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In the Mail
The Vienna Review September 2011
Media Monitor Terrorism’s Right Hand
Metternich and Terror See also Austria News Briefs
NEWS, Nr.30, Jul. 28
Terror in Norway: Opinions Andreas Mölzer, FPÖ Member of Parliament: “The Norway tragedy is an act of insanity. Anybody trying to cash in on this event politically should be ashamed. Now the FPÖ has to listen to the Left accusing it of providing the ideological breeding ground for such madness. Why is it our fault if this mass murderer refers to Islamic fundamentalism? It would be equally untenable to say the SPÖ lays the ground for such tragedies by supporting mass immigration and tolerance for Islamic fundamentalism. However, I do see merit in the idea of reducing the level of aggression in political debate. A brutalized language creates an aggressive atmosphere. But the Left and the Right have to disarm simultaneously. We want that to happen. Does anybody think I enjoy being called a Nazi all the time?” Gerhard Botz, historian: “The FPÖ recognizes that hate-preachers help prepare the terrorist attacks of Islamic fundamentalists. So why should the reverse not also be true?”
Die Presse, Jul. 25
Michael Fleischhacker: One simply has to move on to business as usual “Any attempt to point at the sources of a psychopath’s confused fantasies in order to discredit one’s political opponents is tantamount to exploiting the victims. This has begun with the publication of [Anders Breivik’s] 1500page “manifesto” [which reveals] the hubs tapped by the 32-year-old’s sick personality for material to satisfy his uncontrolled power fantasies. […] Whoever scans Breivik’s “manifesto” won’t read much that one couldn’t find in online postings to everyday politics, internationally. […] Among those who let their hair down in those postings, are many who lead honourable, civil lives in the real world. One should trust that violent excesses, like the ones in Oslo and Utøya, lead to a degree of self-reflection. To denounce people who are struggling to cope with the social changes wrought by immigration and cultural globalization as inciters to terrorism doesn’t solve the problem. One can only move on to business as usual. And the first priority of that business should be to ask how debates about the chances and risks inherent in our new social realities can be transferred from the aggressive anonymity of the virtual world back into political discourse.”
Der Standard, Jul. 26
Hans Rauscher: Myths from Oslo “When [a killer] has commented extensively on politics - by announcing the “saving of Europe from cultural Marxism and islamization”; by rote-reciting the classical canon of right-wing extremists, Christian fundamentalists, and EU-haters; by obsessively lecturing on the Ottoman Siege of Vienna of 1683; by referring to Europe’s “anti-foreigner parties”, incl. the FPÖ […] - then one may infer that this man has also been influenced by the agitation of anti-immigration parties and media. No, one may not. At least not according to the Editor in Chief of Die Presse [see above]. […] So, to trace the killer’s ideological roots is a no-no for the conservative Presse. Its Editor would rather coolly “move on to business as usual” – so that Strache, Wilders and Co. aren’t held to account?”
Vienna
NEWS, Nr.30, Jul.28
Terror in Norway: Opinions Johanna Mikl-Leitner, ÖVP, Minister of Interior: “[The Norway attacks] were the doing of a lone perpetrator. Only a fifth of the crimes committed by [Austrian] right-wing extremists can be attributed to the organized scene; the rest to the un-organized one. In our assessment, there is currently no threat to Austria, but we can’t exclude the possibility of copycat crimes. […] The security services must be given the instruments to identify suspected individuals in advance. […] If there are no indications for a crime, the data will, of course, be deleted, to avoid turning people’s private lives into “glass houses”. But: data protection may not turn into terror protection.”
Die Zeit, Jul. 28
Joachim Riedl: Heimat and Terror “Already at his first appearance in court, Breivik claimed that […] his comrades in the ‘Vienna School of Thought’ would soon follow his example, to repel the current Third Ottoman Siege. […] While Scandinavians intend to confront the racist terror in their country with an offensive of democratic virtues, the government in Vienna plans to give in to the pressure of the Minister of Interior and take another step towards a surveillance state by reinforcing antiterror laws. This, too, could be called the Vienna School of Thought.”
