BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE. WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. KATRINA & THE LOST CITY OF NEW ORLEANS by Rod Amis New Orleans is the Lost City of America. Rod Amis, publisher of G21: The World's Magazine, once believed one of the best bartenders in New Orleans, tells the story like no one else could. 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! AFRICA FRESH! New Voices from the First Continent An anthology of African writing only featured on the Internet until now, this book features the collected works of writers for the G21 AFRICA section of G21.net. The eight writers represented here are from around the continent and present an exciting look at cutting-edge fiction and reporting from the first continent today. Buy the book or get a downloadable PDF copy now! Buy the Book at Amazon.com

Rod Amis - Unbound

SMOKE & MIRRORS - RESOLUTION: ROD AMIS looks at what it's like to publish this magazine, its advertising failures and his take on the national news before getting personal.

SMOKE

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

5 December 2006: I'm a great lover of Harper's magazine. I subscribed to it when I had actual cash-flow and hope that I'll be able to do so again one day. For all the years I read Harper's, I would invariably begin doing two things. I'd read the very popular "Index" page and then I would settle in to read Lewis Lapham's essay of the edition. Reading Lapham was always humbling for me. He was the kind of erudite and thoughtful editorialist that I hoped I would myself one day become.

I was made to accept, somewhere along this journey of mine, that I did not have the distance and comfort to be a Lapham. I'm far too volatile and, yes, (gasp!) involved with life on the street. At my best, as my friend and G21 alumnae Aamena Jiwaji observed, I speak from the heart and present the stone of existence. At my worst, I spew my anger and become the spawn of the prophet Jeremiah.

IF, as they say, God protects fools and children, then I am in luck. I'm God's own Fool and childish as they come. My saving grace, I've considered, is that I'm also Blue Collar to the bone. I'd rather sling a hammer or a drink than sit in some corporate office with people who have no idea what it's like to raise an honest sweat and actually work for a living. That makes me a dinosaur, I suppose. That, too, separates me from the lofty heights of a person like Lapham.

Let's make no mistake, though. I can move in the rarefied air of the intellectuals with whom I was educated but, at bottom, I find them lacking in spine, in involvement and in engagement with what we peasants endure on a daily basis. Perhaps that is my curse - or blessing. Joe Six-pack and I are kith and kin.

Looking into the future of this enterprise, your World's Magazine, as I plan to take it into its eleventh year here on the World Wide Web (a term no one uses anymore,) I am struck by two opposing ideas. My great friend and fellow writer here, MPHUTHUMI NTABENI, has taken a leadership role in contacting the writers in Africa - the backbone of "my" stable - and suggested that we should distinguish ourselves as a Black magazine. I have looked on at this initiative with bemusement.

Heck, I still thought we were an international magazine with a very strong component of African writing. Last I knew, we had done some great coverage of Ireland, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

But I'm an old man; I'm probably way off base.

That's what brought my attention to Lapham's column to mind, I suppose. You see, when Mpush suggested that we become suddenly totally focused on being a Black magazine, I was looking at the various statistics of what you read and why people come to this "hip little FM station at the end of the radio dial." What I saw, and what I've known for years by reading the private e-mails you send me, is that this page, this little space of my own, is the most read column at G21. As I would always go to Lapham's essay, very many of you go to mine. Some of you stay and read the articles we offer each edition and some don't.< /p>

Besides my column, it seems that you've also taken a liking to BRAD BALFOUR's film interviews, the crazy mix we offer on our Op-Ed page, RECOMMENDED DAILY REQUIREMENT, and have gained an affinity for our GLOBAL*BEAT mix. I'm glad we're doing something right. IRISH EYES and MATTIE LENNON's ability to "write about nothting" seems to have an élan that you enjoy from time-to-time but apparently not as much as Yours Unruly does.

That said, I have to acknowledge two things:

1. G21 has become a platform for African writers and produced a goodly number of award-winning writers (see last "Smoke & Mirrors") and
2. G21 AFRICA has been one of our most dynamic features.

But are we only or destined to be only a Black magazine? I don't think so.

I am proud - incredibly proud when I consider the general media landscape and the dearth of my people made available to you - that I have brought the words and thoughts and inspiration of Black writers to your attention. But I am equally proud I have bucked the trend of pretending that the 'Net is only about America. Years before my supposed competitors in this space were willing to admit it, I committed to look at the "World Wide" in WWW. That commitment has enriched my life in ways I shall never be able to fully explain. From Europe, Mexico, Asia, I have had the joy - the wonder! - of conversing and sharing with so many people who are now invaluable parts of my life.

(That last was not Lapham at all, was it? That was Rod the Enthusiast. That was me being childish with awe and wonder. Sorry.)

I learned this past week that my friend and brother, BINYAVANGA WAINAINA ("The Binj"), who won the first Web-produced Caine Prize in African Writing (2002) and went on from here at your World's Magazine to found the Kenya publication Kwani, is now a Writer-in-Residence at a university in New York. Can you imagine how wonderful that made the Old Magician feel?

"My" writers, in one sense, are like my surrogate children. When they go out into the world and spread this infection of ours, a love for words and thinking, I am made to believe that I have had a purpose in living. That I am not a waste of oxygen. Looking at that kind of accomplishment, I feel like joining Jimmy Cagney and shouting, "Hey, Ma! I'm at the top of the world!"

