Sped. abb. postale art. 1legge 46/04 del 27/02/2004 — Roma
LENS
It might be tempting to think that the era of big financial risks went out with the old year, which capped off a decade that gorged itself on easycredit and wishful thinking.
But thinking big has not gone com-pletely out of fash-ion. The differencethese days is thatvaulting ambitionis now likely to go hand in hand withcautious pragma-tism.
James Cameron’s science-fiction epic “Avatar” is estimated to havecost up to $500 million. Even for adirector with a track record that in-cludes “Titanic,” which grossed $1.8billion worldwide, it was a huge and risky undertaking. But as The Times reported, Mr. Cameron and his inves-tors hedged their bets.
The studio that produced the film, 20th Century Fox, enlisted private eq-uity partners, took advantage of tax rebates in New Zealand and reliedon technological and marketing helpfrom Panasonic.
The Swiss pharmaceutical gi-ant Novartis is showing a different kind of conservative grandiosity inreinventing its enormous corporatecampus in Basel. Its chief executive,Daniel L. Vasella, has hired a roster of famous architects like Frank Gehryand Rafael Moneo to build 10 new of-fice and research buildings, with upto seven yet to come. As Nicolai Our-oussoff wrote in The Times, “The pro-cession of architectural treasures islaid out like jewels in a display case.”
But it is a carefully controlled formof ostentation: The buildings are ar-ranged in neat symmetry along thecampus’s central thoroughfare, eachof them conforming to a five-storyheight restriction. Mr. Vasella saidthat, unlike monuments to ego builtby corporate chieftains of yore, thebuildings were designed first with theneeds of employees in mind. “We buildfor real people,” he told Mr. Ourous-soff. “We don’t build for machines.”
Machines figure heavily, however,in another massive project — China’s $3.4 billion deal for copper mining rights in Afghanistan. The risks are obvious in a country still torn by vio-lence. And as Michael Wines reportedin The Times the potential rewards are colossal: the Chinese hope to ex-tract 10 million metric tons of copper over the next 25 years.
While its own money is at stake,Beijing has a silent partner of sorts in the government and military of the United States. Although thereis no American involvement in the mine project, it represents the kind ofoutside investment that Washingtonsees as vital to the long-term stability of Afghanistan. The two countries, inother words, are hedging each other’s Afghan gambles.
Still, grand plans can lead to grand successes. Just ask James Cameron and 20th Century Fox. By the end of December, “Avatar” had already taken in an estimated $760 millionworldwide. You don’t make that kind of money by thinking small.
JESSE FOX MAYSHARK
LONDON
NEVER BEFORE HAS Europe’s
monetary union seemed so frag-
ile.
Day by day, fears are growing that
Greece or another weak country may de-
fault on its sovereign debt ob-
ligations, forcing the richer
countries in Europe to ride
to the rescue or risk having
one or more of its most vul-
nerable members leave the
16-nation euro zone.
Many European economists discount
such a fracture as a remote possibility.
But that doesn’t mean Europe has safely
emerged from crisis.
Instead, it faces a longer-term challenge
to restore the fiscal credibility of at least
half the countries that use the euro. The
true test for the world’s largest common
currency zone, analysts say, will be wheth-
er it can withstand the economic, political
and social strains once the European Cen-
tral Bank begins to raise interest rates in
response to economic improvements in
Germany, France and other Northern Eu-
ropean countries.
At that point, the laggards on the union’s
fringe — Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece
and Spain (the so-called Piigs) — will face
even tougher choices to cope with what
looks like several more years of stagnant
economies, high unemployment and gap-
ing budget deficits.
“If inflation picks up in France and Ger-
many, the smaller economies will be left be-
hind in stagnation and deflation,” said Jor-
di Galí, a Spanish economist recognized for
his work on business cycles who heads the
Center for Research in International
Economics in Barcelona. “Such an asym-
metric recovery is pretty likely, and if the
E.C.B. raises rates, it could get very ugly.”
Mr. Gali, like a number of other Euro-
pean experts, takes the view that the euro
zone’s resilience has been underestimat-
ed.
Still, he says, there is no escaping this
emerging growth divide, and he points out
that the mandate of the European Central
Bank is to ensure broad price stability in
the union, not to look out for the interests
of individual nations.
France and Germany have already
emerged from the recession. Business
confidence in Germany, Europe’s largest
economy, hit a 17-month high in Decem-
ber.
Yet on the periphery, the hangover from
more than five years of a credit-infused
boom shows little sign of diminishing.
Ireland has taken the most severe fis-
cal action, cutting public wages sharply.
A new Greek government, punished by
the rough treatment of bond investors no
longer willing to countenance soft prom-
ises of reform, is just now promising steep
spending cuts. But it is not clear whether
the political system in Greece will accept
them.
Spain seems to be putting off difficult fis-
cal questions in the hope that its economy
will soon recover. But the European Coun-
cil projects that Spain’s unemployment
ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Struggling economies in the 16-nation euro zone may threaten its unity. People lined up at an employment office in Madrid.
THE NEW YORK TIMES IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE FOLLOWING NEWSPAPERS: CLARÍN, ARGENTINA ● DER STANDARD, AUSTRIA ● LARAZÓN, BOLIVIA ● FOLHA, BRAZIL ● LASEGUNDA, CHILE ● EL ESPECTADOR, COLOMBIA
ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN ● EL NORTE, MURAL AND REFORMA, MEXICO ● LA PRENSA, PANAMA ● MANILA BULLETIN, PHILIPPINES ● ROMANIA LIBERA, ROMANIA ● NOVAYA GAZETA, RUSSIA ● 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
v. G.F. Lucchini - MantovaPubblicità: A. Manzoni & C.,
via Nervesa 21 - Milano - 02.57494801•
Supplemento a cura di: Alix Van Buren,Francesco Malgaroli
It Was Torture, and Illegal
Real Action on Climate
Here’s what’s coming in economicnews: The employment situation inthe United States is improving andthe gross domestic product is show-ing solid growth in late 2009. Thesedays, there is plenty of bullish com-mentary — and we’re already hear-ing calls for for an end to stimulus, for reversing the steps the governmentand the Federal Reserve took to prop up the economy. I expect those calls will grow even louder.
But if those calls are heeded, we’ll be repeating the great mistake of1937, when the Fed and the Roosevelt administration decided that theGreat Depression was over, that itwas time for the economy to throwaway its crutches. Spending was cut back, monetary policy was tight-ened — and the economy promptlyplunged back into the depths.
This shouldn’t be happening. BothBen Bernanke, the Fed chairman,and Christina Romer, who headsPresident Obama’s Council of Eco-nomic Advisers, are scholars of theGreat Depression. Ms. Romer haswarned explicitly against re-enact-ing the events of 1937. But those who remember the past sometimes repeatit anyway.
As you read the economic news, itwill be important to remember, first of all, that blips — occasional goodnumbers, signifying nothing — arecommon even when the economy is, in fact, mired in a prolonged slump.
In early 1996, preliminary reports showed the Japanese economy grow-ing at an annual rate of more than 12percent, leading to triumphant proc-
lamations that “the economy hasfinally entered a phase of self-pro-pelled recovery.” In fact, Japan was only halfway through its lost decade.
Such blips are often, in part, sta-tistical illusions. But even moreimportant, they’re usually causedby an “inventory bounce.” Whenthe economy slumps, companiestypically find themselves with large stocks of unsold goods. To work offtheir excess inventories, they slashproduction; once the excess hasbeen disposed of, they raise pro-duction again, which shows up as aburst of growth in G.D.P. Unfortu-nately, growth caused by an inven-tory bounce is a one-shot affair un-less underlying sources of demand,such as consumer spending andlong-term investment, pick up.
Which brings us to the still grimfundamentals of the economic situ-ation.
During the good years of the lastdecade, such as they were, growthwas driven by a housing boom and a consumer spending surge. Neitheris coming back. There can’t be a new housing boom while the nation isstill strewn with vacant houses andapartments left behind by the previ-ous boom, and consumers — who are $11 trillion poorer than they were be-fore the housing bust — are in no po-sition to return to the buy-now-save-never habits of yore.
What’s left? A boom in businessinvestment would be really helpfulright now. But it’s hard to see where such a boom would come from: in-dustry is awash in excess capacity,and commercial rents are plungingin the face of a huge oversupply of of-fice space.
Can exports come to the rescue?For a while, a falling United Statestrade deficit helped cushion the eco-nomic slump. But the deficit is widen-ing again, in part because China andother surplus countries are refusing to let their currencies adjust.
So the odds are that any good eco-nomic news you hear in the near fu-ture will be a blip, not an indicationthat we’re on our way to sustainedrecovery. But will policy makersmisinterpret the news and repeatthe mistakes of 1937? Actually, theyalready are.
