded hats to only 46 restaurants (including 11 in our restaurant section), naming Tabou as best bistro. The 2006 edition, the guide's 21st, contains a record 400 reviews overall.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Italian Film Festival

October 13th-30th 2005

This annual festival of contemporary Italian cinema grows in stature every year. Films are screened conveniently in two of Sydney’s most buzzing districts: Paddington and Leichhardt, the latter a centre of Italian life. Highlights of the 12-film programme include “Le Chiavi Di Casa” (“The Keys to the House”), directed by Gianni Amelio and starring Charlotte Rampling, and “Come Inguaiammo Il Cinema Italiano” (“How We Got the Italian Movie Business Into Trouble”), a documentary about Franco Granchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, a legendary Sicilian comedy duo (pictured). There is also a retrospective of five films directed by Lina Wertmuller, including “The Seduction of Mimi” and “Love and Anarchy”.

Palace Cinema, 99 Norton St, Leichhardt, Sydney. Tel: +61 (02) 9550 0122; Academy Cinema, 30 Oxford St, Paddington, Sydney. Tel: +61 (02) 9361 4453. See the festival's website.

More from the Sydney cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Singapore Briefing - October 2005

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Fever pitch

Singapore is reeling from a surge in cases of dengue fever, with more than 10,200 infections since January. This figure has already surpassed last year’s total of 9,459. Yaacob Ibrahim, the Environment and Water Resources Minister, said on September 19th that it was time for “search and destroy” missions to root out the Aedes mosquitoes that carry the illness, which has symptoms that include intense fevers and aches. The increase in infections (and 11 deaths) has forced many local hospitals to postpone non-emergency operations, to make room for dengue patients in the wards.

The problem is unusual for Singapore, which has the cleanest environment in the region. Even before the latest spike, heavy fines were imposed on those who allowed mosquito-breeding sites, such as still water, in their homes. Health experts are puzzled by the trend, but speculate that mosquitoes have adapted their behaviour to avoid regular culling. The government has appointed a panel of experts to try to solve the problem.

Caught in the net

How to regulate cyberspace is a question most governments are still grappling with. In September, Singapore officially decided to treat the internet just like traditional print or broadcast media, at least for social matters. At issue was a trio of allegedly racist blogs (online diaries) posted by ordinary citizens. Citing the Sedition Act, Singapore police arrested three ethnic-Chinese men for their various online comments, which reportedly targeted Malays. Should they be convicted, they could face a maximum penalty of three years in jail, plus a fine of S$5,000 ($2,977) for each illegal blog entry.

Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister, said that maintaining social harmony in a multiracial state such as Singapore was essential. (Malays account for about 14% of the population; 75% are ethnic Chinese.) Criticism of the charges has been muted as the case has yet to come to trial.

How bad can it be?

Tiny, affluent Singapore has always been affected by events in Indonesia, its giant neighbour. This is why a stream of high-level Singaporean ministers attempted to soothe market nerves after Indonesia's currency plunged, in late August, to its lowest level in four years. The rupiah's plummet could be blamed on Indonesia's fuel subsidies, as the government has long fixed fuel prices below the international rate, paying the difference itself. A rise in oil prices could force Indonesia's government to spend up to $13 billion on fuel imports this year—over six times what it originally budgeted. This, among other unfortunate moves by Indonesian officials in response to some worrying economic trends, has gradually depreciated the rupiah and spooked the markets.

But Singaporean officials have been quick to allay domestic fears. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, deputy managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said he was not concerned, as Indonesia’s economy remains fundamentally sound. Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister, urged Jakarta to flesh out details of a programme to cut the subsidies. And Lee Kuan Yew, a former prime minister, also weighed in, saying the difficulties bore no resemblance to the regional financial crisis of the late 1990s.

Khoo d'etat

Eric Khoo, Singapore’s top film-maker, is earning plaudits at home and abroad for his latest effort, “Be With Me”. But the movie’s success did not stop a broadside on September 7th from the city-state’s Media Development Authority (MDA). The government group banned posters advertising Mr Khoo’s work, arguing that the depiction of “lesbian intimacy” violated local rules.

Although censors approved the film for audiences over 18, they found the intended advertising—which showed two teenage girls lying in an embrace—to be too much. “One of the guidelines states that posters must not depict or promote homosexual or lesbian intimacy,” the MDA said. Mr Khoo was disgusted. “There's absolutely nothing that is sensational,” he complained to the local press. “It's good eye-candy.”

Officers and elephants

Be careful what you say in Singapore, even if you don’t use any words. Police confirmed on September 1st that they are investigating the appearance of eight cartoon-style cut-outs of white elephants that appeared outside a completed—but as-yet-unopened—train station during a ministerial visit. The mute pachyderms appeared to be a novel way for locals to express their annoyance that Buangkok station has yet to open, despite the fact that the line was completed two years ago.

The Straits Times reported that the police received an emergency call about the apparent protest. Although the focus of their probe remains unclear, it is illegal in the tightly run city-state to put up public posters or exhibits without a permit.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Theemidhi Firewalking Festival

October 24th 2005

Theemidhi's 2am start-time may seem daunting, but it is well worth climbing out of bed (or staying out) for. Prepare to be awed by this ritual, in which Hindu devotees cross a four-metre bed of glowing coals in the courtyard of a lovely temple. The hot stroll recreates a scene from “The Mahabharata”, an Indian epic poem, in which the goddess Draupadi proves her innocence by walking over burning coals. To see this in person, either gather with the devotees at Little India’s Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road at around 2am, or head directly to the firewalking itself, which starts about an hour later at the Sri Mariamman Temple at 224 South Bridge Road in Chinatown. The Sri Mariamman is Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple and perhaps its most atmospheric.

Underground stations will be closed at this hour, so grab a taxi. Visit Singapore’s website has more information about the festival.

More from the Singapore cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: San Francisco Briefing - October 2005

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It could happen here

Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans roused fears that the Bay area could suffer a similar fate. Northern California’s delta region is at high risk from flooding: well below sea level, it is protected by 1,600 miles of levees that contain major rivers before they join and empty into the San Francisco bay. And the land is as valuable as it is vulnerable, containing some of America’s most productive farmland and thousands of new homes.

Experts warn that there is a two-thirds chance that the levees will be damaged by an earthquake or winter storm over the next 50 years. The levees, some built 100 years ago, have not been well maintained: the $90m that Congress approved for repairs has yet to be put to use. California has decades of experience with levee collapses, prompting some local officials to say they know how to respond quickly in an emergency—unlike their counterparts in Louisiana.
Last year, burrowing rodents created a breach that wrecked crops and caused $100m of damage. In 1997, floods from melting Sierra snow broke more than 50 levees, driving at least 100,000 people from their homes, damaging or destroying 24,000 residences and killing eight people.

Out with the old

Arlene Ackerman can boast some notable achievements in her five years as superintendent of San Francisco’s troubled public school system. But on September 6th, she announced that she would resign at the end of the school year, having agreed with the local school board that she and some board members were “incompatible”.

On Ms Ackerman’s watch, test scores for the district’s 57,000 students improved considerably. As the district’s first black superintendent, she received particular praise for improving schools filled mostly with poor, black students. She also straightened out the district’s finances, bringing in the FBI to expose corruption that had festered under her predecessor. But she clashed with the three most left-leaning members of the city’s leftish school board. They complained that she adhered too rigidly to state educational standards, and that she often failed to include parents and school-board members in her decisions. With Ms Ackerman on her way out, the board is now bickering over who should replace her.

Steps forward (and back)

California, a long-time centre of the gay-rights movement, has had a particularly heated few months. The courts advanced gay rights in two key decisions. In early August, the California Supreme Court declared that businesses cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Just weeks later, the court ruled that same-sex parents should have the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. The latter ruling was in a case of three lesbian couples, two from northern California and one from Los Angeles, who had raised children before ending their relationships. The parents sued because, unlike heterosexual couples, they were not automatically entitled to visitation or child support.

