SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008

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Europe Prescribes A 3rd Way ALEX GRIMM/REUTERS

Paris S EURoPE No longer an economic museum? In recent years, as Wall Street boomed, Americans often dismissed Europe as a place for languorous meals and luxurious vacations, not economic innovation. London remained a financial hub, of course, but it was often treated dismisNELSON D. sively — as a flashy aberration pumped up SCHWARTZ by petrodollars from Russia and the Gulf, Economic an exception to the otherwise somnolent analysis Continent. That kind of thinking is now being challenged, because recently Europeans have proved more nimble than Americans at getting to the root of the global financial crisis, whatever they may have lacked as innovators. After initially dithering, Europe’s leaders came up with a financial bailout plan that has now set the pace

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WoRlD TREnDs

Congo responds to the horror of rape.

VIRGINIA MAYO/ASSOCIATED PRESS

France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Britain’s Gordon Brown are receiving credit for devising the response to the global economic crisis.

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An accidental discovery.

for Washington, not the other way around, as had been customary for decades. That was clear when the United States Treasury Department decided to depart from its own initial bailout plan — the one approved by Congress earlier this month — and invest up to $250 billion directly in America’s banks. The details of that approach had been laid out days earlier by European leaders as they tried to save their own financial system. And that outcome left Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, in something of a commanding position to claim the title of wise men. They are now speaking of creating a Bretton Woods agreement for the 21st century, while the leaders of the country that fathered the postwar financial system worked out at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, prefer to stay away from such Continued on Page 4

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An ideal beauty, created digitally.

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For What It’s Worth safe investments — like Rolex watches. At the center of the current economic criLENS Franch Michelsen, a watch dealer in sis is a problem the market is supposed to downtown Reykjavik, told Eric Pfanner solve: knowing what things are worth. of The Times that he had seen increased Adam Smith said that value is set “not demand for the brand. by any accurate measure, but by the hig“People want something they can gling and bargaining of the market.” But as take anywhere in the world and sell it,” country after country contends with strugMr. Michelsen said. gling banks, whiplashing stock markets A Rolex is more likely to hold its worth and calcifying credit, the value of mortthan, say, a house in Florida. The state saw one of gages, securities, currencies and property has the most rapid inflations in real estate values durbecome difficult to determine no matter how much ing the recent bubble, and is now experiencing one higgling you do. of the most rapid declines. Jack McCabe, a real esTake the case of Icelanders and their ailing krotate consultant, told Vikas Bajaj of The Times that nur. Battered by the massive failure of the national two homes on his street in Fort Lauderdale sold for banking system, the country’s currency has lost about $730,000 each in 2005. They were recently almost half of its value against the dollar over the resold for $400,000 apiece — a 44 percent drop. past year. As a result, Icelanders are looking for

“The rocket has run out of fuel, and now it’s plunged back down to earth,” Mr. McCabe said. It’s not always a bubble bursting that deflates a market. New technology can do the trick, as the recording industry has learned in the digital age. With songs online selling for anywhere from a few cents to a dollar or more, the monetary value of music has become murkier than ever. This month, a panel of federal judges finally set a United States royalty rate for digital downloads. The music industry wanted it higher than the rate for physical recordings, Ben Sisario reported in The Times, while online retailers wanted to scrap the system and just pay a percentage of revenues. But the judges, like a lot of people in recent days confronted with confusing and competing indicators, took a cautious middle path. They established

CAHIER DU « MONDE » DATÉ SAMEDI 25 OCTOBRE 2008, NO 19828. NE PEUT ÊTRE VENDU SÉPARÉMENT

a rate of 9.1 cents per track — the same as on a compact disc. Sometimes it’s easiest to stick with a value you know. That may be true of international investors, too. Despite the turmoil in the American banking system and stock markets, the United States dollar has been gaining strength, trading recently at close to $1.30 to the euro, down from nearly $1.60 in July. The psychological value of the dollar — long a symbol of financial stability — is trumping the wobbliness of the economy that underpins it. “It’s ironic, given that we just messed up big time, the response of foreigners is to pour more money into us,” Kenneth S. Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University, told Mark Landler of The Times. “They’re not sure where else to go.” After all, you can only buy so many Rolexes.

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008 o p I n I o n & c o m m e n tA ry editorial observer/serge schmemann

editorials of the times

Collateral Damage As the world’s richest nations spend trillions to rescue their own financial systems from the maelstrom caused by years of excess, they must also be prepared to provide billions to poorer countries that did not cause this crisis but are nevertheless its victims. The developing world has been caught up big time in the global credit squeeze, as beleaguered foreign banks have cut their credit lines and panicked foreign investors have pulled their money out. Private capital flows to emerging markets are expected to plummet 30 percent this year. Exports are suffering as rich economies slow and commodity prices retreat. Remittances from migrant workers — a core source of earnings for many developing countries — are falling fast. Eastern and Central Europe, where much of the banking system is controlled by Western banks, is in dire straits. Ukraine asked the International Monetary Fund for $14 billion to prop up its financial system as money flees. Hungary got 5 billion euros from the European Central Bank. Pakistan is said to need $3 billion to $4 billion to finance a gaping trade deficit. Even robust economies with strong budgets and ample reserves have been walloped by the capital crunch. The Mexican peso has suffered its steepest drop since the peso crisis of December 1994. The Brazilian real and the Korean won have plunged by a quarter against the dollar.

Given the depth of the crisis here, it might be tempting to ignore the plight of developing economies. But it is in the clear economic interest of wealthy nations to help. The I.M.F. expects these countries to be the only engine of global growth in the next year or so. Fortunately, some people are thinking ahead. The International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, is mulling a $3 billion fund to help recapitalize shaky banking systems in the world’s poorest countries. The Inter-American Development Bank said it would increase its lending and announced a $6 billion facility to help companies in smaller Latin American countries that lose access to funding. The I.M.F. said it is flush with cash — $200 billion plus an additional $50 billion in standing credit arrangements with donor countries — to mobilize if needed. For that it will need the go-ahead from the United States and other big contributors. The I.M.F. must also be ready to relax — within reason — the battery of preconditions it usually attaches to its help. The world’s richest countries have exhibited myopia throughout this crisis — originally scurrying for ad hoc individual “solutions” that worsened the collective mess. As the world’s financial powers struggle to contain the disaster, they should not lose sight of its effect on other countries. Every economy for itself makes no sense — and could prove highly dangerous — in today’s interconnected world.

For and Against Khodorkovsky This month marks five years since Mikhail Khodorkovsky — once one of Russia’s richest men — was seized in his private plane at the Novosibirsk airport. He was subsequently convicted of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp. His huge oil company, Yukos, was dismantled and sold off piecemeal to Kremlin loyalists. In August Mr. Khodorkovsky was denied parole on the grounds that he had not been attending sewing classes at his labor camp in the Russian Far East. Earlier this month he was put in solitary confinement for 12 days for giving a written interview to the Russian edition of Esquire magazine. The interviewer was Grigory Chkhartishvili, who, under the pen name Boris Akunin, is one of the most popular writers in Russia today. He said people asked him why he was making a fuss about an oligarch who didn’t get so fabulously rich by always obeying the law. Mr. Chkhartishvili explained that “it was specifically on the Yukos case that we lost the independence of the judiciary — an institution without which a democratic society cannot exist.” He added that “if we restore justice and legality in the case of Khodorkovsky, this will also help all the rest of the victims” of Russia’s authoritarian government. The argument may be a difficult one for many Russians to understand because the men who made obscene fortunes in the first post-Soviet years are seen as guilty by definition. In fact, it remains unclear why thenPresident Vladimir Putin turned so viciously on this one oligarch, while doing business with so many others. One theory is that Mr. Putin saw Mr. Khodorkovsky — who was putting a lot of money into political parties — as a serious rival, and that

Instead of full access to any site with potential nuclear relevance, the compromise provides that inspectors can go to Yongbyon facilities and some academic institutions; access to other sites is by “mutual consent.” We would have preferred to see a more specific commitment for inspections at the site of North Korea’s 2006 nuclear test and hope Pyongyang’s pledge to let inspectors take samples from sites is as firm as administration officials say it is. We also know the cost of letting this deal fall apart. For six years, Vice President Dick Cheney and other hard-liners managed to block any serious talks with North Korea. In that time, North Korea’s scientists produced enough plutonium for at least four more weapons — in addition to the one or two already believed to be in its arsenal — and tested a nuclear weapon. There is no way that strategy can be considered a success. We still do not know if North Korea will ever abandon its nuclear weapons. The next president will have to demonstrate persistence, vigilance and flexibility to try to move this deal ahead. It now looks as if he’ll have a chance to try.

