New Internationalist articles from September 2006

New Internationalist archives from September 2006

Advertising.(advertising campaign for a liquor brand)(Editorial)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Late at night, unable to sleep in the muggy heat, I channel-hop. I alight on BBC World--a documentary about a swish London ad agency working on a Brazilian liquor company's big international splash. Millions are at stake. In such circumstances,...

Captive--how the ad industry pins us down: advertisers would have us hot-wired into their all-consuming world. Dinyar Godrej would prefer to be unplugged.
September 1, 2006... Buddhism and Hinduism recommend it. A retreat from clamour, a wondrous detachment that allows the material world to float up, like a sloughed-off skin, for one's dispassionate consideration. Whether they offer useful advice on re-engaging after...

How to read an ad.(decoding advertising)
September 1, 2006... We asked the CEO of a major London ad agency to give us pointers on how to decode ads. What he said is in pink below. We've added some tips of our own. This ad jumps on to the bandwagon of MTV style R & B and hiphop glamour. It lays...

Brand-hopping beauties: advertising has always viewed women as vessels for consumer goods. In India, Mari Marcel Thekaekara witnesses an unholy confluence of snob appeal, racism and skullduggery.
September 1, 2006... 'To wax or not to wax?' That is the question. Then there's the ouch!! pluck, bleach, shave or laser. The new woman has myriad choices (within the rules of the game, of course). Hair must be luxuriant, glossy and dandruff-free if it's on your...

Jesus is a brand of jeans: ads gleam with promises of transformation and transcendence--via material objects. Jean Kilbourne decodes this gigantic propaganda effort.(CULTURE & SPIRITUALITY)
September 1, 2006... A recent ad for Thule car-rack systems features a child in the backseat of a car, seatbelt on. Next to the child, assorted sporting gear is carefully strapped into a child's carseat. The headline says: 'We Know What Matters to You.' In case one...

Public service: Jacob Lotinga is not a little bemused by Chinese attitudes to the hard sell.(PERCEPTIONS)
September 1, 2006... I lived in China like a travelling educational storyteller, though technically I was an English teacher at three universities over the course of two years. One of my pet themes in class was advertising--both because it made for a creative,...

Sizzzzle: catch 'em young and brand 'em!(CHILDREN)
September 1, 2006... Ker-chinggg! The ad biz bombards children and young people because the bottom line is cold hard cash. They'd rather chase urban trend surfers with brass in pocket, but their crossfire hits all kids. The children they're gunning for not...

Sultans of spin: if there's a political market in Latin America, then there are plenty of consultants willing to sell into it. But, as Bob Burton reveals, that doesn't mean there's always a willing buyer.(POLITICAL PR)
September 1, 2006... Selling politicians of dubious credentials to a sceptical electorate is no easy task. But there's a new breed of globetrotting political fixers willing to try anything, for a price. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There is little hard data on...

All that glisters ... when an ad campaign was a victim of its own success.(POLITICAL PR)
September 1, 2006... Coming up to poll time in 2004, the Indian Government decided a no-expenses-spared advertising blitz to manufacture happiness was in order. And so was born (via the brainpower of the Indian section of advertising giant Grey Global Group) 'India...

Beneath the gloss ... advertising promise vs reality.
September 1, 2006... Company: Toyota 2005 advertising spend: $735 million 2005 sales: $173 billion 2005 profits: $11 billion Product: Prius hybrid car [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The image TV and cinema adverts proclaim: 'good news for...

Sub[begin strikethrough]Ad[end strikethrough]verts: lancing commercial eyesores.(SUBVERTISING)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard... When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent...

Dead as a Doha: WTO negotiations that disadvantage the Poor World are being prepared for burial.(TRADE)
September 1, 2006... After five years of wrangling, the latest round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) finally collapsed in late July. Although the grossly misnamed 'Doha Development Round' is not technically dead--merely 'between...

Slaves to oil.(Association for the Study of Peak Oil )(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The argument that world oil reserves have peaked and oil production is in decline seems to have been won. At the fifth international conference organized by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO), held in Italy in June, the focus of...

