April 2008
Issue No. 410
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I will return...and I will be millions
Are things beginning to look up for the world’s indigenous peoples? Vanessa Baird begins a series of three reports from Bolivia, where the signs look most hopeful – and most precarious.
The colour of dreams
Aboriginal art from Christine Christopherson and Bronwyn Bancroft.
Questing the ayllu
The journey continues into Bolivia’s mining and peasant heartland. Some surprises are in store.
Plenty to shout about
...if you’re indigenous. THE FACTS.
Journey to the half moon
The battle lines are drawn in Santa Cruz – where resistance to Bolivia’s indigenous President, Evo Morales, is most ferocious.
Arise!
Tales from the indigenous fight-back around the world.
News, views, and & voices
NI SPECIAL FEATURE
The people vs Starbucks
Starbucks has become an icon of globalization – and a target for protesters. It claims to strike a balance between ‘profitability’ and ‘a love of benevolence’. Rowenna Davis finds out if farmers, consumers and workers agree.
The barnstorming barista
Daniel Gross worked as a Starbucks barista for three years before being fired in 2006 for union activity. The Federal Government investigated his termination, concluding that it was illegal under US labour laws, but Starbucks have challenged that ruling.
Currents
Trouble in paradise
Venezuela spreads oil on tropical waters
Africa resists EU bullying
Resistance to the introduction of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)
Kosovo’s other colonizers
Pitiful UN performance in Kosovo
Fistful of yuan
Oil, war and the fall of the US dollar
E-wasted
Electronic waste from the US and Europe disguised as 'charitable donations' to Lagos
Activists accused of terrorism
Government to be investigated for human rights abuses
Word Power
The language of the built environment...
Word power number 37
Seriously...
Cockroached
A hapless cockroach gets 30 people sacked
Big Bad World
Big Bad World
Polyp on the origins of wealth and poverty.
Making Waves
Interview with Vandana Shiva
Vandana Shiva, Indian environmentalist extraordinaire, on her new movement challenging supermarkets
Mixed Media - Music
Import Export à la Turka
Turkish sounds from Germany
Kül & Ashes
Beautiful music from trained earthquake engineers
Mixed Media - Film
We Are Together (Thina Simunye)
Agape orphanage singers from South Africa
Mixed Media - Books
African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou’s scathing attack on greed and material values
The Rich Man of Pietermaritzburg
A simple tale of great subtlety and power set in Nyanyadu in the rural hinterland of KwaZulu Natal
The Whistler
A beautifully crafted fable by Angolan author Ondjaki
The Trouble with Diversity
Has the left been duped or duped itself into pursuing the holy grail of identity politics?
Southern Exposure
‘Decent Work for Persons with Disabilities’
Asia-Pacific Photo Competition
Essay
The triumph of triviality
Our culture’s tolerance for seriousness has never been lower, argues John F Schumaker.
Country Profile
Lebanon
Living in Lebanon is like watching a dramatic thriller unfold. At times it’s exciting, at other times heart-wrenching or just petrifying.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
‘Are you indigenous?’ José Bailaba, a representative of Bolivia’s Chiquitano people, asked me.
A simple question to which the simple answer was ‘no’. My attempts at a more ‘thoughtful’ one soon led me into a thicket of ‘it depends on what you mean by’, ‘I suppose, if I went back far enough’, ‘in terms of identity’ and so on... It concluded with a self-definition, the concise version of which is ‘de-racinated mongrel’. By which time José had visibly, and reasonably, lost interest.
What exactly is meant by ‘indigenous people’ is contentious and ambiguous. The term probably persists because it is the most universal and least objectionable of various options.
The International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IGWIA) starts its own very long definition with the following: ‘Indigenous peoples are the disadvantaged descendants of those people who inhabited a territory prior to the formation of the state.’ Often their cultures and ways of life are perceived as inferior by the dominant society. Insisting on the right to self-determination is indigenous peoples’ way of overcoming not only discrimination but threats to their very survival. Self-identification is key, however: it’s up to indigenous people to say who they are and not for others to define them. So José Bailaba’s question really was a simple one – that deserved a simple answer.
Vanessa Baird for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
vanessab@newint.org
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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