You - La Repubblica.it

Supplemento al numero
odierno de la Repubblica
Sped. abb. postale art. 1
legge 46/04 del 27/02/2004 — Roma
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
Copyright © 2010 The New York Times
Newcomers
Redefine
A Label
The Resource Trap
By RACHEL DONADIO
PRATO, Italy — Over the years, Italy
learned the difficult lesson that it could no
longer compete with China on price. And
so, its business class dreamed, Italy would
sell quality, not quantity. For centuries,
this walled medieval city just outside of
Florence has produced some of the world’s
finest fabrics, becoming a powerhouse for
“Made in Italy” chic.
And then, China came here.
Chinese laborers, first a few immigrants, then tens of thousands, began settling in Prato in the late 1980’s. They transformed the textile hub into a low-end garment manufacturing capital —enriching
many, stoking resentment and prompting
crackdowns that have brought cries of bigotry and hypocrisy.
The city is home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe — some legal,
many more not. Here in the heart of Tuscany, Chinese laborers work round the clock
in some 3,200 businesses making low-end
clothes, shoes and accessories, often with
materials imported from China, for sale
at midprice and low-end retailers worldwide.
Enabled by Italy’s weak institutions and
high tolerance for rule-bending, the Chinese have blurred the line between “Made
in China” and “Made in Italy,” undermining Italy’s cachet and ability to market
goods exclusively as high end.
Part of the resentment is cultural: The
city’s classic Italian feel is giving way to
that of a Chinatown. But what seems to
gall some Italians most is that the Chinese
are beating them at their own game — tax
evasion and brilliant ways of navigating
Italy’s notoriously complex bureaucracy
— and have created a thriving, if largely
underground, new sector while many Prato businesses have gone under. The result
is a toxic combination of residual fears
IVAN ALVARADO/REUTERS
When nations rely on exporting raw materials, investments in the future can suffer. An abandoned nitrate mine in Chile’s Atacama desert.
SÃO PAULO, Brazil
T
HIS MONTH, CHILE is marking
the bicentennial of its independence with pride in how far it has
come in 200 years, but with a shadow
over the celebration. Unforgotten will be
33 miners who have been
ALEXEI trapped 700 meters underBARRIONUEVO ground. Copper mining
has always helped to define
NEWS
Chile, and the country has
ANALYSIS
united in its determination
to save these men.
But they most likely will not see the
light of day for months, until a rescue
Continued on Page IV
WORLD TRENDS
Global constraints on
the U.S. presidency.
V
South America is limited
by the boom-and-bust
cycles of its natural riches.
shaft can reach them, and so they stand
as a constant reminder of how dependent Chile remains on exports of natural
resources as the principal engine of its
economy.
This is a core problem, now and into the
future, that Chile shares with its South
American neighbors — the inability to
break free of the shackles of commodities
MONEY & BUSINESS
New life forms
created for fuel.
INTELLIGENCE:
VI
exploitation, which provides their livelihoods but leaves them perennially vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles and wild
currency fluctuations. It also consumes
capital that might be used to develop
higher-revenue, and more stable sources
of wealth, like manufacturing.
The breakout development of other
lands, principally China, may only make
the trap harder to escape. As it rapidly
industrializes and becomes a sophisticated exporter of manufactured goods,
China has developed a seemingly insaContinued on Page IV
ARTS & STYLES
Eccentric ideas for
classic instruments.
B ack to drear y old England, Page 2.
VIII
ADVERTISEMENT
A Carnival of Carnivores
Eating meat is, perhaps, in our
bones. Scientists recently discovered
that as early as 3.4 million years ago,
human ancestors may have used
heavy stones to butcher animals, consuming meat at least 800,000 years
earlier than previously thought,
LENS
according to the
journal Nature.
And the cravings continue.
Despite lean
times, a gluttony
for sustainable
beef abounds. Perhaps it’s because
of an obsession with control in an increasingly globalized world, or an idealization of a primal past (add some E.
coli scares and mad-cow disease). But
suddenly, meat is following the path
of the vegetable: local, and obsessed
over. Boutique meats — quality meat
from small producers and regional
fields — are entering the mainstream.
As the public has grown more aware
of how industrial meat is produced,
there’s a demand for meat from farmFor comments, write to
[email protected].
ers who do not send their animals to
large processors. And never before
has so much specialized meat been as
widely available in stores and farmer’s
markets, wrote The Times.
“Obviously everyone is in the
middle of a total meat obsession,” Tia
Keenan, a fromager in New York, told
The Times. With the demand for local
meat and more restaurants specializing in offal, butchering is back, and in
a glamorous way. Japanese Premium
Beef, which opened last year in New
York, sells wagyu beef for $110 a kilogram in a storefront that looks like a
Prada store.
Boutique butchers like Tom Mylan,
formerly of Marlow & Daughters in
Brooklyn, are gaining cult status and
devoted followings. They are opening
stores in New York, London and San
Francisco and offering classes: from
$75 to learn to break down a 40-kilogram pig, to $10,000 for six to eight
weeks of instruction.
“It’s the whole D.I.Y. thing” that has
trickled down and out, David Kamp,
the author of “The United States of
Arugula,” told The Times. The result
is “a newfound celebration of carnivorousness.”
For some, this means having a
meat locker in the living room. That’s
where John Durant, 26, keeps his
organ meat and deer ribs in his New
York apartment. He is part of a subculture whose members in the United
States and Europe seek good health
through a return to the diet and exercise of their Paleolithic ancestors,
wrote The Times.
The caveman lifestyle involves
eating large quantities of meat, and
fasting between meals to simulate lean
times. Mr. Durant told The Times he
wants to wean himself off millenniums
of bad habits.
In a meat-obsessed world, some
habits can be easy to break, or bend.
At her wedding in July, Chelsea
Clinton, a vegetarian, served meat,
sparking debate. “The idea that anyone would expect someone who was
vegan to serve meat at their wedding
seems absolutely crazy to me,” wrote
a commenter on the Serious Eats blog.
Fernanda Capobianco, a vegan
pastry chef from Rio de Janeiro, will
marry fellow pastry chef François
Payard in October. She told The Times
that meat will be served at their wedding, despite her ethical qualms. “We
are inviting chefs like Eric Ripert and
Daniel Boulud,” she said. “How can we
invite chefs and then have no meat?
They’ll think we’re crazy.”
ANITA PATIL
Repubblica NewYork
II
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
O P I N I O N & C O M M E N TA RY
EDIT ORIA LS OF T H E T IM ES
Read the Report
Iran has spent the last four years
ignoring the United Nations’ order to
stop enriching uranium. And far too
many of the world’s major players
have spent the last four years ignoring
Iran’s defiance.
The good news is that many countries are finally waking up to the danger. In the three months since the United Nations Security Council adopted
its latest round of sanctions, a growing
number is turning up the heat on Tehran, implementing the United Nations
penalties and, in some cases, going
beyond them.
The United States, the European
Union, Canada and Australia have approved national sanctions that aim to
choke off Iran’s access to foreign capital, halt investment in its energy sector and impede its shipping industry.
More recently, Japan barred all
transactions with 15 Iranian banks,
the United Arab Emirates froze four
Iranian bank accounts and South
Korea announced plans to restrict
foreign exchange transactions for
126 Iranian companies and individuals — including the only Asian branch
of Bank Mellat, one of Iran’s largest
banks. The sanctioned accounts, institutions and individuals are all as-
sociated with Iran’s nuclear or missile
programs.
The Obama administration, which
has pressed allies and others to take a
much tougher line, went even further
on September 7, sanctioning an Iranian-owned bank in Germany, the European-Iranian Trade Bank, or E.I.H.
Bank, which is accused of facilitating
billions of dollars of transactions for
blacklisted Iranian companies. The
move effectively shuts E.I.H. out of the
American financial system.
Iran’s government — so far at least
— remains defiant. According to the
latest report by the International
Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian scientists are continuing their slow but
steady production of low-enriched
uranium and now have 6,108 pounds,
up 15 percent from June. With further
enrichment, that would be enough fuel
for about two nuclear weapons.
Tehran has a long and cynical history of hiding nuclear facilities — including its main enrichment site at
Natanz and more recently discovered
enrichment facility at Qum. If that isn’t
enough, an Iranian dissident group on
Thursday said it has found evidence
of yet another secret nuclear site. And
Iran is still refusing to fully cooperate
with inspections by the atomic energy
agency. For the past two years, Iran
has barred two of the agency’s most
experienced monitors. The report
also says Iran is continuing to refuse
to answer questions about whether it
is hiding other facilities and whether
its program has military uses, including a suspected project to fit a nuclear
warhead on a missile.
American officials say said the new
sanctions are beginning to bite —
choking Iran’s access to foreign capital, trade and investments. If there is
any chance of changing Tehran’s behavior, it is clearly going to take more
pressure and more time.
Countries that have adopted sanctions already need to implement them
robustly. We are sure that the United
Arab Emirates, a major hub for Iranian business activity, can find more
than four accounts to freeze. Countries
that for political or economic reasons
are still enabling Iran — China comes
immediately to mind — need to read
that I.A.E.A. report again.