The Obama fiscal stimulus plan isexpected to have its peak effect onG.D.P. and jobs around the middle of this year, then start fading out. That’sfar too early: why withdraw support in the face of continuing mass unem-ployment? Congress should haveenacted a second round of stimulusmonths ago, when it became clearthat the slump was going to be deeperand longer than originally expected.But nothing was done — and the il-lusory good numbers we’re about to see will probably head off any furtherpossibility of action.
Meanwhile, all the talk at the Fed isabout the need for an “exit strategy” from its efforts to support the econ-omy. One of those efforts, purchases of long-term government debt, hasalready come to an end. It’s widelyexpected that another, purchases of mortgage-backed securities, will endin a few months.
Will the Fed realize, before it’s too late, that the job of fighting the slump isn’t finished? Will Congress do thesame? If they don’t, 2010 will be ayear that began in false economichope and ended in grief.
Bush administration officials came up with all kinds of ridiculously offen-sive rationalizations for torturing pris-oners. It’s not torture if you don’t meanit to be. It’s not torture if you don’tnearly kill the victim. It’s not torture ifthe president says it’s not torture.
It was deeply distressing to watchthe United States Court of Appealsfor the District of Columbia Circuitsink to that standard in April when itdismissed a civil case brought by fourformer Guantánamo detainees nevercharged with any offense. The courtsaid former Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld and the senior mili-tary officers charged in the complaint could not be held responsible for vio-lating the plaintiffs’ rights because at the time of their detention, between2002 and 2004, it was not “clearly es-tablished” that torture was illegal.
The Supreme Court could have cor-rected that outlandish reading of theConstitution, legal precedent, and do-mestic and international statutes and treaties. Instead, last month, the jus-tices abdicated their legal and moralduty and declined to review the case.
A denial of certiorari is not a ruling on the merits. But the justices surelyunderstood that their failure to acceptthe case would further underminethe rule of law. In effect, the Supreme Court has granted the governmentimmunity for subjecting people in its custody to terrible mistreatment. Ithas deprived victims of a remedy and Americans of government account-ability, while further damaging thecountry’s standing in the world.
Contrary to the view of the lower ap-pellate court, it was crystal clear that
torture inflicted anywhere is illegallong before the Supreme Court’s 2008ruling that prisoners at Guantánamo, de facto United States territory, have aconstitutional right to habeas corpus.Moreover, the shield of qualified im-munity was not raised in good faith.Officials decided to hold detainees off-shore at Guantánamo precisely to try to avoid claims from victims for con-duct the officials knew was illegal.
Reversing the Circuit Court wouldnot have ended the matter. The plain-tiffs would still have had to provetheir case at trial. They deserved thatchance. There are those who opposetrying to punish Bush-era lawless-ness — some who argue that America should not look backward and somewho excuse that lawlessness. But the rule of law rests on scrutinizing evi-dence of past behavior to establish ac-countability, confer justice and deterbad behavior in the future.
President Obama, much to his cred-it, has forsworn the use of torture, but politics and policy makers change anddemocracy cannot rely on the goodwill of one president and his aides.Such good will did not exist in the last administration. The inhumane and il-legal treatment of detainees could re-turn in a future administration unlessthe Supreme Court sends a firm mes-sage that ordering torture is a griev-ous violation of fundamental rights.
Anyone who doubts the degree of ex-ecutive branch pliability in this realmneeds to consider this: The party that urged the justices not to grant the vic-tims’ appeal because the illegality of torture was not “clearly established”was the Obama Justice Department.
E D I T O R I A L S O F T H E T I M E S
Even as many members of Con-gress resist as too hard or too costlythe steps necessary to address globalwarming, American cities and states — the largest of which have carbonfootprints bigger than those of mostnations — have quietly been makingserious commitments to curb emis-sions. Congress should build on these actions to fashion a national response to climate change.
According to a recent study by Envi-ronment America, an advocacy group,about half of the states have broadplans and specific regulations aimedat reducing carbon dioxide emissions.When fully realized, these actionswould cut emissions by more than 7percent between now and 2020 — asizable distance toward the 17 percent reductions President Obama promisedat Copenhagen.
About half the reductions would
PAUL KRUGMAN
That 1937 Feeling
ESTELÍ, NicaraguaThere’s an old saying about pov-
erty: Give me a fish, and I’ll eat for a day. Give me a fishing rod, and I’ll eat for a lifetime.
There are many variations in that theme. In Somalia, I heard a darker version: If I buy food, I’ll eat for a day.If I buy a gun, I’ll eat every day.
But these days, there’s evidencethat one of the most effective tools to fight global poverty may be neithera fishing rod nor a gun, but a savings account. What we need is a savingsrevolution.
Right now, the world’s poor almost never have access to a bank account.Cash sits around and gets spent —and, frankly, often spent badly.
“We used to buy a three-liter bottleof Coke every day,” recalled Socorro Machado, a 49-year-old homemaker in a village here in northwestern Ni-caragua. The cost of $1.75 consumeda large share of the family’s budget.
Then Catholic Relief Services, anaid organization, arrived in the vil-lage with a new program to promote savings. It provided a wooden boxwith a padlock and organized sav-ings groups of about 20 people whomeet once or twice a month, typicallybringing 50 cents or $1 to deposit inthe box.
Some of the money is lent out to starta small business, but the greatest ben-efit of these programs seems to be thatthey provide a spur to save.
“Now we buy a bottle of Coke just once a week, and we put the moneyin savings,” Ms. Machado said. Shesaves about $5 a month in her ownname and another $5 a month in her son’s name and has plans to buy a
computer for him eventually.Some people in the development
world argue that microlending hasbeen oversold, and there has been a bit of a backlash against it lately — in-cluding a “no pago” movement here in Nicaragua. This “don’t pay” efforthas been orchestrated by the leftistgovernment of President Daniel Or-tega.
I don’t agree with the criticismsof microloans, for I’ve seen how tiny loans can truly transform people’slives by giving them the means tostart small businesses. Even so,there’s evidence that the most pow-erful element of microfinance is mic-rosavings, not microloans.
One of the ugly secrets of globalpoverty is that a good deal of suffer-ing is caused not only by low incomes but also by bad spending decisions.Research suggests that the world’spoorest families (typically the menin those families) spend about 20percent of their incomes on a combi-nation of alcohol, cigarettes, prosti-tution, soft drinks and extravagantfestivals.
In one village here in Nicaraguawhere children were having to drop out of elementary school becausethey couldn’t afford notebooks, amidwife, Andrea Machado Garcia,estimated to me that if a man earned$150 working in the mountains as aday laborer during the coffee har-vest, he might spend $50 on alcoholand women and bring back $100 tosupport his family.
One challenge is that those mendon’t have a good, secure way to savemoney, and neither do poor peoplegenerally. It just sits around, itching
to be spent. It’s also vulnerable totheft, covetous family members and demands for loans from relatives.
In West Africa, money collectorscalled susus operate informal banks but charge an annualized rate of 40percent on deposits. Yes, you readthat right. You pay a 40 percent inter-est rate on your savings!
In Kenya, two economists con-ducted an experiment by paying thefees to open bank accounts for smallpeddlers. They found that the ped-dlers who took up the accounts, espe-cially women, enjoyed remarkablegains. Within six months, they were investing 40 percent more in theirbusinesses .
Many aid groups including CAREand Oxfam now offer savings pro-grams in some form. A Web site,www.matchsavings.org, lets donorsmatch a poor person’s savings toincrease the incentive to build a sav-ings habit.
So it’s time for a microsavingsmovement. Poor countries shouldease the regulations (such as re-quirements for banking licenses)that make it hard for nonprofits to op-erate microsavings programs.
Hugh Aprile, a Catholic Relief Ser-vices official here, noted that savings schemes are very cheap to start be-cause no capital is used to provideloans. “It’s people using their ownmoney,” he said, “to build far morethan they ever thought they could.”
Maybe it’s hard for us to believeconsidering how much animus there is toward bankers in the UnitedStates, but the world’s poor mightbenefit hugely from the ability tobank their money safely.
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Sparking a Savings Revolution
The Intelligence column will returnnext week.
come from proposed emission limitsin six big states, plus a regional capon power plant emissions adopted byNew York and nine other Northeast-ern states. The other half would resultfrom legally required increases in theuse of alternative energy sources likewind — 29 states have approved suchmandates — as well as stronger state and city efficiency standards for appli-ances, lighting and buildings.
