September 2004
Issue No. 371
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Let us Speak
New political spaces are opening up in China. Chris Richards turns up the volume on what’s safe to say in public... and what’s not.
Boxed in
What the world’s largest TV audience sees on its screens.
The big tree catches wind
On the world stage, China speaks for both the rich and poor world. Nicola Bullard translates its schizophrenic message.
A single spark starts a prairie fire
Large-scale farmers’ protests are sweeping the countryside. Yu Jianrong investigates.
A look at the sky from the bottom of the well
Poetry, prose and FACTS from Falun Dafa, Tibet and Gay China.
When the tide goes out, the rocks are revelealed
Transnationals say they’ll bring free speech to China. Yuezhi Zhao explains why they won’t.
A short history of free speech in China
Where the broom does not reach, the dust will not vanish
Who now has the ear of the Communist Party: the capitalists or the workers? Chris Richards eavesdrops.
Let a hundred flowers bloom
Brave voices that have achieved change.
News, views, and & voices
Letter from Lebanon
Reem Haddad celebrates the remarkable life of a British woman who became a local legend
Southern Exposure
Youth culture in South Africa, by the first woman CNN Africa Photographer of the Year, Neo Ntsoma.
View from the South
What prompted a group of middle-class Indian women to protest by stripping naked and marching to an army barracks? Urvashi Butalia explains.
Currents
Genetic giant swats seed-saving farmer
Monsanto victorious in Canada
Kentucky Fried Cruelty
in Tibet
Savannah pigeons
$25 million to police 250 G8 protesters
Ugly elections
warlords and Taliban rear their heads in Afghanistan
Big Bad World 371
From tax cuts to more golf, George W Bush's top priorities revealed by Polyp.
Mixed Media
Film
Ae Fond Kiss directed by Ken Loach.
Film
Fahrenheit 9/11 directed by Michael Moore
Music
Out of the Reeds by Pharaoh's Daughter
Music
The Weeping Meadow by Eleni Karaindrou.
Book
Bénarès and In Babylon by Barlen Pyamootoo.
Book
Living Rights edited by Marisa Antonaya
Worldbeaters
All bow down before the glorious rule of Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov.
Making Waves
A life spent in pursuit of human rights: Philippine campaigner Marie Hilao-Enriquez.
NI Essay
Playwright and actor Kwame Kwei-Armah visits Senegal and discovers the shocking truth about free trade.
Country Profile
The Philippines
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
No doubt about it. China gets bad press. Mostly, it’s about the Chinese Communist Party’s appalling human rights record. But during my first visit to China, as I read the China Daily over a breakfast bowl of steaming dumplings (Beijing produces very chompable dumplings), I was struck by what newspapers in Western countries weren’t telling us about this country and the misconceptions that can form as a result. I thought I would find here a closed and restrictive society whose people – fearing punishment or scrutiny from the Chinese authorities – would be reticent to speak. I imagined an embryonic civil society movement in which any NGO that wanted to advocate against Chinese Communist Party policies would be crushed before it could even begin. And I thought that China’s long march towards capitalism was relatively recent, and that the excesses of globalization would be some years from irretrievably infecting the welfare of its people. In some ways, I was right. But in so many ways, I was wrong, wrong, wrong!
During that visit – and on another, two months ago – a collection of wonderfully warm and welcoming Chinese activists told me what they thought the international media should be publishing about China. The following pages are inspired by them and their work.
Chris Richards
for the New Internationalist Co-operative
chrisr@newint.com.au
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
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