That's one of the few times that I can feel, just for an instant, that I am close to Lapham's world.

---

To support G21, please send checks or money orders to: Rod Amis G21: The World's Magazine 1500 Royal Crest Drive, #156 Austin, TX 78741-2709 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 in February Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in May Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in July Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in August Rod Amis at the Huffington Post in November ENJOY WHAT ROD DOES! I have two entries for your delectation in this, our Holiday Special Edition. The first is from our friends at Calabash Music: Jorane The second over at Google Video from the World of Warcraft collection. Enjoy!

BACK HERE ON THE GROUND, I learned that I TOTALLY screwed up on when NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI's Macmillan Prize ceremony would take place. It went off on the 30th of November, as originally planned, rather than the 3rd of this month, as I reported in my last entry.

The highlight of the ceremony, she informs me, is that she was presented the award by Nobel Prize winner Prof. Wole Soyinka. Ohmigod! How awesome is that?

I was left breathless by the news. Hat's off, Girlfriend!

---

6 December 2006: A WORD ABOUT ADVERTISING: Well, okay, more than a word.

First of all, you may have noted that this is the one page in your magazine where I have kept the ads to a minimum, instead paying respects to our few donors. That has probably been a mistake, since this is usually the most read page.

Secondly, I'm starting to believe that G21 must have the worst click-through rate on the Web. Google Adsense tells me that your rate of click-throughs, Gentle Readers, garners us a whopping thirty (30) cents (USD) on average per day. Thirty cents! Because Google Adsense only pays out on accounts once the advert revenues equal $100 (USD), I only get a check from them about once a year.

Let me repeat that: G21 makes $100/year from Google Adsense because my readership doesn't respond to ads.

So beginning with this installment, you'll find adverts on this page, too. Momma needs an overcoat; Baby needs a new pair of shoes.

News to Rod

OPEN LETTER TO MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN, 13 December.

Dear Keith,

First of all, congratulations on your raings victories over Bill O (your cute abbreviation of Fox News's Bill O'Reilly's name, which we all love.) You have gotten major press about this status just as your contract negotiations are coming up. You and your agent must be in Hog Heaven.

Also Keith, you have to admit that your news commentary essays directed at the Bush Administration and subsequently featured on YouTube and all over the blogosphere, have not hurt one bit. Which is why I'm writing to you today. You see, Keith, I admire the serious essays you've produced this year. But they are out of step with the rest of your show, "The Countdown."

For example, your daily Worst Person in the World, Oddball and Keeping Tabs features are probably big winners for your show, much as the faux news part of "Saturday Night Live" is now a perennial. But I have to admit they personally make me squirm. I feel like I'm watching the E! channel or some similar tripe. Sorry.

Now, Keith, I understand that the premise of "The Countdown" is to provide a different look at the top five, as determined by you and your editorial staff, news stories of the day. I accept that that is a formula that has worked for you. What I'm writing to quibble about, beside the tripe features, is your criteria for determining those top news stories.

Because I've had a very rough month, Keith, I've done what I suspect many Americans do - immerse myself in the mindless prattling of the Idiot Box in order not to focus too much on my own personal suffering. In the process, I've seen a LOT of your show and other newscasts and come away with a few bits of information I'd like to share with you all. (Though this letter is addressed to you, Keith - because I admire you - I hope you'll share its insights, if you deem them as such, with some of your colleagues, even competitors.)

1 - It has been recently discovered that America is not the center of the universe and that Iraq and things related to it are not the only newsworthy events of the day.

You know what I hear whenever I tune into broadcast these days, Keith? Here's an example: "Iraq... Irag... The war in Iraq... Something happened in Europe today, I think... Iraq, Iraq, Iraq... "

2 - Important news is happening in places other than Iraq even as I type this to you. I know the producers of your show might be telling you otherwise, Keith, but don't listen to them! They are corporate stooges who believe that all those of us out here in Mudville think about is the war in Iraq. That is not true.

For example, Ketih, the country right next door, to the south of us, Mexico? There's a lot of news going on there, Keith. There's been a major popular uprising going on in the state of Oaxaca for month now. Imagine the great camera shots you could get out of there! It bleeds almost as much as Iraq right now, Keith - even if you wouldn't know it watching most broadcast news today. It threatens the stability of a country already teetering, too, Keith.

Did you hear they had an electoral crisis in Mexico, too? It is so bad, they had to swear in the man who claims to have won the election, Calderon, AT MIDNIGHT, Keith, for fear of a riot in Mexico City. Meanwhile, his challenger, Lopez Obrador, still claims he won the election and vows to fight on to be recognized. Talk about your hot new story!

What I'm saying is, Mexico is right next door to the United States but you couldn't tell that by watching your news program or many others, Keith. I'm writing to you because I believe you are one of the people who can change that.

I know, I know: right after you get your new contract.

Thanks for listening,
Rod Amis
Editor
G21: The World's Magazine

---

LET'S DO A HEAD COUNT. It's reported that one hundred sixty (160) press passes were issued for Illinois Senator Barak Obama's appearance in Manchester, New Hampshire, over the weekend.

Going to New Hampshire is what politicians do when they are considering running for President of the United States, so the babbling classes were all abuzz. This is exciting news for all of those who don't want New York Senator Hillary Clinton to walk away with the Democratic Party nomination for that office. IF Obama runs, the reasoning goes, there will be more of a horse race for the punditocracy to chatter about, their favorite pastime leading up to an election, so that they don't have to explain complex civic issues to the populace inclined to vote. Give us theater! Give us circuses!

The hope of such cretins is that Obama will be kept busy savaging Clinton's electoral chances while the punditocracy is busy savaging Obama's. That is how the game is played. The overwhelming showing of the press in New Hampshire over the weekend was not excitement about Obama's candidacy so much as excitement about having a new virgin to throw on the sacrificial altar. The gutting will be merciless.

The plot line, Gentle Reader, is not about the 2008 election at all. You'll see.

INSIDE THE MAGAZINE

If this edition goes according to Plan, I'm featuring a goodly number of the jokes YOU have sent me on our HOUSE OF CARDS page to make up for the lack of jokes I put in the Newsletter last time out.

I reckon it's also time to offer YOUR E-MAILS and our responses on the VOX POPULI page before the end of the year.

MPHUTHUMI NTABENI completes his short story "Ashes of Our Dead Hopes" for G21 FICTION. I was so impressed that I'm doing the unprecedented and making your World's Magazine second nomination for the 2007 Caine Prize for African Writing. Good luck to both he and NGOZI RAZAK-SOYEBI in the impending competition.

RAHEEM returns to his RADIOACTIVE column with a startling piece for the Holiday Season, his bailiwick this time of year

THOMAS HART is dancing for joy over at TABLOID HART. I'm sure you suspect why before even reading it.

I've already alerted those people on our Mailing List that they have until 20 December to submit their nominations for our BOTTOM 10 LIST 2006, picking those they considered the Worst People on the Planet this year.

Here, I offer you the chance to join our subscribers in nominating the person you think was the Best. Who made 2006 a good year to be alive? Please send your nominations to rod@g21.net. We'll feature the individual chosen on our cover for the first edition of 2007. DEADLINE: 29 December, 2006.

MIRRORS

RANDOM NOTES - Early December: Matt's girlfriend, the notorious Jo Kemper of New Orleans, managed to mace herself while walking down the street this week. ("What?)

Yeah, I know. Stop laughing! What kind of person would mace themselves?. Now, maybe, perhaps, some way, you might understand what I've written about as being "Jo'ed".

ITEM TWO: My editor at Enterprise Leadership , out of Houston here in the great state of Tejas, got back with me this week to produce a piece on "Web 2.0". Yayy!!! The assignment came just in time to save my proverbial bacon. Rent is due, I need to deposit more money in my Go Phone account and the cupboard is bare.

As I've mentioned before, Dana is not only a wonderful editor to work with - understanding and complimentary - she also pays me on acceptance, rather than on publication, a Writer's Dream.

ITEM THREE: My nephew, Kenneth Amis, the classical composer and performer, will be performing with the Empire Brass at the Kennedy Center on 10 December. If you're in the DC area, you might want to catch the performance, my lovelies.

(Empire Brass? Yeah, yeah. Remember, there's a Brit branch to my family.)

And WHILE ON THE SUBJECT OF MY FAMILY, I have a book to recommend to you - No, not by me! - as a stocking stuffer. My in-law, Chris Bell, my dear Rudell's relative, has a wonderful book that I'm digesting now entitled Lt. Williams On the Color Front which deals with the integration of the US Army during the early 1950s. (Chris himself was an Army officer during the era.) You can buy it here. For anyone familiar with the military or aware of the problem of race in this country, it's a powerful read well worth your time.

ITEM FOUR: Long-time Loyal Readers know I absolutely loathe this time of year. I can't go out because everyone is talking about or going to office Christmas parties and I work from home and don't want to hear about them. I can't go into shops because they only remind me of what I can't buy and things I can't give to those few people I'd like to have something to offer.

I can't answer the telephone for fear that someone will try to impress me into one of those trumped up holiday gatherings that they throw to make themselves feel better by comprising them with "poor lost souls" who have nowhere else to go, assembling a group of total strangers, unfamiliar with each other and having no common bond except the lack of bonds to spend two or three hours feeling uncomfortable around each other.

I can't watch commercial television because of the red and green treacle, the Buy-buy-buyism, the scenes of people gathering with loved ones (that I don't have) and sharing the obligatory holiday warmth. (Well, okay, scratch part of that. I DO have lov ed ones but I'm always so destitute that I avoid them like the plaque because I can't afford Christmas presents.)

I usually can't wait until the day after Christmas when the pressure is off again.

But I am an American. From Halloween until the day after Christmas, I am bombarded with the notion that I need to buy something to make our retailers happy that they have succeeded in programming us to believe that we have to spend as much as we can in order to demonstrate our love of those people we cherish and that, should we fail to do so, we are the lowest of the low.

If you can't buy presents and put yourself in hock - we gave you them credit cards! - and then get your reward by gorging yourself on turkey, ham and goose and have a couple of danged insults to hurl at that relative you hate, then why not just kill yourself? The Holiday Season in America is also known as the Season of Suicides.

That's what makes me look forward to New Year's Eve, which many of my friends refer to as "Amateur Night." At least on New Year's Eve, most people are just partying. No religious overtones to speak of, unless you're familiar with ancient human history, no reason to buy anything except a good bottle of champagne. I've always liked New Year's Eve because that is when the people who survived Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and whatever pressure-pot you can come up with finally breathe their collective sigh of relief.

