New Internationalist articles from September 2007

New Internationalist archives from September 2007

Sex trafficking.(From this month's editor)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... 'Are you going to be looking at other types of slavery?' I was asked several times while researching this issue of the magazine. Understandably. This year is the bicentenary of the 'abolition' of slavery and many campaign groups have been...

Wish you well.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I am saddened that Lindsey Collen's Letter from Mauritius (the final letter appeared in Another view NI 403) will no longer be featured in New Internationalist. I want to thank Lindsey for her contribution which I have thoroughly enjoyed over...

Ecological civilization.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I enjoyed your issue on Permaculture (NI 402) and it got me thinking about how I could get more out of my own tiny bit of garden. I am already scavenging the grass clippings thrown away by neighbours to add to my compost, the wormery is doing...

Motes in the eye.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I find Peter Tatchell's article ('Silencing dissent', Special Feature, NI 402) Superficial. Remarks like 'when Islamists have gained power-such as Iran or Afghanistan' and 'Islamists are behind the terror attacks in Indonesia and the...

True Islam.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Like many Muslim writers, Amatullah Matthews (Special Feature, NI 402) is keen to portray true Islam as a religion of nonviolence and tolerance. Sadly, the Islam we see actually practised in Muslim-majority nations is a religion of intolerance,...

Unjustified praise.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... I read 'Much Ado About Oil' (Essay, NI 402) with growing disbelief. Could your essayist really be serious about praising Chavez for concluding deals with Russia, China and others to explore for more oil? How does this help with the...

Pro-Israel propaganda.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Re: several pro-Israel propaganda Letters (NI 402) following the 'Boycott Israel' article (Special Feature, NI 400). One repeats the claim that Palestinians should all be accommodated in Jordan. It ignores their forced displacement...

Secularized calendar.(Letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... Re Jim Burns' comment (Letters, NI 402) on my letter in NI 400: living in harmony with other calendar systems is not an alien concept to me. When I lived in Japan I soon adjusted to converting Japanese historical dates to the timescale I'm more...

Running out of lies: over a year of warfare in Lebanon means over a year of telling lies for Reem Haddad.(Letter from Lebanon)
September 1, 2007... I'm desperately trying to find a way to tell my little girl that she will not be graduating from pre-school. She has been practising her dances and songs for the past few months now. She can't wait to wear her little graduation robe. Or for her...

Trafficked: behind the doors of ordinary-seeming flats, houses, hotels, a brutal form of modern slavery is taking place. And it's happening Vanessa Baird worldwide, wonders why--and what can be done about it.(KEYNOTE)
September 1, 2007... When I was 23, I responded to an ad that read: 'Go-Go Girl Wanted.' To be honest, I was not altogether sure what was meant by 'go-go girl'. But I went--got the job and started straight away. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hours were...

Use my name: two women, Olga in Moldova and bright from Nigeria, talk to Louisa Waugh about their experiences.(SURVIVORS)
September 1, 2007... Olga lives in a quiet suburb of the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, where she shares a home with her brother and her young son, Kolya. She's a devoted mother and spends a lot of time at home with Kolya. When he goes to school next year Olga will...

Meet the traffickers: what kind of person would sell another? You might be surprised. Victor Malarek reports.(TRAFFICKERS)
September 1, 2007... In a dusty farm village 80 miles north of Phnom Penh--the capital of Cambodia--two women sit cross-legged on a floor inside a ramshackle hut. They are transacting an important business deal and haggle for about 10 minutes before settling on the...

What is it?(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The UN defines human trafficking as: 'The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of...

Sex trafficking: the facts trafficking for sexual exploitation has become an epidemic in the past decade.
September 1, 2007... 1 HOW WIDESPREAD IS IT? Human trafficking affects virtually every region of the world. People from 127 countries are exploited in 137 countries (1) An estimated 2.4 million people are currently in forced labour-including sexual...

Knowing the difference: some women sell sex voluntarily, some are forced. Bishakha Datta talks to women who have been in both situations.(SEX WORK VS TRAFFICING)
September 1, 2007... This may sound like a plot-line from Bollywood blockbuster, but it's for real. Gouri Roy, the eldest of eight sisters in India's West Bengal, was married off when she was 11. Her husband did no work. After a decade of working as a domestic...

'I never want to be rescued again': Melissa Ditmore argues that some anti-trafficking responses are making conditions more dangerous for voluntary sex workers.
September 1, 2007... III-conceived measures to prevent trafficking are doing harm to sex workers. A common casualty is women's mobility. For example, Romanian women travelling to Greece have had 'prostitute' stamped in their passports, making it impossible for them...

