New Internationalist articles from May 2005

New Internationalist archives from May 2005

From this month's editor.
May 1, 2005... 'Planet Earth stands on the cusp of disaster and people should no longer take it for granted that their children and grandchildren will survive in the environmentally degraded world of the 21st century.' So said Britain's Independent newspaper...

Stickler.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... I thought that the NI was published in the UK but after reading State of Fear I had to check inside the front cover to make sure. The day that the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were attacked is etched on everyone's mind as...

George doesn't get it.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Theodore Roszak in 'An open letter to George Bush' (NI 376) talked about authoritarian sensibilities. It seems that the administration in Washington is getting pretty close to fascism, the ultimate for an authoritarian regime. Too bad that the...

Reel in the rebels.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... I was saddened to see the article on death threats against Walden Bello (Currents, NI 376)--a man for whom I have great admiration and respect. But I am not surprised that as the (peaceful) world social justice movement continues to gain ground...

Sorted!(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Many thanks for demonstrating so clearly how and why the ideals of the United Nations Organization (UNO) have been degraded to such an extent that the body is now no more than a servile rubber-stamper of The American Way (Upside dowN: The UN at...

Unreported murder.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... I always enjoy The unreported year (NI 375), not least because of the positive items. If there were a prize for the most unreported region then I would like to nominate West Papua. Hundreds of thousands of West Papuans have been killed...

Tragic symbol.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Like 9/11, a date which has become symbolic of a great tragedy, 12/26, the date of the horrendous Asian tsunami, should also become symbolic of a vastly greater tragedy. It should serve as a constant reminder of the necessity for the long-term...

Insecurity and injustice.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... Most of us are conditioned to fight insecurity, but in fighting it we inflict it on others. In writing that security comes from within individuals, Jeremy Seabrook hints at the solution ('Insecure lives', State of Fear, NI 376) but, sadly, he...

Dear departed: as Lebanon roils with unrest, Reem Haddad revisits the immediate aftermath of Rafic Hariri's murder.
May 1, 2005... I still feel that I can't wake up. I keep thinking that he's coming back and all will return to normal. But Rafic Hariri is dead. A bomb was detonated just as the ex-Prime Minister's convoy passed through a ritzy seaside road at the edge of the...

Highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority World.(SOUTHERN EXPOSURE)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... 'We are at the mercy of the river. Sometimes it spares us the agony of shifting out. Sometimes it doesn't. But almost always it haunts us.' Zoinuddin is a grizzled 70 years old. He is one of the people who live on the temporary islands of the...

The burden of notoriety.(IKE OGUINE'S VIEW FROM THE SOUTH)
May 1, 2005... THE poverty and suffering of Africa has recently been making headlines. The reincarnation of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' by Bob Geldof and Co, and British finance minister Gordon Brown's tour of Africa, recently highlighted the concern. The...

The son of the snow is angry: loss of glaciers threatens indigenous culture.(EAST AFRICA)
May 1, 2005... AFRICA, according to current predictions, will be the continent most affected by climate change--a sad irony considering its nominal contribution to global greenhouse-gas emissions. For the BaKonzo--a people living within the Rwenzori Mountains...

Population engineering in China.(CURRENTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... An estimated 200 to 300 million births in China have been avoided by its one-child policy, promulgated in 1979. As the country grapples with a looming labour shortage resulting from the policy, other repercussions are emerging. Last year,...

West Bengal bans strikes in call centres.(CURRENTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Although he calls himself a communist, the chief minister of West Bengal, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has banned strikes in information technology outsource centres, declaring that they are 'essential services' like the military and utility...

Tortured justice: hopes that Syria's much criticized judicial system may be reformed.(HUMAN RIGHTS)
May 1, 2005... This February, in the Military Court in Damascus, 18 Kurds stood trial for 'activity against the authority of the state' for their alleged role in a riot in the northern Syrian city of Qamishli in March 2004. All 18 told the judge they had been...

Speechmarks.(CURRENTS)
May 1, 2005... "I am an uncompromising pacifist... I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family." Rosika Schwimer (1877-1948), Hungarian writer, editor, pacifist, suffragist

Canada sows sterile seeds.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... 'The Canadian Government has acted shamefully. It is supporting a dangerous, anti-farmer technology that aims to eliminate the rights of farmers to save and reuse harvested seed.' The words are those of Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, speaking...

The language of Africa.(CURRENTS)
May 1, 2005... Word power 7 Congo n. party dance where a line is formed, and you shoot the person in front of you. Whoever is left is made president (invariably the person at the back). WarRing n. ring studded with conflict diamonds landmine...

