Amnesty magazine:  Noam Chomsky and Wangari Maathai

I have been reading the latest issue of Amnesty magazine.  I was pleased to see an interview with Noam Chomsky, a provocative thinker.  This could be a useful introduction to his ideas if you have not met them before.  His books tend to be quite heavy reading but I find them refreshing.  One that I am starting to read is Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies.  Noam Chomsky will give the Amnesty International annual lecture at the Belfast Festival on 30 October 2009.

Wangari Maathai was featured in the July/August 2009 issue of Amnesty magazine. The star letter in the most recent edition is by Megan Arnold who welcomes Maathai's comment that "human rights issues are very closely related to sustainability and peace" and encourages human rights campaigners to engage with environmental campaigners.  Wangari Maathai set up the Green Belt Movement in Kenya and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. 

Poor pay highest price for global warming writes Wangari Maathai.  One example that she gives:  many women in the refugee camps in the east of Chad, over the border from Darfur, suffer rape when they walk long distances to fetch fire-wood.