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VA LOAN INFORMATION and VETERANS' MORTGAGES Music Download Universe & Great Ebay Info KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. Rod Amis, publisher of G21: The World's Magazine, once believed one of the best bartenders in New Orleans, tells the story like no one else could. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need.
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 AFRICA FRESH! New Voices from the First Continent
An anthology of African writing only featured on the Internet until now, this book features the collected works of writers for the G21 AFRICA section of G21.net. The eight writers represented here are from around the continent and present an exciting look at cutting-edge fiction and reporting from the first continent today. Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF copy now! |
STARSHIP Ten Years of Truthspeak 1996-2006 G21 FICTION MPHUTHUMI NTABENI, South Africa ON FILM BRAD BALFOUR, United States JOIN OUR MAILING LIST. It contains more jokes than not. SMOKE & MIRRORS ROD AMIS, G21 World HQ RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT X.N. IRAKI, United States HOUSE OF CARDS YOU The World THE PREVIOUS EDITION MEET THE G-CREW! These are the people behind this jam-band every week. HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE.
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Frankfort, KY, USA - One major loss in migrating from the rural areas to the cities, to "the lights" is the chance to admire nature and her mysteries. The mountains, pristine streams and the birds' free orchestra. Artificial lighting in the cities and fast pace of life ensures you have no time to admire the great stars, constellations and galaxies.
In our science studies, astronomy, one of the most ancient and rewarding areas of study, is all but neglected. If our universities can teach about events in history that happened when we were not there, why not teach about what we see, like astronomy?? All our attention is on this Earth, this small but lonely planet, this terrestrial ball.
Could this be our undoing?
As we talk about the earthly issues, from politics to falling in love and our dressing styles, far, far away other events that could distract us from the hustles of the day are taking place.
Voyager I and II, two American spacecrafts launched in 1977, are nearing the outer fringes of the solar system, away from the effect of the sun, CNN reports. Think of the interstellar space where there is no sunlight but only the interplay of lights from many other stars; that must be the perfect?place for romance...
The twin crafts explored our solar system bringing us a wealth of information. They discovered new Moons and added to Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter as the other planets with rings around them.
We expect to get periodic reports from Voyagers until 2020. The Earthlians, in sending these Voyagers, had the view that they might encounter some extra-terrestrial intelligence. So they included prerecorded earthly sound such as greetings in many languages - hopefully including Swahili - and images from the Earth on culture and diversity. We hope someday, "they" will call back in a language intelligible to us.
The recent discovery of exo-planets, some of them rocky like the Earth, in other solar systems adds to our great fear that we may not be alone. The fear is not based on a looming inter-galactic war, but on the prospects of our diminished importance, if ever we get competitors that have intelligence equivalent to ours or even more. Remember how your fellow scholars reacted if you got a better grade than them? And why did it take so long for the Church to forgive Galileo for claiming there were mountains on the moon?
Is this obsession with space and its mysteries a waste of time? Why should we focus our attention on far away alien dark space when hunger and anger are rampant on this small planet?
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Yet such curiosity enriches our lives and distracts from the monotony of life on this planet. Why else do you think movies are so popular in America? They give people a chance to "escape" from the familiarities and monotonies of this planet. And why have "Star Wars" episodes fascinated us for over a generation?
That aside, it is proper to wonder about what we see .Were all these stars made just for us to admire? Could there be other guys looking at us? Are aliens real? Are UFOs real? Where do we go after death? How big is the universe? What is its shape?
Life can be very predictable, from waking up in the morning to falling asleep after dinner.? Some people break the monotony by taking intoxication like drugs or alcohol or over-indulging in physical activities like sex, believing erroneously and endlessly that the next woman will be better. Could wondering about what we see and hear be a better intoxication, less destructive to our bodies and immune system, less likely to shorten our lives?and our joys?
We need to enrich our lives by being curious. Wondering about what is far and away. May be our obsession with the Earthly matters has caused us enough problems. The Universe is infinite but the Earth is too small. Satisfied with what we see, we turn on each other or inwards into ourselves breeding anger, anxiety and dissatisfaction.
Satisfying our curiosity is one of the basic human needs. But sociologists and even psychologists have refused to admit this fact.
Why else are parallel programs so popular in Kenya? After you become rich and famous, what remains? To avoid over indulgence, try satisfying your curiosity, not the physical curiosity. There are enough mysteries to keep us busy all our lives, even here on this terrestrial ball. An example: Why is the rich and famous Muthaiga separated from the poor and downtrodden Mathare Valley by a mental Hospital?
Beyond this familiar Earth; Why not try and identify some constellations at night with your spouse? Ever thought of buying a telescope?? Look for Plough, Orion, Pegasus and other great heavenly groups. Fact: the sky is so beautiful, in her company flower sellers' businesses may be threatened.
Have you discussed in a group meeting how aliens would look - forget what you have seen in movies? How would you react if they visited you? How would the governments react? If they came during a church service, who would be the first to duck?
Turning away from this planet and its problems, most of which exist only in our minds, may be a good way to take a mental break, a good tonic, like soma. Yet, we still have not answered the basic question, Are we alone in the Universe?? If we are alone, then nature or God must have been very opulent and extravagant. If not, and that is a more likely answer, we have an obligation to find out. We can deal with consequences later.
However, chances are that we shall leave it to the next generation to answer this question. They may answer it someday but long after the maggots have done their work on our feeble bodies and time has attenuated our pride.
DR. X.N. IRAKI, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi's School of Business is currently on an extended Visit to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
WEB SITE PICK OF THE WEEK: Our pick this week goes back into a music tip. You could do worse than program your own accompaniment at Pandora.com. Visit when you're not here. Enjoy!