There's my bah-bug essay for this year, Raheem, you twit! Get used to it.

Keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my own.

Thanks for coming back this week.

WHAT ROD'S THINKING ABOUT THIS WEEK

1 - Lackanookie.

2 - Money, lack thereof.

3 - His Agenda for 2007.

"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, r eaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

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 EnterpriseLeadership.org, IT Manager's Journal and NewsForge. Rod's more leftist writings can be found at Atlantic Free Press. (Don't tell his potential employers.) Rust never sleeps.

Our Resident Philosopher has decided to return to Austin, Texas, after over two decades away. Wish him luck..

In his spare time, Rod is now working on his second marriage.

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

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Our Editor does listen!

© 2006, GENERATOR 21.

E-mail your comments. We always like to hear from you. Send your kudos, brickbats and suggestions to rod@g21.net. _uacct = "UA-285132-1"; urchinTracker();

After the Fool

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. var ccm_cfg = { n:'1', pof:'1', dt:'1', tc:'#ffffff', pth:'' } CURRENT MOON First Quarter Moon 53% of Full Wed 5 Apr, 2006lunar phases G21 at FeedBurner

Rod Amis - Unbound

SMOKE & MIRRORS - AFTER THE FOOL: Our publisher, ROD AMIS reports on news for the members of your World's Magazine team and looks at his inability to lessen his own workload.

SMOKE

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

30 March, 2006: Things have been very hectic since our Tenth Anniversary Special Edition and my birthday. First of all, thanks to all those of you who sent me birthday greetings, called to sing, sent gifts, etc. (Rhonda & Bill, Cheryl, Dragana & Dragan, Rudell & Leon, Nelson, Barbara & Rich, Riley, Ripple and Graham.) The Old Magician is much appreciative.

Secondly, there was getting caught up with my Day Job of being a freelance journalist. My friend Matt telephone after reading one of the stories I filed and said, "Man, you really sound authoritative in that piece."

I chuckled. I think people often forget that I'm a professional journalist when they read my noodling here. Or maybe it's just that most people don't think of writing as a real way to make a living.

We received a wonderful review of Africa Fresh! New Voices from the First Continent in the Kenyan daily Nation from premiere literary critic and Northwestern University professor Evan Mwangi, which you can read here. (Free registration required.) I was quite overwhelmed with Dr. Mwa ngi's kind assessment of our effort.

MPHUTHUMI NTABENI sent me an e-mail with the wonderful news that another publisher was considering a work he had shown me - he'd begun a rewrite on it. And then these notes:

Did I tell you about the wonderful surprise I got when reading a biography of Nadine Gordimer - she's South Africa's first Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature - was finding myself quoted in the book by the author, Ronald Suresh Roberts. The book is called No Cold Kitchen. Here's the passage:

Gordimer has been read as a cultural hero of South African liberation and variously re-read as a writer residually submerged in the attitudes of colonialism or elitism, even Jewish self-hatred. She remains a polarising presence among South African blacks and whites alike. Near her there are always embers. "Unlike Nadine Gordimer, [JM. Coetzee] does not borrow courage of other people's convictions," wrote Mphuthumi Ntabeni, the African correspondent for the online magazine Generator 21: "This might be the reason he was so unpopular in political circles, where attitudinising is the order of the day."

And it goes on. I'm told there're other small passages.

Another great news is that the plays we're doing for the Environment and Tourism Dept. have started their performance along the Eastern Cape Heritage Route. We'll be on tour along the Eastern Cape for about three weeks - coming home on weekends. The great thing is that we've won funding from the Lotto to take the plays to the Grahamstown Arts Festival ...

We'll also be submit proposals to the SABC (South African Broadcasting Cooperation) to serialise the plays for TV.

I offered him my Good Luck wishes and congratulations.

I was flattered, also, to receive a request from one of the people in the Blogosphere, Steve Sanders of AmericanLiar.com, to reprint one of the articles I wrote for the Huffington Post Contagious Festival in February. You can view Steve's reprint, and thus visit his blog, by following this link. In his announcement e-mail, he wrote to his mailing list:

You've probably noticed that media criticism is a regular feature of American Liar postings. We rail a lot about the corporate media's responsibility for the generally apalling ignorance of the American public and its state of impairment when it comes to distinguishing fact from fiction, truth from lies, and in using deductive reasoning and rationality to sort out the affairs of government and society. (I don't mean to paint with a broad brush-yes, there are millions of aware citizens, and more are beginning to wake up every day, but as a whole the public is still in a generally sad condition in terms of being able to think and act as informed, responsible citizens. This is my own opinion; please let me know if you disagree.)

But is it the corporate media that is entirely to blame? The old "chicken and the egg" question comes to the fore in our guest commentary by Rod Amis (of G21.net), republished here from its appearance on Huffington Post. There's a strong case to be made that the American public bears its own share of responsibility for the state of ignorance and stupor it's in; we all make choices as to what we believe, who we believe, and what we believe in. The fact that the body politic has not been appropriately discriminating in making these choices places the American citizenry squarely in the docket, along with the nation's compromised and sold out "news" professionals and corrupt politicians, when we consider apportioning blame for the mess we're in now.

To paraphrase Edward R. Murrow, the legendary journalist, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not entirely in our scapegoats, but also in ourselves."

