15 September 2003
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Cover story
Who owns the world?
Everything - from land, water and plant seeds to folk stories and football results - can now be claimed as private property. Andrew Simms on the new enclosures
Features
There is no alternative to Arafat
Israelis cannot select Mother Teresa as the Palestinian leader. Sharon has to accept reality, argues Amos Oz
Caught on camera
"I am a peaceful protester. I have no criminal record. Yet the police have been photographing me on a regular basis for the past four years". By Matt Salusbury
A conspiracy too far?
Paul Kingsnorth finds Michael Meacher unrepentant, while his green friends fear he has helped their enemies
Could you share a pint with a man who killed your family?
Every day for a hundred days, about 9,000 Rwandans were slaughtered by their own countrymen. A decade on, reconciliation is beginning. John Carlin listened to the confession of one mass murderer
Oil rolls back the former Soviet borders
Control of Azerbaijan's vast oil resources has long been an American ambition. Now, after years of cajoling and arm-twisting, the $3bn Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project is becoming a reality
Essay
NS Essay - 'Brown's stealth socialism has backfired: public opinion is now more Tory than ever'
Popular political wisdom tells us that the well-paid won't vote for higher taxes. But only by persuading the rich to be less greedy can we have a decent society
Regulars
The Politics Column
Politics - John Kampfner sees into Gordon Brown's future
The subtext of the Chancellor's speech to the TUC was that Iraq was Tony Blair's war, nobody else's. Yet it did constitute support and, in these difficult times, that is enough
John Pilger wants to put Blair in the dock
While we are allowed to read internal e-mails in Whitehall, we can't see the traffic between Blair and Bush that would reveal the biggest lie of all
Darcus Howe thinks Britons will fail a Britishness test
Millions of Britons would fail the citizenship tests being proposed for new migrants
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Urban jungle
Buildings in the shapes of giant fish, birds or insects are no longer seen as kitsch. As new design technology allows architects to dream up almost any shape they fancy, animal structures have become the height of fashion
Make or break
Dance - Wendy Buonaventura wonders why ballerinas suffer so much for their art
Creative freedom
Exhibition - William Cook finds there are no bars to the imagination in a prisoners' art show
Porn again
Revival - Tom de Castella charts how Swedish film finally cast off Bergman's shadow
Film
French double bill
Film - Philip Kerr is bored by beautiful birds, but finds much to admire in a fat old madam
Television
Pilgrim's progress
Television - Andrew Billen finds more than just bum jokes in the BBC's updating of Chaucer
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies wants to spend more time with his footie
Go thump him, I said, let someone else do the sodding commentary
Books
Writers in Prison - Leyla Zana
Writers in Prison - Leyla Zana
Legacy of terror. The 11 September 2003 marked 30 years since Pinochet's coup. Far from representing "the corruption of American values", the US involvement in Chile is typical of its foreign policy, especially in Latin America, writes Richard Gott
The Pinochet File: a declassified dossier on atrocity and accountability Peter Kornbluh The New Press, 548pp, £18.95 ISBN 1565845862
Toga wars. Who would have thought that a novel about a Roman plumber could be a pleasure to read? What a pity that the Booker jury did not have the guts to include at least one readable novel in its list. By Philip Kerr
Pompeii Robert Harris Hutchinson, 432pp, £17.99 ISBN 0091779251
Power games
Rubicon: the triumph and tragedy of the Roman republic Tom Holland Little, Brown, 406pp, £20 ISBN 0316861308
Alter ego. Although longlisted for the Booker Prize, J M Coetzee's latest book is not so much a novel as a rather unsatisfactory series of lectures, writes Roy Robins
Elizabeth Costello J M Coetzee Secker & Warburg, 231pp, £14.99 ISBN 0436206161
The weaker sex
Adam's Curse: a future without men Bryan Sykes Bantam Press, 310pp, £18.99 ISBN 0593050045
Dangerous liaisons
The Affair of the Poisons: murder, infanticide and Satanism at the court of Louis XIV Anne Somerset Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 377pp, £20 ISBN 0297842161
Pussy galore
The story of V: opening Pandora's box Dr Catherine Blackledge Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 336pp, £18.99 ISBN 0297607065
