New Internationalist back issues from April 2006:
From this month's editor.(Keith Rockwell is adamant)(Editorial)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'Mr Rockwell is adamant,' said the PA to Keith Rockwell, Head of the World Trade Organization's Information and Media Relations Division. What Mr Rockwell was adamant about was that the New Internationalist was 'not a magazine but an NGO'. It was news to us. Since 1978 we have ...
Trade justice: Vanessa Baird sets out in search of an elusive ideal ...(Trade Justice: INTRODUCTION)
Apr 01, 2006; ... I step out of the Underground and into London's finest--one of those resolutely grey November days, anointed by a light drizzle. Across the road a straggling--and unreasonably cheerful--group of people are carrying placards. As they pass the Department of Trade and Industry one ...
Introducing ... the great Tradomino! The illusionist who can make even international trade negotiations seem fair.
Apr 01, 2006 ... 1 Box trick Agree, under pressure, to scrap an unfair subsidy that is distorting trade. Hey presto. Gone! How bold! Not quite, if you can play the box trick. This is how it goes. In the WTO there are different coloured boxes for different types of farm subsidies. The amber box ...
Made in [begin strikethrough]Hong Kong[end strikethrough] China: on the eve of the world trade summit ...(Trade Justice: LABOUR)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Few places embody the words 'international trade' so convincingly as Hong Kong. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Take the highway from the best airport in the world, follow it past vast modern docks, and you enter a buzzing, vertical city, a multi-levelled cathedral to ...
Junk the WTO! Is the World Trade Organization victim of an unfair hate campaign?(Trade Justice: WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION)
Apr 01, 2006 ... It's hard to tell, at first, what the young women are up to. It seems to involve something inflatable. Something with tentacles. Then it emerges from within the crowd and is hoisted high above their heads. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A grotesque creature spewing a red ...
Rice resistance.(Trade Justice: FOOD AND ENVIRONMENT)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Should genetically modified food be forced upon unwilling populations? Biotech companies--and the governments that root for them within the WTO--think so. But a resounding, and increasingly effective, 'no' is gathering volume around the world. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
Speak out ... on trade justice.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006 ... TATIK, INDONESIA I work as a domestic here in Hong Kong to support my family in Indonesia. I am the eighth of nine children and my family depends on me for food, clothing, education--everything. The situation got much worse in my country after economic liberalization. Everything ...
Laboratory for change: what can the fair trade movement teach the WTO?(Trade Justice: FAIR TRADE)(World Trade Organization, Maquita Cushunchic Comercializando como Hermanos )
Apr 01, 2006 ... Every now and again a weary delegate escapes from the trade summit for a breath of air and a touch of reality. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If they take a side exit from one of the elevated walkways they may find themselves in a building where a different kind of event is ...
Keep buying! Next stop Dhaka ... and a glimpse of what is behind the world's cheapest T-shirts.(Trade Justice: CONSUMER PRESSURE)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Luftor Rahman, factory owner, is livid. 'Write this!' he tells me, pointing his finger. 'Tell them we don't want 97 per cent if it excludes textiles! I can't export helicopters. Give us 3 per cent, but include textiles!' [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This needs explaining ....
So, what's to be done? Quick answer: plenty. For more, read on ...(Trade Justice: CONCLUSION)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Enough problems! What about the solutions? First, let's junk the mythical formula that goes: freer trade = economic growth = less poverty. It's a hugely popular one, trotted out with eager regularity by the IMF, World Bank, WTO and politicians of various persuasions. (1) ...
Action.(Trade Justice: CONCLUSION)(Directory)
Apr 01, 2006 ... AUSTRALIA Global Trade Watch web: www.tradewatchoz.org Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network tel: +612 8898 6500 web: www.aftinet.org.au Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand tel: +612 6125 ...
Tanzanite trouble: Tanzania's desperate farmers chase the blue stone.(MINING)
Apr 01, 2006; ... IT was the New York jeweller Tiffany's that christened the stone 'Tanzanite' when it appeared on the world market in 1962 from the hills around the town of Mererani, 50 kilometres south of Kilimanjaro. 'We were always discouraged by our parents from picking up the blue stones,' says James ...
Speechmarks.(cultural identity)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'When we were at school we were taught to sing the songs of the Europeans. How many of us were taught the songs of the Wanyamwezi or of the Wahehe? Many of us have learnt to dance the rumba, or the cha cha, to rock and roll and to twist and even to ...
The language of torture.(Currents)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Word power 15 confess v. lie to prevent pain or death. painstaking n. bid by private company to provide facilities/services that ...
