New Internationalist articles from May 2004

New Internationalist archives from May 2004

From this month's editor.(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... 'PERHAPS you will be surprised to hear from me. But be assured that my intentions are most noble and honest and what I am offering you is a reputable business transaction. 'I am the long lost daughter of General Sani Abacha of Nigeria /...

Good to talk?(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... 1 The article on mobile phones being a good thing in Africa as they are reinforcing oral traditions and creating new opportunities ('Good to talk', Currents, NI365) must be read in the context of the human cost of using such technologies....

Free for all.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I read with interest your articles about the IMF and World Bank and how their policies have been such a dismal failure (More World, Less Bank, N1365). On the contrary, their policies have succeeded brilliantly in doing what they set out to...

Treatment and abuse.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Thank you for printing an article on intersex medical treatment and its effects ('The self I will never know', Equality, NI 364). As an intersex person myself, I think there are some strong parallels between intersex medical treatment and child...

Cruellest cut.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... Esther Morris (NI 364) raises important questions about the ethics of genital surgery on babies born with ambiguous genitalia. However, does anyone have the right to reshape the genitals of underage children because of religion or custom? ...

Hands on.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I read the Equality issue from cover to cover, heartened by the progress made in places like Rwanda and Somaliland and sobered by the huge amount of work yet to do in the world to achieve gender equality. But the 'Equality Watch: Women and...

Right Libertarianism.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... While it is true that laissez-faire liberal Robert Nozick defines himself as a Libertarian ('A few thoughts on equality', NI 364), the Right is notorious for hijacking popular left-wing language and philosophies. Peter Marshall notes in...

Oh, do grow up!(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I enjoyed reading the Equality issue. Many people seem to need to 'hate' another group of people. If they cannot publicly hate someone because of their race, then they will find an easier target to project their hate onto, such as homosexuals...

Howard's army.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... According to Rowan Callick ('Ballots, guns and money', The Unreported Year 2003, NI 364): 'Australian military deployments to Iraq and East Timor are responses to its concern about regional security after 11 September, the 2002 Bali bombing and...

Just desserts.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... I thought I should defend the NI's placing of 'Cannibals apologize to the eaten' (NI 363) in the Seriously column. Although I agree with Belinda Burnside's statement (Letters, NI 365) that Australian politicians (and other colonial governments...

The way back: Reem Haddad on the return from Israel of Lebanese detainees.(Letter from Lebanon)
May 1, 2004... The old man couldn't stop crying. 'My boy is coming home today,' he repeated. 'I can't believe it. It's finally over.' Behind him, a woman was holding a bouquet of flowers. 'They're for my husband,' she said, trembling slightly. 'We're...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The Out of Focus calendar is a project Drik Pictures has been working on for some time. This is one of a series of images taken by children and selected by them for the calendar. The images are accompanied by the children's observations about...

Rainbow warriors.(View from the South)
May 1, 2004... RICHARD NIXON, that eminent historian, in 1972 delivered to his closest collaborators the following crash course on the decadence of Greece and Rome: 'You know what happened to the Greeks? Homosexuality destroyed them! Aristotle was a homo, we...

Calmer waters: Nile Basin countries co-operate in water-sharing treaty.(Water)
May 1, 2004... THE threat that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water may be receding, at least in East Africa. The abundant waters of the longest river in the world, the Nile, could be about to be shared more equitably among the 10...

Migrants demand equality in South Korea.(Water)
May 1, 2004... The South Korean Government is cracking down on undocumented migrant workers with new labour laws introduced in June 2003 to restrict employment rights. These have been met with civil unrest and almost daily protests. Thousands of migrants...

Pint-size visionary: a farewell to activist and NI contributor Tooker Gomberg.(Resistance)(Obituary)
May 1, 2004... ONE of Canada's leading environmental activists is dead at the age of 48. Tooker Gomberg was a vibrant, pint-size visionary who believed passionately in social justice and environmental sanity. In the midst of his relentless activism Tooker had...

Nepal is South Asia's worst trouble spot.(Resistance)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Over 1,500 people dead, 250 disappeared and thousands made homeless fleeing their ravaged villages. These are not the final casualty figures in the wake of a natural disaster, but the toll of the Maoist conflict in Nepal since the collapse of...

Speechmarks.(Currents)
May 1, 2004... To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning...

Vaccine/inoculate.(Word Corner)
May 1, 2004... Edward Jenner (1749-1823) developed the smallpox vaccination after noticing that milkmaids who had caught cowpox were immune to the more serious smallpox. Vaccine is from the Latin vacca, cow. Inoculate is from the Latin oculus (eye or bud)....