Tehran, predictably, insists it is not
building a weapon. Its refusal to halt
enrichment and cooperate with the
I.A.E.A. makes that ever more impossible to believe.
PAUL KRUGMAN
China, Japan, America
Earlier this month Japan’s minister of finance declared that he and his
colleagues wanted a discussion with
China about the latter’s purchases of
Japanese bonds, to “examine its intention” — diplomat-speak for “Stop it
right now.” The news made me want
to bang my head against the wall in
frustration.
You see, senior American policy
figures have repeatedly balked at doing anything about Chinese currency
manipulation, at least in part out of
fear that the Chinese would stop buying our bonds. Yet in the current environment, Chinese purchases of our
bonds don’t help us — they hurt us.
The Japanese understand that. Why
don’t we?
Some background: If discussion of
Chinese currency policy seems confusing, it’s only because many people
don’t want to face up to the stark,
simple reality — namely, that China is
deliberately keeping its currency artificially weak.
The consequences of this policy are
also stark and simple: in effect, China
Direttore responsabile: Ezio Mauro
Vicedirettori: Gregorio Botta,
Dario Cresto-Dina,
Massimo Giannini, Angelo Rinaldi
Caporedattore centrale: Fabio Bogo
Caporedattore vicario:
Massimo Vincenzi
Gruppo Editoriale l’Espresso S.p.A.
•
Presidente: Carlo De Benedetti
Amministratore delegato:
Monica Mondardini
Divisione la Repubblica
via Cristoforo Colombo 90 - 00147 Roma
Direttore generale: Carlo Ottino
Responsabile trattamento dati
(d. lgs. 30/6/2003 n. 196): Ezio Mauro
Reg. Trib. di Roma n. 16064 del
13/10/1975
Tipografia: Rotocolor,
v. C. Colombo 90 RM
Stampa: Rotocolor, v. C. Cavallari
186/192 Roma; Rotocolor, v. N. Sauro
15 - Paderno Dugnano MI ; Finegil
Editoriale c/o Citem Soc. Coop. arl,
v. G.F. Lucchini - Mantova
Pubblicità: A. Manzoni & C.,
via Nervesa 21 - Milano - 02.57494801
•
Supplemento a cura di: Alix Van Buren,
Francesco Malgaroli
is taxing imports while subsidizing
exports, feeding a huge trade surplus.
You may see claims that China’s trade
surplus has nothing to do with its currency policy; if so, that would be a first
in world economic history. An undervalued currency always promotes
trade surpluses, and China is no different.
And in a depressed world economy,
any country running an artificial
trade surplus is depriving other nations of much-needed sales and jobs.
Again, anyone who asserts otherwise
is claiming that China is somehow exempt from the economic logic that has
always applied to everyone else.
So what should we be doing? U.S. officials have tried to reason with their
Chinese counterparts, arguing that a
stronger currency would be in China’s
own interest. They’re right about that:
an undervalued currency promotes
inflation, erodes the real wages of Chinese workers and squanders Chinese
resources. But while currency manipulation is bad for China as a whole, it’s
good for politically influential Chinese
companies — many of them stateowned. And so the currency manipulation goes on.
Time and again, U.S. officials have
announced progress on the currency
issue; each time, it turns out that
they’ve been had. Back in June, Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary,
praised China’s announcement that
it would move to a more flexible exchange rate. Since then, the renminbi
has risen a grand total of 1, that’s right,
1 percent against the dollar — with
much of the rise taking place in just
the past few days, ahead of planned
Congressional hearings on the currency issue. And since the dollar has
fallen against other major currencies,
China’s artificial cost advantage has
actually increased.
Clearly, nothing will happen until or
unless the United States shows that
it’s willing to do what it normally does
when another country subsidizes its
exports: impose a temporary tariff
that offsets the subsidy. So why has
such action never been on the table?
One answer, as I’ve already suggested, is fear of what would happen if
the Chinese stopped buying American
bonds. But this fear is completely misplaced: in a world awash with excess
savings, we don’t need China’s money — especially because the Federal
Reserve could and should buy up any
bonds the Chinese sell.
It’s true that the dollar would fall if
China decided to dump some American holdings. But this would actually
help the U.S. economy, making our exports more competitive. Ask the Japanese, who want China to stop buying
their bonds because those purchases
are driving up the yen.
Aside from unjustified financial
fears, there’s a more sinister cause of
U.S. passivity: business fear of Chinese retaliation.
Consider a related issue: the clearly
illegal subsidies China provides to its
clean-energy industry. These subsidies should have led to a formal complaint from American businesses; in
fact, the only organization willing to
file a complaint was the steelworkers
union. Why? As The Times reported,
“multinational companies and trade
associations in the clean energy business, as in many other industries, have
been wary of filing trade cases, fearing Chinese officials’ reputation for
retaliating against joint ventures in
their country and potentially denying
market access to any company that
takes sides against China.”
Similar intimidation has surely
helped discourage action on the currency front. So this is a good time to
remember that what’s good for multinational companies is often bad for
America, especially its workers.
So here’s the question: Will U.S. policy makers let themselves be spooked
by financial phantoms and bullied by
business intimidation? Will they continue to do nothing in the face of policies that benefit Chinese special interests at the expense of both Chinese
and American workers? Or will they
finally, finally act? Stay tuned.
ANDY RAIN/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
In London, a sunny interval over Westminster, seen through the
clock tower of the houses of Parliament.
INTELLIGENCE/ROGER COHEN
A Thousand
Little Differences
L ONDON
I returned last month to live in
England after a 30-year break. It
was raining. The weatherman on
TV, standing before a map with
dark clouds gusting across it, predicted “sunny spells” over the next
24 hours. That took me back.
Sunny spells! I had not heard the
phrase in a long time but it inhabited some place deep in my bones.
Yes, those illuminated moments
between clouds, so typical of Britain, where the wind seldom dies
and everything drips. A “spell,” in
this usage, has a rough duration
of four minutes, somewhat shorter
than its variant, a “sunny interval,”
which has been known to last halfan-hour.
The phlegmatic outlook of the
British is well known and prob-
Britain and America:
a special bond may be
turning ordinary.
ably has much to do with its millennial monarchy and unstable
skies. I asked a friend about climate
change. Hard to know, he said, the
climate here changes every 10 minutes.
But surely there’s been global
warming? “Well, certainly since we
got central heating in the 1970s!”
This is a nation that has seen a lot.
To the British, wit is the best riposte
to life’s vagaries. Empire has come
and gone, as has Tony Blair’s “Cool
Britannia.” What’s left right now is
an indebted nation fed up with the
City’s fat-cat bankers and anxious
about budget cuts.
Before I get to politics, a word is
needed on the English language. Its
London usage differs from that of its
fellow metropolis across the pond,
New York. I asked for the mailbox
the other day and got a stare. Yes, I
insisted, brandishing a letter, a mailbox. “Oh, you mean the letter box.”
I suppose that is what I meant.
Yeah, no worries, I might have said
in good Anglo mode, got that “sorted.” But things soon got unsorted. I
Send comments to
[email protected]
drove past a garage offering “tyre
changes.” This prompted an explosion from my teenage son. “They
don’t actually spell tires with a ‘y,’
do they?” Yes, I confessed, they
do. They also ask for their coffee
“white” when they mean with milk.
A thousand little differences can
make for misunderstanding, so
perhaps it’s not surprising that relations between the United States
and Britain are cool, despite the
fact that both have fresh-faced
40-something leaders, both are facing a hangover from the securitizedmortgage boom, both face runaway
deficits, and each needs the other to
confront a world of changing power
patterns.
If nothing else, Britain, which
once aspired to be Greece to America’s Rome (a sort of civilizing influence on the new great power),
might offer counsel to the United
States on how to transition from
dominance to the cooperation
among equals embodied in the British Commonwealth.
But Barack Obama is not Bill Clinton, who was schooled at Oxford.
He’s not even George W. Bush, who
inhaled Atlanticism through his
cold-war-warrior father. Nor is he
Ronald Reagan, whose ideological
marriage with Margaret Thatcher
was of a heady intensity. No, Obama
is of Asian bent and his economic
advisers are telling him fast-growth
Asia is what matters. America’s
“special relationship” with Britain
has turned rather ordinary.
That’s a pity. The Western alliance is important. If London and
Washington can’t find a shared lexicon, the world will be less stable. David Cameron, the new prime minister, is a pragmatist. He’s drawn to a
moderate foreign policy in the style
of a Tory leader of another age, Harold Macmillan. He sees Britain as a
bridge between the United States
and the European Union, but needs
a new level of engagement from
Obama.
Britain’s “sunny interval” on the
world stage ended decades ago.
America’s will pass, too. For all Cicero’s advice — “Do not hesitate for
a moment in prosecuting with all
your energies a war to preserve the
glory of the Roman name, the safety
of our allies, our rich revenue, and
the fortunes of innumerable private
citizens” — Rome fell. Washington,
at war as China rises, needs all its
friends right now, even old ones on
the slow-growth, gusty western
edge of Eurasia.
