News

THE PRINCE WINDS DOWN THE WINDOW

Robert Butler — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 11:28:02 +0000

~ Posted by Robert Butler, December 28th 2011

On Friday the Duke of Edinburgh was helicoptered to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge where he underwent treatment for a blocked coronary artery. It was a minor operation. The next day the news from the hospital was good and the Queen and other members of the Royal Family paid a visit. Four days later Prince Philip rejoined his family at Sandringham in Norfolk. Our sympathies are with the Duke and his family, but we reserve a little sympathy for the reporters who spent their Christmas standing outside Papworth. They had almost nothing to report.

What can happen in a non-news situation is that reporters feel compelled to give us the facts in a tone of disbelief. The news yesterday that the Duke of Edinburgh had been discharged from Papworth was the lead story on the BBC's "World At One". We learnt that his officials said the Prince was "incredibly cheerful". We learnt that he had walked downstairs to his car "unaided". We learnt that he was sitting in the front passenger seat and "seemed alert and interested". Seemed.

As his car approached the exit, it slowed, the Prince wound down the window and waved. After the days of waiting, this emerged as the most notable detail. A friendly wave from the Prince, we were told, is not something the press is accustomed to. But perhaps the Prince was enjoying himself. He had cheated them of a much bigger story.

SIR PAUL, THE SUN KING

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:37:29 +0000

Paul McCartney is one of the most important figures of 20th-century music.

Therein lies the dilemma.

Can the 69-year-old former Beatle pull off writing a ballet? Will he break new ground? How will this addition to his repertoire affect his standing in music history?

Those were the questions looming in the air on September 22nd as Sir Paul debuted his most recent classical composition, "Ocean’s Kingdom", as part of New York City Ballet’s Fall Gala performance at Lincoln Centre.

There was some excitement when the curtain lifted and Sara Mearns (“Princess Honorata”), a sumptuous NYCB principal, floated in front of a tourmaline-coloured backdrop wearing a gauzy seafoam creation courtesy of Sir Paul’s daughter Stella. The textures of the sheer fabrics, the undulating light from the video projections, the dancer’s eloquent arm extensions and the lush strings of the NYCB Orchestra spun the elder McCartney’s signature three-note melody into a fleeting moment of ballet-making magic. It wasn’t quite rapturous, but definitively hummable—and a great start.

Glimpses of that synergy flashed intermittently over the next 50 minutes, but for the most part the elements of “Ocean’s Kingdom” were disjointed, yielding sighs of disappointment at what was expected to be a triumph in the worlds of music, fashion and dance. read more »

WHERE SHIPS GO TO DIE

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:49:20 +0000

In Bangladesh ship-breaking turns a stretch of beach into a vision of hell and a parable of globalisation.

Some 700 ocean-going vessels are scrapped each year, and about 100 of them are ripped apart in Bangladesh.

A photo essay by Saiful Huq Omi

BON APPETIT!

Molly Young — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:43:22 +0000

New York City's Health Department has handed down its first letter grade to a restaurant, presenting Jose and Antonio Araujo of Long Island City with an A for Spark's, a "well-kept deli" that the Department heralds as "a model for the city's 24,000 other eating establishments." Having aced an unannounced inspection, Spark's has become the new face of a city initiative to raise public awareness of sanitary conditions. Restaurants are required to visibly post their letter grades, and a corresponding website allows users to sort eateries by name, borough, cuisine type and inspection score. If you're seeking, say, a lower Manhattan Sicilian joint free of mouse excreta, you'll find plenty of options on the Health Department's database.

More Intelligent Life spoke with Tony Araujo, a Spark's co-owner, who exclaimed that he was "very thrilled, very proud" to receive the honour. He also mentioned that Dr Thomas Farley, the city's Health Commissioner, had visited Spark's earlier in the day to congratulate the owners. What sort of fare is Spark's known for? "Breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Araujo replied. "And also hot sandwiches."

The restaurant grading system newly adapted by New York is modelled after one read more »

CHEAP MOTIVATION

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:26:56 +0000

Several years ago the trend was to apply business incentives to domains typically managed by charities. Problems of poverty, malnutrition and disease were suddenly jobs for a growing band of "philanthrocapitalists", many of whom made their fortune in finance and were trying to make philanthropy more like for-profit capital markets. Of course there is still a need for common-sense incentives (eg, money, affirmation) in non-profit environments, but common sense no longer seems the preserve of business.