his arrest was a signal to all oligarchs to stay out of politics. Another theory is that Mr. Khodorkovsky had personally defied the Russian president on some unknown issue; yet another is that the Kremlin wanted to stop him from bringing Western companies in as Yukos partners. The point is that nobody in Russia believes that the real reason Mr. Khodorkovsky was imprisoned was the crimes of which he was convicted. For Mr. Chkhartishvili, the arrest marked the point at which the liberals of the first post-Soviet years — who had tried, however poorly, to instill a rule of law — were pushed aside by “siloviki,” the

Presidents and Realism New York I sat recently with a State Department guy and a former Marine officer who’d met in Falluja, become fast friends, and had years of painful experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’re not paid to be optimists or pessimists,” the diplomat said. “We have to be realists.” He’s on his way back into Baghdad. His life’s on the line for his country, as it has been since 2003. I reckon he has a right to sober realism at the White House and the Pentagon rather than the “Freedom’s untidy!” bravura of the Rumsfeld years. We’ve had too much gut-driven, Goddriven, gazing-into-eyes-and-seeingthings foreign policy these last eight years. We’ve learned that beyond shock and awe, there’s insurgency. And beyond stocks and awe, there’s recession. And beyond a pale blue Russian gaze, there’s repression. A couple of phrases from John McCain leapt out at me in a recent New Yorker piece. “I believe in American exceptionalism,” McCain said. “I do. I can prove it by reviewing our history. I want the 21st Send comments to [email protected].

: AIde A lA lecture Pour aider à la lecture de l’anglais et familiariser nos lecteurs avec certaines expressions américaines, Le Monde publie ci-dessous la traduction de quelques mots et idiomes contenus dans les articles de ce supplément. Par Dominique Chevallier, agrégée d’anglais. lexIque Dans l’article “Parents Learn To Say ‘No’ to Teenagers,” page 5: Indulged: gâté entItled: qui a le droit à Affluent: riche to totter: chanceler

Dans l’article “A Shadowy Baroness of Jazz,” page 8: to seclude oneself: s’isoler scurrIlous: insultant, diffamatoire unlIkely: peu vraisemblable heIress: héritière

Dans l’article “Men Are Fighting Wrinkles in an Effort to Turn Back the Clock,” page 7: WrInkles: rides to be lAId off: être licencié broW: sourcil

Dans l’article “Notoriety of Naples Outshines Its Beauty,” page 8: to outshIne: surpasser notWIthstAndIng: nonobstant to squAnder: dilapider

Dans l’article “Persecuted, and Finding a New Way,” page 7: JAded: blasé to sAshAy: marcher en roulant les hanches to be mAlIgned: être calomnié

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of Yukos Oil, has been imprisoned since 2003.

IntellIgence roger cohen

The Latest North Korea Deal We’re glad to see that the nuclear deal with North Korea is back on track. Presuming the latest agreement holds (always a big if with North Korea), President Bush can at least say that when he left office Pyongyang was no longer producing plutonium for nuclear bombs. President Bush finally removed North Korea from the terrorism blacklist after Pyongyang agreed to a compromise plan to let American and other inspectors verify that it is shutting down its weapons program. The deal is far from perfect. It includes vague and confidential terms that could cause problems. But it is not the surrender that hard-line critics are charging. In recent weeks, both sides have been playing a dangerous game of brinksmanship. After North Korea shuttered its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, the White House balked at taking it off the terrorism list and insisted that Pyongyang also accept a go-anywhere-see-anything verification plan. The North then barred inspectors from Yongbyon, threatened to resume plutonium production and appeared to be preparing for its second nuclear test.

TATYANA MAKEYEVA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

secret service and army chiefs who now rule by raw power (sila). What struck me in Mr. Chkhartishvili’s argument was that if Mr. Khodorkovsky has indeed become a symbol of the lost rule of law, then he is in effect one of the premier “dissidents” of the Putin era — an unlikely role for a robber baron. Andrei Sakharov, Natan Sharansky and other members of the Helsinki Group were fighting for a noble cause: freedom. To do that they did not challenge the legitimacy of Soviet institutions. Instead they insisted that the government obey its own laws — on emigration, freedom of speech, freedom of religion — and comply with the human rights clauses of the Helsinki Final Act. Soviet rulers responded brutally, imprisoning (usually for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”) or exiling virtually the whole group. But the more the Kremlin openly set itself above the law, the weaker it became. The dissidents of the last Soviet years became the heroes of the first post-Soviet years. Putin’s Russia is not the Soviet Union; Russians have many more freedoms now. But so long as Mr. Khodorkovsky is kept in a labor camp and denied parole for not sewing properly, he remains a powerful symbol of the lack of independence of Russia’s prosecutors and judges. There was some hope that Russia’s new president, Dmitri Medvedev, would do things differently from his mentor, Mr. Putin. So far he has failed to live up to his commitment to strengthen the rule of law. But Mr. Medvedev does have the power to pardon Mr. Khodorkovsky. That might not be in a class with letting Andrei Sakharov return from internal exile, but it would be a very welcome signal that there is hope for Russia.

expressIons Dans l’article “Parents Learn to Say ‘No’ to Teenagers,” page 5: bAIt-And-sWItch: technique de vente qui

century to be the American century.” Wanting is not enough. At some point, as this apocalyptic ending to the Bush administration illustrates, reality steps in. The 20th century was the American century. The United States prevailed in World War II, triumphed in the cold war, and established the farflung garrisons of the Pax Americana we still live. The 21st century will not be the second American century. I say this not because I foresee some imminent American decline or because I believe the American idea cannot resonate again or because I no longer regard the United States as an indispensable nation — indispensable, that is, to global security and the advance of liberal, democratic societies. I say this simply because power and wealth are shifting. We have entered the Asian-Pacific century. The rise of India and China is a transformational event. And in this century most problems — be it global warming, nuclear proliferation, gas prices or terrorism — can only be solved in concert with other nations. What we need from our next president is more listening and less posturing,

consiste à appâter (bait) le client par un prix très peu élevé pour lui faire acheter un article plus cher. Dans l’article “Ideals of Beauty, in the Eye of a Computer Program,” page 7: “beAuty, In the eye of . . . ”: fait allusion à l’expression “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”: la beauté est dans l’oeil de celui qui regarde (ici, un ordinateur . . . ). Dans l’article “A Shadowy Baroness of Jazz,” page 8: to get the custody of: obtenir la garde (d’un enfant); to be remanded in custody signifie être mis en garde à vue; a custodian est un gardien, un tuteur, mais aussi un conservateur de musée.

rÉfÉrences Dans l’article “Parents Learn to Say ‘No’ to Teenagers,” page 5: elIsAbeth IrWIn hIgh school: c’est un collège-lycée de Manhattan, privé, mixte, qui est rattaché à la “Little Red School House,”

more understanding and less us-or-them polarization, more consistency between words and deeds. The in-box of the new president will be daunting. Soldiers are going to be in short supply. Materiel is going to be in short supply. Money is going to be in short supply. One thing not lacking is U.S. diplomats. It’s time to use them. We must talk to Iran. We must talk to Syria. We must understand that no insurgency ends with killing every insurgent; it ends when insurgents are lured in from the cold. We must engage with Russia while making clear it cannot intimidate us. Above all, we must show our allies that dependability is back. McCain says he can “prove” American exceptionalism. But the McCain-Palin version of exceptionalism seems full of a damn-the-world anger. The only way America can have an exceptional and beneficial impact on today’s world is through intense interaction and realism based on the power shifts occurring. The American diplomats and soldiers in harm’s way deserve no less. When leadership fails, front-line grunts pay. They’ve already paid enough for White House whimsy, and so has the world.

fondée en 1932 par Elisabeth Irwin. Celle-ci était une éducatrice hors-norme, revendiquant haut et fort son homosexualité, et ayant élevé deux enfants adoptés avec sa compagne, qui s’est d’abord attaquée aux programmes scolaires en voulant démontrer que ce qui était possible dans les écoles privées progressistes pouvait l’être dans l’école publique. Faute de financement, elle s’était résolue à fermer son école expérimentale, quand des parents d’élèves se sont engagés à la financer, elle a donc dû accepter que son établissement devienne privé. Cette école, puis le lycée (fondé en 1940) ont conservé le projet d’établissement “progressiste”; ainsi le travail est fondé sur l’expérimentation des élèves et de nombreuses “classes vertes” ou sorties éducatives. L’art (danse, musique, théâtre, arts graphiques, etc.) y sont enseignés quotidiennement. Il s’agit d’un des tous meilleurs lycées de New York, et les élèves poursuivent leurs études dans les universités les plus prestigieuses.

