New Turn Magazine November 2011 by Babatunde Williams

THE UK IN LIMBO

A COMMENT

by Jason Cowley

newturn

www.newturn.org.uk FIRST EDITION November 2011

THE STUDENT MAGAZINE FOR POLITICS, ECONOMICS AND CULTURE

“THE PUPPET ASSAD“ (WE TALKED TO HIS COUSIN)

Scottish

After the bloody

end of the

Nationalism:

TIGERS

Is Hip Hop Hollywood

in Sri Lanka

MYTHS

On location REALLY

dead?

and its

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CONTENTS

newturn First Edition November 2011

politics

08 28

“The Puppet Assad”

An exclusive Interview with Baschar’s cousin

economics

Banking, the African Way

Mobile banking has taken Kenya by storm

13 31 The UK in Limbo

A comment by JASON COWLEY

Regulating the de facto Regulators

Do rating agencies have too much power?

16 34

The End of the Tigers, the Beginning of...? A journey through Sri Lanka

Spaceonomics

The private sector race to the stars

21 36 Somalia’s silent suffering

Terror, famine and African interventionism

The Other Side of the Deficit The history of public debt

24 40

The US’s Cup of Tea

Is the Tea Party’s voice getting too loud?

Who‘s Who

An Introduction to the Team

Letter from the Editor

A look back on Bustling 2011

Ad Absurdum

A portrait of Italy‘s most paradoxical party

The Decks

Is Hip Hop dead?

culture

An Insight into Scottish Nationalism

Holllywood’s Myths and History’s Misapprehensions

A Remnant of an Empty Invasion Photography by IZABELLA DEMAVLYS

Bride Price

How much are you worth girl?

The Greek New Weird Wave

The momentary home of original cinema

Powerless in Art

Is AI WEIWEI’s art politically impotent?

WHO´S WHO

newturn magazine est.2011

David Vajda EDITOR IN CHIEF

David developed his editorial skills at an internship at Cicero, a renowned German political monthly, which also published his articles and interviews in their online magazine. He has been the editor and initiator of Perplex, a poetry magazine based in Munich. David is currently a third year Philosophy student at UCL.

Matthew Bremner DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITOR CULTURE

Matthew is at present a regular contributor to the New Wolf, an independent magazine based in London. He also has his own art agency, Blue Period LTD , an endeavour which focuses on the development of emerging artists from the UK and abroad. He is currently studying Anthropology and Archaeology at UCL.

Nicolas Kostov EDITOR POLITICS

nicolas.kostov@newturn.org.uk

Nicolas worked as a news reporter for the Nation Media Group in Kampala, where he wrote on various topics including parliamentary politics, sex scandals and eating offals. He is currently in the fourth year of a European Social and Political Studies Bachelor at UCL.

Adam Coleman EDITOR ECONOMICS

Adam interned at the Scottish parliament in 2010. He is currently in the second year of a Economics and Politics Bachelor at LSE.

david.vajda@newturn.org.uk

matthew.bremner@newturn.org.uk

adam.coleman@newturn.org.uk

Virginia Wuttke GRAPHIC DESIGN

John McLoughlin ILLUSTRATOR

Lewis Wedgwood PICTURE EDITOR

GET INVOLVED est. 2008 The young people‘s political organisation

Babatunde Williams CHAIRMAN

babs.williams@newturn.org.uk

Marley Miller VICE CHAIRMAN

marley.miller@newturn.org.uk

NEWTURN MAGAZINE IS RECRUITING If you like what you’ve read and would like to get involved, please get in touch. We are looking for experienced editors and writers to join our team. Additionally we are in urgent need of a graphic designer, a treasurer and a secretary. If you are interested in any of the above positions, please send us a short bio focusing on previous experience and attach some work samples if available. If you want to run for editor or want to write for us please also suggest a topic for the next issue. Contact: matthew.bremner@newturn.org.uk

4 newturn.org.uk

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Readers,

The bustling

first half of 2011 has transported Churchill’s Balkan avowal into a different sphere: the world produced more history than the media has been able to consume. Early on, we witnessed the freedom shouts of young Arabs which, temporarily muted by a Japanese tsunami, were soon reactivated by Gaddafi’s swift and belligerent entry into the political fold; Fukushima’s poisonous radiation lost its relevance. Next, some insignificant wedding regrettably takes hold of our inattention, followed by the killing of Osama Bin Laden and a manifold of further events: the arrest of Ratko Mladić, a new South Sudanese state, an atrocious Somalian famine, a Goodbye to Murdoch’s empire, the ineffability of Utoya and senseless rioting in this very city. All whilst an exhausted Obama slowly but surely had to sell his soul to self-serving Republican stolidity and the rating agencies played brutal financial Gods. Important events have amounted to what they are in this letter: mere bullet points on a packed itinerary. Over the past five months, the BBC’s attention span has resembled that of an excited child in a toy store. In turbulent days such as these, independent journalism is needed to keep a focus on the blur left behind by the ever adjusting lens of mass media. Newturn magazine will not echo the headlines of established news outlets, but will take a nuanced perspective on what has been left out or forgotten. Newturn magazine will not merely be informative, but analytical, both in reminiscence and in foresight. We have gathered the best writers and thinkers from London’s top five universities and added some students from abroad. Moreover, we have won Jason Cowley, the editor in chief of the NewStatesman, as our first guest writer for the politics section and the renowned photographer Isabella Demavlys, who has afforded us with a unique microinsight into Afghan history. The cover story you will have seen. Furthermore, we have discovered John McLoughlin, an illustrator to be reckoned with, and the artist behind the cover page and the distinctive caricatures. Newturn is here to prove that student journalism does not have to be either banally self-referential, confined to one department or a constant onanism on the craziness of student life. I am proud to present you with the first issue of newturn and what it has consumed of history’s surplus over the past year. I assure you, it has been satisfying.

David Vajda EDITOR IN CHIEF

5 newturn November 2011

r u o y r o f p u Sign

b o j r e m m u

e m i t e f i of a l

www.jobsforthegames.co.uk

POLI TICS

The US‘s Cup of Tea

Is the voice of the Tea Party getting too loud?

EXCLUSIVE

Syria

“The Puppet Assad” As Syria’s political situation becomes ever more precarious, what is needed to pull it back from the brink? An exclusive interview with Ribal Al-Assad, the cousin of Bashar Al-Assad, about the Syrian opposition, the possibility of a regional war and the mysterious presidency of Bashar.

After the War ‘73, my father visited Egypt’s President Sadat who told him the Americans were offering to mediate between Israel, Egypt and Syria. The Israelis offered to give back Sinai and the Golan Heights in exchange for peace and economic support by the US. Hafez, the President of Syria at the time, refused and told them: “What was taken by force could only be reclaimed by force”. My father then realised that there wasn’t much care about returning the Golan Heights or moving towards democracy. So my father and my uncle started disagreeing inside the party.

INTERVIEW BY JONATAN BRZEZINSKI

My father headed the higher court of the national congress, the highest authority within the Ba’ath party. Eventually, Hafez didn’t agree with my father’s political outlook, such as an alignment with the West, renunciation of the Soviet Union and pro-democratic thinking. As a result, the national congress hasn’t met since 1980 and the regional was inexistent between 1985 and 2000. Hafez stopped their meetings when he found out that 90% of the regional congress supported my father. I’ve said this very often before, but this is why the regime is illegitimate today. The party was dissolved until Bashar came to power. They only met again so

What were the implications for your father and Syrian politics?

Mr. Ribal Al-Assad, can you compare the Syrian situation to the other countries of the Arab spring? No. Put simply, in Tunisia, Egypt etc. the people are more of similar colour. Syria is much more complex. Along with Iraq and Lebanon, it’s one of the most diverse countries in the Middle East, due to an ethnic and religious mix. Also, Syria is not an isolated regime like Libya; it’s mainly supported by Iran, but also by the Hezbollah in Lebanon and other pro-Iranians in Iraq and the region. They’ve all got vested interest to keep Bashar in power. Can you explain brieﬂy how your father Rifaat and your uncle Hafez came to disagree politically, could you give me a concise explanation as to why you are in London and how Bashar ended up where he is.

It’s like a Mafia: there are many bosses and they pick someone like Bashar who will keep everything nice and smooth

8 newturn.org.uk

that Bashar could gain a fake legitimacy. The constitution states that you have to be head of the Ba’ath party to be able to become president of the Republic of Syria. So Bashar set up his own regional congress in order to be sworn in. Was Bashar happy to take over? Did he want to be president? It doesn’t matter if he was happy or not, because at the end of the day he still accepted the position. He wasn’t known in Syria at the time, one could think he became president by accident. Describe Bashar’s position as head of state. He was never a military man. It was always his brother, Basil who his father had been grooming to follow him. Bashar was educated as a doctor, but from 1994 until 2000 he jumped the military ranks. He went from nothing to admiral in six years, that’s just impossible! With one rank normally taking four years, how is he to be respected in the army? Other ofﬁcers have suffered, only to become grey haired generals. They had been through

Everybody says he is a liar because he says things he doesn’t deliver. Well, he just doesn’t have the power to! wars, Bashar had nothing deserving of his rank. As a general you don’t want to salute a guy that you feel is below you in the hierarchy. You have bullets in your body and you have to salute someone who is where he is just because he is the son of a president.

9 newturn November 2011

EXCLUSIVE

Syria

Over the past few weeks, different opposition factions have met up in several places, can you explain their goals?

So why is he there at all?

He’s been in power for 11 years now and what brought him and kept him there was the interest of other people, such as officers Once we have a united and in the different factions of the strong opposition you can put Secret Services that all compete The Assad clan on the back of a sightseeing pressure on the regime, peowith each other. It was benefi- train in Damascus. ple in Syria are going to supcial to each of these powerful sections to have Bashar port an opposition when they know that all of their in power. It’s like a Mafia: there are many bosses and rights are protected; whatever their religion, sect or they pick someone like Bashar who will keep everyethnic group. Right now the opposition abroad is thing nice and smooth. still divided. On the inside they don’t have this problem, they are already united The killings that we see, could we say – to use in their cause but have no structure. Bashar’s term – that they are a “conspiracy” to If they see that the opposition on crush the opposition? the outside manages to come toThere are so many internal factions that are calling gether, they will feel that they the shots, it doesn’t need a conspiracy. All of them are able to put their differenchave been stealing and torturing for years. They es aside and work towards national reconciliation and national unity.

