December 2006
Issue No. 396
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Can the rot be stopped?
Vanessa Baird traces the wily ways of
corruption – and the war against it.
I was a city boy, a soft Asian
Prize-winning novelist MG Vassanji on the psychology of mundane corruption.
Arms, farts and bribe fairies
Comedian Mark Thomas has a go at defence giant BAE Systems and its cronies.
Corruption busters
Bravery and integrity from around the world.
Killer sting
Sandhya Srinivasan takes a closer look at the World Bank’s ‘success’ with malaria in India.
Corruption's big funder – or how to ‘lose’ $100 billion without really trying
Tainted projects brought to you by the World Bank
Corruption around the world
Corruption around the world - the facts
Anatomy of a scam
Whistleblower John Githongo speaks to Vanessa Baird; plus extracts from his explosive dossier.
More scary
Anti-corruption isn’t always what it says on the label. Anna Winterbottom sounds a note of caution.
Action against corruption
Contacts, campaigns and other useful stuff on where to go from here.
News, views, and & voices
Currents
Parkicide
Destroying coca plants in Colombia
Bordering on ridiculous
Plan to build fence along the US-Mexico border gets go-ahead
Musharraf’s hidden war
A state of war in Balochistan
Small-but-scary symbol sought
Nanodoodle needed for nanotechnology
Lunatic beetroot
Fury of HIV/AIDS campaigners at the South African Government.
Seriously
All fired up
Word Power
The language of the Middle East
Worldbeaters
Robert Kocharian
Mixed Media
Music
Queer Noises: From the Closet to the Charts 1961-1978 by various artists
Music
Plague Songs by various artists
Film
Esma’s Secret written and directed by Jasmila Zbanic
Film
Rampage directed by George Gittoes
Film
One to avoid...
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait directed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno
Film
Container written and directed by Lukas Moodysson
Books
The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa translated by Daniel Hahn
Books
The Body Hunters by Sonia Shah
Southern Exposure
A bullethole in shattered glass: an image of everyday violence in Guatemala City, by local photographer Sandra Sebastian.
View from Osumenyi
A return to his hometown for a funeral brings Ike Oguine face to face with ancient ceremonies and certainties that make the world of politics seem like another country.
Essay - costing climate change
George Monbiot explains why action on climate change has to be driven by morality, not dollar estimates
Big Bad World
There is a suitably festive theme to Polyp's December cartoon.
Making Waves
Mental illness is still taboo in India, and many women end up shunned and destitute as a result. But Vandana Gopikumar has been pioneering ways of reaching out to them.
Letter from Mauritius
Posters used to be protest space. Now they’re eaten up by glossy ads, laments Lindsey Collen.
Country Profile: Mozambique
Those with money adapt well to the new Mozambique, which over 16 years ago dropped a Marxist/Leninist regime in favour of a free-market economy.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
There’s nothing like a good corruption scandal. Especially if it involves the high and mighty with their pants down. Judges and politicians are especially good value. At times it seems we almost revel in the depths to which the powerful will descend in their abuse of power. The frisson of shock is then followed by the knowingness of cynicism. Then the implications sink in. Will the Canadian Liberal Party ever recover from the Quebec sponsorship scandal? Readers in Britain might be asking a similar question as they absorb the latest in the oh-so-British ‘cash for peerages’ Labour Party funding scandal. As Americans reach some kind of ‘closure’ watching Enron malefactors go to jail, the Foley furore comes to take its place. While for the Irish there’s always Prime Minister Bertie Ahern’s colourful fiscal life to look out for.
On the opposite side of the globe readers in Aotearoa/New Zealand may still be fuming over US chemical giant Dow’s cover-up of DDT pollution on North Island, while their neighbours assess the fall-out from the Australian Wheat Board revelations (see Keynote).
Despite the raw newsworthiness of scandal, there is a cumulative, depressing, and relentless character to such stories. We are shocked and outraged. Then it blows away. Then comes the next round of corruption. Again shock and outrage. Plus ça change.
Well, actually, it can and does change. Which is why this issue of the New Internationalist tries to focus on some of the people who are making a difference, who are standing up to challenge corruption. And, naturally, being the NI, we point to things we can do about it.
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
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
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