THE NEW YORK TIMES IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE FOLLOWING NEWSPAPERS: CLARÍN, ARGENTINA ● DER STANDARD, AUSTRIA ● LA RAZÓN, BOLIVIA ● DNEVNI AVAZ, BOSNIA ● FOLHA, BRAZIL
LA SEGUNDA, CHILE ● EL ESPECTADOR, COLOMBIA ● POSLOVNI, CROATIA ● LISTIN DIARIO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC ● LA PRENSA GRAFICA, EL SALVADOR ● LE FIGARO, FRANCE ● 24 SAATI, GEORGIA
SÜDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG, GERMANY ● ELEFTHEROTYPIA, GREECE ● PRENSA LIBRE, GUATEMALA ● THE ASIAN AGE, INDIA ● LA REPUBBLICA, ITALY ● ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN ● EL NORTE, MURAL AND
REFORMA, MEXICO ● LA PRENSA, PANAMA ● MANILA BULLETIN, PHILIPPINES ● ROMANIA LIBERA, ROMANIA ● NOVAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA ● TODAY, SINGAPORE ● DELO, SLOVENIA ● EL PAÍS, SPAIN
UNITED DAILY NEWS, TAIWAN ● SABAH, TURKEY ● THE OBSERVER, UNITED KINGDOM ● THE KOREA TIMES, UNITED STATES ● NOVOYE RUSSKOYE SLOVO, UNITED STATES ● EL OBSERVADOR, URUGUAY
Repubblica NewYork
Repubblica NewYork
IV
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
WORLD TRENDS
Wealthy
In Resources,
But Trapped
Continued from Page I
tiable appetite for the kinds of
raw goods that South America
produces — soybeans from Brazil
and Argentina; iron ore from Brazil; copper from Chile; oil from
Brazil, Venezuela and others.
Those purchases held the region’s economies in a tight grip
as they swung widely in the past
two years because of the global
economic crisis. Latin American
exports to China fell in the first
half of 2009, then shot up by 45
percent the first six months of this
year, according to the Economic
Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean.
And, more ominously, meeting
these demands is causing the
region to retrench in its efforts to
diversify.
In the 1980s, raw materials
made up half the value of goods
exported from Latin America and
the Caribbean, before dipping to
under 27 percent in 1999. But that
number has been climbing back
up over the last decade, and last
year reached nearly 39 percent,
the economic commission said.
The exports that increased
most were natural resources
from South America, and their
production came at the expense
of manufactured products and
services with varying degrees of
technology, the commission found
in a study released earlier this
month.
The report showed that South
America’s exports looked much
like they had 20 years ago, in their
balance between raw materials
and manufactured goods. Alicia
Bárcena, executive secretary of
the regional economic commission, called the trend “a re-primarization of the economy,” and the
commission said it was especially
strong in Chile, where export
sales (much of them of copper)
are expected to grow 33 percent
this year.
“Of course this is a concern,”
Sebastián Piñera, Chile’s president, said.
He noted that in the past two decades, Chile had made some progress in diversifying its economy
by building up wine, salmon and
fruit industries for export. But a
recent tripling of the price of copper obscured that progress.
Mr. Piñera set a goal of doubling
Chile’s public investment in the
area from 0.5 percent of gross
domestic product to 1 percent by
2014, when his four-year term is
up.
More developed Western countries already spend 2.5 percent of
their gross domestic product on
science and technology, and some
Asian countries, including Japan
and South Korea, spend more
than 4 percent, Ms. Bárcena said.
But Latin America faces trade
barriers for value-added products
like ethanol and chocolate, and
the pull of the market for the raw
materials from which they come
— sugar and cacao — has been
strong.
“As long as commodity prices
remain reasonably high — and
they should, unless there is a hard
landing in Asia — reliance on exports of primary goods appears
to be the region’s future, for better
or worse,” said Riordan Roett, the
head of the Latin American studies program at Johns Hopkins
University.
The key, Mr. Roett said, will be
to use export earnings to “move
in the direction of a knowledgebased society.”
Pascale Bonnefoy contributed
reporting from Santiago, Chile.
MISHA JAPARIDZE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
VALERI NISTRATOV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Baikal Wave protested against
a paper factory it said killed fish
in Lake Baikal. Months earlier it
was raided for software piracy.
How Russia Used Microsoft to Curb Dissent
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
IRKUTSK, Russia — One January
afternoon, a squad of plainclothes
police officers arrived at the headquarters of an environmental group
that was organizing protests against
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s
decision to reopen a paper factory at
nearby Lake Baikal.
The factory had polluted the lake, a
natural wonder that may hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.
The group, Baikal Environmental
Wave, fell victim that day to one of the
authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers
under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.
Across Russia in recent years, the
security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken
advocacy groups or opposition newspapers.
Security officials say the inquiries
reflect their concern about software
piracy, which is rampant in Russia.
Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids
against advocacy groups or news
organizations that back the government.
And as the ploy grew common, the
authorities received key assistance
from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself.
In politically tinged inquiries across
Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft
staunchly backed the police.
But on September 13, after after a
report in The New York Times, Microsoft announced sweeping changes to
ensure that the authorities do not use
crackdowns on software piracy as an
excuse to suppress advocacy or opposition groups.
The company effectively prohibited
its lawyers from taking part in such
cases.
The new Microsoft policy was announced in an apologetic statement
by the company’s senior vice president and general counsel, Brad Smith.
He said that Microsoft would make
sure that it was no longer offering legal support to politically motivated piracy inquiries by providing a blanket
software license to advocacy groups
and media outlets. They would be automatically covered by it, without having to apply.
Advocates and journalists who have
been targets of such raids said they
were pleased that Microsoft was announcing reforms, though some added
that they remained suspicious of its intentions.
In the past, lawyers retained by Microsoft in Russia had rebuffed pleas
by accused journalists and advocacy
groups to refrain from working with
the authorities.
Baikal Wave, in fact, asked Microsoft for help in fending off the police.
“Microsoft did not want to help us,”
said Marina Rikhvanova, a Baikal
Environmental Wave chairwoman
and one of Russia’s best-known en-
vironmentalists. “They said these issues had to be handled by the security
services.”
A review of cases indicates that the
security services often seize computers whether or not they contain illegal
software. The police immediately file
reports saying they have discovered
such programs, before even examining the computers in detail.
In numerous instances, when the
cases went before judges, the police
claims were successfully discredited.
Given the suspicions that these investigations were politically motivated, the police and prosecutors turned
to Microsoft to lend weight to their
cases. In southwestern Russia, the
Interior Ministry declared in an official document that its investigation of
a human rights advocate for software
piracy was begun “based on an application” from a lawyer for Microsoft.
In another city, Samara, the police
seized computers from two opposition
newspapers, with the support of a different Microsoft lawyer.
“Without the participation of Microsoft, these criminal cases against
human rights defenders and journalists would simply not be able to occur,”
said the editor of the newspapers,
Sergey Kurt-Adzhiyev.
Baikal Wave’s leaders said they had
known that the authorities used such
raids to pressure advocacy groups, so
they had made certain that all their
software was legal.
But they quickly realized how difficult it would be to defend themselves.
A supervising officer issued a report
on the spot saying that illegal software
had been uncovered.
Before the raid, the environmentalists said their computers were affixed with Microsoft’s “Certificate of
Authenticity” stickers that attested to
the software’s legality. But as the computers were being hauled away, they
noticed something odd: the stickers
were gone.
The group’s Web site was disabled,
its finances left in disarray, its plans
disclosed to the authorities.
The police also obtained personnel
information from the computers.
In the following weeks, officers
tracked down some of the group’s supporters and interrogated them.
“The police had one goal, which
was to prevent us from working,” said
Galina Kulebyakina, a chairwoman
of Baikal Wave. “They removed our
computers because we actively took a
position against the paper factory and
forcefully voiced it.”
Baikal Wave sent copies of its software receipts and other documentation to Microsoft’s Moscow office to
show that it had purchased its software legally.
The group said it believed that the
authorities would be under pressure
to drop the case if Microsoft would
confirm the documents’ authenticity.
Microsoft declined to do so.
Stitched in Italy, by Chinese: Newcomers Redefine a Label
Continued from Page I
about immigration and the economy.
“This could be the future of Italy,” said
Edoardo Nesi, the culture commissioner of Prato Province. “Italy should
pay attention to the risks.”
The situation has steadily grown beyond the control of state tax and immigration authorities. According to the
Bank of Italy, Chinese individuals in
Prato channel an estimated $1.5 million a day to China, mainly earnings
from the garment and textile trade.
Profits of that magnitude are not
showing up in tax records, and some
local officials say the Chinese prefer
to repatriate their profits rather than
invest locally.
Tensions have been running high
since the Italian authorities stepped
up raids this spring on workshops that
use illegal labor, and grew even more
when Italian prosecutors arrested 24
people and investigated 100 businesses in the Prato area in late June.
The charges included money laundering, prostitution, counterfeiting
and classifying foreign-made products as “Made in Italy.”
Many Chinese are offended at the
idea that they have ruined the city,
saying they have helped rescue Prato
from economic irrelevance. “If the
Chinese hadn’t gone to Prato, would
there be pronto moda?” asked Matteo
Wong, 30, who was born in China and
raised in Prato and runs a consulting
office for Chinese immigrants. (Pronto moda means fast fashion.) “Did the
Chinese take jobs away from Italians?
If anything, they brought lots of jobs
to Italians.”
In recent months, Prato has become
a diplomatic point of contention. Italian officials say the Chinese government has not done enough so far to address the issue of illegal immigrants,
and they are seeking an accord with
China to identify and deport them.
Italian officials say Prato is expected
to be on the agenda when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visits Rome
in October.
Many illegal Chinese immigrants
arrive by bus from Russia or the Balkans, and either destroy their passports or give them away to the organized crime groups that help bring
them. Many others overstay their
tourist visas.
According to the Prato chamber
of commerce, the number of Italianowned textile businesses registered in
Prato has dropped in half since 2001 to
just below 3,000, 200 fewer than those
now owned by Chinese, almost all in
the garment sector. Once a major fabric producer and exporter, Prato now
accounts for 27 percent of Italy’s fabric
imports from China.
Resentment runs high. “You take
someone from Prato with two unemployed kids and when a Chinese person drives by in a Porsche Cayenne or
a Mercedes bought with money earned
from illegally exploiting immigrant
workers, and this climate is risky,”
said Domenico Savi, Prato’s chief of
police before leaving the job in June.
According to the Prato mayor’s office, there are 11,500 legal Chinese immigrants, out of a population of 187,000.
But the office estimates the city has an
additional 25,000 illegal immigrants, a
majority of them Chinese.
A common technique the Chinese
use to open a business, often with
the aid of knowledgeable Italian tax
consultants and lawyers, is to close it
before the tax police catch up, then reopen the same workspace with a new
tax number.
Li Zhang, a clothing store owner
who immigrated to Italy in 1991, and
hundreds of other Chinese are at
the center of Prato’s so-called gray
economy. Their businesses are partly above board in that they pay taxes,
and partly underground, in that they
rely on subcontractors who often use
illegal labor. Since founding his store
in 1998, Mr. Zhang said, he has exported clothes to 30 countries, including China, Mexico, Venezuela, Jordan
and Lebanon.
The raids, he said, are hindering
business, unsettling the Chinese community to the point that many workers had gone into hiding. “People are
afraid,” Mr. Zhang said.
Much of the tightening comes from
Prato’s new mayor. In 2009, the traditionally left-wing city elected its first
right-wing mayor in the postwar era,
whose campaign tapped into powerful
local fears of a “Chinese invasion,” and
who seeks a broader European Union
response to Chinese immigration.
“How can China leave a mark like
this in the E.U.?” the mayor, Roberto
Cenni, asked. “Noise, bad habits, prostitution. People can’t live anymore.
They’re sick of it.’ ”
The problems in Prato will not be resolved easily, said Xu Qiu Lin, the only
Chinese member of Confindustria in
Prato. “There’s no plan,” he said.
Repubblica NewYork
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
V
WORLD TRENDS
NEWS ANALYSIS
The American Presidency,
Chained to the World
By MATT BAI
MAX BECHERER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Egypt’s Military Is Wary of Elections
By THANASSIS CAMBANIS
his candidacy without ironclad guarantees that it would retain its preeminent position.
Over the years, one-man rule eviscerated Egypt’s civilian institutions,
creating a vacuum at the highest
levels of government that the military filled. “There aren’t any civilian
institutions to fall back on,’’ said Michael Hanna, a fellow at the Century
Foundation who has written about
the Egyptian military.
The beneficiary of nearly $40 billion in American aid over the last
30 years, the Egyptian military has
CAIRO — When a boiler at Military
Factory 99 exploded in early August,
killing one civilian worker and injuring six, a group of employees called
a strike to demand safer working
conditions, as they are entitled to do
under Egyptian law.
Yet, before the month was out,
eight of them were on trial — in a
military court — for “disclosing military secrets” and “illegally stopping
production.”
The message was unmistakable:
the rules that apply to the rest of
Egypt do not apply to the military,
still the single most powerful institution in an autocratic state facing its
toughest test in decades, an imminent presidential succession.
President Hosni Mubarak has
ruled Egypt with dictatorial powers
for 29 years but is ill and not expected
to continue in office after his current
term expires in 2011. Retired officers
and analysts here say that the military’s show of force with the striking
civilian workers was part of an effort
to put the military’s stamp on the
choice of the next president.
Technically, Egyptian voters will
determine their next leader in the
2011 elections, but in practice the
governing party’s candidate is almost certain to win. The real succession struggle will take place behind
closed doors, and that is where the
military would try to assure its continued status or even try to block Mr.
Mubarak’s son Gamal.
Retired officers and other analysts
said the military would not support
Cairo’s generals
fear a pro-business
candidate.
turned into a behemoth that not only
controls security and a burgeoning defense industry, but has also
branched into civilian businesses.
The military has built a highway
from Cairo to the Red Sea; manufactures stoves and refrigerators
for export; it even produces olive oil
and bottled water. When riots broke
out during bread shortages in March
2008, the army distributed bread.
“In times of crisis, they are there,”
Salah Eissa, editor of a governmentrun weekly, Al Qahira, said. “That’s
why you see some people today go as
far as to call for military rule.”
While the military is not expected
to dictate the governing party’s candidate, Egyptian political observers
Mona El-Naggar contributed
reporting.
said it held an informal veto power
over who rose to the top of the country’s power pyramid. “The military
is seen as the only institution that is
able to block succession in Egypt,”
said Issandr el-Amrani, a close observer of Egyptian affairs who writes
the Arabist blog.
Much of the military’s distrust of
Gamal Mubarak stems from his ties
to a younger generation of ruling party cadres who have made fortunes
in the business world. The military
is tied to the National Democratic
Party’s “old guard,” a substantially
less wealthy elite. Military officers
said they feared that Gamal Mubarak might erode the military’s institutional powers.
“Of course the military has become
jealous they are not the only big bosses now,” said Mohamed Kadry Said,
a retired general. “They feel threatened by the business community.”
General Said says that he believes
President Mubarak’s successor,
whether Gamal Mubarak or someone else, will have to convince the
military that its position in the Egyptian power structure will remain secure.
Military Factory 99 produces a variety of consumer goods in addition to
its primary function of forging metal
components for heavy ammunition.
In the end, the military court dealt
leniently with the strikers. Three
were acquitted and the five others
received suspended sentences. But
the military had made its point.
“There are no labor strikes in
military society,” Hosam Sowilam,
a retired general, said. “If they don’t
want to obey our rules, let them try
their luck in the civilian world.”
American Presidencies historically
tend to be viewed as belonging to periods rather than individuals. There
have been Industrial-era presidencies, Depression-era presidencies,
Cold War presidencies.
When historians look back 50 years
from now, in what era will they place
President Obama’s time in office, and
what does it say about the challenges
he faces?
In interviews, several historians
hit on the same basic theme. Until the
end of the Soviet Union, America’s
economic and national security were
largely self-determined, thanks to
its manufacturing might and its ability to negotiate treaties with other
states. But the advent of truly global
markets, along with threats from nonstate forces like Al Qaeda, changed
all that. Now Americans live in an integrated world where American jobs
rely on the economic policies of governments in Asia or Latin America,
while our security is subject to the
whims of a cleric living in a cave.
John Lewis Gaddis, the pre-eminent scholar of the cold war period,
calls the last decade or so an “age of
regression,” meaning that the popular notion of a “unipolar” world — one
in which the United States was supposed to have no serious economic or
military competitors — gave way to
the realization that the best America
could aspire to was a stable balance
of power.
David M. Kennedy, an historian
at Stanford University in California,
said he suspected that his future
fellow historians would classify our
most recent presidencies as encapsulating an “era of globalization” in
which “the whole concept of sovereignty is less meaningful than it once
was.”
All of this has significant ramifications for Mr. Obama. The presidents
whose statues ring the National Mall
in Washington are those who were
deemed not just wise and just, but
also masters of the national destiny.
They are celebrated as decisive men
who seemed to define and control the
events of their times.
What historians are suggesting is
that the modern president may simply not be able to exercise that same
firm grasp.
Powerlessness in the face of economic free fall has emerged as a
hallmark of the modern presidency.
While Mr. Obama is facing a more
acute economic crisis moment than
his predecessors, characterized by
a near depression, the truth is that
every president going back to Jimmy
Carter, at one point or another, has
had to campaign or govern in an environment dominated by the same cyclical and stubborn factors — reces-
sion, unemployment, rising energy
costs. And so perhaps Mr. Obama’s
presidency, as it reaches its midway
point, is best understood not in isolation, but rather as part of a longer and
still undefined political moment.
It is a moment in which, with global
interdependence, has come a certain
lack of control, a vulnerability to
disparate influences beyond our territorial borders that are less obvious
than the launch of a Soviet satellite.
And those influences may directly
undermine Americans’ ideal of what
a president should be.
Americans are disappointed when
these presidents inevitably turn out
to be less than omnipotent or, like
George W. Bush, fall victim to their
own romantic notions of American
power.
