March 2008
Issue No. 409
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To fly or not to fly?
Aviation’s impact on climate change is disturbing. But what should we do about it? Chris Brazier interviews three campaigners – Adam Ma’anit, Mark Lynas and George Monbiot – and tries to decide.
Problems in paradise
Tourism is booming – and every country seems to want more. But, Chris Brazier wonders, do they see the pitfalls?
What is ethical travel?
Chris Brazier investigates alternative tourism.
Another way
People on the tiny Thai island of Koh Yao Noi have adopted ‘community-based tourism’. Marwaan Macan-Markar asks them about the benefits.
Travellers' Code
A New Internationalist Travellers’ Code
News, views, and & voices
SPECIAL FEATURE
Currents
'Death would be better'
Domestic violence against women in Tajikistan
That sinking feeling
Islanders in Papua New Guinea made homeless by rising sea levels
Egypt steps in
Arab state becomes peacemaker as conflict worsens
Seriously
Pravda’s beef with vegetarianism
Word power
The language of human migration
Word power 36 by Mitchell & Richardson
Speechmarks
Michael Parenti (1933 - ), US academic
Southern Exposure
Shantanu Mukherjee
A portrait of a young sex worker in Kolkata by Indian photographer Shantanu Mukherjee
Worldbeaters
Mixed Media - Music
Che Guevara: Lucha por la Vida
Mixed Media - Film
Tambogrande: mangoes, murder and mining
Mixed Media - Books
Desert of Death
A Soldier’s Journey from Iraq to Afghanistan
Why We’re Losing The War on Terror
View from Havana
Cuban futurology
by Leonardo Padura Fuentes
NI Essay
Sir and Madam
Barry Langridge asks why India still depends on charities to rescue its children.
Country Profile
Brunei
There is a little hole on the wall of every office, restaurant, reception area, hotel lobby, shop – even in the humblest of the living rooms – which serves as a formidable metaphor for the vicissitudes of power, prestige and privilege in Brunei.
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from
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR
Whenever we make changes to the format of this magazine we await feedback from readers with bated breath. More often than not it doesn’t arrive – even when prompted by questions in our regular readers’ surveys. I guess this is inevitable – the magazine looms much larger in our own lives than it does in yours and changes that seem significant to us may barely register with you.
In May last year we reduced the space given to the main theme by a few pages to be able to introduce a second mini-theme, or Special Feature, which this month deals with floods. The obvious advantage is that this allows us to offer another avenue to a reader who is not especially interested in the main theme. Any disadvantages are probably felt most keenly by editors used to exploring a topic from many angles.
This month the main theme is Ethical Travel. But it has seemed like I have been dealing with two separate subjects: the first half devoted to the thorny issue of flying and the second to the impact of tourism.
I feel I have gained some insight into what it would be like if the magazine had three themes a month instead of one-and-a-half. This is particularly relevant now as we are launching into a thoroughgoing review of the magazine, the NI website and how the two should interact in future. You never know – the changes that result may even be ones that you will notice!
Chris Brazier for the
New Internationalist Co-operative
chrisb@newint.org
