Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, the Catholic archbishop of Vienna, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times arguing that while the Church has no objection to "evolution," that does not mean it accepts everything that travels under that name. The Times then ran follow-up stories on whether the Church was turning away from modern science. But the discussion is mired in confusion. The cardinal used some needlessly provocative, and some needlessly obscure, phrasing: "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense--an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection--is not. Any system of thought that denies or seeks to explain away the overwhelming evidence for design in biology is ideology, not science." It should be obvious that "evolution" is not the only word in this passage with a contested meaning. The merits of the cardinal's argument turn also on the meaning of "random" and "design" (to say nothing of "ideology" and "science"). What he is saying, as we read him, is that various natural phenomena suggest, even if they do not prove, the existence of a Creator, and that the Church cannot accept any theory of evolution that precludes the role of Providence in the development of human life. Schonborn's views, as expressed, are compatible with the possibility that God set a process of natural selection in motion for the purpose of creating mankind. The argument from design, theologically ancient, did not presuppose any biological facts that have been disproven. The Church will neither repudiate it nor put God in exile. It is somewhat astonishing that anyone expects otherwise.

Last year I completed a charitable bicycle trip that followed a course across America, then Africa, where I logged more than 7,000 miles from Cairo, Egypt, to Cape Town, South Africa. I gathered many fascinating stories--funny, bittersweet, poignant, all entertaining. Except one.
While in Lilongwe, Malawi, some of the other bike riders, who were White, could not wait to see my reaction when they told me they had learned about a store named Niggers that was in the region. Initially I thought it was a bad joke, but I had to see for myself.
What I found was a store selling what the owner called hip-hop-style clothing. The shop was manned by two gentlemen, one of whom was asleep. I asked the other clerk about the store name. On hearing my obvious non-Malawian accent and figuring out that I was American, the man thumped his chest proudly and said, "P. Diddy New York City! We are the niggers!"
My first inclination was to laugh, because many things in isolation can be humorous. But I then realized that this wasn't funny at all. It was pathetic. I had traveled on these bicycle trips across the United States and through the Motherland in honor of my good friend, mentor and fellow African-American, Kevin Bowser, who died on 9/11. Here I was, riding "home" to honor a Black man who had been a moral compass to me and so many others. I had committed 175 days to spread his spirit of friendship, generosity and love, and what did I encounter? Some Africans calling themselves niggers. They were so proud of the designation that they even put it on their storefront.When I related the story to folks back home in Philadelphia, most of them laughed. Many made excuses, saying, "Weil, we can say it to each other" or "There's a difference" or even "They just spelled it wrong; it should have been niggas or niggahs." As if that would have mattered. There is no way we can possibly rationalize this--it's no joke.
For me the issue is not the spelling. By calling ourselves niggers, we have degraded our people to the point that our mind-set has spread like a cancer, affecting our source, our brothers, our sisters, our Motherland. I have traveled all over the world and have never seen such an insulting, inflammatory word used by a business to represent a people.
I feel partly to blame. Every time I have said the word I condoned it. When 1 neglected to correct others or rationalized its use, I gave it respectability; I allowed others to believe it was okay. Ultimately, when I purchased CDs, DVDs, T-shirts and other merchandise that used the word, I enriched it. I now see the error of my ways. The flame that we call entertainment-which was meant only to warm and divert us--now engulfs us and scorches our self-esteem.
That's why in the future I'm going to think before I speak those words, listen to those lyrics, and purchase that rhetoric in songs. I may like the beats and rhythms, but if artists use the word nigger, I can no longer support them.

CLARA'S GRAND TOUR: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe GLYNIS RIDLEY
For nearly 20 years in the mid-1700s, a 3-ton Indian rhino named Clara traveled Europe--from Rotterdam to Breslau, Naples, Marseilles, and many places in between. Making this an even more amazing achievement is that it happened before railways and modern roads existed. Clara, orphaned when she was only months old, was hand raised by a Dutch merchant in Assam, India. When she was 3 years old, a Dutch sea captain brought her to Europe. There, she became a sensation. In one of the first marketing campaigns of all time, her owner promoted Clara's appearances to peasants and royalty alike. Both came to see her. There were Clara product tie-ins galore: poems, songs, fashions, portraits, etchings, and bronze figurines. Her image adorned everything from tin coins to fine porcelain, and a fortune for the Dutch captain. Ridley, a first-time author, is a professor of 18th-century studies, and as such discusses not just Clara's travels but also diverse subjects including early publishing and the long-term effects of Hannibal's invasion of Italy. This book should please anyone interested in the history of the 18th century or of marketing. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005, 224 p., b&w illus., hardcover

The Travels of a T-Shirt in The Global Economy An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli PhD (John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0 471 64849 3)
Ripped and Torn
Levi's, Latin America and the Blue Jean Dream by Amaranta Wright (Ebury Press ISBN 0 091 900 83 2)
If the self-important 20-word title or the pompous use of the author's doctorate did not tip you off to the ideological bent of US academic Pietra Rivoli, her own summary of her intended purpose in the introduction might. She states that what prompted her to embark on a five-year journey tracking the manufacture and use of a cotton T-shirt was a question from an anti-globalization campaigner. 'Who makes your T-shirt? Was it a child in Vietnam, chained to a sewing machine ... or a young girl from India earning 18 cents per hour ... all in the name of Nike's profits?' Rivoli's initial patrician response to this perfectly reasonable question is to categorize the anti-globalization movement as 'a rag-tag bunch of well-intentioned but ill-informed obstructionists (and) economically illiterate noisemakers.'
It doesn't get any better; the author, without apparent irony, describes slavery in the US as an efficient method whereby slaveholders could avoid fluctuations in labour availability. This amoral approach continues through The Travels of a T-Shirt as Rivoli discusses the massive expansion in Chinese exports of cotton goods as a post-tariff problem for the US economy, rather than as a direct result of US and other global players outsourcing slavery by another name.
Rivoli's bibliography is stuffed with any number of right-wing academic nonentities but there is no sign that she has even read such cogent critics of globalization such as Naomi Klein or George Monbiot. Nor does she engage in the slightest with the people she purports to be in search of; to her they are economic units, not individual lives to be heeded.
Luckily, the perfect riposte to Rivoli's lazy neoliberal nostrums is at hand in Ripped and Torn, which, ironically, had its origins within the belly of the beast. As a young, idealistic writer with experience of Latin America, Amaranta Wright was commissioned by the jeans giant Levi's to travel through the continent, listening to young people in order to help Levi's target the audience and market their product more effectively.
At first, Wright viewed her journey as a subsidized chance to travel and she did her homework diligently, writing reports for Levi's that spoke of the 'segmented youth tribes' and 'consumer hierarchy'. However, as she talked to the young people, she came to realize that their aspirations and dreams could not be crammed into the convenient box marked 'consumer'. