NI 429 - January, 2010

Too many of us? The population panic.

A note from the editor

At a political meeting recently, one woman got up and told us what rubbish ‘the media’ was and how you could not trust it. Others agreed. It gradually became clear that their idea of ‘media’ consisted of the corporate big fish in the mainstream. Not independent minnows like the New Internationalist.

It’s no secret that print media is struggling in these straitened times. Newspapers are worst hit. But magazines too are feeling the pinch. New Internationalist is no exception. In some ways we are fortunate in that we never relied too much on the now collapsing advertising market. Nor have we had a sugar daddy or mummy in the background that could cut us off without a penny.

Our business model is based on people like you subscribing to the magazine, buying the books we publish and the fair trade and ethical products we stock in our shop (shop.newint.org). And it’s thanks to you that the media does not consist entirely of just a few mass circulation titles in hock to corporate power. I’d love to hear from you (vanessab@newint.org) if there is anything you think we should be covering or could be doing differently.

This issue’s main theme is the hot topic of population. Is the mounting panic about increasing human numbers reasonable? There’s an on-the-ground special report from the recent Copenhagen climate talks by Jess Worth. And we tell the inspiring story of an against-all-odds friendship between Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, who feature in our best-selling book Nine Lives. As usual at this time, we present The Unreported Year 2009, a round-up of the best films, music and books, and the NI Jumbo Crossword.

Vanessa Baird for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

Warning: UN demographers currently offer eight variant projections for the future, with the median (just over 9 billion) being the most cited. All projections are conditional assessments based on current numbers, age structure and trends and reasonable assumptions about the future. This 2050 projection ranges from slightly under 8 billion to slightly over 11 billion.

Source: United Nations Department of Social and Economic Affairs – Population Division, World Population Prospects: the 2008 Revision

NI 429 - January, 2010

Too many of us? The population panic.

A note from the editor

The big story

Vanessa Baird wonders why the demographers aren’t panicking.

Features

Israeli Rami Elhanan and Palestinian Bassam Aramin forged an unlikely friendship through a terrible tragedy. They share their story.

Why tiny Timor Leste is undergoing a baby boom.

The average age of the population is increasing – people are living longer. Also, women are having fewer children. But is this greying of nations really a ‘crisis’?

Includes a murky past.

How ‘abstinence’ is pushing up the abortion rate.

China and Iran: two ways to do family planning.

Some Pacifc islands are already being evacuated. Bangladesh stands next in the climate change frontline. The difference is, it has a massive and growing population.

Jonathon Porritt and the Corner House offer two very different perspectives on one of the big debates of the day.

Is hell really other people? Vanessa Baird concludes with some sobering facts and reflections on equality.

Currents

India's brutal treatment of Kashmiri youths is fuelling conflict

Transatlantic student boycott forces clothing company to reopen factory

The Nestlé fair trade Kit Kat dilemma.

The struggle to eradicate landmines continues

Brazil has no specific law to deal with internet content.

Regulars

Geert Wilders, the lying Dutchman.

Photo-journalist Dean Saffron documents life in a South African squatter camp.

Every home in Sierra Leone is well stocked with candles, gasoline lanterns and trusty flashlights. These are life essentials in the capital, Freetown, where electricity is intermittent at best.

The dawn of a new decade has Maria Golia pondering the past.

Cartoon by Polyp

Empowering girls and women in Pakistan

Film, Book & Music Reviews

Low whistle, hornpipes, kaval (this is a traditional Balkan flute) and practice chanter (and this a part of the Scots bagpiping set-up) are just a few of the instruments employed by Fraser Fifield on Stereocanto.

An elegant album, stripped bare to its poetry. Bass notes on the oud ground the songs wonderfully and Jubran’s voice is sinuous and expressive, full of colour tones.

A fictionalized account of the 2005 Make Poverty History campaign.

The best books, music & films of 2009 as reviewed by NI.

Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, directed by Lee Daniels

A film about how far we know and trust others, and how other people make us who we are, partly through the stories we hear.

How not to run an economy

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