IHT Quick Read: Dec. 11

NEWS Besieged by economic woes and insistent questions about its future, the European Union accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday with calls for further integration and a plea to remember the words of Abraham Lincoln as he addressed a divided nation at Gettysburg. Andrew Higgins reports from Oslo.

North Korea said on Monday that a technical issue had been found in the rocket it had planned to launch as early as this week to put a satellite in orbit, but that it still planned to try the launching by the end of the month. Choe Sang-Hun reports from Seoul.

Some Moroccans wonder whether the Arab Spring broug ht only cosmetic changes, questioning whether the king and his entourage gave up any of their power. Suzanne Daley reports from Tangier, Morocco.

Italian stock and bond prices fell on Monday after a weekend of political turmoil in Italy gave rise to fears that the country was headed for renewed instability. Shares of Italian banks, which are big holders of the government's bonds, were among the hardest hit. Elisabetta Povoledo and David Jolly report.

Returns from Romania's parliamentary elections on Monday gave an overwhelming victory to the center-left alliance of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, leaving the country poised for Round 2 o f a political standoff that has destabilized one of the European Union's newest and poorest members. Dan Bilefsky reports.

Huawei Technologies, a Chinese maker of telecommunications equipment, said on Monday that it planned to open a research and development center in Helsinki next year, accelerating its investments in Europe, where its business is expanding rapidly. Eric Pfanner reports from Paris.

FASHION The Chanel show that Karl Lagerfeld put on last week at Linlithgow Palace, near Edinburgh, was spectacular in every sense of the word. The burning braziers, sending quivering light over old stone, and the dinner held in a tented space, arising like magic on the hillside, were outshone only by an exceptional collection. Suzy Menkes reviews from Edinburgh.

ARTS “Tarzan” is only one of the shows that proves that even out-and-out flops on Broadway can go on to lucrative afterlives in Hamburg, as long as the shows have the spectacle and pageantry that theater producers here say enthrall a German audience. Patrick Healy reports from Hamburg.

SPORTS The essence of Lionel Messi is not in the bare statistic that now makes him the most prolific scorer of goals in a single year in the history of the game. It is in the way that he does it. Rob Hughes reports from London.

A World of Corruption

HONG KONG - Corruption can be a somewhat elastic concept, whether it's an American homeowner slipping the cable guy $20 for some free HBO or a Chinese police chief setting up his twin-sister mistresses in a free apartment.

In Afghanistan, corruption certainly means the disappearance of $900 million from a bank that has been likened to a Ponzi scheme. In Zimbabwe, it could mean hospital nurses charging pregnant women $5 every time they screamed in pain, as a kind of false-alarm fee.

Cultural norms can make it difficult to determine which countries have the most honest or most corrupt public sectors, although the annual Corruption Perceptions Index from Transparency International makes for compelling (and sometimes disturbing) reading. The rankings are widely accept ed and often referenced by scholars, journalists, business executives and government officials.

In Transparency's newly published 2012 index, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied for first as the cleanest countries. Sweden and Singapore rounded out the top five on the list of 176 nations.

Australia ranked No. 7 over all, with Hong Kong 14th and Japan 17th. The United States was at No. 19, followed by France (22), Spain (30), Taiwan (37) and South Korea (45).

The United States, the report said, ranked lower than many other developed nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, confirming that “Americans believe there are continued transparency and corruption issues in local, state and national government institutions and processes.”

China finished in 80th place on the index, a shade dirtier than Sri Lanka but cleaner than Thailand (88) and India (94). The Philippin es, Vietnam and Indonesia didn't even make the top 100.

“Corruption is rampant in this country,” Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the president of Indonesia, told the Antara news agency on Monday. “It is a serious problem, and it hinders the country's development. We should not tolerate corruption. We should not allow corruption to be a part of our lives.”

Five of the bottom seven on the Transparency index were Asian nations, including North Korea and Afghanistan, both of which tied for last with Somalia. Myanmar, wrestling with historic political and economic reforms, was at No. 172.

Xi Jinping, the newly installed head of the Chinese Communist Party, has already signaled that corruption will be one of the themes of his tenure.

“A mass of facts tells us that if corruption becomes increasingly serious, it will inevitably doom the party and the state. We must be vigilant,” Mr. Xi said in his first speech to the Politburo, as reported by Edward Wong of The New York Times. “In recent years, there have been cases of grave violations of disciplinary rules and laws within the party that have been extremely malign in nature and utterly destructive politically, shocking people to the core.”

