New Internationalist articles from October 2003

New Internationalist archives from October 2003

From this month's editor.(Editorial)
October 1, 2003... THERE they were, blowing all over the park. A public park, where city dwellers come for play and enjoyment. A milk-create-load of magazines, just dumped! I know it was a create-load because that's what I carted them away in. I had to. Because...

Just music.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... As a recent subscriber I particularly enjoyed the politically motivated music on the free CD that came with Sounds of dissent (NI 359). I read a quote recently from a member of Girls Aloud: 'Music is just... music! It's wonderful but it's not...

Just a little thing.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... The antiwar CD made me think and inspired me to write this poem. It may be just something I came up with in my spare time, but I hope that people will now be able to see that us kids also care and want to make a difference. Rosie Ryan...

Low note.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Arguably the worst CD in my appalling collection, only reprieved from the recycling bin by Billy Bragg and Ani DiFranco. Sadly the devil still has the best tunes. Leo Tennant Sheffield, England

On air.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Sounds of dissent really grabbed my interest as something different and unaired. Knowing so little of modern music (being a Sixties person and now more classically inclined) I was fascinated. To add a footnote, the day after reading the issue,...

Deadly denial.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... As someone who has worked against HIV in southern Africa and other regions since 1983, I was shocked to read recycled AIDS mythology in the usually reliable NI. Medical transmission (in both formal and informal settings) and unprotected anal...

Cuts both ways.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Mourid Barghouti's heartfelt plea for poetry and the true meaning of works ('Verbicide', Essay, NI 359) would have been more convincing had he included in the introductory quotes not only the language of hate by Israelis but also anti-Semitic...

Adoptions defended.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... 'The Baby Harvest' (Currents, NI 359) offered a distorted picture of international adoptions more suited in style to the sensationalism and one-sidedness of the tabloid press. The likening of adoptive parents to Northern corporations...

Sceptical response.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... I was wryly amused at being included among your 'toxic sceptics' (Climate change solutions, NI 357) and grateful to Tom Addiscott's excellent letter (NI 359) for defending our good faith. You have every right to challenge my arguments on...

Fossil fix.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Tom Addiscott doubts whether 'global warming' is really happening (Letters, NI 359). Climate change is but a symptom of the real problem--an over-dependency on oil and gas. Nearly half of the world's economically recoverable oil reserves have...

Cuba's future.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Yes, 'Cuba hurts' (View from the South, NI 358). It hurts those who hailed and supported the Cuban revolution, and above all it now hurts Cuban people. The system of governance that allowed a small group of people to entrench itself in power...

Third party.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
October 1, 2003... Eduardo Galeano can usually be counted on for perceptive analysis, but was way off-base with his claim that in the US 'there is a single party disguised as two'. What about the Green Party? It has 250,000 registered supporters, has grown in...

The promise; how grief and guilt kept Reem Haddad from honouring a remarkable woman's request.(Letter From Labanon)
October 1, 2003... I STARED guiltily at the flimsy papers filled with typed notes. 'My name is Alice Antonious Assad,' the narrative began. I had forgotten about this. I had forgotten about my promise. It was only while rummaging through my files that I came...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.
October 1, 2003... THE picture of this woman selling bread is significant because of the unique role of bread in Uzbek life and cuisine. It is baked in traditional clay ovens and eaten with every meal. Legend has it that each new Governor would mint his own coins...

Political economy.(Eduardo Galeano's View From the South)
October 1, 2003... The Wafer Man The sounds of the little organ announced the wafer man's arrival in the neighbourhood. Made of wheat and air, and of music too, those crusty wafers made our mouths water. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The number of wafers...

Evicted but vindicated; occupied factory a symbol of resistance despite police raids.(Currents)
October 1, 2003... IN December 2001 workers took over the Brukman clothing factory in central Buenos Aires in an effort to preserve their livelihoods. Having survived two eviction orders, fended off countless police menaces and amassed an order book of around...

Iran on screen.(Currents)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Iran is making some of the most acclaimed films in the world, despite its pariah status as a totalitarian Islamist nation and member of US President Bush's 'Axis of Evil'. With their minimalist aesthetic, elemental imagery and simple plotlines,...

Gunfire on Rio's mean streets: plagued by gun-crime, Brazilians seek to rid their streets of firearms.(Currents)
October 1, 2003... BRAZIL isn't at war and hasn't been since 1945. But recent research shows that deaths from firearms in Rio de Janeiro are higher than in some of the worst conflict of recent years, including those in Sierra Leone, ex-Yugoslavia and Uganda. ...

No excuses for wife-beating.(Currents)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Beating our wives and saying it is to teach them our customs is just on excuse,' says Vanuatuan Minister Wille Boedoro. This summer the Pacific island of Vanuatu began the first-ever advocacy training sessions in the region for Men Against...

