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BY STEVEN ERLANGER
While the Obama administration has done nothing in the courts to block the publication of any of the leaked documents, or even, as of yet, tried to indict the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, for any crime, American officials and politicians have been widely condemned in the European news media for calling the leaks everything from “terrorism” (Representative Peter T. King, Republican of New York) to “an attack against the international community” (Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton). Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates called the arrest of Mr. Assange on separate rape charges “good news.” Sarah Palin called for him to be hunted as an “anti-American operative with blood on his hands,” and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas
For Seumas Milne of The Guardian in London
John Naughton, writing in the same British paper, deplored the attack on the openness of the Internet and the pressure on companies like Amazon and eBay to evict the WikiLeaks site. “The response has been vicious, coordinated and potentially comprehensive,” he said, and presents a “delicious irony” that “it is now the so-called liberal democracies that are clamoring to shut WikiLeaks down.”
A year ago, he noted, Mrs. Clinton made a major speech about Internet freedom, interpreted as a rebuke to China Clinton
The Russians seemed to take a special delight in tweaking Washington Britain Sweden
Mr. Putin then referred to a Russian proverb that roughly translates as “the pot calling the kettle black.”
“You know, out in the countryside, we have a saying, ‘Someone else’s cow may moo, but yours should keep quiet,’ ” Mr. Putin said. “So I would like to shoot that puck right back at our American colleagues.”
German newspapers were similarly harsh. Even The Financial Times Deutschland (independent of the English-language Financial Times), said that “the already damaged reputation of the United States U.S.
Mr. Assange is being hounded, the paper said, “even though no one can explain what crimes Assange allegedly committed with the publication of the secret documents, or why publication by WikiLeaks was an offense, and in The New York Times, it was not.”
The left-wing Berliner Zeitung wrote that Washington United States
The Berliner Zeitung continued: “The U.S.
Nicole Bacharan, a scholar of the United States France
But Renaud Girard, a respected reporter for the center-right Le Figaro, said that he was impressed by the generally high quality of the American diplomatic corps. “What is most fascinating is that we see no cynicism in U.S. Africa and China Russia Asia . They really believe in democracy and human rights. People accuse the Americans of double standards all the time. But it’s not true here. If anything, the diplomats are almost naïve, and I don’t think these leaks will jeopardize the United States
Even Laurent Joffrin, the editor of the leftist daily Libération, defended the right to diplomatic secrecy and said one must reflect on a “demand for transparency at any price.” States must have secrets, he said, so long as they have oversight from elected representatives. “It is a paradox to see WikiLeaks concentrate its attacks essentially on democracies,” Mr. Joffrin said. “And it is rather comforting to see that the secret exchanges of the great diplomatic powers are very little different in content from what they say in public.”
The strongest attack on WikiLeaks came from Figaro’s editor, Étienne Mougeotte, who called the publication of cables like the one listing sites considered strategic by Washington
Mr. Assange, he wrote, “is not the kind, righter of wrongs of the Web that some have wished to present to us — he is at best a dangerous, irresponsible man, or at worst a perverse delinquent.”
Russian officials seemed to be having the most fun with the Americans’ embarrassment, with some suggesting that Mr. Assange get the Nobel Peace Prize. Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described comments by Mike Huckabee in which the former Arkansas
REINVENTING A MUMBAI STREET
By ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
It is a street near the southern tip of the former Bombay
Situated just steps from the sea, it gave the East India Co. warehouse space in the 19th century. There the British stashed commodities likecoal and cotton bound for the metropole. The buildings they made were vast, with doors wide enough for horse carriages and ceilings many times the height of an average man.
Then the British left, and the Indians took over. Before long, though, Arthur Bunder Road
And now it would seem that Arthur Bunder Road
Over the last few years, a street that had come to be seen in many quarters as seedy and depraved has acquired some unusual new neighbors. One by one, they came: a trendy restaurant; a Mediterranean cafe; a number of contemporary art galleries with names like Volt and the Guild; an espresso bar affiliated with Lavazza; a trendy women’s shoe store; a modish home-décor store called Bungalow 8; the street’s first spa; an interior decorator; a fashion boutique.
Gentrification is universal. But this is gentrification of a strange kind, for it is as much a resistance of India
As in China India
But the new arrivals on Arthur Bunder Road
“It’s gentrification, but a sensitive gentrification,” said Maithili Ahluwalia, the proprietor of the Bungalow 8 store. “It’s not about replacing. It’s about remixing, editing and bringing our personal histories into these spaces — something that retains the past, but also takes it forward.”
“We go to London Paris
Bungalow 8’s wares illustrate this fine balance between forward movement and preservation. There are black glass Champagne goblets and other such nontraditional things; and there are rusting old cupboards that were utilities in the socialist era and now are cool for a nostalgic young crowd; and there are vests cut in the style of India’s Marwari clan but conceived by a French designer, Mathieu Gugumus Leguillon.
Ms. Ahluwalia is on Arthur Bunder because of a like-minded husband-and-wife pair, Mort Chatterjee and Tara Lal, who are considered the pioneers of the street’s artsy reinvention. He is half British and half Indian and grew up in London New Delhi
After two years of fruitless space-hunting, it was Mr. Chatterjee’s father who found the loftlike space through a newspaper advertisement and a follow-up call to a broker. The couple were rattled at first by the neighborhood’s reputation, and perhaps the history of the space on offer: it had supposedly been a pool hall most recently and a brothel before that.
But the space was capacious and bright, with huge windows overlooking the bustle below and brick archways waited to be exposed. Mr. Chatterjee and Ms. Lal went for it. Then they lured in others — fellow gallery owners, an architect, Ms. Ahluwalia. They figured that, in this case, more competition would be good for them.
Now, Mr. Chatterjee says, the trend has gathered so well that their rents have multiplied and there is talk of a Planet Hollywood in the works further down the road.
Just across from where that Planet Hollywood might land, Ajmal has been selling perfumes since 1951. The salesmen there have watched as the street’s character and economics have changed. They used to focus on perfume. Then, a decade or so ago, they added clothes to make up for flagging interest in perfumes alone. In the mid-2000s, they added leather bags and such to diversify even further.
A strong shock of perfume fills one’s nostrils in the store, and before long your head feels like it may be expanding. One senses the beginning of an unpleasant high.
Khalid Hassan Meer, a 42-year-old salesman, has seen the new arrivals and knows that trends are pressing against Ajmal. “There are too many competitors nowadays,” he said.
“In one way, it’s good, because people’s tastes are changing,” he said in his halting English. “In one way, we lose customers as well, because they purchase from other shops.”
He thought, then added: “Change is always good. That’s how life is.”
