February 2004
Issue No. 364
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Equality's Progress
It’s been a tough time for equality. But is it really ‘an endangered species’, as some have suggested? Vanessa Baird takes stock.
Strong & smart
Teacher Chris Sarra is turning upside-down ideas about what Aboriginal kids can and can’t do.
I was born white
Mark Minchinton undertakes a journey back to his – and his country’s – Aboriginal roots.
Equality Watch: Race & Ethnicity
Betrayal
Two years after the liberation of Afghanistan, are its women really free? Report from Mariam Rawi.
Measures of Equality - The Facts
Equality - and its opposite - cannot be measured in numbers and calculations alone. Nevertheless the statistics can be quite revealing.
Each in their place
There’s caste and there’s class. And in some places the two intertwine. Mari Marcel Thekaekara writes from India, where the struggle for Dalit rights is gathering strength.
The self I will never know
Genital mutilation of intersex children occurs on a daily basis. Esther Morris explains why it must stop – and why intersex needs to become the ‘gay rights’ of the 21st century.
Equality watch: Sexual & gender minorities
A few thoughts on equality
Diverse theories at a glance.
Do we really want equality?
Writer and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips asks some tricky questions.
Another coinage
Jeremy Seabrook counts the emotional costs to migrant labour in a globalized world.
Gem in a world of rocks
What the co-op movement can do for equality, by Costa Rica’s former President and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias Sánchez.
News, views, and & voices
Letter from Lebanon
The al Jazeera satellite TV station has changed Arab people’s perception of the world. Its runaway success has spawned a host of imitators, as Reem Haddad explains.
Southern Exposure
The funeral of seven Mexican peasants killed by rightwing paramilitaries, by the great Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.
View from the South
The 12th and final instalment of Eduardo Galeano’s Windows series: Odysseys.
Currents
Bhutan kicks goals for well-being
Blood money
Iranian women fight the ‘medieval’ practice of blood money
Brukman workers win their factory
Oilisms
Greasy palms on the dirty side of the oil industry.
One step forward,
two steps back
China’s new environmentalists.
Young people face facts
Facts on global youth.
Film - Best of the Year
The best films of 2003.
Film
The Barbarian Invasions. Written and directed by Denys Arcand.
Music - Best of the Year
The best music of 2003.
Music
Bowmboï by Rokia Traore
Music
Defixiones, Will and Testament, Orders from the Dead by Diamanda Galas
Book - Best of the Year
The best books of 2003.
Book
Asiye's Story by Asiye Guzel
Book
Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack. By Austin Clarke.
Book
Modern Jihad - Tracing the Dollars Behind the Terror Networks. By Loretta Napoleoni.
Country Profile
Brazil
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
ODD how you don’t always see what’s staring you in the face.
It was only after I’d completed a refined plan for this magazine that I noticed there was nothing on equality and work. That was soon remedied, but it did make me realize how much one takes for granted.
New Internationalist did not start life as a workers’ co-op. But it has been one now for at least 20 years. What it means is that we have an equal share in – and responsibility for – managing ourselves, and decision making. This flat nonhierarchical approach is so natural to us now that I think we sometimes forget that it is actually still quite unusual.
'But does it work?' is the question people most often ask. Well, yes, of course it does. There are few things more motivational than empowerment.
'No, but really. Isn't it terribly inefficient?' We're still here and doing okay so we must be getting something right.
'But is it really equal?' Ah, now. That's a bit more interesting. Because equality is a complex and subtle affair.
It's one of the most contested areas of political philosophy. Not surprisingly some of the most difficult issues we have to deal with in the New Internationalist have related in some way to equality and conflicting notions of what it means in practice.
I would not say we have got it right. I think it's impossible to say that, without being complacent or self-deluding. But we do keep trying - and in doing so enrich our internal democracy.
For without some kind of internal democracy, we haven't got a leg to stand on when commenting on issues of social justice, have we?
Vanessa Baird
for the New Internationalist Co-operative
vanessab@newint.org
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
