In the United States, sports enthusiasts have long touted the adage, “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” But while that saying has guided many of us in competition — be it in the stock market, on the battlefield, or at the sports stadium —winning, though tantalizing, is rarely that simple. What about the losers? How are they affected? Can a winner go too far in the quest to achieve success? And can victors end up worse off than they were before tasting success?

In this issue of InTheFray, we examine these questions in a variety of international contexts. We begin in Uganda, where Anna Sussman and Jonathan Jones examine The difficulties of ending a war. As the duo of journalists discover, ending Uganda’s long-running war requires resolving another conflict — that over the International Criminal Court, which many Ugandans regard as a threat to negotiations, while others see it as the ticket to peace and justice.

And back home from a visit to Malaysia, Mindy McAdams is Missing the mango, or the rich diversity of cultures, foods, and religions that have shaped the 50-year-old nation. But, McAdams worries, this successful mixture is threatened by a trend toward cultural separatism.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Fishbein reviews Dave Eggers’ What Is the What, the retelling of Valentino Achak Deng’s struggle to come of age in the midst of Sudan’s civil wars. In Eggers’ account, Deng has been victimized in his adopted country — the United States — as badly, perhaps even worse than, he was in Sudan. Here, he is invisible, negligible, leaving readers desperate “to rekindle belief in humanity,” as Fishbein eloquently puts it.

Rounding out this month’s pieces is an eclectic collection of poems by Gaia Holmes about Summer heat, moths in the moonlight … and the mysteries of love, life, and longing.

Happy reading!

Laura Nathan-Garner

My dog is overweight, the vet tells me. I need to put him on a diet. I alternate between feeling guilty and asking myself how this happened. I know the answer, of course: I cannot say no. More treats equal a happier dog. Who wouldn’t want that?

As the contributors to this big fat issue of InTheFray reveal, my dog and I are not alone in our struggle to cut the flab. This month we get the skinny on our culture’s problems with fat, in its many manifestations. We begin with Eric Chang’s look at how our big fat stupid genes — The invisible enemy — influence body type and hinder us from willing to be skinnier. Sometimes, extra weight comes from pregnancy, which leaves some people asking, “Is pregnant fat?” as Karen Walasek’s visual essay does.

Of course, as Sarah M. Seltzer points out in Knocking the weight, sometimes neither genes not willpower nor reproduction determine the shape our bodies take — or other people’s perceptions of our physiques. Other times, as Katherine Roff suggests in her review of Wally Lamb’s novel She’s Come Undone, shouldering The weight of the world can make eating seem like our only means of survival. But often, as Pris Campbell suggests in her poem Runway, few things are as seductive as the possibility of emaciation.

Our bodies aren’t the only things many of us wish were skinnier. Summer Batte dreams of slimming down her home but finds her love of “stuff” keeps getting in the way. And, in Cutting down to size, David A. Zimmerman struggles with the allure of being larger than life and the egotistical behaviors it manifests.

Rounding out this month’s stories is Lights, camera, action, ITF Board member Randy Klein’s profile of the Global Action Project, a youth media and leadership organization for New York City teens.

Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy devouring this month’s issue as much as we indulged in putting it together!

Laura Nathan
Editor

Laura Nathan-Garner

With the sun out and the flowers in bloom, our eyes often seem to be wide open. But spring is the season for letting our minds wander.

In this issue of InTheFray, we take a look at some of the places to which our wits venture. We begin with our trip to A desert of dreams, where ITF Contributing Writer Penny Newbury learns about the Burning Man festival and the ups and downs of an anarchist tradition in her review of Brian Doherty’s This is Burning Man. We then turn to Happy little poem, Miles J. Bell’s take on a factory worker’s longing for “a long lie down.”

Finally, if you haven’t done so lately, we invite you to check out our blogs, which are now in full bloom.

Thanks for reading!

Laura Nathan
Editor
InTheFray

Laura Nathan-Garner

Moving on. We all do at some point, often reluctantly. In this issue of InTheFray, we offer four perspectives on the timelessness of age, four flashbacks of a world that was and insights on the world that is.