Herbal hope for malaria.(Currents)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... A vital weakness in the malaria parasite has been uncovered by the study of ancient Chinese anti-fever remedies. The parasite has become resistant in most parts of the world to the most common anti-malarial drug, chloroquine. Derived from the...

Speechmarks.(Currents)
October 1, 2003... "Few things are more dangerous than empires pursuing their own interest in the belief that they are doing humanity a favour." Eric Hobsbawm, British historian, (1917-)

Purchase/Pay.(Word Corner)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... Today we usually pay money when we buy goods. Purchase (from the French pourchasser) originally referred to hunting for animals and taking goods by force. The modern sense of acquiring goods by payment arrived in the late 1300s. Pay, from the...

Raising the dead; the shocking report of Peru's Truth Commission.(Currents)
October 1, 2003... NUMBERS matter. Figures tell a story. And the figure 69,280 holds especially potent meaning for Peruvians these days. The country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission has concluded its inquiries and found that this is the number of people...

Seriously ... You couldn't make this stuff up. Everything's A-OK.(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The US Army--which partially sponsors Children's Television Workshop, makers of Sesame Street--has been using the American Kids' TV show's relentlessly cheerful theme music to torture Iraqi prisoners. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] US...

Pipelines to power: as the oil runs out, pipelines are being taken to ever more violent lengths. Chris Richards traces a new world order that's mapped out by the flow of oil.(Oil Pipelines / Keynote)
October 1, 2003... WALK into any modern home and you'll find petroleum-based products everywhere: preservatives in foods: soapy detergent liquid: synthetic fibres in clothes and carpets: plastic bottles and bags: chemicals that fertilize plants: synthetic rubber...

Pipedreams.
October 1, 2003... Pipelines bring jobs and development to the countries they cross, which in turn bring new-found economic prosperity. Those affected by the minimal disruption are amply compensated. Yeah, right... in their dreams. Here's how some of the PR-hype...

Once upon a pipeline ... The financial risks they take up front justify the profits they make in the end, say the owners. Just another fairytale, say James Marriott and Greg Muttitt.(Oil Pipelines / Economics)
October 1, 2003... THE projected cost of the proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline is $3.6 billion. The current annual capital expenditure of BP, the leading partner in the proposed pipeline, is $19 billion. Consequently, BP could easily afford to finance...

The men in red; a fable of corporate compensation from Azerbaijan.(Oil Pipelines / Economics)
October 1, 2003... 'THEY were here yesterday. Men in red suits. We tried to talk with them, but they wouldn't talk. They just stayed outside the fence and looked. They wouldn't talk, and then they went away.' The elderly Shalala is tiny; she can't be much...

The hive and the hard drive: a fable of corporate consultation from Eastern Turkey.(Oil Pipelines / Economics)
October 1, 2003... MEHMET is a beekeeper in the Turkish village of Hacibayram. It is a village with many hives and no people. Mehmet was born in Hacibayram. Like those he lived alongside, and those in generations before him, he worked the fields' pasture for...

Moths to the flame; the more effort that goes into protecting oil pipelines, the less secure are the people living around them. Jason Hagen investigates the spiral of pipeline violence and its impact on innocent colombians.(Oil Pipelines / Military)
October 1, 2003... ONE autumn day last year in Colombia's Arauca province some 2,000 people were rounded up by the military in the town of Saravena. Using new emergency police powers, the military took these people to the local stadium. There they were...

Paying the pipers.
October 1, 2003... Oil from the pipelines: who's got it and who wants it As current oil-consumption patterns continue, the largest oil-consuming nations are making plans to cope with their massive reliance on oil reserves from outside their borders. The three...

The blessed curse: Quinton Temby exposes the negotiations to pipe oil and gas away from East Timor--and the profit and jobs that flow away with them.(Oil Pipelines / Politics)
October 1, 2003... As development of the rich oil and natural gas reserves in the Timor Sea near East Timor takes off, the Government hopes that investment by oil-industry giants will bring the petroleum onshore for processing. Ten thousand jobs could be created...

And the oil runneth over ... As the oil flows, the earth bleeds. Photos currently being exhibited by Oilwatch illustrate why. A selection of case studies compiled by the NI adds to the pictures.
October 1, 2003... NIGERIA Nigeria was the fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the US in 2002, and a major supplier to Western Europe. From 1976 to 1996, 2.5 million barrels of oil spilled over the land and waterways of the Niger Delta--nearly 10 times...

Running on empty: oil is disappearing fast. Adam Porter surveys the consequences.(Oil Pipelines / Sociology)
October 1, 2003... IT is going to get messy. That is if the former industry executives, geologists and statisticians in the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) are correct, and oil reserves have started their decline. It will change the way we live....

