New Internationalist articles from May 2007

New Internationalist archives from May 2007

Daring to dream.(From this month's editor)
May 1, 2007... There's been quite a lot of struggle in this edition. I don't mean editorial toil and gnashing of teeth. Rather that the word 'struggle' kept cropping up in articles, wagging like a persistent tail. There don't seem to be synonyms that match...

Real culprit.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Re: The Facts in Cotton: The peril and the promise (NI 399). A depressed world cotton price of 50 per cent, but a projected increase of only 11-26 per cent if the US stops subsidy? A great issue NI, once again highlighting a need for change,...

Misled on Poland.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I found your article about the Kaczynski brothers (Worldbeaters, NI 399) somewhat misleading. Though you are right to criticize them heavily, I felt there was some unjustified comment on Poland itself. The statement 'Poland has always been...

X marks the spot.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Thanks for Inside Iran (NI 398). It is always good to see positive news coming from anywhere, but when it is a 'pariah state' like Iran it is even more welcome--and it seemed a good mix of the negative as well. It was such an inspired...

Beyond the hotbed.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... The Western mainstream media and politicians lead us to believe that Iran is nothing more than a repressive, ultra-conservative and homogeneous terrorist 'hotbed'. Coverage of Iran conjures images of mad mullahs marshalling thousands of...

For the record.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... It was so refreshing to have articles which gave us the real Iran. The article on women's rights in particular moved me to tears. However, I wish to pick up on a couple of inaccuracies in your history of Iran. You claim that the Jews didn't...

Old Europe.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... As an avid NI reader I was sad to read in 'Iran--a history' that you subscribe to the dominant but debatable view that 'the dawn of civilization' was in the fourth millennium BCE. Eminent archaeologist Marija Gimbutas and others have uncovered...

Faslane Peace Camp.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... 'Ban Blair's Bomb' (Currents, NI 398) in the recent issue mentioned the 'Faslane 365' blockades which have been running since October 2006. It could be read to imply that the campaign against Faslane Naval Base has only been running since then....

Credit to unions.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... I was fortunate enough to find the State of the World's Oceans magazine (NI 397) in a waiting room the other day. It is great that there is an organization such as yours which is actively promoting social justice. I particularly enjoyed 'Lost...

Real Conservative.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... Re: your Worldbeaters on Stephen Harper (Ethical shopping, NI 395). I agree that Harper is a rightwing ideologue and control freak, but your comparisons to George W Bush are quite false. While Bush's selling point is his 'personality',...

Tactical reductions.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2007... It seems to me that if governments were serious about reducing carbon dioxide emissions (CO2nned, NI 391) a good tactic would be to introduce mandatory CO2 labelling on all products. This would allow consumers to make more informed decisions...

The dhal puri queue: Lindsey Collen drops in to a street summit while waiting for a tasty snack.(Letter from Mauritius)
May 1, 2007... The street vendor worked swiftly from inside and on top of the perspex cube on his bicycle, as we stood watching him and talking. I was in a dhal puri queue along the edge of a stone pavement in Port Louis. There are two other dhal puri sellers...

Daring to dream: Dinyar Godrej finds dreamers hard at work, living the change they want to see.(KEYNOTE)
May 1, 2007... We smoothed out the promotional brochure on the sand and did a double take--on the glossy paper was a transparent turquoise sea, a beach that sparkled like sugar and vegetation of such a vivid green it was an invitation to get lost. Looking up...

Revenge.(poem)
May 1, 2007... My personal revenge will be your children's right to schooling and to flowers. My personal revenge will be this song bursting for you with no more fears. My personal revenge will be to make you see the goodness in my people's eyes,...

Cultural invaders: how AfroReggae offer a different beat to the pulse of drugs and gun crime in Rio.(Rio de Janeiro)
May 1, 2007... Here's a choice: sweat through the working week in a dead end job that pays barely enough to keep body and soul together; or flash about dripping in bling, respected and feared in equal measure, earning and spending in a day the kind of cold...

Power surge: rural women in South Africa are doing it for themselves.
May 1, 2007... 'I am rural. I am poor. I am black. And, of course, I am a woman,' explains Sizani Ngubane, the founder of the Rural Women's Movement (RWM) in South Africa. 'My mother was abused by my father and his male relatives. I grew up knowing I had to...

Sand in the wheels: why activist intellectual Walden Bello thinks globalization has stalled.(Daring to dream)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Walden Bello is one of globalization's sharpest critics. And he has a good track record of being ahead of events. A post-graduate student in the US when Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in his home country, the Philippines, Bello...