ITF Travel Editor Michelle Caswell begins with advice on where not to spend your 30th birthday — unless, of course, you need A bad day in Cambodia to realize that aging isn’t half bad compared to living under the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime. Speaking of getting older, ITF Contributing Writer Rhian Kohashi O’Rourke discovers that a woman with a head of white hair is not nearly as obsolete as young women fretting over that dreaded First gray hair seem to think.

We then turn to ITF Copy Chief Erin Marie Daly, who finds what has been lost in the world of digital music and, in the process, uncovers relics of the past in one of New York’s newest treasures, The Vintage DJ. And in Guatemala, James Rodriguez captures the pain and closure felt by families who lost relatives in the country’s 36-year internal conflict when they finally receive the deceased’s remains after a two-year wait.

Rounding out this month’s issue, Terry Lowenstein waxes poetic about the past and present while perusing a family photo album, observing fashion trends, and making the daily commute.

Coming next month: ITF’s take on the changing shape of language in the 21st century.

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

With Valentine’s Day looming, February greets us with commercials reminding us to buy timeless gifts — diamonds, anyone? — for our sweeties. But some of the most timeless presents cannot fit into a jewelry box or be gift-wrapped. And though some may have been mined as recently as the diamonds Zales wants to sell you, many come from another era and don’t sport a price tag.

In this issue of InTheFray we explore relics of the past and their value to the present. We begin in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, where Sasha Vasilyuk treats us to some Russian intellectual football, better known as “KVN,” a game show of comedy and music sketches in which Russian immigrants participate to hold onto a fragment of their past. In Detroit, Scott Hocking and Clinton Snider look at the city’s cyclical nature, from wasteland to thriving metropolitan area, to deserted area, to booming urban centre. In RELICS, their art installation, the two ask how long it takes the old to be forgotten. Meanwhile, across the pond, Jacquelin Cangro discovers Giants among us on a visit to Postman’s Park, where everyday people’s achievements are commemorated.

We then offer three different relics of love: ITF Literary Editor Annette Hyder and ITF Contributing Editor Kenji Mizumori’s Mixed Media Valentines to loves come and gone; a quilt that Rachel Van Thyn’s mother put together One piece at a time, using squares spanning three generations; and Jen Karetnick’s musings On vintage handkerchiefs passed down by her grandmother.

Rounding out this month’s stories is ITF Travel Editor Michelle Caswell’s interview with Easily angered activist Tom Hayden, who shares a veteran critic’s insight on the Iraq War, desegregation, political apathy, and making a difference.

Enjoy!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner

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With Saddam Hussein’s recent execution, we have been promised that the former dictator’s end spells the dawn of democracy in Iraq. Yet Hussein continues to haunt Iraq, from the Kurds who remain tormented by their inability to convict the dictator of genocide, to the sectarian violence engulfing the country. From the martyrs to the victims to the criminals to ordinary people, the past infiltrates the present, not just in Iraq, but around the world as we embark on 2007.

In this issue of ITF, we inaugurate our new site, InTheFray.ORG, with the publication of more of the high-quality, inspiring, and groundbreaking writing and art you have come to associate with ITF. Here we examine the many ways the past informs the present.

We begin in New York, where Vidya Padmanabhan discovers how cabbies — many homesick for their native India or Pakistan — find belonging and business advice in the city’s Cabbie joints, South Asian restaurants. And in Brooklyn, a former police officer’s granddaughter grows nostalgic for accountability and responsibility as Alexis Clark considers the police brutality responsible for Sean Bell’s death in Lead by example.

Afterwards, we visit Chicago’s north shore, where Beth Rooney captures the colorful lives of African refugees as they attempt to rebuild their war-torn lives on a Strange shore. Halfway across the globe, Melissa Lambert sees a civil war’s toll when she ventures On the edge of Mozambique, where rebuilding remains a complicated process, one that breathes life, however mysteriously, into tourists’ fantasies of beauty and belonging.

