01/31/2005

SPIEGEL Surfs the Web

Arab Papers React to Iraq's Elections

With its election on Sunday, Iraq joined Israel and the Palestinian Authority as the only places in the Middle East with democracies. Or did it? Not all Arab newspapers are so sure and offer differing points of view in their Monday issues.

Security was tight as Iraqis went to the polls on Sunday.

DPA

Security was tight as Iraqis went to the polls on Sunday.

The Jordan Times writes that the single most important task of the newly elected regime in Iraq is the drafting of the country's constitution. But the fact that many Sunnis in Central Iraq didn't bother to vote will cast doubt on the legitimacy of the new government.

The Gulf News out of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has nothing but respect for the Iraqis who braved the threats of terror attacks to make their way to the polls on Sunday. The paper writes that the elections by no means guarantee peace and security, but "it can only be hoped that the dream of a normal life becomes reality."

Dubai's other major English language daily, the Khaleej Times, isn't nearly as optimistic. It reminds readers that one election does not a democracy make and argues that the prospects for a real democracy in Iraq are "increasingly grim." The paper predicts that Iraq will end up as a corrupt autocracy on the model of Russia or Nigeria.

Awful Plastic Surgery

When we're not busy writing about politics or the world's woes, we're constantly looking for totally shallow, entertaining Web sites to lighten our day. Back in the days before reality television brought plastic surgery flickering to plasma TV screens, we had Awful Plastic Surgery.com -- an online clearinghouse of botched celebrity face lifts, collagen catastrophes and sundry augmentations that somehow went awry. See Victoria Beckham's "big greasy lips," or Donatella's "Lip Collagen Disaster."

Auschwitz Memorials Online

With today's commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, people around the globe are taking time out to remember the many who died at in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. A number of excellent Web sites have been doing the same for years and provide exhaustively detailed background on this dark chapter. The Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., has put together a comprehensive Auschwitz Web site, with Soviet footage taken just after the camp's liberation, interviews with survivors, and information on the development of the camps themselves. PBS has an excellent site as well, a companion to their television series called Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State.

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