The Homecoming by Dardis McNamee Editor in Chief The paper you hold in your hands is historic! This is the first issue of the New Vienna Review, now in partnership with the Falter Verlag, forming The Vienna Review Publishing GmbH, and launching this small, non-profit paper into the larger world of professional publishing in Austria. It is a good time. Vienna is more international than ever. Thirty-three per cent of Viennese today are foreign born. Most of these foreigners, who have made a home in Austria, have long involved stories to tell: often byzantine sagas about professional goals or the longing for adventure, of loves found and lost, languages butchered, loyalties tested –about new challenges, and old fears. And along the way, small victories, new insights and gradually, a feeling of belonging. One of these stories is my story. And thus it was, on a sunny afternoon in early June, that I made my way over to the courtyard of Vienna City Hall for the Fest der neuen WienerInnen – the Celebration of new Austrian citizens who live in Vienna.
Gender Justice Die Zeit, Aug 4.
Maria Sterkl: The judiciary is female Men no longer set the tone in the Austrian judiciary: the majority of judges are female. […] At the beginning of the 80s, less than one in ten judges was female (in the Tyrol only one in twenty). Ten years ago, the proportion of women stood at 35%. Today, it is 51%, and among judges in training even 68%. […] But the higher proportion of female judges is not celebrated as a further landmark in women’s emancipation. [Political scientist Birgitt Haller says that] “In our society, every profession which employs a lot of women becomes devalued.” Declining respect for the judiciary would have fatal consequences. […] Charlotte Schillhammer, [Vice-President of the Judges’ Association], observes a “sad development”: “in any field that many women push into, the men withdraw.” Similarly, Barbara Helige [a judge at the commercial court, Handelsgericht, in Vienna] views the smaller proportion of men as “worrying”: “it is a cause for concern when a part of the population feels increasingly unrepresented by the judiciary.” But the judiciary, too, has a glass ceiling […]: the higher levels of jurisdiction are still more likely to be the preserves of men, especially the highest courts. Women make up less than a third of the full members at the constitutional court [Verfassungsgerichtshof]; at the supreme administrative court [Verwaltungsgerichtshof] the proportion of women is even a dire 19%. “You will take my wife’s side anyway,” men sometimes say to Helige [who often deals with divorced couples in her court]. Perhaps women facing male judges have a similar feeling. “But they would never say so.”
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eview is a journal of news and opinion covering the life and times of Vienna, Austria and the wider Central European region, ten times a year. Published by: The Vienna Review Publishing GmbH, Marc-Aurel Straße 9, 1010 Vienna, Austria. T: +43-1-536 60-0, F: +43-1-536 60-912. Editorial Office: T: +43-1-536 60-612, E: editor@viennareview.net www.viennareview.net Subscription service: T: +43-1-536 60-928, E: subscriptions@viennareview.net.
Editor in Chief, Publisher, Director, Vienna Journalism Institute: Dardis McNamee. Managing Editor: Laurence Doering. Associate Editor: Cristina Rotaru. Austrian News Editor: John Hodgshon. City Editor: Sara Friedman. Book Reviewers: Mary Albon, David Warren. On the Town Editor: Cynthia Peck. Scenes Editor: Grigory Borodavkin. Contributing Writers: Stanley Hale, Saleha Waqar. Editors at Large: MTM Childs, Christian Cummins, Mazin Elfehaid, Matthias Wurz. Assistant to the Publisher: Jodi Keen. Jazz and Film Critic: Phillip Ellison. Psychology in Vienna: Krista Rothchild. Nights at the Opera: Oliver MacDonald. All that Jazz: Jean-Pascal Vachon. Stones of Vienna: Duncan J.D. Smith. Notes from Nature: S.R. Hughes. Photographers: David Reali, Lauren Brassaw. Illustrators: Judann Weichselbraun, Katharina Klein. Produced by: Falter Verlagsgesellschaft m.b.H., Marc-Aurel-Straße 9, 1010 Wien, Layout: Marion Großschädl, Raphael Moser. Proof Readers: Cynthia Peck, Christopher Anderson, Peter Diller. Advertising Manager: Sigrid Johler, T: +43-1-536 60-952, E: johler@ falter.at. Advertising Coordinator: Franz Krassnitzer, T: +43-1-536 60-940, E: krassnitzer@falter.at. Subscription service: Birgit Bachinger, T: +43-1-536 60-928, E: subscriptions@viennareview.net. Managing Director: Siegmar Schlager. Distribution & Retail: Morawa. P.b.b., Verlagspostamt: 1011 Wien. All rights reserved.
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From the Editor
Editor Dardis McNamee
Photo: AnuKoruma
The Vienna Review Letters to the Editor An Open letter to Viviane Reding and Thomas Hammarberg EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, and Commissioner for Human Rights for the Council of Europe Dear Commissioners, On Jul. 12, Hungary’s Parliament passed a “church law” depriving over 100 religious denominations of their official status, in blatant violation of the freedom and equality of religions enshrined in Art. 10 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Art. 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Only fourteen Christian and Jewish denominations retained their recognition as official churches and the rights that come with it. All the Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu congregations were denied accreditation, along with the Methodist, Pentecostal, and Adventist churches, the Salvation Army, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Reform Judaism, to name but a few. Many of the now de-registered churches have been leaders in providing social services for the homeless, the elderly and the poor, as well as supporting marginalised groups such as Roma and prison inmates. Overnight, these services were stripped of their lawful subsidies, paving the way to a social disaster. Similarly, many of the cast-out churches have been running successful schools which will now be denied accreditation. Most worryingly, the new church law undoes the separation of religious and political institutions achieved in Hungary’s democratic transition twenty years ago. To re-gain recognition, ostracized churches will have to sub-
It was a mild day, and people arrived in dresses and suits straight from work, some 400 in all, and found their way in under the large tent covering one end of the open square, past the dozens of tables decked in linen and crystal for a gala dinner, and onwards into the Volkshalle at the far end. Ushers guided them to long rows stretching out to fill the ceremonial hall, where they took their places by district. The invitation had gone out to over 2,000 people – all Viennese who had become Austrian citizens between May of 2010 and May 2011. Stricter laws had meant many fewer citizenships in 2010, down 20% in Austria over 2009. But the first 6 months of 2011 were already double the same period the previous year. So maybe things are easing up again. Somehow, it doesn’t feel that way to those on the receiving end. The stories always involve Kafkaesque tales of lost documents, changing regulations and contradictory advice, of one office telling applicants the exact opposite of what they were told in another. And always, always, always one more piece of paper. My own tale involved a lost passport in a stolen handbag, and new rules that appeared to deny even a copy of the permanent visa I already had. Hundreds of hours of paperwork, applications, appointments, documents and support letters, changes of status, new forms, new categories, and endless hours of time. That it should have ended so well is joy indeed. Now as we launch this new venture, we find ourselves in another tangle, as the visa rules for foreign correspondents in Austria do not seem to apply to us. These are ancient privileges afforded all members of the foreign press working in the country with the oldest press association in the world – the Presseclub Concordia – that celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. We are an Austrian newspaper in English, that by definition needs the language and cultural skill of international journalists, and therefore there is no “by the book” for us. Still, foreigners here learn how to solve problems. We’ll figure out how to solve this one too. Because this is part of being at home in Vienna.
mit a request signed by at least one thousand declared supporters, in clear violation of privacy rights. A government minister will then “evaluate” their religious creeds, and must seek authorization from the secret services. Should a request pass the assessment, it will be sent to Parliament, where a twothirds majority is required to grant official church status. The right to judicial overview is denied in this process, while any religious groups that have not been in existence for at least twenty years are automatically excluded. The passage of this law is only the latest disturbing example of the many serious setbacks regarding human rights and the rule of law that have occurred recently in Hungary. In the 1970s, under the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, all we could do in similar situations was hold vigils at sites of worship that had been shut down or demolished. We fought for a Europe that is united under human rights. Have our hopes been in vain? We sincerely urge you to start an official inquiry into Hungary’s new Church Law, and its violation of rights possessed by all Europeans. Budapest, Aug. 8, 2011, signed by Gabor Demszky, Mayor of Budapest 19902010, founder of AB Publishing House Miklós Haraszti, Columbia Law School adj. professor, founder of journal Beszélő György Konrád, writer, former President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Art Ferenc Kőszeg, former MP, founding president, Hungarian Helsinki Committee Bálint Magyar, former MP, fmr. Minister of Education, VP, Committee EU Programmes László Rajk Jr., former MP, founder of the Samizdat Boutique Publishing House and 38 other members of the 1970s Human Rights and Democracy Movement in Hungary See www.iprotest.hu for further details.
06.09.2011 22:59:58 Uhr