Reflections

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Haus der Berliner Festspiele | Seitenbühne

Hans Christoph Buch (Germany), Nuruddin Farah (Somalia/South Africa), Grada Kilomba (São Tomé and Príncipe/Portugal/Germany), James Shikwati (Kenya), Ilija Trojanow (Bulg
Presented by: Volker Panzer
The first panel of the series “African Affairs” is devoted to perspectives on Africa. In the media of industrialised countries, the news coverage is focused essentially on wars and civil conflicts, AIDS, female genital mutilation, corruption and other bad news. These are the associations of “the West” when countries and territories such as Burundi, Congo, Ivory Coast, Darfur, Liberia, Somalia, Sierra Leone, the Western Sahara, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic, and currently Chad and Kenya, are being written about and considered. The endeavours of some stand in opposition to this perspective and instead emphasize the positive side of the continent’s development, which isn’t reducible to art and culture – or vacation destinations. How would an integral view of Africa be defined?
In cooperation with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation

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Max Liebermann Haus

Erosion of European civil society? Geert Mak (Netherlands), Bora Ćosić (Croatia/Germany)
Presented by: Wilfried F. Schoeller
The New Europe was hailed after the E.U.’s eastern expansion. Even if there are repeated setbacks, the bureaucratic structures are gradually stabilising. However, already in the 1990s the Balkans War made clear that the ice on which we are walking is extremely thin. For years, Italy has found itself in a trauma characterised by intellectual and moral downfall. Spain is only just beginning – thirty years after Franco’s death – to come to terms with its history. Belgium has yet to recover from its paedophile scandal, and in the Netherlands there are hints that after the murders of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, traditional virtues and moral values are losing importance. While “Fortress Europe” is looking to close its borders, its populations are closing themselves off from each other, and in many places a dangerous mixture of Presented byility and indifference reigns. What is the state of Europe’s civil society? Is there a chance, that the growing gap between the bureaucracy in Brussels and the signs of erosion in civil societies can be bridged?
In cooperation with the Brandenburger Tor Foundation
Free entrance

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Literarischer Salon der Allianz

“Why Berlin?“: László Krasznahorkai (Hungary), Marie N'Diaye (France/Germany), Steinunn Sigurdardóttir (Iceland)
Presented by: Marie Neumüllers
The “New York Times Magazine” was rather taken aback: “$1 a Square Foot! Gross!“ was the disbelieving title of an article last summer that discussed young New Yorkers in Berlin. Here, you can get an eight-room flat for the price of a windowless room in a flat share in New York – if you’re lucky. But it can’t be the rents alone that draw authors and artists of all kinds and from all over the world to the German capital…can it?! Three writers, who have all recently chosen to live in Berlin, talk about their affection for their new home up close, and what they expected from afar.
In cooperation with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
Free entrance

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Werkstatt der Kulturen

To Iraq and Afghanistan - Gwynne Dyer (Canada), Markus Kaim (Germany) and Jochen Thies (Germany)
presented by: Thomas Carl Schwoerer
Western troops – according to Gwynne Dyer in his book “After Iraq and Afghanistan. What happens, when the western troops leave” – ought to leave Iraq and Afghanistan today rather than tomorrow. Due to the military deployments, the situation has tended to deteriorate rather than improve, and the west has no solution for the true challenges of the region – such as the refugee crisis in Iraq, demographic developments in Israel or the conflicts in Afghanistan, characterised by complex feudal relationships. The renowned Canadian political scientist presents his arguments to high-calibre German experts for them to discuss.
In cooperation with the Werkstatt der Kulturen and the Campus publishing house

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Haus der Berliner Festspiele | Große Bühne

About Barack Obama: Nuruddin Farah (Somalia/South Africa), Geert Mak (Netherlands), Tzvetan Todorov (Bulgaria/France) and Eliot Weinberger (USA)
Presented by: Arno Widmann
In a historical speech delivered in Philadelphia in March of this year, Barack Obama directed the country’s attention to the history and status quo of racism in the U.S. The U.S. must work its way out of the dead end of race relations, said Obama. Ever since his speech, all hopes have been pinned on Obama, who also intends to make crucial changes in foreign affairs. Composed of authors from three different continents, the panel will discuss the substance of these hopes and answer the question as to how realistic they are.