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Agenda
Stories making the news this month 8 Mass agitation in Bulgaria 8 Baby milk battles 9 Energy for all 9 Introducing Beppe Grillo 9 Chadian dictator in court 10 Life after Chávez 10 Activist victory in Britain 11 Indonesian forests first 11 Bouncier babies PLUS: Scratchy Lines by
Ramon Espinosa/AP / Press Association Images
Simon Kneebone, and Reasons to be cheerful.
The Big Story – Land grabs l y l H e a
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12 The smallholders’ last stand Investors are snapping up land in the global South at an alarming rate. Hazel Healy goes to Mozambique to meet the farmers who are losing their homes and livelihoods. 16 Land Grabs – The Facts 18 Invest in small farmers
Time to turn back the clock on decades of neglect of peasant agriculture. 19 Cazizi village holds its ground Communities are working to get forestry companies to clean up their act, with mixed results. 23 Securing the global commons The land grab has not gone unchallenged. Find out more about how to stop it. 24 Hotspots A global tour of controversial land deals. 26 The eye of the farmer fattens the beast Zimbabwe proves small producers can compete with big farms.
Features 34 This is Africa David Fedele relates a true and uncomfortable tale of a tardy Good Samaritan. 42 Tales of taboo Amy Hall on the little-known but devastating tradition of breast ironing. 44 Coming back from the brink? Can India’s dwindling vulture population be saved? Graeme Green investigates.
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Front cover: Martin O’Neill / threeinabox.com Magazine designed by Alan Hughes and Juha Sorsa. All monetary values are expressed in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
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Contents newint.org
Mixed Media 38 Music reviews: Alter by
Nynke; and Albala by Samba Touré. 39 Film reviews: The Reluctant
Fundamentalist, directed by Mira Nair; The Gatekeepers, directed by Dror Moreh; and Fuck for Forest, directed by Michal Marczak. 40 Book reviews: Children of the Days by Eduardo Galeano;
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The Poorer Nations by Vijay Prashad; A Death in the Lucky Holiday Hotel by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang; and The Enigma of the Return by Dany Laferrière. 41 Also out there...
Opinion 30 Argument: Is it time to ditch the pursuit of economic growth? Economist and author Dan O’Neill and journalist and author Daniel Ben-Ami go head to head.. 33 Mark Engler The case for a maximum wage. 37 Chris Coltrane Democracy only works when we know the truth. PLUS: Polyp’s Big Bad World cartoon.
Regulars 6 Letters 7 Letter from Botswana Wame Molefhe gets to grips with the importance of cows. 28 Country Profile: Indonesia 45 Puzzle Page PLUS: Marc Roberts’ Only Planet cartoon. 46 And Finally Comedian, author and activist Rob Newman on austerity,
welfare – and how the triangle could save Greece.
I’m a New Internationalist
Ghulam Abbas Kassar Journalist
As everyone does these days, I was browsing internet news sites earlier this year, searching for a new website, or perhaps a magazine for which I could write articles about human rights violations. I found the magazine of my choice – New Internationalist. I love that it highlights the root causes of issues faced by people all over the world.
New Internationalist is truly multi-purpose, and covers a range of subjects from politics, world news, health, food, development, science, environment, human issues, power structures, hypocrisy, economics, culture and debates.
I mainly read New Internationalist online. Recently, one of my favourite articles on the website was by Mari Marcel Thekaekara who wrote about the persecution of minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan. I was inspired to write for rights of marginalized people in Pakistan myself.
My purpose in writing is to highlight the suffering and pathos of people in my part of world who are made victims of violence, terrorism, crimes, bonded labour, violence on women and minorities so that the world community might be able to help these oppressed people to reduce their miseries.’ ■
Are you a New Internationalist? If you would like to appear in this space email: iloveni@newint.org
N e w I n t e r n at i o n a l i s t ● M AY 2 013 ● 5