“This is what will end up defining this era of the presidency — the
diminished power, the diminished
authority, the diminished capacity to
shape events,” says Robert Dallek,
the presidential biographer.
Of course, pessimism is often overstated in difficult times. For a period
MATT DORFMAN
in the 1980s, it was fashionable to say
that New York City, too, had become
“ungovernable”; no one says that
anymore. It would be unfair to suggest that Mr. Obama or any other
president is simply awash in historical currents, unable to navigate himself or the country through challenging times.
What probably is true is that even
a president’s successes, in an age
where a debt crisis in Greece can lead
to a panic on Wall Street, are likely to
seem more uneven and less resounding to voters than, say, the completion
of the Continental Railroad or the surrender of Japan.
BERLIN JOURNAL
A Harmony of Chinese Food and German Wines
By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
BERLIN — As this country continues its uneasy dialogue about
integration, spurred on by an anti-immigrant book written by an executive
of the central bank, the restaurant
owner Jianhua Wu is busy selling and
promoting German wine.
Mr. Wu, who came to Germany
from China 25 years ago to study engineering, represents the other side
of the immigration debate, not the
hostile, fearful, anti-immigrant sentiments stirred up by the shock-book of
Thilo Sarrazin, the banker.
Mr. Wu and his family instead represent the emerging Germany that
is slowly, painfully becoming a multicultural society, where the spicy snap
of Szechuan dishes and the subtle,
flowery sweetness of a riesling can
complement each other.
“Riesling and Chinese food, it
works,” said Mr. Wu, who has become
something of a sensation for his restaurant, Hot Spot, which offers an extensive collection of German wines.
After working in one fast-food Chinese restaurant after another, Mr. Wu
said he discovered that his route to
financial success in his adopted home
was ultimately wine — or really how
his own love of German wine made
Germans feel about him.
Mr. Sarrazin’s book, “Germany
Does Away With Itself,” released
in early September, attacked Germany’s Muslim immigrants for refus-
ing to integrate. It vilifies Islam and
blames Germany’s welfare state for
being too generous. In response, the
leadership of the opposition Social
Democrats agreed on September 13
to begin proceedings to expel him
from the party. Mr. Sarrazin had
already agreed to step down from his
post at the Bundesbank.
The book is selling briskly, however, with many Germans saying
that Mr. Sarrazin has a valid point
and that people like Mr. Wu — who
are willing to make some of the sacrifices that other immigrants refuse,
or fail, to make — are the proof.
Many Germans want to preserve
the nation’s cultural identity by
having immigrants leave their tra-
ditions. Many immigrants refuse,
wishing to hold on to their cultural
identities.
In reality, the two are already
blending, especially in places like
Berlin, and the Hot Spot. Mr. Wu kept
his Chinese passport, while his wife
and son have become naturalized
citizens.
“My cultural background is Chinese, that is where I feel at home,’’
he said in German. “In the back of
my head, Germany is still a foreign
country for me.”
Three years ago, Mr. Wu and his
wife rented a failed steakhouse,
hoping to sell Chinese food and fine
German wines. For a year, business
was dead. “We were not accepted,”
he said.
Then, two years ago, one of Germany’s most celebrated chefs, Christian Lohse, visited Mr. Wu’s restaurant with a television crew. The day
after the program was broadcast
the place was filled, and it has been
ever since often with officials and
celebrities. In fact, Mr. Wu said, Mr.
Sarrazin had lunch at Hot Spot the
day his book came out.
Mr. Wu said his son has embraced
German culture and expresses himself better in German than Chinese.
“I am trying to give the basics of
Chinese culture and philosophy to
my son so he can be Chinese,’’ Mr.
Wu said. “But he lives here, he has to
speak perfect German.”
Repubblica NewYork
VI
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
MONEY & BUSINESS
For Young Japanese,
One Job Isn’t Enough
By GEAROID REIDY
bor and Welfare found that almost
56 percent of workers 15 to 34 years
OSAKA, Japan — From 9 to 5, Hiold needed another form of income
roko Yokogawa toils at a small arto help pay living expenses. Disposchitectural design firm, doing cleriable incomes have taken a further
cal work and managing accounts.
hit since the global downturn, with
But even when her shift is over, her
many companies banning paid
day’s work is nowhere near done.
overtime to save money.
She might go home and promote
“Without all that overtime, more
products and stores on her blog. Or
and more people just want to have
in another role, as a work-life coach,
something to do,” said Kirito Nashe might meet a client for a consulkano, who formerly worked a side
tation.
job and parlayed his experience
“It’s not that I hate my main job,
into a career as an entrepreneur
but I want to have a stable income
and author.
without being completely depenMr. Nakano, 28, initially followed
dent on the company,” Ms. Yokogathe standard career path, joining a
wa, 32, said.
large company as a Web engineer
For decades, the standard career
after graduating from college in
path in Japan was to graduate from
2004. Finding that his salary would
college, join a company and to stay
not cover luxuries like trips abroad,
there until retirement — one job for
he began experimenting on his own
life. But with salaries down more
time with affiliate marketing prothan 12 percent over the last decade
grams, in which he earned fees for
amid an uncertain labor market,
sending customers to other busiyoung, mostly single Japanese are
nesses.
increasingly making ends meet by
Three years later, he was making
working second or even third jobs.
more money from his side job than
Despite long working hours — the
from his ostensible main one. He
eighth-longest in the world, accordeventually quit his original job to
ing to one recent measure, though
set up an affiliate marketing comwith overtime often going unrepany, where he now works full time.
ported and unpaid — almost half of
In August, he published a second
the workers questioned last year in
book, which explains how to make
a survey by the government-affili100,000 yen a month outside the ofated Japan Institute for Labor Polifice.
cy and Training expressed interest
“The Japanese economy is not
in side jobs. Nearly 90 percent said
just stagnant, it’s in retreat,” he
the main reason was a desire to
said. “When people believe the fuhave extra spending money.
ture is going to be better than the
“The biggest cause of the inpresent, they are
crease is young
happy.
people trying to
But if they think
increase their
that the future
short-term earnholds no hope,
ings in the face of
then they become
severe economic
unhappy. It’s that
and income condiunhappiness that
tions,” said Toshipeople are trying
hiro Nagahama,
to negate with side
chief economist at
jobs.”
Dai-Ichi Life ReThe Japanese
search Institute
system of lifetime
in Tokyo. “But it’s
employment bealso a form of risk
gan to break down
management for
with the bursting
workers fearful of
HIRO KOMAE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL
of an economic
losing their main
HERALD TRIBUNE
bubble in 1991.
jobs.”
Yoshihiko Noda,
The unemploy- “The Japanese economy
the finance minisment rate in Japan
is
not
just
stagnant,
ter, said last month
was 5.2 percent in
it’s in retreat.”
that the time had
July. While that
come for Japan
is low by internato take action
tional standards, it
Kirito Nakano
that would allow
is close to a record
Web engineer with a second
high for Japan. The career as entrepreneur-author. “young people to
have dreams and
economy remains
get jobs.”
stagnant, weighed
For that to happen, the country
down by an aging and shrinking
may have to help foster entreprepopulation, deflation and a strong
neurship, which has often seemed
yen, which crimps exports.
lacking in Japan.
According to figures from the
But those with side jobs may offer
National Tax Agency, average ana glimmer of hope.
nual salaries for Japanese workers
“The business start-up rate in
in their early 20s fell to 2.48 million
Japan is weak, but if you include
yen in 2008, the latest year for which
people doing work on the side, the
figures are available, from 2.83 milnumbers start to look a little betlion yen in 1997. At the current exter,” said Shinsuke Ogino, a busichange rate, that is a decrease to
ness writer and analyst who has
$29,470, from $33,635.
published books on side jobs and
Data released recently by the
dual careers.
Japanese Ministry of Health, La-
The first time I unboxed my
gleaming Roomba, I beamed like a
proud new parent as I placed it gently on my hardwood floor.
That evening, I
watched the robotic
vacuum cleaner putter autonomously
around my apartment, sweeping and
ESSAY
inhaling dust. The
next morning, I returned it to its rightful owner.
The Roomba was mine for only 24
hours. I had rented it through a service
called SnapGoods, which allows people to lend out their surplus gadgetry
and various gear for a daily fee.
JENNA
WORTHAM
Craig
Venter,
below,
dreams of
creating life
forms, such
as algae,
left, that
can be used
to produce
fuel or even
food.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SANDY HUFFAKER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Managing the Business of Creating Life
By ANDREW POLLACK
SAN DIEGO, California —
The scientific rebel J. Craig
Venter made his name as a
gene hunter. He co-founded
Celera Genomics, which
mapped the human genome.
He garnered admiration for
some path-breaking ideas
but also the enmity of some
rivals who viewed him as a
publicity seeker.
Now Dr. Venter, 63, wants
to create living creatures
— bacteria, algae or even
plants — that are designed
from the DNA up.
“Designing and building
synthetic cells will be the basis of a new industrial revolution,” he says. “The goal is
to replace the entire petrochemical industry.”
His star power has attracted millions of dollars in
investment and research financing, making his company here, Synthetic Genomics, among the wealthiest
in the new field of synthetic
biology.