Meanwhile, the debate over same-sex marriage rages on. The Democrat-led state legislature passed a bill in September to legalise same-sex marriage, but Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, has promised to veto it. He argues that voters, not the legislature, should define marriage. Mr Schwarzenegger has also said he would not outlaw Proposition 22, an initiative passed by voters in 2000, which bans same-sex marriage in California. San Francisco briefly sanctioned gay marriages in 2004, marrying nearly 4,000 couples before the Supreme Court ordered the city to stop.

New school

This month the University of California opened its first new campus in more than 40 years in Merced, an agricultural town in the San Joaquin valley, east of San Francisco. Although its inaugural class has only 1,000 students, UC Merced hopes to house as many as 25,000 by 2035.

The new campus has been planned for almost 20 years. In 1988, the UC Board of Regents decided that the increasingly crowded university system—which will serve 208,000 students this year—needed a tenth campus. Seven years later, the Regents finally decided to build the campus in Merced. The population in the San Joaquin valley has boomed in recent decades, but until now has not been directly served by a state university. Community leaders hope that UC Merced will revitalise the valley, bringing economic diversity to an area where low-wage agricultural jobs are the norm.

Though UC Merced opened on September 5th, only a handful of buildings were ready for use; the campus now consists of some dormitories, a dining hall and the library, where most classes will be held in the first semester. But the university does have a mascot, a bobcat recently christened “Boomer”.

Under God no more

For the second time in three years, a federal court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for public schools to require their students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. According to Lawrence Karlton, a judge who issued his decision on September 14th, the phrase “one nation under God” violates children’s freedom from religious coercion.

Mr Karlton ruled on a case brought by three Sacramento-area parents who objected to their children being forced to conform to “the government’s embrace of monotheism” in the daily classroom ritual. The parents are represented by Michael Newdow, an attorney and atheist, who lost a similar case on behalf of his own daughter before the Supreme Court last year. A federal appeals court ruled in Mr Newdow’s favour in 2002, but the Supreme Court rejected his case, not on constitutional grounds, but because he lacked full custody of his daughter. Mr Karlton, who said he was bound by the 2002 appeals court to rule the pledge unconstitutional, has reopened a touchy debate; his decision will apply to only three school districts in the Sacramento area, but with religious groups eager to overturn the ruling, the case may well reach the Supreme Court.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Mill Valley Film Festival

October 6th–16th 2005

Though not as famous as its counterpart in San Francisco, the Mill Valley Film Festival, just to the north in Marin County, is beloved by cinema buffs for its diverse array of independent features and documentaries. (Fans don't mind the red-carpet appearances by indie icons either.)

This year, the festival will screen 150 films from 55 countries. Top attractions include the latest screen adaptation of “Pride and Prejudice” (pictured), starring Keira Knightley and Donald Sutherland, and “Bee Season”, a family drama starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche, based on a novel by Myla Goldberg. Those honoured at the festival include Mr Sutherland, Jeff Daniels, an actor who stars in “The Squid and the Whale”, and Felicity Huffman, an independent-film actress and a cast-member of “Desperate Housewives”, a popular television show. The festival will also pay special tribute to the late Michael Powell, who directed “The Red Shoes” and “Black Narcissus”.

The Mill Valley Film Festival, CinéArts @ Sequoia, 25 Throckmorton Avenue in Mill Valley; 142 Throckmorton Theatre, 142 Throckmorton Ave in Mill Valley; and the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Centre, 1118 Fourth St in San Rafael. Tel: +1 (925) 866-9559. For more information, see the festival’s website.

More from the San Francisco cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Los Angeles Briefing - October 2005

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Make a plan

Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath reminded Angelenos that they too live in a disaster-prone area—“Make a plan now”, urged the headline of an editorial in the Los Angeles Times. In 1994, an earthquake in Northridge killed 57 people and laid waste much of the San Fernando Valley, Hollywood and Santa Monica. But today only 25-30% of Californians have a disaster plan.

Are the city authorities similarly ill-prepared? Much seismic retrofitting has been done, but 239 buildings in the Los Angeles Unified School District would suffer in an earthquake, and only two facilities of the LA Police Department meet the highest standards. Perhaps more worrying is the possibility that LA’s water supply could be cut. About 60% of Southern California’s water comes from aqueducts that cross the infamous San Andreas fault, and the Southern California Earthquake Centre reckons that there is an 80-90% chance of a earthquake of seven or higher on the Richter scale before 2024.

Trouble at the museum

The Getty Center, one of LA's leading museums, is making headlines for more than just its exhibitions. Marion True, curator of antiquities, has been charged with buying illegally excavated Italian objects. She will face a court case in Rome in November. Meanwhile, the J. Paul Getty Trust, which funds the museum, has been accused of withholding from the Italian authorities documents that could prove incriminating. Both Ms True and the trust deny any wrongdoing.

They are not the only ones to have come under fire. Barry Munitz, the trust's chief executive, has been criticised in the press for his lavish expense account and a succession of high-level departures from his staff. The latest, due to take place by the end of the year, is of his chief of staff, Jill Murphy.

A game city

If a city can succeed once, why not a second time? And if a second time, why not a third? In other words, why not let Los Angeles, which hosted the Olympic Games in 1932 and again in 1984, host them in 2016? One reason, of course, is that there will be plenty of rival candidates from all around the world, including from within the United States (bids are thought possible from Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC).

But Los Angeles has much in its favour, including good weather, several airports and plenty of hotels. It also has a record of success. The 1984 Olympics, though criticised for their commercialism, were the first to make a profit. Barry Sanders, chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, promises to “pursue this with an Olympic determination to succeed.” The US Olympic Committee will choose an American candidate in 2007. The overall winner will be chosen by the International Olympic Committee in 2009.

Sky high

Economists agree that LA’s housing bubble is likely to deflate. But in the meantime, house-buyers are borrowing up to the hilt. A report from the LA-based California Association of Realtors noted that in July 2005, “housing affordability” fell to its lowest level ever, with the median price of a home in LA County reaching $543,890—an amount affordable for only 16% of households. This “affordability” is based on the assumption that a home-buyer can deposit 20% of the property price and can afford to borrow at a rate of 5.73%. Calculate the figures another way, and a buyer needs a household income of $125,670 to qualify for a loan (compared with the national figure of just $50,650). This will surely stretch the resources of actors hoping for success in Hollywood: the median price in Studio City, the favourite location for aspiring stars, is over $1m.

Congestion hell

Bad news for those thousands of drivers who have to drive north every day on I-405 (reputedly the nation’s busiest freeway) into the San Fernando Valley: before embarking on their four-month break, California’s legislators in Sacramento failed to pass a bill that would have allowed the construction of a car-pool lane on the I-405 between the Santa Monica and Ventura freeways.

The reason? One suspicion is that the Democratic majority wants the lane to be built by Caltrans, a state-owned company, rather than by a private firm. But Antonio Villaraigosa, LA's mayor, claims the private-sector solution would save time and money. The mayor has promised to lobby lawmakers who, he claims, are fully aware that if construction does not begin before 2009, LA will lose $130m in federal funds.

Catch if you can

October 2005

An Assortment of Beauties: Japanese Woodblock Prints Collected by Frank Lloyd Wright

Until January 9th 2006

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena is always worth the trip from Los Angeles, especially if you are a fan of Asian art, the museum’s main strength. One jewel not to be missed is this group of mainly 18th-century Japanese woodblocks collected by Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect. The woodblocks depict Japanese women in gorgeously coloured robes. One such beauty, her woodblock made in the early 19th century, is Kitagawa Shikimaro’s “The Courtesan Hanaogi”, made with remarkable craftsmanship. These woodblock prints are the products of an art movement known as ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world”—a hedonistic environment inhabited by geisha, courtesans and Kabuki actors, illustrated by artists throughout Japan’s Edo period (1600-1868).

