New Internationalist articles from March 2006

New Internationalist archives from March 2006

From this month's guest editor.(cartoons)(Editorial)
March 1, 2006... It is my firm belief that anybody who can't read comics or appreciate cartoons had a deprived childhood. While they dutifully waded through Black Beauty or The Hobbit I was on another planet, swinging between skyscrapers or hacking through...

Seriously funny business: Paul Gravett introduces the art of cartooning--and its curious power.(KEYNOTE)
March 1, 2006... Notorious underground cartoonist Robert Crumb, creator of Fritz the Cat and subject of a hit documentary movie, once joked: 'It's only lines on paper, folks!' Cartoons and comics appear to be such ephemeral things, sources of momentary...

Somewhere over Ireland.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... THE CARTOON CRISIS SIGNAL LIGHTS the SKY [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If they are used within text they can be very useful as they are a good way to stop the...

Corruption.(cartoonists)
March 1, 2006... CARTOONS and cartoonists usually have a lot to say--they are regularly controversial and challenging, they often make uncomfortable connections and, of course, they frequently challenge orthodoxies of one kind or another. [ILLUSTRATION...

Women.(cartoonists)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... CARTOONS dealing with gender equality rarely get published in the North and almost never in the South. The mass media is simply not interested in highlighting sexual discrimination. We are living in a world where--at least with respect to...

40-a-day addiction.(comics)
March 1, 2006... GANGAPUR CITY is a small shanty town in the desert state of Rajasthan. As a kid, my haunt was a circulating library of magazines, comics and cheap Hindi novels called Mahesh Book Depot. I read 30 or 40 comics a day, many of them pulp science...

I-codes: pictures are nothing more than marks and colours on flat surfaces so how do we derive meaning from them? Bob Linney explains.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... WHAT MAKES UP THE VISUAL LANGUAGE THAT CARTOONISTS AND OTHER ARTISTS USE? HERE'S A CHECKLIST OF SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT PICTORIAL CONVENTIONS. PEOPLE WHOSE VISUAL LITERACY SKILLS ARE NOT WELL DEVELOPED MAY NOT SHARE THESE CONVENTIONS AND MAY...

Colour.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... MOST CARTOONISTS WORK IN BLACK AND WHITE BUT COLOUR CAN HELP TO ATTRACT ATTENTION AND ADD IMPACT TO PICTURES. IT CAN MAKE PICTURES MORE ATTRACTIVE AND, IF USED CAREFULLY, CAN IMPROVE THE 'LEGIBILITY' OF IMAGES * COLOUR PRINTING IS STILL MORE...

Less text! In the past decade World Comics has been reaching out from its base in Finland to spread the message of 'Comics Power'. Its founder Leif Packalen talked to John Stuart Clark.(Interview)
March 1, 2006... JSC: How did you first become interested in comics as a communication medium? LP: After about a decade working in Africa, I returned to Finland to work for the solidarity organization Emmaus-Swallows. A friend from Tanzania contacted me....

How to make grassroots comics.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The great strength of grassroots comics is their local content. They are made by local activists for local distribution. This is the cornerstone of their efficiency. People are always curious as to what other people in their locality think...

Comics workshop for activists.
March 1, 2006... STAGE ONE: The participants are introduced to the medium of comics and shown wall-poster examples produced by groups similar to their own. Some drawing exercises follow, to prove one can create comics even with quite limited drawing...

Campaigning comics.
March 1, 2006... OVER THE CENTURIES, everything from temperance to usury, land reform to human rights, has been popularized in a simple yet sophisticated marriage of pictures and text. The number of pressure groups and organizations keen to exploit comics...

Nothing inappropriate.(UNICEF use comics to fight crimes against children)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... PAEDOPHILIA, SEX TOURISM, AIDS -- these might not seem like obvious themes for a children's comic. But at UNICEF we have found that the comic short-story format is perfect for tackling even the most difficult and sensitive issues that may...

Mainstream comic books.
March 1, 2006... EVERY TEN YEARS or so critics suddenly discover that mainstream comics have grown up. Rebranded as 'graphic novels' or 'sequential art', it's now okay for the literati to be seen reading such puerile material--once they've learned how. ...

Someone's avin' a larf: there's a rich- and ribald-tradition of using humour as a political tool. Polyp provides some samples.
March 1, 2006... UNLIKELY AS IT MIGHT SEEM, YOU CAN WIN A POLITICAL campaign by threatening to fart at the right place, in the right numbers, and at the right time. The 1960s' radical activist Saul Alinsky did just that as part of a campaign against...