But there is no guarantee
of success. And as with DNA
sequencing, Dr. Venter is
stirring some unease in the
field. Some competitors say
designing entire cells is too
unrealistic.
Moreover, while Celera
did sequence the human
genome, it failed to make a
business of selling the genomic data, and Dr. Venter
was fired by the president of
Celera’s parent company.
What really drives him,
Dr. Venter and others say, is
the desire for scientific accomplishments, and for the
Nobel Prize that still eludes
him. “Craig is just a hopeless
businessman,” says Alan G.
Walton, a venture capitalist
and a friend.
Exxon Mobil is giving Syn-
Biotech with the
potential to make
coal burn cleaner.
thetic Genomics $300 million
to design algae that could be
used to produce gasoline and
diesel fuel. BP has invested
in the company to study microbes that might help turn
coal into cleaner-burning
natural gas. Another investor, the Malaysian conglomerate Genting, wants to improve oil output from its palm
tree plantations, working toward what its chief executive
calls a “gasoline tree.”
And Novartis is hoping to
synthesize influenza virus
strains to make flu vaccines.
Synthetic Genomics is also
exploring the use of algae to
produce food oils and, possibly, other edible products.
Dr. Venter muses, “What if
we can make algae taste like
beef?”
Scientists have long been
able to insert foreign genes
into organisms. For instance, bacterial genes are
put into corn plants to resist
herbicides and insects.
But until now, only one or
a few genes are spliced into a
cell, and much trial and error
is required.
Synthetic biology aims
to make engineering a cell
more like designing a bridge
or a computer chip, using
prefabricated components
in different combinations.
In Dr. Venter’s approach,
engineers would specify the
entire genetic code of a cell
on computers, making design changes as if on a word
processor. They would then
press the “print” button, so
to speak, and the DNA would
be manufactured from its
chemical components. The
synthetic DNA would then
be transplanted into an existing cell, where it would
take control of the cell’s operations.
This is essentially what Dr.
Venter’s team announced in
May. Reaction was swift. The
Vatican praised the work as a
potential way to treat diseases, saying it did not regard it
as the creation of life.
And President Obama immediately asked his bioethics commission to examine
the potential for bio-terror
and bio-error — the creation
toxic or ecologically harm-
Neighborly Sharing, Over the Online Fence
SnapGoods is one of the latest startups that bases its business model
around allowing people to share,
exchange and rent goods in a local
setting. Among others are NeighborGoods and ShareSomeSugar. Groupbuying sites like Groupon and the
peer-to-peer travel site Airbnb have
also sprung up.
With these sites, access trumps
ownership; consumers are offered
ways to share goods instead of having to buy them. Ron J. Williams, cofounder of SnapGoods, describes it as
the “access economy.”
“The notion of ownership as the barrier between you and what you need is
outdated,” says Mr. Williams.
Recession-battered shoppers can
test pricey new devices before deciding whether to take the plunge or wait
until the next upgrade.
For people who lend stuff, it’s a way
to make extra money on possessions
that are gathering dust.
But some experts think that there
may be something bigger than thriftiness at play. These services may be
gaining popularity because they reinforce a sense of community.
Paul J. Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at
Claremont Graduate University in
California, says that participating in a
community like SnapGoods, Groupon
or Airbnb can ease social isolation and
extend our network of friends.
“It turns out to actually be a good
way to meet my neighbors,” says Luke
Tucker, 31, who rented me his robotic
vacuum cleaner through SnapGoods.
Charlis Floyd, a 22-year-old student,
and Nema Williams, a 30-year-old comedian, who rent out their spare bedroom in Brooklyn on Airbnb, say that
ful organisms.
The president’s action
seemed to confirm concerns
that Dr. Venter’s bold claims
would stir fear and lead to
burdensome regulation. “The
only regulation we need is of
my colleague’s mouth,” says
Jay Keasling, a co-founder of
Amyris Inc., a competitor.
Some experts say the work
will have limited industrial
use. It took 15 years to create and cost $40 million. And
the synthetic genome was
nearly a replica of the genome from an existing bacterium; scientists do not yet
know enough to design a new
genome.
Even if they could, it would
be overkill, says George
Church, a Harvard University researcher. He says that
only a few genetic changes
are needed. “One of the
things that is missing,” he
says of Dr. Venter’s work, “is
a clear articulation of why
you would want to change
the whole genome.”
Dr. Venter says his company will use more limited
genetic engineering for its
first algae-based biofuels.
And while the first synthetic
genome had “plagiarized
nature,” he says scientists
will eventually learn how to
design genomes.
Dr. Venter, who became
wealthy from his work with
Celera, says his harrowing
experiences as a medic in the
Vietnam War instilled in him
a sense of purpose. “It’s comical that I keep being referred
to as a businessman,” he said.
“What I’ve been successful
in is finding alternate ways to
fund research.
“Science is the business
right now,” he said. “If the
science works, the business
works, and vice versa.”
while the extra income helps, they’re
more interested in the characters they
meet.
“We had a couple from England
teach us how to make red curry,” says
Ms. Floyd.
Trust is a big factor in all of this, built
through social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
Rachel Botsman, co-author of the
forthcoming “What’s Mine Is Yours:
The Rise of Collaborative Consumption,” says: “This new economy is going to be driven entirely by reputation,
which is part of a new cultural shift
— seeing how our behavior in one community affects what we can access in
another.”
Repubblica NewYork
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
VII
FA S H I O N
Young Stars Live Locally,
But They Design Globally
By ERIC WILSON
NEW YORK — A new generation
of Internet-savvy young designers in
New York has the potential to transform American fashion, in a city that
has not always been so hospitable to
talented designers.
An impressive cohort, they presented their spring collections during New
York Fashion Week from September
9-16; The New York Times invited six
with the greatest promise to a roundtable discussion.
Joseph Altuzarra started his sharp
women’s collection after working at
Givenchy in Paris. Sophie Theallet,
who also worked in Paris, is the latest
winner of a grant from the Council of
Fashion Designers of America and
Vogue magazine.
Alexa Adams and Flora Gill, of
Ohne Titel, worked for Karl Lagerfeld.
(Ms. Gill was traveling and unable
to attend.) Wayne Lee, whose label
is Wayne, got her start as a buyer at
Barneys.
Max Osterweis, of Suno, built a collection that celebrated the textiles of
Kenya and helped revive its garment
industry.
Patrik Ervell began making men’s
wear after working at magazines like
V.
A conversation follows, edited for
space and clarity.
QUESTION. Do you sense a shift tak-
ing place in fashion?
MS. ADAMS: The only thing I can say
is the globalization of fashion, which
I think is really amazing. There used
to be an idea of an American fashion,
French fashion or European fashion,
and maybe an Asian fashion or a
Japanese fashion. It’s not that way
anymore.
MR. ALTUZARRA: There is a definite
sense of community here, which is
very different from somewhere like
Paris or Milan. I think it exists more
in London, but the idea that you can
succeed as a young designer is something very important in the industry
in New York. I also think, when you
look at Paris or you look at Milan,
there are just so many really big, huge
houses. It’s just a lot more difficult to
break into those markets.
MS. THEALLET: It’s possible for you to
make something in New York because
the people are willing to know about
you and they give you that chance,
and I think it’s fantastic. You don’t
find that in Paris for sure, because
it’s more closed. Here it’s more open.
All the designers know each other, we
hang out together.
Q. What do you think defines Ameri-
can fashion today?
MS. LEE: You have to be a designer
who is receptive to what your customers want, but at the same time you
have to have your vision. For me, inspiration comes from when I am away
from fashion. I really enjoy going to
museums, to new places. That is really when I pick up inspiration.
Q. How do you all cope with the speed
of exposure that is a result of the media
frenzy?
MR. OSTERWEIS: We got a lot of attention, even before we had a single
piece in a store. We had Time magazine come to Kenya to spend a week
with us two or three months before we
had anything in the stores.
MR. ALTUZARRA: I think you can
control the limelight. I mean, you don’t
have to say yes to everything. You can
pick and choose and decide how you
want to grow. Of course the Internet
part is a little harder to control.
MS. ADAMS: I would definitely agree
with that. For all of us who are new,
it’s actually a huge opportunity. It’s
almost like, not a democratization of
fashion, but something where there is
this limelight that is looking for new
things. You get the choice of what exposure you want, instead of begging
to be part of a story of older brands
and bigger companies. I especially
like all the blog and Internet press, because I think it’s really interesting to
see all different people’s viewpoints.
Fashion doesn’t have to be so monolithic or just one voice.
Q. Who inspires you as designers?
Who are your role models?
MR. ALTUZARRA: I think, not necessarily aesthetically, but as a business,
Dries Van Noten, because it’s based
on clothes, which seems pretty much
near impossible.
MR. OSTERWEIS: I like Dries as well,
and I think Junya Watanabe and Rei
[Kawakubo] I like quite a lot.
MS. ADAMS: I have always been
inspired by the way Raf Simons has
grown his business.
MR. ERVELL: When I was a teenager in the ’90s, I was looking a lot at
Helmut Lang.