Norton Simon Museum of Art, 411 W. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena 91105. Tel: +1 (626) 449-6840. Open: every day except Tues, noon-6pm (Fri 9pm). Entry: $8. See the museum website for details.

More from the Los Angeles cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: London Briefing - October 2005

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Hit for six

A thrilling summer of cricket concluded on September 12th, when England claimed the Ashes trophy from Australia for the first time since 1987. The England team began the final test match at the Oval in south London with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. But inspired spin-bowling by Australia’s Shane Warne and some unconvincing batting by England conjured a nail-biting finish. It was left to Kevin Pietersen, one of England’s rising stars, to score a remarkable 158 runs on the last day and secure the draw which guaranteed the series win.

The result sparked widespread celebrations in England, with tens of thousands of people attending a victory parade in central London the next day. Even tabloid newspapers, normally football-obsessed, were jubilant. “Urncredible!” gushed one. “Fantashtic!” shouted another. Cricket observers have been unanimous that this summer’s series was the best in the Ashes’ 128-year history. Battle between the two sides will start again in Australia in late 2006. In the meantime, the Royal Mail is set to issue stamps celebrating England’s victory, including a 68p one ideal for posting letters Down Under.

An arm and a leg

A controversial new sculpture, unveiled in Trafalgar Square on September 15th, has rekindled debate over the role of public art in London. “Alison Lapper Pregnant” is a 3.6m-high marble sculpture of a naked, pregnant woman with deformed arms and legs. Marc Quinn, the artist, said the work “could represent a new model of female heroism”. Ms Lapper, a disabled artist who sat for the piece, hailed it as a “modern tribute to femininity, disability and motherhood.”

Some art critics have begged to differ: one likened the statue to a slimy bar of soap; another called it a “repellent artefact”. Its incongruous position alongside statues of British military heroes—including Lord Nelson, whose victory at the Battle of Trafalgar is being commemorated this year—has also drawn criticism. Some are mollified by the fact that Mr Quinn’s sculpture will disappear from Trafalgar Square’s usually vacant “Fourth Plinth” after 18 months. Its replacement, Thomas Schütte's “Hotel for the Birds”—a Perspex home for pigeons—is sure to generate more controversy.

'Ave a butcher's at this

Cockney, the east London accent famed for its rhyming slang, could be dying out, according to a recent study of young people living in Tower Hamlets. Sue Fox, a sociolinguist at the University of London, found that Bangladeshi immigrants are influencing the way locals, both white and Asian, speak. The new dialect—a mixture of Bangladeshi and English—not only has different vowel pronunciations from traditional Cockney, but also includes entirely new words, such as “nang” (good) and “creps” (trainers).

Meanwhile, a separate study from the Institute for Public Policy Research has revealed London’s cosmopolitan make-up. Analysing census figures, it found that foreign-born residents made up almost one-quarter of London’s population in 2001, an increase from 18.5% ten years before. In one area, Wembley, immigrants outnumber natives. Nigerians, many of whom settle in Southwark, and South Americans, who favour Vauxhall and Tooting, are the capital’s fastest-growing foreign communities.

Dismissed

Chelsea Barracks in west London, which has housed troops guarding Buckingham Palace since the 1860s, is to be closed and sold to developers. The Ministry of Defence said the buildings were dilapidated and too expensive to refurbish—even though some are less than 50 years old. The 250 troops occupying the barracks, on a 13-acre site between Sloane Square and the River Thames, will be moved to Woolwich Station in south-east London, home to the Royal Artillery, which will have a £50m refurbishment.

In the wake of July's terrorist attacks, some have wondered whether London’s security is being sacrificed for profit (Chelsea’s sale is expected to raise £200m-250m). But army-watchers point out that central London still has barracks that can provide large numbers of troops in an emergency. The redeployment is great news for Woolwich Station, which was built around the turn of the 19th century: previously under threat of closure, its long-term future now looks assured.

Death of a saleswoman

Gossip in Harvey Nichols’s fifth-floor restaurant rarely revolves around the stylish Knightsbridge department store itself. But on September 13th it was “Harvey Nicks” that became the centre of unwelcome attention, when a man strolled into the cosmetics hall and shot dead a shop assistant before turning the gun on himself. Police later identified the victim as 22-year-old Clare Bernal and her killer as Michael Pech, an ex-boyfriend previously employed by Harvey Nichols, who was on bail awaiting sentencing for harassing Ms Bernal.

Predictably, Ms Bernal’s murder has led to calls for greater protection against stalkers. It has also tainted the upscale store, with one commentator suggesting the killings reflected the “touch of 'Footballers’ Wives'” (a popular TV drama). Of greater concern to Harvey Nichols may be the poor health of the capital’s retail sector: sales in central London in August were 11.5% lower than the previous year, according to the London Retail Consortium.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Edvard Munch By Himself

October 1st-December 11th 2005

Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Norway's most celebrated artist, is perhaps best known for “The Scream”, a chilling portrayal of human anguish. (The painting has yet to be recovered after it was stolen from the Oslo Munch Museum in August 2004.) But this show of self-portraits at the Royal Academy sheds a more personal light on the painter, who ended his days in seclusion.

Works such as “Man With Bronchitis” and “Self-portrait Between Clock and Bed”, capture Munch's preoccupation with illness and death (his mother and sister both died from tuberculosis). The exhibition traces his development from a fragile, young art student into a tortured symbolist.

Royal Academy of the Arts, Piccadilly, London W1. Tube: Green Park or Piccadilly Circus. Open: daily, 10am–6pm; Fri until 10pm. See also the academy's website.

More from the London cultural calendar

Economist.com Cities Guide: Brussels Briefing - October 2005

News this month

Hot-air Walloon

Controversial plans are afoot to charge all car drivers to use the roads in Wallonia, the southern, French-speaking half of Belgium. Michel Daerden, the budget minister of the Walloon government, announced on September 13th that all cars on the region’s main roads and motorways will have to display a sticker costing €25 ($31) by January. The policy, which would also apply to visitors, is proving unpopular with Flemish drivers from northern Belgium, who complain that they would be taxed to improve Walloon roads.

Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, head of the Walloon government, rushed to deny Mr Daerden's announcement. He then explained that he was not opposed to the idea, just to the way Mr Daerden made it public, and that the scheme would have to be introduced simultaneously in Flanders and Brussels. Flanders has already been debating such a plan, which could yet run into objections from the European Commission. A similar scheme already applies on Switzerland’s motorways.

Oil and troubled waters

Rising petrol prices evoked fears of protests similar to those staged in 2000, when tractors and lorries blockaded the main roads of Brussels for days. After vowing to refuse to cut fuel taxes, European Union finance ministers began yielding to the threat of new demonstrations. In Belgium, faced with the lorry-drivers' union's threats of strikes and blockades, the government promised to speed up the repayment of duty on fuel, and ordered a crack-down on demonstrating hauliers. The government also promised some subsidies on home-heating oil in the event prices reach a certain level. Many Belgian homes use oil for heating, and the price of fuel was threatening to send the bill for domestic heating through the roof.

Reconstructing the Atomium

After an extensive restoration, the Atomium once again looks the part of the city’s most famous post-war landmark. The outsized model of a crystallised iron molecule, which was built for the 1958 World Fair, was originally meant to stand for only six months. Its popularity kept it from being destroyed, but it started to show its age in recent years; visitors who used the lifts, escalators and stairs could not help noticing the decay.

The structure was closed for restoration in March 2004. Its original aluminium panels, which had become a dull grey, were replaced with gleaming stainless steel. The last were attached in mid-September, and the Atomium now shines brighter on the horizon, though it will not reopen until the first half of next year. In the meantime, some of the old aluminium panels have been sold off—for €1,000 apiece.

