This week's cover is a tribute to Laetitia Casta. Some people think she might be one of Earth's most beautiful children.

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NEW BOSTON, MI, USA - During his presidency, Bill Clinton was the ongoing victim of a massive, righteous Right-wing assault, from allegations of his knowledge and involvement in the Whitewater deal and questions pertaining to his 1996 fundraising efforts (neither of which was substantiated) to Kenneth Starr's obsession with the President's extramarital relations.

Despite a long history of politicians, particularly presidents, having secret and less than admirable rendezvouses, it became deemed the business of the public and the government during Clinton's tenure. As a result of this partisan witch-trial, Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about his sexual indiscretions, though later acquitted by the Senate.

Contrast this to the weighty allegations by a multitude of citizens, political action groups, and government representatives against President George W. Bush and his administration... MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 17 July, 2003: This week we go back to a bit of my "three dot journalism" because there are so many issues and instances I need to share with you, my darlings. I've come back from my state of despair to look with "jaundiced eye" at what has been developing during my recent absence. I was not pleased. This is a long journal entry, so fasten your seatbelts.

I mean to point out items from disparate sources that have raised questions and alarums for Yours Unruly. The alarm I feel at what develops is palpable because it reinforces concerns raised in this Glass House since 9/11. The Mouthpiece Media (MM) are sounding more like G21 of late, I've noted, than ever before.

I can't suss out whether I should feel gratified - (In the triumphal chariot, a slave rode behind every Roman general, whispering into his ear, "All fame is fleeting.") - or simply remind myself that no prophet is appreciated in his own country. So I am back in Jeremiad mode for this week.

ITEM ONE: Long-term Loyal Readers may recall that I covered the election of Prime Minister Tony Blair while visiting my friend and G21 Alumnae FELICITY USSHER in London. I have watched Mr. Blair's "poodle dog" (a term now derisively used in the Brit press regarding his unflagging devotion to U.S. interests) machinations with amusement for years now. I've often commented on them disparagingly.

Mr. Blair visits the United States today and appears before Congress. The high honor, a medal, he was scheduled to receive when this visit was planned has been (transparently) delayed.... MORE





by BOB POWERS

MARIETTA, OH, USA - I spent most of the 1960s living in Athens, Ohio, site of Ohio University (dubbed by some wise guys as "Harvard on the Hocking," the latter being the river that trickled through Southeastern Ohio.) I was amazingly young during those days, all our kids still lived at home, and I loved my job as news editor of the Athens Messenger, the city's daily newspaper. But there were clouds obscuring the innocent sun on many days, and thinking back, I realize that those years weren't exactly Heaven.

Despite the darkness of the times and the furious debate over sending American troops to Vietnam (things don't change much; we are always doomed to repeat our mistakes), I still have good vibes about the Athens area. Two of our six children live there, our daughter Cheri is a familiar face at the Ohio University Credit Union and namesake Bob Powers Jr. is LAN administrator for the Department of Education at OU (don't ask me what he does; that's computer stuff and I'm lucky to remember how to turn on my computer every morning.

All this nostalgia erupted because of a new CD, "Facing Beloved," (Facing East Productions). The music by this group, Facing East, will bring back pleasant memories of the eastern music that quietly but surely made an impact during the 1960s... MORE

QUEENSTOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - It's been said, ad nauseum, that the problem of Africa is the failure of leadership. Nowhere has this allegation been more true than in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean issue is confusedly complicated though and needs not only access to right information, but some acumen. Put aside all manner of cross-currenting due to past colonial history, its nostalgic purveyors disguised as genuine critics and all that perverting influence, and still Zimbabwe has become the archetype of what's wrong with African states.

The facts are clear: Post-colonial African leadership has failed its people by failing to find African solutions for African problems. They overlooked causative factors and chose to collect and transplant a motley of obsolete ideologies without even properly understanding them. When criticised they became intolerant. Viewpoints outside their controlled governing clubs were suppressed, even persecuted in some cases. Thus the story of African politics has, hitherto, been the case of the bland leading the bland.

Absence of intellectual freedom prevented a true search for and development of African internal solutions. This resulted in governments of intellectual mediocrity with snob officials who knew nothing but to toe the official line. Any criticism of their inchoate and intellectually frustrating policies was dubbed as either reactionary or unpatriotic. Sometimes the critic was accused of still being hung up in colonial-apartheid legacies. Ergo,the officials managed to conceal their systemic corruption, economic mismanagement, political tyranny, violations of human rights, and military vandalism.... MORE


[EDITOR'S NOTE: What follows is a work of fiction submitted by a writer in India. Yes, I know we don't normally run fiction. My resolve seems to have been weaker than ever in that regard this year. Because of the length of this piece, I've chosen to run it over two editions of the magazine. This is the second installment. To read the opening section, click back to last week's edition. Enjoy! - RA]

by TAPAS RAY

CALCUTTA, INDIA - It was early afternoon and the mist began to close in as the masses of moisture, which had slept all night and for half the morning among the mosses and ferns deep down in the valley, rose up through the air warmed by the sun. The driver switched on his fog lamps bringing to life a little cloud of yellow luminescence in front. Suddenly the woods had ended and they were entering a town.

The van stopped in a market area next to the station of the narrow-gauge Siliguri-Darjeeling railway. The elderly Sikh got out with his suitcase, to be met by a turbaned young man who could have been his son. He was followed by the disdainfully aloof medical representative, whom no one had come to meet, his leather portfolio bursting with the glossy pamphlets of the pharmaceutical company he worked for, and free physicians' samples.

It was getting cold and Sumit took advantage of the halt to pull his jacket out of the rucksack. Then they drove on uphill along the railway track past tin-roofed hamlets without once catching sight of the train. In a dingy little town looking lost in the mist, unceremoniously called Ghoom (that is, Sleep), he felt the damp chill in his bones as the road reached its highest point.

At the station, a picture of soot and grime deserted but for a couple of shaggy mountain dogs lying curled up on the dirty platform, the road forked into two, with one limb going left. The driver kept to the other one that went straight ahead. Beyond the town, it dipped at an easy gradient. After half-an-hour and a couple of thousand feet below, the van entered Darjeeling, where the air was still clear between the high mists of Ghoom and the lower ones rising through Kurseong, promising to arrive by evening... MORE





by YOU

THE WORLD - From Sanjay, (No City Provided), CA, USA:

SUBJECT: Connerly Initiative

Radio Raheem,

I read your critique of Shelby Steele's article in Harper's. Based on this, would it be correct to assume that you're against Connerly's upcoming initiative to ban the state from collecting data on race of individuals?

Thanks.
Sanjay


RAHEEM RESPONDS: My first response, Sanjay, was gonnah be that I'm damned sure I'm against any idea comin' out of Ward Connerly's head. But that's too flip. Fact is, I think racial data, especially census data, is important because of the way our politicians portion out the pieces of the pie. If that ever changes, then I'm all with Ward.... MORE


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OTHER EDITIONS

THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: SUMMER IN THE CITY
(TAPAS RAY brings fiction to these pages from Calcutta, India in G21 ASIA; MPUTHUMI NTABENI reports on George Dubya's visit to Africa; and much more!)

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