MS. THEALLET: Of course, Azzedine
Alaïa, because he is doing collections
exactly as he wants. Dries, as you
say, for the way that he makes a business, and Prada also. And Yves Saint
Laurent.
MS. LEE: I really admire Martin
Margiela. He is very visionary, but he
has always paced his exposure, and
his line always stays true to what he
believes.
Q. So not one American designer?
MR. ALTUZARRA: I was thinking
about this before. A business like
Ralph Lauren I admire. I just don’t
know if that is something that can really be achieved anymore. That level
and that size, that all-encompassing
product range, that lifestyle. On that
scale, something like Prada is a little
more attainable. What I think is interesting about Prada is that there is also
this idea of a created heritage. Prada
is not that old of a brand, but it feels really old, which I think is really smart,
which is what Ralph Lauren did. Essentially he appropriated America as
his legacy and his heritage.
Q. What did you mean when you said
it would be impossible just to sell and
design clothes today?
MR. ALTUZARRA: That’s exactly
RIGHT, SUNO
RIGHT, HIROKO MASUIKE
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Max Osterweis
has rejuvenated
Kenya’s garment
industry.
RIGHT, ERIN BAIANO
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Patrik Ervell
believes in
starting small and
growing slowly.
LEFT, YANA PASKOVA
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Wayne Lee finds
inspiration away
from fashion.
Sophie Theallet
loves New York’s
open atmosphere.
LEFT, JENNIFER ALTMAN
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Joseph Altuzarra
subscribes to a
global vision.
By RUTH LA FERLA
ish soccer star David Beckham; her
wardrobe, engineered to show off her
whippet frame and improbably lusty
chest.
“I don’t do anything by halves,” she
says. “If you’re going to do something,
do it properly, I think.”
In recent months Ms. Beckham has
emerged as an industry force. She
has been a fixture in the front row at
presentations like those of Chanel and
Marc Jacobs. Her sinuous cocktail
dresses have been worn by Jennifer
Lopez, Drew Barrymore and Ms. Diaz
and are showcased in stores alongside
luxury labels like Narciso Rodriguez
and Vera Wang. “Don’t underestimate
Alexa Adams has
seen huge growth
in China.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF DESIGNERS BY RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES
what I meant. There is a very interesting disconnect, sometimes, between
what clients are looking for and what
buyers are looking for and what designers are making. You can do something really well in Italy with beautiful fabric, and it’s going to cost $2,000
at retail, but Zara is going to make the
same thing in Portugal, one month later, for $250. The people who are really
discerning will buy your product, but
most of them will just want the look of
what you made and buy it at Zara.
MR. OSTERWEIS: Do you sell internationally online?
MR. ERVELL: We do, but mostly the
orders come from North America.
MS. ADAMS: We’ve had a huge
amount of growth in China. What you
are seeing there is more money in
China, and people are interested in
buying clothing from new designers.
Age really isn’t an issue for us in Asia,
especially in China.
MR. ERVELL: For me also, Asia —
non-Japan Asia — has been really big
for me, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and also now starting mainland
China. It’s been a really big part of our
growth.
MR. ALTUZARRA: Do you make a different product line for them?
MR. ERVELL: No. Same wholesale
prices.
MS. ADAMS: We don’t do different
sizing. We do the same thing as we do
for everyone else.
love, whether it’s vintage or our own
clothes or some shoe I find really
beautiful that I see, that’s how I dress
rather than feeling like I’m only going
to buy one look. Someone’s going to
tell me how I should dress? Or what
my look for the season should be, and
I’ll buy a designer head to toe? I just
don’t think that’s realistic to how
people want to dress. And to me, I
think it’s freeing for how we design
our clothes.
Q. We’ve heard from a lot of stores
that young women in their 20s are just
not as brand loyal as their predecessors might have been. How do you as
designers deal with this generation
that is shifting away from brands?
MS. ADAMS: I actually think it’s
fantastic because it’s not so much
about people obsessing over a brand,
or over perceived luxury. I don’t
know about everyone here, but that’s
the way I dress. If I see something I
Q. What was the single best decision
that you have made?
MR. ERVELL: I think just starting
small and slow, and that’s not everyone’s approach.
Victoria Beckham, From Spice Girl to a Fashion Industry Force
LONDON — Victoria Beckham
guides a visitor through her fall 2010
collection, spread on a rack in her studio here. She draws out a dress recently worn by Cameron Diaz, identifying
its fabric authoritatively as a metallic
jacquard. Another, crisp as corn flakes,
was made of gazar. “Gazar, I love it,”
Ms. Beckham murmurs, savoring the
term like a vintage Bordeaux.
She has mastered fashion with the
same passion that has marked her
other pursuits — the voice and music
lessons that laid the foundations for
her career as the pop idol known as
Posh Spice; her marriage to the Brit-
LEFT, LARS KLOVE
FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
her,” said Anna Wintour of Vogue,
among the many editors and retailers
who have embraced her.
“She’s growing up,” said Ken Downing, the fashion director of Neiman
Marcus. “Her knowledge of dressmaking is impressive. She understands how to bring out the best in
the female form.” As important, he
said, “She knows how good clothes
feel when they’re on. Because she has
worn them.”
Good clothes are a necessary adjunct to a life spent basking in the public eye. Ms. Beckham has sashayed
along fashion runways, modeled in
high-profile advertising campaigns
and appeared as a guest on television
shows like “Ugly Betty” “Project Runway” and “American Idol.”
Her dresses, once so corseted that
they gave off a whiff of kitsch, are loosening up. “My style has relaxed a bit,”
she said. “I think you will see that in
this next collection.”
As a designer, Ms. Beckham, by her
own account, is a wobbly work in progress. “I’m very aware that I’m working
my way up the ladder,” she said.
With her business partner, Simon
Fuller, the creator of “American Idol,”
she presides over a luxury brand
encompassing dresses, denim, sunglasses and a line of handbags. Her
Q. One last question: How do you know
that you’ve made it?
MS. LEE: I think we’ve all made it.
We’re all actualizing our dreams.
We’re all doing what we want to do, so
in a sense, we’ve made it.
dresses attract clients ready to pay for
a Grecian-draped tunic or urn-shaped
cocktail dress. Their growing allegiance contributed to sales in excess of
$7 million last year, said Zach Duane,
the company’s senior vice president for
business development.
Ms. Beckham, he indicated, can
take much of the credit for the label’s
success. “She is incredibly involved in
pricing, wanting to know where we’re
at in terms of turnover,” he said.
She is certainly integral to the design process, draping her dresses on
herself. “I’m not claiming to be a master draper,” she said. “The bottom line
is: Would I wear this?”
“I want to build something that’s
very respected,” Ms. Beckham said
with a pleading urgency.
Repubblica NewYork
VIII
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2010
ARTS & STYLES
In the Forest of Instruments, Signs of Evolution
Some odd instruments and strange
adaptations of standard ones have
been sprouting amid the familiar
strings and brass of classical music
concerts.
To create the required
resonance for a Boulez
sonata, for example, the
pianist Marc Ponthus
connected two grand
pianos with a piece of
ESSAY
wood, allowing him to
work the sustain pedal
of the second from his seat at the first.
And the flutist and composer Robert Dick played works he wrote for
a flute outfitted with what he calls a
glissando headjoint, an extension of
the mouthpiece that lets him shape
his instrument’s lines by sliding from
note to note.
The Partch Ensemble, named for
the quirky composer and instrument
inventor Harry Partch, performed
“There Isn’t Time,” a new work by
Victoria Bond for instruments that
are outlandish blends of Asian and
Western materials and designs.
Partch’s instruments use their own
tuning systems, with as many as 43
notes (rather than the standard 12) in
an octave.
ALLAN
KOZINN
ONLINE: AUDIO
Excerpts from music played
on unusual instruments:
nytimes.com/music
People who worry that classical
music is a museum culture normally
focus on the repertory, or, more specifically, on players and listeners
who prefer the 19th-century canon in
classical music. But the same preservationist impulse that keeps the
standard repertory in the spotlight
controls instrumentation too.
Minor technical improvements
may be tolerable here and there, but
anything that changes the essential
nature, sound or look of an instrument
will seem to them an assault on tradition.
This kind of arrested development
is historically peculiar. After all, most
of Western musical history, from
medieval times until the mid-19th
century, was also a period of virtually
nonstop instrument evolution. Composers responded to the latest developments by writing works that took
advantage of the new instruments’
abilities.
With the introduction of the fortepiano, for example, Haydn was able to
write smooth, singing lines that could
have been barely hinted at on the
harpsichord. And Beethoven’s late
sonatas require a heftier instrument
than the kind Haydn first encountered.
Today’s composers have a difficult
choice. If they want to be heard by the
traditional classical music audience
— that is, if they want their works to
be regarded as part of the historic
mainstream — they have to write for
the 19th-century instruments that
most ensembles play.
But some composers have rebelled
against the tyranny of standard
instruments. Partch, for one, began
building his own instruments in 1930,
and added steadily to his collection
through the late 1960s. And though
Minimalist and post-Minimalist
composers now write plentifully for
mainstream orchestra and chamber
ensembles, several were outliers at
first, starting their own bands with
distinctive aural thumbprints.
