At DGH we believe there is an intrinsic relationship between art, health, education and Human Rights. Art, in its various forms, inspires our daily work. Every other issue we’ll share some of the books, movies and music that have touched us. We invite you to recommend some works that have moved and enlightened you. Send your suggestions with a brief description to Monica Sanchez at newsletter@dghonline.org.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2004, Nonfiction, ISBN: 1-5767-5301-8. For years Perkins worked for an international consulting firm. His job was to convince less developed countries to accept multibillion-dollar loans for infrastructure projects from the World Bank and IMF, and see to it that most of this money ended up at Halliburton, Bechtel, Brown, Root, and other US companies. This book is a blistering attack on a little-known phenomenon that has had dire consequences on both the victimized countries and the US, which takes on new and terrifying dimensions in an era of globalization.

The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua, by Joan Kruckewitt, Seven Stories Press, 1999, ISBN: 1-8883-6396-7. Ben Linder, a young American engineer fired by ideals of social justice, arrived in Nicaragua in 1983, where he worked to build a hydroelectric dam that would bring electrical power to the remote northern highlands. Linder was murdered in 1987 by the Contras, almost certainly with the foreknowledge and perhaps even tacit approval of US intelligence officials. Journalist Kruckewitt spent years gaining access to classified CIA documents, tracing sources and conducting interviews in Nicaragua to provide this definitive account of Linder's life and murder.

North Korea/South Korea: U.S. Politics & the Korean Peninsula, by John Feffer, Seven Stories Press, 2003, ISBN:1-5832-2603-6. Hailed as Òthe most balanced account of the North Korean Ôthreat'Ó by scholar Chalmers Johnson, this short, accessible book explores the history and political complexities of Korea.

Press Box Red: The Story of Lester Rodney, the Communist Who Helped Break the Color Line in American Sports, by Irwin Silber, Temple University Press, 2003, ISBN: 1-5663-9974-2. Long before Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a Brooklyn Dodger contract in 1945, Lester Rodney, the newly hired and first sports editor of the Communist Daily Worker, launched an 11-year campaign that proved decisive in eventually breaking baseball's color line. But in the hostile anti-Communist climate of those years and for many years after, Rodney's story remained largely unknown.

Left Top: VICTIMS, by Rowan Gillespie, Bronze & Granite, 2004. Left Below: IMMIGRANTS, by John Behan, Bronze, 2003. "In the time of shaking" is an exciting exhibition of work of over 100 of Ireland's leading artists in support of human rights and Amnesty International. These and other works can be viewed on the web site and purchased online.

Sickness and Wealth: The Corporate Assault on Global Health, Edited by Meredith Fort, Mary Anne Mercer and Oscar Gish, South End Press, 2004, ISBN: 0-89608-716-6. In this pathbreaking collection, international activists and scholars reveal how plans implemented by the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, and other first world interests drastically limit access to medical care and essentially sentence millions to disease and premature death. Edited by affiliates of Health Alliance International, a nonprofit organization, this book provides a historical context for understanding the complex interrelationship between health, politics and capitalist globalization.

White-Washing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society, by Michael K. Brown, Martin Carnoy, Elliott Currie, Troy Duster, David B. Oppenheimer, Marjorie M. Shultz, and David Wellman. University of California Press, 2003, ISBN: 0-520-24475-3. The seven authors of this volume took a decidedly different approach to collaboration. Rather than contribute separate essays, they and their co-authors worked closely together. Over the course of two years they discussed and disagreed about racial issues, augmenting their work with research on law, sociology and history. Theirs is an effort to dispel the notion, now widely accepted by the American public, that racial inequalities are behind us and that an individual's behavior alone determines success in the areas of employment, income and political representation. The result is a text that is informed by the authors' commitment to melding their differing viewpoints into ideas that transcend simplicity and go beyond the trite and not so true.

Amandlal! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, Directed by Lee Hirsch, Documentary, 2002. Filmmaker Hirsch chronicles the role of music as a means of protest that galvanized black South Africans for more than 40 years and the role it played in the battle against apartheid.

A Closer Walk, Directed by Robert Bilheimer, Documentary, 2003. This film explores the intricate relationship between health, dignity and human rights, and shows how the harsh realities of AIDS in the world are an expression of the way the world is.

The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, Directed by Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott, Documentary, 2004. This very entertaining film examines the legal/social/economic rise of corporations and their current impact on everything from health to the environment. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask "What kind of person is it?"

Corrections, Directed by Ashley Hunt, Documentary, 2001. This film looks at the US crisis of mass imprisonment through the issue of profit-making and prison privatization. It explores how the histories of racial and economic inequality in the US are emerging today from the walls of its prisons, and how this crisis has created an entire industry, which Wall Street has called a "growth industry."

Justifiable Homicide, Directed by Jonathan Stack and Jon Osman, Documen-tary, 2002. An intense and pointed film that explores the high incidence of police brutality in New York City in the 1990s under Mayor Giuliani. The film centers on the deaths of two teenage Puerto Rican boys who were shot and killed by police officers during an incident in the Bronx. The police report called it "justifiable homicide," but independent investigations by pathologists, the Civil Complaint Review Board and an eye witness reveal that the unarmed boys were shot multiple times in the back as they were lying face-down on the floor.

Stealing The Fire, Directed by John S. Friedman and Eric Nadler, Documentary, 2002. Investigating how Iraq came to possess highly-classified atomic secrets, the filmmakers chart the little-known, disturbing history of international nuclear proliferation. Karl-Heinz Schaab, the Bavarian engineer who sold one of mankind's most dangerous secrets to Saddam Hussein, was only the most recent player in a chain reaction of events dating back to the Nazi war machine. Also playing important roles were competing world superpowers, opportunistic physicists and some prominent industrial corporations.

The Peace Jukebox offers hours of anti-war music for free at www.peace-not-war.org. Songs written during the Bush presidency can be heard as high-quality MP3s, with lyrics, on this ad-free music site, which boasts, "This is the most prolific period of protest song-writing in history, and home-studio technology makes it possible for the world to hear these radical songs." Not War CDs are being sold by local peace groups to raise funds for their campaigns, and the Jukebox is an inspiring resource for everyone involved in the new global peace movement.

In This Issue:

Visions from Within
To Sing of AIDS in Uganda
A Different Spin on noitazilabolG
Reasons to Oppose the FTAA
Human Rights in the Arts
Liberation Medicine Wood
DGH Announcements