The opposition plays these childish games. It’s scary when there is a whole country on the line

So the opposition needs to be more deﬁned and coherent? Yes. We need a better opposition. All Syrians, home and abroad, need to work together. You cannot build the future of a country based on hatred and grudge.

know very well that if Bashar brings real reforms, they are going to be judged. So the armed groups don’t necessarily belong to Bashar, are there others doing it for him? Bashar himself is doing nothing; he is just a puppet. You have to know that. Everybody who meets him says that he is a liar because he says things that he doesn’t deliver. Well, he just doesn’t have the power to! Since he took over, you can see how many decrees he’s signed. None of them count, as they cannot go through.

Do you think the Syrian National Council is moving in the right direction? No, because it’s not moving anywhere

10 newturn.org.uk

at the moment. Who are they? It looks like most of them are opportunists.

ple have come together, forgiven each other and worked together for the future of their country.

Are there any clear milestones that the Council has achieved?

So where is Syria going? It’s going nowhere at the moment. There are lots of councils, one group met in France in September, and another met in Syria, another in Turkey. As long as the opposition factions are fragmented the current regime is happy. The only solution is unity with collective pressure on the regime.

Protesters bemoan a dead young man after the Douma protests in April.

Where is the new constitution? There should be a committee to review what happens. At the moment everyone in opposition is working alone. The current regime is smart; they infiltrate opposition factions to keep them fighting each other, preventing unity. The problem is that some of them discover that someone on the inside is a Secret Service agent and they kick him out. Then, another group who disagrees with the first one will take him on only to screw over the other group. They play these childish games. It’s scary when there is a whole country’s People on the line. Look at Libya, the people had to work together to be able to create the National Transitional Council. A lot of the people in the NTC were ministers and generals of the previous regime; but at the end of the day peo-

A civil war in Syria can easily lead to a regional war What if they don’t manage that? A civil war in Syria can easily lead to a regional war. Do you think it will? If it continues like this, yes. The urgency is increasing and Iran is taking advantage of this. It is getting all its allies together; the Iranians know very well that their only option is to stand together now. If anyone in their alliance falls, they fall like dominoes. Pretty bleak. Can the rest of the world do anything? The only people who can do anything are the Syrians themselves, this opposition has to become mature. Right now I feel pretty pessimistic, honestly. If this all goes by without a huge loss, whether in a civil or a regional war, it would be very good. But it doesn’t seem like it now.

11 newturn November 2011

Syria

Picture by Chris Brown

EXCLUSIVE

I just came back from the European parliament and spoke to the foreign affairs committee. All of them agree that what is missing is a coherent opposition. Who are they? Where are they? Can you imagine that, seven months into the protests with all these killings and European leaders are asking these questions? OK, so let’s say the promised reforms come and things improve. But unless there is a huge turn of events Bashar will remain in power until the end of his term, in 2014. How would people take that? You need to be pragmatic. There is a saying in Arabic that goes: ‘Do you want the guardian of the grapes or do you want the grapes?’ We want to get there quickly with the least human loss possible. We don’t want civil or regional war; we want democracy as soon as possible. We waited 40 years, we can wait another couple of months, but we have to do it smartly, nothing has actually happened in seven months but now we can achieve something. But is that going to change anything?

What can the ‘West’, so to speak, do then? Can the UN or the Security Council do anything to intervene?

RIBAL AL-ASSAD

born in Syria, he was exiled from his country at the age of nine. He is the founder and director of the ‘Organisation for Democracy and Freedom in Syria’.

In Syria, there is not one person who wants foreign intervention Russia and China are not backing it. In Syria, nobody wants an attack on the country; there is not one person there who will agree on foreign intervention. That would deﬁnitely ignite a regional war; Iran and its allies against everyone else.

JONATAN BRZEZINSKI is studying Development Economics at SOAS. He is the Vice President of Newturn Society ULU.

It is easy to just comment on this, what is your involvement?

12 newturn.org.uk

Jason Cowley

THE GUEST

The UK in Limbo last days of the unhappy and divided Brown government. It was obvious to me as I sat talking to both men on the return train to London later that evening that they knew Labour would not win the election. There was an air of last things and of leave taking as they reflected nostalgically on the early years of New Labour how they had set about remaking both the Labour Party and the country. They were proud of what they believed they had achieved and fearful of what was to come under a Conservative, or Conservative-led, government, especially if the cuts in public spending turned out to be as deep and punitive, and implemented as dogmatically, as was expected. What Brown and Mandelson did not seem to understand was that we had reached the end not only of a long period of Labour government but of the 30-year â&#x20AC;&#x153;neoliberalâ&#x20AC;? experiment. This was an experiment with limited government, free, lightly regulated markets, loose monetary policy, cheap credit and an over-

As the world and the UK enter social, economic and political purgatory, where can we place our faith? A comment by Jason Cowley, the editor in chief of the NewStatesman. BY JASON COWLEY

A few days

before the 2010 general election, I travelled to Newcastle with Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson. They were visiting the Labour stronghold of the north-east of England, hurriedly passing through both Newcastle and Sunderland on the campaign trail. These were the

13 newturn November 2011

THE GUEST Jason Cowley

to 2.57 million, the highest level since 1994. Worse, youth unemployment has risen to nearly one million, increasing the danger that this will be a lost generation. Yet the government remains inflexibly committed to fiscal retrenchment. “When the facts change, I change my mind,” said Keynes. The facts have changed for Chancellor George Osborne: the growth he forecast has not happened, yet his mind and policies remain unchanged. As I write, the world economy remains on the edge of a precipice and the 17 countries of the eurozone have acted after an emergency debt summit to prevent a catastrophic (rather than managed) Greek default and to recapitalize ailing banks. “The crisis”, wrote Gramsci, “consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in the interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” The morbid symptoms are everywhere apparent, from the threatened break-up of the British Union to the protests of the worldwide Occupy Movement, from soaring executive pay and the grotesque bonuses paid to bankers to our obsession with celebrity and consumerism. There’s a growing sense that something is rotten, not just in the state of Britain, but in the way the world economy operates. Ours is a winner-take-all economy. Think of the Premier League: the richest football clubs take all, including the best players, and the rest borrow to keep

dependence on the tax receipts from financial services and the City of London that had created an ever-widening gap between the very rich and the rest of us. The financial crisis of 2008 -- the first great crisis of globalisation -- had resulted in worldwide recession and in a series of sovereign debt crises as governments using taxpayers‘ money intervened to bail out failed international banks and to initiate bold fiscal and monetary stimulus programmes to prevent another Great Depression. Between 2007 and 2009, the world economy contracted by 6 per cent. Today we are still feeling the effects of the financial crisis. We still don’t know how or when it will end. We still don’t know if the eurozone can survive. In Britain, there has been no growth for nine months, consumer confidence is shattered, the banks aren’t lending and the government refuses to intervene to stimulate demand. Meanwhile, unemployment has risen

There’s a growing sense that something is rotten, not just in the state of Britain, but in the way the world economy operates

14 newturn.org.uk

man who is living amid that longdrawn decline is wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born. It is an age in passing. What is coming to replace it? No one knows. What does it all come to? Again, no one knows.” Once again it feels as if we are wandering in the space between two worlds. We live in the interstice. However, we have little sense of what will come next. We know what we dread -- more austerity, another recession, social breakdown, a collapse of the debt-stricken peripheral nations of the eurozone,

up. That, in miniature, is how the world economy has been operating for much of the last three decades. Those at the very top have become richer and richer, and the great majority increasingly indebted. Just recently I visited the young protestors camped outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London. They may have no coherent political programme or plan for action but their anguish is moving and persuasive. They are protesting at how the ordinary taxpayer was made to bail out the reckless bankers who continue to pay themselves lavish bonuses. They are protesting at ever-rising executive pay and how, as they put it, the 1 per cent profits at the expense of the 99 per cent. In 1909, Charles Masterman published his great book The Condition of England. A Liberal MP and friend of Winston Churchill, he was writing from within the establishment but, influenced by his experiences among the urban poor of London and despairing of deepening inequality between the classes, he recognised that England was suspended between the old ways of the Victorian world and something quite new. It was a period of profound unease and transition. He wrote of how “the

More and more, this is beginning to feel like a pre-revolutionary moment a panicked retreat from globalisation, protectionism and the rise of a defeatist Little England mentality. Most of us know what we want -- a fairer, less unequal, more balanced and more open and democratic society. We want our young people not to feel “lost” but to be hopeful, engaged, energised. We want them to feel that they have a role to play and a stake in the future. More and more, this is beginning to feel like a prerevolutionary moment. At least we can be encouraged that the social consensus seems to be finally turning against the excesses and inequalities that have characterised our society for too long. If there’s hope, to paraphrase Orwell’s Winston Smith, it lies with the honest majority who are sending out a clear message: enough of this! JASON COWLEY won the Editors’ Editor of the Year award in 2009 and is currently shortlisted for 2011.

