This week's cover is a tribute to columnist and candidate for Governor of California Arianna Huffington. We love you, Baby! Terminate Arnold.

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LOS ANGELES, CA, USA - Boyd Lewis joyfully celebrated his First Annual Old South Barbecue in his Altadena home on Marengo Street with a few good friends recently. The event marked his 57th birthday and more importantly, the end of his journalism career and his becoming a full fledged English teacher. The event was also an audio and photographic salon as well.

These are the materials he's going to be teaching English with in his new job with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

When Boyd and his wife Deborah moved to Pasadena from Atlanta in the fall of 1997, Boyd was at "the top of his game." He was a writer and editor at CNN, and perhaps more importantly, he had become the "Voice of the South" on National Public Radio, the result of a series of radio programs that came out of more than three decades of covering and being involved in the great civil rights struggles there.

The one thing Boyd carried away from his experiences was a belief in "struggle and creative conflict." His photographs are populated by men such as Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, Julian Bond, John Lewis, Tyrone Brooks, Jesse Jackson and Joseph Lowry and he took them from 1969 to 1975 while working as a photographer for a couple of different black owned newspapers in Atlanta.

You'll also see among his collection Ku Klux Klaners in full regalia, carrying rifles, or a scared black child in the streets. He teaches his students to weave narratives from the photographs.... MORE







by H. SCOTT PROSTERMAN

MEMPHIS, TN, USA - August 1, 2003: So where were all the news-trucks and reporters?

Memphis experienced its worst natural disaster in its history last week. Because the loss of life thankfully was not great, and it was not officially a hurricane or tornado, it didn't get much national ink.

But it WAS a hurricane. 100 mph winds tore through the entire 5-county metro area, extending into Arkansas and Mississippi. The greatest tragedy is that at least nine people died as a result of the storm or its aftermath.

The magnitude and widespread scope of the damage is unprecedented. 306,000 homes and businesses were left without power, and some are told to expect to be out of service for another week or so. Major property damage is everywhere. City officials estimate a 4 week time-frame for complete clean up and restoration. Is this newsworthy? Not on the day that Qusay and Uday were gunned down.

Have you ever seen a 24-inch diameter sweet gum tree bent at a 45 degree angle about 30 feet up its 50 ft. trunk? Or a 75 ft. x 3 ft. diameter oak snapped in the middle? They say the winds were 100 mph, but I think it takes a force greater than that to cause a huge tree to just bend... MORE





by AAMERA JIWAJI

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - I am a 23 year old female, too old for a good marriage match, and on the verge of spinsterhood.

In any other culture, I would be seen as young; the fact that I am working would make me a young and successful professional - but in my religious community, the Dawoodi Bohra Muslims, all I am is old, too independent, and a liability.

I went to Bagamoyo last weekend, a small beach town on the East African coast, 2 hours drive from Dar Es Salaam for a get together organised by our community for youngsters. Girls from 18 up and boys from 21 up who were interested in marriage and looking for a husband/wife were encouraged to attend.

Not many Islamic rules encourage the intermingling of sexes in a social setting, but our religious leader, Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, is anxious that his followers marry at a young age and settle down.

The reason? Firstly, a marriage, in Islam, is the fulfillment of deen. It offers protection to a female who is vulnerable and provides her with a haven from the temptations and dangers of modern living. It also provides a safe harbour in which both can fulfill their sexual desires and needs without crossing moralistic lines. And it is the first step towards procreation, an immensely spiritual act. ... MORE





by DANIEL PATRICK WELCH

SALEM, MA, USA - After all these years, it still amazes how Americans can remain so disconnected from the world events in which we play so central a role. I use the term "world events" loosely, since the US today seems to have lost even its historically tenuous connections with the reality of the rest of the world. We continue to call our baseball championships the World Series, oblivious to how quaint and naive, at best--or arrogant and self-absorbed, at worst--it has always seemed to the rest of the world. This has been the hallmark of Americans' role in the world--a curious blend of ubiquitous involvement paired with near-total ignorance.

But the lovable galumpfing innocent act has worn thin around the world--innocents don't usually oust your elected leaders and install their own puppets--and its charm, if it ever had any, is no longer. Yet the national stupidity persists, facilitated by its enablers in the headline-addicted US press establishment, to the detriment of the American reputation around the world. Consider these gems from recent press accounts of the massacre in the Mansur district of Baghdad: "Oh So Close," chirped half a dozen tabloids. So close to what, exactly? Genocide? A War Crimes Tribunal?... MORE





by MATTIE LENNON

DUBLIN, IRELAND - When you think of the county Wicklow ("The garden of Ireland") it conjures up images of Glendalough, the Sugar Loaf, Lacken and the Blessington Lakes. If you are old enough pictures of "The Battle of Baltinglass" and referees locked in car-boots may spring to mind but do you ever think of the origins of the county?

The first counties were "erected" in Ireland in 1210. The mountainous area that is now County Wicklow (the last county to be formed) held out for almost four hundred years. This was due to two clans, the descendents of whom are very much in evidence in the County Wicklow of today.

The Clan O'Byrne, it is said, are descended from Heremon, a leader of a Spanish colony which established itself in Ireland about 1,000 B.C. The O'Byrnes and O'Tooles occupied large tracts of land in what is now County Kildare. They were driven into the mountains as a result of the Norman invasion... MORE





by YOU

THE WORLD - From Tapas Ray, Calcutta, INDIA

Subject: Glass House

"I am trying to resist the emotional paralysis that these circumstances bring on, but my will to resist wanes with each new disappointment, each broken promise, each betrayal that at better times would seem insignificant. With each drop further, the question arises, "Why continue to struggle? Why?

"No satisfactory answer comes."

Rod:

I know what you mean when you talk about "emotional paralysis". There have been times when I have asked myself the same question - "Why continue to struggle?" But my friends have said that I must. Plain and simple. No explanations. And I have accepted this, for a variety of reasons. That's what I would ask you to do, too.

Tapas... MORE





by RADHIO RAHEEM

This week we welcome out new Link Partner Silver Web Consulting. Check it out! ...MORE





by ROD AMIS

NEW ORLEANS - 13 August, 2003: Most clerics, no matter what their confession/faith, glance over the Gospel account of Jesus going to the wedding in Capernaeum. There's a reason why. It points out that Jewish weddings are celebrations and that Jesus was a Jew.

What that account means was that there was Jesus the Christ LAUGHING, DANCING AND SINGING with his friends in celebration. If I have ever believed in any Jesus, I have always believed in the laughing Jesus. Why else would he have asked us to "suffer the little children to come unto me"? Kids like to laugh.

EVEN WORSE: What did he do at this wedding you can read about in all the Gospels of the New Testament? When the WINE ran out, he turned the water into wine to keep the party going. (I know the Fundamentalists must be gasping by now. But it's in the Book you say you believe in, Baby, so read it again!)

Yes, the Lord and Savior wanted to make sure that his Homies were having a good time. It was a Jewish wedding.

I bring this up because I was a Religion major at University. I suspect that I know Jesus better than most of his modern-day adherents. That is why I have always reminded people of THE LAUGHING JESUS.

[That was for you, Barbarella - RA]... MORE


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