Turks Protest Pope's Coming Visit by WASHINGTON POST 28 NOVEMBER 2006

Turkish nationalists protest against the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI. This is the Pope's first official trip to a mostly Muslim country, after the remarks he made in September that were interpreted as linking Islam and violence.
Getty Images / Dimitar Dilkoff
Turks Protest Pope's Coming Visit

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Changes Plans to Meet With Benedict XVI
By Molly Moore

Washington Post Staff WriterMonday, November 27, 2006; 10:00 AM
ANKARA, Turkey, Nov. 26 -- Thousands of chanting, flag-waving protesters on Sunday denounced Pope Benedict XVI as anti-Islamic, demanding that he cancel a trip to Turkey this week that the Vatican hopes will help mend relations between the pontiff and Muslims.
An estimated 25,000 protesters jammed a large square in Istanbul in one of the largest public demonstrations against the visit so far in this predominantly Muslim country, where secular voices are battling growing Islamic forces at a critical moment in Turkey's relations with the West.

The pope's visit has infuriated many Muslims because of remarks he made 2 1/2 months ago in which he quoted a medieval Christian emperor equating some of the prophet Muhammad's teachings with violence and evil. The pope has not apologized for making the remarks but has said he regretted the pain they may have caused Muslims.
In a last-minute change of plans that indicates a new receptiveness to the pontiff's visit, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is now expected to meet with Benedict XVI on Tuesday for 20 minutes at Ankara's airport after the pontiff flies in from Italy, the Associated Press reported from Vatican City.

Erdogan had originally said he could not meet the pope because he would be attending a NATO summit in Latvia, prompting Italian newspapers to dub it a snub to the pontiff. The Vatican insisted at the time that it was a result of a scheduling conflict.

Erdogan will now squeeze in an airport meeting before leaving for Latvia, according to a Vatican spokesman, the AP reported. The Vatican announced the meeting, which Erdogan's spokesman then confirmed.

Protesters waved signs declaring "Go home, pope" and shouted, "No to the pope!" as about 4,000 police, many in riot gear, ringed the square and helicopters monitored the crowd from overhead.

"We don't want the pope here," said Mustafa Demir, 50, as he gripped the hands of his two elementary-school-age daughters. "He insulted our prophet."
Although many Turks oppose the papal visit, some government authorities and business leaders see it as a chance to promote Turkey's efforts to join the European Union and to highlight the country's secular political system.

Turkish officials attempted to play down the protest. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said at a news conference that the pope's visit could help "remove some misunderstandings" between Christians and Muslims and that his messages would "be very important."

During his regular Sunday address at the Vatican, Benedict told the crowd beneath his window, "Starting right now, I want to send a cordial greeting to the dear Turkish people, rich in history and culture."
He added, "To these people and their representatives, I express feelings of esteem and sincere friendship."

The Vatican also confirmed Sunday that the pope will visit Istanbul's famous Blue Mosque, the Sultanahmet, in his first visit to a mosque as pope.

Turkish authorities said security will be extremely tight during the papal trip, which begins in the capital, Ankara, includes a visit to the shrine near Ephesus, where many Catholics believe the Virgin Mary lived her final days, and ends in Istanbul.

Although Vatican-Muslim relations have dominated the headlines about it, the trip was originally scheduled to help repair a centuries-old divide between the Vatican and Orthodox Christian churches. The pope will have two meetings with the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, who is based in Istanbul and has waged his own religious battles with the Turkish government.

Many of the protesters at the rally Sunday in Istanbul were just as distressed by the pope's planned meeting with the Orthodox patriarch as they were by what they see as his attitude toward Muslims.

"We are here to prevent the visit of the pope," said Gulnihal Yildirim, 38, who wore a head scarf and was accompanied by her two daughters, ages 6 and 11, each sporting green headbands reading, "The pope should not come."

"He will be the guest of the state for one day and of the patriarch for three days," added Yildirim, who said she opposed the pope's efforts to enhance the status of the patriarch in this Muslim country.

Special correspondent Yonca Poyraz-Dogan in Istanbul contributed to this report.

European universities fear "Americanization" by CNN POSTED , November 20, 2006

PARIS, France (AP) -- German universities are trying to charge tuition. Paris schools are considering selection instead of open admission. Dutch colleges are pushing students to finish faster. Greece wants to lift a ban on private universities.
Change is rattling Europe's temples of learning.
Resistance remains fierce, driven by fears of the "Americanization" -- or commercialization -- of higher education.
But economic realities are overpowering those who maintain that universities should impart universal knowledge, not pave the way to a job. Too many European graduates are getting welfare checks instead of paychecks.
Europe's universities don't provide the skills and research needed to help the continent prosper and compete with rapidly growing economies in Asia and elsewhere, according to international rankings, school presidents, students and European Union officials.
Germany, France and Italy spend just 1.1 percent of gross domestic product on higher education, nearly all of that from state funds, says the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The U.S. spends 2.6 percent -- with private endowments funding the majority.
Still, that may not be enough. The OECD says China and India are adapting faster than the United States and the EU and are producing more high-skilled workers for 21st century needs.
Lecture halls at Europe's oldest university, the University of Bologna in Italy, are crumbling. French university libraries are outdated, poorly accessible and increasingly ignored.
Students receive little guidance. European college dropout rates average 40 percent. One survey found that more than a third of adults in the EU cannot perform basic computer tasks such as using a mouse to access an Internet site or working with a word-processing program.
"Many go to university because they think it's prestigious. But most of us know that we may still be working at the sandwich shop" after graduation, Fatima Bouziane, a sociology student at the University of Saint-Denis, said as she headed to a part-time cafe job in a bleak neighborhood north of Paris.
The head of France's main employers union, Laurence Parisot, says French universities are "the shame of our nation."
Their dire state is becoming a campaign issue in next spring's election. Presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a Socialist, says the university system should be "dynamited." On the right, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is calling for a 50 percent increase in funding for higher education over five years.
"It's a miracle that France is still the world's fifth largest (economic) power, closely tailed by China, considering its weak investment in higher education. Can this continue?" the president of the Sorbonne, Jean-Robert Pitte, wrote in a book this year called "Youth -- They're Lying to You!"
The American sweep of this year's science and economics Nobel prizes is likely to sharpen the debate.
Most European universities are public, and most charge no tuition, just small fees. Parisian universities, for example, charge $125 to $250 a year, and that is covered for low-income students with one-time student stipends.
Critics contend the system leaves education short of funds.
But opponents of market-oriented reforms being proposed across Europe worry that students will become commodities for profit-centered universities and fear that disciplines with limited market value will die out.
French researchers staged nationwide protests against perceived interference in educational affairs by businesses interests and the government. In Greece, government proposals for creation of private universities provoked student protests. In Germany, protesters blocked highways over several German state governments' plans to introduce university tuition fees.
Oxford, Cambridge still highly regarded
Britain offers a possible look at the future.
Its state universities started introducing tuition in the late 1990s, to great protest. Today, schools can charge up to $5,500 a year, collected as a student loan that has to be paid back when graduates find steady work.
Only two European universities made it in the top 20 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities, a list compiled by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and based largely on the number of Nobel and Fields prizes by staff and alumni and publications in leading journals.
Both European institutions were in Britain -- Oxford and Cambridge. One was in Japan -- Tokyo University -- and all the rest in the top 20 were in the United States, led by Harvard, Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley and MIT.
British universities are also increasingly selective, and they are actively recruiting international students, who pay higher tuition.
Jill Lovecy, a professor of European studies at the University of Manchester, said Britain made a political decision that colleges would not be able to sustain themselves and stay internationally competitive without changing their ways.
Another reason why British universities remain competitive is English. Many EU students -- and increasing numbers from Asia -- choose Britain largely because it is home to a language that is increasingly the lingua franca of the globalized world.
Europe's "Old College Try"
In the Netherlands, universities are experimenting with charging tuition but then giving the money back when students graduate. The idea is to discourage young people from dragging out their studies and to reduce the number of dropouts.
Dutch schools also are trying to match the number of students in any given field to the number of jobs available. And they're toying with selection -- an idea long-resisted in European academia. Some Paris schools, too, want to become more selective.
Finland has no plans to put a stop to the free ride for its own young people, but plans to start charging foreign students much more than the nominal fee they currently pay.
Tuition-less universities have a famous advocate in computer revolutionary Linus Torvalds. He took advantage of Finland's free higher education and the lack of pressure to finish in four years to take the time to create his own operating system in the 1990s. The Linux system -- also available free of charge -- has become an enormously influential player in the computing world.
Pan-European solutions are being proposed, too.
The EU administrative body is pushing the bloc's 25 member nations to boost funding for higher education and to provide grants and loans to all EU students at their colleges -- no matter their nationality. It also wants states to recognize degrees obtained elsewhere in the EU and to send more students abroad.
Andreas Schleicher, head of the OECD education directorate, said change is unavoidable for Europe's academics.
"The world is indifferent to tradition and past reputations, unforgiving of frailty and ignorant of custom or practice," he said. "Success will go to those individuals and countries which are swift to adapt, slow to complain, and open to change."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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