Pictures by Morag Dempsey

15 newturn November 2011

ON LOCATION

Sri Lanka

The End of the Tigers, the Beginning of ... ? More than two years after the bloody end of the civil war, Sri Lanka experiences its renaissance. War crime allegations and a Channel 4 documentary, however, aren‘t making things easy for President Rajapaksa. A journey through a torn country. BY DAVID VAJDA PHOTOS BY ALEXANDER VAJDA

enemy. The armed forces do not just make sure that any new uprising in the East and especially the North is virtually impossible, but are also highly involved in civilian life. They build roads, hotels, Cricket stadiums, run restaurants and vegetable markets and have recently started the big “beautification” (also referred to as “disneyfication”) of the stuffy capital Colombo. The “malicious” terrorists are defeated and the victorious army “rebuilds” the country - one wishes for such filmic simplicity. A root cause of the conflict is the systematic humiliation of the Tamil population after Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948. Sinhala was made the official language and Tamils were denied citizenship and other basic rights. The Sinhalese offensive nationalism in turn was nurtured by three main factors: a ressentiment against the privileged position of the Tamils under British colonial rule, the ancient myth of the chosen Sinhalese to preserve the purity of Buddhism and fear. The Sinhalese are the majority in Sri Lanka yet face over 50 million Tamils living in the South Indian State of Tamil Nadu making them a regional minority. After years of unheard Tamil Satyagraha - nonviolent protests inspired by Ghandi - factions in Tamil society radicalized out of which the LTTE brutally established its hegemony

Their eyes

are indifferent yet observant, their movements slow. In a stringent triangular formation they roll over the dark, empty main street, pedalling on their old Singer bikes, machine guns around their necks. It is five o’clock in the morning in Arugam Bay, East Sri Lanka. A couple of Australian surfers stagger back home, habit has made them oblivious to the cycling fleet. Fifteen miles South at Peanut Farm, a remote and empty surf spot in the jungle outside of Arugam Bay, the Australians won’t be alone either. Two bored soldiers sit on the beach and, grateful for any distraction, cheer for the best waves. Add the smell of napalm and the sound of helicopters and you are in Apocalypse Now. Two and a half years after the bloody eradication of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the heavy army presence in most of East and North Sri Lanka has become part of the daily routine. The Sri Lankan armed forces have tripled under President Rajapaksa - one reason for his victory over the Tamil Tigers and the numbers remain stable despite the lack of an

Add the smell of napalm and the sound of helicopters and you are in ‘Apocalypse Now’

16 newturn.org.uk

However, Killing Fields is extremely one sided and disregards the fact that the counterparty was one of the most ruthless terrorist groups, which between 1984 and 2006 staged more suicide attacks than any other terrorist organization in the world and regularly recruited child soldiers. During the last stages of the war especially, the LTTE systematically used the civilian Tamil population as human shields and hostages. Killing Fields fails to address the complexity of the conflict and invites Black and White thinking through its graphic

fighting for a separate state. The stage was set for a civil war lasting 25 years – Asia’s longest running ethnic conflict - claiming an estimated 100,000 lives. In May 2009, subsequent to two decades of failed negotiations and opportunistic ceasefire agreements, Mahinda Rajapaksa’s ruthless military offensive managed to win back the North and wipe out the LTTE. “The Tamil Tigers have been defeated militarily, but the psychological war has just began. The LTTE Diaspora is still very influential and they will keep the conflict alive.”, believes Dr.Kumar Rupesinghe, one of the most prominent sociologists in the country and renowned contributor to international conflict resolution. And indeed, it has been argued that the LTTE Diaspora have provided a lot of the footage for Channel 4’s shocking Killing Fields, an internationally broadcasted documentary about the last stages of the war in the North. Wherever this disturbing footage of extrajudicial killings and rape stems from, it demands investigation and incriminates the Sri Lankan army.

Between 1984 and 2006 the LTTE staged more suicide attacks than any other terrorist organization appeal to our emotions. This is all the more problematic since it is treated as an official document by the international community. It spurred on the war crime allegation debate having been screened to Canadian MPs, in various European courts, in the EU parliament

17 newturn November 2011

ON LOCATION Sri Lanka

plete denial regarding the allegations and insisted that the army pursued a policy of “zero civilian casualties”. This is far from the reality. His anti-western attitude is not just fuelled by the incessant applause of his loyal supporters. Rajapaksa has extended his wartime alliance with countries such as China, India and Pakistan into the economic sphere. China is now the biggest aid donor in the country and we all know that Chinese money does not come with demands for Human Rights. Sri Lanka’s GDP grew by 8% last year and is estimated to grow a further 9.5% in 2011, and indeed there is evidence for further economic growth oil and gas findings in the Mannar Basin have been confirmed by recent test drills. Pragmatic observers would regard the growing economic independence from the West combined with Rajapaksa’s extreme popularity his party holds the majority in parliament and the municipalities – as an opportunity. Over the next six years President Rajapaksa will have extensive political power

and at the US Congress, which considered a ban of 13 million Dollars of development aid after viewing it. For Dr. Rupesinghe one of the main problems is the legal vagueness against which the actions of the Sri Lankan Army are being measured: “The law of war does not

President Rajapaksa is referred to as ‘King’ by some Sinhalese discuss in detail the actions of non-state actors. It must grapple with this issue and has to come out with clear guidelines on how a country fighting terrorism has to conduct itself.” Despite the lack of a legal groundwork, Sri Lanka has to allow unbiased investigations into its military victory. Without truth and accountability reconciliation is impossible, at least that is how our western idealism has it. At the moment, President Mahinda Rajapaksa does everything in his power to avoid this. He resorted to com-

18 newturn.org.uk

and will be able to push through policies unpopular with the Sinhalese majority. He is not obliged to bow down to the West’s wagging finger and could achieve a Sri Lankan-led reconciliation, at his own pace. But how? Dr. Rupesinghe says, that “the President’s strategy is to get the reconciliation process to an end primarily through economic reforms.” A pragmatic would say, “That’s a good start”. Kumar Rupesinghe is sure, “economic development by itself cannot be sufficient”. In a tuk-tuk on the way to Colombo, we pass less and less soldiers and more and more portraits of President Rajapaksa, glancing down on us from billboards and from every second shop. His paternal smile is fringed by a wide moustache, his eyes suggest determination and understanding; he could be mistaken for a religious figure. In a recently released WikiLeaks cable, ex-president Kumaratunga reveals that Rajapaksa is re-

ferred to as King by some Sinhalese in rural areas, due to what she calls his “brainwashing campaign”. During a stop at a petrol station, Saatvik, our Tamil tuk-tuk driver, casually looks over to a 12-foot billboard of his Excellency the President. “He won the war. Ok, that’s good.” He pauses, relishes a drag of his cigarette and adds: “But I don’t trust him. A lot of people don’t.” The West still has to make its bet. DAVID VAJDA is the editor in chief of Newturn Magazine.

19 newturn November 2011

AD ABSURDUM

Italy

The Brilliant Idiot The politics of subversion and the taxation of nothing. A portrait of the Lega Nord, Italy‘s most paradoxical party BY MICAL NELKEN

The Italian

party “Lega Nord” is known for its unconventional rhetoric style. The party’s most famous public statements include “The Italian flag? I wipe my ass with it”, and “Immigrants should all fuck off”. Many international observers (and also several Italians) are having some trouble in understanding how the Lega can be Italy‘s third largest party. French anthropologist Lynda Dematteo set out to solve this issue in a book titled “Idiocy in Politics”. The title is not meant as an insult to the party, quite the contrary, it is an explanation of its peculiar, yet successful political technique.

bizarre proposal to aid recovery: tax the money transfers of illegal immigrants. Pity that, according to a law, passed by the same party in 2009, illegal immigrants must be reported to the police if they are caught using money transferring services. As a result these immigrants are resorting to other (non-taxable) methods to send money home. Now no illegal immigrant with a bit of sense would ever use official transfer services. This means that the Lega’s proposed tax would contribute the remarkable amount of 0€ to the countries disrupted finances.

“The Italian flag? I wipe my ass with it”

Recent surveys show that many Italians believe the majority of their politicians to be corrupt. This distrust towards the central government is exploited in one of the traditional slogans of the Lega Nord: “Rome, the big thief”. This farcical style of the Lega Nord is meant to convey the party’s distance from the recognised political and cultural elite. However, being the third largest Italian party, the Lega still manages to pickpocket its ample share of power and resources in Rome. It is this mixture of populism and realpolitik that, however astonishing and unorthodox, has guaranteed the party’s success.

In Italy – and elsewhere too – there is a widening gap between society and its political representatives. This has led to the rise the Lega Nord, a party full of contradictions and idiosyncrasies. Indeed, many of their supporters are working class ex-Communist Party members. MICAL NELKEN is from Bologna, the city known as “The Fat (for the food), the Wise (for the university) and the Red (for its left-wing sympathies)“. He studies History at UCL.

The coherence or effectiveness of their proposed policies is in no way related to their popularity and political success. This appeared quite blatantly on the eve of Italy‘s economic crisis, where the Lega made a

20 newturn.org.uk

Terror

AFRICA

Somaliaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Silent Suffering Despite a civil war spanning back two decades, Somalia has been ignored by the international community. A devastating famine brought the country back into the global media glare. With an improving government and increasing foreign involvement, there is a hint of light at the end of a dark tunnel. BY NICOLAS KOSTOV

Somalia in the 80s - Photos by FRANK KEILIOR.

Somalia

, not exactly the garden of Eden. The country has been torn apart by civil war since 1991 and the latest chapter to be written into its history books is a summer drought which killed about 80,000 people. Today, the country is mostly associated with terrorism and piracy. The internationally recognised Transitional Federal Government (TFG) only controls some parts of central

Somalia and has been impotent to alter the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fortunes. Most of the North is semi-autonomous and large parts of the South remain under the control of the Islamist extremist group Al-Shabaab. The world, it seems, has grown tired of Somalia. The United States did initially mount a peace-enforcing mission but pulled out after the bodies of 18 American servicemen were dragged through the streets of

21 newturn November 2011

AFRICA Terror

Mogadishu in 1993. The United Nations has said that it will not send peacekeeping forces until the fighting stops; currently there is no peace to keep. Somalia has a healthy lead at the top of the failed states index. Whisper this for now, but in recent weeks some events suggest that the country may be entering a period of improvement. In August this year, pro-TFG forces wrestled key positions in the capital Mogadishu away from Al-Shabaab militants and since October 10 the city has been fully in the hands of the TFG after the last remaining pockets of resistance were flushed out The retreat has taken many analysts by surprise. Rewind the clock to the turn of the year and Al Shabaab controlled almost half of the capital with defections from the Somali army daily swelling the Islamist ranks. I met Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo in Uganda, the ex Somali Prime Minister who resigned in June, to get his take on the turnaround: “The morale of the army was key,” he said. The ex PM’s pragmatic approach was widely popular and his leadership coincided with a period of strengthening for the TFG. He told me he made the TFG forces his priority, explaining that they could go up to 45 days without food last year. After three or four days, the men did not know where their next meal was coming from and abandoned their posts. Some would sell their firearms in exchange for food, others defected to Al-Shabaab. “This was due to misappropriation, mismanagement,

and corruption.” Mr. Farmajo explained. “After we took office, I managed to provide our troops with breakfast, lunch and dinner. We paid salaries for the first time in 20 years.” The effects were immediate. Al-Shabaab begun to lose ground and the popularity of the TFG grew. People like to associate with the group that is winning. “We could see the difference we made. In Mogadishu, people used to go home at 5pm because it was dark and there was no security. Now people stay on the streets until midnight, drinking coffee and socialising.”, Farmajo said. Al Shabaab’s withdrawal from the capital was an important victory for the TFG. The cabinet is looking to consolidate these gains and is currently fine-tuning a new constitution with elections planned for next summer. After a furious fight for survival since its inception in 2006, the TFG has made admirable inroads in both the physical battle against the warring