At a time when so many supposedly for-profit sectors are in the red (automotive industry, airlines, publishing, record labels, etc), Nancy Lublin, founder of Dress for Success (a great organisation) and the CEO of DoSomething.org, thinks big business can learn a few things from charities about how to do more with less. This is also the subject of her new book "Zilch: The Power of Zero in Business". Here she talks to The Economist about the need for a sense of purpose in a workplace.

ANDRÉS INIESTA'S ARTISTRY

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:59:22 +0000

Perhaps because sport has somehow got so damn big, most people alive to drink coffee this morning know that Spain won the World Cup in South Africa last night. In the 116th minute of the final, against the Netherlands, Andrés Iniesta scored the winning goal. The diminutive Iniesta has since been called many things, including "the quiet prince of Spanish football", "the Barcelona wizard" and "the shy playmaker". He also has the distinction, rare among footballers, of having been picked out as one to watch in Intelligent Life magazine. Just before the Real Madrid v Barcelona match in April, our contributor Rob Smyth shellacked the reticent hero with praise, heralding him as "an attacking midfielder with forensic vision, geometric passing, devastating pace, serene certainty in possession, and the ability to get even better in big games." He showed that last night, sidestepping many murderous Dutch tackles to win the Man of the Match award as well as coolly delivering the coup de grace. read more »

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:57:10 +0000

The Economist's books and arts editor and Asia editor discuss two books that consider the cut-throat capitalism of modern Communist rule in China:

RIP EXALTED CYCLOPS

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:49:10 +0000

A bracing addendum to the fawning obituaries of Robert Byrd, courtesy of The Economist's Schumpeter blog:

I missed an important organisation in last week's column on job-title inflation: the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr Byrd held the titles of Exalted Cyclops and Kleagle (recruiter) for the Klan in West Virginia. Other Klan job titles include Grand Imperial Wizard (CEO), Grand Magi (vice-president), Grand Scribe (secretary), Grand Dragon of the Realm (vice-president), Hydra (assistant to the vice-president), Grand Titan of the Dominion (regional vice-president), Grand Titan of the Province (assistant regional vice-president), Lictor (security guard) and Night Hawk (night watchman). Ordinary members were known as ghouls.

Byrd had plenty of other titles in the rest of his career, including Senate minority leader, Senate majority leader and president pro tempore of the United States Senate, but none had quite the resonance of Exalted Cyclops.

As a proper four-eyes, I dare say I'm succumbing to some real job-title envy right now. If only I wasn't weighed down by the sand-bags of racial tolerance, perhaps I could reach similarly exalted heights.

THE Q&A: JOSE LUIS ZACATELCO, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT, PROTESTER

Prune Perromat — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:15:19 +0000

With an estimated 12m undocumented immigrants living in America, the country’s immigration policy is a model of dysfunction. In 2008 Latinos overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama two to one in the hopes he would launch a new era of border policy. But signals sent by the states and federal government have been far from encouraging. In May President Obama ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the Mexican border, a month after Arizona passed a law making illegal immigration a state crime, and granting the police the power to arrest people without documents. Debate on congress's long-promised immigration-overhaul bill now looks sure to be postponed yet again until after the mid-term elections. read more »

POLITICS AND METAPHORS

Robert Lane Greene — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:27:20 +0000

Why do people keep calling Elena Kagan, Barack Obama's nominee to America's Supreme Court, a "blank slate"? The term, combined with her name, gets 70,300 hits on Google. Glenn Greenwald, Paul Campos and Andrew Sullivan have all used it prominently, and AOL news gives it the number-one billing of their "top 5 metaphors for Elena Kagan." The thing about a metaphor, though, is that it's supposed to help us to understand something. The blank slate itself is meant to have no opinions or proclivities, and can be written on by others at will. It is a theory held by some about children, for example.

This is very hard to square with the reports, many supported by actual evidence, that Kagan is pro-gay, comfortable with executive power, a closet conservative, the intended Democratic counterweight to John Roberts, a liberal academic who boldly hired conservatives at Harvard, a Mets fan and, hell, let's throw in the alleged fondness for cigars. As a child she also dressed up in judge's robes. Some of these tidbits are at odds with one another, and I'm not sure they're all true, but they're all things that describe a real person with quite real proclivities. "Blank slate"? Hardly. read more »