Natural bedfellows.(Mark Thomas discusses about humor)(Interview)
March 1, 2006... MARK THOMAS is a stand-up comic and media activist, often described as 'Britain's Michael Moore'. Pranks and stunts from his Channel 4 TV show have included setting up a fake Public Relations company at an arms fair and persuading the...

Fagin the Jew.(portrayal of Jews by cartoonists)
March 1, 2006... Cartoonists are guilty of underestimating the insidious potential of their imagery, particularly in portraying a character type. To take one example... By the time Oliver Twist was being serialized in a London magazine, the stereotype of...

Stereo typical.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Shoot the cartoonist.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... "LUKE, WE'VE HAD A WORD WITH THE LAWYERS AND UNFORTUNATELY WE NEED YOU TO MAKE A FEW CHANGES." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "WE DO THINK WHAT YOU'RE SAYING IS RIGHT, BUT IT'S JUST NOT WORTH THE RISK OF A LEGAL CHALLENGE" [ILLUSTRATION...

Magician's tactics.(cartoonists under repressive regimes, Burma)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... IN MARCH 2005 a solo exhibition in Aunglan, Burma, of 50 cartoons by Yae Yae was abruptly closed. This was despite the fact that 45 of the cartoons had already been published and the military government had officially sanctioned the exhibition....

On this day ...
March 1, 2006... Every morning thousands of political cartoonists around the globe spend breakfast chewing over the foreign, national or local news. It makes for a grim start to their day, but finding material to vent their spleens on is rarely a problem. While...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of a cartoonist from the Majority World.(Godfrey Mwampembwa, cartoonist)
March 1, 2006... Godfrey Mwampembwa, aka Gado, was born in Dar es Salaam and has been cartooning since 1985. After freelancing in Tanzania, he moved to Kenya in 1992 to become editorial cartoonist with the Nation Media Group, the largest newspaper outfit in...

Burned alive: why young Afghan women are driven to suicide.(CHILD MARRIAGE)
March 1, 2006... FIVE months after being married at the age of 12, Lila poured petrol over herself and set herself ablaze. Later she whispers from her bed in the overcrowded Howzawi hospital in the western city of Herat that she had wanted to kill herself...

Paper profits in The Gambia.(The Paper Recycling Skills Project)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... 'We wanted to do something for our environment as well as introduce the traditional skill of paper-making to the country,' Saffie Joof (right) explains as she tears, pounds and soaks waste paper. Here, in a five-metre-square room covered with a...

Indigenous revolt spreads: Colombian activists take back the farm.
March 1, 2006... INDIGENOUS Colombians are not only benefiting from the wave of indigenous political power sweeping Latin America, they are providing one of its most compelling examples. Their tool--a series of high-profile farm occupations. [ILLUSTRATION...

Speechmarks.(Currents)
March 1, 2006... If you want to steal some money, don't rob a bank--open one. Bertolt Brecht (1896-1956), German playwright

Lost in translation.(chromium cause cancer?, twisted study results)
March 1, 2006... A groundbreaking public health study by Chinese doctor Zhang Jian Dong in 1987 was used by US regulatory agencies as evidence that a form of the chemical chromium 'might cause cancer.' Ten years later, a 'clarification and further analysis'...

Cameroon's chicken invasion.(cheap imported chicken meat)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Writing in the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, Vittorio Agnoletto cites the 'chicken invasion' of Cameroon as just one example of what happens to African countries when they submit to free trade principles by eliminating duties and economic...

The language of nuclear power.(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Word power 14 conFusion n. belief that nuclear power is the solution to climate change. half-life n. life expectancy in areas where nuclear waste is dumped. reactor n. anti-nuclear protester. wasteland n. poverty-stricken...

Spain versus the despots: Madrid courts put the world's dictators and military murderers on trial.(INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE)
March 1, 2006... SENILE dementia gave General Pinochet the excuse he needed to escape trial in a Spanish court, only for the former dictator to make a miraculous recovery once he was safely back on Chilean tarmac. Yet the General's pursuers did not lose heart....

Break the addiction.(Seriously)
March 1, 2006... The world is transfixed in a state of gaping wonder at President Bush's recent pronouncements regarding the need to break the US's 'oil addiction'. While many wonder whether there is any real action-plan behind the statement, others have been...

Nicolas Sarkozy.(Worldbeaters)
March 1, 2006... Status: Interior Minister, former Finance Minister, leading figure of the Right, presidential wannabe for the 2007 elections in France. Reputation: Tough-talker. Neocon crossed with vulgar populist. Law-and-order guy. Anglophile. Major ego....

Tropicalia a Brazilian Revolution in Sound.(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2006... Tropicalia A Brazilian Revolution In Sound by Various Artists (Soul Jazz SJR 118 CD) When, in 1968, students were erupting on boulevards and campuses throughout the rich world, something similar was happening in Brazil. A momentous...

