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Acustico
by Tito Paris (World Connection WC024' For any morno singer hailing from Cape Verde, Cesaria Evora is certainly a hard act to follow. But this hasn't put off a new generation of fadoistas from the former Portuguese colony and Tito Paris, like his compatriot Lura, is very much focused on marking out his own territory. As evidenced by AcOstico, Paris is doing just this by the subtle import of Brazilian pop themes and a big band sound-you hear it in the glissandi of opener'Morna PPV -that's more reminiscent of Cuban dance halls than Evora at her barefooted best. This is a canny move on the young guitarist's part. If there's one element that distinguishes modern fado from that of even 20 years ago, it's a willingness to open up the medium to new influences. For another leading new fado interpreter, Mariza. it's her slinky elegance; for Paris, it's a smooth sound that locates fado as something as melancholy as old love letters. Fado and morna are songs of longing. The genre contains both belters and softer, nuanced observations. Not everyone wants to have their hearts ripped asunder song after song, and for them the wry approach of Paris is recommended. Recorded live in Lisbon, Actistico is Paris's second album and it's one that basks in a warmth that's unusual for fado. The audience gets animated when he tackles Evora's signature song, 'Sodade', but otherwise they're soothed, rather than ruffled, by these songs of sadness. * * * LG

DIY Handbook for changing our world

edited by the Trapese Collective {Pluto Press ISBN pp'S 0 7453 2637 5) Though the black-andcover playfully apes the old Teach

www.worldconnection.nl

guides, what's inside is something else. From the avalanche of quickand-useless guides to ethical living, this stands DO IT apart. It packs a political YOIJKSI'LIpunch, delivered quite gently by people A handbook who are busydoing it for changing themselves, 'being the our world change you want to see'. Not crackpots but pioneers. From energy to education, healthcare to horticulture - and, for the most part, jargon- and cult-free-they take you on a whirlwind tour of positive, practical possibilities that are fermenting away right now beneath the bland, corroded surface of globaloney. Forget green shoots-this has deep roots. Even if your shelves are already weighed down by manuals, most of the others are made dispensable by this one. * * * D R www.plutobooks.com
You can buy this book at a discounted price from the Nl UK online shop www.newint.org/shop/uk

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Streetwise War on Terror - the Boardgame

Terror BuU Games At l a s t - a board game with attitudel War on Terror-The Boardgame is a satirical broadside against the hypocrisy of US-British foreign policy. Every aspect of the fight for'truth, justice, and a decent slice of oil-rich land' is satirized as empires fight each other to conquer the world. Your empire grows by funding 'development projects' in unoccupied lands to obtain their oil incomes. Use 'weapons inspectors'to remove rivals'weapons of mass destruction while keeping your own. Fight and fund different groups of terrorists at the same time. Cripple other players by forcing them to sign the Kyoto Protocol and pay out to the 'World Bank of Capitalism' (motto: 'for the profit of few at the cost of many'). Spin the 'axis of evil' in the middle of the board to workout who the baddies are. This cross between Risk and Monopoly is great fun, but has a serious side. Ironically, while teenagers can buy graphic computer games allowing them to fantasize about killing Iraqis and Afghans, this game has been lambasted in the press and banned by major retailers and games fairs. So do your bit for freedom and buy copies for all your friends! * * * * NM www.terrorbutlgames.co.uk by Mohammed Choukri trans by Ed Emery {Telegram, ISBN9781 84859 027 6} Mohammed Choukri's best-known book, the autobiographical For Bread Alone, was written in 1972 and covered his childhood years. His path to becoming a published author was almost unimaginably difficult. Choukri was born in 1935 into grinding poverty in Morocco's Rif Mountains, Eight of his brothers and sisters died of starvation and neglect, and Mohammed, fleeing a violent and abusive father, became an illiterate street-child in the slums of Tangier where his friends were prostitutes, drug addicts and thieves. When he was 20 years old, Mohammed made the lifechanging decision to learn to read and write. It is this phase of his remarkable life story that he tells in Streetwise, beginning with his enrolment in elementary school alongside children less than half his age. His unquenchable passion for learning was eventually to take him, via training college and a career in teaching, to the chair in Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangiers. In writing of his search for knowledge, Mohammed does not romanticize or gloss over the less savoury elements of his life. While studying, he continued to steep on the streets or in mosques and to smoke and drink in the cafes with his lowlife friends. Often, his studies caused him anguish: 'some [of the authors] had written more than one book and here was I struggling to write a single decent sentence.' Streetwise is suffused with honesty and compassion and crammed full of human warmth and kindness even in the most adverse circumstances. It stands as a testament both to the author and to those he lived among and wrote about; the forgotten, the despised and the downtrodden. * PW www.telegrambooks.com

REVIEWS eoiTOR' Vanessa Balril email: vanes5ab@newrn(.org

STAR RATING EXCELLENT * * * * * VERY GOOD * * * * GOOD * * * FAIR * * POOR *

REVIEWERS: Louise Gray, Peter Whittaker, Nick Megoran, Makotm Lewis, David Ransom

www.newint.org

NEW I N T E R N A T I O N A L , 1ST

AUGUST 2007

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