California’s goal of cutting green-house gases by one-quarter by 2020 is plausible partly because the state has been so successful in improving the ef-ficiency of its power plants and build-ings, promoting renewable energy andinsisting on fuel-efficient vehicles. Thestate recently approved strict new en-ergy-efficiency requirements for tele-vision sets, which now account for 10percent of the average household’s en-ergy use but are largely unregulated.The rules will save consumers $1 bil-lion in energy bills and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2.7 million metrictons each year. Though that is just un-der 1 percent of current emissions, itis small steps like these that will takeCalifornia to its overall goal.
In another positive move, New YorkCity has adopted a new law requiring periodic “energy audits” on 22,000large commercial and residentialbuildings that account for half of thecity’s carbon dioxide emissions. Own-ers will not be required to make reno-vations under the law, although thisidea should be revisited if the economyimproves. The expectation is that the prospect of saving energy costs overthe long term will lead to major invest-ments in more efficient heating andcooling systems.
A national policy endorsed by Con-gress that puts a price on greenhouse gas emissions is urgently needed.These states and cities shed a hopeful light on what this nation and otherscan and must achieve.
Repubblica NewYork
Life moves at different speeds,
so we’ve created a
processor that does,too.
Intel® Turbo Boost Technology requires a PC with a processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology capability. Intel Turbo Boost Technology performance varies depending on hardware, software and overall system con�guration. Check with your PC manufacturer on whether your system delivers Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
It’s time for horsepower to meet a new kind of brainpower.
The kind that includes Intel®Turbo Boost Technology, which automatically
senses, adapts and provides the right performance boost when
it’s needed—and conserves power when it’s not.
Introducing the all new 2010 Intel®Core™ Processor Family.
It’s more than just a faster way of computing, it’s a smarter one.
intel.com/core/inside
Repubblica NewYork
W O R L D T R E N D S
IV MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010
Greece
Ireland
Spain
Source: Bloomberg
Signs of Stress
The higher government bond yields that some euro-zone countries have been paying above the European benchmark is evidence that investors remain skeptical of their longer-term economic prospects.
Premiums on 10-year bonds of some countries over German 10-year bonds
J F M A M J J A S O N D
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
percentage points+
+
+
+
+
+
2009THE NEW YORK TIMES
rate will reach 20 percent in 2010. Critics of the euro zone contend that
weak governments in the peripheraleconomies, facing high unemploy-ment and restive voters, will not havethe stomach to hold down wages, pen-sions and public expenditures.
“Are these people serious about reform, or are they just telling peoplewhat they want to hear?” asked Ed-ward Hugh, a British-trained macro-economist who lives in Barcelona and has been critical of Spain’s unwilling-ness to make difficult decisions.
The struggling two-tier Europemay represent the best chance for re-covery if it leads to devaluation of the euro against the dollar, which manysee as long overdue.
In December, the euro lost more than 5 percent of its value against the dollar. Many economists predict that the currency will weaken moreas the growth gap between the core
and peripheral states creates further disharmony.
“If there are fears now that a breakup of the euro zone will lead toweakening of the euro, then that isgood news,” said Paul De Grauwe,an economist based in Brussels who advises the president of the EuropeanCommission, José Manuel Barroso. “So we should congratulate Greece for getting us out of this anomaly of having a euro that is too overvalued.”
Any such recovery will not be rap-id, however. In Ireland, where pricesare falling by 5 percent, reorderingthe economy from its deep reliance
on construction and property willtake years. An already unpopularIrish government will have a dif-ficult time explaining to recession-bruised voters why they must acceptthe central bank’s decision to raiseinterest rates.
Yet the painful, historic steps taken by Ireland offer a ray of hope, says Philip Lane, a professor of interna-tional macroeconomics at TrinityCollege Dublin who oversees the widely read Irish Economy blog.
He points to signs of wage compres-sion in the hard-hit service, propertyand government sectors as proof that there is a recognition that recovery, distant as it may seem, must occur inside the euro zone, not outside.
“It takes a crisis to learn a lesson,”Mr. Lane said. “Could it be that bygetting countries to change their be-havior you might get improved coop-eration within the euro zone?
“What does not kill you,” he added,“often makes you stronger.”
It may not feel that way right now,but the last 10 years may go down inworld history as a big success.
The raging economic growth ratesof China and India are well known,
though their riseis part of a broadertrend in the economicdevelopment of poor-er countries. Ideals ofprosperity, freedomand the rule of law
have probably never been moreresonant globally than they’ve beenover the last 10 years, even if prac-tice often falls short. And for all ofthe anticapitalistic rhetoric that hasemerged from the financial crisis,national leaders around the worldare embracing the commercializa-tion of their economies.
Putting aside the United States,which ranks third, the four mostpopulous countries are China, India,Indonesia and Brazil, accounting formore than 40 percent of the world’speople. And all four have madegreat strides. Indonesia had solid economic growth during the entiredecade, mostly in the 5 to 6 percentannual range. That came after itsvery turbulent 1990s, marked by adisastrous financial crisis and plum-meting standards of living.
Brazil also had a consistently good decade, with growth at timesexceeding 5 percent a year. There is lots of talk that the country has fi-nally turned the corner, and, withinits borders, there is major worry that its currency is too strong — a problem that many other countries would envy.
Elsewhere in South America,Colombia and Peru have made enor-mous progress and Chile is on theverge of becoming a “developed’’country; it will soon be joining theOrganization for Economic Coop-eration and Development.
To be sure, in Africa, there is stillenormous misery. Nonetheless, overall standards of living rose ina wide variety of countries there,with economic growth for the conti-nent as a whole at more than 5 per-cent in most years. Many basic es-sentials, like water, sanitation, elec-tricity and especially telephones,are more commonly available.
In a given year, an extra percent-age point of economic growth may not seem to matter much. But,over time, the difference between
annual growth of 1 percent and 2 percent determines whether you can double your standard of livingevery 35 years or every 70 years. At 5 percent annual economic growth, living standards double about ev-ery 14 years.
Nonetheless, despite the positivenews in much of the world, it’s ques-tionable whether the decade as a whole has been good for Americans,economically speaking. Medianwages have not risen much, if at all,and the costs of the financial crisisand irresponsible fiscal policies have become increasingly obvious.Those facts support a pessimistic interpretation.
Still, most economic models sug-gest that the fundamental source of growth is new ideas, which enableus to produce more from a given set of resources. To the extent that therest of the world becomes wealthier,
there’s more innovation, as mycolleague and co-blogger Alex Tabarrok, professor of economics at George Mason University, arguedrecently.
The subtler point is that a wealthi-er China, India, Brazil and Indonesiawill lead to more customers for newinnovations, thereby producinggreater rewards for successful en-trepreneurs, no matter where theylive. There are so many improve-ments in cellphones these days be-cause there are so many cellphonecustomers in so many countries.
To put it bluntly, if the UnitedStates takes one step back and the rest of the world takes two steps for-ward, even in purely selfish terms we should consider accepting thetrade-off, if only for the longer run.Most of us gain from the wealth andcreativity of other countries, even ifwe can’t always feel like the top dog.
DAVID G. KLEIN
KO SASAKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Atsushi Nakanishi condensed his belongings into two suitcases, which he stores in lockers.
TYLER
COWEN
ECONOMIC
ANALYSIS
A Fruitful DecadeFor Much of the World
For Japan’s Jobless, Capsule Becomes HomeBy HIROKO TABUCHI
TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi,jobless since Christmas, home is a cu-bicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo’s decrepit“capsule” hotels.
“It’s just a place to crawl into andsleep,” he said, stroking his black suit— one of just two he owns after dis-carding the rest of his wardrobe forlack of space. “You get used to it.”
When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510opened nearly two decades ago, Japanwas just beginning to pull back fromits bubble economy, and the hotel’stiny plastic cubicles offered a night’srefuge to salarymen who had missedthe last train home.
Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 2 meters long by 1.5 me-ters wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable op-tion for some people with nowhere elseto go as Japan endures its worst reces-sion since World War II.
Once-booming exporters laid offworkers en masse in 2009 as theglobal economic crisis pushed down demand.
Many of the newly unemployed,forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, havebecome homeless. The country’s woes have led the government to open emer-gency shelters over the New Year holi-day in a nationwide drive to help thehomeless.
Mr. Nakanishi considers himself rel-
atively lucky. After working odd jobson an Isuzu assembly line, at pachinkoparlors and as a security guard, Mr.Nakanishi, 40, moved into the capsule hotel in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district inApril to save on rent while he workednight shifts at a delivery company.
Mr. Nakanishi, who studied econom-ics at a regional university, dreams of becoming a lawyer and pores over le-gal manuals during the day. But withno job since Christmas, he does not
know how much longer he can afford a capsule bed.
The rent is surprisingly high for sucha small space: 59,000 yen a month,or about $640, for an upper bunk. But with basic amenities like fresh linens and free use of a communal bath and sauna, the cost is far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo, Mr. Nakanishisays.
