New Internationalist articles from May 2009

New Internationalist archives from May 2009

When designer Alan Hughes first pitched the cover that you.
May 1, 2009... When designer Alan Hughes first pitched the cover that you now see on the front of this edition, I went, 'Oh no... "This kind of image is often used as a shorthand to pose questions of integration and identity. So up I got on my high...

Derogatory language.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... 'The Age of Possibility' (Put people first, NI 421) provided a clear exposition of why striving to rebuild orthodox capitalist structures is misguided. It also gave pointers to promising alternatives. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] However,...

Vital intervention.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... I was relieved to see Mothers Who Die (NI 420). Directly as a result of the Australian refugee campaign I made contact with an Afghan man, Juma Nazari, incarcerated at the time on the Pacific island of Nauru. In 2002 Juma was bullied by the...

Bhutan first.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Nick Harvey suggested that the Dalai Lama 'may be the only head of state in history voluntarily to reduce his own political powers' (Special Feature on Tibet, NI 420). In fact the previous king of Bhutan, King Jigme Wangchuk, a much loved and...

Brutal markets.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Sunita Narain quotes approvingly Nicholas Stern's famous but quite mistaken remark that 'climate change is the greatest market failure the world has ever seen' ('A million mutinies', Climate Justice, NI 419). Dangerous climate change is a...

No response.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Under the Middle East section of The unreported year: 2008 (NI 419) I read: 'An uneasy six-month ceasefire comes to a brutal end as Israel responds to Hamas rocket attacks' and was appalled at the language used. I want to know how you think...

Wear it well.(feminism and women's clothing)
May 1, 2009... 1 I can't accept Anne Horan's lecture on how liberated women should dress (Letters, NI 420). Did we fight our way out of one box just to be shoved in another and told once again what to do? Wear whatever you like, women; whether sloppy or sexy,...

The sum of impressions: an unexpected gift places Maria Golia in a role she had never imagined for herself.(Letter from Cairo)(Essay)
May 1, 2009... I was at my computer immersed in work when the doorbell jarringly rang. It was one of my upstairs neighbours, the rotund and, in this case, grinning Selwa. She was holding a large white plastic bag bearing the 'Bolo' logo, a rip-off of Ralph...

Into the vortex of identity: from the Netherlands Dinyar Godrej begins a personal exploration into why multiculturalism is coming unstuck, and considers how we can re-engage.(KEYNOTE)(Viewpoint essay)
May 1, 2009... Thirteen years ago, I moved to the Netherlands. I had become yet one more manifestation of the shifting populations of our planet and, unbeknownst to me, the tiny rivulet of my life was about to be drawn irresistibly into a torrent of...

To craft a new society: a rapidly changing world is prompting retreat into tidy and restrictive identities, argues Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Multiculturalism, once an expansive idea, has now hardened into orthodoxy and schism. Time to usher in an era of greater openness.(BRITAIN / POLICY AND PRACTICE)(Viewpoint essay)
May 1, 2009... The new millennium rushes on in a rapidly transforming world. Unexpected forces have been released in Britain and around the globe. They bring fresh challenges for new and old Britons, particularly those who feel an erosion of trust and ease....

No room for bigots: how have Canadians managed to make a go of multiculturalism when it's in trouble almost everywhere else? Haroon Siddiqui on the reasons to cheer (and what bothers Muslims most about the country).(CANADA
May 1, 2009... Multiculturalism is being trashed in Europe. My Canadian view of that is: a) Europeans are abandoning what they never had; if, by multiculturalism, we mean the official recognition and promotion of the equality and dignity of all groups...

'What's my identity?'.(FAITH SCHOOLING)(Laura McAllister)(Interview)
May 1, 2009... Faith schools get a bashing even from committed multiculturalists. Supporters argue that they acknowledge the importance of the child's cultural identity, something they feel is missing from mainstream education; detractors say they are...

Ripping up the rainbow: India was conceived as a rainbow nation of equal people and equal religions. Shoma Chaudhury on the religiously branded hate politics that has left the country fighting for its soul.(INDIA
May 1, 2009... There was a faint chill of approaching winter as I got into a taxi late one night two years ago. Tehelka, the newsmagazine I work with, had just broken a major investigation. It was an hour past midnight. The airwaves were still crackling with...

Another side of paradise: Mauritian novelist Lindsey Collen looks back on her country's recent past to see how class strife disguises itself as culture clash.(MAURITIUS / CLASS)
May 1, 2009... Almost everyone uses the cliche, from the World Bankto hotel bosses, from the Prime Minister to visiting academics, from journalists to primary school children--'Mauritius is a multicultural paradise where different communities live side by...

Hanging together: strategies for social cohesion.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... what the state can do 1 Guarantee equality before the law and a strong humam rights framework, including anti-discrimination measures. This benefits everyone. Humam rights abuses must not be excused as 'cultural'. 2 Get serious about...

Peace offerings: Hadani Ditmars records the voices of courageous Israeli and Palestinian civilians reaching out to each other for peace, can they move things on when big politics is stuck in a violent mire?(Other Voice group)
May 1, 2009... When the first Israel Defense Forces (IDF) bombs began to rain down on Gaza last December, Nirmeen Kharma was terrified. 'I felt so afraid for my kids,' relates the mother of three from her Gaza City neighbourhood, which is still reeling from...

Upping the ante: protesters raise the stakes as strikes sweep the French Caribbean.(ECONOMIC CRISIS)
May 1, 2009... 'Let's stand up and fight, against all kinds of abuses!' This is the rallying cry of the 47 unions and community organizations that form Guadeloupe's Committee against Extreme Exploitation. In one of the first broad-based revolts against the...

