A word about the late George Harrison: John was right, but George was righteous. Unassuming, the antithesis of what we think about lead guitarists. Just a down-to-earth man who realized there are powers greater than ourselves. He defined what a man can be. He will be sorely missed.

Tonight I attended a meeting at a Krishna Temple at which they talked about George having devotees with him during his last moments. They lamented that this fact will not be reported in the Mouthpiece Media. I was not surprised at all. But the lack of that information will not diminish his impact, as it should not, as having that information changes nothing, too. -- RA

You might recall that a couple months back I got a bit miffed when my roomie Matt made the comment "People know an angel when they see one..." What bothers me about these references? Well, they contradict what I'm trying to project, for the most part. Also, they explain why I'm a bum-magnet: yes, I'll give you a cigarette, some change, the shirt off my damned back because I can't endure seeing anyone in suffering or want.

My boss told me the other day that I'm "too nice." My rejoinder: "I don't think so. There has to be some balance in the universe. There are more than enough mean people out there; some of us need to bend over backwards to counteract their impact." Now let's admit it: Only a fool would think like that.

Say "Hello" to God's Own Fool.

It's been a very strange Full Moon weekend for me. As noted above, I went to a Krishna Temple. I wasn't exactly kicking and screaming, but I was reticent because of how I "lost" Lynda for so many years after she did the same thing, though more in extremis. I told the woman who took me there about the thing with Lynda and how I'm definitely too cynical to accept much of what the lecture would (presumably) be about.

She said she had invited me to attend the Love Feast (free eats) and was amazed that I was the first person she'd ever met or invited who was not interested in the food, but the lecture. "You really are an intellectual, aren't you?" she exclaimed.

Guilty as charged.

Having never been to a Krishna Temple or heard more about them than the jokes about their airport presence, I decided to take a look. My curiousity is boundless.

Besides, since this woman, who lives across the border in Mississippi, had driven over to invite me, I felt it would be bad form not to attend --- even though it meant pulling me away from completing this edition when I'd planned.

And there --- after last night of playing the Beatles on a neighborhood jukebox with my next door neighbors --- was the spirit of George Harrison again.

I must believe there are reasons for these things.

But, no, I am not now nor ever shall be a Krishna Consciousness devotee. Just not in me. I'm a confirmed agnostic. We don't know or perceive enough to understand the universe or the Force behind it...

(Yes, I did bring home a plate of vegetarian food, though I've always maintained that I'd prefer not to eat what the loser's eat. Another of my cynical jokes. It goes on that the Romans ate meat and kicked a lot of butt. We eat meat and Hitler was a vegetarian. I think you get the general direction of this riff.)

What else? Well, I've been thinking seriously lately about this screenwriting thang. Dragana is encouraging it and some strange goings on here in New Orleans have pushed me that way, too. More about that as it develops. Let's just say that even I can't ignore the winds of Fate.

Strike that: Let's say I'm a man who believes in both Fate and Destiny.

About This Issue

A LOT has happened in 2001, hasn't it. It's a year none of us will soon forget.

Now, we think here at The World's Magazine, you deserve to move into the Holidays with our best efforts. (Special thanks to MAX ADAMS for her contributions to this edition.)

We're a droll bunch here. (Like you din't notice, right?) So we rolled a thick helping of our drollery out this week. Yum-yum!

HAVE FUN, NEED TRAVEL

That's that.

BUT when I get the scratch together again, it's probably back to Europe. If I can't drag Dragan and Dragana over here, I have no choice but to fly back to Serbia to see them -- and in the process teach her brother Buca and her father what a good fisherman I can be. Dragana has promised to cook our catch. And I miss my Serbian brandy.

Now it's a bit of shameless promotion:

My friend Lionel Rolfe, the Menuhin scion, is doing a book signing in Los Angeles in February. Yeah, that's his picture over there. Here's the skinny: A publication party is scheduled to happen on 3 February at Skyligh Books, 1818 N. Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. For info, you can email "calclass@earthlink.net".

(Lionel, you owe me. I'll collect the next time we're both in London.)

Life of Rod

"For market liberals, there is only one way to become modern. All societies must adopt free markets. If their religious beliefs or their patterns of family life make this difficult for them, too bad - that is their problem. If the individualist values that free markets require and propagate go with high levels of inequality and crime, and if some sections of society go to the wall, tough - that is the price of progress. If entire countries are ruined, as happened in Russia during the time of neoliberal shock therapy, well - as an earlier generation of radicals nonchalantly put it - you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

"During the 1990s, this crudely rationalistic philosophy was hugely influential. It had a stronghold in the International Monetary Fund, as it blundered and bungled its way across the world exercising its power to impose identical policies on countries with vastly different histories, problems and circumstances. There was only one route to modernity - and the seers who ruled the IMF were resolved that it be followed everywhere.

"In fact, there are many ways of being modern, and many of failing to be so. It is simply not true that liberal capitalism is the only way of organising a modern economy. Bismarck's Prussia embodied a different model, as did tsarist Russia, and each of them might well have been with us still in some form had the First World War ended differently. The Japanese and German forms of capitalism have never conformed to the free market model and - despite orthodox opinion everywhere telling us the contrary - it is a safe bet that they never will. We cannot know in advance what modernity means for any given society, or what it takes to achieve it. All we know for sure is that different countries have modernised successfully in a variety of ways...."

Okay, I know: "There you go being intellectual again!" Guilty. Can't help it. But I also bring this quote to you because it corroborates the basic economic argument we've been positing at the G21 for years. THERE IS NOT ONE MODEL. And so-called "market liberalism" -- another code word for globalization -- isn't right for every nation.

KEVIN CAREY has made quite a significant case here for market diversity and far better than I. Over time, I believe, we have had points of convergence and disagreement about the formulas that might work, but we have also agreed that "market liberalism" as it has been applied by the World Bank and IMF has been disastrous for far too many world economies. Worse, it has been used as a tool of imperialism. (My chief argument, not Kevin's.)

But economics is a "dreary science." So I'll stop.

I hear you asking how's my love-life anyway. Just because you know it will chap my ass.

THINGS I WANT THIS WEEK

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appears both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now. The new home of the magazine. But he plans to return to Serbia next year.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

| HOME | THE PREVIOUS GLASS HOUSE |

CREDITS || AWARDS || SEARCH ENGINES || LINKS ||
VOX POPULI is YOUR PAGE to talk back to us. I'm glad you're not bashful. Keep those cards and e-mails comin', Kids!

Our Editor