| Hillary Clinton urges Bosnia to make EU membership a priority US secretary of state tells students they should press leaders to embrace multi-ethnic societyThe US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, today challenged all sides in Bosnia to embrace the political reform needed for EU and Nato membership.Speaking in Sarajevo, Clinton told university students they should urge their leaders to embrace a multi-ethnic society and pledged continued US support towards that aim.Earlier, she told Bosnian leaders to make EU membership a priority and implement the necessary constitutional reforms."These reforms are needed for their own sake," she said. "But they are also needed if your country is to fulfil the goal of becoming part of the European Union and Nato."Your neighbours have taken strides in that direction because they know there is no better way to achieve sustained economic growth and long-term political stability than by integrating with Europe."She told students from Sarajevo – at the centre of the civil war between 1992 and 1995 – that "now is the time to strengthen democratic institutions, deepen peace between neighbours and create the conditions for long-term political, economic, and social progress"."You have come too far ... you have too much to lose if you do not overcome these differences," she said.US officials have said a key element of reform is changing a constitutional provision that prohibits anyone other than Bosniaks, Serbs or Croats from being president – a limitation excluding Jews, Roma or other minorities from elected leadership positions."No one will create a stable and prosperous future for this country by stoking the animosities of the past," Clinton said. "The only way forward lies in working together towards shared aspirations."Fifteen years after the US-brokered Dayton peace accords ended the civil war, Bosnia's three main ethnic groups still disagree over the future of the country.Bosniaks – Bosnian Muslims – and Croats want reforms to make the weak central government stronger, while Bosnia's Serb community fears that measure would rob them of their autonomy.Clinton stressed she was not trying to impose reform, adding: "You have to do it for yourselves, but the United States will be with you every step of the way."Several students spoken to by Clinton at Sarajevo's historic National Theatre questioned Washington's resolve."I came to see how the Americans are viewing us now," said Aleksandra Vejnovic, 20, a law student. "They have started this project, they wrote our constitution and it doesn't work."Then they neglected us and left us alone. I came to see if they are willing to finish what they have started, because we can't do it ourselves."At the office of the presidency – shared by a Serb, a Croat and a Muslim – Clinton said she had encouraged the country's leadership, one-third of which will change on the basis of recent elections, to come together for the sake of the country's prosperity."I was very clear that there have to be actions taken that move the country towards greater stability," she said.However, hopes that will happen remain slim. While some faces changed in the October 3 vote, most Bosnians voted along ethnic lines again, reinforcing deadlock over the country's future.Although most Bosniaks and many Croats want a unified state, Bosnia's Serbs overwhelmingly support leaders who want to break away from the rest of Bosnia.Asked about Bosnian Serb aspirations to secede and create their own ethnic state, Clinton said the US only supported a united Bosnia within the EU."A united nation ... can be an incredibly powerful presence in Europe," she said. "Your diversity will be your strength. Your pluralism will be your ticket to greater opportunities.""If you can overcome the reminiscence of divisiveness, there is no limit to your future. If you cannot, then I fear you will find yourself in a state of paralysis and any attempt to be a separate country will fall as there will be no recognition, there will be no willingness to work with that entity."After dedicating a new US embassy in Sarajevo, Clinton met the secessionist-leaning Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, who later told reporters he still did not favour a revamped constitution strengthening central government powers. Instead, he said, any changes should "give ethnic groups the right to self-determination."From Bosnia, Clinton goes to Serbia to push leaders for a speedy start to talks with Kosovo, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.The Serbian president, Boris Tadic, said he was ready to participate in the talks but would never recognise Kosovo's secession.Bosnia and HerzegovinaHillary ClintonEuropean UnionNatoguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Interiors: From nécessaire to ooh-la-la – postwar French furniture design The postwar years saw unprecedented creativity in French design, driven first by the aftermath of bomb damage and then by the consumer boom of the 50s and 60sIn the France of 1945 – a country of ruined cities, bombed-out morale and an economy smashed to smithereens – it was all about the basics: tables to eat off, chairs to sit on and kitchens in which mothers could feed their children. In the crescendo of rebellion before May 1968, experimentation was key, and plastics took the place of wood. And by the early 1970s, permissiveness prevailed: beds were on the floor, sofas became "sprawlers" and chaise longues were orange and made of foam. Louis XVI, one imagines, would not have known where to look.If it is possible to tell the story of a country through its