New Internationalist articles from April 2006

New Internationalist archives from April 2006

From this month's editor.(Keith Rockwell is adamant)(Editorial)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... 'Mr Rockwell is adamant,' said the PA to Keith Rockwell, Head of the World Trade Organization's Information and Media Relations Division. What Mr Rockwell was adamant about was that the New Internationalist was 'not a magazine but an NGO'....

Trade justice: Vanessa Baird sets out in search of an elusive ideal ...(Trade Justice: INTRODUCTION)
April 1, 2006... I step out of the Underground and into London's finest--one of those resolutely grey November days, anointed by a light drizzle. Across the road a straggling--and unreasonably cheerful--group of people are carrying placards. As they pass...

Introducing ... the great Tradomino! The illusionist who can make even international trade negotiations seem fair.
April 1, 2006... 1 Box trick Agree, under pressure, to scrap an unfair subsidy that is distorting trade. Hey presto. Gone! How bold! Not quite, if you can play the box trick. This is how it goes. In the WTO there are different coloured boxes for different...

Made in [begin strikethrough]Hong Kong[end strikethrough] China: on the eve of the world trade summit ...(Trade Justice: LABOUR)
April 1, 2006... Few places embody the words 'international trade' so convincingly as Hong Kong. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Take the highway from the best airport in the world, follow it past vast modern docks, and you enter a buzzing, vertical city, a...

Junk the WTO! Is the World Trade Organization victim of an unfair hate campaign?(Trade Justice: WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION)
April 1, 2006... It's hard to tell, at first, what the young women are up to. It seems to involve something inflatable. Something with tentacles. Then it emerges from within the crowd and is hoisted high above their heads. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A...

Rice resistance.(Trade Justice: FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT)
April 1, 2006... Should genetically modified food be forced upon unwilling populations? Biotech companies--and the governments that root for them within the WTO--think so. But a resounding, and increasingly effective, 'no' is gathering volume around the world....

Speak out ... on trade justice.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... TATIK, INDONESIA I work as a domestic here in Hong Kong to support my family in Indonesia. I am the eighth of nine children and my family depends on me for food, clothing, education--everything. The situation got much worse in my country...

Laboratory for change: what can the fair trade movement teach the WTO?(Trade Justice: FAIR TRADE)(World Trade Organization, Maquita Cushunchic Comercializando como Hermanos )
April 1, 2006... Every now and again a weary delegate escapes from the trade summit for a breath of air and a touch of reality. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If they take a side exit from one of the elevated walkways they may find themselves in a building...

Keep buying! Next stop Dhaka ... and a glimpse of what is behind the world's cheapest T-shirts.(Trade Justice: CONSUMER PRESSURE)
April 1, 2006... Luftor Rahman, factory owner, is livid. 'Write this!' he tells me, pointing his finger. 'Tell them we don't want 97 per cent if it excludes textiles! I can't export helicopters. Give us 3 per cent, but include textiles!' [ILLUSTRATION...

So, what's to be done? Quick answer: plenty. For more, read on ...(Trade Justice: CONCLUSION)
April 1, 2006... Enough problems! What about the solutions? First, let's junk the mythical formula that goes: freer trade = economic growth = less poverty. It's a hugely popular one, trotted out with eager regularity by the IMF, World Bank, WTO and...

Action.(Trade Justice: CONCLUSION)(Directory)
April 1, 2006... AUSTRALIA Global Trade Watch web: www.tradewatchoz.org Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network tel: +612 8898 6500 web: www.aftinet.org.au Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand tel: +612 6125...

Tanzanite trouble: Tanzania's desperate farmers chase the blue stone.(MINING)
April 1, 2006... IT was the New York jeweller Tiffany's that christened the stone 'Tanzanite' when it appeared on the world market in 1962 from the hills around the town of Mererani, 50 kilometres south of Kilimanjaro. 'We were always discouraged by our parents...

Speechmarks.(cultural identity)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... 'When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and...

