The Farce City

"Racism seems to just be coffee talk, you know? It's a taboo that only a minority ... talk of openly. People know it exists but people just turn a blind eye ..." --- Kir

Back in mid-July, 1964, a huge celebration commemorating prophet Mohammed's birthday involved 25,000 Moslems who were supposed to march approximately 7 kilometers from the Padang (our national parade square in the center of our island) east to Geylang (the poster area for the Malay community).

The celebrations were cut short when someone threw a bottle and ticked off more than a few.

By 6 PM that day, Geylang was licked in flames and cars had been overturned. Half an hour later, the first of the clashes was reported at Chinatown. The violence spread throughout the small island like fingers of hate. By the end of the first day, 4 people had been sacrificed and 178 more injured.

At the end of the two-week nightmare, the racial riots of 1964 had claimed 23 lives and amassed nearly 500 casualties... More


G21 AFRICA:

Black Mischief

Africa has many culinary delights only now being discovered by the rest of the world. BINYAVANGA WAINAINA suggests a Kikuyu dish of m'kimo served with lamb, and a spicy mango salad from the Kenyan coast.

I HAD a memorable Kenyan meal at a friend's place in Sandton three years ago. We ate a roast leg of goat, sukuma wiki (curly kales) and m'kimo with njah beans.

There was bottle after bottle of Tusker beer to wash it down. The fresh goat and the njah beans had been smuggled through Johannesburg airport by our enterprising hostess.

The beer came wrapped in a diplomatic pouch, and the curly kales were hijacked from the fish section at a nearby "Pick 'n Pay" ( it uses the green vegetables to dress the display).

I am told that "Pick 'n Pay" cameras in Johannesburg have learnt to spot Kenyans as soon as they walk into the supermarket. "Warning to all fish market staff - you are about to be undressed!"

What had brought me all the way from Umtata for this meal, though, was the m'kimo made with njah beans. There is no bean in the world that tastes quite like njah...More


MY GLASS HOUSE:

Turn Around, Miles!

I'm looking for the lioness, Kids. The one I can go off to Tahiti or the south of France with and create "Home."

Barbara sent me an e-mail reminding me that this weekend, Friday the 13th exactly, offered us both a Full Moon and the "special" day for the superstitious. Being among the latter, I thought: "Oh-oh! Is this a good or bad one for me?"

One thing I've decided is that it's about time for us to change the channel. (In both senses, or is it three?) From now on we talk about the now parts of my chronicle. The past was prologue.

The band members cajole Miles Davis into stepping up to the front of the stage, facing the audience, and wailing.

Now this should be interesting! ...

The Now-Rod is back to freelancing to support the World's Magazine, still has to send out over $1,000 (USD) in back tax payments, and has no fewer "dependents" than ever. This is a man in need of a good personal accountant...me virtually broke, but it was walking distance to my job.

About six months later, when a friend helped me get into a shop where he worked in another city, I told my landlord I would be moving out on the first of the next month, and he could start showing the trailer to other people.

He burned me. Even though I had replaced the nasty, stained carpeting, painted, fixed the broken doors, etc. and left the place much cleaner them I found it, he flat-out told me, "Sue me kid, you won't be able to collect squat".

I tried suing him in district court, but it was futile - he was a deadbeat who knew the system inside and out.

So anyway, about a year later I am reading the paper during my break at the shop, when I see a news story: "Local man driven over by own vehicle, suspect in custody". The victim had the same first and last name as my old landlord; I turned back to the obituaries - HOT DAMN! It WAS him!... More

The State of Israel was brought to a premature birth by fanatics who did not scruple to kill British soldiers who, for all they knew, had liberated concentration camps in Germany. Consequently, it had no recognised boundaries but after an unsuccessful Arab attempt to crush it at birth, it lived within its initial ceasefire lines until 1967 when another more or less concerted attempt to crush it resulted in the de facto expansion of its territory.

War resumed, again initiated by the Arabs, in 1973 with initial losses which were then reversed to such an extent that, but for the intervention of Dr. Kissinger threatening to cut off supplies, the Israelis might have chosen to march into Cairo and/or Damascus.

Whatever the reasons, some public, some private, for Israel's reticence, it is the only power in the dispute that has ever exercised any restraint... KEVIN CAREY, "Underlying Factors" More

POWERSSOUND: QUESTION: Why isn't Susannah McCorkle famous? She has a wonderfully husky voice, a surefooted acquaintance with the basics of rhythm and the ability to charm birds and other dumb members of the animal kingdom. Yet, McCorkle has spent the better part of two decades making albums, appearing in concert all across the U.S. and chunks of Europe. Still, she's relatively unknown. Tain't fair.

McCorkle's latest album, "Hearts and Minds" (Concord Records) contains a smart collection of songs both familiar and practically unknown. Each song receives the McCorkle treatment, which consists of singing with a full understanding of lyrics and a jazz artist's sense of melody and how much it can be played with.

The 15 songs include several charmers, including "It Could Happen to You" and "What Did I Forget?" My personal favorite is the Dave Frishberg classic, "Do You Miss New York?" I was sure that no one could surpass the version released years ago by Rosemary Clooney. McCorkle's take is different rather than better. But it's still a keeper.... BOB POWERS "Halloween in the Past" More

RDR 10.18.00: ADRIAN LOPEZ DENIS, from Cuba, finds that the highway is a metaphor for life in the United States. "Moving on." [Click on this link for the ENGLISH VERSION. Click on this link for ESPANOL.]

RDR 10.16.00: ED CANTARELLA explains why what happens is "Not Quite 'Instant Karma'."

RDR 10.13.00: KEVIN CAREY speaks to the Sydney Olympics in "The Last Olympic Games."

LOOKING FOR A PREVIOUS "RDR" Essay? Visit our complete ARCHIVES.

TABLOID HART: That's right! Just take a look at the Texas legislature and tell me if that ain't the biggest collection of Sons of Biddies you ever done saw? And you ask why things are so screwed up down her in Tejas?

THE MAN RESPONSIBLE WANTS TO BE YOUR NEXT PRESIDENT. Be afraid. Be very afraid.... THOMAS HART "Blame the SOBs!" More

VOX POPULI: From Ed Cantarella, Bloomfield, MI, USA: