UNESCO Courier articles from March 2001

UNESCO Courier archives from March 2001

All roads lead to the franchise.(enfranchising women in Kuwait)
March 1, 2001... ISABELLE ESHRAGHI IS A FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER. HAYA AL-MUGHNI IS A KUWAITI SOCIOLOGIST AND AUTHOR OF WOMEN IN KUWAIT: THE POLITICS OF GENDER (LONDON: SAQI BOOKS, 2001). Since the end of the Gulf War, Kuwaiti women have stepped up their...

Corals under siege.(destruction of coral reefs)
March 1, 2001... Threatened by pollution, overfishing and global warming, coral reefs -- a lifeline for millions of people -- are dying off at an alarming rate The vibrantly coloured rainforests of the sea received a disturbing bill of health during a...

Patrolling the reefs.(Indonesia's coral reefs)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Riding on political reforms and foreign aid, scuba diving operators and villagers are taking matters into their own hands to salvage some of the world's richest reefs Looking down on the islands and straits of Indonesia's Komodo National...

They're connected, but are they learning?(computer instruction in Canada's schools)
March 1, 2001... Canada's ambitious vision of computer learning has made it one of the most connected nations on Earth. But in the country's classrooms, teachers are not getting the help they need to make the most of new technology At Toronto's Holy Family...

Time for schools to tune into the information age.(interview with Edwyn James)(Brief Article)(Interview)
March 1, 2001... INTERVIEW BY CYNTHIA GUTTMAN Schools still have to make a quantum leap if they are to prepare students for the 'information society, says Edwyn James, of the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation OECD countries allocate...

A PRIVACY DIVIDE?(privacy rights in industrial vs developing countries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Over the past decade, the talk, and to some extent the practice, of privacy in rich countries has undergone a sea change. Privacy, once seen as a minority concern of paranoid activists, is today at the centre of e-commerce and information...

The spy in your refrigerator...
March 1, 2001... Governments and corporations are wiring their way into your home and you may not even notice it, according to Simon Davies. The world's leading privacy advocate chronicles the rise of the surveillance society where the bedrock of civil rights...

...and the spy who loves us all.(invasion of privacy)
March 1, 2001... THE picturesque streets of Edinburgh (Scotland) are currently playing host to an extraordinary episode in the ancient struggle between individual privacy and state power. Here, at the headquarters of the Lothian and Borders Police, the DNA of...

Japan: voyeuristic games.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Gadgets and "electronic leashes" are the rage in Tokyo where people don't just spy on their neighbours but on the latest star in vogue Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics retail district, has been bustling since 1998, when the new economy...

Data-swindlers: gold mining in the badlands of e-commerce.(sale of e-commerce personal information)
March 1, 2001... Trading personal data on Internet users is a booming business that is also spurring laws to protect e-consumers Two hundred dollars just for answering a questionnaire. The offer from an American group called Greenfield Consulting recently...

The dot.bomb syndrome.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Everyone agrees that privacy is good for business. But is there a market for companies offering to protect it? While several firms have recently suffered class-action lawsuits and public outrage over apparent intrusions into customers'...

The quiet revolution.
March 1, 2001... From Guatemala to Kosovo, human rights groups have taken a page out of a spy thriller by learning the art of encryption A quiet revolution is creeping through human rights groups around the world. Don't expect to see noisy marches through...

Forsaking genetic secrets.
March 1, 2001... For fear of losing their jobs and health insurance, many Americans are chosing not to learn of their own "secrets" by foregoing genetic testing About five years ago, my mother started acting bizarre: telling secrets and lies. She was only...

A tireless troubleshooter.(Brief Article)(Case Note)
March 1, 2001... A renegade Legislator introduces Hong Kong to the "luxury" of privacy James To is convinced his telephones are tapped. A policeman tipped him off but To feels neither paranoid nor outraged, simply resigned. For the past ten years, he has...

Labour pains: the birth of a movement.
March 1, 2001... Cyber-rights and business groups are fighting a proposed cybercrime treaty. While there is strength in numbers, the groups' diversity may prove too much for the coalition to bear As you flip through the pages of this March issue, members of...

Shhh... they're listening.(Internet spying)
March 1, 2001... The journalist who first uncovered Echelon, a major electronic spy network, reveals how international surveillance touches us all Constellations of giant golf balls can be spotted in the most remote locations across the world, from China's...

Videomania in George Orwell's homeland.(electronic surveillance in the United Kingdom)
March 1, 2001... Satirist Mark Thomas uses the law to sidestep the UK's ubiquitous surveillance cameras Brits may appear to be paragons of discretion but actually we're a nation of voyeurs and exhibitionists. For the past 25 years, the government and...

Otpor: the youths who booted Milosevic.(Yugoslavian dictator Slobodan Milosevic)
March 1, 2001... It took a generation of 20 year-olds without a manifesto or leader to shake Serbia out of its lethargy. Armed only with slogans and spray paint, they dealt a fatal blow to the dictatorship Slobo, say Serbia: kill yourself," chanted a band...

Pirates and the paper chase.(international copyright infringment)
March 1, 2001... Book piracy is a thriving trade in poor nations, sometimes raking in bigger profits than the real thing. In Spanish-speaking countries, publishers and governments are stepping up their campaign to stop the scourge One of Lima's largest...

Chile: a judge steps in.(copyright infringment)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Are illegally copied books like forged banknotes and should they be destroyed? Judges, authors and publishers in Chile are all taking a stand in a heated debate The basketball court in a Santiago police station was piled high a few months...

Testifying from the front.(war reporting)
March 1, 2001... Modern wars are fought with huge propaganda machines or through the rule of terror. How can a journalist in the midst of conflict decipher the truth? The first casualty when war comes, is truth," observed U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson in the...

Spojmai Zariab: a pen against a nightmare.(Afghani war protester)(Interview)
March 1, 2001... INTERVIEW BY JASMINA SOPOVA The Afghan writer Spojmai Zariab is haunted by bitter memories and deeply apprehensive about her people's future. Exiled in France, she tirelessly denounces the wars that have laid waste to her country, without...