New Internationalist articles from January 2008

New Internationalist archives from January 2008

Human rights.(From this month's editor)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Even if it ends as routine, the abuse of human rights usually begins in disguise, as an intricate dilemma, a delicate balance, an exceptional circumstance. But there is nothing exceptional at all about the sight of people with too much power...

Three letters.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Re Corporate responsibility unmasked (NI 407). In Spring 2004 I attended the annual corporate responsibility conference at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London. All the big names were there and I had prepared myself by wading...

Contrast.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... After the horror of Big babies (NI 405), it was so good to read Depleted Uranium (NI 406), with its wide range of information and appropriate research. I found Big babies absurd and at times badly researched. I have subscribed to NI since 1984...

Grow up.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Thanks for printing the letters (NI 407) that illustrate so well what I think your Big babies issue was saying: If you need a parent figure (Jesus, Muhammad, Marx or Bob Geldof) to tell you what to think, you haven't grown up yet. Bill...

Wishful thinking.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... I was saddened that Adam Ma'anit (Special Feature, 'Guilt complex', NI 406), in his rush to dismiss all organized religion and to embrace the 'humanistic' ideal of being motivated by love instead of guilt, seems to have overlooked the fact that...

Brainwashed NI.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Leftwing analyst Stephen Gowans, in recent articles on his website http://gowans.blogspot.com has criticized leftwing supporters of Empire. New Internationalist is one more of these. You've seen the New African edition, yet you still claim the...

Subjective views.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Khadija Hurst (Letters, NI 406) complains of having 'personally' had stones thrown at her; so have I. She complains of having been told to go back where she came from; so have I. She has been called a 'terrorist'; I used to be (wrongly) called...

Oppressed Christians.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... It is deplorable that a Muslim woman should be spat at and insulted in an Australian street (Letters, NI 406). However, I would like to ask our Muslim friends to name one Islamic country where Christians have a tenth, or even a hundredth, of...

Colour control.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Re Rebecca Masterson's letter about the dress of Muslim women (NI 406): I applaud her opinion that bright-coloured dress is more exciting and interesting than what we usually see in Western countries. But in regard to traditional dress in Saudi...

Ignorance.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... I was expecting the usual high level of discussion and intellectual maturity in Big babies (NI 405), but instead found the emotive generalizations and simplistic cliches that you urged readers to avoid. I was upset by Polyp's 'Guide to...

Changed by Christ.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... Re: number nine in 'Eleven ways to leave your Mummy and Daddy'. You are always promoting understanding and tolerance for all religious and cultural groups, so why did you put in such a derogatory point? Do you only believe things you can touch...

Polyp take a bow.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2008... I was about to give up on NI as too leftwing, when up came Polyp's illustrations in the October issue (NI 405). We do need to grow up all over again--I've said so for years, but could never put it as neatly as Polyp did. More, please! Mike...

A bag of lemons.(Letter from Cairo)
January 1, 2008... During holidays in Cairo, whether Muslim feasts or Christian ones, there's a phrase you're bound to hear repeatedly, which roughly translates as 'may your every year be good'. However genuine the sentiment, the saying often carries a well-known...

Human rights in a time of terror: at the beginning of a year that brings together the Beijing Olympics and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, David Ransom assesses the damage done by the 'War on Terror' to the one race that really counts.(KEYNOTE)
January 1, 2008... If the torture of a single person could save the lives of a thousand others, would it be justified? Difficult to say no'. But that must be said all the same, because torture has never saved anyone from anything; not from a single suicide bomb,...

'The power of love can conquer the love of power'.(POLITICAL RIGHTS--Zimbabwe)
January 1, 2008... RELEVANT RIGHTS: Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: 'Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country.' Article 1.2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states:...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 60.
January 1, 2008... Dan Jones 2007

Breathless in Beijing: when the starting pistols fire in August, they risk igniting an explosive mix beneath the Beijing Olympics--promises to 'improve' human rights in China are being badly betrayed. Sam Geall explains.(CHINA)
January 1, 2008... The news was met with spontaneous jubilation. The streets of Beijing came alive on a scale that had not been seen since the democracy protests of 1989. The trigger was the International Olympic Committee's 2001 decision to host the 2008 Games...

For the happiness of individuals.(SEX RIGHTS--Poland and Latvia)
January 1, 2008... RELEVANT RIGHTS: Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: 'Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,...

Too late for Martha: Jens Erik Gould reports on a tragedy that helped change the law on abortion in Colombia.(COLOMBIA)
January 1, 2008... Martha Solay spent Mother's Day in pain, knowing her life would soon be over. As her eldest daughter Yenny injected her with painkillers, she coiled into a fetal position, cupped her face in her hands and screamed. Daniela, her two-year-old...

Off the buses.(TRADE UNION RIGHTS--IRAN)
January 1, 2008... RELEVANT RIGHTS: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23.1 states: 'Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.' Article 23.4...