Some would sell their firearms in exchange for food, others defected to Al-Shabaab

22 newturn.org.uk

based Daily Monitor who has been covering the Uganda People’s Defence Force involvement in Somalia since 2007 told me that the initiative is now popular but it was not always so. “Ugandans today support the mission but at first they opposed it, they asked questions. Many of the people here believed we were doing America’s dirty work in the war on terror.” He went on to explain that the Ugandan support is motivated by a pan African sentiment that Somali people deserve better. The country’s President, Yoweri Museveni, has also deployed troops in Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo during his 25-year rule in order to “help African brothers stabilize their country.” With the TFG recording victories, others, particularly in Africa, will jump on the bandwagon. It is important for them to show that they were supportive in the bad times as well as the good. Some of the bigger fish in the international community may also find this a judicious moment to get involved, particularly as Somalia has become a bastion for terrorism and piracy. The US has been negotiating with Kenya. The French navy started a bombing campaign on insurgent strongholds on 23 October. Al-Shabaab is increasingly feeling the pressure. Its fighters are estimated to number below 5000 and its leadership is reportedly divided whether it should abandon cities and retreat to the countryside or fight to maintain its current positions. Its strict punishments, recruitment of child soldiers and indiscriminate bombings haven’t won it many supporters and its prohibition on foreign aid during the famine was predictably unpopular. As the civil war in Somalia enters its third decade, developments over the next few months will be worth following. With an increasing Panafrican military effort the end is in sight.

The United States pulled out after the bodies of 18 American servicemen were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in 1993

Downtown Boho Refugee camp in Beledweyne, Somalia, 1980

factions and the propaganda war for the hearts and minds of the people. The army remains short of numbers and equipment but the situation is improving. Major General Thierry Caspar-Fille-Lambie was responsible for training around 6000 African Union peacekeeping troops sent to fight in Somalia. He told me this summer that “the task of soldiers is to secure areas but currently the force is too small to secure vast territories.” Experts estimate that a sizable increase on the 9,000 peacekeeping forces currently deployed in the Somali capital is needed to pacify the country. In this regard Kenya’s recent military intervention after a spate of kidnappings could ultimately be a step in the right direction. Others have also shown a willingness to join Uganda and Burundi as a part of the African Union peacekeeping mission. Sierra Leone, Djibouti and Guinea have pledged forces but have not deployed due to a lack of military equipment. Risdel Kasasira, a Ugandan journalist for the Kampala

NICOLAS KOSTOV is the politics editor of Newturn Magazine.

23 newturn November 2011

BRIEFING

United States

The US’ Cup of Tea The Tea Party claims to give a voice to the previously disenfranchised; but is this voice too loud? BY IVANNA GONZALEZ

In 2007

, a group of political activists boarded small boats and took to the waters of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. They carried a cargo of boxes marked ‘homeland security,’ ‘neo-cons,’ ‘NATO,’ and ‘Iraq War,’ which, once in the middle of the lake, they loudly and symbolically threw overboard. The phenomenon, known today as the tea party, originated as a Republican subset supporting presidential hopeful and strict libertarian Ron Paul. Its members staged a series of demonstrations throughout the United States invoking the image and spirit of the Boston Tea Party. The boxes thrown into the waters of Lady Bird Lake all represented a source of spending Paul promised to cut from the federal budget. The Boston Tea Party is one of the most iconic events in US history. Americans protesting under the banner of ‘no taxation without representation’ dumped a ship’s entire tea cargo into the Boston harbor as a symbol of their disapproval at having to pay colonial taxes in 1773. The protestors believed the tax violated their right to pay taxes that they indirectly approved through elected representatives; a grievance Paul believes is still relevant. In the beginning, Ron Paul created a party solely based on his libertarian ideals of a small government, devolution of power to the States, and fiscal restraint. The faction, however, has slowly evolved. Today, the activist group, grandfathered by Paul, touts itself as a grassroots movement of people who feel disenfranchised by the elitist nature of Washington politics. It is a mo-

24 newturn.org.uk

vement that would still dump a box labeled ‘neo-cons’ over the side of boat, but not one that would be seen discarding boxes branded “Defend Americans from foreign threats”; Iraq, NATO and homeland security would remain firmly on board the ship of state. Furthermore tea partiers have ably re-energized the fight to implement long standing Republican causes such as anti-gay marriage, pro-life, and a reduction on immigration. Its program is passionately diffused by an effective propaganda machine. Household names such as Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin are all part of the movement. In the 2010 mid-term elections, the Republican Party recorded an impressive victory, winning an overall majority in the House of Representatives in what was the biggest swing in seats since the 1950s. Moreover, in the Senate, they expanded their minority, winning 6 of the 37 seats up for grabs. Democratic sympathizers viewed the defeat as the product of discontent linked to the economic crises, while the victorious Republican mainstream quickly rationalized that it was a voter backlash against President Obama’s failed policies. Neither found it prudent to acknowledge the obvious role played by the tea party. Two years on and with the “Occupy” movement going global, it remains to be seen whether tea partiers retain sufficient momentum to make an impact on the 2012 Presidential elections. Since 2010, the Party has not always been associated with its choice to support politically substantive causes. It infamously championed the ‘birther movement’, an initiative, which argued that President Obama was illegally holding office because he was not born in the USA. It was an outcry that was short-lived when Obama officially presented his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate. Most recently, their influence arguably brought the U.S. federal government to the brink of a shutdown and has led to the downgrading of the United States’ credit rating. Although the confrontation was billed as an ideological showdown by the mainstream media, the raising of the debt ceiling is not unheard of. The Republican idol himself, Ronald Reagan raised the limit 18 times during his tenure. What made the clash in 2011 such a spectacle was the tea party’s enormous pressure on sitting members of congress to not compromise.

25 newturn November 2011

Picture by Fibonacci Blue

BRIEFING United States

fact and that evolution is wrong. Indeed, it is telling that of the main Republican candidates for the presidency, only Mitt Romney, currently with a 23.5 percent share in the polls and Jon Huntsman, with a 1.8 percent share, have taken the risk to publicly state that they believe in both evolution and the impact of humans on global warming in direct opposition to the widely understood tea party platform. Even though they represent only half of the Party, Republican candidates are busy trying to impress this noisy faction, with uncompromising positions on gay marriage, balancing the budget, and cutting taxes. Much of their current rhetoric, however, will not hold up in a national forum where leftleaning moderates, disenchanted with Obama, will have a big role to play. In a few months, when the Republicans select a national candidate, the campaign promises will be tweaked and the hard hitting talk will subside as the right-wing of the Right is forced to take a back seat. When it comes to the general election the tea party will not have a great deal of influence in either determining the victor or swaying the nominee’s policy stances. Over the past few years the tea partiers’ voice has been a loud one. Be patient, however, the volume will be turned down soon.

The Republican primary represents the tea party’s best platform to influence US politics. Candidates are well aware that tea partiers are usually a zealous, enthusiastic bunch and can be counted on to make it to the polls on primary day. Thus, the Republican candidates have chosen to focus their campaigns more on securing the tea party half of the vote, than the moderates’ share. “The tea party‘s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the tea party was born, and were more likely than others to have contacted government officials. In fact, past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of tea party support today,“ explained Robert Putnam, a renowned Harvard political science professor. Tea partiers have other defining features. Over 60 percent of them believe that global warming is not a proven

The tea party’s influence brought the U.S. government to the brink of a shutdown

IVANNA GONZALEZ is studying Political Science and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

26 newturn.org.uk

ECON OMICS

30 Regulating

the de facto Regulators

How much power should rating agencies have?

INNOVATION

Africa

Banking, the African Way Mobile banking technology has taken Kenya by storm. It looks set to be the future for financial services in developing countries. BY ANJLI PARRIN

Christina

Ndinda uses a mobile phone worth less than £6 to receive her salary,withdraw cash, buy her groceries, pay her utilities and settle her child’s school fees. Every week she also sends her mother, who lives in their rural hometown, money to sustain their small farm. M-PESA, launched in 2007 by Vodafone’s Kenyan subsidiary Safaricom, is the innovation granting millions like Christina access to financial services using their mobile phone SIM cards. Pesa is the local Swahili word for cash, whilst M stands for mobile. The product’s creators, Nick Hughes and Susie Lonie, won the 2010 Economist’s Social and Economic Innovation Award for their contribution to mobile money-transfer services. Upon registration, users are given an M-PESA enabled SIM card that allows them to deposit money into their account for free, and then transfer it to any other M-PESA customer in a secure and low-cost manner. Deposits and withdrawals are made through one of the 28,000 M-PESA agents countrywide, allowing Kenyans in remote areas convenient access to finances within seconds. It is possible to transfer money to another M-PESA account using an SMS. “It is the first product in the world that allows the unbanked, with no banking details, no bank account or

28 newturn.org.uk

Using mobile banking, Kenyans were able to raise GBP 4.3 million to combat the famine the creation of over 28,000 M-PESA agents. By using individual agents M-PESA is able to avoid the costs of a physical branch allowing the service to reach even the smallest villages and communities. Overnight, the costs of transporting money to rural Kenya has been shattered, positively impacting the business environment through quality control and ease of transactions. Previously, many Kenyans had to rely on black market drivers, who would transport their money across the country for a fee. In addition to being highly unreliable and costly, this exacerbated Kenya’s development and stunted the growth of financial infrastructure.

no credit card, to enjoy services that are normally the exclusive preserve of those with bank accounts,” says Safaricom Chief Executive, Bob Collymore. Only 23 per cent of Kenya’s 39 million people have bank accounts. M-PESA has over 14 million registered customers and, with more than 25 million mobile phone subscribers, the figure is increasing daily. In developed countries this service can be substituted for e-banking. In Kenya, however, the majority of the population has little access to the internet and even fewer are able to operate a computer. Therefore, this innovation directly meets a gap in the market of developing nations such as Kenya, providing a simple yet truly life-changing solution.

Finally, M-PESA is a secure way of transferring and storing money. It is ideal for both large corporations and low-income earners as it provides a means to disburse salaries, send money across the country and deposit spare cash without having to apply for a formal bank account. With approximately 40 per cent of the population living at below $2 a day, M-PESA provides an ideal solution for their financial security.

M-PESA gives three distinct benefits to the poor. Firstly, because it is dealing with small amounts of money, M-PESA is a viable model for the millions of low-income earners in Kenya. The minimum you can deposit or transfer is just 50 KSH, about 32 pence, which ensures that even the poorest in Kenya have access to financial services.

M-PESA has gone global, allowing you to send money to Kenya using any of 80,000 Western Union Agents located in 45 countries. This partnership is aimed at appealing to the Kenyan diaspora, who send home over GBP 50 million a month. Although the amount you can remit is also small, it nonetheless represents another

Secondly, the local-based system has allowed Safaricom to build the infrastructure that will support widespread use of M-PESA across the country. Although only four years old, the product has lead to

29 newturn November 2011

INNOVATION Africa

Versions of M-PESA have now been implemented in Tanzania, South Africa and Afghanistan

M-PESA is a powerful symbol of the importance of cultural factors in economics, and the success of local solutions to local problems. In recent months, it was widely used for Kenya Campaign to raise funds to combat the famine that has crippled Northern Kenya. Through local contributions using M-PESA, Kenyans were able to raise GBP 4.3 million. Much has been written about the difficulties of doing business in developing markets such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, as the case of mobile banking shows, the opportunities for innovation and business creation are numerous.

means by which Kenya is connecting itself globally, and developing the infrastructure for formal financial services.

For Collymore, “luxury does not birth innovation”, but “necessity does and necessity is usually at the bottom of the pyramid.”

An M-PESA agency in Nairobi

Versions of M-PESA have now been implemented in Tanzania, South Africa and Afghanistan, with plans underway to expand to other developing markets. In Afghanistan, it has been branded M-Paisa, taken from the local language. The success in many of these markets demonstrates M-PESA’s versatility and importance to developing markets.

ANJILI PARRIN has interned at The Star Newspaper, in Nairobi. She is a final year Government student at LSE, and a citizen of Kenya.

30 newturn.org.uk

Rating

CREDIT

Regulating the de facto Regulators In the credit crisis they aided in the collapsing of the banks. Now they are causing the trust in sovereign debt to deteriorate. Is the extensive power of the rating agencies legitimate?

Picture by Randy Le‘Moine

“Perhaps more than any other single event, the sudden mass downgrades of residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligation ratings were the immediate trigger for the financial crisis,” stated a report from Senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn.

BY MARLEY MILLER

Following

the downgrading spree of many western nations’ sovereign debt, global leaders are now rushing to iron out the creases in their fiscal records - each one, wary that they could be next for the Standard & Poors financial guillotine. Yet, a report from the OECD this year, said that companies and regulators are putting too much trust in the hands of credit ratings agencies (CRAs), whose “methodologies for valuing complex structured finance products are, at times, flawed”.

The punishment? A mere rap on the knuckles. And so, yet again the “bastions of risk monitoring” are an causing economic commotion. Recently, they used their definitive ratings to undermine trust in sovereign debt, pushing the yields on western state bonds through the roof and turning the challenge of balancing the books of nation states into an accountant’s nightmare. As this publication goes to print, the French Economic Minister, Francois Baroin, has said that France “will do everything to avoid being downgraded”. Such a statement was sparked in light of an announcement that Moody’s will review the nation’s triple-A rating. Greece, Portugal, Ireland and most notably the US are some of the other countries that have already faced a downgrade.

Indeed, it was during the 2007-09 recession that the immense power of the CRAs first came under heavy scrutiny, when their ratings system supported risky investment in innovative securitised products. Their inability to keep up with the changing state of the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) was heavily criticised, resulting in a wave of downgrades and the drying up of credit. With this evaporation of liquidity, came a lack of confidence in the market, and so began the start of the credit crisis.

31 newturn November 2011

CREDIT Rating

did they have any part in deciding the direction of US fiscal policy - all they did was rate.

being lowered from a Moody’s A2 prime status to a B3 non-prime status on the day of its collapse. The House of Lords hasn’t been impressed with their performance either. In a discussion on CRAs they agreed that the institutions “plainly got it wrong when it came to the structured products” and were “instrumental in causing the credit crunch and financial crisis by rating what ended up being worse than junk bond instruments as triple-A”.

However, their records of “just rating” are by no means unblemished. Lehmann Brothers, for example, remained top rated up until the brink of its demise; only

But the failures of CRAs have a longer history than the credit crisis. Enron managed to keep its investment grade rating up until 4 days before it filed for bank-

Still, perhaps the CRAs should not take the blame for delivering these subjective assessments. After all, they are not responsible for widening the Greek deficit, nor

Lehmann Brothers remained top rated up until the brink of its demise

32 newturn.org.uk

such as capital requirements from both the SEC and Basel II. Considering they are funded by payments from debt issuers this presents considerable moral hazards. Unless CRAs are to be taken under government control, completely removing this conflict of interest is fundamentally impossible. However, managing it through tighter regulatory measures is not.

ruptcy, and the 1997-98 Asian economic crisis was completely unpredicted by the “big three” (Moody’s, S&P and Fitch). Nonetheless, regulators and investors alike are still opting for the shortcut method, and are foregoing the necessary due diligence checks, to rely solely on the CRAs for the assessment of which debt issuance is of investment grade. Policy makers too, appear unsure of how much these institutions are of benefit to the market and its regulators and indeed where to draw the boundaries on monitoring them. However, regardless of their imperfections there is no debate that the CRAs perform a crucial role in deciphering an ever more complicated financial market. It is not a question of whether or not they should exist, but how they should be classed, regulated and relied upon. Currently CRAs have no liability for any information they provide. They hold the same status as financial journalists and there-

“These are the last people whose judgment we should trust.”

Since the recession, only cosmetic solutions have been implemented to prevent the risks CRAs can pose. IOSCO, the organisation in charge of regulating the firms, has been forced to tighten its Code of Conduct and the SEC has amended its regulations for increased disclosure. The World Bank upped anti-publishing, a report calling for the introduction “of direct government oversight to replace self-regulation” and for “governance reforms” to help in “managing conflicts of interest”. Moreover, a ring-fencing of the power houses has begun in the US, with a proposal under the Dodd-Frank Act, to ensure that the SEC is to “remove any references to credit ratings from its regulations”.

They hold the same status as financial journalists and are protected by the First Amendment

Perhaps, the last word is with Paul Krugman who commented that the decisions of CRAs are “chutzpah”, adding quite definitively: “These are the last people whose judgment we should trust.”

fore have freedom of speech and are protected by the First Amendment, and yet, at the same time they are nationally recognised as statistical ratings organisations (NRSROs). „The courts so far have determined that ratings opinions are commercial speech, so the first amendment applies to them,“ said Jerome Fons, a former managing director at Moody‘s.

MARLEY MILLER is the Assistant Economics Editor for the Social Europe Journal and the Vice Chairman of the Newturn society.

Regardless of their unaccountability, the ratings they provide permit firms to forgo essential regulations,

33 newturn November 2011

THE FUTURE

Resources

Spaceonomics

they are a substantial improvement on the $20 million fees that were required for the first flight a decade ago. Should Virgin Galactic show that its space travel can be profitable, new competition will undoubtedly spur innovation, increase efficiency and reduce costs, thereby helping to make the unaffordable affordable. Moreover, the slashing of NASA’s budget may mean that bread-and-butter services such as the simplest space launches are outsourced. Thus, a shift towards using private enterprise for low-earth orbital services – those most needed for research by scientists and training for astronauts- could ultimately foster a vibrant ‘Space Tourism’ sector.

With governments cutting funding to space agencies, could we be in store for a private sector race to the stars (and its infinite resources)? BY NEER SHARMA

The

privatisation movement of the past 30 years has freed telecommunications and energy industries from the grip of state control. However, one sector that remained untouched was Space. Whilst its limitless possibilities have captured our imagination throughout history, the ability to translate thought into action had been reserved solely for the state - the only entity that could undertake the risk and meet the fiscal requirements of Space exploration. But with the creators of the Space industry themselves in a precarious financial position, the onus is on the private sector in driving our exploration further. And so, ideas that once lay in the murky sci-fi texts are now underpinning the possibilities of what is the newest emerging economy.

But the possibilities extend beyond tourism. The concept of Space-Mining may be more familiar to Star Trek fans than to economists but it’s a concept that has been explored by NASA and others over the last few decades. The basic problem of economics is allocating limited resources across unlimited wants. If, hypothetically, it became possible for precious commodities to be mined from resource-rich asteroids and other space objects, this could create near infinite resources and usher in a boom of wealth and prosperity. It is estimated that a small asteroid could contain 30 times more precious metals than have ever been mined in the history of man; or in monetary terms, a 70 trillion dollars. On top of this, as precious metals on Earth become scarcer and commodity prices dearer, the incentives for com-

The developments of private enterprise in Space have already emerged in Space Tourism. The first ‘spacetourists’ lifted off in 2001 and now Richard Branson’s latest venture, Virgin Galactic has set out to cement space tourism as being commercially viable. Although the fees of $200,000 per head are out of reach for most,

A small asteroid could contain 30 times more precious metals than have ever been mined in the history of man 34

newturn.org.uk

Stanley Kubrickâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visions in his masterpiece 2001 Space Odyssey could finally become true.

panies to make the push towards mineral extraction from Space are augmented. This may also be expedited by the increasing living standards of the East mirroring their Western counterparts, which puts increased pressure on the supplies of precious metals that are required for the production of the many hi-tech goods.

The project LUNA RING aims to install solar panels along the equator of the moon that Space has to offer vary from the monetary to the intangible. The latter, although not considered by private enterprise, needs to be taken into account by the public sector. One particularly compelling argument is that the essentially infinite amount of resources in Space could ease territorial tensions between nations such as those currently appearing in the form of Arctic land grabs, scrambles for African minerals and faceoffs in the South-China Sea. With vast unexploited resources available in space, the need to fight over those on earth could be significantly reduced.

Spaceonomics could also lift-off in the energy industry. Many private companies are trying to utilise solar power in space, where it is much more potent. For instance, Shimizu Corporation has proposed the Luna Ring that aims to install a belt of solar panels along the equator of the moon and then generate electricity in situ. The plan is to then convert the electricity into microwaves that will be transmitted to Earth and then changed back into electricity, before being distributed through the existing grid systems. If it became feasible to firstly build the necessary infrastructure on the moon and secondly transmit the energy back to Earth, this would negate the effect bad weather has on solar energy creation and mark an improvement in solar absorption on the current inefficient generation of panels. Corollary to this, if one could create and utilise energy in space, production itself could one day be shifted to space.