IPO for Telenet

Telenet, a Flemish telecommunications company with television, internet and telephone services, will make an initial public offering of shares in early October. The company hopes to raise €1 billion in one of the biggest Belgian flotations of recent years. Telenet styles itself as a challenger to Belgacom, the national telecoms utility, which is still state-controlled. In recent years, competition between the two has driven down the price of phone calls and broadband internet connections.

The flotation is creating some uncertainty about Telenet’s future ownership. The local governments of Flanders have a 34% stake in the company, while Liberty Global (whose owner, John Malone, also owns the Discovery Channel) has a 21% stake. Liberty Global is expected to take control at some point in the future.

Catch if you can

October 2005

Panamarenko Retrospective

September 30th 2005–January 29th 2006

When Albert, King of the Belgians turned 70 last year, the government presented him with a drawing by Panamarenko. It was a clever choice—although the conceptual artist defies classification, he is a Belgian of considerable renown. Part inventor and part engineer, his sketches of flying saucers, submarines and cars are amazing flights of fancy. Indeed, his explorations of space, flight and machinery make him something of a latter-day Leonardo da Vinci. This year, as Panamarenko celebrates his 65th birthday, the fine arts museum in Brussels is staging a comprehensive exhibition that charts his artistic development.

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Place Royale 3, 1000 Brussels. Tel: +32 (02) 508-3211. Open: Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm; Thurs till 9pm. Entry: €9. Subway: Gare centrale or Parc. For more information see the exhibition’s website.

More from the Brussels cultural calendar

Middle-class India plows new wealth into big weddings

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p01s04-wosc.html

By Anupreeta Das Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

NEW DELHI - At a wedding held in a five-star New Delhi hotel last winter, the groom stepped out of a two-door BMW sports car, specially flown in from Europe for the occasion. Spanish flamenco dancers, fresh orchids from Thailand, ice sculptures, even second-tier Bollywood stars paid to mingle - all are just some of the flourishes seen at recent Indian weddings. Forget being down-to-earth. The latest fad is to stage the whole shebang on pontoons, putting family and friends on a veritable flotilla of flaunted wealth.

"We receive such 'unusual' requests all the time," says Meher Sarid, a wedding planner in New Delhi. "It's not unusual anymore."

Indian weddings have always been grand and festive affairs, as reflected in films like Monsoon Wedding and Bride and Prejudice. But India's burgeoning middle class - now 300 million strong - are turning weddings into showcases of their growing disposable incomes and newfound appetites for the goodies of the global marketplace.

The largesse has spawned an $11 billion wedding industry, growing at 25 percent annually and beginning to rival the US industry valued at $50 billion. Top global luxury brands and local entrepreneurs are learning that the way into the pocketbooks of India's new consumers is through their nuptials.

"Weddings have become the single most visible expression of a person's social standing and wealth, an expression that is both acceptable and expected," says image consultant Dilip Cherian, who heads Perfect Relations, a leading Indian PR firm.

The minimum budget for a wedding ceremony is $34,000, say wedding planners, while the upper-middle and rich classes are known to spend upward of $2 million. (The average American wedding costs $26,327.) This doesn't include cash and valuables given as part of a dowry.

Businesses have taken note:

• Samsung, Sony, LG, and other appliance makers now time their discounts to the wedding season, which begins this month and runs until March.

• GE Money India has introduced an "auspicious" personal loan, a quick and easy loan exclusively for weddings.

• Gurgaon, a city built on new-economy money, will boast India's first wedding mall in 2006, built at a cost of $16 million and with 400 stores. Eight more wedding malls are being planned around the country.

"Over 18 percent of India's population falls in the top-tier socioeconomic class, which is a huge potential market for luxury goods brands," says Renuka Keron, marketing manager at LVMH Watch & Jewelry India Pvt. Ltd., which sells Tag Heuer and Christian Dior watches in India.

According to the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), the middle class are those making $4,545 to $23,000 a year. NCAER projects that the market for all categories of products, from daily consumables to consumer durables, will double in annual sales by 2010.

With the economy expected to maintain steady 6 percent annual growth, India is widely seen as one of the world's 10 largest emerging markets.

With nothing opening up Indian wallets like a marriage, local entrepreneurs have devised one-stop wedding exhibitions, novel gifting and holiday options, and entertainment ideas.

"It is one of India's recession-free businesses," says Diivyaa Gurwaara, who organizes Bridal Asia, an annual wedding exhibition that brings together fashion and jewelry designers and luxury goods sellers under one roof.

Ms. Gurwaara is a trendsetter of sorts; in 1999, she was the first to see the potential of a one-stop shop where families could browse in air-conditioned comfort.

Since then, the number of participants in Bridal Asia has doubled to 80 and this October, she expects 60,000 visitors at the exhibition, which will sprawl over 40,000 sq. ft.. There are several such annual wedding extravaganzas, heralding the beginning of the wedding season with a mix of traditional and international offerings. Together, they rake in at least $50 million in sales.

The options on display reflect the well-traveled and increasingly internationalized tastes of many upwardly mobile Indians. Noticing the craze for Japanese food in urban India, caterers are offering sushi and tempura on their menus. Handmade chocolates from Lebanon are another new offering, as chocolates begin to replace Indian sweetmeats as customary wedding favors.

A wedding expedition "sure beats driving to different corners of the city to buy flowers, order invitations, and get your outfits made," enthuses Lisa Dutta, a 25-year-old bride-to-be.

Gurwaara notes that "costs are bound to go up when professional wedding planners take over the tasks traditionally performed by grandmas."

Not everyone is excited by the turn towards opulence. Newspaper columnist, publisher and Delhi's uncrowned cultural czarina, Malvika Singh, terms lavish weddings as "graceless." "Where weddings were once celebrated, today they are performed," she says.

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An Indian city holds its French flavor

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p16s01-litr.html

While France gave up control of Pondicherry in 1954, this city in southeastern India has preserved its French connection through its colonial buildings, street signs, a school and even sports.

By Nachammai Raman Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

PONDICHERRY, INDIA - On a Sunday evening at the Notre Dame des Anges church, the strings of jasmine festooning the pedestals of Mary and Jesus and the dark-skinned female parishioners wearing saris suggest a firm foot in India. That is, until the priest says mass in French.

The French may have left Pondicherry, their tiny bastion in British India, 51 years ago, but this city in Southeastern India has preserved what they left behind.

Signs of France can been seen immediately in the more than 270 heritage buildings that stand in the colonial quarter of the city. "Nowhere else in India can you see in one section of a city such a large number of well-preserved colonial buildings," says Venkataramaya Nallam, president of Pondicherry's historical society.

While India worked furiously to dismantle links to Britain after gaining independence in 1947, Pondicherry has held dearly to French names and institutions. Residents don't appear to harbor resentment toward the French, and that has aided the city's preservation efforts, Dr. Nallam says. "We never had any bitterness against the French colonials," he explains. "The kind of oppression in British India was not felt here."

Unlike British India, Pondicherry became independent without bloodshed. The city also had served as a haven for Indian revolutionaries fleeing British rule. One such revolutionary, Aurobindo Ghosh, gave up his incendiary activities upon arrival in Pondicherry and started a small ashram in the quarter where the French lived. Over the years, the ashram grew into an enormous entity that bought up many of the surrounding colonial buildings to accommodate its members and programs. Residents credit Aurobindo Ashram with being the forerunner, albeit unintentionally, of Pondicherry's preservation effort. "The best preserved part of the [colonial quarter] is around the ashram," says Ajit Koujalgi, a senior architect at the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage in Pondicherry.

In addition, Pondicherry's union territory status, similar to a city state, has helped the preservation effort, especially when government cooperation is required. "Because it's small, there's much less bureaucracy," says local architect Arul Arjunan.

Apart from buildings, the use of the French language has also been preserved in the city. Most street signs are bilingual, written in French and Tamil.