Pavee Lackeen (The Traveller Girl).(Movie review)
March 1, 2006... Pavee Lackeen (The Traveller Girl) directed by Perry Ogden Ten-year-old Winnie lives in shanty-town conditions without water, electricity or a toilet, on a messy Dublin industrial estate. Her mother struggles with officials to get a...

World's Fastest Indian.(Movie review)
March 1, 2006... World's Fastest Indian directed by Roger Donaldson Burt Munro was a sweet, unassuming, eccentric old man. He lived in a concrete-block shack, in a mess of a yard, in an otherwise neat suburban street in Invercargill, New...

Long Walk To Freedom.(Movie review)
March 1, 2006... Long Walk To Freedom by Ladysmith Black Mambazo (Heads Up HUCD 3109 CD) There are a handful of South African musicians whose music is synonymous with the struggle against apartheid, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo (LBM) are among them. On...

Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Tell Me No Lies Investigative journalism and its triumphs edited by John Pilger (Vintage ISBN 0 099 43745 7) Does investigative journalism make a difference? Embedded as we invariably are in a swamp of deceit, it is easy to think not....

The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Great War For Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East by Robert Fisk (4th Estate ISBN 1 84511 007 X) Those who have read Pity the Nation, Robert Fisk's epic chronicle of Lebanon's wars and invasions, will know that he does...

Justice & rights: Imran Shafi argues that Iran's democratic opposition cannot afford to choose one over the other.
March 1, 2006... In May 1997 a young, vibrant and progressive politician thrilled the nation, winning a landslide victory and putting an end to years of conservative dominance at the ballot box. 'At last,' people thought, 'we will see real change!' However, by...

NI prize crossword.
March 1, 2006... 106 by AXE 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. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Post your...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2006... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bolivia's new politics.(View from Cochabamba)
March 1, 2006... On a Saturday morning last August, Alvaro Garcia Linera, a Bolivian sociologist who spent five years in jail as an accused guerrilla, stood before a union hall in Cochabamba, surrounded by leaders of Bolivia's diverse social movements. ...

Bob-a-job.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... The article on Bob Geldof (Worldbeaters, Squatter Town, NI 386) only reinforced my reservations about him. The companies included in the Live 8 sponsors are amongst the most unethical companies today, including Europe's largest arms...

Quiet humanity.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I shall miss Reem Haddad's Letter from Lebanon. In telling NI readers of the travails and joys of life in Beirut and Lebanon in her matter-of-fact but heartfelt manner (and none more heartfelt than her final cri de coeur), she has always...

Justice denied.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I found Justice after genocide (NI 385) profoundly moving and inspirational. It shows that even in the darkest times, when people face the worst forms of repression and suffer gross human rights abuses, there are always brave souls who have the...

Credibility undermined.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I was deeply disappointed by 'Challenging Impunity' (NI 385). I lived and worked in northern Uganda for 18 months (2000-02), supporting local peace organizations. I wholeheartedly condemn the appalling atrocities committed by the Lord's...

Corruption's stain.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... Corruption is the single biggest obstacle to development in Africa and we must overcome it in order to move forward. Ike Oguine (View from Lagos, NI 385) discussed the lack of faith that Nigerians have in President Obasanjo's anti-corruption...

Equal voice.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I read I've got a right! (Disability in the Majority World, NI 384) with both great interest and despair. The many stories about people with disabilities from around the world and the attitudes, prejudices and neglect they are forced to live...

What's in a name.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I liked the different subspecies of NGO (in BINGO!, NI 383). Really, the term GRINGO should have been reserved for NGOs under the influence of Washington. Perhaps we need another subspecies for NGOs that are deceptive about their aims and...

Different meaning.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... I wondered if you knew that the term BINGO (NI 383) has become established with a very different meaning? BINGO is 'Business Interest NGO' in distinction to PINGO 'Public Interest NGO'. We and others have pressed UN bodies to draw a...

Clarification.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... Our photograph of victims of the 1937 Nanjing massacre in Justice after genocide (NI 386) drew puzzled queries from readers Hugh Mildmay and Martin Reid because the portraits in the photographs were mainly in colour. We should have made clear...

A yellow flag in the sunset.(Letter from Mauritius)
March 1, 2006... THE fishing pirogue Ram and I bought old in 1983 started taking in a bit of water recently, and right now is when we need it. It's the season when the sea is beautiful way out beyond the reef, for fishing, playing with dolphins or watching...

Pakistan.(Country Profile)
March 1, 2006... Perhaps the most famous anecdote in Pakistan is this: while most countries have an army, in Pakistan the army has a country. Almost 60 years after its creation from the dying embers of British colonialism as a haven for the Muslims of the...