Still, it is a bleak world. The capsules do not have doors, only screens thatpull down. Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with ear-phones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and
a hard pillow of rice husks. Most pos-sessions must be kept in lockers. Thereis a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks.
“Our main clients used to be sala-rymen who were out drinking andmissed the last train,” said TetsuyaAkasako, head manager at the hotel.
But about two years ago, the hotelstarted to notice that guests werestaying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rentfor dwellers of a month or longer; now,about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsulesare rented out by the month.
The hotel received special govern-ment permission to let them registertheir capsules as their official abode.
The government says about 15,800people live on the streets in Japan, but aid groups put the figure much higher, with at least 10,000 in Tokyo alone.
The jobless rate, at 5.2 percent, is at arecord high, and the number of house-holds on welfare has risen sharply. Thecountry’s 15.7 percent poverty rate isone of the highest among industrial-ized nations.
These statistics have helped shatter an image, held since the country’s rise as an industrial power in the 1970s,that Japan is a classless society.
“When the country enjoyed rapideconomic growth, standards of living improved across the board and classdifferences were obscured,” said Pro-fessor Hiroshi Ishida of the Universityof Tokyo. “With a stagnating economy,class is more visible again.”
‘It’s just a place tocrawl into and sleep,’ said one Tokyo renter.
From Page I
A divide widens in eurozone as recovery favors France and Germany.
NEWS ANALYSIS
For Europe, the Worst May Not Be Over
Tyler Cowen is a professor of eco-nomics at George Mason Universityin Virginia.
Repubblica NewYork
W O R L D T R E N D S
MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010 V
By MARC LACEY
HAVANA — The Obama honey-moon here is over.
When President Obama came tooffice, the unflattering billboards of George W. Bush, including one out-side the United States Interests Sec-tion of him scowling alongside Hitler, came down and the anti-Americanvitriol softened. Raúl Castro, whotook over from his ailing brotherFidel in 2006, even raised the possi-bility of a meeting with Mr. Obama,which would have been the first time one of the Castros met with a sitting American president.
But the tenor here has changed con-siderably, and Mr. Obama, whose elec-tion was broadly celebrated by Cuba’sracially diverse population, is now be-ing portrayed by this nation’s leadersas an imperialistic Cuba hater.
“As things appear now, there will beno big change in the relationship in the near future,” said Ricardo Alarcón,the president of Cuba’s National As-sembly. He dismissed the Obama ad-ministration’s recent steps, like loos-ening restrictions on Cuban Ameri-cans’ traveling or sending money to the island and allowing Americantelecommunications companies to dobusiness there, as “minor changes.”
The two countries have postponed talks on migration, postal deliveryand other issues, which they restart-ed at the beginning of the Obama ad-ministration, blaming each other for the delays. In the absence of talks, Mr.Obama’s approach of relaxing some Bush-era policies while continuing to
denounce the Castro government on human rights has failed to engage — and perhaps has enraged — the Cu-ban leadership.
In a recent commentary in thestate press, Fidel Castro, who hasnot appeared in public in nearlythree years, wrote that Mr. Obama’s “friendly smile and African-Ameri-can face” masked his sinister inten-tions to control Latin America. For-eign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Par-rilla accused Mr. Obama of behaving like an “imperial chief” toward devel-oping countries at the climate changetalks in Copenhagen.
Mr. Alarcón did credit Mr. Obama with using language that is “morepeaceful, and civilized and open”than his predecessor. But he said the White House was too distracted withother issues to make Cuba a priority.
Others in the Cuban governmenttake matters further, maintainingthat Mr. Obama, despite initial steps toward rapprochement, has contin-ued to follow the Bush administra-tion’s goal of toppling the Communistleadership. “In the last few weeks wehave witnessed the stepping up ofthe new administration’s efforts in
this area,” Raúl Castro told Cuba’sNational Assembly during its annualsession on December 19. “They aregiving new breath to open and under-cover subversion against Cuba.”
He was referring to the recent de-tention of an American contractordistributing cellphones, laptops and satellite equipment in Cuba on behalfof the Obama administration. TheCubans accuse the contractor, whose identity has not been made public, of giving the equipment to civil society groups in Cuba without permission.
For its part, the Obama adminis-tration complains that Raúl Castrois running Cuba as his brother did,without fundamental freedoms andwith abuses against political oppo-nents. But Cuban officials say Wash-ington’s insistence on more democra-cy in Cuba continues an old pattern of meddling in their country’s affairs.
“If the American governmentreally wants to advance relationswith Cuba, I recommend they leavebehind the conditions of internalgovernance that they are trying toimpose on us and that only Cubanscan decide,” Raúl Castro said in hisassembly speech.
By ETHAN BRONNER
JERUSALEM — He can be impul-sive. She can be bossy. Next-doorneighbors for nearly a year, they talk, watch television and explore the world together, wandering into each other’s homes without a second thought. She likes his mother’s eggplant dish. Helikes her father’s rice and lamb.
Friendship often starts with prox-imity, but Orel and Marya, both 8,have been thrust together in a way fewelsewhere have. Their playground is a hospital corridor. He is an Israeli Jewseverely wounded by a Hamas rocket. She is a Palestinian Muslim from Gazaparalyzed by an Israeli missile. Some-one forgot to tell them that they areenemies.
“He’s a naughty boy,” Marya likes tosay of Orel with an appreciative smilewhen he gets a little wild.
When Orel arrived here a year ago, he could not hear, see, talk or walk.Now he does them all haltingly. Halfhis brain is gone. Doctors were deeply pessimistic about his survival. Today they are amazed at his progress.
Marya’s spinal cord was broken atthe neck and she can move only herhead. Smart, sunny and strong-willed, she moves her wheelchair by pushing a button with her chin.
In a way, a friendship between two wounded children from opposing back-grounds is not that surprising. Neitherunderstands the prolonged fight over land and identity that so divides peoplehere. They are children. They play.
But for those who have spent time intheir presence at Alyn Hospital in Je-rusalem, it is almost more powerful toobserve their parents, who do under-stand. They have developed a kinship that defies national struggle.
“The wounds of our children, their pain, our pain, have connected us,”noted Angela Elizarov, Orel’s mother, one recent day as she sat on a bed inthe room she shares with her son. Next
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING — The job advertisement,placed on a popular Web site, sounded like a casting call for a superhero.
“Wanted: Someone with a strong sense of responsibility, tough, brave and physically strong. Ability to op-pose and deal with forces of evil.”
Qin Rong, the owner of a restaurantfacing imminent demolition, waslooking for a foolhardy soul willing to save her from one of the most power-ful forces in China today: the state-affiliated development company.
The company that bought the land that included her restaurant for $700million was already busily clear-ing the block for another glittering mega-development. The only thing inits way was a squat row of buildings that included the Fish Castle Restau-rant that Ms. Qin and her boyfriend opened just before the 2008 Olympics.The couple had signed a three-yearlease, poured their extended families’life savings into fixing up the space,and then learned in August that theyhad only two months to get out.
Ms. Qin, a fiery 28-year-old raisedin the rough-and-tumble western re-gion of Xinjiang, said she would never have signed the lease — with an agen-cy affiliated with the developer thatowns the property — had she known the building was about to be demol-ished. “We have no problem moving out,” she said. “We just want back the money we invested for renovations.”
She demanded exactly that amount: $74,000. The agency’s fi-nal offer was just over $5,000. Last month, the electricity and water were shut off and a herd of orange excava-tor machines began tearing away at
adjacent buildings, where the occu-pants had folded with less of a fight.
Chinese newspapers are filled withstories of battles involving so-called nail houses, the properties whose owners and occupants are like deeply embedded spikes that refuse to giveway to redevelopment juggernauts.
Ms. Qin’s job advertisement prompted a host of curious phone calls and a spot on the nightly news. Even if he appeared older than hisstated age of 47, the retiree, Lu Daren,the father of two teenagers, seemedthe ideal candidate.
For years, Mr. Lu worked for theother side, as a “relocation man’’ whohelped developers remove the impla-cable. “I decided one day I would atonefor my wrongdoing and do somethinggood for the world,’’ he said.
His first trial came two weeks intothe job. Last month, he and witnessessaid, about 60 men crashed throughthe restaurant’s front door anddragged him on to the pavement. Hesaid he looked up to see the owner of anoodle shop, another holdout business,being thrashed and the man’s preg-nant wife being kicked in the belly.
Then, for some inexplicable reason, the attackers retreated into their ve-hicles. Before they could drive away, Mr. Lu ran up to one of their vans and jammed the pole of his banner — the one that read “Nail House” — into the steering wheel, he said. In a momentof panic and shattered glass, the men abandoned their vehicles and ran off.
