Despatches
The best of this month’s events across the network. Plus: Ethiopia goes online, while smoking could be banned in Beirut
Kosher comics
WAS SUPERMAN JEWISH?
The question is certainly raised by a thought-provoking exhibition at Berlin’s Jewish Museum this month, which details the role immigrants of Jewish descent played in the development of this distinctly American cultural export.
Though the very name Superman may owe something to the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzche’s ideas of the übermensch, he, alongside plenty of other superhero characters, was dreamt up and drawn by Jewish émigrés in New York’s poorer neighbourhoods during the earlier part of the 20th century.
Come to the museum this month you’ll be able to view work by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the co-creators of Superman, who published their first edition in 1938, as well as images from Will Eisner, who drew the hit 1940s character, The Spirit, a masked vigilante.
There will also be comics from the cult 1960s underground artist Robert Crumb, and frames from the award-winning Maus series by Art Spiegelman. Maus, a two-volume graphic novel, details the trials of Spiegelman’s father as a Jew in Nazi Germany, proving the veracity of the exhibition’s claims, as well as that there’s more to comic books than men in tights.
Heroes, Freaks and Superabbis, until 8 August. The Jewish Museum Berlin, 9-14 Lindenstrasse, +49 (0)30 2599 3300, www.jmberlin.de
[ 14-22 May ]
Enjoy reggae theatre in Nottingham
It may have begun as a Jamaican movie back in 1972, but the cult classic The Harder They Come has more recently become a successful stage adaptation. Catch the production after its run in the West End at the Nottingham Playhouse. www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk
[ 15 & 29 MAY ]
Watch the fireworks in Hanover
Boom! Hanover’s International Firework Competition is held each year in the city’s baroque Herrenhausen Gardens. Catch the competitors’ 25-minute displays, and judge for yourself which one lights up the sky the best. www.hannover.de/herrenhausen
[ 6-9 MAY ]
Pick up a modern masterpiece in Vienna
Viennafair is the only contemporary art fair that focuses on Central and Eastern Europe and is now in its sixth year. Over 110 galleries from more than 20 countries will be converging in Hall A of the Messe Wien exhibition hall. And on 9 May it’s Mother’s Day in Austria, so mums can get in for free! www.viennafair.at
[ 1 MAY ]
Celebrate May Day in Berlin at the Myfest festival
The city’s grungy Kreuzberg district hosts a lively daytime music festival, Myfest, today. Though you might want to move onto a more genteel neighbourhood after nightfall, as the Labour Day demonstrations can get pretty hairy after dark.
[ 7 MAY ]
Remember the war in Red Square
The Soviet Union suffered incredible losses during World War II – over 20 million people – and this annual parade, while sometimes seen as a display of military prowess, serves to commemorate the fallen servicemen and citizens. Get in place by 9am, when the tanks begin to roll.
[ 25-29 MAY ]
Smell the flowers in Beirut
Thousands of Lebanese horticulturalists gather in Beirut’s Hippodrome for the city’s Garden Show and Spring Festival. Look out for fragrant floral displays, landscaping tips, as well as a traditional food market. www.the-gardenshow.com
BOOKING AHEAD
[ 8 June ]
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE IN DUBLIN
The 1990s US rock band and unlikely X Factor usurpers slip in an additional date over in Dublin around the same time as they play their free ‘thank you’ concert in London’s Finsbury Park. www.theO2.ie
[ 9-13 June ]
BE PRODUCTIVE IN BERLIN
View the latest in product design at the Berlin International Design Festival. This annual event showcases everything from cutlery to bizarre-looking chairs in a decommissioned power plant right in the heart of the city. www.dmy-berlin.com
[ 16-18 June ]
DO BUSINESS IN RIYADH
Come to the Saudi capital for the Second Annual International Conference on Global Business. This international talking shop brings together academics, business professionals and government officials to exchange ideas in a modern Arabian setting. www.gsmi-ibc.com
[ 4 July ]
COME OUT IN VIENNA
Rainbow Parade, the city’s annual gay pride march, celebrates liberation and sexual tolerance. But it also serves as a great excuse for a party. www.regenbogenparade.at
[ 4 August ]
DANCE IN THE STREETS OF ZURICH
Hundreds of thousands of revellers take to the avenues of Zurich to party hard during the city’s annual Street Parade. www.streetparade.com
[ 4-30 August ]
HAVE A LAUGH IN EDINBURGH
See the funnier side of the Scottish capital’s world-famous performing arts festival. Though the Fringe is known to host good comedians, this is only the third year in which a dedicated comedy event has taken place during August’s festivities. www.edcomfest.com
[ BEIRUT ]
Hubble bubble, we’re in trouble
COULD THE SMOKY BARS OF BEIRUT be heading for the same fate as ashtray-strewn London pubs and the Parisian cafés once thick with smouldering Gauloises? That’s certainly the intention of an anti-smoking lobby currently gaining ground in the Lebanese parliament.
Earlier this spring the Administration and Justice Committee approved a draft law banning tobacco advertising. Now a ban on smoking in indoor public places stands before the legislature, and there are also moves to enforce the kind of anti-smoking labelling that cover cigarette cartons in the UK and elsewhere.
Fans of the nargile – the hookah or hubble-bubble waterpipe – shouldn’t hold out for any clemency either. A recent report by the American University of Beirut suggests that a one-hour waterpipe session “likely generates ambient carcinogens and toxicants equivalent to two to 10 cigarette smokers, depending on the compound in question.”
