New Internationalist articles from December 2004

New Internationalist archives from December 2004

From this month's editor.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... WHAT do you think of when you hear the word 'trade'? I'll tell you my first thoughts: giant transnational corporations, Wall Street bond dealers, international money markets, the machinations of the World Trade Organization, etc, etc. Mmm...

The voice of reason.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... Well done on a great edition--Judeophobia, NI 372. I've just photocopied the central section for an old friend who, quite disturbingly, and for the first time, expressed anti-Jewish sentiment while we were in the pub together recently. The...

Mixed company.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... You give an interesting list of writers and artists with antisemitic tendencies ('Portrait of the artist as an antisemite', NI 372); but they are a mixed crowd. Geoffrey Chaucer was intent on assembling an eclectic mix of stories, some...

The 'so what?' test.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... The NI is to be congratulated on its stance on the centuries-old scourge known as antisemitism (NI 372). However, as is often the case, your report falls short of a full-scale rebuttal of antisemitic prejudice. Since antisemitism is largely...

Struggle for balance.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... Your recent issue on Judeophobia (NI 372) was very informative and challenging. I recognized my own struggle in finding balance in my views as I read the opening words: 'Whether it's antisemitism or the polar opposite, rarely are Jews seen as...

Revolutionary change.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... Unfortunately, the most important use of religion was not discussed in the recent In the name of God issue (NI 370). Each religion provides a teaching and a way to transform people from childish egocentricity to the sage and compassionate...

Humanist challenge.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... David Boulton ('Who needs religion?', NI 370) describes the problems that religions cause, including the potentially catastrophic showdown between Islam and Christianity-Judaism in the Middle East. Many intractable conflicts are based on...

Eco-spirituality.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... In the name of God was sheer pleasure, particularly David Boulton's superbly written 'Who needs religion?' It surprised me that your only reference to eco-spirituality was one para (p26) relegating it to historical primitivism. That's a shame:...

Time to ratify.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2004... As one of the organizations that has been leading the battle against Big Tobacco for several years, and working for a strong Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), it was gratifying you recognized the urgency of this issue and...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2004... In the article 'Portrait of the artist as an antisemite' (NI 372), Roald Dahl was incorrectly identified as the original author of the story of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Dahl wrote the screenplay when Ian Fleming's story was made into a film....

Dangerous times: Reem Haddad finds the thunder from some American pulpits causing a headache for Lebanese Protestants.(Letter from Lebanon)
December 1, 2004... I hesitated. But the commonly asked question in Lebanon still hung in the air and needed an answer. 'I am, uh, a Protestant,' I replied softly. 'Evangelical.' And before a frown appeared on my inquisitor's face, I quickly denied any...

Highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority World.(SOUTHERN EXPOSURE)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... I am a woman and I live in Iran. I am a photographer and this is the only thing I know how to do. I began work after completing my studies. Quite by accident, the subjects of my first two series were 'women'. However, every time I think about a...

The lessons of war.(IKE OGUINE'S VIEW FROM THE SOUTH)
December 1, 2004... MOZAMBIQUE's Afonso Dhlakama has had an interesting political life. Up until the early 1990s his Renamo movement fought a brutal civil war against that country's Government, controlled since independence by the liberation movement turned...

Winds of change: can the new Pan-African Parliament bring peace to Africa?(AFRICA)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... 'OUR continent has decided where to go. And we have established the institutions to take us to this destination,' according to the South African President Thabo Mbeki. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP)...

Death row blues.(CURRENTS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... As a result of a UK Privy Council ruling in July, 32 Jamaican men who had been given mandatory death sentences must be given sentencing hearings at which they have the opportunity to persuade a judge to let them live. In a strange legacy of...

Kill in the name of God.(CURRENTS)
December 1, 2004... A declaration claiming that the Halakha (Jewish religious law) commands the killing of innocent Palestinian civilians if this helps to save Jews, has been signed by the heads of the 'Arrangement Yeshivot' and other religious leaders in Israel....