the neWyork tImes Is publIshed WeeklyIn the folloWIng neWspApers: clArín, ArgentInA ● derstAndArd, AustrIA ● lAsegundA, chIle ● elespectAdor, colombIA ● lIstIn dIArIo, domInIcAn republIc ● el unIverso, ecuAdor ● le monde, frAnce sÜddeutsche zeItung, germAny ● prensAlIbre, guAtemAlA ● theAsIAn Age, IndIA ● lArepubblIcA, ItAly ● AsAhIshImbun, JApAn ● sundAynAtIon, kenyA ● kohA dItore, kosovo ● reformAgroup, mexIco ● vIJestI, montenegro ● lAprensA, pAnAmA ● expreso, peru ● mAnIlAbulletIn, phIlIppInes ● thetImes, south AfrIcA ● el pAís, spAIn ● unIted dAIly neWs, tAIWAn ● sundAy monItor, ugAndA ● the observer, unIted kIngdom ● the koreAtImes, unIted stAtes ● el nAcIonAl, venezuelA

le monde

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008

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world trends

After Many Years of Indifference, Rape Victims’ Words Jolt Congo By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

BUKAVU, Congo — Honorata Kizende looked out at the audience and began with a simple, declarative sentence. “There was no dinner,’’ she said. “It was me who was dinner. Me, because they kicked me roughly to the ground, and they ripped off all my clothes, and between the two of them, they held my feet. One took my left foot, one took my right, and the same with my arms, and between the two of them they proceeded to rape me. Then all five of them raped me.’’ The audience, which had been called together by local and international aid groups and included everyone from high-ranking politicians to street kids with no shoes, stared at her in disbelief. Congo, it seems, is finally facing its horrific rape problem, which United Nations officials have called the worst sexual violence in the world. Tens of thousands of women, possibly hundreds of thousands, have been raped in the past few years in this hilly, incongruously beautiful land. Many of these rapes have been marked by a level of brutality that is shocking even by the twisted standards of a place riven by civil war and haunted by warlords and

drug-crazed child soldiers. After years of denial and shame, the silence is being broken. Because of stepped-up efforts in the past nine months by international organizations and the Congolese government, rapists are no longer able to count on a culture of impunity. Of course, countless men still get away with assaulting women. But more and more are getting caught, prosecuted and put behind bars. European aid agencies are spending tens of millions of dollars building new courthouses and prisons across eastern Congo, in part to punish rapists. Mobile courts are holding rape trials in villages deep in the forest that have not seen a black-robed magistrate since the Belgians ruled the country decades ago. The American Bar Association opened a legal clinic in January specifically to help rape victims bring their cases to court. So far the work has resulted in eight convictions. Here in Bukavu, one of the biggest cities in the country, a special unit of Congolese police officers has filed 103 rape cases since the beginning of this year, more than any year in recent memory. “We’re starting to see results,’’ said Pernille Iron-

PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT DALTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Luis Soriano travels by donkey to small villages in Colombia to share his library.

Library Has 4,800 Books and 10 Legs By SIMON ROMERO The idea came to him, he said, Caribbean Sea after he witnessed as a young LA GLORIA, Colombia — In teacher the transformative powa ritual repeated nearly every Aracataca Valledupar er of reading among his pupils, weekend for sowar-weary Cawho were born into conflict even ribbean hinterland, Luis Soriano VENEZUELA more intense than when he was gathered his two donkeys, Alfa La Gloria a child. and Beto, in front of his home. The violence by bandit groups He strapped pouches painted was so bad when he was young with the word “Biblioburro” to Bogotá that his parents sent him to the donkeys’ backs and loaded live with his grandmother in them with an eclectic cargo of the nearby city of Valledupar, books for people living in the COLOMBIA near the Venezuelan border. small villages beyond. He returned at age 16 with a His choices included “Anaconhigh school degree and got a job da,” the animal fable by the UruBRAZIL ECUADOR Kms. 320 teaching reading to schoolchilguayan writer Horacio Quiroga THE NEW YORK TIMES dren. that evokes Kipling’s “Jungle By the time he was in his 20s, Book”; some Time-Life picture Aracataca, near La Gloria, Colombia’s long internal war had books (on Scandinavia, Japan inspired the novelist Gabriel drawn paramilitary bands to the and the Antilles); and the DicGarcía Márquez. lawless marshlands and hills surtionary of the Royal Academy of rounding La Gloria, leading to the Spanish Language. “I started out with 70 books, and now I have a col- clashes with guerrillas and intimidation of the local lection of more than 4,800,” said Mr. Soriano, 36, a population by both groups. Into that violence, which has since ebbed, Mr. Soprimary school teacher who lives in a small house with his wife and three children, with books piled riano ventured with his donkeys and books. A breakthrough came several years ago when he to the ceilings. “This began as a necessity; then it became an obligation; and after that a custom,” he heard excerpts over the radio of a novel, “The Ballad of Maria Abdala,” by Juan Gossaín, a Colombian explained. “Now, it is an institution.” The Biblioburro is a small institution: one man journalist and writer. Mr. Soriano wrote a letter to and two donkeys. He created it out of the belief that the author, asking him to lend a copy of the book to the act of taking books to people who do not have the Biblioburro. After Mr. Gossaín broadcast details them can improve this impoverished region, and of Mr. Soriano’s project on his radio program, book donations poured in from throughout Colombia. A perhaps Colombia. In doing so, Mr. Soriano has emerged as the best- local financial institution, Cajamag, provided some known resident of La Gloria, a town that feels even financing for the construction of a small library farther removed from the wider world than is Ara- next to his home, but the project remains only halfcataca, the inspiration for the setting of “One Hun- finished for lack of funds. “We can take political talk only so far, of course,” dred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, he said, referring to the looming threat of retalianother of the region’s native sons. Mr. Soriano has never traveled outside Colombia ation from the paramilitary groups, which have — but he remains dedicated to bringing its people a effectively defeated the guerrillas in this part of touch of the outside world. His project has won ac- northern Colombia. “I learned that if I interest just claim from the nation’s literacy specialists and is one person in reading a mundane news item — say, the subject of a new documentary by a Colombian about the rising price of rice — then that’s a step forward.” filmmaker, Carlos Rendón Zipaguata.

Congo is taking steps to fight sexual violence and prosecute rapists. Euphrasie Mirindi was raped in 2006.

JEFFREY GETTLEMAN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

side, a United Nations official in eastern Congo. The number of those arrested is still tiny compared with that of the perpetrators on the loose, and often the worst offenders are not caught because they are marauding bandits who attack villages in the night, victimize women and then disappear back into the forest. This is all happening in a society where women tend to be beaten down anyway. Women in Congo do most of the work — at home, in the fields and in the market, where they carry enormous loads of bananas on their bent backs — and yet they are often powerless. Many rape victims have been kicked out of their villages and turned into beggars. Grass-roots groups are trying to change this culture, and they have started by encouraging women who have been raped to speak out in open forums. At the event in Bukavu in mid-September, Ms. Kizende’s story of being abducted by an armed group, then putting her life back together after months as a sex slave, drew tears — and cheers. It seems that the taboo against talking about rape is beginning to lift. But these improvements are simply the first, tentative steps of progress in a very troubled country. Many people believe that the rape problem will not be solved until the area tastes peace. But that might not be anytime soon.

onlIne: a broken sIlence

A video report from Congo, which is battling an epidemic of brutal rape: nytimes.com/world

Laurent Nkunda, a well-armed Tutsi warlord, or a savior of his people, depending on whom you ask, recently threatened to wage war across the country. Clashes between his troops, many of them child soldiers, and government forces have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the past few months. His forces, along with those from the dozens of other rebel groups hiding out in the hills, are thought to be mainly responsible for the epidemic of brutal rapes. No one can explain exactly why Congo’s rape problem is the worst in the world. Impunity is thought to be a big factor, which is why there is now so much effort on bolstering Congo’s justice system. United Nations officials said the number of rapes had appeared to be decreasing over the past year. But the recent surge of fighting is jeopardizing those gains. “It’s safer today than it was,’’ said Euphrasie Mirindi, a woman who was raped in 2006. “But it’s still not safe.’’

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008 world trends

Ambitions Threatened For 3 Oil-Rich Countries By SIMON ROMERO, MICHAEL SLACKMAN and CLIFFORD J. LEVY

CARACAS, Venezuela — As the price of oil roared to ever higher levels in recent years, the leaders of Venezuela, Iran and Russia muscled their way onto the world stage, using checkbook diplomacy and, on occasion, intimidation. Now, plummeting oil prices are raising questions about whether the countries can sustain their spending — and their bids to challenge United States hegemony. For all three nations, oil money was a means to an ideological end. President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela used it to jump-start a socialist-inspired revolution in his country. Iran extended its influence across the Middle East, promoted itself as the leader of the Islamic world and used its petrodollars to help defy the West’s efforts to block its nuclear program. Russia began rebuilding its military, wrested control of oil and gas pipelines and pushed back against Western encroachment in the former Soviet empire. But such ambitions are harder to finance when oil is around $74 a barrel, than when it is at $147, its price as recently as three months ago. Russia, Iran and Venezuela have all based their spending on oil prices they thought were conservative but are now close to the market level. Significant further drops could tip the three countries into deficit spending or at least force them to choose among priorities. Venezuela’s surge in spending Mr. Chávez was emphatic in September when he announced that Venezuela Simon Romero reported from Caracas; Michael Slackman from Amman, Jordan; and Clifford J. Levy from Moscow. María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, and Nazila Fathi from Tehran.

would engage in naval exercises with the Russian Navy in the Caribbean, made possible in part by a flood of petrodollars used to buy Russian weaponry. “Go ahead and squeal, Yanquis,” he said. “Russia’s naval fleet is welcome here.” Domestic spending in Venezuela has surged, through the creation of a wide array of social welfare programs that furthered Mr. Chávez’s goal of building a socialist-inspired state. The 2009 budget, based on $60-a-barrel oil, includes a 23 percent increase in government spending, to $78.9 billion. At $140 a barrel for oil, that was conservative. With prices now uncomfortably close to $60 a barrel, economists in Venezuela are expressing alarm over the government’s ability to pay its bills, including those for arms purchases. Presidents Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, left, and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela have “This country will be paralyzed because it is so dependent on petroleum,” said Oscar García Men- and undermine the West while promot- cited a dispute over prices. But some Western officials said Vladimir V. Putin, doza, president of Banco Venezolano de ing its own agenda. At home, oil money allowed Iran’s Russia’s president at the time and still its Credito, a private bank. ideological hard-liners to preserve their paramount leader, was sending a mesmonopoly on power, to buy political al- sage: Russia was willing to use its vast the Power of Iranian reserves When President Mahmoud Ah- legiances and to offset the fiscal damage energy reserves to try to reassert the madinejad of Iran presented his budget of their economic policies. All that may dominance it lost with the Soviet Union’s collapse. to Parliament in 2007, the United Nations now have to be recalibrated. Two months ago, the muted reaction of “The drop in oil prices will make the Security Council had already imposed economic sanctions on Iran because of Iranian regime re-examine its calcula- some European nations to Russia’s invaits nuclear program. The president said tions because its political immunity is sion of Georgia seemed to indicate that it did not matter. “Even if they issue 10 less,” said Mustafa El-Labbad, director Mr. Putin’s policy was working, some more such resolutions,” he said, “it will of the East Center for Regional and Stra- foreign policy analysts said. Europe had tegic Studies, an independent research become dependent on Russia’s gas and not affect Iran’s economy and politics.” He was partly right. It hardly affected center in Cairo. “Their regional presence could not afford to mount a strong challenge, they said. and role will shrink.” Iran’s politics. Now, however, with gas prices tumOne of the main reasons it was able to bling, this strategy has been thrown into endure the economic punishment was russia’s energy dominance On a winter day in 2006, Russia sud- question. Europeans may no longer be as the price of oil. Iran has the second largest known oil reserves in the world, and denly cut off the supply of natural gas to intimidated, knowing that Russia is less it has used them in the past four years as Ukraine, where a pro-Western govern- able to pressure its customers. “The more other countries are nervous a political and economic weapon to defy ment had come to power. The Kremlin

From Page 1

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

about their energy security, the better Russia is geopolitically,” said Peter Halloran, chief executive of Pharos Financial Group, an investment fund based in Moscow. Still, at least in terms of its domestic economy, Mr. Halloran and other experts said Russia was better positioned to weather lower prices than were many other oil and gas producers, because it had adopted conservative fiscal practices in recent years. Opposition politicians in Russia said they did not perceive sagging prices as undermining Mr. Putin’s power. “I think that it’s too early,” said Grigory A. Yavlinsky, an opposition leader. “The crisis at the moment is not related to the population enough. The banks are still open, and unemployment is not yet going higher. It’s a threat, but it’s only a potential threat.”

Europeans Find the Solution To the Crisis in Capitalism

Indians Feel The Effects Of Slowdown NEW DELHI, India — Aman Walia, 21, dreamed of flying. He got a student loan, enrolled in flight attendant school and landed his dream job six months ago with Jet Airways, India’s largest private carrier. Soon he bought his first car, renovated his apartment and threw himself into the exuberant high life of the new India. This month, he was fired. Jet Airways, having posted large losses, announced layoffs of 1,900 crew members, all recent hires still on probation. It was part of India’s first taste of pain from a bruising global economic slowdown. “Dreams are on hold right now,” Mr. Walia said. He and dozens of other former Jet employees marched through the domestic airport here earlier this month, shouting slogans. “Jet Airways, down, down,” they chanted as television news cameras rolled. Although the airline later reversed itself and reinstated the workers, the shock seemed likely to linger. Until recently, Indians had been spared the worst of the fallout from the current global financial crisis: no mass foreclosures, no banks threatening default under mountains of debt. But India’s economy is now beginning to show signs of a slowdown, in turn tamping down the country’s newfound predilection to spend. Unlike the frugal generations before them, Indians of Mr. Walia’s age and class are the first to consume lustily, without much worry about the future. Rama Bijapurkar, a management consultant and author of “Winning in the Indian Market,” said India was better protected from the crisis than many other countries because it had been slow to open the floodgates to the world financial sector. “We will feel the heat but not be consumed by the fire,” she said in an e-mail message. Nevertheless, new uncertainties

DMITRY ASTAKHOV/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

planned joint naval exercises.

PUNIT PARANJPE/REUTERS

The economic crisis has slowed India’s dynamic economy. Jet Airways employees protested layoffs in Mumbai; they were later reinstated. have set in. The Indian stock market has plummeted, precisely when Indians were jumping into the market for the first time. Property prices have begun to drop, as interest rates rise and developers face an acute capital crunch. Indians are buying fewer cars, the ultimate symbol of success for many. They are even becoming cautious about buying gold in the days leading to the gift-giving season of Diwali, the biggest Hindu holiday, in late October. Economic growth forecasts have been slightly lowered. Ashok Kumar, 61, sat behind the counter of his family-owned shop, Gulshan Electronics, dejectedly watching television. The shop should have been bustling with customers as Diwali approached. In more normal times, toasters and rice cookers would be flying off the shelves; families might indulge in a new television set or a DVD player. But not now. “I don’t know why. The customers are not there,” Mr. Kumar said. “It seems Diwali is postponed.” Like his fellow shopkeepers at the upscale Khan Market, Mr. Kumar was trying his share of holiday gimmicks: buy a 81-centimeter television, get a satellite dish free. Nothing was working. Only a few months ago, recalled Sanjeev Mehra, who runs a toy store in the

same market, customers were eagerly shopping with their credit cards. Now, it seems, everyone is wary of piling up debt. “People are spending money with a lot of caution,” he said. Similarly, the downturn in the aviation industry comes just as the sector was prospering on the growth of a new middle class that could afford to fly for the first time. The number of passengers had more than tripled since economic reforms in 1991, rapidly increasingly year after year, until last June, when it began to slip. Ragini Chopra, the spokeswoman for Jet Airways, said the airline’s fortunes sagged with the rise in fuel prices and then plummeted with the financial crisis over the last month. “The final nail in the coffin was the banking-sector imbroglio,” she said. “That has really taken a toll on the stock market, on corporate sentiment. Everyone has cut down on travel.” That explanation came as little consolation for Esha Puri, 22. She had worked at Jet for eight months, she said, and had made good money. “It was a wonderful, glamorous life,” she said. “We used to go shopping every day.” With the airline’s decision to reinstate the workers, Ms. Puri has that life back, for now.

big talk. Mr. Sarkozy, who met recently with President Bush at Camp David, told European leaders who gathered in Paris that he hoped “literally to rebuild the foundations of the financial systems.” C. Fred Bergsten, director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, a centrist economic policy center, summed up the week this way: “When it came to crisis-response mode, the Europeans, especially the British, did take the lead and the U.S. changed course.” As a result, the markets seemed to respond well, with European shares the big winners. Credit markets also showed some positive signs, and the Federal Reserve broadened its response even further, saying October 21 that it would provide financing to shore up money market mutual funds. “European capitalism is better suited to meet the challenges of the current financial crisis,” Trouw, a Dutch newspaper, declared recently. Not everyone was quite so triumphalist in tone, or so confident of generalizing from this one moment. While the course of action that emerged in recent days was smart, it doesn’t make up for a long period of denial about Europe’s own problems with credit practices before leaders finally recognized that the global financial system was collapsing, said Jean Pisani-Ferry, a former top financial adviser to the French government who is now director of Bruegel, a research center in Brussels. “For too long, they said the crisis was in the U.S. and wouldn’t affect them,” Mr. PisaniFerry added. Europe, in fact, still has plenty of problems, notably high unemployment and the likelihood of a prolonged recession, as Britain, Ireland, Spain and other countries suffer through a housing bust of their own. And the fact that France and Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Britain are together anteing up more than $1 trillion to rescue their own financial institutions challenges any assertions that Europe-

an bankers were any more prudent than their American counterparts. But whether it was a one-time exception or the first sign of a new pattern, Richard Portes of the Center for Economic Policy Research in London sees a fundamental strength reflected in the European strategy. While Congress and the White House were focused on simply buying up hundreds of billions in mortgage loans gone bad, leaders like Mr. Brown sought to fix a deeper, even more serious threat: a lack of faith in the banks themselves. That was why their tactic — becoming the investor of last resort, and the guarantor of loans between banks — worked to stanch the panic that caused Wall Street to plunge roughly 20 percent in one week. “The American officials and Congress got so tied up” with the bad mortgage debt, Mr. Portes said, that “they didn’t see that the key was recapitalizing banks, and re-establishing liquidity in money markets. The Brits and the Europeans saw this first.” Andrew Moravcsik, a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University in New Jersey, suggests that the experience of following Europe’s example, for once, could have domestic political implications for the United States. “Americans, especially conservatives, have a particular view of Europe as over-regulated, therefore suffering from weak growth and Euro-sclerosis,” Mr. Moravcsik said. “This could change that view, and create more respect for the European view of regulation more generally.” It also, he said, might encourage American politicians and voters to take a second look at what used to be called the “third way” — seeking a path that shrinks from dogmatically liberal or conservative views in favor of something pragmatic in the middle. For the moment, Europe is in sync with the United States, but that may not last, says Mario Monti, the former antitrust chief at the European Commission and longtime proponent of free-market policies. “A crisis like this can either bring disintegration or further integration,” he said.

le monde

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008

5

money & business

In Rough Economy, Two E-Commerce Giants on a Collision Course By BRAD STONE Just three years ago, eBay had 30 Amazon percent more traffic than Amazon. When the e-commerce giant As eBay Sputtered, Amazon Soared Today, its total of 84.5 million aceBay emerged from the last recestive users is barely ahead of the 81 sion seven years ago with an aura $80 Investors’ attitudes toward the two companies have changed in the last two years. million active customer accounts of invincibility, its chief execuJeffrey P. Bezos of Amazon has long emphasized experiments like third-party that Amazon reported in June. tive, Meg Whitman, boasted that selling. John J. Donahoe of eBay is shifting the company away from auctions. And Amazon has exceeded eBay “eBay is to some extent recessionin other measures. proof.” 60 EBay’s market capitalization As the online auctioneer’s revwas three times Amazon’s in 2005, enues and stock price kept climbback when Wall Street loved the ing, one of its primary rivals, AmeBay fact that it carried no inventory azon.com, just limped along. 40 and generated huge profits. This How times have changed. year, eBay’s stock has lost more Ms. Whitman, now co-chairthan half its value and, in July, woman of Senator John McCain’s Amazon’s valuation surpassed presidential campaign, retired 20 eBay’s for the first time. from eBay earlier this year as the In a series of interviews, Mr. Docompany struggled with stagnanahoe acknowledged that eBay tion. Amazon, meanwhile, has Source: Bloomberg Weekly stock price didn’t adapt quickly enough to emerged as a vibrant retailer. shifting e-commerce winds. He And in a sign that Internet com2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 now embraces a “turnaround panies are indeed exposed to the mind-set” and is refocusing its E-commerce, though, was once thought to be declines in September sales and are bracing for gathering economic storm, Ms. Whitman’s successor, John J. Donahoe, laid off 10 a refuge from economic storms. People who stay a bleak holiday season. No one is certain to what Web marketplace toward shoppers who don’t want away from the mall might be more tempted to shop degree online retailers will feel that same pain, be- to waste time in online auctions. percent of eBay’s 16,000 employees on October 6. “There are times when I wish we can close this That the economic crisis is washing up on Silicon online and hunt for deals, or so the thinking went. cause digital vendors have never endured a deep, store and just open a new store, but we can’t,” he But analysts are now revisiting that assumption. protracted economic slump before. Valley’s shores shouldn’t come as a surprise. Most tech companies are defenseless against waning ad- Many consumers, citing an uncertain economy, “We still feel pretty good about this year, but I said. “We need to make bolder, more aggressive vertising, business spending and consumer inter- say they will clutch their wallets tightly this holiday worry about next year and beyond,” said Brian J. changes to the eBay ecosystem even if they are unest in expensive items like computers. Over the last season regardless of where they shop: 48 percent Pitz, an analyst at Banc of America Securities. “Are popular.” Meanwhile, Amazon’s chief executive, Jeffrey P. three months, investors have punished tech compa- surveyed recently by eBillme, an online payment people going to spend when they can’t get home eqBezos, says that after years of failed experimentanies like Google, Microsoft and Apple, extracting a service, said they planned to delay purchases. uity lines of credit, a student loan or a car loan?” Traditional stores had wrenching, double-digit fifth to a half of their market value. For eBay and Amazon, the twin giants of e-com- tion, third-party vendors — the foundation on which merce, the financial meltdown has arrived at a eBay was built — now account for about 29 percent crucial time. After years of claiming that their busi- of sales on Amazon. The company has endured and nesses were complementary, not competitive, the outlasted critics who long complained about its high fixed costs. companies are now on a collision course. Last year, Amazon impressed investors with acAmazon has accelerated its courtship of small vendors, allowing them to sell on its site — becom- celerating growth, and its stock price revisited the ing more like eBay. And eBay has decided to empha- highs of the dot-com boom, before waning euphosize traditional, fixed-price sales of both new and ria and market pessimism erased more than half of By JAN HOFFMAN those gains this year. Mr. Bezos credits Amazon’s One recent morning, students in an economics old merchandise — becoming more like Amazon. At stake is more than e-commerce bragging tolerance for risky, expensive bets. Indulged. Entitled. Those labels have been ap- seminar at Elisabeth Irwin High School, a pri“Our willingness to be misunderstood, our longrights. On the Internet, size matters. Larger compaplied to middle-class and affluent teenagers born vate school in Manhattan, displayed an emerging nies can collect more information about consumers, term orientation and our willingness to repeatedly after the last major economic downturn in the grasp of the financial meltdown. Some students were beginning to translate the negotiate better deals with partners and use that fail are the three parts of our culture that make doUnited States, in the late 1980s. But as the econoing this kind of thing possible,” he said. leverage to expand. my totters, many families have no choice but to cut economic crisis personally. A few thought it had “EBay could have closed the door to Amazon “This is a pivotal holiday season for eBay,” said back, which may lead to a shift in their thinking become unseemly to flaunt goods with designer labels. Ruth Jurgensen, the principal of Elisabeth Jeffrey Lindsay, a senior analyst at Bernstein Re- back when Amazon was mostly just a platform to about money and permissiveness. search. “What people fear is that Amazon is basi- sell books and music,” said Scott Devitt, an analyst “Parents are suddenly saying ‘no’ and their kids Irwin, a diverse school, noted that many students cally building a bigger sales base than eBay and will at Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, the investment bank. are saying, ‘What do you mean?’ ” said Robert D. were alarmed about dwindling college aid. But when discussing their personal finances, use that knowledge to sell people more and more of “But what eBay did in those days was to take a very Manning, an economist in New York.These are difhands-off approach and let the marketplace control the things they want to buy online.” ficult conversations. Panicked, stressed parents many seemed bewildered. National surveys put Indeed, the balance of power in e-commerce itself. And that ended up being the downfall of the are struggling to explain and impose restraints, older teenagers’ average monthly allowance at seems to be shifting faster than anyone expected. business relative to others that have succeeded.” just when teenagers are expecting more spending $100 and upward. At Elisabeth Irwin, the weekly money, not less. Many adolescents respond with allowances ranged from $20 to $150. Some parents anger at what they see as a bait-and-switch world, gave students strict allocation instructions; othfear for their families and confusion about budget- ers, only vague direction. American teenagers, many ing. of whom have weak math Family therapists, teachskills, are generally naïve ers and parents tell anecabout finance. But they feel dotes about teenagers who the pressure and the desire are badly rattled by the news. to acquire. “The stuff it takes A daughter is shaken as her for them to be perceived as mother calls for an emergenmiddle class is extraordicy family meeting. The son of nary,” said Tom Murphy, who a Wall Street financier whose taught the seminar. “Laptops, fortune has collapsed tauntXboxes, iPods, phones — and ingly tells his father he can it’s nonnegotiable.” take care of himself: he will In familial relationships, money can be a proxy sell more marijuana. “It is an unbelievable shock to affluent families for love and trust, said Steven J. Goldstein, a psythat their lifestyles are gone for good,” Dr. Man- chologist in Manhattan. When money has to be ning said, “and their children are ill prepared for limited, underlying tensions become exacerbated. But for some families, he added, the financial criit.” Wendy Postle’s two teenage children, Zach, 13, sis has compelled them to articulate values and and Kaitlyn, 15, asked whether the family was priorities for the first time. In September, Hildegaard Link’s two daughters, poor. Mrs. Postle, who teaches economics and whose husband manages heating and cooling in- 15 and 11, rushed home, frightened by headlines about the stock market. The older one “totally stallations, felt insulted. The family was not poverty-stricken, she re- freaked out,” recalled Ms. Link, a civil engineer sponded, but staying solvent was costly. Although in New York. Ms. Link reassured her but asked whether evmany parents consider finances the province of grown-ups, Mrs. Postle decided her children were eryone could do with less. The girls made choices: lessons for either drum or violin, every two weeks; too insulated. She showed them the monthly bills. The teenagers were stunned. When her son saw fewer restaurant dinners; one new school outfit. the mortgage bill he thought it was an annual pay- “They were not resentful,” Ms. Link said. “They were relieved to be part of the process.” ment. Siège social : 27, avenue de Friedland - 75008 Paris - RCS 187 500 038 - Imprimeur : Contrast

Parents Learn to Say ‘No’ to Teenagers

Money problems can force families to articulate their values.

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Lead on Tuesday Gil Mendelson, HEC MBA 2009

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The economic downturn is forcing parents to cut back on purchases like expensive clothes for their children. Wendy Postle, left, shopped at a thrift store with her daughter, Kaitlyn, 15, center.

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le monde

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008 science & technology

Upside in Bad Times: Better Health By TARA PARKER-POPE ing to a 2007 paper by Dr. Miller and colleagues in Most people are worried about the health of the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Scieconomy. But does the economy also affect your ences. The data seem to contradict research in the 1970s health? It does, but not always in ways you might expect. suggesting that in hard times there are more deaths The data on how an economic downturn influences from heart disease, cirrhosis, suicide and homicide, as well as more admissions to mental hospitals. But an individual’s health are mixed. It’s clear that long-term economic gains lead to those findings have not been replicated, and several improvements in a population’s overall health, in economists have pointed out flaws in the research. In May 2000, the Quarterly Journal of Economdeveloping and industrialized societies alike. But whether the current economic slump will take ics published a surprising paper called “Are Rea toll on your own health depends, in part, on your cessions Good for Your Health?” by Christopher J. health habits when times are good. And economic Ruhm, professor of economics at the University of studies suggest that people tend not to take care of North Carolina, Greensboro, based on an analysis themselves in boom times — drinking too much, measuring death rates and health behavior against dining on fat-laden restaurant meals and skipping economic shifts and jobless rates from 1972 to 1991. Dr. Ruhm found that death rates declined sharpexercise and doctors’ appointments because of ly in the 1974 and 1982 recessions, and increased in work-related time commitments. “The value of time is higher during good econom- the economic recovery of the 1980s. An increase of ic times,” said Grant Miller, an assistant professor one percentage point in state unemployment rates correlated with a 0.5 perof medicine at Stanford centage point decline in University in California. the death rate — or about “So people work more and 5 fewer deaths per 100,000 do less of the things that people. Over all, the death are good for them, like rate fell by more than 8 cooking at home and exerpercent in the 20-year pecising; and people expeririod of mostly economic ence more stress due to the decline, led by drops in rigors of hard work during heart disease and car booms.” crashes. Similar patterns have The economic downbeen seen in some develturn did appear to take a oping nations. Dr. Miller, toll on factors having less who is studying the effects STEVE LEGATO FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES to do with prevention and of fluctuating coffee prices more to do with mental on health in Colombia, In difficult economic times, people tend well-being and access to says that even though fall- to make healthier food at home and health care. For instance, ing prices are bad for the eat fewer fatty restaurant meals. cancer deaths rose 23 economy, they appear to percent, and deaths from improve health and mortality rates. When prices are low, laborers have flu and pneumonia increased slightly. Suicides rose 2 percent, homicides 12 percent. more time to care for their children. The issue that may matter most in an economic “When coffee prices suddenly rise, people work harder on their coffee plots and spend less time do- crisis is not related to jobs or income, but whether ing things around the home, including things that the slump widens the gap between rich and poor, and are good for their children,” he said. “Because the whether there is a health safety net available to those things that matter most for infant and child health who have lost their jobs and insurance. During a dein rural Colombia aren’t expensive, but require a cade of economic recession in Japan that began in the substantial amount of time — such as breast-feed- 1990s, people who were unemployed were twice as ing, bringing clean water from far away, taking your likely to be in poor health than those with secure jobs. child to a distant health clinic for free vaccinations During Peru’s severe economic crisis in the 1980s, infant mortality jumped 2.5 percentage points — about — infant and child mortality rates rise.” In the United States, a similar effect appeared in 17,000 more children who died as public health spendthe Dust Bowl during the Great Depression, accord- ing and social programs collapsed.

CHAQUE ANNEE, RALLONGEZ LES GRANDES VACANCES AVEC 52 PETITES.

Intuition + Money = Breakthrough

RICK FRIEDMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

James Carey, left, and Stephen Saylor of SiOnyx with black silicon wafers, which may help make better sensors and photovoltaic cells. It started with a Harvard physicist acting on a hunch. It ended up producing a new material, called black silicon, that could have a broad impact on technologies ranging from ultrasensitive sensors to photovoltaic cells. On October 13, Harvard University announced that it had licensed patents for black silicon to SiOnyx, a company in Beverly, Massachusetts, that has raised $11 million in essay venture financing. This would never have happened if the physicist, Eric Mazur, and his graduate students had stuck to the original purpose of their research. He says their experience offers a lesson in government financing of science and technology, which is becoming so narrow and applied as to make discoveries like theirs much less likely. A more narrow focus does have its advantages: for one, it can be more likely to produce an immediate payoff. But in the current research environment, “you are less likely to be open to serendipity,” said Judith L. Estrin, an electrical engineer and author of “Closing the Innovation Gap: Reigniting the Spark of Creativity in a Global Economy.” Black silicon was discovered because Dr. Mazur started thinking outside the boundaries of the research he was doing in the late 1990s. His research group had been financed by the Army Research Organization to explore catalytic reactions on metallic surfaces. “I got tired of metals and was worrying that my Army funding would dry up,” he said. “I wrote the new direction into a research proposal without thinking much about it — I just wrote it in; I don’t know why.” And even though there wasn’t an immediate practical application, he received the financing. It was several years before he directed a graduate student to pursue his idea, which involved shining an exceptionally powerful laser light — briefly matching the energy produced by the sun falling on the surface of the entire earth — on a silicon wafer. On a hunch, the researcher also applied sulfur hexafluoride, a gas used by the semiconductor industry to make etchings for circuits. The silicon wafer looked black to the naked eye. But when Dr. Mazur and his researchers examined the material with an electron microscope, they discovered that the surface was covered with

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a forest of ultra-tiny spikes. At first, the researchers had no idea what they had stumbled onto, and that is typical of the way many scientific discoveries emerge. Cellophane, Teflon, Scotchgard and aspartame are among the many inventions that have emerged through some form of fortunate accident or intuition. “In science, the most exciting expression isn’t ‘Eureka!’ It’s ‘Huh?’ ” said Michael Hawley, a computer scientist based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a board member and investor in SiOnyx. Black silicon has since been found to have extreme sensitivity to light. It is now on the verge of commercialization, most likely first in night vision systems. “We have seen a 100 to 500 times increase in sensitivity to light compared to conventional silicon detectors,” said James Carey, a co-founder of SiOnyx who worked on the original experiments as a Harvard graduate student. Dr. Mazur is an investor in SiOnyx and chairman of its scientific advisory board. As a result of his research, a number of academic and corporate research groups are still exploring the material. SiOnyx is already commercializing sensorbased chips as a technology development platform for other companies and for use in new infrared imaging systems. The new technology has a tremendous cost advantage in that it is compatible with current semiconductor manufacturing plants, according to Stephen Saylor, SiOnyx’s chief executive. In the future, the low cost and higher sensitivity of black silicon may also make it a contender in the multibillion-dollar digital camera and video markets, an area currently dominated by silicon and charge-coupled-device sensors. SiOnyx is continuing to experiment with the photovoltaic properties of black silicon, but Mr. Saylor said the company had no plans to jump into the market to become a solar cell manufacturer. “Our engagement is going to be as a technology provider, not as a producer,” he said. And that is how this technology got to where it is today. To Dr. Mazur, that should be a lesson to technology funding agencies like the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Pentagon. “This is a very strong case in point for funding science for the advancement of science,” he said.

le monde

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008

7

living: Reinvention

Ideals of Beauty, in the Eye of a Computer Program By SARAH KERSHAW

BÉATRICE DE GEÁ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The United States gave refugee status to Pape Mbaye of Senegal.