However, most commentators still believe Lebanon is some way from becoming a smoke-free state. “We are a tobacco-friendly society,” laments cardiologist Georges Saade, head of the Tobacco Control Project at Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.
Recent polls place Lebanon as having the 20th highest cigarette consumption per capita in the world. And law or no law, many of Beirut’s citizens believe the ban will require some heavy policing. As one manageress at a luxury hotel in the city explained to Voyager, even two decades after the civil war’s end, “in this city we have a healthy disrespect for laws.” And that includes laws that are there to save people’s health.
Alex Rayner
[ ADDIS ABABA ]
Ethiopia goes faster
THERE ARE MANY PLEASURES TO BE HAD IN ETHIOPIA, but surfing the internet isn’t among them. “Connectivity at present ranges from poor to appalling,” complains Addis Ababa-based businessman Tony Hickey. “It takes ages to send photographs. And video clips? Forget about it.”
However, help could be at hand, thanks to a hulking cable off the coast of East Africa.
The communications link is owned by Seacom, a submarine fibre optics company, which earlier this spring was awarded a contract to supply the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation with international broadband fibre connectivity.
The undersea cable is just one of many laid by this three-quarters African-owned company; Seacom boasts a 17,000-kilometre submarine fibreoptic-cable network and has already linked Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania to the rest of the world via hubs in India and Europe.
From CEO Brian Herlihy’s perspective, faster internet is good news for all: “As we have seen in other countries that gained access to Seacom, it is only a matter of time before the direct socio-economic benefits created by cheap and readily available bandwidth begin to manifest in Ethiopia and the region.”
Other, less-enthusiastic commentators believe that, while a swift link to the outside world will help, the country will still have to rely on servers that chug along at frustratingly low speeds – around a 20th of the capacity of domestic broadband in the UK.
Yet, as Hickey makes plain, perhaps speaking on behalf of all Ethiopian web users: “Any company which can improve connectivity here is going to make a very big difference.”
Leo Vandergarde www.seacom.mu
WORD UP!
INFORMAL WORDS AND PHRASES FROM AROUND OUR NETWORK
[ BERLIN ]
KNORKE
Adjective: cool Variously translated as swell, smashing, great, excellent or terrific. The derivation of this phrase is unclear, though it has been in circulation in parts of Germany for almost a century.
[ MOSCOW ]
TOLKUCHKA
Noun: flea market/black market This directly translates as pushing or elbowing, which gives you some idea as to the kind of crowds you’re likely to encounter if you try to buy a dodgy DVD player in open-air bazaars within the Russian-speaking world.
[ CAIRO ]
DARBO EL SELK
Phrase: to go crazy ‘Hit by the wire’ is how you’d say this in English if it were directly translated. However, the Arabic phrase has come to describe any crazy or irrational behaviour.
[ BEIRUT ]
GHECHEH W MECHEH
Phrase: stupidly oblivious The Lebanese say ‘dumb, but still walking’ to describe somnambulatory stupidity.
If you catch someone strolling into heavy traffic while chatting away on their phone, try this phrase.
[ VIENNA ]
Lederhosen verboten!
IF YOU’RE IN VIENNA THIS MONTH, try to resist the urge to pick up a pair of leather shorts. Designpfad, an annual event in its 13th year, puts paid to the idea that 200-year-old bespoke clothiers, lederhosen and dirndls still reign supreme in Helmut Lang’s hometown.
Traditional meets contemporary fashion at the opening on 7 May, with a show at the Imperial Furniture Collection in the hip Seventh district. Work by participating designers will be on show to the public throughout the rest of the month and winners will be announced in June.
The event is part of a decade’s worth of work undertaken to promote Austrian fashion design. Daniel Sverak, co-director of the event, admits Vienna cannot compete with Paris, London or Milan. “It’s about creating an alternative to the established fashion cities. Growth is the aim and more events. Vienna is cultivating a brood of talented young designers and offering them to the world. Designpfad is part of that.”
The development of the Seventh district – from nothing special to mini fashion metropolis – has been rapid and it is the place to go for any visitor who wants local designer wares and boutiques galore. Designers like Wendy & Jim, Fabrics Interseason, Marios Schwab, Anna Aichinger and Christina Berger are setting the tone – think quality craftsmanship and quirky innovation – and following in the footsteps of Herr Lang.
Later this year, the city will host the Festival of Fashion and Photography, Vienna Fashion week, Vienna Design Week and Vienna, Wine and Design. Pack light and return home with your suitcase full. Katie Binns www.designpfad.at
[ TEHRAN ]
What we now know about Persian Cats
THE IRANIAN FEATURE FILM, No One Knows about Persian Cats, offers a dramatic depiction of the country’s burgeoning indie rock scene. Here’s a taste of what we can gather, just from the trailer.
00:14 seconds
The film won the ‘Un Certain Regard’ Jury prize at Cannes.
00:17
And made the official selection at South by Southwest’s Afifestival.
00:35
Some Iranians think 50 Cent and Madonna are indie rock. Don’t they read the NME?
00:50
In fact, Iranian indie rock sounds a little like The Strokes and Arcade Fire.
00:54
Sometimes Iranian indie rockers have to rehearse in cattle sheds.
01:00
And sometimes their parents cut the power, for fear of police reprisals.
01:20
Yet there are ways around the system for a check-shirt-wearing indie boy and girl whose love of indie remains true.
01:55
Er, we hope.
No One Knows about Persian Cats is on general release. The soundtrack is currently available. The DVD is out next month
