GENERATOR 21 - The World's Magazine of News & Commentary |
20 NOVEMBER - 27 NOVEMBER, 2000
EVENT # 242: SMALL FAVORS
Yeah, all that Presidential election stuff is scarey, but we DO still have family, friends, another Holiday Season all around us. Small Favors... |
| AMERICAN DREAMS: I remember when Anna used to talk to people.
Actually, she was a real live wire. You know the kind of gal who lit up a room when she walked in. She always asked how you were and you knew she wasn't just being polite. She really cared to know. And, you told her. My back hurts, our cat had kittens, my mother finally passed on.
She always said the right thing. She'd look you straight in the eyes, and you knew she heard and understood every word you said. She had those kind of eyes, real green eyes, eyes that saw right through you from across the room... PHALA RAY-ORIANS "The Long Road Home" More
You know: mixed-emotions, like one of you married guys seeing your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your new Lexus... CHARLIE THE TUNA "Party Time" More
And she is getting to me, in a way... I find that troublesome, because I have already decided that my days of actual romance are behind me. But the mind is an erogenous zone and she is pursuing my mind. I find myself making connections to old books, thoughts I wanted to pursue some more before I became such a cynical bastard.
The little buggy voice in my head goes: "No! Stop! This is not an option! We have already decided to abandon The World. How in the Hell, Rodya, can we repudiate our own decisions. Turn back now." ... ROD AMIS "Small Favors" More
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 G21 LATIN AMERICAN:
The Postponed DivorceADRIAN LOPEZ DENIS
Beyond this obvious stereotype, there is another layer of common simplifications and widespread beliefs about how the Cuban society works. The extreme conservative wing of the American media portrays the island as a ridiculous tropical version of the former Soviet communist inferno. The naive side of the liberal media has been presenting it as a social paradise, with free health care and education services for all. As a Cuban, forced for years to deal with the political nonsense produced by the communist official propaganda apparatus, it has been always shocking to me that some sectors of progressive America still share similar schematic perspectives when looking at the Cuban issues.
When considering, for example, that the US embargo is the source of poverty on the island, or that human rights are highly respected because the infant mortality rate is one of the lowest in the world, the "American Left" is not only simplifying the complex Cuban reality, it is also loosing an incredible opportunity to rearrange it's own political agenda, and to recycle the "Cuban experiment" in a more creative way.
.. More
The news I watch these days are the pictures of stone throwing Palestinian youths, reports of Hezbollah kidnapping Israelis in Lebanon and Iraq remaining defiant in the face of UN sanctions.
Chechnya - Are they still fighting?
So my first hand accounts came to an end, but at least I still make the effort to read on to page 7 and follow the reports from that forgotten corner of the world where people are simply trying to survive.
In January, before I set out from home to return to Chechnya, all I could refer to were these scanty news reports that I look at again these days. But with a little imagination it is not about some meaningless corner of the world, but about real people. And so the question I had posed myself at the outset - "Why come back here, to Chechnya, of all places?" really answered itself.
On just a typical morning, these headlines, that the world still gets to hear about Chechnya, say a lot ...More
The home folks are comin' up from Louisiana. Yeah, all my Cajun relatives will be out here in Cali for Thanksgiving. My Moms is gonnah cook up a big turkey, I'll see my brother, Aziz, all my nieces and nephews from Benicia, of course. But now I have to deal with those folks from before this part of our family moved out to Cali.
Me and my girl gottah act like we are sociable. But when you dealin' with them folks from down in the Bayou, you never know how proper you got to treat them, if you know what I'm sayin'.
PLUS, like most of ya'll, I got some relatives I could surely do without seeing for a few years, let alone during the holidays...More
As I write, not knowing the outcome of the Presidential election, I am horrified at the terms in which the Florida ballot is being discussed.
Thousands of poor people, subjected to a deeply flawed ballot form, are tagged as stupid for miscasting their votes. Had democracy simply been created for the wise, Governor Bush would have been barred from standing for office.
Devout Jews are supposed to have deliberately voted for a pro-Hitler candidate. Ballot boxes have disappeared and re-appeared without any apparent concern. The richest country in the world has a Flintstone ballot infrastructure....More
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OTHER EDITIONS
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(ROD AMIS on the American Election background in AMERICAN DREAMS; CHARLIE THE TUNA returns to talk about.. oh-oh!... SEX. AND more of our outrageous and insightful commentary. Welcome back!)
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| The WRITERS | TALKBACK | AWARDS |
| MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | COMING ATTRACTIONS | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES | |
We really are thanking Providence for Small Favors this week. Really!
Going to a party stag is what most Losers do, hoping to glom onto some gal-friend's best friend --- meaning somebody with a "nice personality." If you been playing this game as long as Charlie the Tuna you know that means the fat chick with a job.
In the tourist advertising booklets for political dummies, Cuba is just a forbidden Caribbean destination, full of sun and rum, with smiling mulatto girls dancing salsa on the beaches, and a little bit of exotic socialism to top it off.
The end of the year is here. February, 