Edward noted that Mr. Xi invoked a Chinese saying - “worms come only after matter decays” - to emphasize his point.

President Hu Jintao also warned about the pernicious effects of corruption in a speech at the landmark party congress last month. “If we fail to handle this issue well,” Mr. Hu said, “it could prove fatal to the party, and even cause the collapse of the party and the fall of the state.”

One of the first targets of Mr. Xi's anticorruption drive - if it can actually be called that - apparently came last week with an investigation of Li Chuncheng, 56, a ranking party official in Sichuan Province.

And on Sunday, a Public Security Bureau chief in northwest China was relieved of duty for “allegedly keeping a pair of twin sisters as mistresses,” according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

Qi Fang, the police chief in Wusu, has been accused of renting “a high-end apartment unit for the sisters in downtown Wusu” and charging the rent as an official expense.

Elizabeth C. Economy, a China expert and the director for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, writes that “Xi Jinping has one overriding political mandate: clean up corruption or clear out.”

An excerpt from her piece on the Asia Unbound blog:

Corruption and its manifestations are at the heart of the Party's greatest challenges: its glaring lack of legitimacy; one hundred eighty thousand mass demonstrations annually by most recent count; and an outflow of money through corruption, crime, and tax evasion as high as $3.72 trillion over the past decade. Is Xi up to the task?

In the past five years alone, over six hundred thousand Party officials have been investigated for “corruption-related activities.” The challenge here is two-fold: the number that should be investigated is probably closer to six million or even sixty million; and the traditional method of attack - simply plucking out corrupt officials one by one from on high - is woefully inadequate to the task at hand.

The Connection Between Europe\'s Nobel and Afghanistan

The European Union received the Nobel Peace Prize on Monday in recognition of the bloc's commitment to peace and human rights.

Since the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to the E.U., was founded soon after World War Two, European countries have worked hard to overcome centuries of enmity and war.

The extraordinary lengths to which France and Germany have gone to promote reconciliation have provided a model for other countries seeking rapprochement.

The E.U.'s promotion of values and its use of soft power have been extremely important for the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. When they joined the E.U. in 2004, Europe became reunited on the basis of democracy, human rights and stability.

But now it is time for the E.U. to ensure that the Nobel Peace Prize becomes a motivation to defend values beyond Europe, not just an honor about past achievements.

Afghanistan presents an ideal but difficult opportunity. The reason is tha t NATO forces are now drawing down, the theme of my latest Letter from Europe. The 102,000-strong force will end its combat mission in 2014. NATO says it will follow it up with a training mission for the Afghan military and police.

But non-governmental organizations are very concerned that the gains made by women and a younger generation of judges, journalists, lawyers and teachers will be reversed. This is because corruption is endemic, the Taliban and other insurgents oppose human rights and democracy, and the Afghan security forces are too weak to exert control.

The E.U. could make a difference by putting in place a long-term development strategy for Afghanistan. This would require a highly disciplined and coordinated relationship with all the non-governmental organizations involved in Afghanistan. That might only be possible, if at all, with strong leadership from Brussels. Dipl omats based in Afghanistan have seen much of the bitter rivalry between non-governmental organizations that makes coordination and cooperation very difficult.

What happens in Afghanistan is important, not only for Afghans but for the region. If the E.U. were to adopt a radical, long-term development program that would establish a special relationship between locals and experts and that would focus on human rights and economic development, it could - and it's a big could - show to Afghanistan's neighbors the relevance of the E.U. being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Family Treasures and the Secrets They Unlock

PARIS-Sometimes there are family treasures that unlock the dramas of generations, revealing stories far larger than ever imagined.

I am looking for such a prize, the missing bronze menorah that my great aunt Luz stored in a commode in the cramped bedroom of her garden apartment in San Jose, Costa Rica. I picture it as an ancient object, gold and flecked green, touched by many hands. Maybe its markings offer clues to the secret lives of the Carvajals, my Catholic family. They hid their identity as Sephardic Jews who left Spain during the Inquisition.

I want to know what the relationship is between this object and generations of my family. I can picture the room where it once lived, remember the volume of the tiny space, the light from the window. I wonder what it witnessed?