True gold of our future: Costa Ricans are saying 'no!' to oil exploration companies. Mark Engler and Nadia Martinez join the growing queue in Latin America to see how it is done.(Oil Pipelines / Resistance)
October 1, 2003... FOR activists engaged in seemingly impossible struggles with transnational oil interests, the scene might seem surreal. In May 2002 newly elected Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco stood on stage for his inaugural address and declared that his...

Worldbeaters ... Taking aim at the rich and powerful.
October 1, 2003... Paul Biya Job: Perpetual President of Cameroon. Reputation: Esteemed Warrior Against Terrorism, Champion of Regional Political Stability and Friend to Business. AFRICANS have, with a few notable exceptions, been ill-served by...

Spirited Away: directed by Hayao Miyazaki.(Mixed Media)(Movie Review)
October 1, 2003... This is some achievement. An animation that doesn't overdo the action, the jokes or the special effects. A gripping and philosophical adventure for everyone, except perhaps the very young. A film that's grossed more than any other non-American...

Paraiso di Gumbe: by Manecas Costa (Late Junction BBCLJ 3007-2 CD).(Mixed Media)(Sound Recording Review)
October 1, 2003... Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the tiny West African state of Guinea-Bissau has been late in making its mark on the recording market. Decades of anti-colonial struggle and the 1998 rebellion and civil war have not helped the...

Live at Abbey Road: by London Community Gospel Choir (Kingsway Music KM 2427, CD, MC, DVD).(Mixed Media)(Sound Recording Review)
October 1, 2003... London's interdenominational Community Gospel Choir is more familiar than most people realize. On stage with Tina Turner, Puff Daddy or Elton John? They've been there. The ones that make Madonna sound better? It's them. In Britain, at...

Weapons of Mass Deception: the uses of propaganda in Bush's war on Iraq: by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber (US: Tarcher/Penguin, ISBN 158542 276 2; UK: Constable & Robinson, ISBN 184119 8374).(Mixed Media)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... In the lead-up to the first Gulf War a story about Iraqi soldiers throwing babies out of hospital incubators played large with US public opinion and weighed heavily in the Senate debate on whether or not to approve military action. After the...

Tokyo doesn't love us anymore: by Ray Loriga (Canongate, ISBN 1 84195 415 2).(Mixed Media)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... Ray Loriga's quixotic novel, a best-seller in his native Spain, is a dystopian fantasy set in the near future. The unnamed narrator is an agent peddling mind-altering drugs on behalf of a global organization known only as The Company. He...

A Problem from Hell: America and the age of genocide: by Samantha Power (Flamingo ISBN o oo 717299 o).(Mixed Media)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... This a brilliant, deeply flawed book. As a definitive account of the 'age of genocide'--Armenia, the Nazis, Cambodia, the Kurds, Rwanda, Bosnia, the list goes on--there's nothing to compare with it. Surely no-one, and certainly not this...

Rethinking globalization: teaching for justice in an unjust world: by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson (Rethinking Schools Press).(Mixed Media)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
October 1, 2003... This is simply the most inspiring educational book I've ever laid hands on. Put together by two teachers based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it needs to be at every teacher's side when looking for print-based learning resources. It is of similar...

Encounter with the miners of Potosi.(Making Waves)
October 1, 2003... THE miners of Potosi eat their coca leaves one by one. They place the stem between their front teeth and pull it through with their fingers, cleaving the juicy waxy leaflets, which go to join a pile that they store--like a cow collects its...

Terror as religion: Jeremy Seabrook explores the rites and holy precepts of the world's newest religion--America.(Essay)
October 1, 2003... It has always been the fate of religion to be pressed into the service of material interests. So today's resurgent assertion of religious identities continues a familiar process. When the United States publicly begs the blessing of the...

El Salvador.(Country Profile)
October 1, 2003... ON a sunny July morning in the town of Alegria, in the mountainous coffee region of Usulutan, Catholic workers show a US Government-produced video titled The Hidden Enemy. Ominous music accompanies images of dead bodies, brutal beatings and...

The World Guide 2003/2004: an alternative reference to the countries of our planet.(See the World Differently ...)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The World Guide 2003/2004 provides a wealth of information on the world's countries from a refreshingly different perspective. New to the 2003/2004 edition are:- * Fully updated information on 240 countries, including new or expanded...

The World Guide 2003/2004 CD-ROM.(See the World Differently ...)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2003... The World Guide 2003/2004 CD-ROM is a fully searchable reference guide to the countries of the world. It not only enables you to search all the material contained in The World Guide 2003/2004 (paper edition), but also offers you additional...