KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. New Orleans has disappeared as surely as the lost city of Atlantis or the lost city of Pompeii, which former mayor Marc Morial and Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA.) have compared us to in their statements. That New Orleans, the New Orleans I mean to tell you about, that will never, ever, exist again--that city of love, lust, death and sex--will never exist again. A portion of the proceeds of this book will go to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Fund. The cooks, servers and restaurant workers of New Orleans have provided fabulous times and memories for millions. Now we must remember them in their time of need. Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF Copy now! To order on Amazon.com, go here! 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 TIMOTHY MEADOWS, Anaheim, CA, USA TERRY TERRIAN, Sebastopol, CA, USA CHERYL HILL NATION, West Fairlee, VT, USA DRAGAN & DRAGANA VICANOVIC, Belgrade, SERBIA LESZEK MICHAELWICZ, New Orleans, LA, USA MARIE SINSABAUGH, Granville, OH, USA BECKY ALTEMUS, Houston, TX, USA Supporting Patrons BARBARA ATWELL, Berkeley, CA, USA MATT STOWELL, New Orleans, LA, USA LARS KEFFERSTAN, New York, NY, USA MEREDITH TUPPER, Tampa, FL, USA NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI, Jos, NIGERIA NICK ALLEN, New Orleans, LA, USA RIC WILLIAMS, Austin, TX, USA ROBERT PURVIS, Montclair, NJ, USA IAN CRYSTAL, Ph. D, New Orleans, LA, 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, thanks. G21 at FeedBurner Rod Amis at the Huffington Post ENJOY WHAT ROD DOES! (From our Link Partner at Calabash Music. Merci!

Rod Amis - Unbound

SMOKE & MIRRORS - ISSUES & ANSWERS: ROD AMIS gives some background on why he produces the "New to Rod" section of this blog and talks with a cab driver about his life.

SMOKE

"Where there's smoke, there's fire ..." Popular Adage.

19 April, 2006: There is so much silence on the Web, in terms of genuine feedback, when you produce a publication/site like this one that you often leap at any acknowledgement of your work. Having begun the site reorganization I mentioned in my last entry here, I had the vain hope that I'd hear that navigation was easier, the cover design was more or less attractive, that sort of thing. You would think that, after ten years, I'd know better.

The best I can do is read the various statistical reports we get on your activity on your visits and hope that the uptick is not a temporary phenomenon. Since adding a new flavor of report to our quiver, one thing that I found astonishing but gratifying, is that a number of people do use our Table of Contents page to assist their visitation. I had wondered about that for a while and my other, usually very raw data reports, never revealed this information.

In this week's edition, MPHUTHUMI NTABENI makes his contribution to our Focus Issue for 2006, water. I hope you'll take the time to take a look at his views on the topic. BRAD BALFOUR's column, once known as NEW YORK STATE has been re-dubbed ON FILM. As an innovation to accompany that name-change, henceforth we'll provide you with a link to the theatrical trailer of the film being referenced. I hope you'll like this change. (I don't expect to hear from you about it, though.)

News to Rod

21 April, 2006: Jeff Chang, author Can't Stop, Won't Stop/A History of the Hip Hop Generation says in a recent interview:

... For all of the cynicism that people had about those efforts like "Oh, Vote or Die? What a stupid slogan" or "Man, you think all these people are going to run to the polls because Madonna wraps herself in an American flag?" There was a lot of skepticism that greeted those efforts as there always is. It's actually part of a larger conservative effort to de-legitimize voices other than so-called "authorities" around particular subjects. Even though you have a lot of self-proclaimed liberals making these arguments, I really think it's coming from a conservative ideological mind state. It's a conservative mind frame to want to limit the number of voices in a discourse. So whenever these efforts occur, there is a lot of cynicism around it, but the fact is that it works.

CNN is just another signifier in this huge world of noise that people are bombarded with every day.

Reading those words, I fell like standing up and cheering.

