New Internationalist articles from August 2003

New Internationalist archives from August 2003

Sounds of dissent.(This Month's Theme)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Elvis Costello once said: 'Writing about music is like dancing about architecture: it's really a stupid thing to want to do.' With that in mind, we are hoping to mitigate some of our folly by including a flee CD. Certainly not the most original...

Implications.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Urvashi Butalia implied that the American, British and Australian troops were purposely shooting each other ('(S)word play', View from the South, NI 357) and that they had no feelings about some of the accidents which took place. I find this...

Cracks appear.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... I very much enjoyed David Ransom's article 'The liberation of Latin America' (NI 356). There certainly are signs throughout Latin America that the neoliberal prescription for economic development is really a 'house of cards'. In fact it is an...

Toxic agnosticism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Did it not occur to you that the 'Toxic sceptics' whom you damned so comprehensively in the June issue (Climate change solutions, NI 357) might be acting in good faith? There are good reasons for being at least agnostic about the rapidly...

Conduct unbecoming.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Re 'A girl called Raafat' {Letter from Lebanon) and 'I am the other' (both NI 356). I would like to see Reem Haddad write about one of the young victims killed by Palestinian suicide bombers, as she reports exclusively from the anti-Israel...

Another Iraq.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Felicity Arbuthnot describes the Iraq that the popular media will not ('In memory of Iraq', NI 356). This heartrending account of time spent in Baghdad with gentle people who want nothing more than peace brings home to us all the futility of...

Talking it out.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... I think Trevor Turner made some excellent points about the levels of self-gratifying, antisocial behaviour in modern Western society ('I shop, therefore I am', The great privatisation grab, NI 355). While it seems like Dr Turner would like to...

At loggerheads.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2003... Illustrating an article on the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) (Currents, NI 335) with a picture of destructive logging in Tasmania is not helpful. It may give the impression that such an operation is...

The perfect wife: Reem Haddad is both amused and appalled by a recent trend among well-heeled Lebanese bachelors.(Letter from Lebanon)
August 1, 2003... It sounded rather preposterous to me but my new friend, Toufic, was nodding his head vigorously in excitement. 'I think I have found my bride,' he said. 'She's everything I've ever wanted. I can't wait to marry her.' 'When is the big...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... An Indian labourer named Siewdass Sadhu built this Hindu temple in the sea, about 50 metres offshore on the end of a pier at Waterloo, Trinidad, over a period of 25 years. He had to build it like this because the Government owned all the land...

How much fraud is too much fraud?(View From The South)
August 1, 2003... The national elections in Nigeria this April started inauspiciously. In some places heavy rains swept away the filmsy shacks meant to serve as polling booths. At some polling centres, due to the rains and poor preparation, election officials...

The baby harvest: scandal over Westerners 'shopping' for children in India.(Child Rights)
August 1, 2003... Much as Northern corporations outsource their manufacturing in the sweatshops of the South, rising infertility rates in the rich world, particularly the US, are leading couples to 'shop' for a child in poorer countries. Korea, Vietnam, Russia,...

US conservatives take aim at NGOs.(Currents)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... NGOs are using their growing prominence and power to pursue a 'liberal' agenda at the international level that threatens US sovereignty and free-market capitalism. That was the message delivered by a series of speakers at an all-day...

Unholy alliance: the UN stumbles toward rights on sexual orientation.(Currents)
August 1, 2003... Five Muslim nations, in a rare alliance with the Vatican succeeded in thwarting a crucial Nations vote on Sexual Orientation and Human Rights--the first of its kind in the world body's 60-year-old history--at the UN Human Rights Commission 59th...

African sexual-health programmes 'misguided'.(Human Rights)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, experts have assumed that anal sex was virtually non existent in sub-Saharan Africa. In the July International Journal of STD and AIDS, medical psychologist Dr Stuart Brody and epidemiologist Mr John...

British arms in Aceh.(Currents)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The Jakarta Post reports that British supplied Hawk aircraft and Scorpion tanks are being used by Indonesia's notorious armed forces in their bloody 26-year-old dispute with the independence movement in Aceh. British Foreign Office...

Speechmarks.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... "Politicians are like monkeys. The higher they climb the tree, the more revolting are the parts they expose. " Gwilym Lloyd George, son of Britain's World War One Prime Minister, said this while he was a Cambridge undergraduate. He went on...

Demonstration.(word corner)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... A large number of people mustered into a large demonstration can lead to a monstrous traffic jam. Muster, demonstration, and monster are all from words related to the Latin monstrare (to show). The earliest meaning of muster was to show,...

Taking aim at paradise: 'coalition of the willing' to intervene in the Pacific.(Solomon Islands)
August 1, 2003... A major shift in world foreign policy following military interventions in East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq means that Australia is now willing to lead a 'coalition of the willing' to the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. Australia and New...

