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MASTER’S & RESEARCH DEGREES ON LATIN AMERICA, THE U.S. &

THE CARIBBEAN

The Institute for the Study of the Americas (ISA) is a member Institute of the School of Advanced Study at the University of London.

ISA is the only postgraduate centre in Europe to offer degrees on comparative Americas as well as each sector of the hemisphere and runs the largest Latin American programme in the UK.

Applications are still being accepted for the 2008-09 academic year.

MA inArea Studies (Comparative American Studies)

MA inArea Studies (Latin America)

MSc inLatin American Politics

MSc in Globalisation and Latin American Development

MA inArea Studies (United States)

MSc in US Politics and Contemporary History

MSc in US Foreign Policy

Institute for the Study of the Americas 31 Tavistock Square London WC1H 9HA www.americas.sas.ac.uk tel. 020 7862 8870

Funding is available in the form of bursaries.

Faculty of Arts & Human Sciences

MSc Education for Sustainability

Flexible / Distance Learning Programme

Become a leader in the field of sustainable development and help to transform communities and empower others.

Whether living in the UK or abroad you can study for a qualification from short courses through to Masters level by fast track study (attending the University once per month) or by distance learning. •Engage in current debates on environment, development and education issues •Develop skills to analyse, promote and manage change •Improve your leadership and capacity building skills •Enhance your analytical and critical thinking by applying theory to practice • Be part of a world wide learning community

Distance Learning allows you the flexibility to study at your own pace wherever you are in the world. All course materials, tutoring, readers, study guides and e-learning activities are provided.

The programme was founded in 1994 and courses start every September. Assessments are 100% coursework.

Special introductory taster offer if you apply before end of August 2008.

For more information visit www.lsbu.ac.uk/efs email efs@lsbu.ac.uk or call +44(0)20 7815 8257.

Become what you want to be

The Magazine Of International Contemporary Writing

Volume 23 (Issues 53-6) 2008 EDITOR: Susheila Nasta, Open University, UK

‘Boundary-busting global literature in English’ – THE INDEPENDENT

Since 1984 Wasafiri has led the way in publishing the best of tomorrow’s writers today – from Caryl Phillips to Vikram Seth, from Bernardine Evaristo to Jackie Kay. Wasafiri’s focus on writing as a form of cultural travelling challenges the established boundaries of literary culture through its informed scholarly articles, perceptive reviews, inspiring interviews and bold creative writing from all around the world.

‘A wonderful and crucial magazine’ – MICHAEL ONDAATJE Order your copy from: www.informaworld.com/wasafiri

STUDYINTERNATIONALDEVELOPMENT School of Development Studies University of East Anglia, Norwich UK

AT THE FOREFRONT OF DEVELOPMENT TEACHING AND RESEARCH FOR OVER 35 YEARS

BAand BSc HONSINTERNATIONALDEVELOPMENTSTUDIES (3 years) • Social and political analysis • Economic development and globalisation • Natural resources and conservation • Human rights and gender issues • Health, population, public policy, welfare • Opportunity to study a language • Opportunity to study/work overseas

COMBINEDDEGREES • BSc Hons Environmental Geography with International Development • BAHons Spanish or French with International Development

MA, MRes and MSc DEGREES • MAin Rural Development • MAin Development Studies • MAin Development Economics • MAin Theatre and Development • MAin Education and Development • MRes in International Development • MAin International Social Development • MAin Globalisation and International Development • MSc in Environment and International Development • MAin Gender Analysis of International Development • MAin Cultural Heritage and International Development • MAin International Relations and Development Studies • MAin Conflict, Governance and International Development

Contact: Admissions Office (DEV), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ Tel: 01603 592807 Email: dev.admiss@uea.ac.uk www.uea.ac.uk/dev New Internationalist AUGUST Issue 414 Toilets From this month’s guest editor

ConTenTs

The problem with toilets is that no-one wants to talk about them. Even less do they want to talk about what goes into them (the ‘s’ word) or the act of human waste expulsion (the ‘d’ word) – except with smirks and giggles. That kind of verbal crap has been swilling remorselessly around the NI editorial offices in Oxford this month. Why do Brits (maybe it’s only the male of the species) take such delight in lavatorial double entendres? Swedes can talk about excremental effluvia and pee-H content without the least hilarity issuing from their lips. Ballcocks aside, this is a serious subject. Imagine what it is like not to have a decent place to ‘go’. It is not surprising that people don’t want to talk about the indignity they suffer – although some women do so in these pages.

The hidden scandal is that this is a situation endured by literally millions of people. Addressing the scandal demands as a first requirement that we learn to talk about it without embarrassment. So it’s back to language and staying within the bounds of what you, the readers, daily defecators as we all are, regard as good taste. I hope to succeed in opening the door – or should it be the lid? – and inviting you in.

Maggie Black for the New Internationalist Co-operative

04 We need to talk about ... toilets 2008 is the International Year of Sanitation. Or, asks Maggie Black, is it the International Year of Silence and Embarrassment?

08 Toilets: the facts

IIEd MArtIN MULENGA

10 A lifetime in muck Unbelievably, people still exist whose task in life is shovelling shit, as Mari Marcel Thekaekara explains.

12 To sewer or not to sewer David Satterthwaite speaks out in praise of sewers, and Mayling Simpson-Héébert retaliates on behalf of pits.

14 For our convenience Toilets have been around since the days of Elizabeth I. Systems old and new.

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16 Dignity and the decent facility Women desperately want toilets – but not as a health aid. Libby Plumb reports.

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18 stand up, stand up for toilets Toilet champions are not so rare a breed as you’d think. Here are some distinguished exemplars.

20 What about us?

NI Special Fea ture

21 sPeCIAL FeATURe DeBATe Technofixes: climate solution or corporate scam? Science is coming up with ever more extraordinary proposals for combating climate change, from laying white plastic over deserts to locking up carbon dioxide in the oceans or shooting it into space. Should we take any of this seriously? Jim Thomas and Paul Fitzgerald have very different takes on this, as their exchange of letters reveals.

Regular Features

2 Letters How young people need to finish the anti-nuke job; why Jesus was truly revolutionary; and replacing travel with libraries and videoconferencing. PLUS: Maria Golia explains why the pen is messier than the sword in her Letter from Cairo.

25 Currents Children imprisoned with their mothers worldwide; Brazil’s AIDS fight against Big Pharma continues; why young rural Indians end up addicted to pills. PLUS: Wordpower and Seriously

28 Big Bad World Polyp on the endless joys of modern consumerist life. PLUS: NI Prize Crossword

29 Worldbeaters Okay, so Nelson Mandela was a tough act to follow. But could Thabo Mbeki have done a worse job as President of South Africa?

30 Mixed Media Highlights from Toronto’s festival of film documentaries; Argentinean and Anglo-Israeli music; a Guyanese novel and a book on medical ethics.

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32 View from Montevideo The Eighth Commandment – Lies, as seen by Eduardo Galeano.

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33 Making Waves Colombian activist Teóófilo Acuñña on the danger of confronting paramilitaries.

34 Southern Exposure Bangladeshi photographer Shehzad Noorani exposes the damage done to the Buriganga River.

36 Country Profile: Dominica

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AFront cover: Ian Nixon. Magazine design: Ian Nixon. All monetary values are expressed in US dollars unless otherwise noted. I