As Virgin Galactic prepare their first commercial space launch, Spaceonomics is shaping up to be a topic of study that will move away from the cabals of sci-fi fans and into the lives of everybody else. NEER SHARMA is a third year Economics student at UCL.

The benefits of being able to utilise the opportunities

35 newturn November 2011

HISTORY

Debt

The Other Side of the Deficit Is public debt one of the cornerstones of democracy? BY HANDAN WIESHMANN

Recently

, no two words have become more synonymous with economic doom than Government Debt. In August the world’s largest economy, the United States lost its AAA credit rating due an inadequate deficit reduction plan. Worse still, European leaders struggle to come to an agreement on a solution to the Euro zone crisis. With Boris Johnson advising that Greece be allowed to go bankrupt and increasing concern over whether the European Monetary Union will survive, it may seem ridiculous to suggest that government debt is anything other than the evil root of political uncertainty. But is it possible that sovereign debt may be an essential feature of democracy? “Let us be, say I, a Nation Deep in Debt, rather than a Nation of Slaves owing nothing.” These are the words of an anonymous English pamphleteer writing in 1719 at the emergence of an idea that there was indeed a connection between political freedom and public debt. By 1815, this concept was widely accepted, with the French Minister of Finance declaring, “Liberty and credit are always united.” While Enlightenment thinkers looked to the rights of man for roots of political freedom, it is now evident that 21st century democracy was in fact an economic imperative. Through the history of the world the most advanced societies have been autocratic regimes, headed by emperors. Democratic institutions arose and flourished, as they were what provided nations with the legitimacy that they needed to borrow. Arguably it is not to the abstract ideals of liberty that we owe the continued existence of our democracy, but to the need for war finance from the 17th century onwards. A state can only borrow from its citizens when the two are one; their interests united. A nation’s need to borrow is a powerful impetus for legitimate and representative government.

Although the current political furore may suggest otherwise, sovereign debt crises have been prevalent for centuries. The Stuart Kings of 17th century Britain

“Let us be, say I, a Nation Deep in Debt, rather than a Nation of Slaves owing nothing.” 36

newturn.org.uk

liable for the obligations incurred by their government. The concept of national debt was born and soon fiscal revenue only represented 10 percent of national income. Far from being an economic hindrance, the increase in borrowing on a national level accelerated growth and manufacturing. It led to the transportation revolution and enabled property rights reforms. It was an essential precursor to the Industrial Revolution. Politically, the need to borrow brought about an important institutional change and granted parliament an unprecedented level of power. The creation of national debt established a mutual interest, forging interdependency between king, parliament and citizens: a crude but integral framework, around which the more lofty aspirations of democracy could flourish.

bounced incessantly between fiscal and debt crises, their access to credit strictly limited by the absence of any credible commitment to repay. How many creditors would continue to lend to a monarch who could suspend his debt on a whim? However, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, which saw King James II overthrown by a union between parliamentarians and William of Orange, brought with it institutional restrictions on borrowing. From 1688 onwards all budgets were voted on by parliament - a representative body of the nation. Thus, the people of the nation as a whole became

The contemporary discourse asks who benefits when the state borrows? Who pays? It calls into question the moral foundation for this behaviour, for this â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;culture of greedâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. These questions are far from new. Political theorists and commentators through history have watched with unease as the nation state increasingly indebts itself on its citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behalf. The issue is at the crux of, perhaps the first great ideological debate of the modern world: the question of capitalism.

Democracy cannot survive if the operations of the markets remain closed

37 newturn November 2011

HISTORY

Debt France argues, “In a modern capitalist system characterised by an increasingly complex interdependency between the state and financial markets, emphasis must be on utmost transparency if democracy is to survive.” Put simply, democracy cannot function correctly if the operations of the financial markets are closed; neither subject to public inspection, nor regulated by representative institutions.

With every economic crisis, history must inform our solutions. This one is no different. Britain’s 17th century debt crisis was not resolved by the development of new and increasingly complex financial instruments. Institutional change, which struck to the core of the problem, was needed. Germany and France broke the Growth and Stability Pact three years in a row from 2000 onwards, their annual deficits exceeding the maximum 3% of GDP, yet faced no sanction. Perhaps before proposing the introduction of EuroThis can be seen most clearly in the creation of the bonds and other such innovations the European leaUnited States. In 1789, following the war against the ders should question the institutions, which failed to British the new nation prevent EU countries found itself saddled History shows us what must invafrom engaging in reckwith debt. Alexander borrowing. Sarkozy riably accompany sovereign debt: less Hamilton proposed may think Greece should to completely refi- political accountability never have been let into nance and charter the EU, yet it was France the First Bank of the United States to allow the naand Germany who initially undermined the debt constion to keep borrowing. He believed that in order to traints of the union. prosper the US had to be able to borrow like Great Britain could. Hamilton envisioned America as a naNational borrowing was undoubtedly a driving force tion founded on commerce with sophisticated finanin the development of the democratic nation state. cial markets that would finance the state and promote However, it is easy to see why many today see the concommercial development and manufacturing. This cept as a menace, a heavy millstone around our necks, vision was harshly challenged by contemporaries such a burden even to those who are not yet born. In April as Jefferson and Franklin. They believed that far from of this year, the CPS estimated the UK public debt at ensuring civil liberties, public debt bred inequality £138,360 per household. It seems, now more than and rendered one part of the population slaves to anoever, we must collectively remind ourselves what the ther; an argument still resonant amongst protestors state owes us when it becomes so indebted; namely an on Wall Street over two centuries later. alignment of its interests with ours. Never has it been more important to scrutinise the financial operations One wonders what Hamilton would say if he could see of our governments and to demand what history shows the world today. Financial markets are now so comus must invariably accompany sovereign debt: political plex that the link between representative government accountability. and public finance risks being severed entirely. François Rachline, professor at the Institut d’Etudes PoliHANDAN WIESHMAN is currently studying Ecotiques in Paris and Special Advisor to the President of nomics at Science Po in Paris. She is a third year Eurothe Economic, Social and Environmental Council in pean Social and Political Studies student at UCL.

CULT

URE

52 Powerless in Art

Can Ai Weiweiâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s Art be deemed politically impotent?

ESSAY

Scotland

Hollywood’s Myths and History’s Misapprehensions Political Realities and Political Fallacies: An Insight into Scotland’s Nationalism. BY MATTHEW BREMNER

In the

chronicles of European history the Nationalist ideology is soaked blood. On each of the pages documenting its rise, one finds only racism, political disharmony and tales of wretched human action. Yet, in the feel-good rhetoric of Hollywood, Nationalism is projected as a force for good - a shining hope in the face of subjugation. On silver screens all over the world, fictitious nations offer us a vicarious fight against political tyranny and social suppression. As polar opposites, history documents the detestation, while Hollywood the glorification of the Nationalist cause. However, can we use these commentaries to help us better comprehend contemporary versions of Nationalism? In Scotland’s case, the answer is almost certainly no. Indeed, these conflicting accounts serve only to obfuscate and prejudice notions of the Scottish political situation. Persuasive and dissuasive, where they should not be, such accounts create a false consciousness and answer pertinent political questions with extreme and often irrelevant answers. To understand Scotland’s Nationalism, we must first dispel the myths of Hollywood, and second, reassure the apprehensions of a beaten and bruised history. It is only in

light of this that one might understand Scotland’s true political reality. Throughout the history of Hollywood cinema there have been hoards of films in which one culture or society is singled out as being better or more moral than another. This “higher morality”, as it were, is awarded for no other reason than that one society or culture is being oppressed by another more powerful culture or society. Braveheart for example, a film “documenting” the Scottish Wars of Independence, is a piece of popular cinema where this idea is palpable. In Mel Gibson’s epic, you have on one side, the dominant, yet morally repugnant English and on the other the oppressed, but noble Scots. Scotland has, as the Australian eulogises, been “murdered, raped and pillaged” by England for over a thousand years. It is a very dubious historical claim from a very dubious film, but one which, regardless, sees the tartan clad “Virgin Mary‘s” secure the moral high ground from the cloven-hoofed English Lords. We are thus presented with a classic “Good versus Evil story”.

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However, lurking in this shaky parable is the notion that the Scots are only “good” because they have never had enough power to be considered evil; the Scot’s inferiority is thus supplanted by a notion of ethical purity, and so a type of moral superiority. In this sense the film is quite biblical: the small, but bright David versus the large, but cumbersome Goliath. Yet, it is also grossly ersatz, because what the film defines as “good” is only “good” in light of its moral mediation by an “evil” force. And moreover, because this morality is what defines the Scots, their identity is primarily based on political suppression and the need to fight against it. Such a depiction is utterly false because the film does not consider that the English might, in fact, be as ethical as the Scots. From this one can ask a more pertinent question: in what way is it justifiable to award a higher morality to one nation on the basis of its inferiority to another more dominant nation? The answer is: it is not. With this in mind, the Hollywood sentiment that Scottish national identity is constructed out of its animosity towards the ruling Westminster Parliament is complete nonsense. Scotland is bound by an inherently held notion of its own identity and not by the presence of a quasiforeign state threatening to oppress it. To understand this, one must realise that national identity and Nationalism are discrete phenomena. It is true that a unified sense of national identity can spark and strengthen nationalist ideology, but it doesn’t necessarily need a Nationalist ideology for it to exist. Indeed, Scotland, formed in its current geo-political boundaries around one thousand years ago, could be said not to exist at all- it is not a state and Scottish people are legally British. Yet, ask most Scots who they think they are, and they well vehemently declaim that they are Scottish, and that their identity is profoundly distinct from the identity of the nation which ostensibly rules them. National identity in Scotland is intrinsic and

Illustration by Matthew Dale

To understand Scotland’s Nationalism, we must first dispel the myths of Hollywood.

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ESSAY

Scotland

Hungary’s centre-right government- whose objective to preserve Hungary for Hungarians is becoming ever more racist.

constructed from the grass roots level up, and not by the rhetoric of the state. In short, it is neither diminished nor exacerbated by being part of a union; it exists independently. To prove this phenomenon we need look no further than Europe: Germany is no less German because it is part of the wider European Union, nor France any less French.

