M.T.M. Childs

While a duo of lute and violin played a solemn tune accompanying an Arabic song, Austria’s foreign minister Michael Spindelegger leaned over to say something to the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Alfaisal. That was all it took. Suddenly, the music was lost in a cacophony of flashing cameras and clicking shutters.  

Indeed, this was the perfect photo op to accompany suspicions of ulterior motives behind the Saudi king’s giant investment in Vienna. 

Without question, the Molcho family’s newest addition to Vienna’s dining scene is a welcome one . Across the canal from Schwedenplatz, Haya Mol- cho and sons’ NENI im Zweiten is not just a re- vival of Jewish cuisine in Vienna’s Mazzes Insel, but a taste of an international concept seen in New York and London – an all day restaurant, with Sunday Brunch and cocktail events once a week .

Few can imagine the fear and torment Elisabeth and three of her children suffered before their release in late April -- fear of their own father. Joseph Fritzl, 73, was able to keep his daughter imprisoned in a basement dungeon for 24 years, during which she bore him seven children. The discovery of their hidden cellar, which had gone unnoticed for so long, has reminded many of the recent Natascha Kampusch escape from eight years of captivity in a cellar in the Vienna suburb of Strasshof.

The Fritzl family lived in an apartment house in Amstetten, Lower Austria. Neighbours were shocked to find that this type of crime could go unnoticed for so long. Are Austrians too complacent to report something out of the ordinary?

The inhabitants of fair Vienna are noto- riously dissatisfied with their city and often travel long distances in search of what they think they lack at home. At the same time, when they’re home they continue to frequent all the same restaurants, shops bars and clubs they always have, perpetuating the cliché that “Nothing ever changes in Vienna!”

We beg to differ. Our modern, classy metropolis is a plethora of contemporary de- sign, art and fashion, and a vast array of fine dining, exclusive cocktail bars and a throb- bing club scene. This city’s urban culture is fresh and unsaturated, making Vienna not only a place to live well, but a place to live it up, where the new complements the time- less.

When one is accustomed to Vienna's high-end hotel restaurants, the eatery in 'The Ring' seems underdressed, almost a cafeteria. Vienna's new 'casual luxury' hotel combines naked 'Zeprano' (zebra) wood furnishings with asparagus--colored upholstery and awkward photos of nuts and greens lining the walls. Perhaps an attempt at Mediterranean flair.

The establishment is otherwise comfy, however, and pleasant; even an avid smoker is not perturbed by the no smoking policy. Also, the view of the traffic on the Ringstrasse whizzing by accentuates the peace inside.

Unemployment is nothing to be ashamed of. At some time in their lives most people are, at least briefly, unemployed. The discussions over Hartz IV, Germany's long-term unemployment plan, have become heated because of its associations. German television is full of reality shows portraying problem children, couples or families and again and again, the refrain is, 'I am a Hartz IV recipient.' So the term has come to mean uneducated, self-absorbed parasites of society, because, well, these are the ones we see.

Unemployment is nothing to be ashamed of. At some time in their lives most people are, at least briefly, unemployed. The discussions over Hartz IV, Germany’s long-term unemployment plan, have become heated because of its associations.

German television is full of reality shows portraying problem children, couples or families and again and again, the refrain is, “I am a Hartz IV recipient.” So the term has come to mean uneducated, self-absorbed parasites of society, because, well, these are the ones we see.

The parents of eight teenage girls had to make one of the toughest decisions a parent could ever make, a decision they probably never contemplated, even in their wildest nightmares: to send off their children to live with strangers during a time of imminent war.