Back Issues

December 2008 - Issue 418

The current meltdown of the global financial system has knocked the crisis caused by runaway food prices out of the news. The fate of investment bankers simply gets more ink than that of those on the edge of starvation. But there is a common thread here – irresponsible profit-seeking with little regard for the future of the vulnerable. This issue dissects the ‘perfect storm’ of conditions that have devastated agriculture in the global south and is undermining the world’s ability to feed itself. The current food price boom is connected to a longer term trend that has created a trap of dependency on an industrial food system based on food imports and agro-chemical inputs. But the NI discovers that it doesn’t take Houdini to find a way out.

November 2008 - Issue 417

As the war in Afghanistan intensifies we ask Afghan writers and journalists how they see events unfolding and what they think their country needs to end decades of violent conflict.

Not surprisingly, what they have to say is rather different from the statements emanating from Western politicians and mainstream media pundits.

This month’s issue of the New Internationalist gives you a different - and more authentic - perspective on one of the world’s key issues. Not only are the articles written by Afghans, but the images too are the work of first-rate photographers and cartoonists from the country.

October 2008 - Issue 416

Cut, cut, cut! ‘Read my lips – no more taxes!’ For the better part of a generation, political mantras about tax have been deliberately misleading. ‘Small’ government and ‘lower’ taxes have not cut the tax bill or government budgets. They have camouflaged a switch from taxes on personal and corporate wealth to taxes on anyone and anything else. Today, the more political power you have, the less tax you are likely to pay. A tax ‘consensus’ has been quietly engineered by the IMF and imposed worldwide, regardless of democratic preference or absolute human needs. As globalization goes mental and public funds prop up the world’s banks, this month the NI uncovers the global tax scandal - and suggests where justice might lie.

September 2008 - Issue 415

Sixty years ago plastic was an exotic development of modern chemistry. Today it is the most widespread human-made substance in the world. More than 250 billion pounds of raw plastic pellets are produced from petroleum feedstock every year. It is everywhere, in places you never imagined: computers and cell phones; packaging; food and drink containers; home furnishings and building materials; cars, trucks, airplanes and boats; children’s toys and beauty products.

August 2008 - Issue 414

2.6 billion people around the world don’t have a WC or any other kind of decent toilet. Because ‘faecal perils’ land up on hands, feet and lips, two million of them – mostly children – die of diarrhoeal disease every year. The toll in indignity and distress, especially among women, is less measurable but arguably far worse. Out on the excretory frontier, toilet pioneers are strutting their stuff with goose-necks and waterseals, sanplats and the ecological approach. But they won’t get far unless people – rich and famous, poor and deprived – can be persuaded to confront the unmentionable and call a spade a spade. This issue of New Internationalist looks at who and what are carrying the sanitary flame in the 21st century.

July 2008 - Issue 413

There is an almost beautiful simplicity to the Ecuadorian leader’s proposal. Rafael Correa has said that his Government is prepared not to extract nearly a billion barrels of oil from Yasuní National Park, a part of the Amazon rainforest of extraordinary but fragile ecological and cultural richness. To do so, however, Ecuador will need to be compensated by the international community to the tune of at least $350 million per annum for the next 10 years. The June 2008 deadline for this proposal to save Yasuní has been extended, but time is running out and the oil companies are poised ready to drill. This month’s issue of New Internationalist looks at what’s happening to a bold plan that could point the way to breaking oil dependency – but which is also fraught with possible snares and pitfalls. And it listens to the people most affected – the indigenous and other peoples of Yasuní itself.

June 2008 - Issue 412

Do we need to worry about nuclear weapons any more? After the end of the Cold War, the world stepped back from the brink of mutually-assured annihilation and nuclear stockpiles were halved. But nukes haven't gone away. In fact, they are undergoing something of a renaissance. India, Pakistan and North Korea have all recently joined the nuclear club. The US, Russia, Britain, China and France are spending billions on 'modernizing' their nuclear arsenals. So why are disarmament campaigners so upbeat? The NI discovers a window of opportunity for banning the bomb – but can we seize the moment before the shutters slam down, perhaps for good?

May 2008 - Issue 411

Burma should be celebrating 60 years of independence, but instead the country is colonized from within. The military dictatorship that’s got its jackboot on the nation’s neck now goes by the name of the State Peace and Development Council. But peace and development are just two things among many it has not managed to deliver – large sections of the country are riven by civil war as armed groups fight military rule and, often, each other. The NI speaks with Burmese people, both inside and outside the country. With great fear and courage they are trying to keep the flame of freedom alight.

April 2008 - Issue 410

Something is happening. In different parts of the world indigenous people are organizing, demanding justice and fighting back. The election of indigenous president Evo Morales in Bolivia has been having ripple effects in other Latin American countries. In Africa, the so-called ‘Pygmy’ people of the Congo basin are taking on the World Bank. In India tribal adivasi people are doing battle with big business. While in Australia aboriginal activists are urging their new government to rethink the disastrous racist policies of the Howard era.

March 2008 - Issue 409

This month's theme of Ethical Travel deals with two separate subjects: the first half devoted to the thorny issue of flying and the second to the impact of tourism.

Human Rights

This year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is 60 years old – and the Olympics will take place in China, a country that flagrantly abuses it. Meanwhile, countries that flaunt their human rights credentials on the world stage have decided that the War on Terror trumps everything else. Fundamental human rights that took years of suffering to establish are being casually swept aside. Social and economic rights that were always belittled are now being ignored altogether. There may be more international human rights ‘machinery’ than ever before – but it’s being put very firmly into reverse gear.

So the NI starts the New Year by going backstage, behind all the razzmatazz, to celebrate the work of some remarkable groups of human rights defenders who carry on regardless – and we award them ‘medals’ of our own.

Corporate Responsibility Unmasked

‘Corporate Responsibility’ is one of the hot business strategies of our time. All the multinationals are at it. Over the last decade an extremely profitable industry has sprung up with the sole aim of helping callous companies mend their ways, spruce up their image, and get those pesky campaigners off their backs. The NI exposes this not-so-subtle strategy to avoid regulation, silence critics, and in many cases continue with the activities that tarnished their image in the first place.

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