Persecuted, And Finding A New Way By KIRK SEMPLE and LYDIA POLGREEN

Pape Mbaye gets a lot of attention. Even in jaded New York, people watch the way he walks (his style defines the word sashay) and scrutinize his outfits, which on a recent afternoon featured white, lowslung capris, a black purse, eyeliner and diamond-studded jewelry. And he likes it. “I’m fabulous,” he said. “I feel good.” Mr. Mbaye, 24, is an entertainer from Dakar, Senegal, known there for his dancing, singing and storytelling. But while his flamboyance may be celebrated in New York, he attracted the wrong kind of attention in West Africa this year, and it nearly cost him his life. In February, a Senegalese magazine published photographs of what was reported to be an underground gay marriage and said that Mr. Mbaye, who appeared in the photos and is gay himself, had organized the event. In the ensuing six months, Mr. Mbaye said, he was harassed by the police, attacked by armed mobs, driven from his home, maligned in the national media and forced to live on the run across West Africa. In July, the United States government gave him refugee status, one of the rare instances when such protection has been granted to a foreigner facing persecution based on sexual orientation. A month later, Mr. Mbaye arrived in New York, eventually moving into a small furnished room in the Bronx that rents for $150 per week. It has a bed, air-conditioner, television, cat and pink walls. “There’s security, there’s independence, there’s peace,” he said of his new country. But even as he has begun looking for work, with the help of a few Senegalese immigrants he knows from Dakar, Mr. Mbaye is largely avoiding the mainstream Senegalese community, fearing that the same prejudices that drove him out of Africa may affect him here. One recent evening, while visiting close family friends from Dakar who live in Harlem, he recalled a shopping trip to 116th Street, where many Senegalese work and live. There, he said, he was harassed by a Senegalese man who ridiculed Mr. Mbaye’s outfit and threatened him. “He said, ‘If you were in Senegal, I would kill you,’ ” Mr. Mbaye said. “I have my freedom now, and that man wanted to take it.” Mr. Mbaye had been living the Senegalese version of the high life for some time. He worked principally as a griot — a singer and storyteller invited to weddings, birthday parties and other events to perform traditional songs, dance and tell stories. By West African standards, it earned him a good living. Mr. Mbaye hopes to resume his career in the United States, though he acknowledges that until he improves his English, he will have to perform in French and Wolof, an African language. He also dreams of getting a modeling contract. In the meantime, he said, he will do just about anything. “I would like a job in a restaurant or a hotel or a club or in perfume or in makeup,” he said. “But no bricklaying.” At his friends’ home in Harlem, he celebrated his newfound freedom. “I want to live with the gays!” he said as his hosts laughed. “Pape Mbaye is American!” Kirk Semple reported from New York and Lydia Polgreen from Dakar, Senegal.

For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to define a universal ideal of beauty. Now a computerized “beautification engine” uses a mathematical formula to alter a person’s photograph into a theoretically more attractive version, while maintaining what the programmers call an “unmistakable similarity” to the original. The program, developed by computer scientists in Israel, is based on the responses of 68 men and women, age 25 to 40, from Israel and Germany, who viewed photographs of white male and female faces and picked the most attractive ones. Scientists took the data and applied an algorithm involving 234 measurements between facial features, including the distances between lips and chin, the forehead and the eyes, or between the eyes. Essentially, they trained a computer to determine, for each individual face, the most attractive set of distances and then choose the ideal closest to the original face. They ran the photographs of 92 women and 33 men through the engine, creating before and after shots. Changes were made only to the geometry of the faces; unlike the digital retouching done for fashion magazines, wrinkles were not smoothed and hair color was not changed. The research, published in the August proceedings of Siggraph, an annual conference on computer graphics, is one of the latest studies in a growing field that merges beauty and science. Studies have found there is surprising agreement about what makes a face attractive. Symmetry is at the core, along with youthfulness and clarity or smoothness of skin. There is little dissent across cultures, ethnicities, races, ages and genders. Yet, like other attempts to use objective principles to define beauty, this computer program raises complex questions about the perception of beauty and a beauty ideal. To what extent is beauty quantifiable? Does a supposedly scientific definition merely reflect the ideal of the moment, built from the images of pop culture and the news media? “How can they prove it?” said Lois W. Banner, a historian who has studied changing beauty standards, referring to scientific efforts to define attractiveness. “They are never going to locate it on a gene. They are never going to get away from the cultural influence.” Tommer Leyvand, who developed the “beautification” software with three others at Tel Aviv University and who works for Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, said the goal was not to argue that the altered faces are more beautiful than the originals. Instead, he said, it was to tackle the challenge of altering a face according to agreed-upon standards of attractiveness, while producing a result that left the face completely recognizable, rather than the product of cosmetic surgery or digital retouching. “This tool shows in the most simple fashion how easy it is to manipulate photographs and make people more attractive,” Mr. Leyvand said. “But the difference is so subtle that it just shows how insignificant it is.” He suggested there were practical applications for his software, including

ABOVE LEFT, HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; BELOW LEFT, LARS KLOVE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES; BOTTOM LEFT, KEVIN WINTER/GETTY IMAGES; MANIPULATIONS BY TOMMER LEYVAND

Brigitte Bardot, above, Martina Eckstut, left, and James Franco, an actor, below left, before and after their photos were ‘‘beautified’’ by computer.

advertisements, films and animation. He also said he had heard from plastic surgeons interested in the software. While several psychological studies suggest that perceptions of beauty

and attractiveness tend to be universal, critics of that work say it is debatable whether a person’s beauty is actually enhanced by such changes. Character can be lost. The quirky may become

plain. When Mr. Leyvand put a photograph of Brigitte Bardot through his program, her full and puckered lips were deflated, and the world-famous beauty seemed less striking — less like herself. By contrast, the before and after shots of the actor James Franco were almost indistinguishable, suggesting his classically handsome face is already pretty perfect. Martina Eckstut, 25, an account executive for Kay Unger New York/ Phoebe Couture, volunteered to be photographed and have her image beautified by the program. She said she was struck by how different she looked in the second shot. “I think the after picture looks great, but it doesn’t really look like me at all,” she said in an e-mail message. “My entire bone structure, face shape and eye size is different, and my lip color looks changed as well.” She added, “I would like to keep my original face.” After viewing the before and after photographs of anonymous subjects in Mr. Leyvand’s research paper, Dr. Banner, who is a professor of history at the University of Southern California, said the original faces were more attractive. “Irregular beauty is the real beauty,” she said.