The local French high school has played a large role in keeping the language alive. The school, supported by the French government, has about 1,000 students ages 3 to 18 who are educated completely in the French system. Some 80 percent of the students are French citizens. They gained that status from their parents who opted for French citizenship at the time Pondicherry was handed over to India.

Many of these children will go to France to pursue higher education. Marie Berthe, a Pondicherrian resident with French citizenship, sends her 13-year-old son to the school. "He'll study here until he's 18 and then he'll go to France," she says.

Since they speak Tamil at home, Ms. Berthe takes her son to Sunday mass in French and other such events to expose him to French social contexts. Berthe, who once worked as a French teacher, says even non-French nationals in Pondicherry want their children to learn French because the language is a ticket into France. "They go there to settle down," she says.

But French-speaking people are in demand within India. Business people from other parts of India call all the time, Nallam says, to ask him to recommend French speakers from Pondicherry to work for them. "People are learning French because of the hospitality and tourism industries also," he says.

With the rise of India as an economic power, Pondicherry is serving once again as a foothold for French business interests in the subcontinent. The opening up of the Indian market and the high-tech boom has led lots of French people to come to India to do business, says Robert Xavier, a Pondicherry tour operator who returned to the city from France a decade ago.

Others returning to Pondicherry from France have perpetuated some French traditions that might otherwise have become defunct. Around 5 o'clock every evening, a group gathers on Pondicherry's esplanade to play petanque - a French game similar to bocce. Indian visitors sometimes watch the game, but few understand it. Michel Balecovr, a petanque stalwart and a former soldier in the French military, swears by the authenticity of their game. "We respect the French rules. If not, then it's not petanque."

The game may be exactly as it's played in Paris, but Indian swear words have crept into the players' exchanges. Mr. Balecovr has been playing the game since he returned to Pondicherry in 1965. His other favorite pastime is crossword puzzles in French. "It's good for the head," he says. Although Balecovr sends for his puzzle books from France, one or two local publishing houses put out books in French for limited distribution.

As for older books and documents, they have been preserved by history buffs. Nallam moved his historical society's book collection from the Pondicherry Museum, where he says they were being eaten by termites, to a room on the third floor of the hospital where he works as a surgeon. He's added his own collection of rare books and journals and allows scholars and researchers free access to this library, which is maintained at his personal cost.

For those in search of historical materials on the city, Nallam's hospital would be a better bet than the public libraries. "As the president of the society, it was my duty to preserve [the collection].... Future generations should be benefited."

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Endangered Species Act gets listed

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p09s01-coop.html

By Holly Doremus

DAVIS, CALIFORNIA - The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has served the nation well as a last refuge for vanishing species since it was first enacted in 1973. But an effort to scuttle the act is now moving at breakneck speed through the US House of Representatives.

Last week, the chair of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo (R) of California, proposed changes to the act with a 74-page bill. The committee voted in favor and now the bill is poised for an immediate vote by the full House.

If it becomes law, Mr. Pombo's bill - which weakens current protections governing private and public lands - will be a disaster for endangered species and deepen existing divides on the issue. This is unfortunate because the time is ripe for a more moderate approach.

No one is fully satisfied with the ESA. It is not helping dwindling species enough, developers and mining and timber industries see it as impeding progress, and state officials think it intrudes on their autonomy. The current bill, however, focuses on relief for landowners to the exclusion of the interests of protected species. It misses the opportunity to offer moderate incentives to landowners to save, or improve habitat of endangered species, or involve states more in the development and enforcement of protective regulations.

The proposed changes to the ESA are centered on the premise that it is failing. Only a handful of species have recovered over the past 30 years to the point where they no longer need the law's protection. But that doesn't make the act a failure. Only nine species of the 1,300 listed as endangered since 1973 are now extinct. Rebounding takes time. By the time they get legal protection, species are typically reduced to critically low numbers.

Furthermore, a "recovered" rating requires confidence that the species will not decline again. For many species threatened by loss of habitat, there simply is no other protection.

The House bill will not help these dwindling species. It sets new deadlines for development of recovery plans, but because it would not make those plans enforceable by the courts, many would never be implemented. For at least five years, the act would not apply to pesticides, a major factor in the historic decline of species such as the bald eagle and a current problem for the Pacific salmon.

Government authorities would be given discretion to ignore many species. Protection of "threatened" species, which are not yet listed as endangered, would no longer be mandatory. The Department of Interior could also unilaterally exempt whole categories of federal actions from ESA review. History suggests the government will use any discretion it is given to avoid protecting species.

Further, the bill would provide a windfall for developers. Currently, landowners whose development projects harm endangered species have to mitigate that harm through habitat conservation planning. The proposed law would substitute a very different process. Landowners could demand review of proposed developments in a very short time and on the basis of a brief project description.

If the government failed to meet the deadline or concluded that the action would not violate the law, the landowner could develop with impunity. If the government concluded the development would harm a listed species, it would have to pay the fair market value of the land's proposed use. In other words, developers could aggressively prospect endangered habitat and receive financial reward for not building.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, on the other hand, would face the Hobson's choice of depriving endangered species of protection or draining its budget with payments to enterprising developers.

Revisiting the Endangered Species Act is a good idea. But amendments ought to help endangered species as well as developers. Pombo's bill is the wrong approach.

• Holly Doremus is a professor of law at the University of California at Davis and a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.

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Military wary of disaster role

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p01s03-usmi.html

Some worry that a revision of its homeland mission would take away from war capabilities.

By Mark Sappenfield Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - When President Bush asked Congress this week to consider whether the military should take the leading role in disaster response, he was merely picking up where other politicians have left off. Washington has long sought to induce the Pentagon to take a larger share of homeland security in times of crisis - from the war on drugs to the war on terror.

The notion has enraged civil libertarians and wary members of Congress, who fear the power of a military let loose on its own people. Yet in many respects, the greatest opponent of giving the military more authority at home has been the military itself.

It is a reluctance born of a martial ethos - the insistence that the military exists to fight the nation's wars, not to act as police. The fact that America remains at war in Iraq and Afghanistan has only deepened those reservations. So far, the Department of Defense has not taken a public stance on the president's idea, yet among many in the military community, there is concern that any major revision of the military's homeland mission could be both unnecessary and counterproductive.

"The military needs to focus on its core competencies - fighting wars," says Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "If we load the military with every mission that other cabinet agencies don't do well, then it won't be able to do its job well."

Indeed, Mr. Bush appears to be turning to the military in part because it was the only federal institution perceived to be competent in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Now, he and others are saying that the military might be the only federal asset able to respond quickly and effectively to disasters that overwhelm local police, fire, and emergency teams - as Katrina did.

"Is there a natural disaster of a certain size that would then enable the Defense Department to become the lead agency in coordinating and leading the response effort?" Bush asked at a briefing last weekend.

What this might mean for the military, however, is a task that the president has left to Congress. Sen. John Warner (R) of Virginia, chair of the Armed Services Committee, has said that Congress needs to consider amending Posse Comitatus - the Reconstruction-era law that prohibits federal troops from taking part in law-enforcement operations.

The law does not affect National Guard troops, because they are called up by their governors and therefore under local control. But with so many Guard soldiers in Iraq, and with the scope of the damage in the Gulf Coast region, other lawmakers agree that Congress must consider expanding the authority of active-duty forces after a catastrophic disaster.

"[Katrina] does represent a significant change, and I think we'll have to explore carefully whether the only option we have to increase the effectiveness of response ... is to break the normal line that keeps the military out of certain civilian activities," Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said at a Monitor breakfast this week.

It is a move that military leaders have resisted in the past. The issue is not so much Posse Comitatus itself, which legal experts say has many loopholes, but what Posse Comitatus represents. It is part of a doctrine that sees the American military primarily as a war-fighting force. It shields the armed forces from the burden of additional domestic duties - and the possibility of being involved in an incident like Kent State, where National Guard soldiers killed four antiwar protesters in 1970.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Gen. Thomas White told Congress that Posse Comitatus "is fine the way it sits."