He said he thought the standoffwould end soon, and in their favor. Ms. Qin said she had already started look-ing for a new restaurant space. Mr. Lu said he hoped to continue fightingon behalf of other nail houses. “Some-times righteousness wins,” he said.
A Mideast Bond Between Children, Stitched of Pain and Healing
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RINA CASTELNUOVO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
BEIJING JOURNAL
A Restaurant Goes Up
Against a Goliath
In Cuba, OptimismAbout Obama Has Faded
Marya, far left, a
Palestinian, and Orel,
an Israeli, both 8, are
hospital neighbors. Her
father, Hamdi Aman,
top, and his mother,
Angela Elizarov.
JOSE GOITIA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
An anti-American billboard in Havana, shown in 2004, was
removed after President Obama took office last year, but Cuba’s
leader now accuses the United States of “undercover subversion.”
Li Bibo contributed research.
door is Marya, her 6-year-old brother,Momen, and their father, HamdiAman. “Does it matter that he is fromGaza and I am from Beersheba, thathe is an Arab and I am a Jew? It has no meaning to me. He sees my child and I see his child.”
It was two weeks into Israel’s Gazawar last January when Orel was hit.After days in a shelter his mother took him out in the car. As they drove aroundBeersheba, a siren blared, warning of an incoming rocket. She pushed Orel tothe ground, lying protectively on him.When she heard the explosion in the distance, she rose in relief. A second rocket exploded and she saw her son’s head bleeding profusely.
A surgical nurse, she flagged downa passing motorist who drove themto the hospital where she works. “Isaw his brain coming out, everything around me was burning, and I was not even scratched,” she said. “When I got to the emergency room, I said to thedoctor: ‘You can’t kid me. I know hehas no chance of survival.’ The doctor looked away. But after six operations, he is actually making some progress.”
Her husband, Avrel, who works withchildren, spends much of the week at home with their 18-month-old daugh-ter but comes often.
Their hospital neighbor, Mr. Aman, is a 32-year-old construction workerfrom Gaza who not only cares for his
own two children but helps with Orel. He is regarded as a luminescent pres-ence, an inspiration to staff, volunteersand fellow parents.
This is partly because the pain in hisown story is hard to fathom.
More than three years ago, Mr.Aman and his uncle had split the cost of a car and taken it on the road. Withthem were Mr. Aman’s wife, theirthree children and his mother.
Prowling above, an Israeli jet fight-er on an assassination mission wasseeking its target, a militant leadernamed Ahmad Dahduh. Two missiles were fired at Mr. Dahduh’s car justas it passed Mr. Aman’s, killing Mr.Aman’s oldest son, wife and mother.
Marya was thrown from the car.He and his children have been at
Alyn Hospital for nearly the entiretime since.
But Mr. Aman has no official status and is also raising a healthy son in ahospital room. He wants residency or a ticket to a Western country where hischildren will be safe and Marya willget the care she needs.
“I have never felt there was a differ-ence among people — Jews, Muslims,Christians — we are all human be-ings,” he says. “I worked in Israel for years and so did my father. We knowthat it is not about what you are butwho you are. And that is what I havetaught my children.”
Repubblica NewYork
M O N E Y & B U S I N E S S
VI MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010
By PRADNYA JOSHI
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam —More than many countries, Vietnamhas been buffeted by the ups anddowns of globalization.
A relatively new player in the glob-al economy, it benefited from a floodof Western capital and interest inthe 1990s and early this decade, onlyto be devastated by the reverbera-tions of the latest economic crisis inthe United States, 12,000 kilometersaway.
Vietnam’s strategy for competingin the global arena — a relativelysuccessful one until recently — hadbeen to carve out niche marketswhere it could deliver quality prod-ucts like handicrafts or specializedclothing that China could not.
But all of Vietnam’s main exportindustries are heavily dependent onsales to the United States. In 2009,the United States was the biggestimporter of Vietnamese goods, ab-sorbing about a fifth of the country’sexports.
Furniture companies, to take oneindustry, have had a huge drop in or-ders after the rapid decline in salesof new homes in the United States.“A lot of the smaller factories havehad a very, very difficult time,” saidMichael Gunther, a manager at Ho-nai Furniture, a 900-employee com-pany outside Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam’s economy grew 4.6 per-cent for the first nine months of 2009, compared with the same period in2008, according to the World Bank,in part because of government stim-ulus measures. While a developedcountry like the United States would
be happy with such growth, Vietnamin recent years had been able to sus-tain an average growth rate above7 percent.
At the same time, the country hasseen a strong retrenchment in ex-ports. In the first 10 months of 2009,Vietnamese exports declined 13.8percent compared with the periodin 2008, the World Bank said.
Though that drop is less thandeclines in most other developingcountries, it could make 2009 thefirst year with a decline in exportssince the beginning of Vietnam’s
economic reforms, the World Banksaid.
Dai Viet Garment Limited, basedin Ho Chi Minh City, has been able tosustain its business because it spe-cializes in making the thoub, a man’stunic, for Saudi Arabia and otherMiddle Eastern markets. Demandis pretty stable for the garments,which has allowed the companyto keep its work force of 500 directemployees busy as well as 300 morethrough subcontractors.
As Vietnam’s tourism marketgrows, furniture manufacturerslike Sadaco are turning to supply
new resorts.Tran Quoc Manh, chairman of
Sadaco, says he has also sought todiversify his customer base by find-ing clients in China and in growingareas of Vietnam, like Dalat City,where new villas are being built. But the local market cannot substitutefor the huge potential of the globalconsumer.
“The local market is still verysmall compared to the U.S. market,and overall exports to the U.S. con-tinue to grow, though not as much aspre-crisis projections would havehad it,” said Frederick R. Burke, amanaging partner in the Vietnamoffice of the law firm Baker & McK-enzie, who advises exporters.
Accurate government statisticson job losses in Vietnam are hard tocome by. The World Bank, however,said there was abundant anecdotalevidence of increased hardship inthe first half of the year.
Corporate enterprise in Vietnamis still guided by the officially social-ist government. The governmenttook several steps to force factoriesto keep employment up during theeconomic downturn, and it adopteda sizable fiscal stimulus package .
Many economic experts are op-timistic that a global recovery willhelp Vietnam regain its growthtrack.
“The government is learningthrough experience,” said V. BruceJ. Tolentino, chief economist at theAsia Foundation, a nonprofit groupbased in San Francisco. “They arepragmatic, and that pragmatism isserving them well.”
By KIM SEVERSON
At Cadbury, the British candy gi-ant, executives are fighting off a $16.2 billion takeover bid by Kraft Foods.Waiting in the wings is Hershey’s,which already has a license to sell anAmericanized version of the Britishchocolate in the United States.
The big prizes are emerging mar-kets like India, where Cadbury is the confection of choice among the young upwardly mobile who are starting tobuy chocolate for holidays insteadof the more traditional sweets calledmithai.
But for many Brits, the businessimpact is secondary. The prospect ofAmericans taking over production of
their beloved Dairy Milk and Flakebars has sent the country into an emo-tional tailspin.
“When it comes to protecting ourchocolate — the taste of British child-hood — then we turn and fight,” May-or Boris Johnson of London wrote inThe Telegraph. “We face an appalling choice of succumbing either to Kraft,makers of the plastic flaps of orangecheese, or to Hershey, whose Hershey bars have been likened in flavor — byindependent experts — to a mixture of soap powder and baby vomit.”
Americans eat about five and a halfkilograms of chocolate a year, abouthalf as much chocolate as Britons. Butthey feel just as strongly about their
own confection. Chocolate has servedas a beloved barometer of Americansocial mores, cultural shifts and eco-nomic conditions since before Milton Hershey turned out the first bar in1900. President Thomas Jefferson, for one, loved it.
“It’s an intrinsically important
thing to people,” said John Scharf-fenberger, an American winemaker-turned-chocolatier who in 2005 soldhis well-regarded artisan company to Hershey for an estimated $50 million.“It connects to our emotions and ourthinking.”
When America started eatinghealthier in the early part of this de-cade, chocolate and its antioxidantswere in demand. When the country be-came food obsessed, fancy chocolatebars with complex names and cacaolevels were a way to separate the realplayers from the Godiva crowd.
Premium chocolate is the fastest-growing part of what will be an $18 bil-lion chocolate market by 2011, accord-
ing to a report by the market research group Packaged Facts.
And now, Cadbury and Nestlé areselling fair trade-certified Dairy Milkand Kit Kat bars in Britain, meaning producers are assured a fair price and consumers are promised that childlabor and other unsavory practicesweren’t used.
