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[EDITOR'S NOTE: Days after the worldwide protests against the United States policy of war with Iraq, I received an e-mail containing a dispatch from John Ross, a peace warrior, who had entered Iraq on 15 February to act as a human shield along with people from the United States, Britain, Japan, Italy, Russia, and a number of other countries. By permission of Mr. Ross's support group in California, this week G21 begins publishing his reports from that embattled country. We shall publish these as long as Mr. Ross remains alive in Baghdad. -- RA]

Baghdad, IRAQ - (Feb 22nd) The Syrian-Iraqi border after midnight is a dimly-lit No Man's Land. We sit in a smoke filled café on the Syrian side, dining on kabobs and guzzling Turkish coffee on the house. When George Bush pounds a podium while multiple American flags unfurl behind him on the café TV, the truck drivers, low-rent travelers and Human Shields in attendance convulse in waves of laughter and derision at the U.S. president's cowboy schtick.

This trip has been filled with such media moments as viewed from the far side of the tube. In Ankara, waiting on the Iraqi visas, we watch Bush brag that he will feed the people of that Axis of Evil republic which Washington has starved for the past decade and once again the room collapses in hilarity. The Bush act plays very badly in this seething corner of a world he seeks to conquer with bombs and bribery and his yahoo demeanor makes it into one of the top comedy acts east and west of the Tigris and the Euphrates.... MORE





by THOMAS HART

AUSTIN, REPUBLIC OF TEJAS - After watching The Shrub's address to the American people and press conference on Thursday evening, March sixth, last week there was only one question floating in most trailer park minds down here in Tejas. I was watching Dubya speak, while sucking down a couple of brewskis with my buds Cleavis and Buford, at the Circle R Ranchhouse Bar & Grill near the trailer park. I was gettin' this queasy feelin' in my stomach, but I didn't say anything.

That's when my pard' Cleavis piped up and said: "Dang, man! What is that ole boy on? He's actin' like somebody slipped him a couplah Zanex or a qwaalude or somethin'!" So the one question on ever'body's minds down here in Bubbaland is: Is His Fraudulency now on drugs?... MORE




by KEVIN CAREY

SUSSEX, UNITED KINGDOM - If American soldiers, in an act of hollow symbolism, hoist United Nations flags over the public buildings of Baghdad without having received its sanction to do so, they will have partaken in a campaign as momentously disastrous for its prosecutors, in spite of the military victory, as the attacks of Napoleon and Hitler on Russia. In addition to the flight, the trial or the corpse of Saddam, Washington will receive a destroyed British Prime Minister, an embittered French President, a sullen German Chancellor, a resentful Turkish government and army, a non-aligned movement more hostile than any since the Vietnam War; and all that, even if the victory is swift, clean and casualty free, for what? There is not even any reasonable guarantee that it will boost Bush's re-election chances!

This state of affairs has been almost inevitable since the arrival of President Bush in the White House. In a lifelong writing career I have never been more sad to be correct as I have turned out to be when I predicted that the new Republican administration would act in such a way that the rest of the world would have to form an alliance against it. ... MORE




by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - You think this job is one to be desired? Well, of course it is, but you'd be surprised at the amount of time I slash through every week in trying to compose a readable column that spotlights the best available albums, usually fresh from the companies that made them.

This week, for instance, I planned to give you the word on a stack of piano CDs that have kept me busy with my pitiful old Hi-Fi for weeks, in some cases, and the past 48 hours in another. But we must wait, dear readers, for the good news coming out of New Orleans.

The exquisite Los Hombres Calientes has produced a great album under any method of evaluating wonderful music. This is likely to become the CD that would make Los Hombres Calientes. It's just downright GREAT!... MORE

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Greetings from your correspondent on the southern most tip of Africa. I hope that this letter finds you all well - know that my prayers are with you in this time of uncertainty in your country.

I often think about and pray for my own countrymen, the 42 million other South Africans. Who are they? They are a colourful conglomerate of young and old, male and female, Black, White, Coloured, Indian, etc., but all are individuals. Rich individuals with more money than they know what to do with, poor individuals with more problems that you would think it possible to bear, compassionate individuals who are there to lend an ear and offer advice, and harsh individuals who just don¹t seem to care at all, but all individuals none the less. All these individuals join together to make up one whole, the image of this country, South Africa

Because although we are all individuals, what makes us South African is that we have common interests, common hopes and dreams, common passions. I can almost guarantee you that three quarters of South Africans are watching or listening to cricket in some way tonight. We come out in force to represent and support our country in most things she undertakes, be it the designing of the South African flag or the competing in sports tournaments. Nothing unites a country better than a national pastime, especially when there is a healthy rivalry between two countries, as there is between South Africa and Australia ... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 7 February, 2003: Did I tell you the one about bartending by Braille? There was a power failure on Frenchmen Street, where I bartend at The Spotted Cat, Mardi Gras night. So one of the owners, Trish, and one of the patrons from the retirement home next door held flashlights as I continued to mix drinks for the assembled revelers. This is New Orleans; we don't let anything as trivial as darkness keep the party from going on -- especially not during Carnaval.

I bartended for six straight days during Mardi Gras week, pulling the longest shifts at the bar. No good deed goes unpunished, of course, so I suspect I'm in a world of hurt right now... MORE

Your favorite page of the Web's best links offers up a new Link Partner....MORE

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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: LIFTING THE VEIL
(MITCHELL BROWN reports on the Bush Administration's dreams of empire in G21 NEWS; STUART ALTMAN supplies escape plans for a terrorist attack on New York City in RDR; and much more!)

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