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INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS: HIGHLIGHTS AND EXCLUSIVES, DECEMBER 17, 2007 ISSUE
COVER: The Other Afghanistan. (All overseas editions). Senior Writer Lorraine Ali reports that the film adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling 2003 novel ‘The Kite Runner,’ is a model of cross-cultural collaboration. One of the few major pictures to consider Islam and Muslim-American experience from a true insider’s perspective, the film remains highly accessible, moving between the Muslim world and the West with an ease unparalleled in Hollywood. This cross-cultural fluency likely comes from the fact that it is in every sense, a global film, she reports.
http://www.newsweek.com//id/74449
The View From the Inside. Movie Critic David Ansen reviews the abbreviated tale of Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ that has remained true to the book’s heart-tugging, sentimental power and sturdy, symmetrical storytelling, as well as its sometimes clumsy melodrama. “The Kite Runner” isn’t subtle, but it allows us to see a country and a culture from the inside. Only a mighty tough viewer could fail to be moved, Ansen writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74401
Don’t Give Up on Afghanistan. Best-selling author of “The Kite Runner,” Khaled Hosseini writes that despite Afghanistan’s raging Taliban insurgency, governmental corruption, rampant poverty and persistent oppression of women, there are signs of positive developments. Still, the only certain thing about Afghanistan, he writes, is that “without a genuine and sustained long-term commitment on the part of the United States and its allies, Afghanistan is doomed.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/73364
Is This the New Look of France? Denis MacShane, Labour MP for Rotherham and a former minister for Europe, writes that President Nicolas Sarkozy has a lot of energy but is increasingly looking like a placeholder for whoever comes next. “Sarkozy promised a radiant new dawn for a confident, modernized France, and so far he is not delivering. Despite his apparent victory over the trade unions last month, he appears to want an economic revolution without pain…Meantime, he has little interest or vision for Europe,” he writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74367
Adding Fuel to the Fire. Special Correspondent Tracy McNicoll writes that France can blame the urban planners and the media for thousands of vehicles set ablaze each year. But intriguingly, the burning car is a clue to understanding the dynamics of France’s more troubled banlieues—and how best to change them.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74373
Point of View: Attempted Theft in Venezuela. Contributing Editor Jorge Castañeda, Mexico’s former foreign minister and Global Distinguished Professor at New York University, writes that in last week’s Venezuelan election Hugo Chávez did, in fact, try to overturn the results of Venezuela’s recent vote, but was rebuffed by the military.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74230
Where ‘Guanxi’ Rules. Special Correspondent Jonathan Ansfield reports that after months of protests the recent victory of green activists in the city of Xiamen to halt construction of a plant that will produce PX, a toxic chemical, is a striking example that Chinese politics are often not what they seem. Despite talk about the empowerment of ordinary Chinese citizens, it is still guanxi—old boys’ networks—and the party’s private interests that generally carry the day.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74369
The Modernizing Mob. Tokyo Bureau Chief Christian Caryl and Special Correspondent Akiko Kashiwagi report that today, the yakuza—Japan’s storied mafia, are reinventing themselves in order to better cope with foreign competition from China and Russia and the pressures of globalization. Nowadays the gangsters use computer spreadsheets to track payments and coordinate by text message.
http://www.newsweek.com//id/74368
A Rock Star Is Reborn. Midwest Bureau Chief Keith Naughton reports that Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Nissan and Renault—once hailed as the auto industry’s rock-star CEO—is attempting a comeback. With new hit models like the gas-sipping Versa subcompact and Rouge small sports wagon, Nissan’s U.S. sales (which generate 60 percent of its profits) are climbing again and profits are back in Ghosn’s golden range.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74370
Health for Life. The latest chapter in Newsweek’s ongoing “Health For Life” series:
A Changing Portrait of DNA. General Editor Mary Carmichael reports on some of the latest insights into the complex machinery of genetics and life itself. For years scientists have known that certain genes can be turned on and off by chemical switches, but only recently have they begun to understand that these switches are a crucial link between the DNA and the outside world.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/73355
Jogging Your Memory. Reporter Anne Underwood reports on memory loss and the ways people can keep their minds sharper than ever. Scientists are busy looking into the workings of how the mind creates and stores memories to better understand age-related declines in retention as well as devising potential drugs and exercises that help push your aging brain to recall more.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/73356
Diagnosis: Same As It Never Was. Michael Craig Miller, M.D., Harvard psychiatrist, tracks the evolution of his discipline’s ‘bible.’ “As the American Psychiatric Association ramps up to revise its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), with a target publication date of 2012, signs are that the diagnostic system will improve. But no one doubts that the next edition will be the same as prior versions in one important respect—a work in progress,” he writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/73359
GLOBAL INVESTOR: Mind Buffett, Don’t Panic. Barton Biggs, managing partner at Traxis Partners, writes about the global market. “Gloom and doom are everywhere,” he writes. “The unwinding of structured finance centered in the U.S. subprime mortgage-market is causing an intensifying global credit crunch that threatens not only U.S. consumption but also consumer spending around the world.”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74387
WORLD VIEW: Make Tehran an Offer It Might Refuse. Newsweek International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes, “The national intelligence estimate on Iran has upended the Bush administration’s policy toward that country. This could be a good thing if it leads to some creative rethinking.” “For Washington to threaten a regime with extinction and simultaneously expect it to disarm is a policy doomed to failure. Were we to be clear that what we seek from Tehran is only a change in behavior, a policy of sticks and carrots might actually produce results,” he writes.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74458
THE LAST WORD: Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Midway through his nine–year term Moreno-Ocampo, is ebullient about the prospects—and progress—of the tribunal. As bureaucracies go, he says, the court has moved faster than expected against those accused of war crimes. “The ICC is not just a court; it’s an institution… It’s difficult to establish a global system when there is no global government, so it’s an agreement on the rules. It’s a new design, it’s a revolutionary design, it’s a model to build a global community,” he tells Newsweek.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/74374
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