New Internationalist articles from April 2004

New Internationalist archives from April 2004

Life after communism.(This Month's Theme)
April 1, 2004... FROM THIS MONTH'S EDITOR USUALLY editorial trips are rather solitary affairs. The autumn darkness in the former Soviet Union promised more of the same. But this time I was travelling with NI designer Andrew Kokotka. It was good to have...

Navel gazing.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... It was curious to read Adam Phillips' explanation of why, at an individual level, we don't want democracy ('Do we really want equality?' Equality, NI 364). At the risk of sounding reductive, it all boils down to the fact that our parents didn't...

XXY men.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... I have just read the article by Esther Morris on intersex conditions ('The self I will never know', NI 364). I write as someone with a genetic intersex condition--Klinefelter syndrome (XXY adults). The prevalence of XXY in males is...

No apple for teacher.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... 'Strong & smart' (NI 364) is the best article I've read in a long time! I've thought--for a long time--that it's thanks to our ignorant teachers that prejudices are perpetrated. Most parents think that their kids are the best. Then when the...

Uphill struggle.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... The achievement of equality is complicated by the tendency for group identity often to require conformity to values and standards in opposition to other groups. This can take the form of defiance of laws or rules seen to belong to the other...

Report repression.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... Reem Haddad believes that the main aim of the al Jazeera TV channel is to counteract the pro-Israeli Western media ('Satellite wars', Letter from Lebanon, NI 364). Surely it could do much more for millions of Arab viewers. Without...

Shining example.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... When a country declares that Gross National Happiness (over Gross National Product) is the aim (Currents, NI 364), as Bhutan has, one senses they have got it right. This stunningly beautiful country remains firmly in control of tourist...

Adding definition.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... 1 To quote Robert Nozick as the definer of 'libertarianism' ('A few thoughts on equality', NI 364) is a bit like quoting George Bush as defining Christianity. Each represents the far-Right extreme of the two systems of thought. The definition...

Adding definition.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... 2 'A Few Thoughts on Equality' was very misleading on the subject of Marxism. There are plenty of people who think there is 'a viable socio-economic alternative to capitalism.' This alternative is known as Socialism, a society where the earth's...

No local fruit here.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... David Ransom blasts refined sugar, its nonexistent nutritional value, and the people who profit from it (The sugar trap, NI 363). I don't doubt the health risks associated with sugar in the slightest. I do, however, think that there are a lot...

Dig deeper.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... Despite massive drug developments in the last century, our populations are unhealthier than ever and the diseases that plague us are more serious; there was no AIDS 100 years ago. Stronger drugs only result in stronger drug resistance, so why...

Hook noses and harems: Hollywood thrillers have a lot to answer for, feels Reem Haddad.(Letter from Lebanon)(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... I CAN tell immediately. If an Arab appears in an action movie then you can be almost certain that he will be a terrorist. If the movie is set in the Middle East, then the local people must be backward--and unattractive. Without fail. I...

Highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority world.(Southern Exposure)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... DURING my regular visits to the River Buriganga this particular bridge to Kamrangeer char often fascinates me. When the monsoon water comes, filling the river to the brim, children--all boys--are attracted to the suspended beams of this metal...

Poverty and corruption.(View from the South)
April 1, 2004... FOR weeks now I've been haunted by the story of Satyaendra Dubey, a young engineer, working in Bihar in eastern India. Dubey was involved in a big project to build roads that are meant to connect all of India--known as the Golden Quadrilateral....

Tuna trouble: European fishing boats encourage extinction.(South Pacific)
April 1, 2004... PRIME Minister Qarase of Fiji opened the first Pacific Islands Regional Oceans Forum in February this year by calling on delegates 'to continue to be vigilant against those intent on poaching and plundering our marine resources. The region has...

Rwanda survivors targeted.(Currents)(Tutsis who survived the 1994 massacre)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... A spate of killings of those who survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has sent villagers fleeing from the southwest province of Gikongoro. Stanley Safari, a legislator in the Senate, says that there is increasing intimidation and murder...

