NI 515 - Making peace in a world at war - September, 2018

NI 515 - September, 2018

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Making peace in a world at war

A note from the editor

Hazel Healy

World in pieces, world at peace

The city centre felt safe, once you got used to the soldiers on patrol. But as we drove out to a former stronghold of Boko Haram on the edge of Maiduguri – where I travelled for this month’s Big Story – the houses and tents gave out to arid scrubland and the feeling of safety drained away. The land was flat as a pancake, but for a split second I felt dizzy, like I was looking out over a precipice. That fleeting sensation of insecurity was just a hint of the constant danger facing millions living in conflict zones. The world must get better at ending wars – if we don’t, the World Bank warns, 60 per cent of the world’s poorest people will be living in violent, ‘fragile’ countries by 2030.

In search of answers, we tune in to the people who are most impacted by Nigeria’s complex crisis – those at the grassroots whose voices are drowned out by the roar of guns.

A focus towards peacemakers rather than warmongers reveals new stories from all over the world – of courage, survival and recovery – that contain the keys to unlock peace.

New Internationalist has always sought out diverse voices – and now, in this redesigned relaunch issue, we are proud to introduce new columnists from different regions of the world. As a longer, bimonthly publication, we have more space for in-depth features. These include a personal take on meritocracy by New Internationalist founding editor Peter Adamson; the out-of-the-box thinking of ‘What if’ envisaging a world without borders; and a ‘cartoon history’ that retells the little-known story of Congo’s post-colonial hero, Patrice Lumumba. We feel the new form fits New Internationalist’s goals better; we hope you agree.

And finally, do look out for our new shop catalogue, enclosed.

Hazel Healy for the New Internationalist co-operative.
www.newint.org

The big story

A student looks out from the remains of a classroom destroyed by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria. Photo: pius utomi expei / AFTP / GETTY IMAGES

A student looks out from the remains of a classroom destroyed by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria.

Photo: pius utomi expei / AFTP / GETTY IMAGES

Out of the ruins

Can peacebuilders end the war with Boko Haram in Nigeria? Hazel Healy travels there to find out.

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The Big Story

10 routes to peace

10 routes to peace

The pressures on our world are serious, and expected to grow. If we take the following approaches, peace will be more likely. It’s time to ditch the military habit...

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Meet the peacemakers

Meet the peacemakers

From occupied Palestine to Scottish high schools, people across the world are challenging the warmongers. We profile eight extraordinary women and men on the peace frontline. Words: Hazel Healy and Louisa Waugh. Illustrations: Olivier Kugler.

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War Machine - The Facts

War Machine - The Facts

The arms trade is a powerful and enduring obstacle to peace.

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The funeral in April 2017 of indigenous leader Gerson Acosta, among the hundreds killed since the peace deal of 2016.Photo: Mads Nissen / Panos

The slow and bloody road to justice

Colombia’s peace deal promised the return of stolen lands. But it isn’t so easy to achieve, Mira Galanova discovers.

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‘We can’t stop now’

‘We can’t stop now’

Unusually, victims testified directly at the Havana peace talks between FARC guerrillas and the government. Maria Eugenia Cruz Alarcón, one of the first to bear witness, explains why she will defend Colombia’s peace agreement – at all costs.

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Illustration: Serhii Paranchuk / ALAMY   Words: Yohann Koshy

Inside the mind of the mediator

After 20 years of brutal civil war, the rulers of Arcadia and the rebels are ready to consider laying down arms. The mediation team needs a leader and – for some reason – your name is chosen. Do you have what it takes? Take our quiz to find out...

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Illustration: Saman Sarheng

Diplomats – who needs them?

Frances Guy makes a plea for traditional diplomacy in the age of the Trumpian tweet.

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What rape tells us about society

The brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in 2012 shone a blistering light on sexual violence as a staggeringly common occurrence in India. Author Sohaila Abdulali explains how, despite the case’s global coverage, the conversation about rape has only just begun.

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Our bodies, our rights

According to the UN, most surgeries on intersex babies amount to torture. And yet that is the practice in almost every country in the world today. Valentino Vecchietti calls for urgent change.

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A Palestinian woman crosses ‘Checkpoint 300’ with her child. She is one of the few women making the morning crossing from Bethlehem to Israel – those who do, often sell vegetables and herbs in the old city of Jerusalem. Women, students and those seeking medical care in Israel or East Jerusalem should pass through a distinct ‘humanitarian lane’ but it is often closed, leaving them no choice but to use the crowded male workers’ line.Photo: Anne Paq / Active Stills

‘This is not a life’

Some 70,000 Palestinian workers pass through Israeli checkpoints every day. The process, which can take several hours, is disorganized and conditions overcrowded. Those without proper permits often attempt the crossing via gaps in the Israeli wall and mountain routes along the Green Line and run the risk of being arrested or even shot at by Israeli forces. Words & photography by Anne Paq / Active Stills

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Illustrations: Emma Peer

The merit trap

Politicians of both Left and Right continue to march behind the banners of meritocracy and equality of opportunity as if this were all that is needed to achieve a fair society. But rewarding people for their ‘merit’ may be creating a new class system based on arrogant, insensitive winners and angry, desperate losers, writes Peter Adamson.

