EVENT # 267: WORLD BEAT

The World's Magazine continues our "floating" publication from points around the globe. During the coming month expect special notes from us from LONDON, BELGRADE, ROME and one more from BERMUDA.

It's only fitting as our beat is the world. We welcome you to enjoy the feast!

This week HAUQUAN CHAU debuts from JAPAN, LLOYD MORCOM weighs in from AUSTRALIA and there's more from the rest of us, too.

NEXT UPDATE SCHEDULED: MONDAY, 4 JUNE

Dubya on the Run

I think there's a danged good reason our American President looks like a deer caught in the headlights. After less than six months in office, the Shrub is learning that runnin' a whole danged country ain't as easy as he thought it might be. Vermont Senator Jeffords done cut a leg out from under him by givin' the Democrats control of the Senate before we even have the midterm elections of 2002, and just about every other danged country on the planet is sayin' that the Bush agenda proves that America sucks. There are times when it just ain't no fun being the American President and this is one of them... More


G21 ASIA:

Rise of Nationalism in Japan

I was walking the other day to the subway station when I noticed a black bus with two large, Japanese imperial flags flapping at the sides. The speakers on the front were booming out rightist propaganda to the crowds of early morning commuters.

A group of men, wearing dark suits -- reminding me of the yakuza -- were talking with serious faces as I passed by, eyeing me with suspicion. Not wanting to make any contact, I quickened my step.

To get their message across, the public address speakers were cranked up to ear-splitting levels. You may not notice them as you hurry to work, but you have no choice but to hear their outdated ideology... More


VICTORIA'S SECRETS:

Cultures Who Fear the Future

It's hard to get a handle on the future. Nanotechnology, biotechnology, control of the genome and the amazing video editing abilities of the new Macs, versus overpopulation, the possibility of new disease epidemics, the refugee crisis, the greenhouse effect and reality TV.

We think in polarities: either/or, good and evil. The truth out there is that everything happens all the time, and every human type; saint, warrior, opportunist and planner, sensualist and ascetic is wandering the earth looking for their opportunity, their big chance. The flow of time and circumstance can raise them up or cast them into irrelevant obscurity.... More



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No Liberal

At last! After more than ten years of worry I have finally worked out why I am not a liberal in the sense in which that word is now commonly used. It all started back in 1987 when the Social Democratic Party, of which I was a fairly prominent Member, was so badly battered in a General Election that there was pressure for it to merge with its ally the Liberal Party. In spite of growing disagreement with my Party Leader, David Owen, who was by then turning his back on closer integration within the European Union - the most important political principle in my collection - I could not imagine supporting the merger. I voted against it but was on the losing side. Only my extreme hostility to the Conservative Party -- an even stronger sentiment, I am ashamed to say, than my Euro-federalism -- has finally led to my working for the new merged Party at the grass roots level; but the annual conferences I used so much to enjoy no longer tempt me.... More

COMING Monday

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RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT: : As the dessert arrived, a Haitian reconstructing democratic local government in Malagassi, a Japanese helping Morocco in trade negotiations, the Director of the Bank of Poland and I were, animatedly but improbably, discussing the failure of the European Union to regulate the manufacture and sale of cheese made from camel's milk. This was just one of the erstwhile features of the international conference circuit. I had been out of it for almost a decade until the OECD Conference two weeks ago on Sustainable Development... "Talking in Code" KEVIN CAREY More

RDR 05.28.01: Part Two of our publisher's Bermuda Diary: "Island Concerns"

RDR 05.24.01: Part One of our publisher's Bermuda Diary: "Your Average POSH"

RDR 05.22.01: "Taxing Inheritance" is THOMAS HART's look at family obsessions.



MY GLASS HOUSE: : WARWICK, BERMUDA - 31 May, 2001 - I have been riding Time¼s arrow incredibly fast lately and that causes anomalies to pop up all around me. I'm frankly dizzied by the speed of it all. As my time here in Bermuda comes to an end, I'm already trying to make sense of the "history lesson," those quick bursts of my past and my family's past that have overtaken me. But I have my sense of this place to assimilate, too, and the knowledge of flying (literally) toward my next destination, London. I've decided, against all trepidations, to embark on the Europe leg of the hejira and determine if I can leave America behind.... "Refuge of the Road" ROD AMIS More



VOX POPULI: From Darhl S., Tampa Bay, FL, USA:

SUBJECT: Bon Journey!

Rod,

Wow! I think this move/travel is going to be good for you. The past two Glass Houses have been the most upbeat writing by you in a long - too long - while.

I had to chuckle and shake my head at one throw away line about an almost 50 year old running home to momma... It put things in perspective. I now have the 27 year old back in the house (for a short time only damnit!) again. ...More



POWERSSOUND: : David Lahm had a great idea when he decided to do an album of jazz versions of the songs of rock icon Joni Mitchell. The first album showed how intricate and complicated Mitchell could be in her music. We already knew how mesmerizing her lyrics could be. Separating the music from those special words demonstrates, as if anyone didn't already know, that Joni Mitchell deserves all those rave reviews and sales over the course of her fascinating and lengthy career.

"More Jazz Takes on Joni Mitchell" (Arkadia Records) is one of those productions that only gets better the longer you keep it on your turntable..."Joni Mitchell Jazzed" BOB POWERS More

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