Uganda's death row debate.(Currents)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Uganda's poorly funded prisons are currently crammed with 500 prisoners on death row. Henry Tugume, head of Luzira Upper Prison, which holds the condemned prisoners, says the facility was built in 1927 to accommodate 664 inmates but currently...

Too distant shores: despite ever-larger obstacles, West African migrants are dying to get to Europe.(Refugees)
April 1, 2004... MAINLAND Spain--the promised land. Although it is visible from their hideouts, thousands of Africans--who have set up camp deep in a forest on the coast of northern Morocco--have learnt to despair at the sight. Penniless, hungry and exhausted...

The NI congratulates Ferial Haffajee!(Currents)(named editor of South Africa's Mail and Guardian)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Ferial Haffajee--a frequent contributor to the NI--has just been appointed editor of the South Africa's weekly investigative newspaper Mail and Guardian, making her the first female editor of a major newspaper in the country. Her appointment...

Speechmarks.(Currents)(T.E. Lawrence on the British invasion of the future Iraq in 1920)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information... Things have been far worse than we have been...

Carpet/rug.(Word Corner)(origins)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The earliest English carpet was a tablecloth or bedspread. The word's use for a floor covering dates from around the 1400s. Carpet is from the Latin carpere (to pluck or pull to pieces)--early carpets, especially in poor households, would have...

Kidnapped democracy: did the US stage a coup in Haiti?(Haiti)
April 1, 2004... As this magazine goes to press, the international community is debating the level of US complicity in the downfall of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide--the first democratically elected president in the 200-year history of...

The rise of the machines: true tales of a mixed-up world.(Seriously ...)(electronic voting machines)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The decline of democracy in the US--after black voters were purged from Florida's electoral roll in the 2000 election clearing the way for Bush to steal the Presidency--appears to continue its downward slide with the introduction of electronic...

The wild east: life in the high-rise jungle of urban post-communism is not for the faint-hearted. Richard Swift takes the measure of a new capitalism--that's all shock and no therapy.(Keynote)
April 1, 2004... THEY are mostly apartment-dwellers, these sceptical survivors who have lived for decades under communism. If you are lucky enough to be invited into their homes, their hospitality is exemplary. Scarce food and drink flow with unparalleled...

Armenian lives: a photo essay on poverty and transition.
April 1, 2004... Throughout the former Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy has incurred a heavy price. In Armenia, according to official statistics, 50 per cent of the people live below the national poverty line and 23.7 per cent of the population...

We expected better: economic collapse and cultural confusion have left post-communist youth with few options. Irena Maryniak tells their troubling story.(Youth)
April 1, 2004... KATYA never really knew her father. He had been in and out of prison for a decade. But she felt she had everything--her mother and elder sister looked after her, with no major life-decisions hanging over her. Hers was a Soviet childhood. Katya...

Revolution of roses: the people of Georgia have had enough. But does this mean real change? Richard Swift reports on the debate.(nation of Georgia)
April 1, 2004... DON'T start the revolution without us! But they did. We missed it by about 18 hours. The night before we had sat with all of NI designer Andy's Ukrainian relatives in their friendly apartment in Kiev watching the quiet revolution unfolding to...

Life after the facts communism.
April 1, 2004... In the 'transition' from communism, the suffering of the people of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has been great, while the hoped-for freedom from exploitation and autocracy remains elusive. The NI maps some of the costs of...

Hungarian Souffle: the communist system in Hungary was not overthrown. It simply imploded. Alex Bandy now sees a country uneasy about its past and uncertain about its future.(Hungary)
April 1, 2004... 'WHY did people put up with this?' asked a friend's teenage son after his dad reeled off Hungary's post-war history of deportations, political kidnappings, show trials, murders and secret police. In a real sense, his incomprehension is the best...