Corporate no-no.(International Life Sciences Institute )(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The World Health Organization (WHO) has barred the US-based International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) from taking part in 'WHO activities setting microbiological or chemical standards for food and water'. The decision follows warnings from health, environmental and union ...
Primitive media.(INDIGENOUS PEOPLES)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Survival International launched a campaign on 31 January 2006 to end the portrayal of indigenous groups in the press as 'primitive' and 'Stone Age'. It is being supported by several prominent journalists. According to BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson: 'There is nothing primitive about ...
Desert flood.(REFUGEES)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... As if they did not already have enough to deal with, Saharawi refugees who have been living in a remote part of the Algerian desert for more than three decades have now been afflicted by a flood, following torrential rains not seen in the area since 1994. More than half the houses in ...
Air for sale?(ENVIRONMENT)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006 ... <Pre> I don't know who you are, but one thing do I ask of you, Don't sell yourself. No, Air--Don't sell yourself, Don't let them channel you, Don't let them run you through tubes, Don't let them box you, or compress you, Don't let them make you into pills, Don't let them bottle you ....
Governors of cyberspace: who will decide what we can read on our computer screens?(INTERNET)
Apr 01, 2006; ... THE words 'democracy' and 'human rights' cannot be used to search the web in China. The big internet companies--Google and Yahoo--install filters that comply with Chinese censorship efforts. On 30 December last year, Microsoft even shut down a Chinese-language blog on its MSN Pages when ...
Animal plights.(Seriously)
Apr 01, 2006 ... The recent anti-animal-rights demo in Seriously's home town of Oxford has us feeling all warm and fuzzy. Thanks to the brave efforts of a ragtag coalition of elite chemistry and biology majors from Oxford and Cambridge--two universities long known as hotbeds of radicalism and ...
Koizumi Junichiro.(Worldbeaters)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Status: Prime Minister of Japan, Reformer par excellence, Architect of Japanese revival. Reputation: Cool dude, Rebel for the rich, Ninja reborn. It's hard to fathom how they keep doing it. How those who are defenders of the status quo, defenders of power and ...
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.(Sound recording review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne (Virgin/EMI BEDBX 1 CD) The first appearance of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts in 1981 was a watershed in Western pop music. It wasn't even a matter of the album's composition: Brian Eno was a non-musician ...
Fonotone Records, Frederick, Maryland.(Sound recording review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Fonotone Records, Frederick, Maryland by Various Artists (Dust to Digital DTD03 5CD) Fonotone's boxed set, the product of an almost insanely detailed record-collecting obsession, arrives with perfect timing. Back in 1956 when Joe Bussard, a collector from the town of ...
A Month And A Day and Letters.(Brief article)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A Month And A Day & Letters by Ken Saro-Wiwa (Ayebia Clarke Publishing ISBN 0 9547023 5 2) A decade has passed since Ken Saro-Wiwa was judicially murdered on trumped-up charges by the military dictatorship of the Nigerian ruler Sani Abacha. He was hanged, together ...
Tsotsi.(Movie review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Tsotsi directed by Gavin Hood David is a petty thief, a lost soul who makes no connections. No-one even knows his name. He's simply 'Tsotsi', township patois for 'thug'. He knows the scene, knows the odds, never panics--he leads a small gang. Aap, who's known him for ...
L'Enfant (The Child).(Movie review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... L'Enfant (The Child) written and directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne Bruno and Sonia live on the streets. She's 18, just out of hospital with a baby, but Bruno has let out her apartment. He's 20, a thief and a fence, a fixer who lives for the moment. He has his ...
The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria.(Brief article)(Book review)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The Next Gulf London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria by Andy Rowell, James Marriott & Lorne Stockman (Constable ISBN 1-84529-259-6) Ten years after the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria stands at a turning point. The oil and gas from the Niger Delta ...
Blood of the martyr.(Southern Exposure)(Brief article)
Apr 01, 2006; ... This photo was taken at the beginning of the Iranian revolution (early 1979) when the rioting people invaded Tehran's military bases. During this period, it was customary for the blood of martyrs killed during the protests to be used to write slogans on pieces of card as a form of ...
The second founding of Bolivia.(View from Montevideo)
Apr 01, 2006; ... On 22 January 2002, Evo was expelled from Paradise. Or rather: Deputy Morales was thrown out of Parliament. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On 22 January 2006, in the same grand chamber, Evo Morales was sworn in as the President of Bolivia. Or rather: Bolivia is beginning to ...
Troubled water: between the extremes of flood and drought, India is heading for a water crisis. But, argues Rainer Hoerig, the mightiest dam-building exercise the country has ever attempted is not the solution.