Environmental casualties.(MIDDLE EAST)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... It is said that truth is the 'first casualty' in war, but it may be that the environment is the 'final casualty'. Even when the armed conflict in Gaza and Lebanon subsides, the environmental damage done by the Israeli bombardment is likely to...

The other World Cup: how international competition has changed some homeless people's lives.(SPORT)(International Network of Street Papers Conference, Homeless World Cup )
September 1, 2006... 'It's like I am a real citizen for the first time in my life. It was almost like becoming a football star. I have discovered a new person, a better person inside of me.' Like many other players who took part in last year's Homeless World Cup in...

Blogging beneath the bombs.(Mazen Kerbaj blogs to expose war damage)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... 'We really need your eyes and ears,' Mazen Kerbaj entreats the rest of the world as bombs destroy the city around him. An artist and musician living in Beirut, his blog is read by thousands daily. The drawings he regularly posts express the...

Speechmarks.(Currents)
September 1, 2006... "Is the value of human rights in Lebanon less than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser God? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?" Fouad Siniora, Lebanon's Prime Minister, on 26 July 2006.

The language of world leaders, part 2 ...(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Word power 20 berlusconi n. stretched Italian leather, used to line wallets. blair v. talk loudly about something you do not intend to do. footing n. appearance at a football match, to gain popularity. pinochet v. (Span.) to...

Dust-up over mine: global conquistadores go for gold.(Pascua Lama gold mines, Chile)
September 1, 2006... An email circling the world has conferred upon the pristine waters of Chile's San Felix Valley the unlikely status of urban legend. While there is nothing even remotely urban about this oasis of vineyards and olive groves, it lies downstream...

Bush in deep doo-doo.(George W. Bush, gifts from foreign government sources)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Recent revelations about some of the gifts to top US officials from foreign dignitaries have created a bit of a stir. But while we can wonder what prompted Saudi Prince Faisal to give Colin Powell a $25,000 Bulgari necklace in 2004 and worry...

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.(President, Equatorial Guinea)
September 1, 2006... Status: President of Equatorial Guinea. Reputation: Blood-and-oil-soaked dictator of one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and anti-democratic states in the world. Cervantes in Don Quixote has the protagonist imagine a man...

Lagos Stori Plenti.(Sound recording review)
September 1, 2006... Lagos Stori Plenti by Various Artists (Out Here OH 005 CD) 'I am a Wha? I am a Wha? I am a Nigerian!' It's with this slick rip-off of Eminem's Slim Shady alter ego that Terry Tha Rapman kicks off Lagos Stori Plenti, an album of...

RAN (Remote Area Nurse).(Sound recording review)
September 1, 2006... RAN (Remote Area Nurse) by David Bridie (Sound Vault SV0501 CD) Just as writing soundtracks for films is an art form in its own right, so too is writing for television. Both demand similar things: a music that aids the drama at hand as...

Iran Special.(A War Too Far: Iraq, Iran and the New American Century)(Iran: Everything You Need to Know)(Iran Awakening)(Book review)
September 1, 2006... IRAN SPECIAL A War Too Far: Iraq, Iran and the New American Century by Paul Rogers (Pluto Press, ISBN 0 7453 24312) Iran: Everything You Need to Know by John Farndon (Icon Books, ISBN 184046 7762) Iran Awakening by...

Shanghai Dreams.(Movie review)
September 1, 2006... Shanghai Dreams written and directed by Wang Xiaoshuai This is a surprising, historically revealing drama. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, China's 'third front' policy tried to shift industry into the remote countryside and away...

I know I'm Not Alone.(Video recording review)
September 1, 2006... I Know I'm Not Alone directed by Michael Franti (DVD) On receiving Michael Franti's documentary I Know I'm Not Alone, my first thoughts were that here was yet another well-meaning musician who wanted to teach the world to sing. I...