But as it did during the Depression, chocolate has emerged in the past yearas a barometer for the economy. In anage of shrinking household budgetsand financial insecurity, chocolate re-mains an inexpensive and reassuring treat. Snickers, named in 1930 after a favorite horse of its inventor, still sells about $2 billion worth a year.
Because at the end of the day, choco-late can be as much about history as itis about taste. And that’s true whetheryou grew up in London or New York.
By STEPHEN CASTLE
VAMOS, Crete — Myth-makinghas been part of life on Crete since the Greek goddess Athena was creditedwith growing the first olive tree on thisrugged Mediterranean island.
But even the gods would have been hard-pressed to conjure up a harvest as big as the one claimed in 2007 by a group of olive growers around this ti-ny town. It could have been achieved, neighbors joke, only by planting lines of olive trees across the Mediterra-nean to the island of Santorini, 145 ki-lometers away.
The extraordinary harvest turnedup on an application for Europeanagricultural subsidies; officials deter-mined that the amount requested was in excess of what the farmers couldconceivably have been entitled to.
But something disturbed investiga-tors more than the size of the claim: Itwas filed not by the growers but by the leaders of their agricultural coopera-tive, one of thousands of locally pow-erful, politically connected producers’associations.
In poor, remote areas of southernEurope, evidence is emerging thatwhat happened in Crete — where the European Union is demanding a re-fund of nearly 375,000 euros, or about $540,000 — was not an aberration but asymptom of a broader problem.
Writing in a report about severalswindles involving two Portuguesebanana co-ops two years ago, the Eu-ropean Union’s fraud investigativeagency, known as OLAF, said it hadfound “that this pattern of abuse bysome producer organizations was aproblem” across the Continent.
The victims, the agency says, in-clude many farmers whom the co-ops were established to protect but who
are believed to see little of the illicitproceeds.
Experts say the problem is shaped byregional differences in the way farmingis organized. “The further south you gothe more opaque the administration bythe cooperative tends to be — you oftenfind that the mayor and the president ofthe cooperative are one and the sameperson,” said Brian Gardner, author of“European Agriculture: Policies, Pro-duction and Trade.”
In Italy in 2007, 45 people were ar-rested on suspicion of a citrus fruitfraud that was run through a coopera-tive. An estimated 50 million euros in
subsidies were sought, of which 20 mil-lion were actually paid out.
The fruit was supposed to have been taken off the market, pressed into juiceand sold in Spain or France. In fact the product never existed.
All this is in stark contrast to the be-nevolent beginnings of cooperatives, many of which were formed in the 19thor early 20th century to provide a uni-form voice to individual farmers.
According to the European farmunion umbrella body, Cogeca, coop-eratives control 60 percent of the col-lection, processing and marketing ofall European agricultural products .
Here in Crete, the cooperative ofApokoronas and Sfakia came under
scrutiny because of a farmer, Yan-nis Matsamakis.
Not far from his small plot in the hills above Chania, Mr. Matsa-makis found copies of a list item-izing subsidy claims. The average tree yields enough olives to makeone to five liters of oil. But theclaims from groves at Vamos and some surrounding villages sug-gested they were producing fivetimes that much.
Mr. Matsamakis, who cultivates 150 olive trees, took the list to the local prosecutor. “I did it because I didn’t feel good that people try tosteal money in this crazy way,” he said.
No one has been charged in rela-tion to the subsidy claims. SpirosBoutsadakis, president of the co-operative, declined to comment,saying he had taken over after the scandal.
The European Commissionsaid that by 2012, most subsidies linked to specific production willbe phased out, removing much ofthe opportunity for fraud. “Ourcontrol systems are improving all the time,” its spokesman for agri-culture, Michael Mann, said.
ANGELOS TZORTZINIS FOR THE IHT
A worker gathered olives during the
2009 harvest near Chania, Crete.
Economics, comfortand cultural history ina shiny wrapper.
A pattern of abuse in Europe’s farmsubsidy system.
Balancing socialismwith economicpragmatism in Asia.
Olive Groves in Crete Produce Harvest of Fraud
Vietnam Is Feeling the Chill in Exports
In Chocolate Battles, There Is More at Stake Than Just Taste
JUSTIN MOTT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dai Viet Garment has carved out a niche making the thoub, a tunic worn in the Middle East.
Repubblica NewYork
A M E R I C A N A
MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010 VII
'&)($ #"%&("
"'(% #'$&%
By CHARLES DUHIGG
The 35-year-old federal law regulat-ing tap water is so out of date that the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious health risks — and still be legal.
Only 91 contaminants are regulatedby the Safe Drinking Water Act, yetmore than 60,000 chemicals are used in the United States, according to En-vironmental Protection Agency es-timates. Scientists have scrutinizedthousands of those chemicals in recentdecades, and identified hundreds as-sociated with a risk of cancer and oth-er diseases, according to an analysis ofgovernment records by The New YorkTimes. But not one chemical has been added to the list of those regulated bythe drinking water law since 2000.
Other studies have found that some chemicals regulated by that law pose risks at much smaller concentrations than previously known. However,many of the act’s standards for those chemicals have not been updated sincethe 1980s.
All told, more than 62 million Ameri-cans have been exposed since 2004to drinking water that did not meetat least one commonly used govern-ment health guideline, according toan analysis by The Times of more than19 million drinking-water test results from the District of Columbia and the 45 states that made data available. Butbecause such guidelines were neverincorporated into the Safe DrinkingWater Act, the vast majority of thatwater never violated the law.
Some officials overseeing local wa-ter systems have tried to go above and beyond what is legally required. Butthey have encountered resistance,sometimes from the very residentsthey are trying to protect.
Dr. Pankaj Parekh, director of thewater quality division for the City of
Los Angeles, has faced such criticism.The water in some city reservoirs has contained contaminants that becomelikely cancer-causing compoundswhen exposed to sunlight.
To stop the carcinogens from form-ing, the city covered the surface of res-ervoirs, including one in the upscaleneighborhood of Silver Lake, withplastic balls that blocked the sun. But owners of expensive houses aroundthe reservoir complained. “They sup-posedly discovered these chemicals,and then they ruined the reservoir byputting black pimples all over it,” saidone homeowner, Laurie Pepper. “If thewater is so dangerous, why can’t they
tell us what laws it’s violated?”Dr. Parekh has struggled to make
his case. “People don’t understandthat just because water is technically legal, it can still present health risks,” he said.
Drinking water that does not meeta federal health guideline will not nec-essarily make someone ill. Many con-taminants are hazardous only if con-sumed for years. And some research-ers argue that even toxic chemicals,when consumed at extremely low dos-es over long periods, pose few risks.
Moreover, researchers caution that such science is complicated, oftenbased on extrapolations from animalstudies, and sometimes hard to applynationwide, given that there are more than 57,400 water systems in America.
Government scientists generallyagree, however, that many chemicalscommonly found in drinking waterpose serious risks at low concentra-tions. And independent studies, aswell as reports published by the Na-tional Academy of Sciences, suggestthat millions of Americans becomesick each year from drinking contami-nated water.
Communities where the drinkingwater has contained chemicals asso-ciated with health risks include Scotts-dale, Arizona; El Paso, Texas; and Re-no, Nevada. Test results analyzed byThe Times show their drinking water has contained arsenic at concentra-tions that have been associated withcancer. But that contamination did not violate the Safe Drinking Water Act.
In Millville, New Jersey; Pleasant-ville, New Jersey; and Edmond, Okla-homa, drinking water has containedtraces of uranium, which can causekidney damage. Those concentrations also did not violate the law.
“If it doesn’t violate the law, I don’t really pay much attention to it,” saidStephen Sorrell, executive directorof Emerald Coast Utilities Authority,which serves Pensacola, Florida. Da-ta show that his system has delivered water containing multiple chemicals at concentrations that research indi-cates are associated with health risks.The system has not violated the SafeDrinking Water Act during the lasthalf-decade.
“For years, people said that Ameri-ca has the cleanest drinking water inthe world,” said William K. Reilly, the E.P.A. administrator under President George H. W. Bush. “That was true 20years ago. But people don’t realize howmany new chemicals have emergedand how much more pollution has oc-curred. If they did, we would see verydifferent attitudes.”
By ERIK ECKHOLM
PINE RIDGE, South Dakota — Rich-ard Wilson has been a pallbearer forat least five of his “homeboys” in theNorth Side Tre Tre Gangster Crips, a Sioux imitation of a notorious Denver
gang. One 15 -yea r-
old member wasmauled by rivals.A 17-year-old shothimself; another,on a cocaine bingeand firing wildly,
was shot by the police. One died in adrunken car wreck, and another, afounder of the gang named Gaylord,was stabbed to death at 27.
