New Internationalist articles from September 2003

New Internationalist archives from September 2003

From this month's editor.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... THE NI is run as a workers' co-op. This can mean long and occasionally tortuous weekly meetings, as I explained apologetically to Tomas, all Argentinean volunteer who helped me with this magazine. After he'd sat through his first co-op...

In it together.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Professor Glasbeek ('The invisible friend', Corporate Crime Wave, NI 358) pins almost every crime on almost every corporation and holds that 'major' shareholders should be held responsible. By all means let us have a lot more vigilance but...

Truly global.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... It's kind of George Monbiot to mention my book One No, Many Yeses, as he expands his new proposals about how to save the world (Essay, NI 358). It's a shame, though, that he doesn't seem to have read it properly--not for my sake, but for the...

Thinking sustainably.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I think George Monbiot is correct in pointing out that organized and globally co-ordinated action is essential if the present socially and environmentally destructive money/business power network is to be replaced. For this to be possible,...

Cuba isn't perfect.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... It seems that Cuba is not perfect and so disappoints Eduardo Galeano ('Cuba hurts', View from the South, NI 358). I can sympathize with his absolutist view regarding capital punishment, as did many in the Cuban leadership. However, these three...

Terror in East Timor.(letters)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Re: 'Legally lethal' (Currents, NI 358)--given its history of genocide in West Papua, East Timer and the Moluccas, the behaviour of the Indonesian military (TNI) during its recent renewed war against the Free Aceh Movement was entirely...

Eco food options.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I must comment on the somewhat simplistic assumption that a vegetarian diet is an ecological choice (Climate Change Solutions, NI 357). Most vegetarians I know consume a large amount of dairy products (exactly how is this vegetarian?) and rely...

Fuel tax.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I read with interest your small piece ('People power', NI 357) on running a car on cooking oil, and began a little research on the possibilities. I discovered that although in Britain this fuel is much cheaper than diesel, you are wrong to...

Flipside.(letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... I refer to the 'female exploitation' dispute regarding the cover image of a scantily clad demonstrator (The Other America, NI 351). Proudly 'heterosexual' Tim Jones (Letters, NI 357) is 'dismayed' that Tamara Koziar (Letters, NI 355) is too...

Taking the veil: Reem Haddad on why Lebanese women are covering up.(Letter from Lebanon)
September 1, 2003... I REMEMBER a time, not so long ago, when wearing a veil was seen as unacceptable--at least in certain social circles. Educated women, it was thought, did not wear veils. Only five years ago, when a friend decided to don one, it was the main...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of photographers from the majority world.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... ONE of the most important festivals in Mexico is Holy Week, when there are real-life representations of the crucifixion of Jesus and someone is symbolically sacrificed for the good of the community. This Christian festival was adopted with...

Hot and bothered.(View From The South)
September 1, 2003... IT's 45 degrees centigrade. Outside my airconditioned office a fierce, hot wind blasts the heat into your lace. My car, parked across the road, is baking in the heat. I step in and immediately jump out: the seat is too hot. I touch the steering...

In the eye of the beholder: why human-rights abuses justify war on Iraq, but are rewarded in Uzbekistan.(Central Asia)
September 1, 2003... SHOCKWAVES are reverberating around the Republic of Uzbekistan following the recent arrest of human rights activist Ruslan Sharipov, one of the last independent critics of the repressive government of this former Soviet Central Asian state....

Machismo makes everyone sick.(Currents)
September 1, 2003... Latin America: A study carried out by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) among young males in nine Latin American countries and the Caribbean confirms that the unrelenting pressure felt by these men to demonstrate consistent...

No way back, no way forward: fortress Europe repels the Kosovo Roma.(Refugees)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... TWENTY-SEVEN-year-old Almir Lahi, a young Roma refugee, is angry. His eyes are burning with desperation. "We want Europe to see our problems but for four years Europe has closed its eyes.' Almir, his wife and two infant daughters are...

Ugandan businesses smashed in honour of Bush.(Currents)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... When President Bush visited Uganda in July to discuss how several hundred million dollars of HIV/AIDs and security funds would be spent, his visit caused the destruction of the livelihoods of some of the very people he had come to help. On...