Well put, and as I said, I was flattered.

I was excited this past week when I received an inquiry from a producer for the BBC World Service radio programme "Outlook." It seems they had seen (probably the Reuters UK) announcement about Africa Fresh! making the short list for the Blooker Prize (which should be announced today, by the way) and wanted to feature one of the writers who contributed to that book. As this is the first book to be released under the new G21 BOOKS imprint we've begun, I was chuffed.

After days of frantic telephone calls, e-mails, pacing and smoking too many cigarettes - not to mention downing pots of coffee - I managed to arrange for our GAYNOR PAYNTER to conduct the BBC interview.

It would seem that this actually is becoming the "G21 Decade" as I've proclaimed with tongue firmly planted in cheek. For those who don't know, it's a take-off of the old joke that Al Franken had when he was part of the Franken and Davis comedy team on "Saturday Night Live" many years ago. He proclaimed the 1980s as "The Al Franken Decade" in a running gag that I found amusing. (I know, I'm showing my age, again.)


MIRRORS

2 April, 2006: I saw this most astounding red-crested woodpecker this morning while outside communing with nature, enjoying that special light that only comes in early morning and helping my body get used to Daylight Savings Time. I had the inkling that this was the Sunday when it commenced for the spring (I've ground accustomed to thinking of it as "fake time") and got out of bed early so that I'd go to sleep at the new-normal time tonight.

This is the time of year in these parts, I've learned, when the birds are in joyous profusion and variety. I've seen so many different varieties of these spirits of the air this season that I'm nonplussed. I can't remember anywhere, in recent memory, where I've seen so many different kinds of birds at one time.

Doves, crows, woodpeckers, finches, hawks; yesterday I was "buzzed" by one of the most beautiful golden eagles I've ever seen. It was breathtaking, the bird literally exuded power and grace. Like an ancient Roman, I took it as a good sign.

The first butterflies of the season are back, too. I've only seen a couple so far, it being early in the year, but got visited by them, my spirit familiars, as well.

It's early spring yet, so the bugs are not in great profusion but the warm breezes are awakening them from their winter sleeps. I don't especially look forward to the bugs but accept them as part of life. Watching a wasp swing past and seeing flies floating in last evenings' sunset haze, I realized that I'd have to prepare to work against bug bites again and the yard would soon be rife with ticks. Price of the ticket.

I kick myself for being woefully behind in my yard work - raking up pine needles and the last of the winter leaves - because the longer I procrastinate the more likely that I will have to contend with the wasps and ticks.

Meanwhile, manuscripts to review for this summer's book projects languish on my desktop, one of the editors I freelance for awaits new story pitches and I've added new a writer to the list of those I have decided to take under my editorial wing.

I had said that I would go into a season of restfulness, slow the pace a bit before the summer push and focus only on this effort and my book promotional efforts. I always say that I won't pile more projects on but I never succeed in keeping my promise to myself. Then I joke that "rust never sleeps ... " It is a treadmill of my own creation.

Elaine, as our friend Bob has dubbed her, the only remaining chicken, has been profusely laying eggs for weeks. I have joked that we shall soon have to begin to start selling them. I worry for her, though, as one of our neighbors, who owns a huge chocolate dog, has begun to let the dog run wild through the neighborhood again. That dog was one of a pack that slaughtered the other chickens we had last summer. Elaine was smart enough to hide in the woods behind the house for months. During the past few months, she has had free range of the yard, the dog was penned. Now the neighbors are letting it loose again, I expect the worst.

These are the bright and mundane details of my life in the woods, my little loves.

I had considered putting some photos of New Orleans as it looks now into a "Rod's Photo Album" section in this space for this edition but I thought better of it last night. You have seen how it looks elsewhere, I'm sure, and how heartbreaking it is. I decided that I had had enough of that heartbreak for a while. There is already too much heartbreak in the world.

Along that line of thought, I finally watched "Hotel Rwanda" last night. I ordered it as part of the NetFlix free trial offer, inveterate film buff that I am. (Remember, "free" is one of my favorite words.) This is the second film about the Rwandan tragedy I have watched during the last few months and the more powerful of the two. It serves as a chilling reminder of both the madness of humanity and our ability for callous disregard of the suffering of others. It was worth the time but reinforced my feelings about heartbreak ...

Perhaps next edition, I'll have something lighter to say at my conclusion.

Thanks for coming back this week.

THINGS ROD HOPES FOR THIS WEEK

1 - Success in my latest job application efforts.

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

3 - Getting control of my "To Do" list.

"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, 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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---

Our Editor does listen!

© 2006, GENERATOR 21.

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

Just a Mirror

15 February 2006: Even as OUR STORY on kidnap-and-ransom (K&R) was filed here at the Huffington Post, Doctors Without Borders released a statement revealing that two of their staff had been kidnapped in Colombia.

Two Doctors Without Borders Staff Members Detained in Colombia

Amsterdam/Bogotá, February 9, 2006 - Two staff members of the international medical aid organization Doctors Without Borders/MÈdecins Sans FrontiËres (MSF) have been detained by an armed group in the northeast of Colombia. The staff members were part of a team exploring possibilities to expand health services to the population in Norte de Santander, a province isolated by violence.

"We ask for their immediate release," says Geoff Prescott, general director of MSF-Holland. "As an independent humanitarian organization we expect that all parties respect our neutrality and impartiality."