Banish sweat.(Resistance)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The most fashionable new shoe on the market could make sweat a thing of the past. But this is not a scientific breakthrough in the quest to rid the world of smelly feet. The world's first fair-trade sneaker made without sweatshop labour is...

Dollar diplomacy: US undermines initiative to provide poor countries with access to AIDS antiretrovirals.(HIV/AIDS)
May 1, 2004... In May 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it would provide the technical and organizational support to provide three million people in poor countries with antiretroviral treatment by the year 2005. A meeting convened by...

Caressing the cortex.(Seriously ...)
May 1, 2004... So you thought the Stalinist Soviet Union was the last world in attempts at mind control? (Double) think again. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The charmingly named BrightHouse is a US company based in Atlanta, Georgia, which specializes in...

The scramble for Africa: Africa is endowed with an overwhelming abundance of gems, metals, minerals and other natural resources--but Katharine Ainger asks whether this wealth is a blessing or a curse.(Keynote)
May 1, 2004... TILBURY dock, on the sea-reach of the Thames, is a bizarre industrial landscape patrolled by strange beast-like machinery: trucks lift sea-containers in their jaws and place them on railway wagons and lorries. Towering over them are giant...

The looting of the Congo: the Democratic Republic of Congo has perhaps the richest concentration of precious metals and minerals on earth. Colette Braeckman describes how their exploitation by warring factions has fuelled the worst conflict anywhere since the Second World War.(Democratic Republic of Congo)
May 1, 2004... ONLY the tiny planes that sit on Kamituga's bare earth runway link this mining town in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to the rest of the world. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The last time Europeans visited Kamituga was over five...

War crimes: medic Helen Clarkson reports from Baraka by Lake Tanganyika where sexual violence is a weapon of war.
May 1, 2004... THE town of Baraka sits on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the South Kivu province of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It ought to be a prosperous town. The lake is full of fish, the land between the edge of the lake and the nearby...

Resource wars the facts.
May 1, 2004... War * During the 1990s 5 million people around the world are estimated to have been killed in conflicts; 6 million fled to neighbouring countries and a further 11-15 million were internally displaced. (1) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] *...

The arms smugglers: gold, gems and other war loot are smuggled out of conflict zones and swapped for guns and cash. Wairagala Wakabi exposes the networks of arms dealers, smugglers, merchants, warlords and governments in the Great Lakes region.(Arms Smuggling)
May 1, 2004... FOR many decades the small, dusty northeastern Congolese town of Aru thrived largely on trade with Uganda. Its rich farmlands supplied cassava and beans to the Ugandan town of Arua, which is just 10 kilometres over the border and is the main...

Fuelling the fire: the flow of Liberian lumber has played a key role in fuelling conflict. Alice Blondel explains.(Timber)
May 1, 2004... YOU probably haven't heard of 'conflict timber', but it was the fuel for war in Liberia. Former President Charles Taylor, now in exile, used the logging industry to prolong regional violence, traffic arms and boost his personal wealth. Sections...

Making a killing: private military firms say they are the future of humanitarian intervention in Africa. The mercenary behaviour of some suggests otherwise. Andre Verloy investigates.(Private Military Companies)
May 1, 2004... In November 1998, the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front were conducting an orgy of looting, murder and decapitation in 'Operation No Living Thing'. Sierra Leone's demoralized and under-equipped army was bolstered by Nigerian troops...

Diamonds in the rough: the world now recognizes the need to control 'conflict' diamonds. Janine Roberts welcomes the progress but argues that the poor are still paying the price.(Conflict Diamonds)
May 1, 2004... DUST swirled across razor wire over the vast shantytown and engulfed me. It encrusted my lips, got into my eyes. The dust was kimberlite, a grey rock from which diamonds are extracted and named after the town in which I stood: Kimberley, South...

Clean up trade.(Action)
May 1, 2004... 'Nobody can do everything but everybody can do something' as the poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron said. Around the world new initiatives and proposals are emerging to stop those making a killing out of conflict. Together, with political will,...

Pledge.(Action)
May 1, 2004... Support the Kimberley Process to ensure that diamonds are not fuelling war and conflict. This international initiative (see pages 24-25) requires that rough diamonds are sealed in tamper-proof containers and given an official certificate of...

Disinvest.(Action)
May 1, 2004... Profits generated by the oil and mining sectors are often in inverse proportion to the well-being of local people and the environment (see pages 9-12). Institutions that channel public money, such as through Export Credit Agencies (ECAs) and...