Stop traffick! A global selection of some of the more progressive, inventive and even unusual initiatives that have been launched to tackle trafficking ...
September 1, 2007... 1 The Truth Isn't Sexy Young British people raising their pints in popular bars can hardly fail to notice the beer-mats provided for their use. They are enticing, well-produced, sex-worker calling cards--or so they appear to be. Flip them...

Action contacts resources.(Directory)
September 1, 2007... INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Anti Slavery International www.antislavery.org Tel: +442075018920 Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) www.gaatw.net tel: +66 2 864 1427/8 The Coalition Against Trafficking...

Calendars and diaries.(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... ONE WORLD CALENDAR 2008 Item no 287 $24.95 Cdn / $22.95 US These 12 striking, colourful photographs bring the world into your home throughout the year. Published with an international consortium of aid agencies and NGOs. ...

Christmas cards and more.(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... All cards are printed on 90% recycled stock and come with recycled envelopes. All cards carry the message "Season's Greetings" in nine languages (French, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh and English). AMNESTY...

World cooking.(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... THE WORLD OF STREET FOOD Item no 114 $21.95 Cdn / $19.95 US Bring the street stall into your kitchen with recipes and photographs from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Mainly vegetarian; with organic and fair trade...

The heart of the matter.(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... NO-NONSENSE GUIDES The No-Nonsense Guides help you make sense of the most complex global issues. They give you a concise and plain-speaking view of some of the most challenging issues of our time. And all in under 150 pages, so you can...

Maps, posters & reference.(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... PETERS' LAMINATED MAP Item no 124 $ 16.95 Cdn / $14.95 US The revolutionary Peters' Projection presents countries in their true proportion to one another: it has been adopted by the UN, aid agencies, schools and businesses around the...

Trigger Issues: each book in the Trigger Issues series presents a single item that has had a momentous and far-reaching effect on the modern world, exploring its impact on society and often surprising cultural connections. Size: 17.4 cm x 12.4 cm; 96 pages.(Gifts with an edge)(Buyers guide)
September 1, 2007... FOOTBALL $10 Cdn / $9 US Item no 154 A sharp and provocative look at the beautiful game--from big money and superstars to child labour and sweatshops. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] CONDOM $10 Cdn / $9 US Item no 155...

Fields of gold: Dionne Bunsha detects the makings of another Indian mutiny.
September 1, 2007... India wants to follow in the footsteps of China. Special Economic Zones are supposed to be miracle pills that can raise a country up to export-led superstardom. So the Government forcibly requisitions large chunks of land at knock-down prices,...

Vitamin M: loads of money dished out by a Korean steel company haven't yet endeared India's single biggest foreign investment project to the villagers who will lose their land and livelihoods. Maureen Nandini Mitra finds out why not.
September 1, 2007... Around the picturesque village of Dhinkia, on the Orissa coast, there are wooden 'check gates' operated by villagers, restricting access to the hub of a fierce resistance movement. A South Korean steel giant, the Pohang Steel Company (Posco) is...

The bottom line: Jayati Ghosh argues that the Zones don't offer quite such a clear path to progress as their advocates claim.
September 1, 2007... The idea that creating spaces with good infrastructure and simplified procedures assists industrialization is not new. But its latest form goes further--there have to be tax breaks, highly subsidized land and little or no compulsory worker...

A death in Durban: activist dies after long battle against toxic waste dump.(ENVIRONMENT)
September 1, 2007... South African environmental activist Sajida Khan sadly passed away on 12 July after a long struggle with cancer. Khan campaigned for over a decade against the Bisasar Road waste dump in Durban-one of the largest municipal dumps in the Southern...

Court convicts over child soldiers.(SIERRA LEONE)
September 1, 2007... In a ground-breaking move, the war crimes court for Sierra Leone has handed down the first-ever convictions by a UN-backed tribunal for the crime of recruiting and using child soldiers. Thousands of children were used by all sides during Sierra...

PR for the planet.(CLIMATE CHANGE)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... 'Few PR offences have been so obvious, so successful and so despicable as the attack on the scientific certainty of climate change.' Not, as you might assume, the words of an environmental activist, but of a prominent Canadian PR professional....

Another damned dam.(WATER)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... After a decade-long break from financing large dams, the World Bank began supporting a controversial new hydropower project in Laos two years ago. Billed as a 'model' project, the Nam Theun 2 Dam was designed to incorporate recommendations from...

Living wage campaign launched.(SOCIAL MOVEMENTS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A North American-wide campaign for a living wage kicked off this spring. It's the brainchild of a Mexican-based coalition--the International Campaign for the Restoration of Wages and Jobs. The idea is to build continental pressure to reverse...