Perhaps others have felt the same way about personal treasures . In the end, I would like to know if such discoveries resolve family mysteries. I think of an article I wrote earlier this year about the descendants of victims on the Titanic who cherish a gold watch engraved with the name of Mary Mangan and the hands frozen forever at 2:20 am when the ship went down in the frigid waters in 1912.

My own quest is based in part on the Spanish government's announcement last month of new immigration reform. Five hundred and twenty years after the start of the Inquisition, Spain offered an invitation to descendants of Sephardic Jews whose ancestors fled the Iberian Peninsula, forced to choose between exile or conversion to Christianity to live in Spain or its colonies. The process, as it turns out, may be more complicated than it seems si nce descendants must be able to offer proof of existing ties to a Jewish community that can be certified by a Jewish organization in Madrid.

To gain this certification descendants must also offer other proof such as genealogical evidence dating back generations to Spain, traditional Sephardic family names, information about customs such as speaking Ladino. I had already gathered much of the information while writing a book about my family's concealed legacy. But the menorah still eludes me.

“She never gave me any clear explanation of what it signified and I don't know what happened to it,” Javier, the grandson of Aunt Luz, wrote to me last year in an email from Costa Rica. He recalled that she did tell him about how we were descended from Sephardic Jews through my great-grandfather, Alberto Carvajal, and also through the family of his wife, Albertina Peres.

He suggested contacting another cousin, Mario, which I did when Spain offered its invitation fo r citizenship. Mario promised to email photos and quickly made phone calls to other Central American relatives.

But no one remembered the menorah. And they advised turning back to the first cousin who had told me about it in the first place. “I'll keep you informed,'' Mario wrote to me when he couldn't turn up anything. “It seems that there's now another mystery in the Sephardic origins of the Carvajals.”

The writer is seeking a family treasure, a bronze menorah, that she hopes will unlock the drama of generations. Can discovering or retrieving such an object resolve family mysteries? Tell us your stories. Has your family lost, and then found, a treasured object?

Philosophy, or Plumbing: How Well Is Academia Preparing Students for the Real World?

A report being released Monday by the McKinsey Center for Government shows a big disconnect between new grads looking for work and the employers looking to hire them. Both sides acknowledge that something is amiss: Only 42 percent of employers felt that new hires were “adequately prepared” by their education or formal training. Similarly, only 45 percent of graduates felt they were “adequately prepared” for even entry-level positions in their field.

But when asked the same question, 72 percent of education providers felt that they “adequately prepared” students for the workplace. Given that many graduates and recruiters disagree, one could say that academia is either overly optimistic, or simply out of touch, about its own usefulness.

This mismatch has turned into a global problem. McKinsey estimates that 75 million young people are unemployed w orldwide.

McKinsey has invited panelists from all over the world to debate this divide on a live Web chat starting at 9 a.m. EST on Monday. You can register to watch it here.

The McKinsey report offers a range of practical solutions, like curriculums designed by companies, on-site job training and better career advice.

But there is a larger question: What is the point of a university education?

Some would say that it is the only time that a young person can luxuriate in learning for the sake of learning for the sheer joy of it. When else can you fill your head with everything from foreign languages to science, and be on both the debate team and the cheerleading squad? The ability to be creative, inquisitive, critical and open-minded is invaluable. Most educators will tell you that it's not the piece of paper you get at the end that matters, but what you learned on the way.

The counter-argument is that there are an awful lot of well-rounded, brilliant philosophy majors leaving school with student debt, no job prospects and no marketable skills. A cynic would say that many of them would be more gainfully employed had they spent three or four years learning a practical trade. There are plenty of plumbers, chefs and mechanics out-earning new university graduates right now.

In economically trying times- in the face of alarming rates of youth unemployment- are philosophy degrees a luxury that some students simply cannot afford?

Should everyone go to university? Should schools focus on creating well-rounded graduates, or on teaching specific, technical skills needed by the marketplace?

And Now, Round 3 in the Medea Sing-Off

Paris-On Monday evening Cherubini's “Médée” takes to the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as the third and final work of a mini-festival this fall of operas about Greek mythology's most famous woman spurned. On the podium, will be Christophe Rousset, whose sterling credentials as a harpsichordist and Baroque specialist might suggest he'd be more at home with Marc-Antoine Charpentier's “Médée,” the first in the series (‘‘Medea'' by the composer Pascal Dusapin was the second).