Deep green: Brazil's Movement of Small Farmers knows what's good for their land is also good for the people.(Daring to dream)
May 1, 2007... Something is growing fast in the Brazilian countryside. And it's not just the monoculture plantations of eucalyptus, soy and sugar cane for which city-sized chunks of rainforest are cleared. The Movement of Small Farmers (Movimiento de Pequenos...

Trial by fire: why Ugandan transgender activist Victor Juliet Mukasa is taking on the Government in an historic court case.(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Victor Juliet Mukasa began 'transgressing gender', as she puts it, right from childhood. It brought no end of trouble. She was raised as a little girl by her family and treated as one at school, but she rebelled and was punished for doing so...

Acts of conscience: a courageous AIDS activist who knows the power of moral pressure.(Zackie Achmat)
May 1, 2007... Zackie Achmat, the South African political activist most famous for his stand on AIDS, has inspired many. But if you ask him for his source of inspiration, he will credit his grandfather: 'His example instilled in me the importance of treating...

The indivisible I: Indian queer activist Gautam Bhan on why sexuality rights need to be viewed in a different light.
May 1, 2007... Vijaya is a hijra (a member of India's traditional transgendered communities) who lives in an urban slum on the outskirts of New Delhi. She can't get a public ration card that would entitle her to subsidized food because all her documents...

Secret service: working undercover, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan exposes fundamentalists of every stripe.
May 1, 2007... The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) turns 30 this year. For three long decades they have operated underground--first during Soviet occupation, then under the iron fist of the Taliban, and now under the rule of...

Learning for life: Burma's generals consider her an enemy of the state, but human rights activist Charm Tong has a mission to educate.
May 1, 2007... Nestled in a secret location on the Thai-Burma border is a house full of youngsters from Burma's Shan state. They live here at close quarters and are under a form of 'house arrest', keeping a low profile and staying under the radar of the Thai...

Watchful eyes: making solidarity work to keep corruption at bay in India.
May 1, 2007... The melting summers of India's Rajasthan state frighten off even the tourists who come drawn by desert scenes and ancient forts. In Rajasthan's villages the scorching heat brings the leanest of times. Food and water runs short and farming...

Screen lives: beyond the 'fantasias' of Bollywood, Indian cinema is getting real.
May 1, 2007... 'Cinema in India has brought people together,' says activist filmmaker Amudhan RP, in the small Madurai studio where he is editing his latest documentary. With the cost of a cinema ticket averaging $0.20, the world's largest film industry is...

Pump up the volume: radio listening clubs amplify voices from the margins in Southern Africa.
May 1, 2007... How's this for an improbable link-up? Take poor village communities with problems few outsiders care about. Organize them into clubs and get them up to speed with basic radio production techniques. Offer training on moderating discussions and...

Continental shift: no time like the present. The current political moment in Latin America is breathing new life into the left. Argentinean political scientist Carlos M Vilas takes stock of the changes afoot.(Daring to dream)
May 1, 2007... The political map of a large part of Latin America is being redrawn by the combined effect of popular movements and elections. The concerns of labour unions, movements of indigenous peoples and peasants, organizations of women, young people,...

The diverse, the multiple, the different: a no-nonsense statement of resistance from the indigenous people of Oaxaca, Mexico.
May 1, 2007... Neither independence from Spanish colonial rule in 1821 nor the Revolution that began in 1910 spared the indigenous people of Mexico--numbering more than 10 million today--from continuing, often systematic, abuse. But their resistance has never...

40 years is enough.(Six Day War anniversary)
May 1, 2007... With this issue New Internationalist initiates a regular Special Feature in addition to the main theme. June marks the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbours; the continuous occupation of Palestinian land in...

Narcos and Bushes: Guatemala's grim start to the year.(HUMAN RIGHTS)(George W. Bush)
May 1, 2007... It's been a bad beginning to 2007 in Guatemala. First there was General Jose Efrain Rios Montt, architect of the early 1980s' genocide against the country's majority Mayan population, announcing his latest political plans. The born-again Montt,...

Be careful who you sleep with.(CORPORATIONS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... After billionaire insurance mogul Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg was charged with fraud and insurance and securities violations, he hired the eSapience PR firm--whose executives include the dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management--to buff up his...

The language of advertising ...(Currents)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Word power 27 Adled a. state of confusion caused by mass marketing AD Latin abbrev. in the year of our sponsor billboard n. public shrine to dollars flier n. small piece of marketing used to fill wastebins pop up v. to...

Porter's plight: bearing the backpacking burden in the Nepali Himalayas.(TOURISM)
May 1, 2007... Visitors have started returning to Nepal since King Gyanendra's violent, and unsuccessful, crackdown on his political opponents at the beginning of 2006. Forced to restore parliament and quit as head of government, the King was stripped of...

