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Rod Amis - Unbound

Lizard Lick, NC, USA - 18 August 2005 - I felt like I was looking in the mirror - or reading my own words. The plaint was all-too-familiar. Danny Schecter, of MediaChannel.org - who we interviewed here at the release of his film, "Weapons of Mass Deception" - wrote in his News Dissector Blog of 12 August:

Right now, I am trying to figure out if this blog, if that's what it is, is worth the hours I devote to it, the getting up at 6 AM every morning like a zombie, and the personal discipline it takes.

Is it needed? Have I become some kind of martyr to a self-defined political mission? Am I deluding myself about its value? Let me not get too self-indulgent here, but these questions are invitations to dialogue, not just a way of seeking your reassurance and stroking or inviting the dogs fighting on the other side of the media war to start barking my way ...

And further on:

... I don't like talking to myself any more than any one else. Gandhi said he was a leader because he followed his people. We need your ideas, energy and involvement to help Mediachannel.org keep going and achieve its potential. We want to be better-known and more effective. We don't have a big budget for more staff. We need more volunteers, fund raisers and, yes, hell raisers.

We can't do this alone with shrinking resources. Certainly, I can't.

Together we can move mountains. There are enough us. Alone we can't move much.

What say you?

Join us if you can. One hundred people donating 10 hours a week could help us do the kind of outreach we are missing; 2,000 people donating $10 a month would keep us afloat, 3,000 would help us be much more effective. Remember, our fight is not just about renewing the media but saving our democracy ...

The Beg. Like I said, all-too-familiar.

Every one of us out here in the so-called progressive or alternative sector of Web media is struggling to come to you every week, so we're reduced to begging. MediaChannel has to do it. So does Truthout - another great resource -- and I get tried of seeing my "generic," tin-cup verbiage on this page and in the G21 Newsletter. It's especially sad because, as Danny acknowledges, as does William Rivers Pitt over at Truthout, only about 1% of our known readership/subscribers ever actually respond. That just makes you feel more like a panhandler.

Let me make two, digressive points here:

1. Let's face it: It will be a cold day in Hell before corporate advertisers are going to support the kind of reporting and perspectives you get from Danny's "News Dissector," Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" and others in this sector I don't have the space to mention -- or your World's Magazine.

   We have to take it out of our time, our own pockets and your support just to stay viable - and that viability is always in question. Corporations, particularly multinational corporations, are in the business of dumbing you down while we have made it our missions, I believe, to try to wise you up to the nasty and misanthropic shell game they are playing to put profits and property over the interests of people.
   

2. GENERATOR 21 is among the few publications in this sector that is not a "dot-org" like most of the other sites I've mentioned and often refer you to for other analysis. While resisting going commercial, I've also resisted going non-profit for nearly a decade now because I've been - up until very recently - as suspicious of accepting foundation support as I am of taking corporate money.

   My reasoning has been that pressure - subtle or overt - always comes to bear when you take money from someone. I never wanted G21 to scotch a story for fear of seeming to bite the hand that was feeding us. (I am seeking grant-money now but only for very proscribed and specific projects that won't impact the rest of what I feel moved to publish her e or the overall nature of the endeavor.)

So I nodded at what Danny had to say. And I felt maudlin because I was planning on ways to put together an early autumn fundraiser for your World's Magazine and agonizing over how to make it effective rather than cloying.

The day after I read Danny's sad blog entry (days after it was published - I fall behind, too) some of the effusive letters and pledges of support from his readership that followed it had already flowed in. I received an e-mail. It from NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI, who contributes here when she's of a mind. It read:

Dear Rod,

Two years ago, a short story of mine titled THE PASSAGE was accepted for publication in the U.S. in an anthology by Nigerian Women Writers. Recently, I was contacted by the publishers, Ishmael Reed, in Oakland, California, and told that the book is now out, and they would like to pay me a honoraria fee ... I have decided to donate this fee to G21 for the continuation of the good work you do there.

It would please me greatly if you could contact the publisher, Ishmael Reed, on his e-mail address ... with details of your account number or whatever means you would like him to make the remittance to you. I have sent him an mail this morning of my intention, and have also forwarded your name to him.

Many thanks, and I hope all is well with you.

Warm regards, Ngozi.

I was floored.

Here's a fellow-writer who lives in Africa - I don't have to tell you what the per capita income is on that continent - who valued what was happening at your World's Magazine, and the effort I put into it, enough to forego accepting remuneration for her work in order to help me keep doing mine!

I was deeply moved and touched, as I always am when any of you step up to say that you do value this lonely effort and the time and love I attempt to put into it.

I was thanking the Great Mystery (thanks and a tip of the hat to Russell Means) for this good fortune when I took a break from preparing this edition to check the mailbox out here in Lizard Lick. Awaiting me was a note and a check from one of my "little sister"s. I shan't embarrass her by printing her name in this space. Unlike the others, she fits the sobriquet more, though, because her family actually took me in after I'd run away from home as a teenager. We still communicate regularly and talk much about life, love, family, et cetera. So I thought it was too sweet of her to take the time ...

That's why the "Roll of Honor" - instead of more tawdry advertising -- appears on our cover/"home" page and this one. It's my way of giving you props for your help.

I remember that while I was living in Phoenix, Doug McDaniel told me I should take the Roll off the cover. He couldn't understand why I was wasting the page space to list the names of those people who had made contributions to support the magazine.

"It's a way of saying 'Thank you,'" I responded. "It's important to me to let people know that their donations and support are appreciated and important."

Your support is important because every time a writer or contributor says to me, "I am so grateful for your taking the time to work with me on this piece ... " or "They saw my article in the G21 and asked if I would ... Could I use you as a reference?" Or: "I got an e-mail from somebody half a world away about that article of mine you published on ... " I know it's because of your support in keeping this effort alive.

Showing up is another way I try to say, "Thanks!" I hope you know that ...

NEWS TO ROD

ITEM ONE: Thomas Friedman, of the New York Times, is an evangelist for globalization, which has always gotten under the skin of Yours Unruly. In my view, he too often fails to consider consequences. So I was chuffed to read this commentary by Saul Landau earlier in the month. (You should follow the link to read Landau's complete text.) Here's a brief quote:

Thomas Friedman articulates a liberal defense of the new order in his moralistic NY Times columns, his 1999 book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and his 2005 update The World is Flat. This new world consists of lightning fast markets, money, information, and rapid transformations of politics and culture.

Friedman's globalization is both positive and inevitable. Those who benefit from this process that includes outsourcing by multinational companies from the U.S., Britain and other wealthy and modern nations share a symbiotic relationship with militarism. McDonald's needs McDonald Douglas, which stands for the military industrial complex, to enforce property rules, and insure expanded markets even to places where they're not wanted: rogue states that neither accept nor obey the rules of the new transnational corporate order.

Ronald McDonald and the three-fingered, de-sexed Mickey Mouse hardly reveal, however, the savagery with which the Bush Administration has pursued the extension of the new order that Friedman extols. The residents of devastated Falluja and tens of thousands of families of dead Iraqi and Afghan civilians can testify to that. Paul Bremer, Bush's man in Iraq for the first two years of occupation, forced the privatization clause into the Iraqi constitution, so as to put the real US stamp on the invasion. The Friedman vision of American open, consumer culture in Baghdad has already cost more blood and destruction than anticipated. ...

A small, independent and outspoken magazine like this one can't reach you every week without the support and patronage of its readership. As our way of thanking those who have committed to keep your World's Magazine here on your desktop through their generous donations, we feature their names and cities here in our Roll of Honor. SUSTAINING PATRONS RON DIENER, Wendell, NC, USA DARHL STULTZ, Largo, FL, USA MATT STOWELL, New Orleans, LA, USA TIMOTHY MEADOWS, Anaheim, CA, USA CHERYL HILL NATION, West Fairlee, VT, USA DRAGAN & DRAGANA VICANOVIC, Belgrade, SERBIA LESZEK MICHAELWICZ, New Orleans, LA, USA TERRY TERRIAN, Sebastopol, CA, USA BECKY ALTEMUS, Houston, TX, USA Supporting Patrons BARBARA ATWELL, Berkeley, CA, USA IAN CRYSTAL, Ph. D, New Orleans, LA, USA LARS KEFFERSTAN, New York, NY, USA MEREDITH TUPPER, Tampa, FL, USA NICK ALLEN, New Orleans, LA, USA RIC WILLIAMS, Austin, TX, USA ROBERT PURVIS, Montclair, NJ, USA STEVE VIVIAN, New York, NY, USA STUART ALTMAN, ESQ., New York, NY, USA We encourage you to add your name to this Roll of Honor. GENERATOR 21 cannot continue and thrive without your support. Thanks in advance. To support G21, please send checks or money orders to: G21: The World's Magazine Attn: Rod Amis 1116 Crestline Road Wendell, NC 27591-9245 USA To donate by credit or debit card, please go to the Western Union website by following the highlighted link. Should you donate via Western Union, please notify us via e-mail. Please make all remittances payable to Rod Amis. Again, th anks. CURRENT MOON lunar phases

ITEM TWO: In an article entitled "Watching the Gazan Fiasco: The Shame of It All," Jennifer Loewenstein has some contrarian things to say about the Story Du Jour that dominated the Mouthpiece Media last week. I'll give you a brief preview of her thought-provoking concerns.

On ABC's Nightline Monday night, a reporter interviewed a young, sympathetic Israeli woman from the largest Gaza settlement, Neve Dekalim - a girl with sincerity in her voice, holding back tears. She doesn't view the soldiers as her enemy, she says, and doesn't want violence. She will leave even though to do so is causing her great pain. She talked about the tree she planted in front of her home with her brother when she was three; about growing up in the house they were now leaving, the memories, and knowing she could never return; that even if she did, everything she knew would be gone from the scene. The camera then panned to her elderly parents sitting somberly amid boxed-up goods, surveying the scene, looking forlorn and resigned. Her mother was a kindergarten teacher, we are told. She knew just about all of the children who grew up here near the sea. [snip]

... Where were the cameramen in May 2004 in Rafah when refugees twice over lost their homes again in a single night's raid, able to retrieve nothing of what they owned? Where were they when bulldozers and tanks tore up paved streets with steel blades, wrecked the sewage and water pipes, cut electricity lines, and demolished a park and a zoo; when snipers shot two children, a brother and sister, feeding their pigeons on the roof of their home? [snip]

... On Tuesday, 16 August, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 900 journalists from Israel and around the world are covering the events in Gaza, and that hundreds of others are in cities and towns in Israel to cover local reactions. Were there ever that many journalists in one place during the past 5 years to cover the Palestinian Intifada?

Where were the 900 international journalists in April 2002 after the Jenin refugee camp was laid to waste in the matter of a week in a show of pure Israeli hubris and sadism? Where were the 900 international journalists last fall when the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza lay under an Israeli siege and more than 100 civilians were killed? Where were they for five years while the entire physical infrastructure of the Gaza Strip was being destroyed? Which one of them reported that every crime of the Israeli occupation - from home demolitions, targeted assassinations and total closures to the murder of civilians and the wanton destruction of commercial and public property- increased significantly in Gaza after Sharon's "Disengagement" Plan - that great step toward peace - was announced? [snip]

(You can read the full text of her article here.

LIFE OF ROD

Personal Ironies Department: My sister-in-law, Rudell, whose birthday is this month (1 August), as noted on our cover, sent me an e-mail on Monday, 15 August. In the e-mail she wished me a happy birthday and that I was doing better in North Carolina. I responded:

Thanks for thinking of me. It's appreciated. But - ehm -BTW, my birthday was in March.

Guilty Pleasure: When the first episode of the HBO series "Six Feet Under" aired, I was sitting in the TV room of my half- brother's house in Warwick, Bermuda. I had told he and my sister-in-law, Rudell, about the premise of the show. It was about a family in the mortuary business. The family lived upstairs and the mortuary was downstairs. Exactly the way it is with the Amis home and Amis Memorial Chapel in Bermuda.

Days earlier, my brother had supervised the delivery of a truckload of caskets, coffins to the layman. I would wake up every morning during my visit knowing that the bodies were just downstairs. Considering the parallels between the life of the proposed family in the series and our own, I encouraged by family to watch the premiere episode. It didn't hurt that the program was created by Alan Ball, still riding the glow of his triumph with the film "American Beauty."

I knew "Six Feet Under" was home run when, during a scene in which Michael Fischer, one of the mortuary's owners, has to deal with a woman during a memorial service who turns out not to be a member of the mourning party but is instead a funeral groupie - someone who reads the obituaries and then just pops in. My brother, Leon, laughed out loud. Familiarity.

The last episode of "Six Feet Under" broadcasts on Sunday, 21 August, with a reprise on Monday evening. Like most HBO original series, it took away its share of Emmy awards during its five year run. It was quirky, surprising, deep in characterization. It focused on the subject of death and mourning in a country notorious for its denial of death. As the Brits used to say about a job well done, "Good show!"

Since Ron's generousity affords me the luxury of having HBO, I'm very excited about a new original series they have planned for debut on 28 August. It's subject matter is life in ancient Rome, a topic long-time Loyal Readers and close friends know is close to my heart.

The series was filmed on location in Rome, though on a set especially built to simulate the ancient version of that city, of course. The cast looks great and HBO is known for producing quality unlike most of the fare we expect from The Box. (Yes, I'm aware that one of the commercial networks did something on Rome this year. I can't abide the adverts on TV and I was willing to risk missing whatever tripe they'd likely offer as "historical.")

Matt used to tease me about how I knew more about ancient Rome than anyone he'd ever met, including some of his former college professors. I still dip into Cicero from time to time. I've read the history of the Punic Wars more times than I should admit.

Dragana knew she had me hooked on visiting Serbia when she started telling me about the ruins of Romuliana near her hometown.

Now HBO ("It's not TV") is offering me twelve weeks of the Great City. I can't wait.

---

Ron gave me a line he wanted me to include in this Glass House. I'm always accommodating.

He said, "You should write that the saying 'Two can live as cheap as one' is just half the axiom. It should end, 'but only half as long.'

I am always accommodating. I didn't want to comment that I have been collecting lines for s ome future unwritten work. After all, I was once regaled for being one of the most quotable writers on the Web.

To whine is human; to suck it up, Divine.

"Why did you do that?" the bartender asked.

"Well, Ma'am, I guess I'm just a little crazy," he said.

"Baby, let me tell you something. I know from experience. A little crazy goes a long way."

He knew better than to follow that one.

---

A bartender immediately knows
People who Love to Hear Themselves Talking.
So he listens.
He listens even though he has heard this story two times before
at this sitting.
He listens listener studiously as only he can.
He listens and listens until their voices become music.
It is a music about the day that he will be somewhere else
and free.
It is a special bartender music that tells him that
one day, some day, some one
will listen to him
and all the stories he has listened up to tell.
But not here.
It is a story, a bartender music - sweet music
Where someone, some day will listen to him.
And he will not repeat himself.
Every word so precious, so precious when he can finally talk.
He won't tell a story of being a bartender
polishing glasses in his mind as he listened
listened
no.
He will tell a story of what
what it was like to be born.
What it was like to be born
in a world where you could fill the silence
of listening no more.

21 August: Under the latest Full Moon, I revisited my sins. There are three of them that burden me constantly, eating away at my heart. I only ever remember two of them when I am sober; the third demon pops up only when I am three sheets to the wind with the fourth one flapping. All of my sins, as far as know, since I never remember the third when I am compas mentis have women's names on them. Perhaps that is why I have maintained this long celibacy ...

Thanks for coming back this week. Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.

THINGS I PRAY FOR THIS WEEK

1 - That elusive job that I can enjoy as much as it enjoys me.

2 - A social life.

3 - A girlfriend.

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

Love,
Rod

---

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 the (U.S.) Public Broadcasting System (PBS's) WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was 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 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 Internet 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.

In 2002, he worked as Assistant to the General Manager of a Big Easy company that does restaurants and nightclubs. He did stints as the Resident Philosopher at three separate gin mills in that city in the French Quarter and the Marigny, earning his stripes during two successive Mardi Gras seasons. 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.

Our Resident Philosopher has exchanged his legend mobility for a means of keeping your World's Magazine. Now he must become earnest about gaining a financial underpinning for this enterprise. (Read: Buy back his freedom.}.

In his spare time, he chases women in the manner that a fly pursues a spider.

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

---

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© 2005, GENERATOR 21.

E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your kudos, brickbats and suggestions to rod@g21.net.