Nine Lives: Making the Impossible Possible - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1906523266 ISBN 13: 9781906523268

Publisher: World Changing, 2009

Synopsis

"You can cut the flower, but you cannot stop the coming of spring." Malalai Joya, the young member of the Afghan parliament, refuses to let injustice go unchallenged. Her words reflect the irrepressible attitudes and actions of all the women and men who tell their stories here.

As with all the titles in New Internationalist's World Changing imprint, Nine Lives sees opportunity in the midst of adversity and presents the life stories of people who have been confronted with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, opposition, and oppression.

Whether it is human rights activist Harry Wu, who spent nineteen years in Chinese labor camps, or Nobel Laureate and President of Costa Rica Oscar Arias Sánchez, each of the nine voices in this collection has confronted an urgent and inescapable need to dig deep, either to rescue themselves or to forge a fresh way forward for others.

To understand the key stories behind the headlines, Peter Braaksma believes that it is essential to feel the personal, intimate experience of people working on the frontline of human rights and humanitarian issues; that the stories, uninterrupted and unpolished, must speak for themselves.

Reading like nine mini-novels, the nine remarkable stories belong to Bassam Aramin (Palestinian National Authority), Monireh Baradaran (Iran), Youk Chhang (Cambodia), Sompop Jantraka (Thailand), Malalai Joya (Afghanistan), Chaeli Mycroft (South Africa), Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica), and Harry Wu (China).

Peter Braaksma has worked as an editor, communications advisor, and journalist in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

About this title

About the Author:

A.P. (Arne Peter) Braaksma (born in 1960) worked as an editor, communication adviser and corporate journalist in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. From Asian countries he contributed to various public and corporate magazines. This caused him to focus on human rights, the environment and (corporate) social responsibility, and to create Nine Lives.

From Publishers Weekly:

With sterling intentions and decent material, editor and global journalist Braaksma presents an occasionally inspiring account of individuals who have met extreme challenges head-on, and used those challenges as motivation to make the world better. The opening pieces concern Israeli Rami Elhanan, whose 14-year-old daughter was killed by a suicide bomber in 1979, and Bassam Aaramin, a Palestinian whose daughter was shot by border police. The two have overcome sorrow and deep culture biases to become close friends, a cogent lesson but the most clear-cut and least agenda-driven of the lot. Many of the other stories are heavy-handed and occasionally confusing. Unfortunately, the invigorating, focused stories-like that of a South African girl affected by cerebral palsy-are the exception to the rule.
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About this edition

• Publisher: World Changing
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1906523266
• ISBN 13: 9781906523268
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Braaksma Peter