The language of torture.(Currents)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Word power 15 confess v. lie to prevent pain or death. painstaking n. bid by private company to provide facilities/services that are used for torture. suspect n. individual who is guilty until proved innocent. tribunal n....

Corporate no-no.(International Life Sciences Institute )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The World Health Organization (WHO) has barred the US-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) from taking part in 'WHO activities setting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water'. The decision follows warnings from...

Primitive media.(INDIGENOUS PEOPLES)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Survival International launched a campaign on 31 January 2006 to end the portrayal of indigenous groups in the press as 'primitive' and 'Stone Age'. It is being supported by several prominent journalists. According to BBC World Affairs Editor...

Desert flood.(REFUGEES)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... As if they did not already have enough to deal with, Saharawi refugees who have been living in a remote part of the Algerian desert for more than three decades have now been afflicted by a flood, following torrential rains not seen in the area...

Air for sale?(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... I don't know who you are, but one thing do I ask of you, Don't sell yourself. No, Air--Don't sell yourself, Don't let them channel you, Don't let them run you through tubes, Don't let them box you, or compress you, Don't let them make...

Governors of cyberspace: who will decide what we can read on our computer screens?(INTERNET)
April 1, 2006... THE words 'democracy' and 'human rights' cannot be used to search the web in China. The big internet companies--Google and Yahoo--install filters that comply with Chinese censorship efforts. On 30 December last year, Microsoft even shut down a...

Animal plights.(Seriously)
April 1, 2006... The recent anti-animal-rights demo in Seriously's home town of Oxford has us feeling all warm and fuzzy. Thanks to the brave efforts of a ragtag coalition of elite chemistry and biology majors from Oxford and Cambridge--two universities long...

Koizumi Junichiro.(Worldbeaters)
April 1, 2006... Status: Prime Minister of Japan, Reformer par excellence, Architect of Japanese revival. Reputation: Cool dude, Rebel for the rich, Ninja reborn. It's hard to fathom how they keep doing it. How those who are defenders of the status...

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2006... My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne (Virgin/EMI BEDBX 1 CD) The first appearance of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981 was a watershed in Western pop music. It wasn't even a matter of the album's composition:...

Fonotone Records, Frederick, Maryland.(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2006... Fonotone Records, Frederick, Maryland by Various Artists (Dust to Digital DTD03 5CD) Fonotone's boxed set, the product of an almost insanely detailed record-collecting obsession, arrives with perfect timing. Back in 1956 when Joe...

A Month And A Day and Letters.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... A Month And A Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa (Ayebia Clarke Publishing ISBN 0 9547023 5 2) A decade has passed since Ken Saro-Wiwa was judicially murdered on trumped-up charges by the military dictatorship of the Nigerian ruler Sani...

Tsotsi.(Movie review)
April 1, 2006... Tsotsi directed by Gavin Hood David is a petty thief, a lost soul who makes no connections. No-one even knows his name. He's simply 'Tsotsi', township patois for 'thug'. He knows the scene, knows the odds, never panics--he leads a...

L'Enfant (The Child).(Movie review)
April 1, 2006... L'Enfant (The Child) written and directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Bruno and Sonia live on the streets. She's 18, just out of hospital with a baby, but Bruno has let out her apartment. He's 20, a thief and a fence, a fixer who...

The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2006... The Next Gulf London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria by Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman (Constable ISBN 1-84529-259-6) Ten years after the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria stands at a turning point. The oil and...

Blood of the martyr.(Southern Exposure)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... This photo was taken at the beginning of the Iranian revolution (early 1979) when the rioting people invaded Tehran's military bases. During this period, it was customary for the blood of martyrs killed during the protests to be used to write...

The second founding of Bolivia.(View from Montevideo)
April 1, 2006... On 22 January 2002, Evo was expelled from Paradise. Or rather: Deputy Morales was thrown out of Parliament. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On 22 January 2006, in the same grand chamber, Evo Morales was sworn in as the President of Bolivia. Or...

