New Internationalist articles from June 2002

New Internationalist archives from June 2002

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2002... The New Internationalist welcomes your letters. But please keep them shod. 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.(AIDS)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
June 1, 2002... AIDS no longer seems such a big deal to people in the industrialized world. Oh, sure, it's still around - but now it's the junkies, the homeless and the lumpen poor who are the problem, not the gays. And besides we've got those miracle meds...

An honourable marriage: Reem Haddad meets a young woman who was determined to marry a wounded Hizbullah fighter. And finds that others like her are queuing up. (Letter From Lebanon).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... She has never once regretted it. She says that it's been a challenge, but also a joy. 'I am doing exactly what I've always wanted to be doing,' she told me whilst preparing the family's supper. Nearby a nanny was keeping her eye on the...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... I grew up in Mmabatho, a small town about 350 kilometres from Johannesburg. My Original interest was in film and television. Due to the race restrictions at the time, I could not reach my wish. So I applied to study photography instead, mainly...

Questions: windows 8. (View from the South).(vignettes)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Angel At the end of the summer of '96, Jose Luis Chilavert scored a historic goal in Buenos Aires. The Paraguayan soccer star, who blocks goals as skilfully as he makes them, shot from afar, 30 metres out. The ball flew up into the...

War on terror or on human rights? (Currents).
June 1, 2002... Since the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last year, governments around the world have proclaimed 'war on terror'. The effects on Afghanistan and (to a lesser extent) Iraq have been widely reported. Less...

Shanty. (Word Corner).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A shanty town is an area of makeshift housing, but what is a shanty? A shanty is a roughly built cabin or hut; the first recorded use is in Ohio in 1820. In Canadian French a chantier is a cabin used by a lumberjack or shantyman. Chantier is...

Timor oil pressure: independence comes at a high price. (East Timor).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... AFTER 500 years of colonialism 2002 marks an outstanding victory for self-determination in East Timor. But in the world's newest nation, the struggle for economic independence is just beginning. Since the cataclysmic end to Indonesian...

Enronvision. (Seriously).(PBS documentary 'The Commanding Heights')(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Media-watch group FAIR points out that US public-service broadcaster PBS stringently rejects documentaries from biased or 'self-interested' sources. It refused to air The Money Lenders, a 1993 documentary on the World Bank, on the grounds that:...

Trade terriers. (Seriously).(misstatements by George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Everyone has their favourite George W Bush story. Seriously recalls the time Bush caused panic-selling of the Japanese currency by discussing 'devaluation' of the yen (he meant 'deflation'). Doh! And who could fail to be taken with Bush's...

We all have AIDS: HIV/AIDS is everyone's problem -- a global public-health threat of staggering proportions. Wayne Ellwood investigates the social inequalities which nurture the deadly disease. (This Month's Theme AIDS/Keynote).
June 1, 2002... They are the dead who walk again: the Lazarus men. Invisible to most of us, these are the gay males, now in their 30s and 40s, who first contracted the HIV virus 10, 15 and even 20 years ago. Through a combination of raw courage, determination...

HIV/AIDS a primer.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... 1 What is AIDS? Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a set of symptoms that indicate a person has become infected with a virus that has seriously damaged the body's immune system. A key symptom is the development of one or more of...

'We are sick and suffering; we want you to accept us': Daniel Kalinaki report from Uganda on what people with AIDS are doing to help themselves. (Stigma).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... AIDS was first identified in Uganda in 1982 at a small fishing village on Lake Victoria. The local people initially believed the new disease, nicknamed 'slim', was caused by witchcraft. People suspected of having AIDS were left to waste...

A tale of two funerals: Zarina Geloo mourns the passing of two friends in Lusaka, Zambia. (Stigma).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... I had to attend two funerals the other day, not uncommon for me these days. The funerals of my friends John and Mulenga were a contrast. Both had AIDS. But Mulenga was a high-profile businessman and the 'cream' of Zambian society was there to...

Cocktails and carnival: thousands of people across the South can't afford to buy AIDS drugs. But not in Brazil. Matthew Flynn describes how one country fought back. (Pharmaceuticals).
June 1, 2002... The first thing people usually associate with Brazil is carnival -- the world's biggest, loudest and most infamous party. For one week, normal life stops and parades, floats and dancing take over. Behind the scenes, however, carnival has a...

HIV/AIDS.(statistics)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2002... Drowning by numbers Twenty-two million people have died from AIDS-related illnesses since the disease was first discovered just over 20 years ago. Three million people died last year alone. Thirty-six million people are now infected: 25...

State of siege: women in South Africa are brutalized both inside and outside their homes -- violence which is driving the aids epidemic. (Women).
June 1, 2002... During South Africa's transition to democracy the world watched in awe as apartheid crumbled and a nation with a soul emerged. Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- in a burst of post-apartheid euphoria -- described South Africa as the 'Rainbow nation'....