“We all got drunk after Gaylord’sburial, and I started rapping,” saidMr. Wilson, who, at 24, is practicallya gang elder. “But I teared up andcouldn’t finish.”
Mr. Wilson is one of 5,000 young menfrom the Oglala Sioux tribe involved
with at least 39 gangs on the PineRidge Indian Reservation. The gangs are being blamed for an increase invandalism, theft, violence and fearthat is altering the texture of life hereand in other parts of American Indianterritory.
This stunning land of crumpledprairie, horse pastures turned tawny in the autumn and sunflower farmsis marred by an astonishing numberof roadside crosses and gang tagssprayed on houses, stores and aban-doned buildings, giving rural Indiancommunities an inner-city look.
Groups like Wild Boyz, TBZ, No-mads and Indian Mafia draw children from broken, alcohol-ravaged homes,like Mr. Wilson’s, offering brother-hood, an identity drawn from urbangangsta rap and self-protection.
Some groups have more than a hun-dred members, others just a coupleof dozen. Compared with their urban models, they are more likely to fight ri-
vals with fists or clubs thanwith semiautomatic pistols.
Mr. Wilson, an unem-ployed school dropout, dis-played a scar on his noseand one over his eye. “It’sjust like living in a ghetto,”he said. “Someone’s getting beat up every other night.”
The Justice Departmentdistinguishes the home-grown gangs on reservations from the organizeddrug gangs of urban areas, callingthem part of an overall juvenile crimeproblem in Indian country that is abet-ted by eroding law enforcement, a pau-city of juvenile programs and a suiciderate for Indian youth that is more thanthree times the national average.
If they lack the reach of the largergangs after which they style them-selves, the Indian gangs have emergedas one more destructive force in some of the country’s poorest and most ne-glected places.
Many of the gangs in Pine Ridge,like the Tre Tre Crips, were startedby tribal members who encounteredthem in prison or while living off thereservation; others have taken theirnames and colors from movies andrecords.
Even as they seek to bolster polic-ing, Pine Ridge leaders see their best long-term hope for fighting gangs incultural revival.
“We’re trying to give an identityback to our youth,” said Melvyn YoungBear, the tribe’s appointed cultural li-aison. “They’re into the subculture of
African-Americans and La-tinos. But they are Lakota,and they have a lot to beproud of.”
Michael Little Boy Jr., 30, of the village of Evergreen,
said he had initially been tempted bygang life, but with rituals and purify-ing sweat lodges, “I was able to turnmyself around.” He is emerging as atribal spiritual leader, working withyouth groups to promote native tradi-tions.
Mr. Wilson, the 24-year-old gangmember, said he regretted not learn-ing the Sioux language when he wasyoung and now wondered about hisown future.
“I still get drunk and hang with myhomeboys, but not like I used to,” hesaid.
By DAN BARRY
ELEANOR, West Virginia — Ear-ly spring, in the Depression year of 1935. A dark-haired girl of 4 fromcoal-mine country rocks beside her mother and two sisters in a car mov-ing through the rain-swept night.Soon they will join her father, whohas been working on some distantgovernment relief project.
When the car finally stops, thesleepy girl sees only a blur of mud andmidnight. Not until morning doesshe take in this government project:a new American town, raised froma field by her father and other menwith families caught in the stalledgears of a broken economy. The girlis told: You’re home now, Marlane.
Late fall, in the recession year of2009. A dark-haired woman of 78drives slowly through the town shehas always called home. “This is an
Eleanor house, and this is an Eleanorhouse,” Marlane Crockett Carr says, nodding toward oversize bungalowsdistinguished by the original pitchedroofs. “And this, and this . . .”
This year’s economic fallout con-tinues, bringing to mind an evenharder time, when federal stimulusprograms meant more than justbridge repairs; when the govern-ment tried to energize the economy by building highways, schools — en-tire towns.
Over the years, these Depression-era “resettlement” communities havebeen praised as a sound response topoverty and criticized as commu-nism-tinted social experiments. Butin this hard time, a place like Elea-nor, named after Eleanor Roosevelt,the wife of President Franklin D.Roosevelt, reflects a government ac-tion that worked, and works.
In the desperate year of 1934, word spread through West Virginia of a
federal “subsistence homesteading”project. More than 1,000 families ap-plied to live in this new town calledRed House Farms. Just 150 were ac-cepted, including the family of Rob-ert Crockett, a military veteran withthree children, who had lost his job loading coal cars.
Each home had a chicken coop, a garden and a most exotic amenity,indoor plumbing. The families paid amodest rent that could be applied tothe purchase price. The governmentexpected them to work, grow vegeta-bles and engage in cultural pursuits,like joining the band. Their children were to stay in school and take codliver oil to ward off rickets. Save for the cod liver oil, Marlane loved it.
The town called Red House Farmssoon changed its name to Eleanor,after the tall, approachable first lady.During a visit, she gave a pack of Dou-blemint gum to a girl named DympleCockrell. “I thought I was the richestgirl in town,” recalls Ms. Cockrell, now 83. “I shared it, of course.”
The Depression seeped into World War II. Three soldiers from Eleanor were killed. After the war, the gov-ernment got out of the homesteadingbusiness, and essentially sold Elea-nor to a corporation of its elders for $250,000.
One day Marlane jokingly told afriend she was going to marry thathandsome sailor down the street.Two years later she did, eloping withSandy Carr in 1947, when he was 21 and she was 16. Her father cried and said, You’re finishing high school.She did this, too.
Marlane and Sandy, a school-teacher, had three children: Sandra, Michael and the baby, Rebekah, bornwith a heart defect. Rebekah died inMarlane’s arms at age 13. To honor her memory, Marlane returned toschool and became a surgical tech-nician. All the while, Eleanor waschanging: sidewalks, street lights,even a small shopping center.
Marlane Crockett Carr ends herdrive through Eleanor. Its popula-tion is now 1,500, including nearly 20original homesteaders like Marlane.Unemployment in the county is be-low the national average. Over all,things are good.
Still, Marlane senses the history ofEleanor being worn away. At times she wonders whether homesteaders like her parents are still seen as wel-fare recipients.
But when she thinks of the strug-gles of Robert and Eva Crockett,both buried now in the cemetery,close to Rebekah, her eyes blur withtears. “They had come from noth-ing,” she says. “They were told byEleanor Roosevelt that it would bewonderful — and it was.”
Tap Water May Pose Threat to Health
MONICA ALMEIDA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
MATTHEW WILLIAMS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Dymple Cockrell, left, and
her sister in their hometown,
founded 74 years ago. Outdated lawsdon’t regulate manycontaminants.
A Small Town Endures Hard Times Then and Now
Gang Violence Grows on Reservation
Dr. Pankaj
Parekh, director
of the water
quality division
for the City of
Los Angeles,
covered several
reservoirs with
black balls to
protect the
water. Residents
near one of
the reservoirs
complained that
their view was
spoiled.
Richard Wilson, far
left, has carried the
coffins of five fellow
gang members. Near
left, his half-brother,
Richard Lame.
Repubblica NewYork
A R T S & S T Y L E S
VIII MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2010
By LARRY ROHTER
ROCHESTER, New York — Thepublishing industry is in trouble;translated works account for, at best, 3 percent of the American book mar-ket; and budgets for higher education are shrinking. But none of this seems to deter Open Letter Books, a small,year-old press affiliated with the Uni-versity of Rochester that publishesonly literature in translation.
“There’s a set of readers out therethat’s very interested in translationsand international literature and is notgetting what it wants,” said Chad W.Post, Open Letter’s director. “So webelieve our business model can work. American literature has a lot of great works. But English-speaking readersdon’t have full access to voices andviewpoints from around the world,and we’re trying to rectify that.”
Though none of Open Letter’s 16titles has yet sold more than 3,000 cop-ies, its efforts have quickly attractedattention and critical praise.
Open Letter books, including the
recently published “Season of Ash,”by the Mexican novelist Jorge Volpi,have appeared on Best of 2009 lists;and Amazon.com, which has begunan effort to bring more internationalwriters to the attention of Americanreaders, recently awarded Open Let-ter a $20,000 grant to support publi-cation of “The Wall in My Head,” ananthology by Eastern European writ-ers about the collapse of Communism there.
Open Letter published its first title,a collection of essays by the Croatiannovelist Dubravka Ugresic called“Nobody’s Home,” in September 2008.But more than a year earlier, to heraldthe book’s arrival and attract poten-tial readers, Open Letter had begun a blog called Three Percent (rochester.edu/threepercent), a mordant refer-ence to the literary ghetto to whichtranslation is consigned.
Though it might have initially beenconceived as a marketing device,Three Percent has turned into a lively clearing house for everything related to literature in translation, and logsmore than two million page views ayear. Readers can post reviews andlearn what foreign publishing houses are up to.