Related to this vision of Nationalism, Scottish Nationalism is quite different. In a conversation with the former Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish National Party member ( SNP) George Reid, he described most of the party as “pragmatic liberals” who in no way retain the chauvinistic tendencies of past Nationalist politicians. He believes that they are a coherent party, whose objective is not to hate everyone else but to rule Scotland effectively. In his mind, such an objective is not achieved by flagrantly protecting Scottish culture or reaffirming state myths, but by implementing the type of economic and social policy which best caters for its people. And this has proven to be true. The success of the SNP, and part of the reason for their election to majority government, lies not in the constant use of nationalist rhetoric, but in the dearth of its use. The SNP have proven that national identity is just as effectively preserved through political competence as it is by cultural sealants and rhetorical reaffirmations. Ask most Scottish people why they voted SNP, and they conclude that their decision was made, not out of mad nationalist fervour, but because they believed them to be the best and most competent party in Scottish politics.

Given that the Hollywood view of Scottish Nationalism is at best flimsy, what is it in history that makes Nationalism such a precarious proposition? Nationalism, as an ideology, is a political principle which stipulates that a group of people should protect and preserve its society and its culture, and where, according to the Anthropologist Ernest Gellner, the politics and the nation should be commensurate with one another. In the past, Nationalists, having built metaphorical barricades around their cultures, have sought to re-affirm their identities with historically centred rhetoric, to confirm pre-existing patriotic sentiment, and in doing so legitimise their cultural regimes. Historically, Nationalism of this type has always been an elite project; a vision that has often lead to extreme racism and war. Take Serbia, under Milosevic, Nazi Germany’s expansionist Nationalism under Hitler, the civil unrest in Sri Lanka and, in contemporary times,

Fictitious nations offer us a vicarious fight against political tyranny and social suppression. 42 newturn.org.uk

Moreover, even the most seemingly nationalist SNP policy: the wish to break away from the United Kingdom, is, in actual fact, not na-

The frontage of the architecturally controversial Scottish parliament in Edinburgh

tionalist at all. If Scotland were to go independent, Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, has indicated that he would join the European Union and adopt the Euro currency. In carrying out such a policy he would be entering into a much larger union than the one he would be leaving; a quite atypical move for a Nationalist party.

part of such a Super –state does not worry Scottish Nationalists. Indeed, according to George Reid, this Federalised Europe is an end goal which he and many SNPs believe in.

Alas, even if there were any residual traces of hard line Nationalism in Salmond’s party, the direction of global politics would doubtless suck them up. Indeed, with the sovereign debt crisis becoming ever more volatile, many commentators have advocated a greater fiscal unity throughout Europe. Such a unity would most likely precipitate the introduction of Eurobonds, with countries like Germany and France being able to underwrite the debt of the poorer Eurozone countries in return for a stake in their economies. With the pooling of national revenues and the increased tax harmonisation that would undoubtedly follow, there is a strong likelihood that we might bear witness to the formation of a “United States of Europe”. In this type of union Scotland would be rid of all of its nationalistic ticks because it would be forced to become part of a multicultural Super-state. Therefore Scottish independence would not result in a triumph for Nationalism, but in a victory for pragmatic cosmopolitanism. However, it seems becoming

So, in light of these revelations how can we define Scotland’s brand of Nationalism? Well, by no means should it be construed that Scotland is some sort of political utopia, nor should people believe that the SNP are political purity personified; Alex Salmond is no “morally cleansed” William Wallace at the battle of Stirling Bridge. In reality, Scotland is a Post-Nationalist country, a country which seeks to retain a strong sense of itself, while at the same time lending its resources to aid unified political goals. Adapting George Clemenceau’s famous phrase, Scotland can be understood to be patriotic rather than nationalistic; patriotic because it fosters an affection for its own identity and non-nationalistic because it does not hate everyone else.

Scotland, as a country, could be said not to exist at all.

MATTHEW BREMNER is the deputy editor in chief and Culture editor of Newturn Magazine.

43 newturn November 2011

A Remnant of an Empty

PHOTOS BY IZABELLA DEMAVLYS

Invasion

During

my wanderings through Kabul, Afghanistan in the autumn of 2009, a friend of mine took me to the top of the Wazir Akbar Khan Hill. There is an Olympic size pool, built by the Soviet forces during the 1980s. However, it has never been used for swimming. The Soviets thought it too costly to pump the water up to such an elevation and so left it empty and unused. In the mid - 1990s the Taliban used the pool for executions - pushing wrongdoers from the top diving board to their deaths. Those who survived this mighty fall were deemed innocent and were allowed to walk free. Naturally, not many people survived, and so innocence remained rare. Today the pool has a less gruesome use, it is now mainly used as a popular location for watching sunsets, skateboarding or just playing around. When it rains the pools deepest corners fill up with water and the children swim there; for a brief moment it is used as intended.

IZABELLA DEMAVLYS made her name in 2009 when her series â&#x20AC;&#x153;Without a Faceâ&#x20AC;&#x153;, a set of portraits of acid attack victims, was featured in Vogue. She studied photography at the Royal Institute of Technology in Melbourne and at the Parsons School of Design in New York.

THE DECKS

Showcase

Is Hip Hop Dead? It didn’t take Nas’ 2006 album “Hip Hop is Dead” for people to become aware of the dark age Hip Hop has descended into. We are surrounded by Autotune mutated, polystyrene sounding R’n’B, which imbeciles now blasphemously refer to as Hip Hop. The following albums enlighten these gloomy times, and suggest “No” for an answer. BY PATRICK SLAWINSKI The Journey Aflame by Akua Naru - Jakarta Records (2011) “I‘ve got the jazz like A Tribe Called Q“. These are the self-confident words Akua Naru uses to describe her nostalgic take on contemporary Hip Hop.Lyrics with courageous statements, sample-based beats and influences ranging from afro-rhythms to John Mayer’s “I Don‘t Trust Myself”–watch this space.

The Meseket by fLako - Project Mooncircle (2011) In fact, HipHop can‘t be dead, if its future has already been written. Project Mooncircle is an up-and-coming label project from Berlin, which has become the home of beat-maker fLako, whose edgy, break-beat instrumentals are amongst the most interesting productions in recent years.

Marcberg by Roc Marciano -- Fat Beats (2010) An attention grabbing newcomer straight from Long Island, New York. Discovered by Busta Rhymes, he used to drop beats for the compilations of Pete Rock and Wu Tang Clan and is bringing the rugged Boom-Bap-Flavour of the 90s back into your ears.

Black Up by Shabazz Palaces – Black Up/Sub Pop (2011) Who the fuck is Shabazz Palaces? He tried hard to prevent the discovery of his real identity by refusing any kind of promotion for his album Black Up, only to be identified as Ishmael „Butterfly“ Butler, a former member of Digable Planets. Complex, prescient, thrilling. PATRICK SLAWINSKI aka Meister Buson is a music journalist, dj and producer from Munich. He has worked with Hip Hop artists such as Gramatik, Suff Daddy and Electric Wire Hustle.

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Bride Price

DEVELOPMENT

“How much are you worth girl?” How money is distorting an age old tradition in the Soloman Islands. BY KIRAN FLYNN

“It’s a big price”

says Falu, looking at her cousin during the bride price ceremony, dripping in traditional shell money and Solomon Islands dollar bills. “I don’t want a price that high. If your price is that high, your husband’s family will see you as theirs. They will never let you come home again.” Bride price is a practiced tradition in many communities across Africa, Asia and the South Pacific, and it has been for thousands of years. In Solomon Islands, it involves the prospective husband and his family giving an agreed amount of money, traditional gifts, livestock and other goods to the bride’s family. It has strong cultural significance and is a valued tradition by many. Traditionally, bride price was used to symbolise the release and exchange of a girl from one authority, family, clan or community to another. However, as the human rights movement gathered momentum over the last 50 years, bride price has come under increased criticism. In 2009 the UN identified bride price in the South Pacific as a ‘harmful practice’. “I don’t want my father to set a high price for me,” Falu remarks “because then I can’t marry somebody I want to. If my price is too high, it will scare them away, and I will have to marry someone who I don’t like as much because he can afford it.” UNICEF argued in 2004 that with the move to cash economy in the South Pacific, bride price tradition has become distorted, with the bride being seen as more of a commodity. Girls’ families set high bride prices because there is temptation to seek profit from their daughters. However, high bride price can have much more sinister implications. Solomon Islands has one of the highest rates of domestic violence in the world, with over 66% of women and

girls known to have experienced violence at the hands of their spouses. It is argued by many international organisations that bride price promotes the perception of women as property - an idea which sees women lose their human status, and become more regularly the victim of violent acts. A study by AusAid, the Australian aid program, reported one man saying “I bought her for $5,000 (about £500). I can do anything with her. She’s my property, not yours.” “Bride price is an important tradition in our country,” says Doris Ria’golo, gender specialist for the Solomon Islands organisation Family Protection Group. “But it’s being used to justify violence, and society is just accepting this. The problem is not necessarily the practice of bride price, it is men’s attitude towards women. If we can tackle this issue, then maybe we can continue the practice.” Vanuatu, a neighbouring country of Solomon Islands, passed a law in 2008 specifying that bride price is not a defence to prosecution in domestic violence cases. The UN recommends this action to other countries, identifying it as ‘sound legislative practice’. Although the general international aid community is not working directly to halt the practice, it is working on stopping domestic violence and promoting gender equality. “Her husband is a good man” says Falu, as the festively adorned trucks take her cousin away to her new marital home. “We hope she will have a good life with him, and that he will not beat her.” KIRAN FLYNN was a finalist for the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition 2011. She studies History at SOAS.