Men Are Fighting Wrinkles in an Effort to Turn Back the Clock By SETH KUGEL

Five years ago, when a fourth horizontal line appeared on the forehead of Cody E. Lee, he knew he had his family’s wrinkle gene. “That was the point at which I said, ‘I’m going to get some help here,’ ” said Mr. Lee, who is 40 and manages a small business in San Francisco. “I think it’s fine having some lines or wrinkles on your face, but I wanted to avoid those deep impressions.” Not long ago, those wrinkles might have been thought of as masculine signs of wisdom or maturity. But that sentiment appears to be changing as doctors report a steady stream of men signing up for Botox injections. Many of those male patients, including Mr. Lee, are pleased with the results. His colleagues say he looks younger than he did in an office party photo taken eight

mantic ends, succumbing to their wives’ encouragement (or demands), and, perhaps most important, a desire to remain competitive in the workplace, especially for those in finance and business. Many doctors who watched the United States vice-presidential debate are convinced that Joe Biden may be one of those men who use Botox, though the Biden camp has denied it. “In general, the pressures for aging are far greater for women,” said Dr. Alan Matarasso, a plastic surgeon in Manhattan. “However, when we see a blip in the economy and how many people are going to be laid off today, you now have a 40- or 50-year-old advertising or bank or media person looking for a job,” said Dr. Matarasso. “People have a tendency to look for vibrancy and youth. At times of economic downturns you will ZOHAR LAZAR often see greater interest.”

years ago. Allergan has started marketing more directly to men. There is a prominent pitch on the Botox Web site (www.botoxcosmetic.com), noting that the product “is certainly not just for women.” Doctors say the most common reasons male patients cite for using Botox include looking better for social and ro-

The procedure eliminates or reduces wrinkles by temporarily paralyzing and atrophying the facial muscles that cause them. But men often have thicker skin and stronger muscles, doctors say, and frequently require higher doses. Men are more likely to complain of angry brows and horizontal forehead lines; women are often more concerned about vertical lines that start between their eyes. Michael Speaker, a 51-year-old medical consultant in San Diego, was a hairdresser when he first tried Botox. “When you stand in front of a mirror for 22 years, you know exactly what you look like,” said Mr. Speaker. He had one unpleasant experience when a doctor gave him a Botox injection in his lower chin: he developed a lisp that lasted three months. Still, the bad experience did not dilute Mr. Speaker’s enthusiasm. To stay young, he is convinced, “nothing can do the job like Botox.”

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le monde

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2008 arts & styles

A Shadowy Baroness Of Jazz By BARRY SINGER

If the mysterious Baroness Kathleen Annie Pannonica de Koenigswarter is at all remembered today, it is for her proximity to the deaths of two legendary jazz musicians. In 1955 Charlie Parker died on a sofa in her Manhattan home; in 1982 Thelonious Monk died after secluding himself for years in her New Jersey house. Both deaths made the baroness a subject of tabloid headlines and scurrilous gossip. Almost no one, though, beyond the insular jazz world, could possibly know her whole story: how, until her death in 1988, she championed jazz as both a friend and a generous, if unlikely, benefactor. A Rothschild heiress, she offered her home to countless jazzmen as a place to work and even live, while quietly paying their bills when they couldn’t find work. She chauffeured them to gigs around New York and was known to confront anyone she felt was taking advantage of her friends because they were black. “I always likened her to the great royal patrons of Mozart or Wagner’s day,” the saxophonist Sonny Rollins said. “Yet she never put the spotlight on herself. I try not to talk publicly about people I knew in jazz. But I have to say something about the baroness. She really loved our music.” She first materialized in New York jazz clubs in the early 1950s. She seduced the music’s greatest figures with her friendship, the revolutionists of the bebop era: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and many others. Her illustrious family has long refused to discuss her. But now a new book, “Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats,” offers a window into her personal life. The book is primarily a collection of candid photographs of the musicians

PANNONICA DE KOENIGSWARTER; LEFT, COURTESY OF ABRAMS IMAGE/HARRY N. ABRAMS

taken by the baroness, and a compilation of their varied responses to a favorite question: “What are your three wishes?” On October 30 an exhibition of these snapshots and wish lists will open at the Gallery at Hermès in New York. The book offers more concrete information about the baroness than has ever before been published. But the source of her extraordinarily deep bond with jazz musicians remains elusive. She always credited her brother, Victor, a jazz fan and amateur pianist, with introducing her to jazz. Shortly before her death, though, she revealed in a rare interview for a Monk documentary the moment when her interest in jazz escalated into something more. “I was in the throes of the diplomatic life in Mexico,” she said, recalling the

Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswarter befriended and supported jazz musicians such as Thelonious Monk, left, and Sonny Rollins.

years 1949 to 1952, when her husband, Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, was in the French diplomatic service, “and I had a friend who got hold of records for me. I used to go to his pad to hear them. I couldn’t have listened to them in my own house, with that atmosphere. I heard them and really got the message. I belonged where that music was.” The great project of the baroness’s life was the torturously unstable Monk, whom she served as a surrogate wife right alongside Monk’s equally devoted actual wife, Nellie. The baroness paid Monk’s bills, dragged him to an end-

less array of doctors, put him and his family up in her own home and, when necessary, helped Nellie institutionalize him. The introduction to “Three Wishes” still leaves unanswered many questions that pursued the baroness throughout her life. Did she enable addiction in the musicians she loved? Did she buy them drugs? Did she use drugs herself? Her husband divorced her in 1956 after the scandalous publicity surrounding Charlie Parker’s death in her home. Shaun de Koenigswarter, the couple’s youngest son, recently confirmed that the baron also got custody of the three younger children, Berit (born in 1946),

Kari (1950) and himself (1948). That the baroness in fact lost custody of her three youngest children as a consequence of her love of jazz further illuminates the maternal quality of her presence on the scene. Is it any wonder that she clung to her musicians like family? “She realized that jazz needed any kind of help it could get,” Mr. Rollins said, “especially themusicians. She was monetarily helpful to a lot who were struggling. But more than that, she was with us. By being with the baroness, we could go places and feel like human beings. It certainly made us feel good. I don’t know how you could measure it. But it was a palpable thing. I think she was a heroic woman.”

Notoriety of Naples Outshines Its Beauty NAPLES, Italy — The posters on Claudio Velardi’s office walls mix alluring Neapolitan sites with phrases like “Monnezza a chi?” (Who are you calling trash?). Mr. Velardi, a public relations expert recruited from Rome, runs the regional tourism office here. His advertising campaign to counter images that have plagued Naples since last year — the endless news photographs of rotting garbage in the streets — essay clearly hasn’t done much, not yet, anyway, to turn around the city’s fortunes. Tourists still stay away in large numbers, notwithstanding that for months the center of town has been immaculate. Culture was supposed to be Naples’s salvation, as so often is the hope in former industrial centers. The steelworks that drove much of the local economy had mostly closed by the end of the 1970s. The earthquake in 1980 compounded the misery. Then things looked better, for a while. “We had a dream,” said Nicola Spinoza, who is in charge of Naples’s state museums. He shook his head, remembering the promise squandered by the time Antonio Bassolino, an ex-Communist who became mayor in 1993, had left office and moved on to be governor of the region. Culture was Mr. Bassolino’s weapon of choice as mayor for bringing about change. Capitalizing on money and aid that had already begun to flow in after the quake, the city refurbished dozens of churches, museums and dilapidated palaces, and cleared downtown landmarks like the Piazza del Plebiscito of cars and muggers to make way for temporary art installations. Naples began to brand itself as a hotbed of filmmakers, actors and musicians. Today Neapolitans complain, as they used to, about unemployment, traffic and crime, and also about the garbage-disposal services, which for years have been infiltrated by the local mafia, the Camorra. Nothing really changed in the end. “We have woken up from our dream, and the reality seems even worse than before,” an exasperated Mr. Spinoza said. “It isn’t actually so different from 20 years ago, but it feels like it’s even worse because we had that dream.” There are bright spots on the culture front. In the apse of a disused church, now part of the Madre Museum for contemporary art, an exhibition examines the garbage crisis and civic identity. The church is glorious, and the exhibition isn’t half-bad, either. Madre since 2005 has occupied the renovated Donnaregina palace next door, with a dozen permanent installations by big-name artists like Richard Serra and Anish Kapoor filling the enormous, light-filled first floor. “I agree there is no rational reason for hope,” said Angelo Curti, a local film and theater pro-

MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

PEPPE AVALLONE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A photograph in a show at the Madre Museum on Naples’s garbage crisis. ducer. “But artists by their nature look beyond the present and try to do the impossible. It’s like Naples’s traffic. If you can drive here, you can drive anywhere.” The big question is how much culture ever does to turn around a struggling city. Turin, Italy, and Bilbao, Spain, are success stories, but less complicated. “Today,” Mr. Spinoza, an art historian, said with a sigh, “there is no longer a culture of illuminated leadership and Naples has become provincial, closed onto itself. Now it’s just a producer of poverty, unemployment and trash, and I don’t mean just the trash in the streets, which you can remove, but inside ourselves.” That grim assessment is not quite universal. “Look,” said Erri de Luca, a Neapolitan novelist, “the city has been in much worse shape than now. For a while, the Sixth Fleet was its only major asset, and Naples was the fleet’s bordello. Street culture — actors and musicians, singers and craftsmen — remains vibrant. It is also a city accustomed to calamity. “It will survive,” he added. “It’s stronger than the seas.” Mr. de Luca no longer lives here. He moved years ago to Rome.