October 2002
Issue No. 350
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Fear eats the soul
Vanessa Baird examines the fears that are fuelling the debate about refugees.
Please excuse us very much for daring...
A note from Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara.
The new common sense
Coming from several quarters the pointers are all heading one way. Open the borders, argues Teresa Hayter.
No room at the inn
Could entry to the countries of the rich world have something to do with race? Yasmin Alibhai-Brown looks at what lies at the core of the refugee issue.
The Facts: Road to Freedom?
Different countries, different policies, different records on asylum. Katya Nasim presents the facts.
Run for your life
Hotspots of the world currently producing most refugees.
Refugee! Criminal! Terrorist!
Damien Lawson assesses the impact that September has had on asylum seekers.
Act and Resist
Action, inspiration and contacts from around the globe.
News, views, and & voices
Letter from Lebanon
A Syrian teacher who uses TV to teach Golan Heights children talks to Reem Haddad.
Southern Exposure
East Timorese guerrillas back at school,
photographed by Sae Kani.
View from the South
Urvashi Butalia’s friend Mona is neither male
nor female but from the third sex.
Currents
Asia-Pacific: US Security creates insecurity
How the war on terror is destabilizing the Asia-Pacific region. Reports from China, India/Pakistan, North Korea and Central Asia.
Narmada river rising
Dam-resisters watch as their villages flood
Seriously
The aspirational corporate anthems of scandal-ridden companies.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
At the moment Fatma Kayhan, a journalist from Kurdistan, is with us on a work placement in the Oxford office of the NI.
Like us, she is used to working for a collective, independent publication. In her case it is Roza, the first Kurdishlanguage feminist magazine in Turkey.
But unlike us, her work has led to spells in detention and prison - and finally flight from Turkey for alleged crimes against state security.
In Roza, Fatma ran stories about rape and sexual abuse of Kurdish women by the Turkish military. If she goes back she faces a probable threeand- a-half year prison sentence. Turkish jails are not known for their observance of human rights.
The presence of Fatma in our office drives home a truth that should be at the heart of any thinking about migration and asylum. But for chance of place, time, politics or even a change in the weather, anybody can become a refugee. You, me, Fatma, anyone.
Refuge is precious - and the chance to offer it is precious too. Amid the barbed wire, intelligence systems, infrared devices and draconian policies designed to keep out 'illegal aliens', that awareness is hard to find today. But it's there, driving all the groups and individuals who are acting to defend this most basic human right.
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
