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by STUART ALTMAN

NEW YORK, NY, USA - If you haven't heard of Lebron James you probably will soon. James is currently the top high school basketball player in the country. He is expected to be the number one overall pick in this year's NBA draft. He currently has sneaker companies offering him millions of dollars to endorse their shoes. Due to his popularity, his high school basketball team is playing in a bigger gym, teams are charging five times the amounts they normally would for tickets, and ESPN has even televised two of his high school's basketball games.

Most colleges can't even get their games on ESPN and here's a high school team doing it. It seems everyone is making money off Lebron except Lebron...MORE




by GAYNOR PAYNTER

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Greetings from the southernmost tip of Africa, where the restful holiday fever of last month is all but forgotten as we South Africans have launched ourselves at full tilt into the hustle and bustle of the new year.

Whilst going about our daily lives in the way that we all do (wrapped up in our own little cocoons, so to speak), it is easy to forget that there are issues going on in the world that we all need to be aware of. As they say, knowledge is power and - having said that - there are quite a lot of things going on in and around South Africa at the moment. The thought popped into my head that it would now be opportune to give you all a rundown on current South African issues... MORE

MARIETTA, OH, USA - Mae Robertson could well become the next big star. She's used to doing things not by the book, but by setting her own terms for life. Her fourth album, "Smile" (Lyric Partners) displays a wonderful voice, just a smidgen beyond the best of the folk singers. But Robertson, 48 this year, realizes that things must happen soon if they are to happen at all.

A few years ago, Robertson owned three children's stores in the Northeast. Then her friend Don Jackson overheard her singing the traditional folk song, "The Water Is Wide" as a lullaby to her baby. Now her fourth album is reaching stores nationwide... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 29 January, 2003: On Monday evening, which is my "Friday", I put a woman into an ambulance. That was the beginning of a Rod weekend.

Tonight, a pal's girlfriend told me I tend to make woman have too much fun.

It's time for me to step back from the New Orleans bartender lifestyle. It's time for me to take a break. This is not me... MORE




by MPHUTHUMI NTABENI

QUEENSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - The most striking thing about South Africa is how far apart its three worlds are, though geographically they're in the same country. There are the suburban areas that have achieved first-world living standards, the remote and almost forgotten rural areas and the townships where the country's most frustrated stay marginalized by lack of skills and the purposelessness of their days. The living conditions in the last two parts of this country - rural and township - are appalling by any national standard.

If you want the best place to read the mood and spirit of the country go to the townships. Despite lavatory-wall gossip and contrived coffee-table opinions, inherited largely from romantic literature, life for the majority here is ghastly with a dulcet of unconscious disorder. All things being equal, this affords township life with an existential depth and melancholy charm absent from the more affluent suburbs... MORE




by YOU

THE WORLD - From Richard H., (No City Provided), SCOTLAND:

SUBJECT: Bob Powers

Hi Rod

I would like to get in touch with bob Powers. it is about his Frank Sinatra piece. i am working on a book about FS and would dearly love to email Bob direct.

Many thanks

Best wishes
Richard H.
Scotland... MORE

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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: GET UP! STAND UP!
(We publish The World's Magazine's nominee for this year's Caine Prize in African Writing EHICHOYA EKOZILEN; DAVE TOMAR debuts a new column of political satire MONKEY ON THE WIND; and much more!)

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