Climate litigation warms up.(Currents)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... An unprecedented alliance of 70 environmental organizations, lawyers, academics and individuals in 29 countries has announced its backing for legal cases to combat climate change. United under the umbrella of an international Climate Justice...

Advert/ad.(word corner)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Publicity has changed to suit the media available, from the wall paintings of ancient Rome to the pop-up adverts on the internet today. From the Latin advertere (turn towards), advert at first meant to Lake note of or to turn one's own...

Canning the WTO in Cancun: global justice movement converges for 'another Seattle' in Mexico.(Trade)
September 1, 2003... GLOBAL justice groups are gathering in the Mexican resort city, of Cancun, preparing forums and mobilizations to protest the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference that starts on 10 September. Up to 100,000 people from around the...

On the WTO's table.(Currents)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The WTO meeting in Cancun will negotiate the implementation of existing trade agreements such as those an trade in services, agriculture and intellectual properly rights. In 2002 even the WTO Director General Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi admitted...

Make a killing.(Seriously ... You couldn't make this stuff up)
September 1, 2003... Make a killing A new initiative called AmericanActTonMarket.org recently landed in the Seriously inbox. It was inspired by the Pentagon's recent idea for a futures market in terror and war, which it had to retract amid public outcry. Now a...

Against the misery of power, the politics of happiness: Katharine Ainger describes a politics that is not interested in seizing power, but in breaking it into small pieces for everyone to hold.(Keynote)
September 1, 2003... THERE was no-one in charge. It was totally spontaneous, utterly unexpected. Small fingers flew unerringly over the buttons of mobile phones; emails and instant messages pinged their arrival on to thousands of computer screens; overheated...

The power of the cooking pot: fed up with the ANC's free-market policies that deliver nothing, marginalized South Africans--'the poors'--are taking politics into their own hands. Activist Ashwin Desai talks to Holly Wren Spaulding.(Ideology Vs. Necessity)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Holly Wren Spaulding: What are the new tools of liberation? Ashwin Desai: Simply, we are rebuilding community structures. There is nothing more revolutionary than doing what is necessary for millions of people in my province to live a...

The web of democracy: Roy Madron and John Jopling bring together democracy and scientific ideas about how systems work.(Networks)
September 1, 2003... OVER the past 50 years systems thinkers have become increasingly influential in every field of human endeavour-from astronomy to agriculture, from economics to health, from crime prevention to traffic circulation. The practical benefits of...

Ideas about power.(Theories Of Power)
September 1, 2003... The unmarked category Feminists have analysed the powerless extensively. There are theories about discrimination on the basis of sex, race, class and religion as well as sexuality, disability, age and culture. What often remains unexamined...

A flower in the hands of the people: Gustavo Esteva explains what lies at the heart of indigenous politics in Mexico.(The Nation-State)
September 1, 2003... 'AUTONOMY,' said Don Gregorio, an old Yaqui Indian, 'is not something we ought to ask for or that anyone can give us. It is something we have, despite everything. Its other name is dignity.' We are practising autonomy more than ever in our...

Walking our talk: imbalances in power relations are everywhere, including within those groups working to change such imbalances. Peace trainer George Lakey recounts workshops he has conducted with activist groups, uncovering their internal power dynamics--and transforming them.(Training)
September 1, 2003... TO BUILD movements that can transform society--including its power relations--requires transformational work in the training. We work with movements whose activists are at very high risk of injury and death from police and security forces. The...

Bomb-catching: Priscilla Elworthy on facing down armies, militarism and other forms of mass bullying.(Militarism)
September 1, 2003... IT is one of the most recurrent themes of history: the oppressed, faced with enormous inequalities of power and overwhelming odds, feel they have no option but to use brute force to overthrow their oppressors. But not only can this increase the...

Experiments in democracy: around the world people are demanding direct involvement in decisions that affect them and carving out their own democratic processes from the ground up.(Participation)
September 1, 2003... Creating peaceful realities Since 1997 ActionAid-Burundi has used a participatory adult-education approach called Reflect in the province of Ruyigi as a way of building trust between 3,000 Hutus and Tutsis (see photo, left). Reflect...

On systems theory, networks and democracy.(Worth reading)(Bibliography)
September 1, 2003... On system theory, network and democracy: * Steven Johnson's Emergence (Penguin 2001) is an accessible scientific explanation of the phenomenon of 'emergence'--change that occurs from the bottom up. * Samir Rihani, Complex Systems Theory...