Today, any move to amend Posse Comitatus, say military analysts, would represent not only a move in the wrong direction, but also a misapprehension of the situation.

For one, it is unnecessary, they say. The active-duty military can already support disaster relief in a variety of ways that are in accord with Posse Comitatus - providing logistics and humanitarian aid, for example, as has happened in the Gulf Coast region. For law enforcement, emergency officials have the National Guard - and if one state's Guard is depleted by overseas deployments, it can ask for help from other states through their network of Emergency Management Assistance Compacts.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested as much in a Pentagon briefing this week, noting that some 300,000 Guard members were available across the country even at the peak of the Katrina deployment. "And of course the Guard, as opposed to the active force, tends to have a higher proportion of people who do things that are appropriate in a domestic setting," he added.

Moreover, if a disaster is deemed too great even for the National Guard, the president has the authority to federalize the response, which would bring in active-duty troops as law enforcement - something that occurred in 1992 during the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

But federalizing disaster response can be a tricky prospect, fraught with tensions between Washington and state officials. Those tensions were apparent Tuesday, when Michael Brown, former Federal Emergency Management Agency director, blamed local officials for the ineffectual response to Katrina.

With no concrete plans in place, Secretary Rumsfeld said Tuesday that it is too early to pass judgment on the president's comments. But some observers wonder whether the current push to increase military involvement is simply a way for the administration to avoid the tough choices.

The military can help with logistics and planning and response, but "the important decisions that need to be made are political," says retired Col. Randall Larsen, founder of the Institute for Homeland Security. "It's not a four-star general who should be making them."

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In Congress, critical moment for moderates

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p02s02-uspo.html

Highly partisan mood creates opportunity for centrists to take lead in Katrina oversight.

By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON - A catastrophic hurricane season is driving wedges deep into both parties on issues ranging from how to pay for the Gulf Coast cleanup to oversight hearings by a GOP-controlled Congress.

But it's also creating a historic opportunity for the vanishing breed of centrists on Capitol Hill, who find themselves in key positions to bridge such gaps between and within parties over what to do next.

In a highly polarized House and Senate, moderates with a record of cooperation with the other side of the aisle are leading probes into government's response to hurricane Katrina. Informally, they're also working to broker bipartisan solutions for how to pay cleanup costs expected to exceed $200 billion.

"My committee is going to ask the hard questions of government at all levels. Our purpose is not to fix blame, but to fix problems," says Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which began its inquiry into the "long predicted" natural disaster Sept. 14.

Rep. Tom Davis (R) of Virginia, another moderate Republican with a record of working with Democrats, is chairing a similar committee in the House. His panel expects to finish by mid-February.

Formally, these are separate investigations. Party leaders in the House and Senate couldn't agree on terms for a bipartisan, bicameral panel, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California called on her caucus to boycott the House panel.

But below the radar, moderate Sens. Collins and Joseph Lieberman, of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs panel, are working with Davis to develop witness lists and lines of questioning. "We have a great relationship with him and are going to coordinate efforts," Collins said at a Monitor breakfast this week.

At the same time, moderates are cashing in on their credibility as centrists to reach out to House Democrats. After Rep. Pelosi declined to appoint members to fill the nine Democratic seats on the 20-seat panel, charging that the investigation was a "sham," chairman Davis invited three Democrats from the Gulf region to participate on their own. In a gesture of good will, Davis asked Rep. Gene Taylor (D) of Mississippi, who lost his home in hurricane Katrina, to open questioning in the panel's first oversight hearing on Sept. 22.

"We want both Republicans and Democrats at the table to do this job right," said Davis. "The more voices asking tough questions the better." Democratic Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson of Louisiana also broke a party boycott to participate on the new panel.

In a sharp contrast to the bipartisan response after the 9/11 attacks, lawmakers largely fell back into partisan positions after hurricane Katrina. With little consultation with Democrats, Republican leaders proposed a bipartisan probe composed of senators and House members. Democrats turned them down, calling instead for an independent investigation along the lines of the 9/11 commission.

After the 9/11 attacks, Democratic leader Pelosi had been the first to propose an independent investigation, but the idea didn't take hold until proposed a year later by then-Rep. Tim Roemer (D) of Indiana, a moderate who became a 9/11 commissioner.

While the moderate ranks in both parties have thinned in recent election cycles, the ones remaining are playing a higher-profile role as dealmakers or dealbreakers in the Bush years.
With Katrina, that role is surfacing again. "The moderate instinct is that the country is in crisis, and we have to find some degree of reconciliation and unity in the interests of the nation," says Marshall Wittman, a former conservative activist, now with the Democratic Leadership Council.

"Because of the relatively narrow margins that divide the parties, moderates can still broker deals that have a great moderating influence on issues from tax cuts to judicial fights," he adds.

In May, Senate moderates negotiated a deal across party lines to block a showdown over the filibuster of judicial nominations. On the eve of a vote dubbed the "nuclear option," seven Democrats and seven Republican senators, including Collins and Lieberman, announced that they would oppose either a filibuster of a judicial nominee or a rule change to outlaw such filibusters unless in "extraordinary circumstances." That deal by the so-called Gang of 14 put the confirmation process back on track.

Not quite a shadow Judiciary Committee, the 14 were a point of reference throughout the confirmation hearings of John Roberts to be chief justice of the Supreme Court. As long as their agreement held, there could be no filibuster of his nomination, expected to be confirmed by a floor vote in the Senate Thursday.

With Katrina cleanup costs expected to spike federal budget deficits, moderates are also gearing up for a role in the coming budget debates. Early in the Bush administration, moderates made a mark by calling for limits to Bush's tax cuts.

In response, conservative antitax activist Grover Norquist dubbed the moderates Republicans in Name Only: RINOS. The label stuck, and conservative commentators often denounce these moderates for disloyalty.

In recent days, moderates are challenging the Bush White House and GOP leaders to find offsets for relief spending and to build in better safeguards against fraud and abuse.

While the fiscal year ends Friday, most of the big spending and tax decisions are still pending.
After a scuffle with House Republican leaders last week over the need to find offsets for Katrina spending, House conservatives backed off what appeared to be a break with their own leadership.

"As they say in NASCAR, 'Rubbin' is racin'.' You can still get around the race- track even if you bang fenders with your teammates," says Rep. Mike Pence (R) of Indiana, the head of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus. But the rift leaves room for moderates to broker a deal in the interest of fiscal restraint - the theme of this week's meeting of the bipartisan Centrist Coalition in the Senate.

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Life beyond Earth? Potential habitats in the solar system keep popping up.

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p02s01-stss.html

'Munchkin' moon of Saturn is the latest spot that has researchers buzzing.

By Peter N. Spotts Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

It's an ice-encrusted munchkin of a moon, only 314 miles in diameter. Its face is so smooth and nearly crater-free that it probably got a facelift. It's a satellite of Saturn, called Enceladus, and the latest hot spot in the quest to answer one of astronomy's most intriguing questions: Is there life in the solar system beyond Earth?

Where once scientists set their sights on Mars as the most likely place to hunt for such evidence, their list of potential habitats now includes at least five others: three moons of Jupiter and now Saturn's Titan and Enceladus.

This expanding list is due, in part, to more data coming from spacecraft scouting Earth's extended neighborhood. It also stems from a better understanding of how life can exist in extreme environments.

To be sure, any inhabitants scientists find would most likely be microbes, not little green men. And the case for such biological havens is far from ironclad.

"There's always a big caveat," says David Grinspoon, a planetary geologist at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colo. "We're profoundly ignorant about what makes a good habitat, since we only know of one place for life" - Earth.