Re-inventing Russian socialism: Boris Kagarlitsky has been a consistent voice of democratic and left opposition--first to autocratic state socialism and now to the oligarchic corruption of Yeltsin and Putin. His books include The Thinking Reed and Russia under Yeltsin and Putin. He talked to the NI from his home in Moscow.(Russia)(Interview)
April 1, 2004... We in the West often complain that our political class is beholden to the corporate agenda but in Russia it seems that business people with economic power seek to get into politics directly. Most political parties in Russia simply sell...

Theatre of the absurd: Romania may be known as Count Dracula's homeland, but Ioana Baetica believes that ignorance and discrimination are the real blood-suckers for Romanian youth.(Romania)
April 1, 2004... WHEN wandering through Europe I am always astounded to learn what my fellow citizens in an ever more united continent know about Romania. First, Count Dracula (thank you, Hollywood!). Second, Hagi--the footballer. And third, our ambassadors:...

Democracy--beyond the market: throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Richard Swift finds a new breed of activists are struggling for sustainable democracy.(Activism)
April 1, 2004... THE entire square outside the main cathedral in downtown Kiev was covered in coloured, flickering candles. It was late November and Ukrainians were remembering the death of millions of farm people at the hands of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. The...

Worldbeaters ... taking aim at the rich and powerful.(Worldbeaters)(Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, India)
April 1, 2004... Selvi J Jayalalithaa Job: Chief Minister and 'Imelda Marcos' of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu: Former 'Tamilwood' Film Star Reputation: Champion of the Tamil People and Hindu Supremacy FROM the age of four Jayalalithaa trained in...

Capturing the Friedmans.(Mixed Media)(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... directed by Andrew Jarecki The Friedmans--mum, dad and three boys--seem a normal suburban family. But Arnold, a teacher and one-time jazz musician, likes to look at pictures of naked boys. After the postal service intercepts a magazine...

Favourites: 60 Years On.(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
April 1, 2004... by Chico Buarque (Wrasse Records WRASS 112 CD) The carnival quality of Chico Buarque's suave songs about love and life may have got many Brazilians sambaing in the street, but the generals weren't joining in with their military...

Care-charming Sleep.(Mixed Media)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
April 1, 2004... by John Potter and The Dowland Project (ECM 476 052-2 CD) Operating on the basis that all intelligent improvisation is a good thing, Care-charming Sleep comes from the consistently surprising Munich label of ECM. That ECM's reputation...

Keeping His Promise: Exploring Mandela's Emotional Legacy.(Mixed Media)(also "Unfinished Business: South Africa, Apartheid and Truth" and "History After Apartheid: Visual Culture and Public Memory in a Democratic South Africa")(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Keeping His Promise: Exploring Mandela's emotional legacy by Enver Carim (Funky Narratives ISBN 0 95456670 X) Unfinished Business: South Africa, Apartheid and Truth by Terry Bell with Dumisa Buhle Ntsebeza (Verso ISBN 1...

Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.(Mixed Media)(Video Recording Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony directed by Lee Hirsch (DVD) Amandla! traces, through archive footage and interviews, the vital role of music in 40 years of struggle against apartheid. The songs were more important than...

Profile of Eloisa Cartonera.(Brazilian publisher uses cardboard collected by the poor for book covers)
April 1, 2004... EVERY night the streets of Buenos Aires fill with those who, before Argentina's economic collapse, did not exist. These 'new' visitors are the cartoneros, the men, women and children who sift through the city's garbage and at dawn take the...

Cooking stoves pollute a third of the world's homes. Hugh Warwick breaks the silence of the killer in the kitchen.(Essay)
April 1, 2004... If you had a magic wand, where would you wave it first? Okay, let's be specific. If your magic wand could help to alleviate the woes of the world--rather than your own bank balance and other imperfections--what would you wave it at? Would the...

Tonga.(Country Profile)
April 1, 2004... SOMETHING wonderful about Tonga is the malau, a dull-brown bird that lives on the distant northern island of Niuafo'ou, and nowhere else in the world. It buries its eggs in a deep hole in the volcanic sands to incubate unattended. When they...