Reflecting on the roots of her own ignorance about Africa, OFF THE SHELF Editor Nicole Pezold reviews Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s book New News Out of Africa. As she reveals how many of the continent’s countries are embracing democracy and eliminating poverty and disease, Hunter-Gault offers strategies for the media to highlight the “real” Africa.

Meanwhile, in Amman, Jordan, Best of ITF So Far writer Rhian Kohashi O’Rourke takes A sip of Egyptian Tea as she recounts how an older doorman finds humor and camaraderie in a young, clumsy American woman. Back in the United States, Larry Jaffe, the International Readings Coordinator for the United Nations Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry program and the Co-Founder of Poets for Peace/United Poets Coalition, reflects on growing up Jewish in Sub Urban America and muses on the intolerance and ignorance that loom today. Speaking of coming of age, Megan Hauser reminisces about the realities of using optical illusions to protect herself in Bad eyewear can mark a child.

Rounding out this month’s stories and launching our newest department — the Activist’s Corner — is Folklore photography, former ITF Travel Editor Anju Mary Paul’s interview with photographer Martha Cooper about documenting urban culture and using the camera to inform, transform, and inspire awareness and change. Each month the Activist’s Corner will feature an interview concerning the challenges faced by contemporary activists and offer ideas for how busy people can improve their communities. This department will also feature links and other resources from grassroots organizations of interest to you, our readers.

Along with the Activist’s Corner and a more aesthetically pleasing site, InTheFray.ORG allows readers to post their own profiles, connect with other members, set up personal blogs, and upload images and video and audio files. In coming months, we plan to launch additional features, including video and audio podcasts.

Now that we’ve launched the new site, we’re looking for testimonials from readers aboutwhat InTheFray means to them. If you can help us, please emaileditors-at-inthefray-dot-org with any words you want to share. Pleasemake sure to include your full name and city.

We hope you enjoy our new home and encourage you to email us at editors-at-inthefray-dot-org with feedback on the new site.

Happy New Year!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

P.S. We would like to dedicate this new site to Oya Hadimli, a friend of InTheFray, who passed away in November. Thank you for inspiring us with your vision and passion for a world without borders.

Laura Nathan-Garner

Growing up in Texas, I long believed there could never be too much spice — and that everyone shared that belief. But thanks to the northern waiters and waitresses who squint, push their heads forward like geese, and say, “Are you sure you want it extra spicy? It’s going to burn your mouth,” I have learned that testing the limits isn’t always preferable.

In this spice-laden issue of InTheFray, we ask when it’s best to say “when,” and when it’s worth pushing ourselves. We begin with stories about restricting our spice intake: Tran Le Thuy looks at how Iraqis are risking their lives — and concealing their identities — when accepting Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States. Meanwhile, in The spice of life, Rachel Van Thyn watches sugar and spice nearly kill her older sister and learns a valuable lesson about second chances — and eating healthy.

Speaking of second chances, the Amish school shootings give April D. Boland the wake-up call she needs to say that violence against women is no laughing matter in Breaking the silence. And while guest columnist Lyz Baranowski is not offended by Madonna’s use of the crucifix to raise money to combat AIDS in Africa, she sees it for what it is — self-promotion.

Rounding out this month’s stories are three tales of the upside of spice: Poet Jen Karetnick imagines what a food critic might serve up, while Lisa Tae-Ran Schroeder, hoping to discover that which American Chinese restaurants lack, goes Searching for spice on a visit to China’s Sichuan Province.

Finally, in Points of encounter ITF Board member Randy Klein gives us a hint about just how spicy the new ITF site is going to be when we formally launch the Activist’s Corner, our new department,  along with our new design in 2007. He talks with filmmaker Ronit Avni about her documentary Encounter Point and using a video camera to raise awareness about the grassroots efforts of Israelis and Palestinians to forge peace.

We look forward to introducing you to ITF’s new look and feel on January 1. But before we ring in the new year and our new site, we’d like you to vote for your favorite ITF stories of 2006. We will publish them next month in our BEST OF InTheFray 2006 issue. So what are you waiting for? Vote now (and not just for the Best of ITF)!

Laura Nathan
Editor
Buffalo, New York

Laura Nathan-Garner