Updated: MONDAY, 18 JUNE, 2001 (GMT)* EVENT # 270: TIME'S ARROW |
 The G21 World Tour continues. Looks like our last week inn London, UK, and completion of the hejira to the former Yugoslavia. Belgrade or Bust! DRAGANA VICANOVICH assures us that we'll find her cooking a delight, and we look forward to visiting the ancient historical sites.
So this week is chockers with new features. Bon apetit! NEXT UPDATE SCHEDULED MONDAY, 25 JUNE Today's Pick . Another page will be displayed tomorrow. |
*** TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUE INFORMATION ***
 DAY ONE:
Upheaval in NepalKEVIN CAREYOn the evening before the announcement of the mass slaughter of the Nepalese Royal Family I was reading a Frank Kermode essay on Macbeth. Macbeth, goaded by dynastic ambition and his wife's scorn of his virility worked himself into a bloody ascent and death. Admittedly the Crown Prince of Nepal is supposed to have turned the light machine gun on himself, having wrought his havoc, rather than waiting for the Royal Guard to arrive but the similarities are obvious enough. What happened in the Royal Palace in Nepal can properly be termed Shakespearian.
If I were a trekker I would get your trip of a lifetime in pretty quickly. The implosion at the centre of Nepalese dynastic politics presents Maoist rebels with a vacuum they cannot but fill... More
Jago of Mathare ValleyBINYAVANGA WAINAINAMy eyes hurt. I'm still not used to having the sun directly above me again. There is a truth in what you see in Kenya that is uncompromising - there is no soft focus here. The Serengeti migration has nothing on Eastlands at rush hour. Eastlands is where the mwananchi (man on the street) lives. There is a whole ocean of people, moving like time has run out on them. A mish-mash of informal traders colour the streets with their wares. Eastlands has taken on a distinctly Middle-Eastern persona since half of Somalia and Ethiopia resettled here. There are bazaars, shops advertising henna, bui-bui -clad women, and lots of miraa (khat) on sale. There is a beauty parlour whose sign shows Mickey Mouse having his hands hennaed.
I am here because I am bored. Since I came back home four months ago, I have found my feelings for Kenyans somewhat barren. Everybody I know is 10 years older and conversations revolve around diapers and the size of cellphones... More
Tobey's Tunes Tickle FancyBOB POWERSThere's a new pianist on the scene and he's going to make an impression.
Canadian Paul Tobey received a formal musical education in the classics, but switched to jazz in the 1980s. His fourth CD has just come from Bob Karcy's reliable Arkadia label. "Street Culture" offers proof that Tobey learned the basics of jazz well. His technique shows traces of his classical background, but he's able to perform impressively with his three supporting musicians... More
One way of doing that is buying our "stuff." Wear it, drink from it, click over it.
AMERICAN DREAMS:
The Cold Six ThousandRON MORGAN
I am predisposed to like Ellroy. I was born in 1950's LA, and when Ellroy riffs on the cultural minutae of that time and place, he's jacking direct to my psyche. The streets, the hoods and cops that ran them, the bush league celebs that jostled each other for face-time on magazine covers and movie posters, all resonate in my brainbox like a Bernard Hermann film score. My mom kept a dog-eared collection of Confidential magazines stashed under her bed, and I gleeped them and glommed them whenever I had the chance, wolfing down stories of mary jane busts and movie stars clinched with pool boys and doxies with the wrong skin tones.... More
THE NEXT WORLD TOUR EVENT THE NOW WORLD TOUR EVENT |
RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT: : The Inside Out Trust sets up projects inside prisons which aim to provide real skills for real work, and simultaneously benefit needy people all over the world. Increasingly the Trust is linking its projects with opportunities for people in prison to gain accreditation in basic and key skills, vital if they are to be able to find employment after release.
Something like 70% of all the people in our prisons have problems with literacy and numeracy which means that over 90% of jobs are not open to them.
Every project needs a network of people and organisations to work together, in order that it will succeed. The story of Manikandam neatly illustrates this... "The Inside Out Trust" MARGARET CAREY More
You know about the incredulity this trip has produced. Here's an example of barriers. When I let friends and my hosts in the former-Yugoslavia know the price of a flight from London (Gatwick Airport) to Belgrade, they were stunned... "Calculating Kinship" ROD AMIS More
SUBJECT: The Trouble With Men Hi, Lloyd & Rod,
I've just read Lloyd's g21 letter to the editor about my short story. To explain the title, about which Lloyd commented negatively, may I suggest that it's not meant in the way it may at first seem. The common phrase: "the trouble with...(whatever)..." implies a generalization. In this case, it's from the girl's point of view, or, actually, the woman's, and refers to her trouble(s) with certain men in her life. The young man who kidnapped her and her male family members, as well as the community/society which would never allow her to return to her village after she'd been taken away, feeling that she'd been sullied & had no further value. ...More
COMING Monday 25 JuneOur first edition from Belgrade, Serbia, we hope. Wish our publisher luck on making this next transition. |
FEED THE HUNGRY.You can help someone else in this world and IT WON'T COST YOU A DIME.If you simply remember to drop by The Hunger Site every day that you surf and click a simple button ONE LESS PERSON WILL GO HUNGRY.The food is distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme and paid for through the sponsorship of companies that care.Do your part.
OTHER EDITIONS
THE PREVIOUS EDITION
(ROD AMIS & KEVIN CAREY each report on the British general election -- it's more like a duet than dueling banjos -- G21 NEWS & RDR; at G21 ASIA, HUW TURNER interviews Gregory Fortuin, New Zealand's Minister for Ethnic Affairs, probably a world first; and much more!)
THE NEXT EDITION
THE NOW EDITION
| The WRITERS | TALKBACK | AWARDS | YOUR LETTERS |
| MY GLASS HOUSE | THE PREVIOUS EVENT | COMING ATTRACTIONS | THE WRITERS/GUIDELINES | |
© 2001, GENERATOR 21.
E-mail your comments.We still like to hear from you. Send your snide remarks torod@g21.net.
The last time I saw James Ellroy, he informed the nation on "Late Night with Conan O' Brien" that Bill Clinton was hung like a cashew. He wiggled his pinkie finger as a visual prop. I got the feeling he wouldn't be invited back.
LONDON - 15 - 17 June, 2001 - When I went to Egypt in the 'seventies, I learned that if you choose to go off the "regular" Western radar screen, you immediately encounter barriers and incredulity. The United States' relationship with Egypt was strained, the nation was still considered a war zone, and it was necessary to book passage via Montreal, Canada, to make the journey. I embarked on this trip rather naively believing that things could not be as extreme in the 21st century. I was wrong.
From Elizabeth English, Boulder, CO, USA:
