Jessica Spiegel

The horrific events unfolding in Japan – revealed by footage of smoke-emitting reactors and abandoned towns in the contamination zone – are confirming suspicions that nuclear energy is neither clean nor safe. Tokyo’s drinking water has been declared hazardous to infants and consumers have been advised against eating vegetables grown in the prefecture that is home to the damaged Fukushima plant. Residents of northern Japan now live in the perpetual fear of radioactive poisoning.

In the lead up to the Group of 20 Summit in South Korea this November, a global economy caught between recovery and stagnation seemed to be fostering a new type of indecision. The momentum behind policy coordination and consensus that characterized the G20’s first meetings was giving way to power struggles. As the heads of state of the world’s 20 leading nations convened in Seoul on Nov. 11, it was perhaps the finger pointing that best characterized the mood.

Currency wars and global imbalances had dominated the debate in the days leading up to the two-day affair. Nothing new in monetary policy discussions, but the deliberations had taken on new tensions following the Nov. 3 decision by the Federal Reserve to resume quantitative easing.

 

 

Just across the Donaukanal from Schottenring, concealed in the ancient corner of Vienna’s 2nd District, the quaint and quiet Karmelitermarkt is fast becoming the new “in” place to be. Awakening from decades of Dornröschen sleep, the market is like a village market square in the middle of the city, and its obvious charms are making it a magnet for Vienna’s post-millennium bohemia. And at long last, it is emerging from the shadows of its famous sibling – the thriving Naschmarkt to the south.

Elegance is born of craftsmanship, in beauty that seems effortless. At Le Ciel, the culinary complement to the five-star Grand Hotel on Kärnterring, elegance is combined with an expertise that only fine enterprises can afford.

Meaning “the sky” in French, Le Ciel indeed rests high on the seventh floor of the 19th century hotel, above the twinkling Christmas lights that cascade from buildings in the first district this time of year. Having first been built as a maison meublée, it today still reflects the essence of the imperial age.

Research into the origins of life is at the heart of the scientific prospect. But navigating the seas of research and its stormy implications for ministerial budgets is sometimes an art, as Minister of Science and Research Johannes Hahn found out this month.

May 7 was, as one Austrian physicist said, “a dark day for scientists in Austria.” Minister Hahn suddenly announced that, after 50-years of membership, Austria would withdraw from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), shocking researchers around the world.

Frigid rain couldn’t keep opposing parties from meeting head-on in Vienna’s streets on May 14.

A makeshift stage had been erected in front of the Parliament building on the Ringstraße where a small crowd clung, listening intently to a speaker bawling into a megaphone against the “hate” that had brought on the demonstration, while a throng of right-wing marchers snaked through the streets behind the Rathaus.

By the end of the G20 Summit on Apr. 2 in London, leaders came away with quite a respectable list of agreements – and more than skeptics had expected.

Until now, the world’s 20 largest economies had taken a backseat to the G8, the group of primarily Western countries belonging to an ‘old boys club’ of the post-WWII world order.

Hanging unapologetically on the facade of Gumpendorferstrasse 8 are postcard-size flyers with the run down on the most controlled substances: cocaine, ecstasy, cannabis, LSD, speed – even alcohol. A black typeface on the door gives a detailed description of amphetamines, from its chemical makeup to long-term side effects.