But Mr. Rousset conducted Cherubini's version at La Monnaie in Brussels, where the production originated in 2008, and in fact prefers it, as he said over lunch at a Paris restaurant, even though the opera dates from 1797-practically the 19th century. “Despite very beautiful music, th e Charpentier doesn't really work as an opera. There is too much emphasis on hell and magic. Cherubini's opera is more Romantic, more about a real character, more touching. You feel empathy. It moves you in a strange way. The real drama comes at the end, where it should.”

In preferring Cherubini, Mr. Rousset is in good company: Beethoven was a huge admirer of Cherubini and much preferred his opera to those frivolous works by Mozart with librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte. And Maria Callas's famous portrayal of Cherubini's heroine supplied, in recorded versions, many opera goers with their introduction to the opera. But she sang it in a corrupt Italian version, which still turns up on occasion, especially outside France where theaters may have trouble in dealing with the niceties of an opéra comique, with its spoken dialogue. (Because of its dialogue, “Médée” is technically an opéra comique, even though there is nothing comic about it.)

The main prob lem of the Italian version is that it contains accompanied recitatives by the German composer Franz Lachner, which were written in the 1850s and reflect then-current musical styles, so that the most striking and progressive features of Cherubini's music are not set in proper relief and accordingly fail to register properly. In any case, doing “Médée” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Italian was never a possibility, not just because Mr. Rousset dismisses the Italian version but also because Michel Franck, the theater's general director, insists that French operas by Italian composers be performed in French, regardless of traditions favoring Italian translations.

You might think this would be a no-brainer for a Paris theater, but the Paris Opéra's 1998 production of Verdi's French grand opera “Don Carlos” was given in Italian as “Don Carlo,” even in its revival two years ago. The production of “Médée” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées b y the Polish director Krzystof Warlikowski does use a rewritten version of the spoken dialogue, but Mr. Rousset shrugs this off as not so unimportant. “Médée” is an especially intense and concentrated production by the controversial Mr. Warlikowski.

The opera also has special significance for Mr. Rousset. Like many conductors who established themselves through period-instrument performances of Baroque music, Mr. Rousset has become ever more attracted to music of a more recent vintage. He regards the process as a logical one: the more experience one gains as a conductor, the more one is drawn to music that poses greater challenges for the conductor. “There is only so much for a conductor to do in a Lully opera. Handel becomes more interesting. Mozart and Beethoven are the logical next steps. ‘Médée' helped establish my Romantic soul. But the Baroque is my period too. And I'm still a harpsichordist.”

Have you seen the three versions o f “Medea?” which composer do you think does it best?

And Now, Round 3 in the Medea Sing-Off

Paris-On Monday evening Cherubini's “Médée” takes to the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as the third and final work of a mini-festival this fall of operas about Greek mythology's most famous woman spurned. On the podium, will be Christophe Rousset, whose sterling credentials as a harpsichordist and Baroque specialist might suggest he'd be more at home with Marc-Antoine Charpentier's “Médée,” the first in the series (‘‘Medea'' by the composer Pascal Dusapin was the second).

But Mr. Rousset conducted Cherubini's version at La Monnaie in Brussels, where the production originated in 2008, and in fact prefers it, as he said over lunch at a Paris restaurant, even though the opera dates from 1797-practically the 19th century. “Despite very beautiful music, the Charpentier doesn't really work as an opera. There is too much emphasis on hell and magic. Cherubini's opera is more Romantic, more about a real character, more touching. You feel empathy. It moves you in a strange way. The real drama comes at the end, where it should.”

In preferring Cherubini, Mr. Rousset is in good company: Beethoven was a huge admirer of Cherubini and much preferred his opera to those frivolous works by Mozart with librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte. And Maria Callas's famous portrayal of Cherubini's heroine supplied, in recorded versions, many opera goers with their introduction to the opera. But she sang it in a corrupt Italian version, which still turns up on occasion, especially outside France where theaters may have trouble in dealing with the niceties of an opéra comique, with its spoken dialogue. (Because of its dialogue, “Médée” is technically an opéra comique, even though there is nothing comic about it.)

