Returning to Britain was the start of a difficult new journey for the detainees held without charge at Guantánamo. They meet every six months at a London restaurant to swap anecdotes and shake off memories of imprisonment. Oliver Shah reports.
September 2009's Issue
Do you know what apples, almonds, broccoli, cashews, garlic, mangoes, peaches, raspberries and tea have in common? Give up? They all depend on bees to help with their sexual reproduction.
In fact, did you know that every third bite of food that you consume depends on our buzzing buddies, the bees? The busy little gals (the workers are unfertilized females) do a lot for us by pollinating plants and flowers worldwide.
Unfortunately, they’re dying by the millions and no-one knows why. It’s safe to say our world won’t be the same without them.
‘No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more… people’ is a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein, though there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that he actually said it. Not that it matters. The attribution is less important than the content.
This issue examines the mystery of the disappearing bees.
Every month, we put up a selection of articles from the magazine. To enjoy the complete magazine, subscribe and receive three free issues and a world map. Or buy a digital subscription which gives you unlimited access to all magazines since 2007 and for a year after purchase on your computer or mobile device, in their original full-colour design.
Featured in issue 425
Norman Borlaug: another subjective obituary
Called the ‘Father of the Green Revolution’, Norman Borlaug died on 12 September. Paul H Johnson argues that the glowing obituaries are only telling half the tale.
- Paul Johnson
- 21 Sep 2009
- 0
Interview with Reverend Billy
Reverend Billy is a bleached-blond dog-collar-wearing cross between Elvis and a televangelist; he’s also a candidate for the New York Mayoral elections this November. NItalks to him about his hopes, fears and crazily eccentric dreams.
- Rowenna Davis
- 16 Sep 2009
- 0
Boon or burden?
Some call it ‘live aid’. Some call it ‘dead aid’. The debate is raging. Vanessa Baird and Jonathan Glennie tell the story so far…
- Vanessa Baird
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Looting of a small planet
It won’t be easy but Philip Chandler argues that beekeepers themselves need to lead a revolution in sustainability.
- Philip Chandler
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Why are they dying?
Wayne Ellwood investigates the case of the missing bees.
- Wayne Ellwood
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Honey is life
Gathering wild honey is an age-old tradition in South India. Mari Marcel Thekaekara and her husband Stan see how it’s done.
- Mari Marcel Thekaekara
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Jungle orphans
Nick Harvey reports on the position of the Hmong – both inside Laos and the bleak refugee camps of Thailand.
- Nick Harvey
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Everything is a world market
Charlie Parker operates Charlie Bee Honey near Niagara Falls, Ontario. He reflects on his 50 years as a beekeeper.
- Charlie Parker
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
Why Pakistan's Taliban win as they lose
Pakistan’s army offensive has wrongfooted the Taliban. But the larger war of ideas has yet to be won. Pervez Hoodbhoy explains.
- Pervez Hoodbhoy
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
The case for real aid
Jonathan Glennie takes on both the aid optimists and the pessimists.
- Jonathan Glennie
- 1 Sep 2009
- 0
On Newsstands
Life beyond growth - issue 434
Life beyond growth
Economic growth is the main objective of governments around the world. Growth leads to prosperity, happiness, employment and progress. Or does it? We've already exceeded the biophysical limits of the earth and growth is making things worse. We're fouling the globe with our wastes and threatening the natural systems on which humanity and other species depend. Even on its own terms, growth isn't working. Wealth doesn’t translate into happiness. Poverty and unemployment are rife. And yet when the system slows down things really fall apart. Consumption drops, bankruptcies pile up, factories close, unemployment soars and social pathologies multiply. It's a vicious circle. It used to be that we needed more people to work because we needed the goods and services they produce. Now we need to keep increasing production to keep people employed, to keep capital investment profitable and to keep the endless cycle of production and consumption spinning. There's got to be a better way.
Online now
Deported! What happened next?
Kicking out asylum seekers and ‘illegal’ immigrants is a political trump card in the rich West – particularly when there’s an election around the corner. Every cut-out custodian of democracy wants to talk tough when it comes to these ‘undesirables’. The argument is that they have no genuine claim to be in a foreign land and face no threat back home. The New Internationalist tracks down individuals who have been returned to their countries, and lets them speak for themselves. These are not the stories of spongers and scoundrels, as the rightwing press would have us believe, but of a gross betrayal of human rights and of persecution and desperation that no courtroom could foretell.
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