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Opinion

View from Africa

View from Africa

Progress without people. Nanjala Nyabola on Kenya's embrace of the Chinese development model.

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View from India

View from India

Nilanjana Bhowmick takes apart the latest viral hashtag campaign for the religious takeover of secular India.

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View from America

View from America

Mark Engler shows how Trump's migration policies are linked to the violent legacy of US foreign policy.

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Currents

Passing the time at an orphanage outside Kampala, Uganda.Photo: ZUMA Press / Alamy

Orphans in limbo

With the Ugandan government announcing it may close down hundreds of illegal orphanages, it is not clear what will happen to the children living in them.

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Andrés Manuel López Obrador or AMLO is Mexico's new leftist presidentIllustration: Emma Peer

Introducing... Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Mexico has a new president, but can AMLO form a government for the many without taxing the wealthy.

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Satish Bhaykre, 21, who was beaten by a mob due to a fake WhatsApp text, poses inside his house on the outskirts of Nagpur, India, June 23, 2018.

Share, like, lynch

India's government has asked WhatsApp to act urgently to halt the spread of "irresponsible and explosive messages" after a spate of deadly attacks. 

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Power struggle

Power struggle

Africa's $10-billion energy project faces problems.

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On death row

On death row

The mastermind of the 1995 sarin gas attacks in Tokyo is executed.

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Infected by Xylella, an olive tree that locals say is 1,500 years old, stands dead in Apulia, Italy.Photo: Antonio Sorrentino / Luz / Eyevine

Save the olives

Xylella is behind an unprecedented crisis in southern Apulia.

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A demonstrator holds a homemade mortar during an anti-Ortega march in Managua, July 2018.Photo: Oswaldo Rivas / Reuters

Ortega’s last stand?

Report from Nicaragua by Steve Shaw.

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The new far-right

GI – a rising far-right group that originated in 2003 in France.

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Reasons to be cheerful

Take a stand; Fossil Free; The people’s luxury.

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Regulars

Letters

Letters

Praise, blame and all points in between? Give us your feedback.

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The university of good living

Joining his neighbours one evening, Dan Baron Cohen finds himself immersed in a spontaneous conversation about culture, justice and sustainability that would be rare inside the halls of academe.

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Seriously?

Silicon Valley has taken to drinking ‘raw water’...

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Photo: Alisdare Hickson

Sign of the times

"There is no way all my outrage can fit on a sign".

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Illustration: Sergii Riabokon

Open Window

Refugee Song by Sergii Riabokon.

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Photos, clockwise from top left: Adham playing on the rooftops in the capital, Amman; mother and children at the Zaatari Camp for refugees from Syria; queuing up for school, also in the Zaatari Camp; a roadside market for fruit and vegetables in the Red Sea port of Aqaba.Photos: Chris de Bode; Abbie Trayler-Smith x2; Ivor Prickett.

Country Profile: Jordan

Jordan is nominally a constitutional monarchy with regular national and local elections. However, the façade of democracy is thin. Zoe Holman profiles the country.

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Photo: Bernardo Galmarini / Alamy

Temperature check

The latest news from those fighting against climate change, from Costa Rica going fossil-free to the suspicious creation of ‘low carbon’ kerosene.

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Photo: Brian Otieno

Southern Exposure: Brian Otieno

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

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Is nationalism ever a force for good?

Dalia Gebrial and Thomas Jeffrey Miley go head to head on this complex and topical issue. Illustrations by Kate Copeland.

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Agony Uncle

Agony Uncle

A friend has invited me to her Hindu wedding...

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What if... people could migrate freely?

What if... people could migrate freely?

Vanessa Baird looks ahead at how things could be.

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Film, Book & Music Reviews

Spotlight: Jerusalem In My Heart

Spotlight: Jerusalem In My Heart

(aka Radwan Ghazi Moumneh) Words by Louise Gray, photograph by Melanie Marsman.

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Mixed Media: Books

Mixed Media: Books

The Incendiaries; Betraying Big Brother; A Radical History of the World; Rupture.

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Mixed Media: Film

Mixed Media: Film

Tehran Taboo; The Heiresses (Las Herederas).

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