Russian roulett: the arrival of free markets and economic collapse have combined with disastrous results in Russia. Olivia Ward visits the mean streets of Moscow's east end. (Poverty).(HIV/AIDS)
June 1, 2002... Sergei is not so different from the average 24-year-old Russian: slight, dark-haired, with a gap between two teeth. But he is one of the very few, in this country of 145 million people, to admit that he is HIV-positive. 'I'm not...

AIDS orphans.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Across Africa AIDS is killing tens of thousands of adults between 15 and 40. Left behind are villages full of grandparents and orphans. Nobody really knows how many. The total number of AIDS orphans since the epidemic began is expected to hit...

HIV equity: poor people with AIDS don't have to die when there are drugs which will save their lives. The work of one rural clinic proves it, according to Anne-Christine d'Adesky.(Haiti)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... For the majority of people heading to the village of Cange in Haiti's high, forested interior there is little choice in making the journey. They and their family members are sick, desperate and penniless. Many have tuberculosis and HIV. They...

Aliens in Lucknow: AIDS education workers in India's gay community are being targetted by police. Saleem Kidwai describes the bust of one leading agency.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Last year, police in the Indian city of Lucknow stumbled on a male sex-worker and his client arguing about money on a deserted road. The next evening the police raided a dingy park near the railway station where cruising homosexuals and male...

Effie Eitam. (Worldbeaters).(National Religious Party, Israel)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Uri Avnery, the veteran Israeli peace activist, looks particularly grave when the discussion in his Tel Aviv apartment turns to the new Israeli Right. 'Some of these guys make Jorg Haidar look like an angel.' One of the 'guys' Avnery has...

Stupid White Men. (Books).
June 1, 2002... by Michael Moore (ReganBooks ISBN 0 06 039245 2) A curse on Michael Moore. He too is an American. If it weren't for the likes of him, the rest of us could take it easy and blame 'the Americans' for everything. This truly wonderful...

A History of Bombing. (Books).
June 1, 2002... by Sven Lindqvist translated by Linda Haverty Rugg (Granta, ISBN 1 86207490 9) Sven Lindqvist's Exterminate all the Brutes was a harrowing account of how European colonial acquisitiveness and theories of racial superiority combined to...

The Brothers. (Books).
June 1, 2002... by Milton Hatoum translated by John Gledson (Bloomsbury, ISBN 0 7475 5784 5) Brazilian author Milton Hatoum's brooding and atmospheric second novel is set in the Amazonian port city of Manaus, among the cafes, bars and market...

Sarajevo Self-portrait. (Books).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... With the trial of Milosevic reviving memories of the horrors of the Bosnian war, this photo-book seems timely. But it's a lot more than that. Sarajevo Self-portrait (devised by Leslie Fratkin, Umbrage Editions, New York, ISBN 1-884167 039) is...

An Evergreen Island. (Film Video).
June 1, 2002... directed by Fabio Cavadini and Mandy King This independently produced documentary about the South Pacific island of Bougainville tells a rare but hugely encouraging story. For all those who believe that it is impossible to live without the...

T-Shirt Travels. (Film Video).
June 1, 2002... directed by Shantha Bloemen This film clearly demonstrates how neo-liberal free-market economics has destroyed the Zambian economy, putting disabling debt repayment to the IMF in the place of social spending on education, health and...

Not in my Name. (Film Video).
June 1, 2002... produced by Platform Films and TV Choice Even though the media glare has moved elsewhere, the war in Afghanistan continues and -- according to George Bush -- is 'only just beginning'. This professionally produced independent video combines...

Bininj Manborlh. (Film Video).
June 1, 2002... by Nabarlek (Skinnyfish Music SFM 133 CD) Years ago, when the Gypsy Kings got big on the international circuit, there was a rumour that the mainly Spanish flamenco band had gone out and spent their royalty cheques on up-to-the-minute...

The Dreaming. (Music).
June 1, 2002... by Various Artists (Dunnet Wright Music CD) Consisting of 11 tracks and a video file, the array of musicians, singers and story-tellers who contribute to The Dreaming offer a very different approach to Australian aboriginal culture. Made in...

Sharp focus on Lindsey Collen: the Mauritius-based novelist talks to Vanessa Bairz about the politics behind her latest fiction.(Brief Article)(Critical Essay)
June 1, 2002... In 1999, immediately after completing the first draft of her novel, Mutiny, reality took over the plot from Lindsey Collen. The Mauritian prison in which she had set her story was stormed like the Bastille. Protesters, provoked by the death...

Muzzling the media: Vanessa von Struensee witnesses press freedom in Ukraine go from dismal to dangerous. (Essay).
June 1, 2002... If forewarned is forearmed I should have known, right off the bat. During my first days in the country, in 2000, I proposed a human-rights law course, only to be told by a junior law-faculty member that 'human rights is stupid'. I persisted and...

Cote d'lvoire. (Country Profile).
June 1, 2002... A Abidjan, the economic capital of Cote d'lvoire, used to be affectionately known as Petit Paris. The evocation of the French city of lights would be particularly dramatic if you arrived at night and travelled towards the skyline dominated by...