Life lottery: US military targets poor Hispanics for frontline service in Iraq.(WAR ON TERROR)
May 1, 2005... They have been variously described as 'working class mercenaries', 'green card troops', 'non-citizen' armies, or desperate recruits of the US Government's 'poverty draft'. They are the huge contingent of Hispanic personnel who--for personal...

Leader of the pack.(Tales of a mixed-up world)
May 1, 2005... Wildlife experts are over the moon about the latest discovery of a new member of a rare breed of wolf thought to be nearing extinction. The species, known as canis lupus presidentus worldbankum, was believed to be on its last legs, until news...

Only protect ...
May 1, 2005... For once, the NI has not written its own editorial. What follows is the introductory statement of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. This was initiated by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2000 and has involved more than 1,360 experts...

Mswati III.(WORLDBEATERS)
May 1, 2005... Job: King of Swaziland Reputation: The last absolute monarch south of the Sahara 'IT has been our advice to the King that he must concentrate on one thing at a time,' admitted a senior Prince close to King Mswati III of Swaziland. 'He...

Water Inc.(MIXED MEDIA)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Water Inc by Varda Burstyn (Verso ISBN 185984 597 7) Varda Burstyn is a distinguished environmental writer and her debut novel--an accomplished eco-thriller--confirms her as an author who knows her subject inside out. Water Inc...

Step Forward.(MIXED MEDIA)(Video Recording Review)
May 1, 2005... Step Forward by Juan de Marcos (DM Ahora! DM 0001 CD) Delightful though the Buena Vista Social Club still is, even this group of peerless--and elderly--musicians cannot continue to shoulder the responsibility for Cuba's prodigious...

War in the Land of Egypt.(MIXED MEDIA)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... War in the Land of Egypt by Yusuf al-Qa'id translated by Olive and Lorne Kelly and Christopher Tingley (Arris Books ISBN 184437 033 X) Written in 1975 and banned in the author's country of birth, War in the Land of Egypt is...

Seven Gates.(MIXED MEDIA)(Video Recording Review)
May 1, 2005... Seven Gates by Abdullah Chhadeh & Nara (ABYC CH 1001 CD) If there's a single instrument that typifies the music of the Middle East, it's the qanun, in all its shimmering, microtonal glory. For centuries, this plucked zither has...

Book of Memory: A Rastafari Testimony.(MIXED MEDIA)(Book Review)
May 1, 2005... Book of Memory: A Rastafari Testimony composed by Prince Elijah Williams, edited by Michael Kuelker (CaribSound, ISBN 0 9746021 0 8) Outside Jamaica, Rastafarianism is commonly associated with Bob Marley and reggae music; for...

Wild Side.(MIXED MEDIA)(Movie Review)
May 1, 2005... Wild Side written and directed by Sebastien Lifshitz The camera lingers on the back, we see the cleavage between the buttocks, but we don't know if this is a man or a woman. From another angle, we see the swelling of a breast. The...

In Your Hands.(MIXED MEDIA)(Movie Review)
May 1, 2005... In Your Hands directed by Annette K Olesen Anna has just become a prison chaplain and, after years of trying, pregnant, Kate, a former addict, is inside for neglecting her daughter who died of thirst. Anna, young, approachable, caring,...

Film news ...(MIXED MEDIA)
May 1, 2005... Fast-food giants McDonald's are getting a 50th birthday present which is about as good for them as a birthday meal in one of their own outlets. The makers of McLibel--the excellent documentary (reviewed in NI 305) that told the story of Helen...

The NI prize crossword.
May 1, 2005... 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 you entry to NI Crossword, 55 Rectory Road, Oxford, OX4...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
May 1, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with The Association of Iranian Blogwriters (Penlog).(making waves)
May 1, 2005... As member states met at the UN building in Geneva on 17 February 2005 to prepare for the next World Summit on the Information Society, a small delegation of cyber-dissidents held a press conference in a coffee shop downtown. Their purpose: to...

Hungry season in Timor-Leste: after the Portuguese and the Indonesians has come an invasion of aid donors and free-market blueprints. Ben Moxham wonders why people in newly liberated Timor-Leste (East Timor), who have endured so much, should now be starving.(ESSAY)
May 1, 2005... On 7 February 2005 the Timor-Leste newspaper Suara Timor Loro Sa'e reported that since October 2004 at least 53 people had died of starvation in the village of Hatabuilico. 'There is absolutely nothing to eat,' Domingos de Araujo, the...

Jordan.(COUNTRY PROFILE)
May 1, 2005... A STROLL along the streets of central Amman, Jordan's capital, presents no indication that this is an ancient city, whose continuous existence spans three millennia. Over a fifth of Jordan's population live here: 1.2 million people, from the...