MSF has been providing essential medical services to vulnerable and displaced civilians throughout Colombia since 1985. In many locations, MSF teams use mobile clinics to reach communities that often have no other access to healthcare. Spending two to three days at each site, the teams see an average of 90 patients per day. At present MSF has 49 international and over 150 national staff working in Colombia.

As far as MSF is able to establish, the two detained staff members have been treated well and are in good condition. MSF has taken precautionary measures regarding its projects and the safety of its staff in Colombia.

The Good News, in this case, was that the two doctors were quickly released and have continued their work. Such is not always the case, as I've reported in previous columns.

The Bad News is that Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll's kidnappers have now placed a 26 February deadline on their demands being met. They threaten to assassinate Ms. Carroll otherwise.

While headlines blare about the taking of hostages by terrorist organizations very little is written in the American press about the actual dynamics of the situation. And series like my own magazine's on the actual plight of a victim, first with Thomas Hargrove and now with Jill Carroll, is unusual. The Christian Science Monitor has done an excellent job of keeping us informed, as has Carroll's friend and colleague Natasha Tynes at her Blog.

One cannot but suspect that the travel industry and national governments concerned about the foreign income for their tourists industries influence press coverage of this important issue. It could be argued that both the terrorists involved with K&R as a means of buying weapons and financing their operations and recruiting and the trans-global corporations involved in keeping people moving around the world are complicit in keeping this story just below our radar screens.

Ironically, while the courtiers of the global, multinational companies can count on K&R insurance coverage (see Chubb Insurance Group K&R pdf in the previous report) and journalists for large media conglomerates might be able to obtain it through their organizations, it is the many aide workers and independent journalists (more likely to provide accurate reports from on the ground) who often find such coverage beyond their reach. That means that these two latter groups enter troubled regions at their own risk.

It should not be surprising, in this view, that being "embedded" was a good option for employees of large media conglomerates covering stories in Afghanistan or Iraq, as well as other Middle East hot spots. The conglomerates were freed of investing in the pricey services of private security firms for the protection of their reporters (they were with the troops, after all) and also of the cost of K&R insurance coverage.

It is not entirely accidental, in other words, that most American news organizations, including CNN, which built its reputation on global coverage, have stringently cut back on their investment in overseas bureaus and reporters. The risk management "experts" like those listed at the conclusion of this post, would have little effort to make in convincing these organizations that the price of the ticket far outweighed the return on investment.

Few of us are informed, for example, that the Philippines is high on this list of where the tactic of K&R is used to intimidate both locals and foreigners and finance rebel activity. This article at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journal (PCIJ.org), for example, highlights that fact.

Interestingly, in terms of our investigation of the issue and media coverage of it, when the BBC ran a poll on whether K&R is justified some of the comments from individuals in small countries were that it is.

Here's one sample comment along those lines, for those reading this who won't follow the link provided:

Superpowers and former colonial powers who seldom have to fight on their own soil would of course condemn this form of "terrorism". I do not know the situation in Sierra Leone but in response to the question, the answer is yes. Imagine that you live in a tiny country being invaded by a larger and militarily superior aggressor. Your country may fall any day now and yo ur back is to the wall....To me, this justifies taking enemy hostages, even if they are children. And what's more, to hell with the Geneva Convention, POWs should be tortured to death if necessary to obtain any essential information regarding the enemy. I would rather do this and more to the enemy than let the enemy decimate my own people. - Siow Tian Rui, Singapore

My bringing this provocative quote in at this point in our investigation is neither accidental nor gratuitous. I include it now for purposes of perspective. In other words, your very definition of what constitutes terrorism or narco-terrorism (not withstanding my use of both terms in framing the ground this series intends to cover) often has to do with which end of the spear point of Empire you inhabit. If you are holding the spear, your view of events and circumstances is entirely different than that you'd have facing the spear point.

A warlord in Afghanistan, reportedly the world's largest heroin producer today, a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, reportedly the organization behind the largest European drug-trafficking network today, or a member of the Revolutionary Peoples Army of Colombia (FARC), would see no reason to worry about the morality of using drug sales to finance the realization of their ambitions because the lives destroyed by these drugs would those of their enemies in the United States and Europe. The former is the largest consumer of all the world's resources and most especially addictive drugs. The latter is more than often a fellow traveler and former home to the imperialists of these nations' most recent experience.

Both K&R and drug trafficking, from that end of the spear point, could be considered reasonable means of self-defense. In short, a means of leveling the decidedly imbalanced playing field.

That the United States's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its precursor the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) have been alleged by many to have used both narcotics trafficking and kidnap-and-ransom (now termed "extraordinary rendition") to achieve their aims, it has been argued, only served as the play book for insurgents around the globe.

I don't mean to advocate the validity of the position by stating it. I simply believe that it is a position that an honest journalist and discerning readers must acknowledge.

The mere fact that kidnap-and-ransom has spread as a tactic of international extortion efforts, and a new source of revenue for insurance companies and security firms, speaks to its success in our time. The list of countries in which the tactic is used has increased, rather than decreased, despite European successes in eradicating its earlier practitioners like the Red Brigades and other far left extremist groups who used the practice.

---

In November, 2005, a German archeologist and aide worker gained the rare distinction of being the first person from her country to be kidnapped in Iraq. The woman's name was Susanne Osthoff. The incident received almost no coverage in the American press, as one might suspect. For those readers who read German, you can find the story here; those of you who love commentary can read about it in English here.

What countries are we talking about? Kashmir, Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia (Leader of the Pack for the last decade,) Nigeria, Iraq (for obvious reasons), Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast; but the list also includes countries one might not expect like Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Israel.

The Players

If you're interested in the area of K&R risks, one of the company's you're likely to contact is an international player like Kroll Associates. It's likely you've never heard of them. You should have, as

• this article
• and this article
• and this article
• and this article

point out.

Kroll has been at the top of the heap, in terms of providing risk assessments for corporations and individuals of record operating abroad for years. The Center for Public Integrity reports that Kroll made $229, 671,000 in government contracts along alone between fiscal years 1990 and 2002. Though Kroll is relatively low profile (by intention) compared to organizations like North Carolina's Blackwater USA.

Blackwater Security Consulting, a division of Blackwater USA, is the balls-out, let's get in your face organization that makes no bones about hiring international mercenaries to provide its services. One look at the Web site gives you every indication of what they are: guns for hire. They describe themselves thusly:

... our staff has a wealth of exceptional experience worldwide and is renowned for dealing with high-risk situations and complex operations. Our mission is to provide the client with veteran military, intelligence and law enforcement professionals with demonstrated field operations performance tempered with mature experience in both foreign and domestic requirements. We employ only the most highly motivated and professional operators, all drawn from various U.S. and international Special Operations Forces, Intelligence and Law Enforcement organizations. We focus on physical and personal security, personal security/risk and assessments, and training.

What is not considered often enough is the moral conflict between using private military contractors (PMCs) by democracies as part of their (sometimes) secret foreign policy apparatus and as highly-visible represents of the extension of their power abroad. Is this a suitable business enterprise, for example, for a war zone? What does it say about the nation employing these tools both overtly and covertly simultaneously?

These latter questions are addressed incredibly well by Duncan Campbell in a 2002 report entitled "Marketing the New 'Dogs of War'". His investigative piece brings up the more troubling aspects of dealing with and being complicit with mercenaries.

The kidnappers are not the only people making money from K&R.

It is compelling, to this reporter at least, that when we look into the stories of K&R that most grab our attention and pull at our heart strings, from Tom Hargrove to Terry Waite to Susanne Osthoff and Jill Carroll, we never find the names of the high profile insurance companies or security consultants mentioned thus far in this investigation.

Thanks for dropping by.

Go to First Post - AMERICAN NEWS IS COMEDY

Go to the Second Post - A Uniformly Uninformed Citizenry

Go to the Third Post - ... Nor Any Drop to Drink

Go to the Fourth Post - Reader Comments

Go to the Fifth Post - Lead by Example: OUR STORY

© 2006, Rod Amis.
E-mail your comments to rod@g21.net.

Future "Mirrors" Test Page

SMOKE & MIRRORS: THE NEW LOOK/THE NEW YEAR - ROD AMIS's column, called the Father of the Blog when it was MY GLASS HOUSE turns bifurcated in this form. This week, the "Smoke" section talks about changes at your World's Magazine for year ten, the return of Thomas Hart and his take on the news. In "Mirrors" he focuses on the personal.

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

28 December, 2005: We've taken a few looks at the evolution of the media in this country over the years and, because of our passionate commitment to the growth of this medium in particular, it would be nice to believe we've had an influence on how our readers look at and understand the news. That's part of the mission of any journal of this kind, after all, to mediate between its public and the confusing panoply of other sources dedicated to interpreting reality.

We have made it a point here at your World's Magazine of wearing our biases on our sleeves. We also made the point that admitting that all media are biased is essential to your ability to suss out the best version you can of the real, the truth, of human existence in our world.

Doing anything less than making these kinds of assertions and focusing on this kind of mission, from this chair's perspective, would be dishonest.

The converse examples don't have to be listed here to drive home the point. We all know who refutes our position and why they have become jokes, notoriously ridiculed.

In this regard, I've welcomed T HOMAS ("Tabloid") HART back to these pages for our tenth year here on the World Wide Web ("Web".) One thing that's been in short supply here during the last year is humor. After the experience of 2005, I suppose we all need a few laughs.

Having been here for so many years, it seems like getting back to his column was like riding a bike. In many ways, his first new column picks up exactly where he left off. Bravo!

I have no idea what it looks like in Internet Explorer, a browser I dumped as soon as FireFox came along. (You should dump it, too. Too many problems.) Those of you still using that will have to tell me.

Oddly, during my initial experiments, it looked close to what I envisioned when I used to Safari (Mac native) and Opera browsers than it did in FireFox. Still haven't figured out why. I still use FireFox as my default, so I'm hoping to work out the kinks by the time the new cover actually reaches you.

Please let me know what you think and feel about the changes. Thanks!

Those are all my "serious" publishing notes for this week. So let's dive right in to

NEWS TO ROD

Among the things that the Center analyzed as top trends for 2005:

1. Presidential Popularity Plunge - Starting his second term with less popular support than other recent re-elected incumbents, President George W. Bush's saw his approval ratings further erode under pressure from public opposition to his foreign and domestic policies and new focus on alleged ethical lapses in his administration. In November, Bush's approval rating hit new lows, just 36% of the public thought he had lived up to his campaign pledge to restore integrity to the White House, and for the first time as many approved as disapproved of his handling of terrorism. By December, upbeat economic reports, apparently successful elections in Iraq and a series of high-profile speeches shored up the president's approval rating in some major polls although not in others. However, a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that by a 47%-38% margin, the public judged that this year the president would make Santa's "naughty," rather than "nice" list, up from 40% who thought so a year ago and 31% in 2003.

2. Hurricane Blowback - Most Americans gave the federal government a failing grade on its handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. But the crisis revealed a sharp racial divide, with two-thirds of blacks saying the government's response would have been faster had most victims been white; only 17% of whites agreed. A month later, while a growing number saw the nation increasingly divided between "haves" and "have nots," as many Americans worried that the government would spend too much on hurricane relief as feared that it would spend too little.

3. Iraq Disillusionment - Following a small post-election bounce, public approval of the president's handling of the situation in Iraq resumed its downward drift, hitting a low of 37% in October. But opinions on Iraq remain volatile: Americans are nearly evenly divided on whether the decision to use military force was right or wrong, and more than half think it possible that the U.S. can establish a stable democracy in Iraq. In the wake of Democratic congressman's John Murtha's high-profile call for a withdrawal plan and a series of presidential speeches in rebuttal, Bush's approval rating on Iraq remained mired in the mid-thirties.

4. Pump Shock and Economy Anxiety - Even before hurricanes in the Gulf added momentum to already rising gas prices, the public remained apprehensive about the economy. In May, only 44% of Americans rated their personal financial situation good or excellent, down from 51% in January; only 35% approved of the president's handling of the economy. In Katrina's wake, fully 71% of the public (the most in two decades) reported following news about gas prices very closely. As prices receded and economic reports re-brightened in December, prices at the pump were still closely watched by 61% of the public and 40% of Americans said they were finding it hard to make ends meet.

5. Inward Turn - Isolationist sentiment was on the upswing, with more than four-in-ten among the public saying America should "mind its own business internationally"-on par with numbers expressing that view after the closing of the Vietnam War and the Cold War. Two-thirds of Americans say the country is less respected globally; most blame the Iraq war for that result.

ITEM TWO: Also on 27 December 2005, in the Los Angeles Times you might have come across this wonderful piece of commentary by esteemed MidEast reporter Robert Fiske ("Telling It Like It Isn't".) Here's a snippet to whet your appetite:

Similarly, "occupied" Palestinian land was softened in many American media reports into "disputed" Palestinian land - just after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, in 2001, instructed U.S. embassies in the Middle East to refer to the West Bank as "disputed" rather than "occupied" territory.

Then there is the "wall," the massive concrete obstruction whose purpose, according to the Israeli authorities, is to prevent Palestinian suicide bombers from killing innocent Israelis. In this, it seems to have had some success. But it does not follow the line of Israel's 1967 border and cuts deeply into Arab land. And all too often these days, journalists call it a "fence" rather than a "wall." Or a "security barrier," which is what Israel prefers them to say. For some of its length, we are told, it is not a wall at all - so we cannot call it a "wall," even though the vast snake of concrete and steel that runs east of Jerusalem is higher than the old Berlin Wall.

The semantic effect of this journalistic obfuscation is clear. If Palestinian land is not occupied but merely part of a legal dispute that might be resolved in law courts or discussions over tea, then a Palestinian child who throws a stone at an Israeli soldier in this territory is clearly acting insanely ...

29 December 2005: Just about every day, when not doing research or queries from potential subjects for my column at IT Manager's Journal, I'm busily flaking my book on New Orleans or seeking people to review the G21 AFRICA anthology. I never wanted it to be this way but I suppose that's the price I have to pay for deciding to become a book and magazine publisher simultaneously.

As those of you who bothered to listen to the podcast I did last month know, I'm trying to get used to the idea that I have to be a flak. Hate it!

Our Curse is to visit it for you and bring back what we have seen, stared - gudgingly and with trepidation - in the face. What is just over the shoulder, what makes you shiver deep in the night, when you wake up but would rather be asleep, and what you shudder about in your dreams ...

It is there but not there.

I know. In dark moments, it is with me even when I am awake.

BECOME A SPONSOR OF THE WORLD'S MAGAZINE. WHY should you advertise here? We'll tell you. VETERAN? Need to know how to access more of your benefits? Need help buying a home for your family? These folks can help: VA LOAN INFORMATION and VETERANS' MORTGAGES 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!

But I could be wrong. It's happened many times before. Matt sent me a wonderful Christmas present: money. Yayy! It came in a very ritzy card for Maker's Mark whiskey (a brand I can't afford, of course.) But it was more that he came through when he knew I'd probably needed. I was just about out of cigarettes and prefer that I buy my own booze rather than mooch off my housemate.

Matt's boosterism of New Orleans, though, is relentless. I'm not even sure why the man is so in love with the city. His favorite musician, Tom Waits, lives in California. He doesn't seem all that taken with most of the food. He's a big fan of The New Orleans Jazz Vipers and the Hot Club of New Orleans, I know. But somehow that doesn't explain his passion for the place entirely, at least not to me.

Hmnnn ...

Becoming? Hell! No G21, no Rod. We are synonymous. This is all I live for.

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

THE 2006 ROD IS

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 . Rust never sleeps.

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 and then go home.}.

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