A guide through the maze.
January 1, 2008... What are your legal rights, simply by virtue of being human? Not many people know; even fewer are encouraging you to find out; fewer still are making sure they apply in practice. So the NI starts at square one, with an introductory tour around...

Who killed Maksim Maksimov? Maria Yulikova tells the little known but scarcely mysterious tale of a disappeared journalist in Russia.(RUSSIA)
January 1, 2008... Rimma Vasilievna Maksimova, a retired professional interpreter who lives in a beautiful downtown district of Potsdam, Germany, is deeply depressed. She has no desire to live. Her depression started in the summer of 2004, when her only child...

Human rights--the facts: human rights refer not just to personal civil and political rights, but collective economic, social and cultural ones too. Worldwide, they are more violated than respected.
January 1, 2008... CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS At the last count, in 2006: (1) Torture and terror * There were cases of torture and ill-treatment by security forces, police and other state authorities in 102 countries * 400 detainees from more than 30...

The blood of Bhopal.(TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS--BHOPAL, INDIA)
January 1, 2008... RELEVANT RIGHTS: Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that 'Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.' Article 8 states 'Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national...

Bitter crop: Brandon Astor Jones writes what may be his 'last will and testament' from death row in the US state of Georgia.(DEATH PENALTY)(Essay)
January 1, 2008... 'I heard Strange Fruit for the first time as a teenager when a girlfriend brought over a Billie Holiday album... I remember hearing these words: "Blood on the leaves, blood at the root..." It was too much. I pulled the needle off the...

Rwanda--why I support the abolition of the death penalty: if anyone has good reason not to, it's Jean Baptiste Kayigamba.(DEATH PENALTY)
January 1, 2008... The decision by the Rwandan Government to abolish the death penalty came as a surprise to many. After the 1994 genocide of one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus, it seems unthinkable. But, following a vote by Parliament in June 2007, President...

Africa.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... BARE SURVIVAL (Right) A young Darfurian girl hangs her washing on a tree stripped of its foliage, outside Iridmi refugee camp in Chad. In 2007 the already desperate situation in Darfur deteriorated further, violence increased, the warring...

East Asia & Pacific.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... STARTING OVER (Above) A man sitting in front of election posters for the new National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT). In June, Timor-Leste went to the polls. Hopes were raised amongst its 1.1 million inhabitants that...

Latin America & Caribbean.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... TREE CHEERS (Above) Eduardo Lopez is the forest ranger of Yasuni National Park, Ecuador. In this UNESCO biosphere reserve, logging threatens the survival of the few remaining groups of indigenous peoples known to live in isolation. The...

North America & Europe.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... THE ART OF LANDFILL (Below left) In Albany, San Francisco, a little spit of land originally made from landfill is the unlikely setting for a collection of sculptures, painting and mixed media works. For many years the site, known as the...

South Asia.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... STRIKING A BLOW (Right) Policewomen struggle to restrain protesters as a demonstration by thousands of government nurses in Patna, eastern India, turns violent. At least 25 people were hurt in the clashes. Police hit protesters with...

East Europe & Central Asia.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... GM CRIMINALS (Above) Activists declared Braila island under quarantine in September after finding illegal genetically modified (GM) soya growing there. The Monsanto crop was being cultivated on the Romanian island in the Danube river,...

Middle East.(The unreported year 2007)
January 1, 2008... THE CRUEL SEA (Right) For these Somali refugees, the journey to freedom ended in tragedy when their boat, carrying an estimated 126 migrants, sank en route to Yemen, killing 80 of them. Renewed US and Ethiopian intervention in Somalia has...

Can do in Kathmandu.(WATER RIGHTS--NEPAL)
January 1, 2008... RELEVANT RIGHTS: Article 1.2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states: 'All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources.' Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of...

The eternal minority: the Roma have suffered centuries of persecution and marginalization. Now Roma children are turning up on the doorstep of British towns. Eleanor Harding tries to find out why--and follows the trail from Slough, in England, to Romania, newest member of the European Union.
January 1, 2008... A tiny girl stands giggling in the entrance to a hovel at the edge of town. Her copper-streaked hair shines in the bleak afternoon. Her name is Gruia Georgiana and she is seven years old. Behind her, a dirty mattress lies on the mud floor....

Roma then and now.
January 1, 2008... The Roma originally came from northwestern India--a fact originally discovered through linguistics, because the Roma language is Sanskrit-based, but more recently confirmed through DNA analysis. They were not a particular ethnic group. Rather,...

A little plot of earth: poor Indian farmers on the march.(LAND RIGHTS)
January 1, 2008... In the same week that India celebrated the emergence of home-grown entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani as the world's richest person, landless labourers and socially marginalized groups marched into its capital by the thousand, demanding a piece of the...

'Francanola' threatens Aussies.(GENETIC ENGINEERING)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Polls show that a huge majority of Australians--up to 90 per cent--support the ban on genetically modified (GM) crops. But this did not stop John Brumby, State Premier of Victoria, bowing to pressure from big agribusiness and announcing in...