One of the reasons that I began this "News to Rod" section at all is because I think there's a distressing ratio of signal to noise in the way we get news from the Mouthpiece Media (MM.) What I often think of whenever I pass through a room where someone is watching CNN, MSNBC, et alia, is those old "Charlie Brown" animated cartoons that used to be broadcast on television years ago. Remember how the adults never really said anything? All you would hear was this "Wonk-wah-wah-wonk!" That's how I feel most of the time when presented (bombarded) with the White Men in Suits of the broadcast MM. I find myself mumbling under my breath, "Blah-blah, blah-blah blah blah." I find myself grinding the few molars I have remaining into dust.

It's an echo chamber of noise, where they simply repeat each other over and over again and reinforce each other's "authoritative" opinions which your gut tells you is just the self-congratulatory bullshit of the corporate elite.

So, as a form of antidote to the virulent noise-poison, I try to (mostly) quietly point you, Gentle Reader, to some items they seem to miss. For example:

ITEM ONE: In a 29 March, 2006, syndicated article, Patricia Lynn of Corporate Accountability International writes:

Do you remember when you got your water from water fountains? When did that stop--and more importantly--why did it?

Well, corporations like Coke, Nestlé and Pepsi have spent tens of millions of dollars convincing us that bottled water is cleaner, healthier and better for us than tap water. The reality, however, is that bottled water is less regulated than tap water.

The bottled water industry has been booming for the last decade, fueled by misleading advertising. Half of all Americans drink bottled water, and one in six Americans drink only bottled water.This is about much more than price gouging or duping the public. In the long-term view, our human right to water is at stake.

Water quality in the United States is largely quite good, especially compared with the rest of the world, and has been improving. Ten years ago, water quality was roughly the same, yet people drank much less bottled water. It was not until water bottlers came on the scene and preyed on people's fears of drinking polluted water that people's perceptions began to change.

Drinking bottled water isn't a good solution to problems with tap water quality. Stopping pollution and improving public water systems is the better way: 85 percent of the American public agrees.

Ms. Lynn goes on to explain in her article how companies like Coca Cola and Nestlé, by setting up their giant water boiling plants are actually despoiling lakes, streams and depleting wetlands.

This is an issue addressed by many NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and activists from developing countries who attended the recent World Water Forum. You can read more on this topic, our Focus Issue of 2006, by going to the Corporate Accountability International Web site.

ITEM TWO: There is at least the suspicion, still being investigated, that something very horrible happened in the village of Abu Sifa, in war-torn Iraq, on the Ides of March this year. Not horrible simply because of the fact that it was another incident of more death and devastation in Iraq, the mind numbs at the level of suffering taking place in that occupation. Since we hear about death in Iraq every single day and have every single day for the last three years, the details tend to blur beyond recogntion.

No, this case is different in the same way that My Lai was different. This case is different, and after a brief mention in the MM, has been a story that faded away. But not for everyone. I would direct you to this video, "Children of Abraham: Death in Desert," produced by Chris Floyd that focuses on this incident, for your consideration.

ITEM THREE: In the on-going debate about immigration in this country (writes the son of an immigrant to this country) there is a strain that goes, "These immigrants need to earn their right to be in America." I find this one of the more disingenuous arguments being posited by the strict enforcement crowd.

As Erin Cassin points out in an 18 April, 2006, article on the subject for The NewStandard Web site:

Last month, Patrick P. O'Carroll Jr., inspector general of the Social Security Administration, told the US Senate Committee on Finance that his agency has accumulated about $520 billion that it cannot match to beneficiaries. He said his office believes a large portion of those funds are from undocumented immigrants using fraudulent Social Security numbers.

[Emphasis mine. - RA]

Makes me wonder exactly how much more do these folks need to kick into the kitty to have earned their right to be here? Just a thought.

You can read Ms. Cassin's full article by following this link.


MIRRORS

From the Writer's Notebook

21 April, 2006: The owner of the local cab company out here in the sticks, who has given me his personal cell phone number and for the most part makes sure that he's usually my driver, took me on my weekend supply run today. I bring this up because he said, "I been meaning to ask you this for a while. What it is exactly that you do for a living?"

I explained that I write articles about technology and business and sell them to a couple of online publications.

"So you're a freelance writer."

"Yes," I said. I didn't want to complicate things by telling him about my publishing ventures.

"So, you are competing with a lot of other people who do the same thing you do, to your customers - "

"Editors," I interjected, probably needlessly.

" - and you never know for sure what your income will be in any given month."

"That's true," I acknowledged.

"And why do you do that? I mean, that's got to be a really stressful way to make a living."

"Well, yeah," I responded, "I guess it is. But it's what I do. It's what I've done for years. And it affords me a certain amount of personal freedom, when I do it right."

"At a price," he observed. "But it sounds like it's a price you're willing to pay for having your freedom. You're kind of an entrepreneur."

"Yes," I said.

As we approached this place that I live out here in Lizard Lick, he went on to ask me about my publishers, the amount of research I put into a given article, if I have to pay for phone calls to sources out of my own pocket - all of the nuts of bolts of doing what I do for a living.

(Some good some quirky, some pay well, others don't. Depends on what I'm being paid. Yes, it's a cost of doing business.)

I couldn't tell him about some of the joys of what being a freelancer - besides the freedom - though. Like this week, one of my editors, on a piece I'd worked on for most of the last month, sent me an e-mail when I was having a particularly bad night. She wrote that my piece was impressive and comprehensive and showed a genuine command of the subject matter. I was chuffed.

Other editors I've worked with don't take the time to send you a personal note giving you that invaluable "Attaboy!" This one did. That two-line e-mail turned what was otherwise a horrible evening a bit brighter. A little thing like that makes so much difference in one's life. I find that too many people in positions of relative power forget how motivating a word of acknowledgement for a job well-done can be.

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THE CAB COMPANY OWNER who takes me where I need to go is named Mr. Otis. He's a voluble enough brother who spends too many hours on the road in order to support his family. He jokes that I'm his best customer and that he sits around waiting for my call.

When he's not available and one of his other employees has to come pick me up, they invariably comment that he's always talking about his "buddy," Mr. Rod. I chuckle. I'm probably one of his best customers at this point and, being from New Orleans, I always tip - something that apparently is not a habit of the company's other customers. (Probably also the reason Mr. Otis prefers that he always takes my calls.)

Taking a taxi to the supermarket or the post office or wherever one needs to go out here is an expensive proposition. As Robin Miller noted during his recent visit, I live in the middle of nowhere. So something as simple as going to buy food has the added cost of $30 + tip attached to it. That's not easy on the budget of a freelance writer, trust me.

But it's that or hoping upon hope that I can locate someone to give me a ride. After being here for almost a year, I can tell you that that kind of hope is a thin one indeed.

Why do you think I've lamented being out of city life for so long?

Mr. Otis is a nice enough man, often funny and talkative. He will turn fifty years old next month, he's made it a point to inform me. Nowadays, he jokes about when I'm going to finally invite him over to my place for a meal. OR, because he knows I moved here from New Orleans, he asked me when I'm going to show the folks around here how to throw a real party.

I tell him when I get rich and famous, so don't hold your breath.

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MUCH AS I DID when a child and found myself in a difficult circumstance, Long-time Loyal Readers know, I retreat into books. They have always been my solace, which is probably why I hold writers and writing in such high esteem. I am reading all the time these days.

Matt once observed, "When you get too quiet around people, there is a storm brewing."

THINGS ROD HOPES FOR THIS WEEK

1 - Selling enough articles to finance my relocation plans.

2 - Getting back on top of generating more book sales.

3 - Finding some level of genuine love and peace.

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

Love,
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 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, r eaching 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. When he's not busy here, he writes technology columns for IT Manager's Journal and business columns for Enterprise Leadership. Rust never sleeps.

Our Resident Philosopher has exchanged his legend mobility for a means of keeping your World's Magazine going. 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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