Victory for Czech peace campaigners.(MISSILE DEFENCE)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... The Pentagon's plans to install a US military radar base in the Czech Republic, an integral part of its 'Star Wars' missile defence scheme, has received a major setback. In March, the Czech Government halted its attempts to ratify an agreement...

May Day! Montreal police out of line and in the courts.(CANADA)
May 1, 2009... As police searched her lunchbox and stroller, six-year-old Oceanne Giroux-Goncalves cried and watched officers rough up a fellow demonstrator. 'Is that what war is like?' Oceanne asked her mother after the march. 'Do police officers kill...

'Green' government shuts down leading environmental group.(ECUADOR)
May 1, 2009... In March, environmentalists were shocked to hear that the Ecuadorian Government had shut down Accion Ecologica (Environmental Action), withdrawing the legal status of one of South America's best-known environmental groups, reports Daniel Denvir...

Running scared: no reprieve for gay community living with 30 years of sharia law.(IRAN)
May 1, 2009... On 1 April Iran marked the 30th anniversary of becoming an Islamic Republic and adopting sharia law. For the country's gay community, the occasion was a stark reminder of their decades-long persecution. Homosexuality was already taboo under the...

Seriously ... [TM]: true tales of a mixed-up world.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Kicking it Pyongyang-stylie The British ambassador to North Korea, Peter Hughes, came under heavy fire recently for posting what has to be the rosiest-ever depiction of life in one of the world's most closed and authoritarian societies....

Only planet.(Cartoon)
May 1, 2009... Someone at the Door, Gort? WHO is it? It's a DELEGATION Klaatu... ... begging us NOT to STOP the HUMANS from turning the planet into a FETID TOXIC DUNGHILL. Who on Earth could POSSIBLY want to... OH... see...! PRO-ACTIVE...

NI prize crossword.
May 1, 2009... Win a Special Map Set - laminated Peters' Map, Peters' Atlas, Seeing Through Maps plus DVD... 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 to: N1 Crossword,...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
May 1, 2009... biG BaD WoRLd [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Saturnina Quispe Choque: interview with Bolivian feminist.(Making Waves)(Interview)
May 1, 2009... 'Hola hermana, hola hermana!' Every second word, she refers to me as 'sister', even though in terms of race and nationality, we are far from related. Saturnina Quispe Choque has the ability to adopt sisters that way. Despite having 12...

Better Times Will Come.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... by Diana Jones (Proper PRPCD043 CD) Suspend the disbelief that greets the hyperbole with which much music is released and go to Diana Jones's Better Times Will Come with unfettered ears. Jones, originally a New Yorker, is a...

Ahlaam (Dreams).(Movie review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... written and directed by Mohamed Al-Daradji (110 minutes) This is the first Iraqi film about the American-led invasion. Its strength is its focus on the Iraqi experience, not, as have US and British films, on the occupying soldiers. It...

Long Time Coming.('Short Writings from Zimbabwe')(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2009... Short Writings from Zimbabwe edited by Jane Morris ('amaBooks, ISBN 9780797436442) It is little short of miraculous that, despite the disease, oppression and hyper-inflation that is the reality of today's Zimbabwe, writers are writing and...

Havana Fever.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2009... by Leonardo Padura translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush (Bitter Lemon Press ISBN 978-1-904738-36-7) Ex-cop Mario Conde--a man with a talent for friendship, a penchant for rum, a streak of melancholia and a prescient nipple--is,...

The Children's Hours.(Brief article)(Book review)
May 1, 2009... edited by Richard Zimler and Rasa Sekulovic (Arcadia Books, ISBN 9781905147809) The idea for this first-rate anthology arose from conversations between the American novelist Richard Zimler and the Serbian children's rights advocate Rasa...

Easy Come, Easy Go.(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... by Marianne Faithfull (Dramatico, SCD) Going from strength to strength--after all these years--there is a case for regarding Marianne Faithfull as the contemporary equivalent to Lotte Lenya. Like Lenya, the cabaret star who was the...

Our Seeds: Seeds Blong Yumi.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
May 1, 2009... by Seedsavers (60 minutes) This is a rallying cry that shows the way in which people in many parts of the world are resisting seed privatization through actions big and small. A useful and sometimes inspirational tool for those organizing...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the majority world.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... It was 18 December 2006. When I reached Saiful's house at Itahata in Gazipur, near Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, it was already afternoon. A big poster of the French national football team from that year's World Cup Finals was stuck on the...

Worldbeaters: taking aim at the rich and powerful.(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)(Organization overview)
May 1, 2009... NATO Way back in April 1949, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded, its first Secretary General, Lord Ismay, had no doubts about the new military alliance's purpose - 'to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the...

Timor-Leste--don't forget: ten years ago, after decades of brutal occupation, the people of Timor-Leste voted for independence from Indonesia. Yet, as Catherine Scott and Jo Barrett reveal, the country's future is far from certain. They call on the international community not to forget this small-island nation.
May 1, 2009... We meet Jose Serrao In a dusty courtyard just behind the back of the parish church in Liquica, an hour's drive from Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor). Today, Liquica is eerily silent; 10 years ago, it was the scene of...

South Korea.(Country profile)(Country overview)
May 1, 2009... If you visit a South korean school, chances are you'll be greeted by a vast picture of Mount Baekdu's photogenic crater-lake prominently displayed. It isn't just that many Koreans love mountains--which cover much or the land--and hike on...