Hands off our water!(PRIVATIZATION)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... A range of European and Majority World activist organizations used World Water Day (22 March) to register their resistance to the European Commission's continuing efforts to include water as part of free trade talks with governments of the...

Special status for Srebrenica.(BALKANS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Several hundred returnees claim Srebrenica should be excluded from the jurisdiction of Republika Srpska (RS), because the International Court of Justice, ICJ, declared in February that it holds RS forces accountable for genocide which took...

Mauritania votes.(AFRICA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... In March this year the West African country of Mauritania held its first open and fair election in decades. In August 2005, a bloodless military coup led by Col Ely Ould Mahmed Vail ended Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya's 21 years of strong-arm...

Speechmarks.(Currents)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... "Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times--times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation--that they have to rank alongside slavery and...

'I don't believe in love marriages': an Indian serial kidnapper interviewed.(FUNDAMENTALISM)(Babubhai Patel )(Interview)
May 1, 2007... 'I have some masala for you,' Babubhai Patel (alias Babu Bajrangi) told me excitedly, when I called to arrange an interview with him. 'There are three new girls with me.' The Serial Kidnapper of Gujarat has never shied away from his mission....

Life in the Faslane.(Seriously)
May 1, 2007... OK, imagine this scenario. You live in a small community in a gorgeous nook of Western Scotland where you don't need to worry about locking your doors, the air is crisp and clean and church attendance is high. The only snag is that you live in...

NI prize crossword.(New Internationalist)
May 1, 2007... 119 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)
May 1, 2007... Polyp exhibition, Manchester UK, OPENS 18th May. Detailspolyp@polyp.org.uk [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Karl Rove.(Worldbeaters)
May 1, 2007... Job: Deputy Chief of Staff to US President George W Bush Reputation: Bush's Brains, Turd Blossom (Texan term for a flower that grows from cow dung, used as an endearment by Bush) Ever since his birth on Christmas Day 1950, Karl Rove has...

Segu Blue.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Segu Blue by Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba (OH 007 CD) Ngoni ba--or 'the big lute'--is a pretty good way to describe the debut album of West African Bassekou Kouyate and Mali's first traditional lute quartet. Segu Blue is as floaty as...

Folk Songs for the Five Points.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Folk Songs for the Five Points by David Gunn and Victor Gama (Lower East Side Tenement Museum TM1 CD) The Five Points (historic focal point of Scorsese's film Gangs of New York) no longer exist. Instead, this area in lower Manhattan...

Fast Food Nation.(Movie review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Fast Food Nation directed by Richard Linklater Very few feature films start out as non-fiction books. Linklater's movie, like Eric Schlosser's original bestseller, is very informative. You will learn a lot of shit about the American...

Graffiti My Soul.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... Graffiti My Soul by Niven Govinden (Canongate, ISBN 9781 84195 888 0) Veerapen Prendrapen--half Jewish, half Tamil--is the fastest runner in his school; at 15 he is a highly promising athlete, perhaps Olympic material. He lives in...

L'Oreal took My Home.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... L'Oreal took My Home by Monica Waitzfelder translated from the French by Peter Bush (Arcadia Books, ISBN 1905147 11 2) In his introduction to this book, the famous Nazi-hunter Serge Klarsfeld sets the scene for Monica Waitzfelder's...

The Corporation that Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2007... The Corporation that Changed the World How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational by Nick Robins (Orient Longman ISBN 81 250 3022 0; Pluto Press ISBN 9780745325231) Globalization began in 1600 with a tiny trading...

Goodbye Bafana.(Movie review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Goodbye Bafana directed by Bille August A film taken from a book by a white guy who knew an African leader--sounds familiar? This one is far better than the Idi Amin picture, The Last King of Scotland, although once again it's a very...

The making of an Islamic Jack the Ripper: Hafiz Muhammad Sarwar is a notorious serial killer of women, but--unlike Jack--there's no doubt at all about his identity. In fact, he's a free man who thinks women should be secluded. Abbas Zaidi tells a disturbing tale about the underbelly of politics in Pakistan.(View from Gujranwala)
May 1, 2007... When, on the morning of 21 February 2007, a bearded man walked up to a woman and asked 'Why aren't you wearing proper Islamic dress?' he was not looking for an answer. It was just a rhetorical question because, before the woman could respond,...

Democratic Republic of Congo.(Country Profile)(Country overview)
May 1, 2007... At Kinshasa International Airport, perhaps the most chaotic airport in the world, it is common for passengers to disembark with bundles of chickens tucked under their arms, or pulling along heavy loads of merchandise. Sometimes the strongest...