New Internationalist

The Feral Rich

The feral rich… are always with us, but ever richer and more savage. With the war on the poor in full swing – under the rubric of austerity – we are witnessing the rise of heartless plutocracy, and the seemingly inexorable increase of the ‘trickle upwards’. What can we do to stop the feckless rich, as they ravage economies to feather their nests? Is it possible to teach them when enough is enough?

January 2013, Issue 459

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The Big Story

The feral rich
How do they get away with it? Vanessa Baird investigates.
Help the rich, hate the poor
The war against the have-nots is going global, says Owen Jones.
The feral rich - how can we help them?
A 10-point action plan for policymakers, illustrated by Kate Charlesworth.
A ferocious sense of entitlement
Urvashi Butalia writes from India on what wealth does to our minds.
That's rich - The FACTS
Falling in love with tax
Some rich people are all for it. Nick Harvey reports on the growing desire for tax justice.

PODCAST - Owen Jones and Vanessa Baird:

Download original podcast.

Regulars

Letters
Cyber-bullying and internet safety; and why Israel chooses occupation over peace.
Letter from Botswana
Customary law needs to catch up with women's rights, says Wame Molefhe.
Country Profile
Swaziland.
Marc Roberts' Only Planet cartoon
Worldbeater
Ilham Aliyev - President of Azerbaijan and master of autocratic self-enrichment.
And Finally...
Veteran journalist and newsreader Jon Snow on why the best is yet to come.

Features

Stitched up
Cambodia, a ‘sweatshop-free nation’? Try telling that to its expolited workers, writes Heather Stilwell.
Colombia - the riven land
Brian Fitzpatrick and Michael Norby reveal the real key to lasting peace in the war-torn country.
The good of small things
From cut-price potatoes to guerrilla park-making, suicide prevention and rebel kitchens, Alexandra Saliba finds hope in grassroots Greece.
Showdown in the Amazon
Why are indigenous leaders at odds with their communities in the struggle to conserve their forest homes? Jane Monahan travels to Ecuador to find out.
The Unreported Year
Stories and photos that didn't make the mainstream media in 2012.

Agenda

Civil society crackdown in Ethiopia
Government aid for mines
Sierra Leone: election by SMS
Introducing Chinese leader Xi Jinping
Peru: Amazon lawsuit
Land rights clash in Honduras
Turkey's deliquent justice
You are not a loan
Penis surcharge in New Zealand
Scratchy Lines by Simon Kneebone
Reasons to be cheerful
PLUS: 20 years ago in the New Internationalist

Mixed Media

The best music, books and films of 2012
No, directed by Pablo Larrain
Midnight’s Children, directed by Deepa Mehta
West of Memphis, directed by Amy Berg
Get up! by Ben Harper
Annelies by James Whitbourne
Ways of Going Home by Alejandro Zambra
Ten Days in Jamaica by Ifeona Fulani
After the Sheikhs by Christopher M Davidson
Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain
Also out there
Including Big Boys Gone Bananas!; Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway; and Palestinian film Five Broken Cameras

Opinion

Mark Engler
A nation of immigrants speaks.
Open Window
With guest cartoonist Emilio Agra from Venezuela.
Steve Parry
Forty and still fighting.
Polyp's Big Bad World cartoon