Control the small arms trade.(Outlaw War)
May 1, 2004... 'How loud do you expect us to yell and cry out? How much pain and suffering do you think that we're able to bear? How many heads and arms will be cut off by rockets before someone will give us a listening ear?'--Emily Baker, whose husband was...

Stop the use of child soldiers.(Outlaw War)
May 1, 2004... The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers is campaigning for states to ratify the 'Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict' which would set 18 as the minimum age for...

Make corporations responsible.(Outlaw War)
May 1, 2004... There are currently no binding international rules to hold companies to account when they extract or trade in resources fuelling conflict. Initiatives such as the Core Campaign www.corporate-responsibility.org are pushing for national corporate...

Hold the warmongers to account.(Outlaw War)
May 1, 2004... The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first permanent international judicial body capable of trying individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Businesspeople who have knowingly traded in conflict resources, as...

Use national laws.(Outlaw War)
May 1, 2004... The US has a unique tool that allows foreigners the right to seek compensation for violations of international law in US courts. No other country has a law quite like it. The accused must be in the US to be served court papers but otherwise...

Create.(Poem)
May 1, 2004... Create create create in mind create in muscle create in nerve create in man create in the masses create create with dry eyes create create over the profanation of the forest over the brazen fortress of the whip...

The trots.(Worldbeaters)
May 1, 2004... Job: Promoting Worldwide Trotskyist Revolution Wherever Possible Reputation: The Real Revolutionaries WHENEVER tragedy strikes, one thing can be counted on--the media will descend on the location like a plague of locusts. Then, when all...

Songs for a Raggy Boy.(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Songs for a Raggy Boy directed by Aisling Walsh Song for a Raggy Boy follows The Magdalen Sisters as the second Irish feature in recent times about the suffering of children in reform 'schools' run by the Catholic Church. Set in 1939...

Mirrors.(Brief Article)(Sound Recording Review)
May 1, 2004... Mirrors by Kev Carmody (Song Cycles CD) Being described as Australia's Bob Dylan could be a hard tag to live up to, but singer-songwriter Kev Carmody has the vision and the versatility that's always marked the American's career....

Liberation.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Liberation by Trans Am (Thrill Jockey THRILL144 CD/LP) Police sirens, guns, rotor blades: for Washington DC's Trans Am it's the sound of their homeland gone mad. Liberation is loaded with such sounds, collaged into a soundtrack...

The Bleeding of the Stone.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim al-Koni translated by May Jayyusi and Christopher Tingley (Arris Books ISBN 184437 015 1) This deceptively simple tale by one of Libya's foremost novelists has the power and qualities of a...

From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... From Homebreakers to Jailbreakers by Southall Black Sisters edited by Rahila Gupta (Zed Press ISBN 1 84277 441 7) Feminism is alive, well and fighting fit. Well, at least in Southall, a West London suburb. Southall Black...

The Naked Pioneer Girl.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... The Naked Pioneer Girl by Mikhail Kononov translated by Andrew Bromfield (Serpent's Tail, ISBN 1 85242 835 X) On a desolate battlefield, 15-year-old Midge, a Soviet Pioneer, plods to her execution whistling a jaunty tune. The...

Pre-Emptive Empire A Guide to Bush's Kingdom.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... Pre-Emptive Empire A Guide to Bush's Kingdom by Saul Landau (Pluto Press ISBN 0 7453 2140 2) Award-winning documentary maker, writer and radio broadcaster Saul Landau modestly suggests that he is offering some recent 'journal...

Interview with Daud Sharifa Khanam.(Making Waves)(Interview)
May 1, 2004... DAUD SHARIFA KHANAM--a village woman from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu--appears unpretentious. But her intentions are audacious, revolutionary and disarmingly simple. She wants to create a mosque for women in Pudukkottai District,...

Decolonization and us: the continuing military dictatorship in Pakistan raises profound questions about the nature of law and legitimacy. Aasim Sajjad Akhtar argues that the answers can't be found in the legacy of colonial institutions and the elites who still benefit from them.(Essay)
May 1, 2004... Every once in a while it is worth pausing to reconsider certain facts of life that we have almost always taken as given. Particularly because of the conflict over Pakistan's Legal Framework Order (LFO) recently, there have been numerous...

Bolivia.(Country Profile)
May 1, 2004... BOLIVIA is South America's poorest nation and the most indigenous nation in all of the Americas. Appreciated by foreign tourists for its striking geography--impossibly high plains, deep Amazon Basin jungles and tranquil colonial cities--Bolivia...