For an unprecedented second time, this week's cover is all about Salma Hayek. We blame Rod. He can't get enough of Salma.

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NEW ORLEANS, LA, USA - After thirteen years, and some of the most atrocious crimes ever committed against humanity being experienced, a United Nations court has finally moved and indicted Charles Taylor, the warlord-turned-president of the West African nation of Liberia for war crimes. Liberia, a nation the size of Tennessee, sits on Africa's western coast. The nation has a unique history that links it to the United States as it is a nation created as a republic in 1842 by freed American slaves.

The legacy of American repression by the slave owners, rather than American democracy, is one that the Liberian nation's founding fathers brought home with them. The repression they inherited was forced upon the inhabitants at the nation's formation and has continued to rear its head for a century and a half with ethnic based fighting and scrambling to control the nation's rich natural resources - an on and off again way of life. Liberia is rich with plentiful diamond mines along its border with Sierra Leone as well as rich with bauxite, ore and other natural resources that the developed and developing nations desire.... MORE

by LILY MABURA

[EDITOR'S NOTE: For the second time in less than a year, against my standing editorial policy, I've agreed to publish a work of fiction. For the second time, the work in question is from an African writer. I trust that after reading the work, you'll agree with my reasons for featuring it on these pages. - RA]

"So," she said, "you're one of them."

Sylvia Faraja watched her friend Matt Kress lean back into his chair, trying not to look annoyed, but his mouth settled into a thin line and his gray eyes lost their gallantry.

The woman's tone of voice had galled him, Sylvia could see. This old woman with long white hair stylishly wrapped on her narrow head had galled Matt. Matt, the impassive man. Sylvia tried to remember her name or how this conversation, argument really, had started but could not. It was awful. Here they were, at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Lewiston, Idaho, in support of the Knights of Columbus annual spaghetti dinner, because Matt was part of the brotherhood, only to have an old woman lock horns with him.

"Yes," he replied. "I work with the Forest Service and burning is good for forests. Besides, the worst ones only occur because previous fires have been suppressed time and again."... MORE





by RADIO RAHEEM

OAKLAND, CA, USA- Well, it took a long time for him to cop to it and I'm as outraged by the circumstances as any of y'all, Homies, but our Esteemed Editor has finally come around to admitting something I've asserted in this column for nine years now: It's dangerous in America, "the land of the free", to be Walking While Black.

Two things get to me about his case and his admission:

1. It took him so long to really get the full implications of what I've been sayin', and
2. That passage where he says he's now paranoid just walking down the streets. I felt like askin', "Haven't you always been, Brah?" I have.

Our celebrated Links page offers two new members to our crew of Link Partners. Check them out when you're not here... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 22 June, 2003: Tomorrow I go to my arraignment. I had hoped to avoid that, but the new Deputy Chief of Trials in the District Attorney's office told my attorney that they couldn't locate my file. It would be nice to think that they were that incompetent, I know. But it's more like me, paranoid that I am, to believe something else is going on. The unseen hand. This set of cards need to be played out.

My attorney is expecting me to have at least one hundred dollars for her by the hearing. Hardee-har-har! The way things are going at the sushi restaurant and with my new living situation (more on that below) I'll be lucky to have the dosh to make it to court.

Having completed the Said reading, I'm now on to Celine. Death by the Installment Plan was sitting in my new bedroom. I thought it was time, after all the laudatory words from St. Henry. (Inside Joke: I've always thought of Henry Miller as "Saint Henry." I loved it when he referred to himself as "Heinrich Lebenrechts" ‚ Henry Live [or Living] Right, auf Deutsch.) This novel is hallucinatory and cynical enough to fit the times I'm experiencing now ... MORE





by YOU

THE WORLD - From Scott S., New Orleans, LA, USA:

SUBJECT: Greetings

Rod:

Nothing has arrived in the mail as yet, but I will call you when something does.

Soon the Quarter will be "Cleaner Better Safer," the Disney Epcot-ization of the city has started. They seem oblivious to the fact that the FQ [French Quarter - Ed.] has always been gritty and bohemian.

Word,
Scott.... MORE


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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: THE RED ALBUM
(KIMBERLY BLAKER is back to report on the Bushies' attempt to unite Church and State; ROD AMIS comes clean on the issue of Palestine; and much more!)

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