By the time you read this journal entry, Luv, if I succeed in getting your World's Magazine out on schedule -- for a change -- I shall have celebrated the anniversary of my own birth, as well as that of Harry Houdini, Steve McQueen, Anabella Sciorra, Patti LaBelle, Wilhelm Reich, Laura Flynn Boyle, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and (approx.) 1/365th of the people who have ever lived on planet Earth.

Nonetheless, it is comforting to one's vanity to believe that other people born on the same day as oneself have also been distinctive. As part of that vain pursuit, it is important to ignore the suicides, cads, total failures, base villains and unknowns who also share one's birth date.

For the day at least, one must enforce the notion that 24 March is especially blessed by saints and gods alike and produces the calibre of person Ken Kesey would have called a "world shaker."

At the very least, cherubim cavort every 24 March.

24 March is also the day the Clinton administration of the United States government began its bombing campaign in Kosovo in 1999. That my friend in Belgrade, who also works as a lowly editor, was almost killed by an American bomb on his way home to his wife will always be a source of regret and anger and shame for me ... [I have not betrayed a confidence, my brother. I found out years ago that she already knew.

Besides, if old habits die hard, as they do, you'll go on pretending not to comprehend English and she'll be the only person of the two of you to read this passage.]

One of my little sisters insists that this shall be the year I emerge from under the dark cloud which seems to have attached itself to me since the dot.com implosion. I wish to accept her hope but the evidence of my daily life would suggest otherwise.

I know you love this because, like Matt, you seem to have a special fascination for observing my suffering. It's actually much worse than schaadenfreude when I allow myself to consider it ... I suspect that if I found love again, lived somewhere that suited my Muse and my clothes, and became a "celebrated" writer, you'd not come to this page any longer. ..." READ MORE

---

ZACK SABELLA WRITES FROM BETHLEHEM:

BETHLEHEM, ISRAELI OCCUPIED TERRITORIES - March 14, 2005

"Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." -- Abraham Lincoln

It breaks my heart to drive into Bethlehem every morning to witness an additional block being added to the so-called Israeli security wall. Inch by inch, the width of the wall is blocking the main street that leads into the heart of the holy city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus Christ. As I extend my sight to the hilltops of Bethlehem and its neighboring cities, there I find it, standing 8 meters tall gazing at me as my memory replays the past years of conflict and my thoughts start pouring on how Bethlehem, the cradle of Christianity, came to become a big, crowded prison.

"A wall?" I ask myself. "Is this the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?" Every morning, tears come to my eyes as I observe the shade that the wall imposes on the green hills of Bethlehem. A feeling of anger erupts in my heart as I feel powerless and helpless. Who can I appeal to? Who can I object to? Is this peace and justice? Questions start challenging my logic as I fail to convince my own curiosity with fake answers. As I lift my face to look at the cloudy skies, I address God with my tears: "How long? Until when? Are you really there?" I recall the word "peace" as I shake my head with distress. A word that echoed in my mind ever since I was a child being crammed with political propaganda from both sides on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nothing seems logical anymore.

As I drive deeper into Bethlehem, I find myself in a society striving to survive in a city sealed off from the rest of the world. This will be one of the main cities of the future Palestinian state, surrounded by a cement wall that will limit its people's movement, its economic trade and its connection with the outside world. ... " READ MORE


BRAD BALFOUR TALKS WITH OLIVER HIRSHBIEGEL:

New York, NY, USA - Doing a film about Adolf Hitler offers a challenge that few filmmakers want to grapple with: making this monstrous person seem human, but not too human. German director Oliver Hirschbiegel has managed to succeed in getting that balance right in "Downfall," the story of Hitler and the last days of the Third Reich. And as a result he garnered a best Foreign Film Oscar nomination, as well as considerable controversy in Germany and beyond.

G21: Did you feel the weight of this subject on your shoulders?

OH: Its definitely quite a responsibility because I was the first German director to do so. I do what I always do when I direct a film. I try and stay honest with the source, with the characters that I'm depicting and of course with the audience.

On the other side, when you do a film like this, you have to do your homework. So you do all this research and study documentaries and ask people who were there detailed questions like how did you brush your teeth and wash your cloths and what you ate. That gives you kind of a security. ... READ MORE


ALISON WEIR TALKED TO THE L.A. TIMES AND THINKS YOU SHOULD, TOO:

SAUSALITO, CA, USA - Friday, Feb. 25, 2005, 9:30 p.m.

Well, I just got hung up on again. This time by an editor on the Los Angeles Times foreign desk. He didn't give me his name.

I had called and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story on the Times' website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead news story tomorrow morning.

The trouble is, their headline and lead paragraph are just plain wrong. And now, of course, they'll stay wrong in the paper tomorrow.

The headline proclaims: "Palestinian Suicide bomber Shatters Calm of late." The lead sentence then goes on to state that this bomber "shattered a months-long period of relative calm ... "

The fact is, however, that the truce and this "calm" were shattered long before this.? The last suicide bombing against Israeli civilians was Nov. 1, 2004. It took three Israeli lives. Since that time, while Israelis have basked in "relative calm," 170 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed. ... READ MORE