Youngest Afghan politician banned.(From Radio New Internationalist)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... www.newint.org/radio Malalai Joya--who at 28 years of age is Afghanistan's youngest Parliamentarian--regularly reminds her fellow law-makers that they sit with warlords who should be tried for war and drug crimes, rather than wield power...

Oh, Mandy: the EU's post-WTO global trade agenda Isn't looking pretty.(EUROPE)
September 1, 2007... Peter Mandelson is on a new mission. With the ongoing possibility that the multilateral trade talks at the WTO will collapse completely, the EU Commissioner for Trade and External Competitiveness has unveiled plans to drive forward an even more...

Forward, eco-comrades.(CHINA)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... While the rest of the world frets about China building two coal-fuelled power stations a week, the sorry state of air and water quality in China has led to rising public protests. Citizens and officials alike are urging the country to crack...

Speechmarks.
September 1, 2007... "Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." Bertolt Brecht, (1898-1956), German playwright

Summer Seriously roundup.(Seriously ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Yes, it's that time of the year when the Northern Hemisphere goes crazy, and the Seriously studios have been hard at work gathering stories of all sorts of silliness. Here are two that piqued our interest. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Live free or die ... by machine gun fire.(Seriously ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... It seems the Republican Party of Manchester, New Hampshire, has taken the tiny US state's motto--'live free or die'--a little too, ahem, seriously, when thinking of novel ways to organize a fundraising event. Not content with the...

US vs Iran: the video game.(Seriously ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Move over Mario, here come the Iranian Special Forces. A group of Iranian students behind the infamous 'World Without Zionism' conference in 2005 have released a video game where players attempt to rescue two nuclear scientists kidnapped by US...

Worldbeaters: taking aim at the rich and powerful.
September 1, 2007... Worldbeaters Job: World Bank President, ex-Deputy Secretary of State, ex-US Trade Representative Reputation: Policy wonk, trade flack The last time Worldbeaters profiled Bob Zoellick, in March 2005, he had Just been appointed US...

The Dusty Foot on the Road.(Mixed Media)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Originally from Mogadishu-the 13-year-old K'Naan escaped Somalia's civil war for the relative safety of North America--it could be said that this exceptional musician is no stranger to extreme violence. So what happens when the young man meets...

Alevanta!(Mixed Media)(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Better known as one of the three founders of Spain's superb Radio Tarifa, it's taken vocalist Benjamin Escoriza a bit of time to break out on his own. That said, Alevanta! is more than a fair showing, featuring throughout the blend of flamenco...

Lady Chatterley.(Mixed Media)(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Oh no, you may be thinking, not three hours in a darkened room with D H Lawrence! That's too much for me. And you wouldn't be alone thinking that--Lawrence could be preachy, wrong-headed and politically dubious. Yet he was an astonishing...

Refugee special.(Mixed Media)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... No-One is Illegal: Fighting Racism and State Violence on the US-Mexico Border by Justin Akers Chacon and Mike Davis (Haymarket Books, ISBN 1931859353) From Outside In: Refugees and British Society edited by Nushin Arbabzadah...

Waitress film.(Mixed Media)(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Shelley's third feature is a small-town American fairy tale with a grip on the realities of working-class life. Jenna is a cafe waitress who dreams up and bakes wondrous life-enhancing pies. She gets on great with folk and they just love them...

Southern exposure: highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the majority world.(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... I was resting for a moment, after shooting the opening march of the seventh World Social Forum, the first time it had taken place in Africa. People were arriving at Nairobi's Uhuru (Freedom) Park, and it was a nice place to celebrate, with...

Guns and justice in the Niger Delta.(View from Lagos)
September 1, 2007... Nigeria's Niger Delta has known a long history of struggle over resources. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, indigenous communities fought against attempts by British traders (backed by the imperial government) to seize control of the...

Working life: celebrated in photographs.
September 1, 2007... THIRTY YEARS AGO I began this photography project because it seemed to me that so little was known or seen of people's ordinary working life. The mass media used only to cover work situations when they were a scene of conflict, or when they...

Costa Rica.(Country Profile)
September 1, 2007... When the first European settlers arrived in what is now Costa Rica in the 16th century, there were an estimated 19 indigenous chiefdoms with about 400,000 inhabitants. Little record is left of that life, and Costa Rica is bereft of the pyramids...

At a glance.(Country overview)
September 1, 2007... Leader: President Oscar Arias Sanchez. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Economy: GNI per capita $4,590 (Nicaragua $910, United States $43,740). Monetary unit: Costa Rican colon (CRC). Main exports: coffee, bananas, sugar, pineapples,...

Big babies.(COMING NEXT MONTH)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... Psychoanalysts believe that people can be 'infantilized'--stopped from growing up. Powerful politicians now seem to think that's a neat idea. Dog-whistles and diversions of all kinds are designed to turn us away from active political...