NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

This post-September 11th issue starts with an article by Adrian Gargett. He is not afraid to point out the impossibility of task facing the U.S. Athorities. Their quest for revenge under the guise of War on Terrorism" overlooks the fact they they do not understand the minds of those they label as terrorists.

John Hillson's long poem puts the events into an historical persective. It is a stream-of-conciousness tirade that references Nagasaki, Waco, Pearl Harbour and much else.

There is a couple of articles on the not-unconnected subject of globalisation.

Paul Polansky contributes a series of poem and photos from his time spent in Kosovo helping Roma refugees. This is from THE BLACKBIRDS OF KOSOVO

	Their heads and bodies
	are a motley gray
	as if they had a skin disease
	from not having had 
	a proper diet.

	Of course, the blackbirds
	od Kosovo are used to
	eating only meat:

	Serb scrotums,
	Albanian asses,
	Turkish thighs,
	Gorani gonads.

	...

	... you'll usually see
	blood-flecked foam
	dripping from their beaks.

	MY LATEST URINE SAMPLE
	PROVED POSITIVE
	FOR RECYCLED
	NUCLEAR WASTE

	THANK YOU, AMERICA,
	FOR MAKING MY BALLS
	GLOW IN THE DARK

There is a lot more in the magazine, but it was the contributions from former Yugoslavia that held my interest the most.

The issue starts with Ted Dace's W IS FOR WAR which includes:

Imagine the president, every January, had to give a mental state of the union address. An accurate assessment would indicate hysteria, paranoia, narcissim, mass dependence, a schizoid lack of feeling, a psychopathic lack of empathy, and a total inability to reflect on any of these conditions, every one of which is chronic and inflexible to the point of pathology. With our predilection for lethal violence, we're a danger to ourselves as well as others. In short, America is cracked wide open for all to see. A lot of people around the world do see it, and they're scared of what this country will do next. Europeans are especially sensitive to what's going on, as they know the sickness all too well in their own not-so-distant past.

Can we really expect to understand US behavior outside of the model of mental illness? Did we really think we could blame it all on cable news outlets or the Republicans, as if an election or some new media regulations would clear everything up? While we tend to think of insanity as a private affliction, something that strikes the rare individual who must be segregated from an otherwise healthy society, as often as not, it's society that needs to be locked up. When the deranged is the norm, the lunatic is not the lone voice of rage and despair but the society that won’t listen.

The chief threat to collective insanity is the capacity of individuals to start thinking for themselves. We see it happening in Iraq as soldiers realize they are occupiers in a country that doesn't want them. Yet many soldiers remain convinced of the righteousness of their mission. They see the projected image of the beast, a.k.a. the 'terrorist' around every corner. But for Iraqis, it's not about images. They really are under assault, as if a lion really were prowling in their midst. While we project an image of evil onto Iraq, Iraqis don't have to project anything. Ultimately, it's a battle of image versus reality. We'll see how long the magician can keep us under his spell.

My race of Mayor here in San Francisco, and how close we got to winning, really conveyed the potential of what is possible in the future, and all of this happening at a time when George Bush is President. There's a desire to get him out of office.

Adrienne Carey Hurley's article uses comparisons,

...[Austin] Sherman surrendered himself to begin his term in a federal prison for website material that was authored by the other boy and linked to a free-hosting area Sherman provided from the server he ran for his own site... The other boy's website included a direct link to the 'Reclaim Guide', a manual featuring crude instructions on how to build explosives. While this boy, who is the white son of wealthy Republican parents in Orange County, has not been charged with any crime, Sherman, who had no part in writing or posting any of the offending material, was imprisoned for violating 18 USC 842 (p)(2)(A)... which makes it illegal to 'distribute' information related to explosives with the 'intent' to use that information in a 'federal crime of violence'. FBI agents interviewed the other youth and are aware he is responsible for the bomb-making information that was linked to Sherman's site... The first Rage Against the Machine t-shirt that was ever put out had a cartoon with instructions in Spanish on how to make a molotov cocktail. Looking back it was somewhat of a silly provocation, but the interesting think about it was that it was authored by the CIA. These cartoons were used in the training of (The Contras)... Austin Sherman and Zack de la Rocha (formerly of Rage Against the Machine) have expressed similar criticisms of the US foreign and domestic policies... The requirement of 'intent' in Feinstein's Law [18 USC 842 (p)(2)(A)] allows room for an incredible range of prosecutorial freedom to choose which relationships to 'dangerous' material can be interpreted as illegal. No one applied the law to de la Rocha, and no one applied it to those who... actually express an intent to carry out crimes of violence when distributing their information on explosives...

The poetry and fiction also have politicial themes, eg the late Jon Hillson's ADDENDUM IN AD DWAR notes,

... Meanwhile so much for that martyrdom jazz. He did not even fight , the indignant African taxi driver tells me as we drive to Harlem before dawn, he did not even lift a finger. The moment as precious as it is inevitable: the last illusion that he was a foe of the empire bites the desert dust in Ad Dwar, ripples outward to a momentarily transfixed world...

	What need is there to pile up stones
	or tote a slingshot
	or strap explosives against the
	heartbeat of an indigenous life when one
	can just wriggle a 'Made in USA' machine-gun
	to hit a target,
	or jump into a stars and stripes jet bomber
	with operatic élan?
 
	How to measure the damage of a pebble
	from a ten-year-old's righteous fist
	or the smiling death blow of
	someone who defies the 
	first law of life: self-preservation
	in honor of a great ideal?
	How to measure this against
	the fierce, cowardly big war machine?...

	...Last night ravens flew figure 8s near the cabin, playing
	in yr gusts. O Winds, we have learned to cross large continents 
	to embrace our love. Can you shake us out of our future-destroying
	weaponry for a new start? Tell the children:
	another new century can begin wherever we choose.