The heart of Steve Reich’s group
was percussion, with voices, strings
and other instruments added as required. Philip Glass’s early ensemble
was built around
winds, voices
and keyboards.
But Mr. Glass, in
those early days,
did not want just
any keyboards:
he was fond of the reedy sound of the
Farfisa organ.
These days Mr. Glass’s group plays
on pricier, more high-tech instruments that can approximate the
Farfisa, along with countless sounds
the Farfisa could never produce. If
you’re a Glass purist — or a periodinstrument fanatic, modern division
— the new sound is a compromise. But
Mr. Glass has never cared to be a prisoner of historical detail.
Since then, composers have led
ensembles of all kinds, and the most
common — Missy Mazzoli’s Victoire,
or some of the groups led by Du Yun,
for example — are classical-rock or
classical-jazz hybrids. And some
have oddball lead instruments. The
composer Ben Neill, for example,
plays what he calls the mutantrumpet
— a trumpet with three bells (instead
of one), six valves (instead of three),
a trombone slide and an electronic
interface that can turn it into a syn-
NITIN VADUKUL
Ben Neill, a composer, uses a
mutantrumpet with three bells,
six valves, a trombone slide and
an electronic interface.
thesizer controller.
Are any of these instruments likely
to become standard? It hardly matters, really. They are here now, being
played by, and composed for, musicians who are fascinated with them,
and that is enough. But if I were to hazard a guess which of them might have
a future, it would have to be Mr. Dick’s
flute with a glissando headjoint. It is,
after all, not a complete reworking
of the flute — simply an addition that
allows Mr. Dick, a virtuoso even on a
standard instrument, to create effects
otherwise unavailable to him.
Now all Mr. Dick has to do is write
enough music that demands the headjoint, and that flutists will want to
play.
A Hollywood Star by Day,
A Poet and Artist by Night
By MELENA RYZIK
MERIDITH KOHUT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Corridos have evolved into an oral history of Colombia’s drug wars. Uriel Henao sings the ballads.
Ballads Born of Conflict Thrive in Colombia
By SIMON ROMERO
EL RETORNO, Colombia — He arrived at this town on the edge of guerrilla territory with his entourage.
They included a producer, a sound
man, two scantily clad dancers and
a harried servant, who carried his
cowboy hat, his snakeskin boots, his
tequila and, of course, his bulky gold
necklace emblazoned with the name
of Uriel Henao.
“Uriel Henao needs to travel with
certain standards,” said the 41-yearold balladeer, referring to himself
in the third person, as is his custom.
“The people in these parts expect it,”
he explained after a convoy of honking pickup trucks and motorcycles led
by the town’s fire truck marked his
arrival for a concert here in August.
The big welcome for Mr. Henao was
common enough. Colombians call
him the king of the corridos prohibidos, or prohibited ballads, a musical
genre that describes the exploits of
guerrilla commanders, paramilitary
warlords, lowly coca growers and cocaine kingpins.
Given the graphic depiction of the
drug trade, some established radio
stations in Colombia keep the songs
off their playlists, sometimes fearful
of violent reprisals that might result
from glorifying one side or another in
the country’s four-decade war.
Scholars say Colombia’s prohibited
ballads descend from Mexico’s narcocorridos, the accordion-driven songs
Jenny Carolina González contributed reporting from Bogotá.
ONLINE: OUTLAW SONGS
Photographs and video from the
underground culture surrounding
Colombia’s corridos:
nytimes.com/world
that mythologize Mexican drug traffickers. While Mexico’s drug ballads
have existed at least since the 1930s,
the genre seems to have taken root
in Colombia about three decades
ago when Mexican groups like Los
Tigres del Norte became popular in
this country.
About 600 bands in Colombia play
corridos. Their songs boast titles like
“Secret Airstrip,” “Coca Growers of
Putumayo” and “The Snitch,” reflecting aspects of Colombia’s resilient
drug trade.
The genre has developed into a
form of oral history of Colombia’s
long internal war involving guerrilla
groups, paramilitary factions and
government forces.
“Ballad of the Castaños” describes
brothers who led exceptionally brutal
paramilitary death squads. “Betrayal in the Jungle” recounts how a guerrilla defector killed his commander,
before bringing the dead man’s severed hand to the authorities.
Supporters of the ballads say they
provide an outlet in Colombia’s folk
culture for subjects that some would
rather shun.
The songs also serve as an uncomfortable reminder that Colombia still
vies with Peru as the world’s largest
producer of coca, the plant used to
make cocaine.
“The corridos are most popular in
hot zones because the songs tell stories of what happens,” said Alirio Castillo, a leading producer of the ballads
who accompanied Mr. Henao here.
Performers enjoy a broad following
in the backlands where the cocaine
trade and the private armies that
draw strength from it persist.
Mr. Henao’s “Ballad of the Coca
Grower” describes how the rural
poor earn more money cultivating
coca than they do working as day laborers.
“The problem is not ours, the problem comes from over there,” Mr.
Henao sang at a concert here, referring to demand for Colombian cocaine in the United States. “We harvest it, and the gringos put it in their
brains.”
Live performances are the staple
of Colombia’s ballad singers, since pirated CDs of their songs have eroded
their income. In Mr. Henao’s case, El
Retorno’s municipal government paid
for his concert here, plus expenses for
him and his crew.
During the concert, even some
of the soldiers keeping the peace
mouthed the words to Mr. Henao’s
scathing antiestablishment song,
“They’re Rats,” in which he lambastes Colombia’s politicians as “a
plague” for a history of corruption
that keeps millions in the country
mired in poverty.
Afterward, Mr. Henao said, “The
truth sells.”
VANCOUVER, British Columbia —
The actor James Franco is on a quest
to be an artist, not merely a celebrity.
His paintings and video installations
have been exhibited at galleries. He is
studying for advanced degrees at various colleges, writing short stories and
composing poetry, and appearing on
the ABC network’s “General Hospital”
while still flirting in big-budget movies
like “Eat Pray Love.” His cross-cultural meandering has sparked chatter on
blogs and in print, sometimes with the
help of Mr. Franco himself.
In “Howl,” Mr. Franco, 32, plays the
poet Allen Ginsberg as a young man;
for most of his screen time he is giving
an interview to an unseen interlocutor.
The film opened this year’s Sundance
Film Festival and will begin a wider
release on September 24.
Mr. Franco met its filmmakers, Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein, on
the set of “Milk” — its director, Gus
Van Sant, is an executive producer of
“Howl” — and signed up even before it
was financed. “It was a huge boost and
gave us a lot of credibility,” Mr. Friedman said of enlisting Mr. Franco, who
may be best known for appearing in
three “Spider-Man” films.
Mr. Franco prepared by watching
interviews, reading biographies, talking to experts, wearing the Ginsberg
glasses. His belief that the young poet
was an eager communicator even as
he was just discovering what he wanted to say applies to his own path.
“I have joked that he’s a 21st-century beatnik,” Mr. Epstein said of Mr.
Franco, “but he really does have that
sensibility. He’s really interested and
excited about experimentation and
exploring the possibilities of how one
can be an artist.”
While preparing for “Howl,” Mr.
Franco was enrolled in master’s degree programs at New York University (for film) and Columbia University
and Brooklyn College (for writing).
For months he would walk to class
in New York listening to Ginsberg
read “Howl” on his iPod. “I’d have the
little book with me, and I’d listen to
him, and I’d just read along with him
to just ingrain that voice in my head,”
he said.
Mr. Franco has made three short
films about poems for school and is at
work on a feature about the poet Hart
Crane that he will adapt (from Paul
L. Mariani’s biography), direct and
star in. And he is in his fifth semester
in yet another graduate program, for
MARTIN TESSLER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
James Franco will next appear as
Allen Ginsberg in ‘‘Howl.’’
poetry, at Warren Wilson College near
Asheville, North Carolina.
Academic overload is not what actors are known for, but Mr. Franco has
gone beyond that. His New York art
debut is on view at the Clocktower Gallery. His first book, “Palo Alto,” a story
collection set in his California hometown, will be published in October.
After that comes “127 Hours,” Danny
Boyle’s dramatization of the true story of Aron Ralston, the hiker forced
to amputate his own arm after being
trapped in a Utah canyon; Mr. Franco
again spends much of his screen time
alone. This autumn he begins a Ph.D.
program at Yale University, in Connecticut, for English.
“I shouldn’t say I’m doing so many
things, because it starts to sound ridiculous after a while,” Mr. Franco
said, rightly.
The poetry projects and his book are
the least influenced by his celebrity, he
said, though he knows people will view
them through that prism. “As hard as
I work in film, it’s my day job,” he said.
“Those are, I don’t know, pure expression.”
Some of his hyperproductivity is the
result of his upbringing. His parents’
interests included painting, software
development, educational reform and
children’s books.
Mr. Franco is happier as an artist
now, even if his efforts beyond film so
far have not been critically successful.
A short story published in Esquire received withering responses.
“All I can do,” he said, “is put the
work in.” He’s an ambitious student,
not a superhuman.
Repubblica NewYork