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AUSTIN, REPUBLIC OF TEJAS - Down here in the trailer park, especially leading up and during the second Gulf War, we got used to thinkin' of ole Bill O'Reilly of the Faux News Channel as Rupert Murdoch's candidate for Minister of Propaganda. That ole boy just about went off his nut, didn't he? He was claiming Hollyweird actors should be charged with sedition, hardee-har-har, 'cause they didn't agree with the fascist opinion of he and the other warmongering crowd that Faux News hires as cheerleaders for The Shrub.

Me, I just started thinking of O'Reilly as Joseph Goebbels in drag .. MORE





by A. KASIM S. ISLAM

GUWAHATI, INDIA - Ranting against neo-neo-colonialism and the American Enterprise war machine has now become standard fare. The day the "coalition of the willing" launched their strikes on Baghdad, Muslims in the UK said a special community prayer. This, they said, was a war against Islam and against Muslims and it was their duty to assist them with their prayers. Three weeks down the line, their prayers were in vain. But nobody seemed to make much of the fact that there were other Iraqi Muslims out there who were all too willing to assist the "coalition of the willing". And when anti-Saddam demonstrations broke out all over Iraq, and citizens began narrating their tales of horror, there must have been quite a few embarrassed blushes amongst those who had gone to prayer. This is not to deny the tangential motives of the United States, nor to deny the immense suffering that the war and sanctions had caused. One quite rightly argues that sidestepping international consensus sets a dangerous precedent. But what the war has brought out is that large sections of the Iraqi populace, though not too fond of the United States, are yet happy to see Saddam go..... MORE






by MPUTHUMI NTABENI

QUEENSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - To dispel this suffocating fog of silence and lies ... - Antjie Krog ...

I have been watching the video of Nelson Mandela's release from Prison in 1990. The whole euphoria of those days came back to me, poignantly rather than blissfully. I was younger then, full of youthful well meaning hopes and I trusted the world order.

I vividly remember that February day. I was travelling on a Trunslux coach to Johannesburg for another varsity year. The bus had stopped, at 2100 hrs, in Bloemfontein (a strong base for Afrikaner nationalism) for drinks and snacks. The television at the supermarket we were buying in was broadcasting Mandela's release from Victor Forster prison earlier that day. He walked out of prison hassled by the glamour of being the national liberator. He was met by a hurricane of hope and an explosion of demands in anticipation of a vision that usually comes from years of solitary contemplation. His release prompted all sorts of things. For instance there was a sudden proud declaration of our African culture and dignity with an overrated sense of entitlement in most black folks. It seemed as though, at last, a dream of the system of democracy for our country was in the offing, because Mandela, our prophet and liberator, was free. It was hoped that free and equal relations between people would emancipate all from their respective miseries... .MORE

MARIETTA, OH, USA - The postman has been kind in the past couple of weeks, showering stacks of new CDs at the front door. And among those outstanding titles, both brand new and classics from the early days of jazz have been several that will continue to win spins far beyond the area of initial hearings.

Easily the most impressive of altogether formidable pile of music is the third album from René Marie. "Live at Jazz Standard" (MaxJazz Records). This young lady, who formerly worked in a bank, has a voice worth all the contents of the biggest bank vault. She was terrific in her first two albums, "How Can I Keep from Singing?" and Vertigo," the latter chosen the best jazz vocal album of 2002 by Jazz Times.... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 23 April, 2003: I'm seven days out from having to move from the French Quarter to - wherever. With my luck, I'll just move somewhere else in or near the Quarter. Victoria is complaining that I move her around too much. Her x and h keys are beginning to stick. She wants to know when I'll replace our burned out battery so that she could stay out longer without being tethered to her power cord.

I want to know when I'll have enough money for any of her needs, let alone my own. "I'm still trying to find us a new place to live for a while," I groan. "First things first."

I'm trying to avoid telling her that I might sell off her siblings for enough to fulfill her wishes and my own.

For those of you new to this column, I should explain that Victoria is my faithful laptop and her "siblings" are the two desktop computers that languish Back East waiting to be reunited with our family. I've sussed out that the reunion will never happen, so I might as well have them put on e-Bay and bring Vickie and I back up to speed. Life calls for letting go of things sometimes ... MORE

NEW! DHAMAKA NEWS: Our News Partner from New Delhi, India, offers weekly stories of import. THIS WEEK'S FEATURE: Is North Korea Reprocessing? by KIM KONG HU.

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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: DOWN WITH TRUTH
(ROD AMIS on the violence of poverty and other international crimes in MY GLASS HOUSE; MPUTHUMI NTABENI on South Africa's intellectual elite in G21 AFRICA; and much more!)

G21 TODAY!

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