Press Review
France's endangered lighthouses
France's lighthouses — those idyllic but lately obsolete pieces of history — are falling to ruin, says an article in the International Herald Tribune. For many, the lighthouses represent a key part of what the French call patrimony, or the spirit of their history. But right now, when one is replaced or refurbished, it's the economic and not the aesthetic or cultural values that are emphasized. And it's tearing some French lighthouse enthusiasts apart.
Sex isn't a business expense?
Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest, has sent a memo to its executive reminding them that some, ahem, executive priveleges — mainly writing off brothel visits and adult channels in hotels as business expenses — would no longer be allowed. The bank has been hit hard by the credit crunch and the sub-prime mortgage debacle. It seems that desperate times call for desperate measures.
Paris's soccer woes
Paris's only top-flight soccer team — Paris Saint Germain — is at risk of getting dropped from the country's top league, a fall which would leave Paris as the only major European capital without a top team. Despite its string of soccer successes in the 1990s and France's good showings at recent world cups, Paris has been licking its sporting wounds lately. It recently lost the 2012 Olympics to London and the Tour de France has been plague by a doping scandal. The fans, for one, aren't happy, reports Germany's Der Spiegel. Parisian soccer hooligans have a reputation as one of the most violent in Europe. They've recently gone on "strike", arriving 15 minutes late for one game. They also set their seats on fire after another recent loss.
Selling German pizza to Italians
It takes a certain sort of business savvy to sell German pizza to Italians. That's the same sort of business savvy that August Oetker used to start a company selling single-serving baking powder packets in 1891 — and create a business that today, although it's still family-owned, employs 22,000 people and has operations all over the world. Deutsche Welle profiles the Dr. Oetker company — which has more than just food operations — and delves into the question of what enables a company to do this well for this long.
Orchestras quieted by EU sound law
What do musicians do when the sound of their instruments becomes a hazard to their health? That's the question raised in an article in the International Herald Tribune about an European Union law requiring hearing protection for workers doing their jobs around a certain level of noise — a law that's infringing on the ability of orchestras around Europe to play certain pieces, as well as infringing on the conductor's job by requiring that he or she keep the noise down to a certain level. The law has pushed some orchestra members to wear specially-designed ear plugs or put up barriers to carry the sound over their fellow members to the audience — methods some musicians equate to asking race car drivers to drive blind.
Cologne's gym for Muslim women
Hayat gym in Cologne, Germany — named after the word for "life" in Turkish — has rejected the cult of body worship practiced at most gyms. Although being Muslim is not a specific requirement, most of Hayat's clients — all of whom are women — worship Allah instead. Hayat was designed to be a place where women can work out in modest clothes; it caters to Cologne's huge population of Muslim women, many of whom choose not to go to other gyms because they get funny looks for wearing head scarves and non-revealing clothes, even in all-women gyms. And it's an idea that's already started to create imitators all around Europe. With the only other modest womens' gym in Germany located in Hamburg, says Germany's Deutsche Welle, many urban investors are salivating at the chance to exploit a niche market.
Danish PM's Facebook jogging
Europe's most popular Facebook citizen, and tenth most popular worldwide, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen went on a jog with 100 of his closest Facebook friends over the weekend. Rasmussen, who sees Facebook as a way of getting in touch with the younger generation and insists on answering all his messages personally, initiated the jog as a celebration of the tenth anniversary of his leadership of the Danish liberal party.
Athletic Bilbao: Can a purely Basque team succeed?
In an era when every European team has players from across the continent and across the globe — and PR machines as global as their roster — one team remains truly homegrown: Athletic Bilbao, the only club still made up of only local players, or players with Basque blood. The club is fiercely old-school, rejecting the corporate behemoth that modern pro soccer has become. The team still wears jerseys with no advertising, and was the last to give in to advertising in its stadium. But, asks an article in Germany's Der Spiegel, how long can it last?
Spain's women-dominated cabinet
Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has named his cabinet and, for the first time in Spanish history, it contains more women than men, nine to eight. This includes a very pregnant Carme Chacon, 37, as defense minister, a political appointee who has never commented publicly on defense issues.
Did European protests lose pro-democracy Chinese?
Despite a state-run press, the Chinese — and their reactions to the anti-Beijing protesters in London and Paris this weekend — are not stupid, writes a blogger on the Economist's site. Indeed, middle-class Chinese tend to see local issues of state oppression or corruption through the lens of the Western media, and they tend to believe the foreign press. But, he argues, when issues become international and seem to reflect China's role in the world, even pro-Democracy Chinese citizens get a nationalist gag reflect and turn against the views. Coming from that angle — and drawing on the blogger's years of experience working in China — he might be right: European anti-Beijing protesters may just be hurting the cause of democracy in China.