Still, researchers have learned a great deal about the weird environments harboring life on Earth. Thus, "when we explore in depth with an orbiter and really hang out and get to know the place, we find pockets in the system that might be promising for life," Dr. Grinspoon adds. "The Saturn system is turning out to be surprisingly fecund."

The list of potential habitats began to expand with the Galileo mission to Jupiter in the 1990s. That mission added three Jovian moons to the list: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Now, the US-European Cassini mission to Saturn has added the moons Titan and Enceladus.

For astrobiologists, the Cassini mission's biggest surprise yet is Enceladus. Researchers had already inferred from Voyager 2's flyby in 1981 that its smooth surface meant it had gotten a facelift, perhaps 100 million years ago. Fresh material from beneath its icy crust welled up and spread across the moon. But that in turn implied heat to generate slush or liquid water - and no one could figure out its source.

Fast forward to 2005, when Cassini stunned researchers with infrared images of a hot spot on the surface at the moon's south pole. Hot, in this case, is still frigid: minus 183 degrees Celsius (minus 297 degrees F.). But that's 20 degrees warmer than the surrounding area. The polar area also is scarred with cracks that release water vapor and tiny ice crystals. Researchers estimate that some of the formations are only 10 to 1,000 years old. Changes on the surface of the Jovian moons, by contrast, look far older, perhaps 100 million years or more.

And Cassini scientists have uncovered simple organic molecules in the cracks of Enceladus. To this day, the heat source remains an enigma, says John Spencer, an SwRI scientist whom colleagues credit with discovering the hot spot. What's generating the heat? "That's what we're all scratching our heads over," he replies.

No matter. Enceladus apparently has the fundamental chemical recipe for life, says University of Arizona planetary scientist Robert Brown, who heads the team using Cassini's mapping spectrometer. The moon has simple organic molecules, such as methane, ethane, and ethylene.
Scientists see tantalizing hints of nitrogen. It hosts liquid water below the surface.

"Add a pinch of phosphorous," Dr. Brown says, and you have all you need to make DNA - or perhaps some other DNA-like molecule capable of carrying information. At Enceladus, this stew would have had plenty of time to simmer for 4.5 billion years and "form some of the most basic building blocks of life," he adds.

It's not clear that's happened at Enceladus, he says. "But if we're going to run all over the solar system looking at places where those constituents have been for the past 4.5 billion years and where the cocktail might have cooked into something interesting, then Enceladus has to be part of that mix."

As does Titan, adds Grinspoon. Until the Cassini mission and the successful touchdown of the European-built Huygens probe, many researchers held that the hydrocarbon-rich moon was a chilled look-alike for Earth before life emerged. The quest was for clues to the origins of life, not a search for life itself.

That view is changing, at least for Grinspoon. "What do you need for life? You need an energy source, liquid reservoirs, and you need some basis for complex chemistry," he says. "Does Titan have what it takes? The answer is: yes."

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Storms revive energy debate

from the September 29, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0929/p01s01-uspo.html

US officials consider new as well as old ideas in the wake of hurricanes and rising fuel costs.

By Brad Knickerbocker Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

It's been just seven weeks since President Bush finally was able to sign a comprehensive energy bill. It had taken five years and a lot of compromising. But in the wake of back-to-back hurricanes that battered the Gulf Coast, damaged oil refineries, and boosted already-high gas prices, lawmakers and special interests are scrambling to amend - if not rewrite - US energy policy.

Some proposals have been dusted off in the wake of Katrina and Rita. But new or old, they all have an added urgency to them. Among them: lifting the ban on oil and gas exploration and development on the Outer Continental Shelf, opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, toughening auto mileage standards, expediting permits for new refineries by loosening air quality regulations, and giving the federal government the final word on where refineries and crude-oil pipelines should go.

Is the political landscape changing?

Four years ago, as head of the White House task force on energy, Vice President Dick Cheney dismissed conservation as "a sign of personal virtue ... not a basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy."

This week, Mr. Bush urged Americans to conserve fuel supplies, saying Uncle Sam should set an example. "We can encourage employees to carpool or use mass transit," he said. "There's ways for the federal government to lead when it comes to conservation."

Still, the former Texas oilman seems a long way from former President Jimmy Carter, who, during the 1970s oil crisis, put solar collectors on the White House roof and wore sweaters when it got cold.

Bush's main interest isin increasing supply, not in curbing demand. That is also true of most of the bills moving through the Republican-dominated Congress. "If there is a silver lining in this, it is that it may finally bring home to the American people how fragile our energy sector is and our energy infrastructure is," Rep. Joe Barton (R) of Texas, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on proposing his bill.

Among other things, Mr. Barton's proposal - the "Gasoline for America's Security Act of 2005" - would ease the restrictions on where refineries and oil pipelines may be built, designate certain closed military bases as refinery sites, and change certain requirements under the Clean Air Act applying to refineries and power plants when older facilities are upgraded.

No new US oil refineries have been built since 1976, and the idea here is to increase domestic refinery output so that capacity, now at 17 million barrels per day, more nearly matches average demand, which is 21 million barrels per day. Another oil state lawmaker, Sen. James Inhofe (R) of Oklahom., who chairs the Committee on Environment and Public Works, this week put forth a similar bill in the Senate.

"Twenty-five percent of our oil production is in the Gulf of Mexico," Bartonsaid when introducing that bill. "It doesn't have to be that way. We could be drilling in Alaska right now. We could be drilling off the coasts of several other states."

Industry sources laud the Barton bill as "far-reaching," according to a statement byBob Slaughter, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.
Others are far more wary.

"What's really reprehensible is that friends of the oil industry in Congress are using ... a disaster, which essentially pointed up our shortcomings in protecting public health and safety, to repeal environmental rules that are designed to protect public health and safety," says Dave Hamilton, director of the Sierra Club's global warming and energy program.

"The current lack of oil refinery capacity is largely the result of a conscious decision by the oil industry in the 1990s to limit supply to increase profitability," says Mr. Hamilton. "In the 1990s, approximately 50 refineries were closed, and since 1995, over 20 refineries have been shut down."

"We too are very, very concerned about the impact of high gasoline prices on people," agrees Kevin Curtis, vice-president of the National Environmental Trust. "There are some steps that can and should be taken.... But waiving the Clean Air Act is not one of them. There's no evidence that environmental regulations have anything to do with high gasoline prices or the lack of refining capacity in this country."

Related to this are long-standing concerns about "environmental justice" - the disproportionate health effects refineries and other petrochemical plants often have on the poor and minorities.
"In the heavily populated Los Angeles air basin, over 71 percent of African-Americans and 50 percent of Latinos live in areas with the most polluted air, compared to 34 percent of whites," Rep. Hilda Solis of Calif., senior Democrat on the House subcommittee dealing with environment and hazardous materials, said in an opening statement on the markup of the Barton bill Wednesday.

Others point to what they see as the failings of the recently passed $11.5 billion, 10-year energy bill, made worse by problems caused by the hurricanes. They see the current situation as an opportunity to rectify that.

"The Energy Policy Act of 2005 did nothing to reduce our dependency on foreign oil or relieve the burden of consumers at the pump," Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Mass, said at a press conference earlier this week.

Markey is part of a bipartisan group of House members that recently introduced legislation raising vehicle fuel-efficiency standards from 25 miles per gallon to 33 miles per gallon over the next 10 years.

Pointing out that the measure could be saving 2.6 million barrels of oil a day by 2025, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R) of New York said, "This bill, more so than any provision in the recently-enacted energy bill, will lessen that dependence."

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'This Old Sustainable House'

Posted September 28, 2005 - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0928/p25s01-stct.html

By Jim Regan csmonitor.com

Wouldn't it be nice to have your own little cabin on a lake, away from man-made noises, powered by wind and sun, and heated by the earth itself? And wouldn't it be nice to know that the construction of that home had done minimal damage to the surrounding environment? The Tofte Project achieved all these goals - and chronicles the process in a website with a unique look and plenty of inspiration for people trying to reduce their own environmental footprint. Welcome to "This Old Sustainable House."