Troubled water: between the extremes of flood and drought, India is heading for a water crisis. But, argues Rainer Hoerig, the mightiest dam-building exercise the country has ever attempted is not the solution.
April 1, 2006... On 26 July 2005 the Met Office forecast was for 'heavy rain' in India's biggest city. Down came the worst deluge Mumbai has ever witnessed. With an incredible 944 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, roads and urban railtracks flooded, leaving...

NI prize crossword.
April 1, 2006... 107 by AXE Win a copy of the latest World Guide reference book... All correct solutions received by the 25th of the cover month will be put into a draw--though only the winner will be notified. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Post your...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
April 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with Irene Fernandez, winner of an 'alternative Nobel Prize'.(Making Waves)(Interview)
April 1, 2006... 'If people's lives are at risk, how can you sit back and pretend you don't know?' This kind of attitude has landed Irene Fernandez in very hot water more than once. But it's an integral part of her job. As director of Kuala Lumpur-based rights...

Spaces of exclusion.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Squatter Town (NI 386) contained the most incisive and inspiring series of articles I have read in your magazine. I do, however, have a concern about the title of 'Squatter Citizens'. You define the inhabitants of the squatter towns as citizens...

Parasites.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... The problems summed up in Squatter Town all come back to the difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. In almost every society there is a privileged elite--tribal chiefs, traditional royalty and nobility, the 'Party' or military...

Crossing PC floor.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Your Worldbeaters essay on Bob Geldof (NI 386) precipitated a series of questions in my mind. I asked myself if it were the case that if we dare to accumulate wealth then we have 'crossed the PC floor' and placed ourselves firmly in the...

Vindictive NI.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... I found the Worldbeaters on Bob Geldof shabby, vindictive and unworthy of NI. Even if Bob Geldof has profited from his involvement with Live Aid, does that: * negate all the good his campaigns have achieved? * make him any different,...

Speaking in tongues.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... I was excited to read Sholto Macpherson's interview with Aram Aharonian of teleSUR, the new public television Latin American broadcaster (Making Waves, NI 386). Any new voice that counters US cultural hegemony is to be welcomed. However, I was...

No thanks, NI.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Hey, thanks for including The unreported year 2005 in the Jan/Feb issue of NI. Could you have assembled a greater litany of misery? I mean did you set out to report that nothing good happened on the planet in the past 365 days? 'Cause that's...

Arctic victory.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... On page 8 of The unreported year 2005, I read that US energy companies won their battle to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. In fact, as reported by Defenders of Wildlife in the US, a very close Senate vote...

Over the border.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Re: The unreported year 2005: The 14-year girl who was expelled from school for having lesbian parents was a student of Ontario Christian School in California, not Canada as reported. Richard Johnston Ottawa, Canada

Truth must out.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... 'Battle for the Truth' (Justice after genocide, NI 385) reveals that tenacity must be the order of the day. Let all those nations who have suffered stand shoulder to shoulder to raise the conscience of the world for zero tolerance to genocide....

Ethiopian truth.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Your coverage of genocide (NI 385) was excellent. The role of truth commissions in prevention of genocide is particularly relevant in Ethiopia. As vital EU and US support for Zenawi's regime dwindles, dialogue between Amhara and Oromo polities...

Justice of victors.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Despite the superficial attractiveness of the idea of 'international' justice (NI 385), it needs to be approached with extreme caution. The trouble is the question of whose justice is being established. The phrase 'international community' is...

A corrected map.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... We apologize for errors in part of the map accompanying last month's country profile of Pakistan. A corrected map appears below. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

The slide of sugar: when retirement means working harder than ever, it can only mean globalization has hit Mauritius. Lindsey Collen explains.(Letter from Mauritius)
April 1, 2006... A FRIEND of mine from the women's movement, Kawlowtee, announced in 2001: 'I'm fed up! I'm taking my VRS!' She was referring to the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. She's a big strong woman, who for 14 years had worked as a labourer on a sugar...

Liberia.(Country Profile)
April 1, 2006... The many dignitaries who attended the inauguration in January of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President of Liberia could not have failed to notice, while being driven in air-conditioned luxury cars, the dreadful state of the capital, Monrovia. But...