Can 'Veltrusconi' save Italy?
Italy's huge political and economic problems — trash piling up on the streets of Naples, questionable safety of Italian mozzarella, a mounting financial crisis, slow growth — can best be solved by its two leading (and ideologically opposed) candidates, Walter Veltroni and Silvio Berlusconi, working together through a joint political coalition, argues an article in Newsweek. Because the political and social pain Italy needs to endure would be too great for a single party to shoulder, the only way to save the G8's slowest member is an American-style coalition of both parties. But such a coalition would require a unity Italy's fractious government hasn't seen in a long, long time.
German restaurant redefines fast food
Machines never get tired or fussy. And you don't have to tip them. That's the idea behind a new German restaurant where, instead of waiters, the food is delivered on tracks similar to a roller coaster's, but smaller. Customers order their food via computer while they sit, and it comes whizzing to their table from the kitchen, reports the BBC. Diners' reactions have been generally good, although the young seem to like it more than the old, some of which have a hard time with the ordering mechanism.
What determines a food's ethnicity?
The best carbonara chef in Italy is a Tunisian, Nabil Hadj Hassen. Hassen was awarded the title by Italy's most prominent food critic. So if Italy's best chef isn't Italian, does he still make Italian food? That's the question asked by an article in the International Herald Tribune — a question that points to a larger existential debate going on within the Italian culinary community. Is it the person who makes the food or the country the food comes from that determines where it fits? The ingredients or methods of preparation? Especially with Italians ceding steamy, tiring kitchen jobs to new immigrants in ever-higher numbers, the nation is confronting a culinary identity crisis — and it's trying to hold onto its sacred food traditions. Traditions that are as much sustaining national pride as about sustaining bodies.
Business schools bloom in Europe
In the eyes of American students, Europe is getting business savvy. With the new dynamism of European economies, recent improvements in academic rigor and an increasing demand for employees with international experience, the number of Americans attending European business schools is skyrocketing, says an article in BusinessWeek. Students are also benefiting from the programs' shortness and relatively cheap price tag, along with the diversity European schools offer. More than two-thirds of Europe's more than 300 business management programs have started since 2005.
Turning stolen art into cash
So you've stolen a priceless work of art. Now how do you make it pay? An article in the German Times explains how thieves make their loot turn green. And the answer is surprising. Of course there's no way to sell famous paintings to big art houses. Everyone knows they're stolen. But, says the Times, the idea of the wealthy private collector who will do whatever it takes to get his or her hands on greatness is also largely wrong. The way most thieves make their money is through "art-napping," or discreetly offering insurance companies the chance to buy back the stolen art work at about a tenth of the price it would cost to pay the insurance premiums to the museums who have lost the works.
France's interest-free art loans
France has announced a plan to provide up to 10,000 euros worth of interest-free loans to citizens buying art. Banks who offer the loans will be compensated with tax breaks, reports the BBC. The plan comes in response to France's ever-dropping share of the world art market; the country recently fell to fourth in the world behind China, the US, and Britain in world art sales.
Bush(s)' dual legacy in Europe
Bush Sr. knew Europe and dealt with it skillfully; Bush Jr. hasn't, writes journalist and historian Timothy Garton Ash in an opinion piece for the UK's the Guardian. While the NATO summit in Bucharest rages on, Garton Ash explores what he believes will be the European legacy of two very different American presidents from the same bloodline. And for Bush Jr. — and in his parlance — it ain't good.
Dutch get in on the mozza market
Windmills. Wooden shoes. Tulips. Mozzarella? With sales of mozzarella from Italy's southern Campania region spiraling downward due to the fear of dioxide contamination from the runoff of Napoli's trash crisis, Dutch cheese makers are looking to fill the hole in the mozza market. Dutch farmers have started importing water buffalo — whose rich and creamy milk is used to make the cheese — from Italy, reports Radio Netherlands, in order to produce the cheese. Lucky for the Dutch, the animals don't seem to mind the cold, rainy weather.
Bratislava's blank front pages
It is not uncommon for some European newspapers to carry next to no real news on their front pages, but it is unusual for them to carry the same headline, accompanied by the same text and graphics. This is what Slovak readers awoke to Thursday as the country's six leading newspapers left their front pages empty except for a black box denouncing the 'seven sins' of a controversial new press law. The legislation would require all papers to publish replies from politicians and institutions even if the article is true.
Spanish property market in freefall
The Spanish property market, one of Europe's most buoyant over the last decade, is suffering a meltdown says an article in the Independent, citing newly released government statistics showing a 27% fall in the buying and selling of homes in January compared to the same month last year.
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