Named after a 50-year-old cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior, the Tofte (rhymes with "lofty") Project follows the redesign and reconstruction of a summer residence as it is turned into a year-round private home - all the while taking the principles of sustainable architecture from theory to practice. The Web side of the enterprise records and illuminates the physical project in more than 50 short Flash-animated presentations, and covers subjects that range from the history of the location, to aspects of sustainable design and specifics about the cabin's construction, to such details as the five separate ecosystems that surround the building. Before getting into the particulars though, the Project offers a pair of introductions - the first being a few lines of text (on a home page which makes an immediate visual impact through the designer's use of muted colors and a natural media look), and the second in the form of a Flash-based prologue (which almost imperceptibly morphs a photograph of the old cabin into the new one, as the voice of the owner, Medora Woods, welcomes visitors).

After the introductions are complete, the visitor is presented with several alternatives for exploring the site - and the (web)site - and the primary option might best be described as 'poking around.' (A common enough pastime for someone when alone in someone else's home.) In a system that is anything but linear, guests are offered a partial selection from the available catalog of Flash presentations through a scattering of thumbnail images - with such titles as, "We Are Not Alone," "Who Owns The Land," and "Head Over Heart" serving to pique the visitor's curiosity.

When selected, each image launches an embedded animation, opening with a - usually sobering - environmental statistic (e.g., the proportion of fish in the Great Lakes that are native species has dropped from 82 percent in 1900 to 0.2 percent in 1996) , and proceeding to slide shows or interactive maps. Narrations by one or more of the people involved in the project explore assorted aspects of the undertaking - such as the fact that between geothermal heat, and wind and solar power, the cabin actually sells electricity back to the local utility company during periods of low consumption. After each episode is finished, a new option takes its place among the thumbnails, and the just-viewed chapter is added to a retraceable series of icons at the bottom of the page.

(Individual presentations also commonly conclude with direct links to related episodes, so viewers can choose to follow paths recommended by the webmaster.)

If you'd prefer a more predictable method of exploration - or are returning in search of a specific installment - a menu in the upper left corner of the screen holds a categorized index (which marks the presentations you've already seen, in case you lose track). The menu also offers introductions to the voices heard on the website, a listing of architectural awards, and dozens of offsite resources for those interested in trying their own hand at sustainable architecture. Finally, at the bottom right of the browser window, is a trio of interactive maps where visitors can access subsets of the website's presentations - collected under the themes of "Land," "Site," and "Cabin."

The substance of the site is as intriguing as its presentation - concentrating as much on the intangibles of the undertaking as on the proverbial 'bricks and mortar' - but it's the design which draws the visitor in. The Tofte Project displays both originality and good looks, and then adds to those positive first impressions with easily accessible content and such touches as text cues that identify each narrator during the Flash presentations. Even if you have no interest in sustainable architecture, the website is worth a quick visit for the simple originality and appeal of its execution. And if that visit also raises your environmental consciousness by a notch or two, so much the better.

The Tofte Project can be found at http://www.tofteproject.org/.

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Hurricane Katrina changes the pace and face of giving

from the September 21, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0921/p13s02-lire.html

By Marilyn Gardner Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Donna Fisher-Lewis has met many generous people during her years of working for charities. But she was still surprised when a construction worker stopped her on the street recently and handed her a $25 money order to help with relief efforts for hurricane Katrina.

"He was just a regular guy," says Ms. Fisher-Lewis, chief development officer for Associated Black Charities in Baltimore.

That "regular guy" is one of many new donors contributing to organizations like hers these days. "The hurricane has brought philanthropy up to a different level for African-Americans," Fisher-Lewis says. "It was something they could really connect with. They had family, they had friends. Everybody knew somebody."

Other charities are also observing changes in patterns of giving. They see a broader spectrum of donors digging into their pockets, among them minorities and young people. They note that the Internet is making it easier to give. And they see more donors wanting to play active, roll-up-your-sleeves roles in helping.

"People want to participate in a charity walk or hand out sandwiches at a shelter," says Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. "They want to take their involvement way beyond just writing a check."

It all adds up to an outpouring of caring and generosity that has exceeded $1 billion. Money for Katrina is coming in at a faster pace than it did after 9/11 and the December tsunami, although it has not yet reached the totals collected for those disasters.

About 70 percent of Americans contribute to charities, giving a total of 2 percent of their income, on average. Older people tend to give more than younger people, and women more than men. "Single women are more likely to be donors and give higher amounts than single men" with comparable education and income levels, says Patrick Rooney, research director at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

For some donors of modest means, the magnitude of the need wrought by hurricane Katrina has brought a new realization. "They understand that it's OK to give small gifts," Fisher-Lewis says. "Every gift matters. Every dime they can give is important."

At the same time, the Internet is increasing the size of contributions. At the Salvation Army, the average gift online for hurricane relief is $185, far larger than donations that come by mail. "We get hundreds and hundreds of $20 checks and $50 checks in the mail," says Major George Hood, national community relations secretary of the Salvation Army.

About half of the donations for Katrina now come in online. "Money is getting quickly to the charities that need it," says Sandra Miniutti, spokeswoman for CharityNavigator.org, an independent charity evaluator.

Yet online giving has a downside as well. The FBI reports 4,000 bogus websites for Katrina funds, Ms. Miniutti says. That increases the probability that people will be scammed. Some scammers were registering charitable-sounding websites with "Katrina" in the title before the storm hit.

Among baby boomers and those in generations after them, philanthropic leaders see a growing desire to contribute time as well as money.

"Charities are seeing a lot of interest from young people," Ms. Palmer says. She notes that many high schools require students to perform community service. After graduation, they still want to find some way to be involved, to keep giving.

"It's amazing what's been happening," says Jennifer Hecker, organizing director for the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness. "I see students today very motivated by community service. Whether it's organizing a campus fundraiser for the hurricane or jumping in their cars and driving down to the Gulf region, they just want to make a difference."

The hurricane struck at a time of year when the budgets of relief groups are often strained.
"Charities' cash flow dips low about now," says Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy at www.charitywatch.org. Most charities take in half of their annual contributions between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

Charitable groups say it is too early to tell whether the outpouring of aid for Katrina will reduce contributions during the holiday season. Even now, some are emphasizing the importance of remembering those close to home who are in need.

"The message we're trying to get out to our supporters here is, 'Yes, we're all horrified by Katrina, but we must also look locally,' " says Leslie White, development director of Bread for the City in Washington, D.C.

Already the number of local people needing assistance is growing. As churches in Washington resettle hurricane evacuees in the area, they are calling Ms. White. "They say, 'We know you have a clothing room. Can we come over? Can you give them a bag of groceries?' "

Those requests will be repeated around the country. Evacuees are scattered across 33 states, says Major Hood. "Survivors of this hurricane will be walking into Salvation Army facilities all across America. The demand is going to be intense."

Charitable groups also hope that donors will continue giving to hurricane relief funds. "The worry is that once all the exciting pictures on CNN of devastation and damage go off the air, people will forget about Katrina," Mr. Borochoff says.

Despite high gasoline prices and heating bills that will leave people with less disposable income to contribute to charity, Hood remains optimistic.

"We've felt very positive over the last few years at the consistent support we've received from the American public," he says. "On the heels of four hurricanes last year, Americans gave us more money during the Christmas red-kettle program than they've ever given us in history.
Then immediately after that the tsunami hit, and once again they gave. Now here we are with Katrina, and the donations are exceeding the level of donations we received following 9/11. This comes at a time when people are spending $45, $50 to fill up their gas tanks."

Borochoff also sees a potential silver lining. "When a big disaster happens, it heightens the philanthropic impulse," he says. "It brings Americans together, and they're likely to do more."

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