Iraq.(Currents)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... During a three-day June meeting in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, a conference of 900 prominent Iraqi lawyers and politicians approved a blueprint for the appointment of a temporary government to draw up a new post-Saddam constitution. The...

Seriously ... you couldn't make this stuff up.(Currents)
August 1, 2003... Fun for kids! Those crrrrazy US Missile Defense folks sure know how to keep the kids enthralled! The US Missile Defense Agency is giving away kiddie colouring books. Children can grip their accompanying 'cool crayons' and colour...

Politics with soul: rhythms of resistance can be heard all over the world. Adam Ma'anit seeks them out.(Sounds of dissent: Keynote)
August 1, 2003... Creak, creak, creak... tizzle, tizzle, pop! The noisy roof of 'the club' is a corrugated-tin chorus of groans and feeble protests against the intense noon heat. Metallic pings punctuate the sleepy midday silence at Kakuma refugee camp in...

Rock starkidnap.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... HI! HI! WELCOME TO ROCKSTAR KIDNAP! TONIGHT'S VERY RELUCTANT GUESTS NEED NO INTRODUCTION FROM ME, OTHER THAN--'WHAT A BUNCH OF SELL-OUT HYPOCRITES.' YES, ITS-- STING, BONO AND GELDOF! STING--HI! THANKS FOR BEING HERE! NOW......

Even our enemies deserve music: Michael Franti and other young artists are spearheading a new generation of politically engaged musicians. Jeff Chang charts their paths.(Sounds of dissent: anti-war music)
August 1, 2003... In New York's hermetic world of music and fashion, it's been the year of the throwback, a post--11 September retreat to the familiar and comfortable. Kids sport Seventies athletic jerseys, Eighties Painted baseball caps and basketball shoes,...

No compromise: a tribute to Nina Simone.
August 1, 2003... Activist, artist, singer, songwriter, classical pianist--all these are merely anaemic categories by which we attempt to describe the legendary Nina Simone. For 70 years she stayed true to herself, passionate about her beliefs and writing and...

Sound facts: while radical musicians often risk censorship or worse in many parts of the world, the global entertainment industry helps keep them poor and disenfranchised while reaping huge profits.
August 1, 2003... A cacophony of censorship Index on Censorship has reported 214 cases of music censorship in the last 20 years. A breakdown of these incidents, though not necessarily an accurate reflection of music censorship worldwide, provides some...

Pariah beats: Dalits in India are using traditional music to subvert the caste system.(Sounds of dissent: India)
August 1, 2003... 'No-one will say this openly. Gandhi has done the greatest harm... he did not intend any good for the country!' Professor Subramanian, retired scholar of South Indian classical music, a man of the highest Brahmin caste, turns in his chair back...

Victor Jara: bullets of song.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Drawing on the long tradition of the guitar-wielding troubadour, Chilean folksinger Victor Jara saw the 'guitar as gun', firing-off 'bullets of song' at oppressive military regimes and in support of popular struggles. Jara would play his songs...

Dmitri Shostakovich: coded subversion.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... The prolific Soviet composer suffered the misfortune of spending his most creative years under the thumb of Joseph Stalin. But he also had a knack for navigating the murky waters of the Soviet state's brutal attempts to censor, destroy and...

Cui Jian: China's rebel maestro.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Trained as a classical musician--and former member of the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra--Cui Jian is best known however for his courageous, openly political music. While playing trumpet in the Orchestra in the early 1980s, he was smitten by...

Mercedes Sosa: voice of Latin America.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Though less of a songwriter, Mercedes Sosa has seduced millions with her powerful and emotional interpretations of others' songs. Always deeply political, Sosa was one of the founders of the Nueva Cancion (New Song) movement in Argentina....

Fela Kuti: Afrobeat ambassador.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Nicknamed 'The Black President', Nigerian Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a tireless campaigner for the poor, his incendiary and establishment music and politics earning him the respect of millions. Fela blended African-American jazz, soul and...

Remitti: rai's hard-drinking diva.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)
August 1, 2003... In Algeria during the 1920s, working-class Muslim women in the town of Oran rejected the prevailing values of men in power and combined street gang, French language, and populist poetry known as chir al-milhun, to form a musical movement which...

Miriam Makeba: Mama Afrika.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... Miriam Makeba began her lifelong struggle at the age of two weeks when she served a six-month jail term with her mother. As a girl in South Africa, she worked as a domestic servant for white families. By her teens she had got involved in the...

Bob Marley: one world, one love.(Music rebels: dissident music then and now)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2003... While many are familiar with his posthumously over commercialized pop hits, Bob Marley's political works remain as fresh and relevant today as they did 30 years ago. Back then songs like 'Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)', 'Slave Driver', and...