49 newturn November 2011

CINEMASCOPE

Art House

The Greek New Weird Wave instantaneously been categorised as a “movement”, with critics christening them both, the ‘Greek New Wave’ and the ‘Greek Weird Wave”. But this ‘wave’ is more extraordinary and has more oddities than just its double moniker. Indeed, a significant idiosyncrasy of this movement is that international film communities consistently recognise only two of its directors. While the films of Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari have gained international success, the six feature-length films between them represent a ripple in a paddling pool, rather than a wave of a serious cinematic revolution. While speaking at the London Film Festival to promote Alps (directed by Lanthimos and produced by Tsangari), both directors appeared reticent to claim that their films were anything more than individual pursuits. The movement’s talisman, Yorgos Lanthimos gained

A ‘movement’ made out of six films and a ‘wave’ with two names: at the moment Greece is the home of original cinema. But is it enough for it to be baptized a wave? BY CHRISTO HALL

During

the last few years, a drove of peculiar and ambitious films has been steadily making its way out of Greece. Unmistakable in their style and absurd in their humour these films have almost

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critical success and an academy award nomination two years ago with his third feature, Dogtooth [2009]. The style and indeed the story of the film would not look out of place in the portfolio of Michael Haneke or Lars von Trier. In the scenes in the house Lanthimos imprisons his characters through CCTV-style cinematography in a similar style to Haneke’s Hidden [2005], while the suffering of the three teenage children at the hands of their parent’s thematically echoes another of Haneke’s films, The Seventh Continent [1989]. But what separates Lanthimos from Haneke is his fusion of hyperrealism and fantasy, and an injection of a ferly sense of humour. Dogtooth is a dark film, filled with unnerving outbursts of violence and tyranny, and yet it finds time to engage the audience with genuinely funny absurdism. The success of Dogtooth is certainly the catalyst for the

Lanthimos‘ films are filled with unnerving outbursts of violence and yet they find time to engage the audience with genuinely funny absurdism excitement surrounding modern Greek cinema, but since its success, two further titles have achieved international awareness and reinforced this perceived revolution. Athina Rachel Tsangari’s Attenberg is a film that reimagines a David Attenborough style documentary, where the animalistic behaviour remains, despite the apes being human. The lead character, Marina, played by Ariane Labed, repudiates civilised society, opting to live out a life of instinct and whimsy. Well received on the festival circuit, Attenberg is a film which encompasses many of Dogtooth’s curiosities and filmic nuances, and although these are perhaps less well-integrated than in Lanthimos’s film, its cinematic voice is still very potent. Meanwhile, Alps, first screened at Venice in September and premiered in the UK at the London Film Festival in October, is Lanthimos’ follow-up to Dogtooth. Like Dogtooth, Alps explores the dynamics of an irregular group, commands a similar use of stripped down tone and peculiar humour in its dialogue, and like Attenberg, critiques the human condition. The film, starring Attenberg’s Ariane Labed, follows the story of a company who call themselves ‘Alps’- a group whose “unique selling proposition” is as a provider of custom-made services to the relatives of the recently deceased. However, these “services” aren’t quite the ones you might expect from your local undertaker.

51 newturn November 2011

CINEMASCOPE Art House In Alps, Mont Blanc (portrayed here by Aris Servetalis) heads the organisation, which provides an unusual service for the bereaved by offering to take on the lives of their deceased loved ones.

Indeed, request the assistance of the ‘Alps company’ and they will physically replace your loved The frequent nudity and sex in their films is one for you - providing a ‘staff member’ who will not portrayed as the least bit erotic – sex act out real scenes from your relative’s life, so as is functional, abhorred and occupational. become them in the present . It is a plot which speaks of filling the void created by physically Koutras, sex and sexuality is often the cardinal leitmorecreating the past. And it is from this that the film tif of modern Greek cinema. Lanthimos and Tsangari challenges the necessity of human beings to perpetuare taking this into a new direction in the sense that the ally seek substitutes for their loved ones: whether it be frequent nudity and sex in their films is not portrayed a mother for a wife, a friend abroad for a friend at home as the least bit erotic – sex is functional (Dogtooth), abor a child for a pet. Therefore, the labels of this new horred (Attenberg) and occupational (Alps). trend in Greek cinema seem to be validated - the subBut we shouldn’t forget that the ‘wave’ is the work of ject matters explored in these three films are eccentric media dyspepsia. Critics struggle to digest a fresh style and nebulous, hence weird, and due to the media attenof filmmaking and so belch out a title that neatly mertion paid to these films, they are considered a wave. But ges those films that are variables and outliers, films that is there really a wave, weird or not? are yet to be swallowed up by media consensus. Only For a cinematic movement to exist it is unfair to expect four years ago, after 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days an immutable theme, yet it requires at the very least won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the critics applied the cohesion between its authors. The most famous wave customary ‘New Wave’ title to Romanian cinema. Inof them all, the French New Wave of the 50s and 60s deed, people were talking of a wave after 12:08 East of were a bona fide collective; the concepts for their films Bucharest [2006], which was the second Romanian titwere borne out of their residency at the film kibbutz of le to pick up an award in Cannes in two years, following the magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Lanthimos and TsanThe Death of Mr Lazarescu in 2005. gari do produce for one another, but this, as they have If this current set of Greek filmmakers is to be consideopenly admitted, is mostly out of necessity. Indeed this red an actual wave then they must claim their solidarity, necessity derives from the fact that the Greek film inand follow the precepts set by Lanthimos and Tsangadustry is still very much in its infancy, and because, unri. It is only through focused artistic collaboration that surprisingly, the Greek government have not been ththey will produce an industry strong and able enough, rowing oodles of cash at the arts of late. Nevertheless, it to create new and exciting talent. Until then, the new can be asserted that Greek cinema has undergone a reGreek avant-garde will be no more than a ripple. volution, and a highly sexualised one at that. Beginning CHRISTO HALL with Michalis Reppas and Thanassis Papathanasiou’s is the Co-Editor of the New Wolf Magazine Safe Sex [1999], and notably the work of Panos H.

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Critique

ART

Powerless in Art

the occasional critic. Unsurprisingly, then, the criteria by which the entrants are ranked is rather broad – according to the magazine’s website ,‘financial clout’ can secure one’s place amongst the art world’s almighty almost as much as actual artistic production. It is therefore quite fitting that the highest ranking figure, Ai Weiwei, is a man who ticks many boxes; he is a leading figure in the contemporary art world, a founder member of a widely acclaimed avant-garde group, a polymath whose works range from photography to furniture design, and is the son of one of China’s most famous poets to boot. In Britain, he is perhaps best known, in purely artistic terms, for his 2010 Tate Modern, Turbine Hall commission, ‘Sunflower Seeds’. At present, however, he seems equally renowned for his political activism. Openly critical about the Chinese authorities - both in his works and in interviews and articles - he has even been incarcerated for his outspokenness (earlier this year he was imprisoned for 81 days; though this was, according to the Chinese authorities, for ‘economic crimes’ only).

Ai Weiwei has been the figure in modern art over the last two years. However, his personal politics and artistic creations have often become entangled - his words seem more powerful than his works. Can Ai Weiwei’s art be deemed politically impotent? By Thomas Santayana

Art Review

magazine has recently released its annual listing of the art world’s ‘most powerful figures’. These include not only artists, but also gallerists, curators, collectors, and even

However, it is this political involvement which hints at an interesting question concerning Ai Weiwei’s

53 newturn November 2011

ART Critique

Even Picassso’s Guernica was hung behind on-going UN discussions about marching into Iraq. position on Art Review’s list: to what extent has his ranking been determined by his power as a political activist? The answer, I contend, is dependent on the aspect of his activism that one chooses to focus on. Art Review suggests that they have considered both ‘his works and his words’, both his ‘influence beyond the strict sphere of art’ and his actual artistic productions. As regards his words, I will not disagree; though I am sceptical about using his ‘influence outside the sphere of art’ as a justification for his ranking. His works, however, are a different story; had Art Review focused only on the political power of his art, then he should not even have made the list.

ca’, an immeasurably powerful condemnation of war and its atrocities, ended up, in tapestry form, hanging in the background amidst the UN’s discussions about marching into Iraq. In the middle of the 20th Century, when there was comparatively more hope, Adorno, the Hegelian Marxist, held an aesthetic theory which still gave art a role to play politically – art was to reflect the radically ‘evil’ character of the world, through being disturbing, unsettling, and ‘atonal’ (a paradigm case is the music of Schoenberg), and was to set itself up in opposition to the ‘false totality’. Today, this pessimistic doctrine seems overly optimistic. Indeed, if the belief that there is no alternative is so pervasive, oppositional art will only add to the despair, without in any way alleviating the paralysis of passivity.

Now, this is not to say that he does not deserve the number one spot – he is, after all, a precocious polymath who meets much of the criteria for inclusion in the rankings. Nor is it a criticism of his art. Rather, it is a comment on the state of the world that we inhabit, and the political climate which predominates. A reality which has been described as ‘Capitalist Realism’, a term used to describe the pessimistic quiestism in which the majority of us seem stuck – we are unhappy with the way the world (the West, more accurately) is run, but nevertheless we think that there is no alternative, that there is no hope for change. We accept, in other words, a twisted parody of Leibniz’s infamous claim – this is the best of all possible systems, yet it is entirely abominable.

Given a climate such as this, it is no surprise that Ai Weiwei, as an artist, believes himself to be politically powerless. Perhaps the climate is soon to change, and in such a way that political art will once again be more than merely intellectually stimulating, or an exercise in consciousness-raising, which will inevitably yield no action. Or perhaps there is still room for an effective oppositional art – however, if this is so, I have not yet discovered it. So, for now, in spite of Art Review’s new list, I retain the conviction that art, today, is politically impotent.

How, then, in a reality such as this, can we begin to justify the thought that art, particularly Ai Weiwei’s, is genuinely politically effective? Even Picasso’s ‘Guerni-

THOMAS SANTAYANA is an influential Peruvian philosopher and art critic.

MAILBOX Send us your thoughts on this issue‘s articles.The best letters will be published. Letters to the editor, with the writer‘s name and occupation/Uni should be emailed to the respective editors: POLITICS nicolas.kostov@newturn.org.uk, ECONOMICS adam.coleman@newturn.org.uk, CULTURE matthewbremner@newturn.org.uk Letters may be edited for reasons of space and clarity.

54 newturn.org.uk

10 Myths About Afghanistan & Rebuilding a Nation Jonathan Steele,

Guardian columnist, foreign correspondent and author of the recently published TUESDAY book "Ghosts of Afghanistan"

29 NOVEMBER

Queen Mary University. Francis Bancroft Building, David Sizer Lecture Theatre, London • 6.00 PM

rsi ve ty

NOVEMBER

Lo nd

Lord Maurice Glasman,

THURSDAY

i Un

Making the Labour Party Electable in 2012

inventor of the term 'Blue Labour', a small-C conservative form of socialism that returns to the roots of pre-1945 Labour.

Un n 0

•6 PM

newturn 1st Issue