General on power.(Worth reading)(Bibliography)
September 1, 2003... General on power: * Erich Fromm, The Fear of Freedom (Routledge Classics 2002) contains extraordinary psychological insight into power, authoritarianism and the human fear of true liberation. * Alex Begg, Empowering the Earth (Green Books...

On participation.(Worth reading)(Bibliography)
September 1, 2003... On participation: * Raft Carmen, Autonomous Development (Zed Books 1996) is a quirky and inspirational view of development as an autonomous project. * Participation: The New Tyranny? edited by Bill Cooke and Uma Kothari (Zed Books, 2001),...

L Paul Bremer III.(Worldbeaters ... Taking aim at the rich and powerful)
September 1, 2003... AT first sight, there's nothing very remarkable about the US Viceroy in Iraq, sometimes called Bremer Pasha by sympathetic Iraqi exiles. His elite credentials are impeccable: Yale, Harvard Business School, the Institut D'Etudes Politiques of...

You've Never Seen Everything.(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... by Bruce Cockburn (Cooking Vinyl COOKCD 257 CD) For a songwriter as prolific as Bruce Cockburn--27 albums over 30 years--the long gap between You've Never Seen Everything and 1999's New Orleons Dinner in Timbuktu has been an anxious one for...

Hail To the Thief.(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... by Radiohead (Parlophone 7243 5 84543 CD) For such a shy bunch of superstars, Radiohead have been playing the promo game a lot recently with TV shows and graffiti attacks in Britain and, as a special provocation for the US, aeroplanes...

Respiro.(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... written and directed by Emanuale Crialese Don't get the wrong impression--a beautiful-looking film with a highly photogenic cast, set on a sun-drenched Mediterranean island with stunning cliffs overlooking crystal-clear water. Respire does...

A World Out of Control.(Bibliography)
September 1, 2003... documentaries selected by Spellbound Following the success of Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine we may be getting more documentaries on the big screen. This is no bad thing if the 35 films curated by Marie Wright at the recent OXDOX--A...

Refusal Shoes.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... by Tony Saint (Serpent's Tail, ISBN 1 85242 827 9) The premise for Tony Saint's debut novel is extremely promising. Saint is a serving officer in the British Immigration Service and the book is set amid the bustle and chaos of passport...

One Man's Justice.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... by Akira Yoshimura translated by Mark Ealey (Canongate, ISBN 1 84195 384 9) Originally published in Japan in 1978, One Man's Justice is only the second of Akira Yoshimura's many novels to be translated into English. Set in the decade following...

The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... by George Monbiot (Flamiago, ISBN 0 00 715042 3) The emphasis of the social justice movement has increasingly moved from identifying problems to proposing solutions particularly since the establishment of the annual World Social Forum in...

Web of Deceit: Britain's Real Role in the World.(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... by Mark Curtis (Vintage, ISBN 0099448394) 'If we were honest,' writes Mark Curtis, 'we would see Britain's role in the world to a large extent as a story of crimes against humanity.' He should know: in 1996 he broke the story of British...

Interview with Al-Muajaha: the Iraqi witness.(making waves)
September 1, 2003... 'FOR decades almost all governments in the world, including our own, abused and terribly ignored the basic humanity of the Iraqi people. Al-Muajaha aims to provide an open forum for all Iraqis to freely debate current issues, and in so doing...

Earth warrior: Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, is a pugnacious environmentalist who heads the Sea Shepherd Conversation Society. He's never shield away from unpopular opinions or controversy. John F Schumaker caught up with Watson aboard the Farley Mowat (formerly the Ocean Warrior) in Christchurch harbour.(Essay)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... JS: Your worst critics claim that you are crazy. Watson: The film Trashing The Planet implied I was insane because when I was 12 I shot another boy in the ass with a BB gun who was about to shoot a bird. I thought this amusing because in my...

Kuwait.(Country Profile)
September 1, 2003... LIKE all the little monarchies scattered along the coast of the Guff, Kuwait used to be a sleepy little backwater, getting by on pearl fishing and trade. Like all the others, it was founded by a tribal chieftain in the 18th century, paid...