A seven-member selection commit-tee that includes University of Roches-ter faculty chooses the titles Open Let-ter publishes. While members of that group say they would not be averseto picking a potential best seller theysay that is not their principal goal.
“What we are looking for is excel-lent work, from any language, eclec-tic modern fiction that is overlooked,”said Joanna Scott, a professor ofEnglish here who is the author of nine novels. “Commerce does not enter the discussions; I wouldn’t know a com-mercial book if I saw one.”
All of Open Letter’s books have thesame distinctively lean, uncluttereddesign, comparable to specialty jazzlabels like Blue Note or Impulse!,which built a loyal cadre of customers through a combination of a signature look and sound.
“Their books really stand out,”said Paul Yamazaki, lead buyer atCity Lights Books in San Francisco.“They’re creating a house identitywith visual cues, and with all thechoices that readers have these days, that helps, especially when most ofwhat you’re doing is introducing writ-ers new to Americans.”
By JULIE BLOOM
Martín Santangelo and SoledadBarrio represent an unusually pro-ductive pairing in dance. The found-ers of the Spanish company NocheFlamenca are at once choreographer
and muse, director and performer,husband and wife.
They met in 1992 in dance stu-dios in Madrid and since 1993 havebeen building one of the most highly regarded flamenco troupes in theworld.
Their current program in New York,a traditional flamenco show with sev-eral new works, reveals a lot abouttheir artistic and personal relation-ship. “Soledad Barrio and Noche Fla-menca” opened recently at the LucilleLortel Theater in Manhattan, where itruns through January 16.
“We go to rehearsal together; we’retaking care of the kids together; we goto bed, we talk about it; we wake up, we talk about it over coffee,” Mr. San-tangelo said about the way their workand personal lives intertwine.
The couple, who married in 1995and have two children, say they find that balancing family life and their commitment to their art is a constant
challenge. “Sometimes it’s all so en-compassing that it’s overwhelm-
ing,” Mr. Santan-gelo said.
Ms. Barrio,
who is also a choreographer, agreed:“As someone who loves her work, it’sdifficult to drop it at home. And weboth love our work.”
Onstage Ms. Barrio is explosiveand full of raw passion. Writing in TheNew York Times, the chief dance criticAlastair Macaulay has called her “anintensely dramatic dancer,” notingthat her skilled footwork expresses“the brilliance and color of flamencorhythm.”
Recently she and Mr. Santangelosettled into the balcony of the theater to talk about the show. Ms. Barrio, inan apple-green hoodie and straightbrown hair that falls down to hershoulders, comes across as serious and reserved, whereas Mr. Santan-gelo is ebullient.
Even though they had arrived in thecity just moments before from Spain,after a flight delay because of weather,knowing some of their company was still in transit and might not make itin time for the first performance, theywere both surprisingly calm.
Together they exhibit a casual,spontaneous sensibility and oftenchoose what pieces will be dancedeach night just a few hours before the performance. Ms. Barrio’s English islimited, and her husband translatesfor her in a way that suggests he’s dis-covering something new each timeshe speaks.
“Mi Sueño” is a simple love storytold through a duet. It’s about a couplemeeting, flirting and then findingsomething more profound — the unityof two people. It is also the first piece that Ms. Barrio has choreographed inseven years that is not a solo.
“I’m always crying and doing tragicpieces, and this is a very happy piece,”she said. “Flamenco is life. It’s my life,and I live it in a very internal way. I speak about myself when I dance, andI have moments that are happy.”
Ms. Barrio did not conceive “MiSueño” (“My Dream”) in isolation;her husband plays an integral role in
the company’s creative process.Mr. Santangelo, a native New
Yorker, former dancer and NocheFlamenca’s artistic director, pro-duced the program, selected thedancers, guitarists and singers andchoreographed three new pieces for the show. One, “Refugiados,” is based on poems written by internationalrefugee children that Mr. Santangelo came across in a newsletter from theUnited Nations.
“I read them and I went, ‘Whoa, thisis like flamenco,’ ” Mr. Santangelosaid, “the sense of desperation, thesense of pride, in extremely dismalcircumstances.”
The dance, like most of the works onthe program, is more impressionisticthan strictly narrative.
“It is difficult in flamenco to talkabout the choreography,” Mr. Santan-gelo said, because “a lot of it has to dowith the guitarist and the singers. A lotof times you’ll go into the studio, andyou want to do this and this. And thenyou go out onstage and the guitarist will change something, and you haveto interpret that. So you have to listento what’s going on in the music.”
L’AQUILA, Italy — Cities take cen-turies to grow, but they can die in therelative blink of an eye.
After an earthquake in April killedhundreds and left tens of thousands
homeless in andaround this medievaland Baroque citysome 110 kilometersnortheast of Rome,the emergency reliefefforts were extraor-
dinary. Volunteers from all over Italyrushed to help, and constructionworkers were soon erecting dozens ofhousing complexes on the outskirtsof town.
But now, the longer-term future ofL’Aquila is in question. Shortages ofmoney, political will, architectural good sense and international atten-tion — along with a distinctly Italianpredilection for a kind of magical thinking — threaten to finish whatthe quake started.
Efforts are being made to save theroughly 110,000 monuments and arti-facts the culture ministry estimateswere affected in the quake. But min-istry officials guess that it will take 10or 15 years to return the city’s historiccenter to normal, and nearly all re-building, including of private houses,will meanwhile have to get approvalfrom the ministry.
Before the earthquake about 10,000people lived in the city center, andanother 60,000 nearby. After a decadeor more of being displaced, those whoonce lived in the heart of L’Aquilamay no longer be around or want toreturn, and the housing built for themin the surrounding industrializedarea may have changed the area be-yond recognition.
A gracious medieval city ontowhich a Baroque one had been
precariously balanced (the pre-cariousness partly accounted for theextent of damage during the quake),L’Aquila was also a commercial andcultural hub, a university town. In afew years, if the center remains dead,it could devolve into nothing morethan a second-tier tourist site in themidst of undifferentiated sprawl.
Any recovery, especially a speedierone, depends on billions of dollars (atleast $16 billion, by various estimates)coming mostly through the ItalianParliament. Lately even a smallexcise tax to aid recovery, proposedby the mayor of L’Aquila and variousculture officials, went nowhere.
In a country pressed for cash, thesuccess of the emergency efforts hasparadoxically fed the impression thatL’Aquila no longer needs urgent help.As Michela Santoro, an assistant tothe mayor, Massimo Cialente, put it:
“The message in the media here is,‘Things are going well.’ That is farfrom the truth.”
“If we don’t reconstruct properly,”Mr. Cialente said — meaning, fromhis perspective, to put everythingback exactly as it was, albeit seismi-cally secured — “it will be a shameon the entire nation. We will haveanother Pompeii.”
That’s a typical lament here. Ital-ians often think they must restore thepast or end up consigned to it. Alter-natives are hard to imagine.
What’s the solution? Even whilebombs were falling on London dur-ing the Blitz in 1940, British plannerswere conjuring up visions of a newpostwar London. Calamity becamean opportunity to dream.
Here, in the absence of a strong,guiding leadership, strong urbanplanning laws or public forums
where citizens might seriously con-sider a future L’Aquila, there is onlythe sense that opportunity may beslipping away. But opportunity stillexists, perhaps to embrace new ar-chitecture alongside old, as L’Aquiladid after the earthquake in 1703, whenthe city became the beloved Baroqueone everyone now wants to preserveas if it had always been there. Nevera perfect city but a real, living one,L’Aquila might yet become the modelfor a new sort of 21st century historiccenter in Italy.
Roberta Pilolli works for L’Aquila’smusic conservatory. The school’snew quarters, an $8 million metal-and-glass building , was built in justover a month and officially openedin December. “I want my home backexactly as it was,” Ms. Pilolli said,talking about her small, prewar ter-race house in the city center, whereher family lived for ages.
Pier Luigi Cervellati, an urbanplanning professor in Venice, saidrecovery should focus on returningresidents to the center more quickly,not on providing alternative housing,monuments or malls.
“A center that is left empty foryears dies,” he said. “These newhomes they’re building on the out-skirts are very expensive and makeno urban sense. They’re like termi-nals at an airport. They have no soul.The risk is that the center will becomea nonplace.”
In Italy, a City Shaken to Its Core
CHRIS WARDE-JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Martín Santangelo and his
wife, Soledad Barrio, dancing at
left, formed the Spanish dance
troupe Noche Flamenca.
MICHAEL
KIMMELMAN
ESSAY
A book publisherfinds a niche in a struggling industry.
An Intense Partnership Forged in the Heat of Flamenco
