HOME / other magazines: Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Diseased Thinking

By Julia TurnerUpdated Friday, May 2, 2003, at 1:36 PM ET

New Republic, May 12
SARS plus China doesn't equal reform. The cover story dumps ice water on the writers who've been feverishly predicting that SARS would bring about Chinese glasnost. Writing from Beijing, Jasper Becker argues that the epidemic hasn't prompted openness—instead, it's given the Chinese Communist Party a chance to shore up its power. Officials have used the outbreak to further restrict civil liberties and the press, and contend that only the CCP has the power and scientific know-how to effectively counter the disease.

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And what about those WMDs? A piece points out that the Bush administration's new strategy—giving up on the hunt for unconventional weapons and focusing on Iraqi scientists who will testify that such weapons did exist—will still provide opportunities for verification that could help convince skeptics that the war was worthwhile. Because most of the weapons in question remain detectable after they've been destroyed, inspectors with the proper resources could easily check out administration claims. Next up: the hunt for the resources.

Economist, May 1
The cover story notes that Dubya and Kim Jong-il have both made noises about a plan to end North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for economic assistance. (Fred Kaplan made a similar point this week in Slate.) The piece reiterates oft-noted concerns about the dictator's loose cannon aspect and suggests that any agreement stipulate that all nuclear material must leave the country and implement an "intrusive inspections" regime. How to get to such a deal? The piece reiterates oft-noted suggestions: Rope the neighbors into sanctions, and start policing the seas to stanch North Korea's arms trade.

New York Times Magazine New York Times Magazine, May 3
Bill Keller warns that we've entered "the second nuclear age." And frankly, he thinks we're all a "little complacent" about it. For one, newer nuclear powers like India and Pakistan tend not to have stringent control mechanisms in place; for another, terrorists could obtain nukes; for yet another, the nuclear stigma of the Cold War seems to have dissipated. The battle now is between the nonproliferationists, who have long sought to use diplomacy and inspections to eliminate the weapons, and the new counterproliferationists, who believe in using force to keep them out of the hands of bad regimes. (If you want to see nonproliferationists size up these new kids on the block, check out Arms Control Today.) … If you read only one article in the "Futures of Food" package, read "The Next Big Flavor"—the writers wittily solicit chefs, farmers, food chemists, and even the head of the Raelian sect for suggestions. Revelation: Kaffir lime and chocolate make a thrilling combination.

The Nation, May 12
Anyone puzzling over the Supreme Court's ruling that the U.S. can imprison any immigrants it plans to deport, even if they pose no danger or flight risk, should read David Cole. Justice recently authorized the FBI to make immigration arrests and plans to give state and local police that authority, too. (Formerly, only specially trained INS agents enforced immigration law.) "Ashcroft's ultimate goal," Cole says, "is to use immigration law to fight terrorism in much the same way that traffic regulations have been used in the war on drugs." The likely outcome: ethnic profiling of Arabs and Muslims. … Alexander Cockburn contends that the Saddam statue-pull held in Baghdad was a staged PR event. His proof? Blurry photos of a rather empty square. But when were the photos taken? A more devastating comment about the cheering crowd that day in Baghdad might be that—with the lovely blue mosque in the background of nearly every shot—it seemed to be the only one.

New York Review of Books, May 15
Ronald Dworkin argues that the Supreme Court should find the University of Michigan's admissions policies with regard to race constitutional. Affirmative-action foes think any race-based rules are antiquated and unfair. Michigan's policies, Dworkin says, fulfill the court's precedent criteria: They serve a "compelling goal," are indispensable in attaining it, and are "narrowly tailored." … Peter Singer assesses the state of animal rights, 30 years on, by evaluating four new books on the topic. He asks two questions: Is speciesism defensible? If not, are humans right in behaving like we are more important than all the other animals? … A new book on the Earth's biosphere reveals a complicated picture. Rather than just detailing the planet's rape by industrialization, the book shows how staggeringly complex all global biological processes are. Humans cause results that are occasionally catastrophic and almost always impossible to predict. In some ways, we may have screwed things up more than we thought; and in others we may not be to blame at all.—S.G.

