Rod Amis - Unbound

NEW ORLEANS - 26 March, 2003: I have to recant on one of my predictions from last week. It's now clear that the U.S. war in Iraq will not end quickly. Not only will it not end quickly, as of today, the pain is starting to be felt.

Resistance? Even from the Shiites we expected to rebel again after we left them twisting (slowly, slowly) in the wind last time? Yes. It's real. And it won't go away anytime soon. Unlike those of Slow-Attention-Span, people in the rest of the world remember who came through and who did not. (Us.)

Would you trust someone who didn't watch your back the first time?

Only if you're dumb.

So now it's boiling down to urban, street-by-street, fighting in Iraqi cities and U.S. troops are dying. How long will America put up with that?

You don't have to provide an answer right now.

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EDITORS ARE A QUIRKY LOT. We have to balance the needs and passions of the writers we are attempting to cultivate with the mission and goals of our publications. Sometimes the two sets of tasks come into conflict. This could be one of those times. I say that because I sent an e-mail memorandum to the contributors here today declaring a moratorium on stories about the war in Iraq. My reasoning for this decision was two-fold.

1. I have endeavored to keep the reporting and commentary here as "authentic" as possible. It seems to me that a guy in New Jersey or a woman in Taipei is not actually in a position to write about the situation in the Persian Gulf. The temptation is there, of course, for any writer to tackle what is considered the Big Story of the Day (as my own forgoing entry demonstrates.) But, frankly, having never been to Iraq myself, I probably know about as much about the situation there as Condoleeza Rice. (Which is very little, as the current debacle in that country demonstrates.)
   
   
2. I made the editorial decision during the O.J. Simpson trial to reject all articles on that topic, convinced that it was getting saturation coverage just about everywhere else. I only allowed two or three stories on "Monicagate," under pressure from my team of writers at the time, for the same reason. I have never wanted this publication to become fixated on the Story Du Jour, a tendency I detest in the Mouthpiece Media.

   My feeling now is that there are enough credible sources for Iraq reporting that you don't need to seek it here - with the exception of information we can provide from people actually in Iraq. I have thus taken the tack of giving you sidebars for other sources.

I'll give you an example of why I lean this way. BILLY JACKSON who contributed a piece on travel in Ethiopia to The World's Magazine in November, 2001, sent me a piece for G21 ASIA on the Tibetan exile community in the state of Utah, USA. I was bemused.

For the most part, particularly in the United States, when most people think of Tibet their thoughts end with the Dalai Lama and yaks. Ask them to go beyond those two references and their eyes glaze over. People in the human rights community might be aware of the advocacy work of the Tibetan Women's Association, but knowledge seems to end about there.

As you know, I read a lot of foreign press. So I had to wonder if even Billy was aware of the big buzz in the Tibetan diaspora this past fall over Shambala Miss Tibet, the first-ever Tibetan beauty pageant. The pageant was held in India during October, 2002.

Originally there were 30 applicants, but it only had four contestants because many in the community, here in the U.S.A. and abroad, felt that such an event was "un-Tibetan" and "un-Buddhist". Twenty-six of the potential contestants simply dropped out. I had found this story intriguing because of what it said about the encroachment of "modern" Western standards on communities that had long resisted those influences. The organizers, to the contrary, argue that it enhances Tibetan identity.

In general, my love, there are other stories behind the stories I choose to run here. Many times the authors of the stories I choose have no idea about that background knowledge I bring to my selection. This is one of those rare times when I'm sharing such trivia with you.

This is in keeping with my belief that a good editor, let alone a good citizen, should have broad-based general knowledge. But then, most people aren't as intellectually acquisitive as Yours Unruly ...

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27 March, 2003: My fellow alum Ram Dass says that our challenge is to "Be Here Now". I'm afraid I can't agree with him. If anything, my challenge is to see beyond the present moment, its concerns and (especially) its worries.

Sometimes I feel so weighted down by the worries and anxieties and demands of the present that I am almost paralyzed with fear. It seems that I never get ahead and that I am on this treadmill of debt and anxiety. I feel trapped. Under those circumstances, it's impossible to envision a better, let alone future, situation.

Mpush (MPUTHUMI NTABENI) referred to me as "courageous" in his piece for last edition. I wagged my head and grinned sardonically. If only he knew how often I am wracked by utter terror.

Scott advises that this is a symptom of being in New Orleans, where I shall never find employment that matches my talents and will compensate me adequately for them. He could be correct but I suspect not. I think it, rather, a symptom of how alien I am to the larger environment. I don't think along the lines of most of the people I encounter and probably shan't in future. The underlying motivation of the long hejira and search for "Home" is to discover some community of the like-minded. It certainly is not here.

"Then where is it?"

If I could answer that, I'd be there in a Tokyo minute.

Central to this sense of alienation is that I don't take "things" seriously enough. I don't think that having "the most toys" is any indication of success. To the contrary, I'm more concerned with a quality of thought. That, in and of itself, is problematic in a country like this one. I think I found England repugnant and Eastern Europe charming for the same reason. Deprived of access to many creature comforts, the Eastern Europeans take refuge in the delights of the mind - much as I do myself and for the same reason. (Politically, of course, Eastern Europe is distasteful and oppressive.)

"So where?"

If I could answer that, I'd be there in a Tokyo minute ...

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CONSIDER THIS: Last week's Editor & Publisher reports that fifteen (15) stories reported by the conservative Mouthpiece Media during the first week of the war were false. FIFTEEN. In other words, on fifteen separate occassions, what was printed and repeated as news was actually LIES.

Think about that for a moment, lover, and ask me why I have such disdain for the MM.

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Here's a list of articles I think you should read this week, if you haven't already.

1. Fortune Magazine Article
   
2. Truthout
   
3. Robert Fisk on Democracy Now!
   
4. LA Times article on Iraqi exiles returning home to fight

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APRIL FOOL'S DAY: Darling, I guess you know it makes sense that you should be reading from God's Own Fool today. Nobody has made himself as absurd as I over the years, as foolhardy, as wont to follow whims where angels dare not tread.

I tried to leave The Cat again this week. But I was drawn back in like Michael Corleone. The upshot was: Why can't you just accept that lots of people love you here?

That was a tough one for me. I've never been able to accept compliments well. But, I'm still there. The Rod Show goes on. Sometimes I even enjoy it; I'm not just faking it.

I'm finding Elusive problematic now. I know that she cares about me very much, but she believes it is a problem that I'd like to be in a relationship.

Meanwhile, Fashionable is being nicer and nicer to me. We're going to get together at her new apartment on Thursday for cocktails and chat. I'm not sure what to make of this. Maybe she is thinking of me as a nice mentor.

I'm not sure why every woman I meet thinks of me as asexual and, frankly, it's starting to chap my ass.

You, my love, saw the man who was not only needy, but also generous and giving. You cultivated him. But then you are unusual, aren't you?

What I lament the most is that I could not help you fulfill the potential I always saw and felt in you. Probably, I think now, because we were too young and too close.

That is a topic for another epistle.

PEACE!

Things I Need This Week

1. Time alone again. There was little quietude last week.

2. A way to accept my life in The Big Easy graciously.

3. An escape route.

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Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

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ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services. He wrote on Web issues for MethodFive.com's Hyper newsletter.

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 appeared 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.

Last year he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. (Think: The Boy.) Oh yeah, Rod's had Day Jobs working construction. Mostly renovations of old New Orleans structures, houses and a bar. Sometimes he designs Web sites for other people so that he can get his creative juices flowing the way he can't at a staid publication like this one. And he's been the instructor in Editing for Internet Publications at the Novi Sad School of Journalism in Yugoslavia. Right now our Resident Philosopher has joined the pantheon of New Orleans bartenders and still doesn't know when he'll have a "permanent residence" that he likes.. In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. This town is eroding his normal sense of driven purpose. He wants to live somewhere civilized when he grows up. Wish him Luck.

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

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