furniture, then an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris does just that. By charting the different designs that kitted out homes across France throughout this period of sudden and profound change, the exhibition shows how the finest table legs and most exquisite lamps are shaped not only by their craftsmen, but also by the cultural and economic influences of the time. And if the change is so radical that it seems to be a tale of two countries, that is perhaps not surprising. Try to picture Charles de Gaulle reclining in a bubble chair – it's no easy task.Beginning with the immediate postwar reality, the Mobi Boom exhibition transports the visitor from the centre of Paris to the northern city of Le Havre, a place so bombarded during the war that 5,000 inhabitant were killed and 12,000 homes destroyed. When, after liberation, towns and cities across France found themselves in need of a new housing plan, the old sea port became a prototype for reconstruction. Auguste Perret, the architect and devotee of reinforced concrete, designed modernist blocks of flats that were at that time the model for collective modern living: they made up for a lack of space with light, fitted kitchens and bathrooms, not to mention unembellished oak cupboards, simple storage space and elegant, high-backed chairs. When in 1947 the government announced its aim to create 20,000 such apartments a month, mass-produced furniture seemed the way forward."I think the state realised it had to give an impetus," says Dominique Forest, curator of the exhibition. From that moment on, the chairs and tables that designers René Gabriel and Marcel Gascoin were creating in Le Havre would become the staple for 1950s French households, which were embracing the rationalist dream. "They saw it as a golden age," Forest says. "It all came together: it was not only furniture, but also electrical appliances."As part of the exhibition, Forest installed an original 1947 fitted kitchen from Le Corbusier's Cité Radieuse in Marseille, by celebrated designer Charlotte Perriand. With its sliding doors and handy drawers, the kitchen reflects Perriand's assertion that, in an age of limited space, "storage is of the utmost importance". It also tries to maximise a woman's ability to be close to her guests through cut-away panels in the side. "The mistress [of the house] is not separated from her guests," Forest says. "She is not relegated to her kitchen only."As France got back on its feet during the 1950s, boosted by the Marshall Plan and a gradual recovery of economic strength, changes outside the home had a direct impact on what went on inside it. A new generation of designers started to experiment with new materials and shapes, and industrial production brought furniture to the masses like never before. In 1959, a Formica contest was held in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs; it yielded a sleek, low-lying, cream entertainment unit that spoke volumes about the new preoccupation of the time: leisure. Designed by Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq, it boasts a television on one unit, a bar in a second and a turntable in a third. For those feeling peckish, there's also a dish for peanuts.Before long, this new mood of discovery would vanquish the functionality of the immediate postwar period. What had been a question of urgency was now one of creativity and hedonism. Compared with other European countries, France was riding high on a boom in babies, living standards and, yes, furniture. The consumerist society had arrived and, with the rumblings of cultural rebellion that would reach a peak in May 1968, the combination was explosive. "There was definitely a spirit of breaking the [social] codes," Forest says, pointing out brightly coloured, make-them-yourself sofa units marketed as "vautroirs" (from the verb "vautrer", meaning to sprawl).During this period, several furniture advertisements caused "scandals", she adds, because critics deemed them to have subversive undertones (they were probably right). A double-page spread in the groundbreaking Prisunic magazine featured Marc Held's plastic ground-level beds with the word "LOVE" emblazoned behind them. "Another advert for [chair specialists] Airborne showed only bottoms," Forest says. "It caused a scandal at the time, but it was good for showing that what was important was people's bodies, their comfort."Five years after the protests of 1968, the mobi boom – and, more generally, the sustained prosperity of the trente glorieuses – came to an abrupt halt with the oil shock of 1973. Perhaps the gods of interior design looked down on the fluorescent yellow chairs and rotating orange footstools, and decided that enough was enough. In the mid-70s, battered by economic crisis and sudden consumer belt-tightening, some of the biggest names in French design – including Airborne, Steph Simon and Prisunic – closed their doors for ever. Their legacy, however – mass-production, nationwide distribution, cutting-edge creative thinking – has stood firm to this day (plastic beds excepted). • Mobi Boom, The Explosion Of Design In France (1945-1975) is showing at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris until 2 January 2011.HomesDesignFranceLizzy Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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Bomb at Pakistani Shrine Kills Five A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of a famous Sufi shrine in central Pakistan during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said. online.wsj.com |
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