The main problem of the Italian version is that it contains accompanied recitatives by the German composer Franz Lachner, which were written in the 1850s and reflect then-current musical styles, so that the most striking and progressive features of Cherubini's music are not set in proper relief and accordingly fail to register properly. In any case, doing “Médée” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Italian was never a possibility, not just because Mr. Rousset dismisses the Italian version but also because Michel Franck, the theater's general director, insists that French operas by Italian composers be performed in French, regardless of traditions favoring Italian translations.

You might think this would be a no-brainer for a Paris theater, but the Paris Opéra's 1998 production of Verdi's French grand opera “Don Carlos” was given in Italian as “Don Carlo,” even in its revival two years ago. The production of “Médée” at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by the Polish director Krzystof Warlikowski does use a rewritten version of the spoken dialogue, but Mr. Rousset shrugs this off as not so unimportant. “Médée” is an especially intense and concentrated production by the controversial Mr. Warlikowski.

The opera also has special significance for Mr. Rousset. Like many conductors who established themselves through period-instrument performances of Baroque music, Mr. Rousset has become ever more attracted to music of a more recent vintage. He regards the process as a logical one: the more experience one gains as a conductor, the more one is drawn to music that poses greater challenges for the conductor. “There is only so much for a conductor to do in a Lully opera. Handel becomes more interesting. Mozart and Beethoven are the logical next steps. ‘Médée' helped establish my Romantic soul. But the Baroque is my period too. And I'm still a harpsichordist.”

Have you seen the three versions of “Medea?” which composer do you think does it best?

Crowdsourcing Your Commute

THE HAGUE - In an article in our Smart Cities series, my colleague Choe Sang-Hun reported on how citizens of Seoul are able to connect to a city information system to receive real-time traffic information or mass transit updates.

But useful commuter information - such as road conditions, traffic density or even the punctuality of a buses, trams and trains - doesn't have to come from government offices.

A new study explores how commuters in one California city share travel information via specialized social networks, accessible from mobile apps.

Drivers in San Jose, California (the state's second largest city, after Los Angeles), not only reached their destinatio ns faster by staying connected with other drivers, they were also less impatient about getting there, the study, released Monday by the New Cities Foundation, reported. The study provides insight into how social networking - mostly used in our downtime now - might help make cities and commuters more efficient during working hours.

“It's not just important in terms of the actual time saved, but also how much time you feel you are saving,” said Naureen Kabir, who led the study.

In a 21st-century equivalent of flashing your headlights to warn of an upcoming speed trap, drivers also felt good about sharing information that would help others on the road, the authors found. “It is the element of not just receiving information that is useful,” said Ms. Kabir.

Indeed, the desire to give advice and help to others makes the system work, she said.

The study analyzed thousands of comments that users left on two mobile apps, Waze and Roadify. User comments were analyzed for their usefulness to fellow commuters and their general sentiment.

In terms of social networking habits, there is a difference between those commuters using public transportation and those using cars, the study suggests.

And the news is not not good for those worried about ”distracted driving.”

Because unlike public transit users who tend to use their apps when planning the journey, drivers rely on information from social networks both to plan their route (by checking where traffic is lightest, for example) and in real-time (to get updates on those tr affic jams).

Public transit commuters have less interest in real-time digital social interactions with fellow commuters. They rely instead on announcements, signs and actual conversations with fellow passengers for travel information, Ms. Kabir said.

While the study focused on the digital social interaction between commuters, the authors believe that commuter social networking can help municipalities understand traffic patterns and even harvest traffic data in real-time.

“It is a two-way street between traffic authorities and commuters, between community and municipality,” said Ms. Kabir.

In a section of the report called sentiment analysis, the authors set out to determine the level of frustration (or in rare cases, joy) commuters felt in certain situations and locations or at certain times of day. For example, the study found traffic jams of comparable intensity were experienced as being more frustrating for commuters in the evening than in the morning.

The New Cities Foundation is a Switzerland-based non-profit that studies life in cities; it also has offices in France and the United States.

The study was supported in part by the San Jose Department of Transportation, the makers of the Roadify and Waze apps, who helped collect and analyze data from their users, and was prepared by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society at the University of California, Berkley.

In a future phase of the study, the New Cities Foundation hopes to actually quantify the amount of time (and fuel) saved by those who connect during their commute, said Ms. Kabir. This could provide hard proof that crowdsourcing your commute can increase overall urban sustainability.

What do you think?  Do you think social networking can make traveling more efficient? Have you tried it?