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by AAMERA JIWAJI

NAIROBI, KENYA - I arrive at the Mokowe jetty, weary after a dusty, potholed filled 6-hour trip from Mombasa. The bus smells of the samosas and mandazis that passengers picked up at our stopover in Malindi. I feel like a flat, stale mandazi. My legs are cramped; my face caked with fine, coffee coloured dust; and my skin crusty in the places where my sweat has mixed with the dust.

My ears are pounding with the Taarab music of Juma Bhalo, a favourite amongst the Swahili people at the Coast and I need to stare at the ocean that is fifteen steps away from me for a while before the sound of the waves replaces the beats of Juma Bhalo.

I search the crowds for Gonzi, and see him almost instantly. He is the rare African face amongst Arabs in Lamu.... MORE









by KIMBERLY BLAKER

NEW BOSTON, MI, USA - Among a plethora of other parallels, what do Christianity, Islam, and other world religions all have in common? An inescapable capability of manifesting and/or attracting extremists of the most lethal kind - terrorists. This has been proven time and again throughout history and continues to be revealed. The capture of Eric Robert Rudolph is just one more reminder.

Rudolph, charged with several Atlanta bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park; an office building that was home to an abortion clinic; and a gay and lesbian nightclub, proves that fundamentalist Muslim terrorists from abroad are not our only enemy, and that, in fact, religious extremism by American Christian fundamentalists is every bit as real... MORE





by BABA

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Hello. My name is Baba and I'm a Tanzanian living in Dar es Salaam. I'm a journalist by profession, am 25 years old and I have mental illness. I wanted to write this piece for a few reasons. The first is I guess I wanted to connect with the outside world as I get really lonely at times and another is that in some vague way, I thought it could help heal the emotional wounds that I have sustained from this disease.

Thus, where do I begin? Perhaps I should start by transporting you back to the time when the first symptoms of the disease started to surface. It was in 1996 and at the time, my family was living in Nigeria. My mother and father were both academicians at the Ungwa Polytechnic and my elder sister (we are just two) was working at our alma mater, Zama International School. An honor roll student, she was much respected there and being at home, I always used to look forward to going to pick her up because I knew there were treats in store!... MORE





by MATTIE LENNON

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Say a woman is ugly, beautiful, plain or even homely and you'll get a plethora of agreement and disagreement from both sexes. Describe one of the fairer gender as "stupid" and the reaction will not be unanimous one way or the other. "Plain", "efficient", "house proud", "sexually focused", "man-mad" and "upwardly-mobile" will be met with anything from full concurrence to vicious contradiction.

But try this one ... Refer to some female as "intelligent" and you'll be met with the same poker-faced indifference as if you had described Enda Kenna as a great statesman. I can guarantee you'll get neither a "she certainly is" or a "no, she's not" reply. Any comment about a woman's physical attributes, attitudes, or social traits will cause anything from grudging accord to lively discussion. But any reference to her IQ and you're in no-comment country... MORE





by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - Please excuse my absence for the past few weeks. My wife insisted that I have a complete physical exam, a couple of matters indicated the possibility of cancer, but subsequent procedures gave me a clean bill of health.

Now it's back to listening to the latest music and there are some good ones worth time on your ears.

A relative newcomer to the jazz recording scene is the label called MaxJazz, headquartered in St. Louis. All of their releases have spotlighted little-known performers, each bursting onto the scene with music that should please jazz fans of every sort.

The newest release is from Steve Wilson, who plays the hell out of the alto and soprano saxophones. Wilson's debut for MaxJazz is titled "Soulful Song" and it should climb up the jazz charts rapidly. Wilson manages to play a wonderful alto, but he reaches new levels with this work on the difficult, tough to master soprano saxophone.... MORE

THE WORLD - From Ed C., Bloomfield, MI, USA:

SUBJECT: Apartheid 2003

Though I have often "crossed swords" with Raheem on race issue/article, I have no substantial issue to take with this article. 'Blame is above the human experience for the "common folk"'; I appreciate the missing finger.

Tis very true, seperation,segregation and discrimination are very much alive and well in the "melting pot". Even in the hottest pot, things seem to want to seperate.

The offer to the barbeque is meet with hope, and thanks... someday brother, maybe, someday - I wish I was personally close enough to take you up on the offer. But small baby steps are all we get here, small baby steps.

Peace Be with You, and Tanya, Raheem,

Peace, Ed C., somewhere in Michigan, USA... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 4 June, 2003: Among the many Republican beneficiaries of the 11 September, 2001, disaster in New York City was former Mayor and now Sir Rudolph Guiliani. His "heroism" during that calamitous time for Manhattan white-washed away the fact that it was during his watch that the Abner Louima incidents and Amadou Diallo murder took place, that he oversaw the Disneyfication of Times Square and that thousands of homeless indigents had perished on the streets of that great city. Bringing up his combativeness as Mayor or any of the aforementioned instances of his callousness, and his cavalier disregard for minority, especially Black, citizens of New York City during his watch is now considered tantamount to heresy by those who have bought into Guiliani's hagiography chapter and verse.

Likewise, George W. Bush and the members of his administration, who regularly turn Black journalists away at the palace gates - as reported by HARRISON CHASTANG of San Francisco's KPOO radio in these pages last year - have been given a free hand for the most far-reaching crackdown on civil liberties in America in the history of the former republic. At the same time, the national unemployment rate has increased by over two million with the largest rise in Black employment in twenty years as part of that package, the projected national budget deficit is larger than even during the profligate Reagan years, American troops are occupying more foreign nations than in any time in the country's history and we have entered a footing of perpetual war. All this, again, as a direct result of "heroism" in the weeks following 11 September, 2001. Any criticism of the fact that the American President effectively disappeared for hours after the tragedy or questions about whether the administration could have prevented the incidents are also considered heretical in our new climate of hyper-jingoism and ultra-loyalty.... MORE


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(ROD AMIS provides the story of his unjust incarceration in New Orleans in MY GLASS HOUSE * SPECIAL REPORT; and much more!)

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