Culture bandit: Adam Ma'anit meets up with the banned Zimbabwean music legend Thomas Mapfumo in the most unlikely of places.(Sounds of dissent: Zimbabwe)
August 1, 2003... IF Swedish furniture-chain IKEA made a city, it would probably look something like Milton Keynes. This bizarre British 'garden city', conjured up by warped government officials and overpaid urban planning hacks in the early 1970s, is a surreal...

Songwriter musicmaker storyteller freak.(Sounds of dissent: corporations)
August 1, 2003... Whether it's about the boardroom or the bedroom, US folksinger Ani DiFranco has inspired millions for over a decade with her politically charged music and her intensely personal reflections on a range of issues. At just 19 years of age, this...

Acting in concert.(Sounds of dissent: action)
August 1, 2003... "Free your mind, and your ass will follow.'--George Clinton, funk musician. Campaigns: Peace Not War A collective dedicated to producing anti-war compilation CDs for peace groups to use as funding sources www.peace.not-war.org ...

John Howard.(Worldbeaters ... Taking aim at the rich and powerful)
August 1, 2003... At the 2001 Australian Liberals' election victory party, there was an unexpected appearance by a key election player--the Race Card. As the Race Card (dressed in a red lycra devil suit) was being ejected, he yelled: 'I've been with [John...

The Heart of Kashmir.(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... by Kash Gabriele Torsello (Kash GT, ISBN 0-9542245-0-7) Such are the passions and dangers of the conflict in Kashmir that photography offers one of the few ways to convey something of its terrible, relentless nature without submitting to...

Among Brothers.(Sound Recording Review)
August 1, 2003... by Abdelli When the Algerian singer Abdelli and the Belgian guitarist Thierry van Roy thought about a follow-up to their 1995 album, New Moon, their thoughts were drawn to the idea of borderlands. Accordingly, they packed their bags. Among...

Just Like a River.(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... by Muhammad Kamil al-Khatib translated by Michelle Hartman and Maher Barakat (Arris Books, ISBN 1 84437 003 8) Although this never by one or Syria's foremost intellectuals was published in Arabic in 1984, this English translation is both...

Tuva.rock.(Sound Recording Review)
August 1, 2003... by Yat-Kha (Yat 003) Coming from a land where electricity generators routinely pack up before midnight, it's mystifying how Tuva's Yat Kha--the word means both 'poor relative' and a Tuvan violin--manage to find the energy to rock out. But,...

Homeland: Into a World of Hate.(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... by Nick Ryan (Mainstream, ISBN 1 84018 465 5) Are you white, male and mad about ZOG? (That's short for the 'Zionist Occupation Government'.) Most of the characters author Nick Ryan meets in his extraordinary six-year tour of the Far Right...

Whale Rider.(Movie Review)
August 1, 2003... directed by Niki Caro I cried my eyes out through much of this film. It's not that I'm a big softy, but that Whale Rider is so good at showing how a deep abiding love can go hand-in-hand with unyielding harshness. Keisha Castle-Hughes...

We Did Nothing: Why the truth doesn't always come out when the UN goes in.(Book Review)
August 1, 2003... by Linda Polman (Penguin, ISBN 0-670-91424-X) Once you get past the initial infuriating jigsaw of a beginning, Dutch journalist Polman provides an all too rare on-the-ground account of several UN peacekeeping missions conducted during the...

Die Another Day.(Video Recording Review)
August 1, 2003... directed by Lee Tamahori The latest James Bond video release sees hardliners stage a coup in North Korea. By laundering UN-embargoed African conflict diamonds, they secretly finance construction of a giant mirror in space that concentrates...

Big bad world.
August 1, 2003... ... AS A SIGN OF MY TENDER LOVE FOR YOU, DARLING-FLOWERS GROWN IN AN IMPOVERISHED COUNTRY BY AN EXPLOITED WORKFORCE WHO'VE BEEN PAID STARVATION WAGES AND EXPOSED TO STERILITY-INDUCING PESTICIDES... OH, SWEETHEART, YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE.

Interview with Stephen Kenny, lawyer for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks.(making waves)(Interview)
August 1, 2003... ALTHOUGH David Hicks has been sitting in wire cages in the US Navy camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for nearly two years now--arrested by the US for suspected involvement with al-Qaeda--his pro bono lawyer, Stephen Kenny, has never communicated...

Verbicide: Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti resists the political language of stupidity and hate.(Essay)
August 1, 2003... 'Palestinians are like cancer. There are all sorts of solutions to cancerous manifestations. For the time being, I am applying chemotherapy.' Moshe Y'alon, Israeli Chief-of-Staff 'Eventually we will have to thin out the number of...

Togo.(Country Profile)
August 1, 2003... 1 June was Day of the Dinosaur in Togo--a red-letter day for that dwindling band of dictators who have held sway over a country for decades but a very bad day for African democracy. On that date Gnassingbe Eyadema duly recorded his third...