Highlighting the work of photographers from the Majority World.(Shanti Tuladhar, Nepal)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Shanti Tuladhar recites a poem from her book, Unko Samjhana. This poet and resident of a senior citizen shelter at Pashupati Bridhashram in Kathmandu, Nepal, is still writing. Married at 30, her husband was in the army and when he died 12 years...

The real aim.(Israeli attack on Lebonan)
September 1, 2006... The real aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to Install a puppet government. That was the aim of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really...

Seen, killed and unheard: the lives of Zainab, Fatma, Ali, Wasim and Kadeem were turned upside down. As teenagers in Britain we can visualize what we hope to do tomorrow, next week and next month. For the young people in Lebanon the next hour was the only hour that mattered.
September 1, 2006... Blood-stained rescue workers, crumbling bombed-out buildings and human misery have become an everyday scene for children in Beirut, who had normal teenage lives before the war began. But how often do we hear their voices? Desplte resistance...

Big bad world.(Cartoon)
September 1, 2006... Polyp [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interview with Semantics King Jr: who is bringing; The Vision to Liberians.(Making Waves)(Interview)
September 1, 2006... His clothes are drenched with sweat, his skin is burning, and his brain feels as if it's being pierced with needles. In a one-room clinic in Buduburam Refugee Camp, Ghana, Semantics King Jr receives the news from the doctor that he's been...

Ethical finance.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Thanks for a great issue looking at the role of global banking (Banks exposed, NI392) and good to see the Co-operative Bank and Triodos as examples of open, ethical investment. But why no mention of credit unions? Millions of people in the...

Acknowledge destruction.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Here at Treeflights.com we plant trees for ordinary airline passengers who are concerned about their CO2 emissions. We launched the day your July issue (CO2nned, NI 391) came out! Our customers feed back to us that our service (we plant one...

Leaking ship.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... The carbon offset concept is a scam, not only for the reasons mentioned in the July issue (NI 391) but because it simply can't work. The carbon being introduced into our atmosphere by the combustion of coal or oil is fossil carbon, stuff that...

Market solutions.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... You highlighted many schemes that were not planting healthy, diverse forests, but monocultures (NI 391). I'm sure that among the many carbon offset schemes there are better and worse ones. Ask detailed questions of them and if you aren't sure...

Honest offsetting.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... It seems obvious that the solution to exponentially increasing carbon emissions cannot take the form of a global game of hot-potato, where those with the money get to buy their way out of trouble. Clearly, if one has bad breath and stained...

Impotent UN.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... Kamal Fadel reports that the UN has essentially accepted that it cannot or even will not help the Saharawis obtain freedom from Morocco (View from Western Sahara, NI 391). This has shown that only when the US has willingness for action is...

Pro animal testing.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... April Powell (Letters, NI 391) suggests anti-animal-testing campaigners should target regulatory bodies to get them to abandon the requirement of animal testing before clinical trials. Animal testing is required by law to protect human beings...

A kind of bigotry.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2006... I have three serious objections to NI: 1 The 'Majority World'/'Third World' division. Is the world really so split in two? Surely there is such a subtle tapestry of cultural, socio-economic and political situations that simplistic...

Art for life--and death: Lindsey Collen on the fragile freedom of artists to speak their minds.(Letter from Mauritius)
September 1, 2006... 'Do you think I'll get stones thrown at me?' Krishna Luchoomun asks me, standing in front of his installation just before opening day of a collective art exhibition on the theme 'For freedom, against repression'. It's a strong piece. A tall,...

Kidnapped in Iraq: Jo Wilding recalls her own, terrifying experience--and makes a link with the traffick in Iraqi women.(Special feature)
September 1, 2006... In Basra, the day before the killing of four mercenaries in Falluja, and a few days before US forces besieged the city, I met a man called Sam. He was advising NGOs on security, safety precautions, what to do if you're kidnapped, and so on. He...

Benin.(Country Profile)(Country overview)
September 1, 2006... If people in the rich world associate Benin with anything at all, it is likely to be child trafficking, slavery or voodoo--not exactly the ideal calling cards for a nation. Latterly, however, Benin is developing an entirely new reputation--for...