The language of law ...(Currents)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Word power 35 bail n. loophole for the rich chief-justice n. honorary title given to leader's best friend corporal punishment n. sentence given to low-ranking soldier to protect senior officers from blame court n. games area...

Fishy carbon credits: companies profit from toxic dumping in the sea.(CLIMATE CHANGE)
January 1, 2008... To solve climate chaos we need to pollute the oceans on a grand scale, according to a new crop of geo-engineering companies. With names like Planktos, Ocean Nourishment Corporation and Atmocean, these companies are hoping to make a great deal...

Correa Kicks out the dimwit.(Currents)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... US officials have been left frustrated by news that Ecuador intends to kick the US Air Force off Manta airbase on the country's Pacific coast, according to Inter Press Service (www.ipsnews.net). The US has used the base since 1999 ostensibly to...

'Maroon the gays': Ugandans facing a barrage of discrimination.(SEXUAL MINORITIES)
January 1, 2008... In August radio presenter Gaetano Kaggwa was suspended for hosting a talk show that included lesbian activist Victor Mukasa--yet another development in the widespread crackdown on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Belgian blues.(Seriously)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Belgium rarely makes it into world news, and is often stereotyped as being, well, rather dull. Belgian politics certainly elicits a gaping yawn from most observers in and out of the country. In fact, it would seem the whole government is so...

Speechmarks.(Currents)
January 1, 2008... "Be the change you want to see in the world." Mohandas K Gandhi (1869-1984), Indian visionary and independence campaigner

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... I took this image on Children's Day at an orphanage in Brazil. The event I wanted to document was organized by the Children at Risk Foundation (CARF), and its Hummingbird Project, in the urban periphery of Diadema, Sao Paulo. The performance by...

Devlet Bahceli.(Worldbeaters)
January 1, 2008... Job: Leader of the Turkish Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Reputation: Crude rightwing shoot-from-hip populist, militant defender against all 'insults' to the Turkish nation Turkey has long been haunted by the spectre of a...

NI jumbo prize Crossword Patriot Games.
January 1, 2008... 127 by AXE For Cryptic solvers The letters in gold squares when rearranged have a direct association with 44a, which is not clued. They also create the tone for twelve other Across clues to be discovered, while 13, 33 & 52 are older...

The best of 2007.(Movie review)(Sound recording review)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Music Nominating the year's best album never gets easier, however much you practise, so with that caveat in mind, let's just put Grinderman's self-titled debut album (reviewed in NI 399) and David Gunn and Victor Gama's Folk Songs for the...

No Country for Old Men.(Movie review)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... No Country for Old Men directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen For entertainment value, this scores pretty high. Yet there's something seriously lacking. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the first intercutting scenes, it's gripping. A...

Our Daily Bread.(Movie review)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Our Daily Bread directed by Nicolaus Geyrhalter Meat is carefully packaged these days to be as lacking in gore, as little like dead animal, as possible. This eye-opening, often horrifying, documentary has no commentary whatsoever. It...

War on Democracy.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
January 1, 2008... War on Democracy This trenchant and illuminating John Pilger and Chris Martin feature film (reviewed in NI 403) about democracy movements in Latin America, and the US's consistent and concerted efforts to undermine them, is now available...

Nobody's Home.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... Nobody's Home by Dubravka Ugresic (Telegram ISBN 9781 84659 019 1) Known as something of a writer's writer, Dubravka Ugresic began her career with a series of postmodernist fiction in the 1970s and 1980s. This gained her some...

Kala.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Kala by M.I.A. (XL 281 CD) 'M.I.A. is coming back with power!' Don't be fooled by the flat delivery with which M.I.A. appropriates the intro to Jonathan Richman's vintage hit, 'Roadrunner' for her track 'Bamboo Banger': Kala is an...

Soul Science.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Soul Science by Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara Trio (Wayward 704 CD) Once heard, a plucked ritti has a sound that is not easily forgotten--a low-frequency, one-note twang that, like the shuddering bass notes poured out by a dub sound...

The Guantanamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... The Guantanamo Files The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America's Illegal Prison by Andy Worthington (Pluto Press, ISBN 9780745326641) According to recent reports, George Bush is looking for a pretext to close the abomination that...

The left's betrayal.(View from New Delhi)
January 1, 2008... Buddhudeb Bhattacharya, the Chief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, is a troubled man today. For 30 years his party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has enjoyed uninterrupted rule in this state. Time and again it has been...

Interview with Tunisian Association Against AIDS.(Making Waves)
January 1, 2008... In a small, unassuming building in a quiet suburb of Tunis, a group of young men busily discuss the day ahead. Some, standing by the open, sun-filled doorway, gesture animatedly, their arms flailing, their bodies shaking with laughter. Others...

Kazakhstan.(Country Profile)(Country overview)
January 1, 2008... Kazakhstan is a nation of extremes. Temperatures in the Central Asian steppe peak at 50 degrees Celsius in summer, plummeting to minus 50 in winter. Clapped-out Lada cars with broken air-conditioning are standard and long journeys by road...