Hello, We are very pleased to announce four important new and updated online resources on global issues at New Internationalist Online. To review them, please visit www.newint.org and choose "What's New?" or else follow the direct links below. 1) Do or die � the people versus development in the Narmada Valley. Read it at www.newint.org/issue336/title336.htm <http://www.newint.org/issue336/title336.htm> Inspired by meeting Medha Patkar,the charismatic leader of the people's movement, Maggie Black and the artist Lucy Willis go to the Narmada Valley in India. In homes, village meetings, on trains, boats and under the shade of any convenient tree, they find out why people would rather drown than let giant dams be built. They discover how things done in the name of development can be acts of destruction, callousness, even violence. A more detailed media release on this special New Internationalist dams issue appears at the end of this email, together with contact details for editor Maggie Black for media interviews. 2) Mired in crude: the end of oil. Read it at www.newint.org/issue335/title335.htm <http://www.newint.org/issue335/title335.htm> There is no other commodity that is as central to modern life. Petroleum is the lifeblood of industrial society and oil and gas account for nearly 80 per cent of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Reserves are winding down yet the world is more dependent now on oil than it was 30 years ago. Can an oil company change? A look at recent attempts by the oil industry to go green. Is this the beginning of a new age of corporate enlightenment? Or just more clever PR? 3) More From the Streets from New Internationalist � the Durban March Read it at www.newint.org/streets/durban/index.html <http://www.newint.org/streets/durban/index.html> The United Nations World Conference Against Racism came to Durban to do its business in the new democratic South Africa. That sounds like a magnificent moment: The people of the world gathering to denounce racism in a country where ordinary people have recently triumphed over organised racism. Mr. Motsepe, from Pimville, Soweto, thought so too. Along with 250 others, mostly pensioners, many of whom were infirm and unwell, he went to the Johannesburg Central Station to catch a train to Durban. They wanted to tell the WCAR that in the new South Africa they couldn't pay their electricity bills and that men with guns and sunglasses were invading their homes and disconnecting their electricity ... 4) New Gifts and Publications from the New Internationalist Online shopping sites Check it our at www.newint.org/catalog <http://www.newint.org/catalog> We've just finished updating all of the New Internationalist shopping sites with some great new products. The wonderful NI One World Calendars and Almanacs are back with another stunning selection of photos! If world music is more your thing, then perhaps you might like to visit the Australian NI site's huge music section which, like all of the NI shops, has samples to listen to before you buy. Finally, here is more detail relating to issue 1) above - the Narmada Valley issue from the editor of the New Internationalist magazine special issue: Do or die: The people versus development in the Narmada Valley When � and if � the monsoon comes to Western India this summer, millions will rejoice after terrible years of drought. But for thousands of farmers and tribal people living on the banks of the Narmada River, the rising waters will bring havoc, destruction and maybe death. This is satyagraha: refusal to leave their villages, but instead to face the waters. 'We will drown but we will not move'. They have done this year upon year. But this year will be different. The massive Sardar Sarovar dam, whose construction they have fought relentlessly, is several metres higher. It will be a miracle if the waters behind it do not inundate their homes, lands, and everything they own. This edition of the NI is a journey. Inspired by meeting Medha Patkar, charismatic leader of the Narmada people's movement, Maggie Black went to Narmada to find out why the Sardar Sarovar and other large dams there have provoked massive non-violent resistance. With her went artist Lucy Willis. In homes, village meetings, on boats, trains, verandas and temple steps, they found out why people would rather drown than let these dams be built. They discovered how things done in the name of development can be acts of destruction, callousness, even violence India has a love affair with large dams. Since 1970, it has built over 3,000. These dams symbolise development as gigantic construction and technological mastery. Politicians, bureaucrats, and engineering contractors love them. But they have displaced and pauperised millions of people. In the past, the oustees' plight has been dismissed by vested interests as a necessary sacrifice for 'the greater common good'. The Narmada movement has challenged that injustice. In 1994, they petitioned the Supreme Court of India for a stay of execution on the Sardar Sarovar. In October 2000, the Court delivered its verdict and they lost. The dam rose higher. But they fight on, to obtain the compensation and resettlement to which people are legally entitled. Says Keshav Vasave, a leading member of a threatened village: 'We know that this year if the rains are good we will lose everything. So now they must give us land. And if they do not we will show the world that there were people here, and whether resettlement was done.' The New Internationalist story of the struggle in the Narmada Valley is the story as told by the people themselves. It is the voices of people like Keshav Vasave for which the NI offers itself as a platform. The magazine is not about large dams generally or even about large dams in India. What matters in Narmada is the flagrant abuse of millions of people's rights � including those of the drought-stricken in Gujarat for whom the river's waters are supposedly being diverted. This is being done in the name of development. A concept about the advance of human society, especially its poorest members, is being used against the very people whose interests it is supposed to serve. In Narmada the people are saying 'No'. If this is 'development', they are saying, we do not need it. In fact, we would rather die. Should we listen? The NI believes we should. [There was so much big dam controversy in India that a World Commission on Dams was set up to sort it out. Maggie Black, editor of the special issue of New Internationalist, was hired to write their report. She went to Narmada, privately, to see what the fuss was about. Maggie is available for media interviews which can be arranged by emailing her at [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Subject=Your%20NI%20magazine%20on%20Narmada% 20Dam.> ] Thanks for your help in covering these important new web resources. Cheers, Brian PS If you would rather not receive future MEDIA ALERTS from me, please reply to my e-mail address below with UNSUBSCRIBE � MEDIA ALERTS in the Subject line of your message. Thanks. ------------------------------------------------------ Brian Loffler - Marketing Manager (Message created Tuesday, 11 September 2001 at 9:55 AM) New Internationalist Publications Pty Ltd ABN 11 005 523 124 28 Austin St, Adelaide 5000 (p) +61 8 8232 1563 (f) +61 8 8232 1887 (e) [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (w) www.newint.org <http://www.newint.org/> (online secure shopping ) www.newint.com/catalog <http://www.newint.com/catalog> New Internationalist is an independent not-for-profit communications cooperative. Our multi-award winning magazine, New Internationalist, brings to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
