New Internationalist articles from November 2003

New Internationalist archives from November 2003

From this month's editor.(Editorial)
November 1, 2003... 'THESE guys are so big, you can't beat them. So we thought, "Why not join them?"' I was speaking with a campaigner for a group aiming to get essential drugs to needy people who don't have the means to pay for them. The 'big guys' she had...

Listen up.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Reinventing power may rate as one of the most inspiring NI issues produced so far. The real struggles of the 21st century are being (and will be) fought at a grassroots level. They do not exist because politically minded people came together...

No excuse.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... I found Peter Wetzel's letter (NI 360) defending execution in Cuba frankly nauseating. He claims that Cuba had sufficient reason because those executed had 'put lives at risk'. The judicially murdered, he says, were 'beginning to threaten the...

Policing needed.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Katharine Ainger (Keynote, Reinventing power, NI 360) tentatively invokes a futurescape where social and economic problems will be increasingly solved through 'local control' and 'mutual aid'. But I would suggest there is an inherent problem...

Sharipov jailed.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Readers will no doubt be saddened to learn that Uzbek human-rights activist Ruslan Sharipov (Currents, NI 360) was jailed for five years on charges of homosexuality as you went to press. Saddened, but not surprised--attacks on progressive...

Sounds of division.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... I found Sounds of dissent (NI 359) an inspiring read (and listen). However, it may have been worth having an article on the way music can also be used to divide people and as an instrument of hate. The use of music by the far right is very...

Reader's offer.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... I have a collection of lectures by Noam Chomsky, Vandana Shiva, Angela Davis and other voices of dissent. I've been donating them to public libraries throughout the US and would like to get them into libraries in other countries. If anybody is...

Colour plus.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... Re the US Missile Defense Agency's Coloring Book (Seriously, NI 359): I found out this book was issued during Public Service Recognition Week held some time in May this year to encourage people to remember the good things that US federal and...

Rock Star furore.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... 1 Why did the NI bother wasting a page whining about the detainees in Guantanamo Bay (NI 359)? Hey, imprisoning people is cool. Just look at the 'Rock Star kidnap' cartoon in the same issue. If your cartoonist thinks that millionaire...

AIDS in Africa.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
November 1, 2003... I write in as one of the 'misguided' working on HIV/AIDS in Africa since the late 1980s (Currents, NI 359). Two points drew my concern. First, many of us have always recognized the anal route in sexual transmission of HIV in Africa, and...

Fundamental flaws; reem haddad finds arab voices growing tired of the blame game.(Letter From Lebanon)
November 1, 2003... It was unnerving for all the residents in the building when the couple and their four children moved into a recently vacated flat. All of us, Muslim and Christian alike, talked in shocked tones. 'I can't believe we are going to be living...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Kataragama, a town in the southeast of Sri Lanka, is probably the most important centre for pilgrimage on the island. Based around a shrine to the god of the same name, this small jungle site is now a bustling town. It is unique in that there...

The example of Nelson Mandela.(Ike Oguine's View from the South)
November 1, 2003... The long weathered face, winning smile and distinctive voice of Nelson Mandela have become famous all the world over. So has the inspirational story of the man who spent 27 years of his life imprisoned on desolate Robben Island and not only...

Poison from the sky: Authorities look the other way as a deadly pesticide keeps killing people.(Currents)
November 1, 2003... For a daily-wage worker like Devappa Naik, the helicopter flying above his head used to be an object of wonder. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Today Naik sits in his hut and mutters that he should smash the chopper into scrap. He sits there...

Forests down the mine shaft.(Currents)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Transnational mining companies and foreign governments are lobbying the Indonesian Government to open up protected forest areas, national parks and other protected areas for mining. With approximately four hectares of Indonesian rainforest...

Sanctioning hypocrisy: recent media reports highlight Burma's ongoing disregard for human rights and the inconsistent way that the US is dealing with it.(Human Rights)
November 1, 2003... BURMA'S military is killing people by forcing them to walk across minefields to reveal where explosives are buried, reports Richard S Ehrlich. The September article that Richard submitted to the NI documents disturbing allegations made by a...

Walk gay-talk right out that door.(Human Rights)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Thousands of women and men have been dismissed from the US armed forces for being gay or lesbian since Bill Clinton's infamous 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy was announced in 1993. This allows lesbian women and gay men to serve in the forces...

Brazil slaves freed.(Currents)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Brazilian authorities announced in September that they had freed about 800 slave workers at a coffee farm in Bahia state, the largest discovery since a clampdown on the practice began in the 1990s. Some 200 workers were also found at another...

Speechmarks: "Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.".(Human Rights)
November 1, 2003... The British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), one of the architects of the Bretton Woods Conference that designed the post-World War Two economic order.

Dogs.(Word Corner)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The origin of dog is not known but until it came into common use around the 1500s hound was the main English word for the animal. Hound is related to the Greek word kuon, and to canine, kennel, cynic, quinsy and canary. The followers of...

Freedom boards the buses; immigrant workers' freedom ride revives debate.(Currents)
November 1, 2003... IN a few intense months we have challenged and changed America's attitudes about immigrants,' said textile workers' union vice-president May Chen--herself the daughter of Chinese immigrants--at a massive 4 October rally in New York City's...

Branded: true tales of the absurd.(Seriously ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Can't think what to name your new child? Why not try a branding focus group? Thousands of parents in the US are taking brand loyalty to what some might view as excessive extremes. The Australian reports that according to social security records...

The ghosts of the consumer future.(Seriously ...)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Remember the film Minority Report, based in a technologically advanced near-future? In some scenes, the hero, played by Tom Cruise, ran through walking, talking adverts projected into thin air. Now heliodisplays that can create these...

The great health grab: the world's giant drug companies pursue profit above all else. Dinyar Godrej inspects an industry that's more than a little sick.(Big Pharma / Keynote)
November 1, 2003... 'I THINK there's some mistake.' I said, pushing the pack of pills back across the counter. 'Nope. It's the same drug, just a different name,' replied the pharmacist with a patient smile. It was high summer, the peak of the hay fever...

Pressure points: how big pharma reacts when a drug scandal breaks.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... 1 DENIAL Side-effects and unforeseen deaths are part of the deal when you're pushing drugs. It's when the media and the activists start snooping around that the problems start. Fightback strategies * Deny everything. * Take...

Freemarket freebies: drug companies make the sweetest of overtures to health practitioners. Tamar Wilner takes a critical look at this love-in.(Bribery)
November 1, 2003... WHEN a new brand of insulin hit the market in India recently, doctors were quick to switch patients to it. Not long afterwards the new drug's manufacturer took 15 physicians from Nagpur on a vacation with their families. Coincidence? Maybe so...

Peddling paranoia: selling cures for imaginary diseases is where the drug industry really rakes in the cash, argues Alan Cassels. Real need barely enters the picture.(Skewing the Market)
November 1, 2003... THIRTY years ago the British physician, Julian Tudor-Hart published his famous 'inverse care law': 'those who most need medical care are the least likely to get it.' Modern pharmaceutical research is playing Dr Hart's law out on a macabre...

Big Pharma the facts.
November 1, 2003... Prescription for profit Business is booming for the big pharmaceutical companies. In 2002 their total drug sales reached $430 billion (1) --a jump of $66 billion, nearly 20%, from the previous year. (2) Big Pharma's profit margins are...

Epidemic, what epidemic? It's been called the most neglected disease in the world. And Big Pharma is doing what it can to keep it that way. Spring Gombe explains.(Access End Neglect of Diseases of the Poor)
November 1, 2003... THE African tsetse belt covers 36 countries and is home to one of the world's most under-reported epidemics. The several species of tsetse fly after which it is named are host to parasites called trypanosomes and they expose a tenth of the...

Patients versus patents: AIDS activists in Thailand are up in arms against a US drugs giant. Teena Amrit Gill reports.(Access Stop Blocking Generic Drugs)
November 1, 2003... A MERE 28 kilograms. That's all Suwanee Chainuan, a 34-year-old HIV-positive woman from the northern Thai province of Phayao, weighed a few months ago. Suwanee had grown increasingly sick in recent years, plagued by chronic respiratory...

Who cares about cancer? Joana Ramos spotlights a crisis that barely figures in international discussions of essential drugs.(Access Make Pricing Fair)
November 1, 2003... IN 1995 I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Living in the US with health insurance, I got rapid care. I also learned the incidence of this form of blood cancer has risen some 70 per cent in the past 20 years, for reasons unknown. ...

Bucking the trend: the NI spoke with Yves Champey, director of a new international medical charity, the drugs for neglected diseases initiative (DNDi).(Drug Development)(Interview)
November 1, 2003... Drugs for some of the world's most neglected diseases have not been developed by the big Western pharmaceutical companies because there is no viable market for them. The DNDi (see also NI 354) is determined to make available a handful of drugs...

Case studies of Big Pharma's sharp practice: gag the messenger.(Health Hazari)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... DRUG COMPANIES hunt for research that will praise their product, pushing money at academics whose work looks promising. But within the research contract there is usually a gag clause that prevents the researcher from spilling the beans if the...

Case studies of Big Pharma's sharp practice: foreign bodies.(Health Hazari)
November 1, 2003... ABBOTT LABORATORIES produced urokinase, a drug primarily used to dissolve blood clots which was derived from the kidneys of dead human newborns and foetuses, under the brand name Abbokinase. The more rational among us might remember that...

Case studies of Big Pharma's sharp practice: Turf wars.(Health Hazard)
November 1, 2003... UNTIL 1999 pharma giant Novartis enjoyed a monopoly for the drug cyclosporine, used to prevent organ rejection in kidney, liver and heart transplant patients. But when rivals started producing generic versions, and selling them at a...

Case studies of Big Pharma's sharp practice: Testing times.(Health Hazard)
November 1, 2003... TRIALS FOR new drugs are exploding in the Majority World--particularly in Latin America, the former Soviet republics and Southern Africa. These tests, often licensed to research organizations on behalf of Western drug companies, have come under...

Yuck, no thanks! Fed up with what Big Pharma dishes out? You're not alone. Check out what these campaign groups are up to.(Action)
November 1, 2003... Inappropriate promotion Companies spend a fortune hoping to influence both consumers and doctors. Promotions often skim over risks and can be misleading. Keeping a watchful eye is Australia's Healthy Skepticism (formerly the Medical Lobby...

Tony Blair.(Worldbeaters)
November 1, 2003... Job: British Prime Minister. Reputation: Bridge over troubled Atlantic; Navigator of Third Way; Figurehead of empty vessel. THERE'S a well-worn path that leads away from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament towards nuclear weapons--a...

Okay.(Mixed Media)(Movie Review)
November 1, 2003... Okay directed by Jesper W Neilsen According to the hospital, Nete's father has three weeks or so to live. Nete insists he leaves his flat and comes to live out his life with her--although they don't get on--her husband Kristian and their...

Singing Bones.(Mixed Media)(Sound Recording Review)
November 1, 2003... Singing Bones by The Handsome Family (Loose VJCD 144 CD) Singing toads, bottomless holes and haunted shops may not be typical topics for the average country duo, but then The Handsome Family--now living in New Mexico--are very far from...

Fado Curvo.(Mixed Media)(Sound Recording Review)
November 1, 2003... Fado Curvo by Mariza (EMI Virgin 7243 5 84237 2 3 CD) 'The love song,' writes Nick Cave, and he should know, 'is the noise of sorrow itself.' The quote comes from a lecture in which he tackles the saudade, or deep longing, that infuses...

Vive La Revolution: a stand-up history of the French Revolution.(Mixed Media)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... Vive La Revolution A Stand-Up History of the French Revolution by Mark Steel (Scribner, ISBN 0 7432 0805 6) Mark Steel is probably best known for his BBC radio programmes 'The Mark Steel Lectures' in which he dismantles what we...

Reclaim The State: experiments in popular democracy.(Mixed Media)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... Reclaim The State Experiments in Popular Democracy by Hilary Wainwright (Verso, ISBN 185984 689 0) Hilary Wainwright has been a stalwart of the alternative movement since she emerged as one of the leading figures in 'Beyond the...

Liquid Love.(Mixed Media)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... Liquid Love by Zygmunt Bauman (Polity Press ISBN 0 7456 2489 8) We are living in the 'liquid modern' age and it's wreaking havoc on our ability to love ourselves, our partners and our neighbours, according to sociologist Zygmunt...

Calcutta: a cultural and literary history.(Mixed Media)(Book Review)
November 1, 2003... Calcutta A Cultural and Literary History by Krishna Dutta (Signal Books, ISBN 1902669592) In her foreword to this excellent guide to Calcutta, Anita Desai writes of the city as a place where one confronts, 'the face of reality at...

Interview with Alice Coles.(Making Waves)(Interview)
November 1, 2003... ALICE COLES stands in a field across from the shantytown in which she has lived all her life. Eight years ago the US state of Virginia planned to build a maximum-security prison in this field. But something quite different has been erected in...

Lost in the lowlands: industrial agriculture exploits migrant labour everywhere. Nepali filmmaker Pranav Budhathoki goes undercover to investigate a little piece of Eastern Europe in Norfolk, England.(Essay)
November 1, 2003... No-one in Swaffham slept that night. Police and immigration officials moved from house to house, flushing out the 'illegal' ones. Some were taken from their beds, some detained at work, others let go because there weren't enough vans. By dawn...

Malawi.(Country Profile)
November 1, 2003... IN July this year President Bakili Muluzi granted the executive of the Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) an audience at his private residence. Teachers were poorly trained, poorly paid and many never got the opportunity of promotion, they...