New Internationalist articles from August 2002

New Internationalist archives from August 2002

Letters.
August 1, 2002... The New Internationalist welcomes your letters. But please keep them short. They may be edited for purposes of space or clarity. Letters should be sent to letters@newint.org or to your local NI office. Please remember to include a town and...

From this month's Editor.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... IT is impossible to edit a magazine about Israel and Palestine without provoking ire. I know I can expect it. Almost certainly there will be those who feel that any criticism of Israelis either anti-Semitic or gives aid and comfort to...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority World.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... I was bored, hanging around waiting to go hunting. I figured out I could do the same thing with photojournalism, catching a story with pictures. This concept impressed me very much. However, it was hard to find the right story. Many ideas came...

The complexities of justice. (Ike Oguine's View from the South).(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... FOR me, some of the most unbearable images from Africa's recent fratricidal wars are of Sierra Leoneans whose limbs have been hacked off by that unfortunate country's vicious rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). It is...

Bombed and framed: FBI pays millions in damages to eco-activists. (Currents: United States).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... ON 11 June a US federal jury returned an historic verdict in favour of two environmental activists in their civil-rights lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland police in a case that dated all the way hack to 1990. After 17 days of...

Welcome to Jo'burg: Earth Summit location a microcosm of unsustainability. (Currents: Sustainability).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... As thousands of delegates arrive in the South African city of Johannesburg for the World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) at the end of August, the post-apartheid geography of the city--a microcosm of unsustainability--hints at why the...

Sausage. (Word Corner).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Sausage is from the Latin salsus (salted): the Romans made sausages of salted meat to eat during the winter months. About 1900 Harry Stevens sold frankfurters (first made at Frankfurt am Main) in hot bread rolls at a New York baseball ground....

The wrong war: US backs bin Laden's hosts. (Currents: Sudan).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... IT's twilight in Mabia, one of southern Sudan's newest large-scale camps for 'internally displaced persons' -- refugees within their own country. A small crowd gathers around a short-wave radio. Between bursts of static come BBC reports on...

Seriously...: you couldn't make this stuff up.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
August 1, 2002... 'Downright global!' Though crisis after crisis rocks the world of accountancy a series of rousing corporate anthems written in better times by the Big Five firms may yet rally the troops. Singing along to global accountant KPMG's...

The occupation is killing us all: attitudes may have hardened and grown bitter, but Richard Swift thinks only a complete end to occupation will undermine the extremists on both sides. (Israel & Palestine: Keynote).
August 1, 2002... 'DON'T blow up,' says my friend Jeff Halper's daughter as he and I headed off downtown to his son's West Jerusalem bar. His daughter lost a friend to a suicide bomb. At night West Jerusalem is a ghost town. 'Richard! Richard! You mustn't'...

We refuse to be enemies.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Jeremy Milgram Jeremy is a member of Rabbis or Human Rights, which champions a more humanistic Judaism than the more fundamentalist religious authorities. The Rabbis defend the rights of Palestinians and others (Bedouins, guest workers)...

Gone to soldiers: Dan Bar-On believes that young Israeli soldiers are becoming the unintended victims in the war to defend the occupation. (Israel & Palestine: Soldiers).
August 1, 2002... THE Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), based largely on reserve units and two-to-three years of conscript service, built its morale and strength over the years on the assumption that its task was to defend Israel against the Arab enemies who wished...

Towards a democratic Palestine: an interview with Mustafa Barghouthi. (Israel & Palestine: Democracy).(Interview)
August 1, 2002... Mustafa Barghouthi is a medical doctor and director of the Ramallah-based Health, Development, Information and Policy Institute. A leading Palestinian intellectual concerned with issues of civil society and democratic governance, he was...

The occupation. (The Facts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank (from Jordan) and Gaza (from Egypt) and the Golan Heights (from Syria) is today the primary source of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The presence of Israeli settlements, roads and...

Silence & Security: The daily humiliation of Palestinians can't give Israelis the security they crave. Samah Jabr wonders why the 'international community' remains silent. (Israel & Palestine: Checkpoints).
August 1, 2002... The clapping of the passengers startles me awake as we arrive at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. I have returned to the grave reality of Occupied Palestine after a 20-day speaking tour in Finland and the United States. 'We should...

You can't shake hands with a suicide bomber: Activist Amichai Geva pleads for the political space for the Israeli peace movement to gather force. (Israel & Palestine: Peace Movement).
August 1, 2002... IT was a cold January day in 1977 as we boarded the buses to Sebastia. Hashomer Hatzair (the Young Guard -- a mainstay of Left Zionism) was on its way to protest the establishment of the Elon Moreh settlement and to oppose the social cancer of...

History and Faith.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... A look at the 'Holy Land' reveals a society embattled with competing views both ancient and modern. The great traditions that collide here provide articles of faith that people continue to live and die by. A series of ancient historical, claims...

Dangerous illusions: differing versions of recent history continue to cloud the future of Israel and Palestine. NI examines some of the myths that maintain division and conflict.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... 'Zionism is racism' Zionism is the Jewish movement started in the 19th century that promised Jews a homeland. It is a complex movement with many political tendencies--Left and Right, secular and religious. It was the belief system that...

I choose not to settle: David Fingrut discovers that life in Israel's West Bank settlements is not for him. (Israel & Palestine: The Settlements).
August 1, 2002... I ARRIVED in Jerusalem in September of 2000 when prospects for peace in the Middle East still appeared good. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat were photographed smiling amicably at Camp David. Arafat even stated...

Mean streets: Jessica McCallin visits Hebron where she discovers just how ugly the occupation can get. (Israel & Palestine: The Settlements).
August 1, 2002... YOU know when you're approaching the Old City of Hebron. It isn't just the modern architecture that disappears, replaced by winding cobbled streets and court-yarded, beige-stone houses. The seemingly endless line of market stalls also comes to...

The U$ will pay! Richard Swift ducks the tax. (Israel & Palestine: The US Stake).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... ISRAELI taxi drivers are notoriously reluctant to pay the tax associated with turning on their meters. I took one Tel Aviv taxi driver to task over this, wondering aloud who would pay for the relatively high level of services Israelis enjoy....

Blunt talk: A conversation with Uri Avnery, senior statesman of Israel's peace movement. (Israel & Palestine: The US Stake).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... I MEET Uri Avnery in his modest Tel Aviv apartment. He is dressed completely in black - a man of presence and intellect. He says he is almost 80 - exactly five years older than Arafat and Sharon who are the same age. He doesn't need much...

Action on Israel/Palestine.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Gush Shalom PO Box 3322, Tel Aviv 61033; Tel: +9723 5221732; Fax: +972 3 5271108; E-mail: info@gush-shalom.org www.gush-shalom.org The Israeli peace organization which has been most consistent in identifying and...

Room for manoeuvre: breaking into a dialogue of the deaf isn't easy, but Richard Swift finds some spaces. (Israel & Palestine: Conclusion).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... THE current Zionist paradigm in Israel is wound just too tight. In fact, many Israeli activists and intellectuals now identify themselves as 'post-Zionists' in protest. The position of Israel in the world is a good deal more secure than it was...

Henry Kissinger. (Worldbeaters).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... HENRY Kissinger may have one of the most recognized faces on the planet. Born in Germany, young Henry came to the US in 1938 as Hitler's Nazi thugs were busy building the Third Reich. With his Teutonic bearing, marcelled hair and guttural,...

Sunshine State. (Mixed Media).(Florida)
August 1, 2002... Written and directed by John Sayles John Sayles' Florida is a magical place where developers swap mangrove forests for 'nature on a leash'. Two women, played by Edie Falco and Angela Bassett, return to their roots in a northern coastal...

Scattered People. (Mixed Media).
August 1, 2002... by Various Artists (RCSC CD) It's not often that a CD is unable to list many of its artists for fear of legal repercussions. Nonetheless, Scattered People, an album made by refugees in Australia, commands its listeners to take note -...

Concert for East Timor. (Mixed Media).
August 1, 2002... by Various Artists (The Boite BOITE 008 CD) Finally, after 26 years of Indonesian rule, East Timor sealed its independence with peaceful democratic elections in May of this year. It's not been without a struggle. Some 200,000 East...

Life of Pi. (Mixed Media).
August 1, 2002... by Yann Martel (Canon gate ISBN 1 84195 245 1) Publishers often claim that a book will 'change your life'. Canongate have higher aspirations for Yann Martel's second novel. It will, they claim, make you believe in God. Hyperbole...

The New Rulers of the World. (Mixed Media).
August 1, 2002... by John Pilger (Versa ISBN 1.85984.393.X) Though a slightly slimmer volume than some of its celebrated predecessors, The New Rulers of the World will surely be read no less avidly. Pilger is unique not just for his undimmed anger but...

The World We're In. (Mixed Media).
August 1, 2002... by Will Hutton (Little Brawn ISBN 0316 85871 4) If press reports are to be believed, the majority of Americans genuinely do not understand why criticism of their country is growing in every corner of the globe. If they listened they...

Making waves: interview with Sunlight Bassini.(exhibit of Australian aborigine artifacts)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... THE history found in books is usually written by the victors, but objects and images can tell another story. Objects and images such as the 11,000 pictures and 7,500 artefacts collected from Aboriginal communities living in the top end of...

'They all have to go': there's a good deal more than chaos in Argentina. Benjamin Backwell describes how people have started to take matters into their own hands. (Essay).
August 1, 2002... On New Year's Eve 2001 the US Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, rang the Casa Rosada, Argentina's Presidential Palace in the centre of Buenos Aires, and asked to talk with the President. After several unsuccessful attempts, Powell...

Grenada. (Country Profile).
August 1, 2002... IT is almost 20 years ago that the tiny Caribbean nation of Grenada briefly occupied the world stage with images of invading marines and celebrating islanders. But as 6,000 US troops took possession of an island of fewer than 100,000 people in...

A taste for commerce: Raymonda was pushed by adversity into setting up her own business. Reem Haddad found her reaping sweet rewards. (Letter from Lebanon).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... She was six months pregnant with her fifth child and desperate to make ends meet. Her husband, a science teacher at the local village school, simply couldn't keep up with the family's expenses. Their two-bedroom flat was crowded. That's...