Apr 01, 2006; ... On 26 July 2005 the Met Office forecast was for 'heavy rain' in India's biggest city. Down came the worst deluge Mumbai has ever witnessed. With an incredible 944 millimetres of rain in 24 hours, roads and urban railtracks flooded, leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters stranded. All ...
NI prize crossword.
Apr 01, 2006 ... 107 by AXE Win a copy of the latest World Guide reference book ... All correct solutions received by the 25th of the cover month will be put into a draw--though only the winner will be notified. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Post your entry to NI Crossword, 55 ...
Big bad world.(Cartoon)
Apr 01, 2006 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
Interview with Irene Fernandez, winner of an 'alternative Nobel Prize'.(Making Waves)(Interview)
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'If people's lives are at risk, how can you sit back and pretend you don't know?' This kind of attitude has landed Irene Fernandez in very hot water more than once. But it's an integral part of her job. As director of Kuala Lumpur-based rights organization Tenaganita (Women's Force), ...
Spaces of exclusion.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Squatter Town (NI 386) contained the most incisive and inspiring series of articles I have read in your magazine. I do, however, have a concern about the title of 'Squatter Citizens'. You define the inhabitants of the squatter towns as citizens but I feel the people living in these spaces ...
Parasites.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The problems summed up in Squatter Town all come back to the difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. In almost every society there is a privileged elite--tribal chiefs, traditional royalty and nobility, the 'Party' or military leadership, or, in our present world, business ...
Crossing PC floor.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Your Worldbeaters essay on Bob Geldof (NI 386) precipitated a series of questions in my mind. I asked myself if it were the case that if we dare to accumulate wealth then we have 'crossed the PC floor' and placed ourselves firmly in the other/wrong camp. This appears curiously similar to ...
Vindictive NI.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... I found the Worldbeaters on Bob Geldof shabby, vindictive and unworthy of NI. Even if Bob Geldof has profited from his involvement with Live Aid, does that: * negate all the good ...
Speaking in tongues.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... I was excited to read Sholto Macpherson's interview with Aram Aharonian of teleSUR, the new public television Latin American broadcaster (Making Waves, NI 386). Any new voice that counters US cultural hegemony is to be welcomed. However, I was disappointed in the way that the matter of ...
No thanks, NI.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006 ... Hey, thanks for including The unreported year 2005 in the Jan/Feb issue of NI. Could you have assembled a greater litany of misery? I mean did you set out to report that nothing good happened on the planet in the past 365 days? 'Cause that's what it reads like. Do you enjoy wallowing in ...
Arctic victory.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... On page 8 of The unreported year 2005, I read that US energy companies won their battle to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. In fact, as reported by Defenders of Wildlife in the US, a very close Senate vote stopped pro-drilling forces in December, 2005 ....
Over the border.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Re: The unreported year 2005: The 14-year girl who was expelled from school for having lesbian parents was a ...
Truth must out.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... 'Battle for the Truth' (Justice after genocide, NI 385) reveals that tenacity must be the order of the day. Let all those nations who have suffered stand shoulder to shoulder to raise the ...
Ethiopian truth.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Your coverage of genocide (NI 385) was excellent. The role of truth commissions in prevention of genocide is particularly relevant in Ethiopia. As vital EU and US support for Zenawi's regime dwindles, dialogue between Amhara and Oromo polities is essential. A truth commission, ...
Justice of victors.(Letter to the editor)
Apr 01, 2006; ... Despite the superficial attractiveness of the idea of 'international' justice (NI 385), it needs to be approached with extreme caution. The trouble is the question of whose justice is being established. The phrase 'international community' is often used as a euphemism for the white Western ...
A corrected map.(Correction notice)
Apr 01, 2006 ... We apologize for errors in part of the map accompanying last month's country ...
The slide of sugar: when retirement means working harder than ever, it can only mean globalization has hit Mauritius. Lindsey Collen explains.(Letter from Mauritius)
Apr 01, 2006; ... A FRIEND of mine from the women's movement, Kawlowtee, announced in 2001: 'I'm fed up! I'm taking my VRS!' She was referring to the Voluntary Retirement Scheme. She's a big strong woman, who for 14 years had worked as a labourer on a sugar estate in the South. This meant she'd ...
Liberia.(Country Profile)
Apr 01, 2006; ... The many dignitaries who attended the inauguration in January of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as President of Liberia could not have failed to notice, while being driven in air-conditioned luxury cars, the dreadful state of the capital, Monrovia. But Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female ...