Weekly Standard Weekly Standard, May 5
It seems Max Boot is now a fashionista. Arguing that Bush must continue to pursue his policy of pre-emption both militarily and diplomatically, Boot offers once again his observation that "formal empire is passé." (He made the same claim when reviewing Niall Ferguson's book Empire in March.) Instead, he writes, "promoting liberal democracies with U.S. security is more our style." (That means it's also au courant to keep least 60,000 U.S. troops in the region.) … And are Syria and Iran really next? No, Boot says. Well, not unless they acquire weapons of mass destruction and support international terrorism. Either move would constitute a casus belli. … A piece urges Bush to fight Congress like hell to keep his tax cut intact, arguing that the plan may be key to his re-election, since a majority of American voters are now stockholders and their patience with Republicans presiding over a slumping economy may soon wane.

The New Yorker, May 5
Jon Lee Anderson profiles Ala Bashir, who was one of Saddam Hussein's preferred physicians and, occasionally, his reluctant confidant. Bashir's insights offers a portrait of the dictator: "He'd have been the No. 1 actor if he'd ever gone to Hollywood. ... I've never known a better listener. He doesn't seem like the same man who does these cruel things."

On Osama's friends in high places: A "Talk of the Town" piece reports that Osama Bin Laden's "estranged family" has invested $10 million in the Fremont Group, a former subsidiary of the Bechtel Group. Bechtel recently snagged the first multimillion dollar rebuilding contract in Iraq. Whether any of that money will benefit Bin Laden's family—or, perhaps, Osama himself—remains unclear. But the piece notes that while the Fremont Group is technically independent of Bechtel, more than half of Fremont's directors are also on Bechtel's board. … Newsweek reports a more insidious al-Qaida link this week: A Saudi Arabian diplomat may have routed hundreds of thousands of Saudi dollars to al-Qaida operatives in Europe. The inquiry into what Muhammed J. Fakihi did—and who in the Saudi government knew about it—is ongoing.

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, May 5
It's SARS week for the newsmagazines, as all three front head shots of people wearing respiratory masks. Newsweek's hypochondriac looks anxious, U.S. News' appears stoic, and Time's blonde offers a come-hither look that says: "I may or may not have an acute and contagious respiratory disease, but I am a fox."

On SARS, and whether you'll get it: The piece to read is Newsweek's; it notes that "people wonder if health officials and the media [are] manufacturing hysteria over a microscopic bug," then offers the most lucid outline of the questions that remain to be answered. The biggie: Why does the death rate vary so widely worldwide? Coronaviruses, like the one that is linked to SARS, are incredibly prone to mutation, because they consist of a single strand of RNA and "have no built-in proofreading system to catch mistakes in replication." But does that mean different strains of the virus—some more lethal than others—are at work in different corners of the globe? Scientists don't yet know but are concerned about two new reports that may indicate unexamined mutations with unknown consequences. Only 40 percent of SARS sufferers examined by a Canadian doctor showed evidence of the coronavirus; and a number of individuals in Hong Kong have tested positive for the virus—but show none of the symptoms. … Time's piece on SARS in China offers further evidence of underreporting in Shanghai, where a bureaucrat reported that "the pressure to say everything is under control is enormous." Though only two cases in the teeming city have been confirmed, a Shanghai doctor notes that 30 suspected cases were admitted at his hospital alone.

On SARS, and whether it will be China's Chernobyl (in a good way): In Time, Michael Elliott weighs in on the question raised by the Economist last week: Will the SARS crisis in China bring about sweeping reforms? Elliott thinks a better model than the Chernobyl crisis—which set off rapid changes in the Soviet Union—is the earthquake that struck Mexico City in 1985. The disaster and the government's inability to muster an effective response provoked a "crisis of legitimacy" that gradually gave reformers in Mexico new authority. Elliot never explains exactly how those reforms came about.

On poetry, and whether it's dead: A bizarre Newsweek essay by Bruce Wexler, who admits in the kicker that he's never heard of poet laureate Billy Collins, contends that the poetry is an outmoded art. His primary evidence—he no longer reads it.

—Sian Gibby also contributed to this column.