Hurricane opportunity: big companies look for new ways to penetrate Majority World markets.(HAITI)
December 1, 2004... THERE's no denying that Procter and Gamble (P & G) happened to be in the right place at the right time when Hurricane Jeanne wreaked havoc in Haiti in September this year. The healthcare and household products giant was able to spring into...

The bases of resistance.(CURRENTS)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... You may have been misled by the announcement made by US President Bush in August this year that 70,000 US troops serving overseas will be brought home and a third of US military sites will be shut down over the next 10 years. While troop...

Banned books in the land of the free.(CURRENTS)
December 1, 2004... A coalition of US publishers and authors have asked the Federal Court in New York to strike down requirements that publishers and authors must seek a licence before publishing certain literature from embargoed countries such as Iran, Cuba and...

The language of international corporations ...(CURRENTS)
December 1, 2004... Word power 4 Starbucks n. currency used in coffee shops on the moon GAP n. discrepancy between the money paid for a garment, and the money paid to a garment-maker winDOW n. insider trading esprESSO n. short, sharp statement by...

Speechmarks.(CURRENTS)
December 1, 2004... "I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men." Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Loggers and 'bashers': storm over corporate corruption and brutality in Papua New Guinea.(TRANSNATIONALS)
December 1, 2004... A political storm is brewing in the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG). On 3 November serious new allegations of corruption by logging giant Rimbunan Hijau (RH) were made by a whistleblower cop. Royal PNG Constable Emmanuel Bani told...

In God's country.(True tales of a mixed-up world)
December 1, 2004... The Bush Administration's latest attempt to blur the boundaries between church and state is its promotion of 'faith-based' national parks. Government-owned bookshops at national parks are now selling books promoting Creationist theories of the...

The world trading system is corrupt and unjust. And free trade is compounding the problem. It's time to change the rules, argues Wayne Ellwood.(KEYNOTE)
December 1, 2004... OLD Sir John would be rolling in his grave. John Alexander Macdonald was Canada's first prime minister, a bibulous, quick-witted Scots-born lawyer who is generally regarded as the cornerstone of Canadian Confederation. [ILLUSTRATION...

The people of corn: Maize is Mexico's lifeblood--the country's history and identity are entwined with it. But this centuries-old relationship is now threatened by free trade. Laura Carlsen investigates the threat and profiles a growing activist movement.(AGRICULTURE)
December 1, 2004... On a mountain top in southern Mexico, Indian families gather. They chant and sprinkle cornmeal in consecration, praying for the success of their new crops, the unity of their communities and the health of their families. In this village in...

Up for grabs: it was sold on a promise of boosting employment, increasing wages and bringing job security. But a decade later, the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement have been nothing short of disastrous--especially in Mexico. David Bacon explains.(LABOUR RIGHTS)
December 1, 2004... THE North American Free Trade Agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico is 10 years old. President Bush calls it a great success and vows to extend it to the rest of Latin America. Bill Clinton before him promised that the rising tide of...

Taking control in Chiapas: Hugh MacLeod reports on a Zapatista legal victory against top-down development.(LABOUR RIGHTS)
December 1, 2004... IF the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) is the controlling mind of future trade in Central America, then Plan Puebla Panama (PPP)--a 25-year, $20-billion, infrastructure development project, building roads, ports, pipelines and electrical...

Free trade.
December 1, 2004... Free trade is an old idea that's taken on new life over the past decade--January 2004 marked the tenth anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Free trade is part of a broad process of trade liberalization being pursued...

Affordable drugs? Forget it! It's not just poor countries that find their sovereignty threatened by free trade. Patricia Ranald explains how the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) may torpedo Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY)
December 1, 2004... AUSTRALIANS love their Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It keeps medicines affordable and controls health costs. But it is loathed by the giant pharmaceutical companies. Not only because it limits their profits in Australia, but also...

Race to the bottom.
December 1, 2004... Free trade is a social issue as well as an economic one. To attract investors, countries compete to lower costs. That can mean offering cheap labour, weak environmental laws, lax health and safety standards or reduced social services. The lower...

Ring of fire: indigenous communities are erupting along the Andean cordillera, denouncing the impact of new trade deals. Kathryn Ledebur profiles the opposition inside Ecuador and Bolivia.(NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND DEMOCRACY)
December 1, 2004... THE old conference hall on the second floor of the cheap hotel in downtown Quito is packed with representatives from Ecuador's indigenous groups. There is a hum of muffled conversation and the smell of wood smoke fills the room and clings to...

Can't pay, won't pay! Argentina is a classic example of the clash of free trade and the rights of capital with human needs and national development. Roger Burbach chronicles that country's attempt to escape debt and dependency--and to forge its own economic future.(INVESTMENT)
December 1, 2004... MARTA Ocampo de Vasquez was a founder of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo--the group of Argentine women who first raised the banner of human rights against the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1976 to 1983. Two decades...

Support trade justice! Support fair trade! But it's a start. And you can be part of it.(ACTION)
December 1, 2004... The idea of fair trade began in the late 1940s when churches in North America and Europe sought to provide relief to refugees by selling their handicrafts to Northern markets. Then in 1988 'Max Havelaar', the first fair trade certification...

Iyad Allawi.(WORLDBEATERS)
December 1, 2004... Job: Interim Prime Minister of Iraq Reputation: Least Unsafe Pair of Hands, CIA stooge 'WHAT'S important for the American people to hear is reality, and the reality is right here in the form of the Prime Minister, and he is explaining...

Good morning, night.(MIXED MEDIA)(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Good morning, night written and directed by Marco Bellocchio Looking over an apartment for rent, Chiara and Ernesto seem distracted and tense. Primo and Mariano, who help them move in, avoid being seen. Primo, a carpenter, builds a...

The other Israel: voices of refusal and dissent.(MIXED MEDIA)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... The other Israel: voices of refusal and dissent edited by Roane Carey and Jonathan Shainin (The New Press ISBN 1 56584 914 0) Much is made of this book's condemnation of the occupation and the Israeli Government. But after reading The...

Another world is possible if ...(MIXED MEDIA)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Another world is possible if... by Susan George (Verso ISBN 1 84467 510 6) That two-letter word--'if'--attached to the popular slogan of the worldwide social justice movement, makes Susan George's intention clear from the outset. ...

Burrow.(MIXED MEDIA)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2004... Burrow by Manzu Islam (Peepal Tree Press ISBN 1 900715 90 2) Manzu Islam's admirable debut novel is set in London in the 1970s, on the frontline of confrontation between the immigrant communities and the thugs of the National Front. In...

The Rough Guide to Rebetika.(MIXED MEDIA)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2004... The Rough Guide to Rebetika by Various (World Music Network RGNET 1142 CD) Roza Eskenazi, captured here in all her creeky wonder, was discovered in a tavern in 1929. What her family made of her hymns of praise to the pleasures of...

Sciopero (Strike).(MIXED MEDIA)(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
December 1, 2004... Sciopero (Strike) by Yo Yo Mundi (II Manifesto CD 072 CD) Composing new soundtracks for existing films has become a vogue in recent years. Philip Glass writes elegantly framed chamber operas (La belle et la bete; Dracula); Asian Dub...

The NI prize crossword.
December 1, 2004... 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. Post your entry to NI Crossword, 55 Rectory Road, Oxford,...

Big bad world.
December 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with Leanne Allison & Karsten Heuer.(making waves)(Interview)
December 1, 2004... 'EVERYONE in Old Crow was talking about the upcoming caribou migration. It was nearly the only news in town. Every house has a cache where they keep their caribou meat. For the Gwich'in it's a way of life.' Leanne Allison is talking about the...

Green light, red light: Lily Hyde exposes the moralistic hypocrisies behind the campaign to end human trafficking.(ESSAY)
December 1, 2004... The advertisement for cash transfers shows a smiling woman cleaning an expensive house. The picture next to her shows a young boy with a new CD player. The caption reads: 'She is transferring something more valuable than money.' By...

Western Sahara.(COUNTRY PROFILE)
December 1, 2004... THE Government of Western Sahara operates not from its own capital city, L'ayoun, but from a small patch of desert over the border in Algeria. Here there is another L'ayoun, just as there is another Smara, Aoserd and Dakhla--the Saharawis, who...