 G21 AFRICA:
Sucking on a Bullet
BILLY JACKSON
When I saw the cook stride between tables through the restaurant towards the kitchen, struggling under the weight of half a cow still dripping in blood, it became apparent that my worries about the freshness of the beef were unfounded (these worries were quickly replaced by concerns over sanitation!). Instead of concentrating on the still recognizable mass of meat passing through the room, however, I decided to pay closer attention to Tamrat, the leader of our team of field monitors.
I felt fortunate to have been permitted to tag along with a USAID (United States Agency for International Development) field monitoring team on their sojourn into eastern and central Tigray, the northernmost province of Ethiopia. Their assignment was to monitor and assess several relief projects being implemented by NGOs but funded by USAID. Our journey would include these project sites, the ancient city of Axum, as well as areas affected by the war that had ended just one year before.
If you ask an Ethiopian what the war was all about, most won't be able to give you a definite answer. Most consider the war to have been one of pride. Both countries (Ethiopia and Eritrea) emphatically deny that it had anything to do with economics. Fighting for a small strip of desert-like terrain doesn't explain the loss of an estimated one hundred thousand soldiers, either. Perhaps it was a compound of egotistical leaders and a tension that has been on the verge of bursting for the last thirty years... More
POWERSSOUND: :
Suzy: One Country Winner
BOB POWERS
 Just because jazz reviews fill this space on most weeks doesn't mean that the writer thereof isn't keeping ears attuned to good stuff in other categories. For instance, my first few paragraphs today are devoted to a fine new Christmas album from the delightful country warbler Suzy Bogguss. The jazz fans that stop by every week may be only vaguely aware of Ms. Bogguss, whose talent seems worth much more space in music magazines and at the local store, even those which specialize on the sounds of the South.
The cover of the new Bogguss CD (released on her new record label, Loyal Dutchess Music) shows the winsome redhead looking dazzling, although she's a veteran of the Nashville sound, having spent 12 years on the Capitol label. "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" contains a dozen songs of the season, both old favorites and a couple of new ones that should please most tastes... More
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THE MYTHVILLE PROJECT: :
Just Huck, Baby!
DOUGLAS MC DANIEL
"I was lying in a burned-out basement
With the full moon in my eye
I was hoping for replacement
When the sunburst through the sky
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high
Thinking about what a friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
All in a dream ... in a dream,
The loading had begun.
Flying mother nature silver seed
To a new home in the sun."
----Neil Young, "After the Gold Rush"
Deven, MA (Route 2, West) ---- Gathering on the parade grounds of the retired Ft. Devens army base, team Meteor Theory prepares for its mid-morning maneuvers against Team 27.
In less worrisome times, a gathering of squads with such names as "Mass Discinction," "Flying Bones" and "Team Paleolithic" would seem less in touch with the zeitgeist, more in touch with what geeks simply like to do on the weekend: that is, just "huck," baby! What does huck" mean, well, to the legion of Ultima Frisbee players across the nation it means a lot of things. Go ahead, try to pin them down on what, exactly, it means.
"I don't know, man, that's a question for some old-timer," says Kathleen McLaughlin, a springy-stepped member of Meteor Theory who, when she can't "huck" around, is a business reporter for the Salem Evening News. "That's a good question," she says. "Where does that come from?"... More
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Your "BIERCE WEEK" G21 Easter Egg
MY GLASS HOUSE:
After All
ROD AMIS
NEW ORLEANS, 20 November, 2001 - My friend Dragana sent me the most beautiful story. Listen:
A pop singer rather famous here named Goca Trzan had appointed her first big concert here in Belgrade after which she was supposed to go on a tour trough (sic) Serbia. I like her, she's got that voice which resembles to my favorite blues and soul singers. So everyone were talking about her concert for two weeks and the tickets were soled long before the opening night. The night come and when she come out to the stage, she was taken aback. There was no one in the auditory (sic) except ONE person. That was the guy who bought all the tickets (gave about $ 20 000 USA). She didn't knew what to do, but her manager forced her to sing. So she had a concert for one person - singing a little, crying a lot. It turned out that the guy fell in love with her a year ago and after the concert he gave her 101 roses, diamond ring, one way ticket to Geneva and of course, he proposed her. Now the entire country (including me)waits to see the end - whether she'll accept the proposal or not. But it doesn't really matter. What matter is the beautiful and soooooo romantic idea which knocked all of us down. Wonderful story, isn't it? ... More
THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE NEXT
THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE NOW |
DAY ONE: :
LIARS
KEVIN CAREY
KEVIN CAREY says that the Afghanistan War must be the first in which the journalists have been bigger liars than the politicians.
As I write, the votes are being counted in Kosovo, an undeserved tribute to President Clinton's caution but assuredly not a powerful argument against bombing. This was, let us remind ourselves, a brutal assault by Milosevic who said he was defending Christendom against the Islamic hordes and an alliance in most respects identical to that operating in Afghanistan defended the Albanians, an almost entirely Islamic people, against Serbians who called themselves Christians. So much for American and British mindless anti-Islamic, manipulative foreign policy. It must be obvious to all but the rabidly anti-American that the current assault on Afghanistan is not anti-Islamic. From what one can telling any case, Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Q'aida henchmen would not pass muster with your average Western-based Mullah, let alone the Taliban morality police.
But let that pass. The only point on the bombing which requires just a little more discussion is the pragmatic assertion that to bomb Afghanistan is to stir up anti-American resentment, to bring on another generation of terrorists; in other words, the hydra metaphor. The problem with this as a pragmatic argument is that there is no evidence for it. The reaction of their followers to the defeat of idealists and lunatics down the centuries is mixed... More
RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT: :
Just the Way You Are
ROD AMIS
I'm judgmental. That's easy to see reading this magazine. But most of my judgements are about matters of honor. I take honor very seriously
I worry about my own honor, but I'm also concerned about issues of compassion. I notice how easy it is for other people to sit in judgement, as last week's RDR (by Raheem) article pointed out most succinctly
At base, though, I think it's very important for us to be just the way we are. You and me. The pressure to be "like everyone else" is far too great..... More
RDR 11.12.01: RADIO RAHEEM shares another anecdote from life in the 'hood with "Little Girls Lost"
RDR 11.05.01: BILL STEVENS looks at "The Quality of Mercy"
RDR 10.29.01: RADIO RAHEEM is back to say, "Welcome to Hard Times"
VOX POPULI: :
Say What..?
 From Aliza Dichter, New York, NY, USA:
SUBJECT: international news source
Dear friends,
In case you have a hankering for some real international news about
the "war on terrorism," straight from the sources in South/Central
Asia, Mideast and around the world, I encourage you to check out the
new daily news service from Globalvision New Media (company that
"produces" mediachannel)...
http://www.gvnewsnet.com/html/WorldReacts/index.html
they are picking up stories from all over so some are state media or
otherwise partisan in ways we might not understand but if you are
interested in reading widely and seeing news and views that are simply
invisible in US media, check it out.
(They were planning to launch in Jan but rushed due to circumstances
so there may be glitches..)
Feel free to forward this note to any news junkies in your life....
Liza
--
Aliza Dichter
Senior Editor
MediaChannel
liza@mediachannel.org
www.mediachannel.org
Eye On Global Media ... More |
Welcome back! We're glad you could make it here during your busy Holy Days schedule. Ramadan has started for our Muslim friends, Thanksgiving happens this week in the United States, and Christmas rapidly approaches for our Christian readers. We hope, at this most special time of year, that all of you are counting your blessings and thinking in the spirit of Good Will toward your fellow humans.
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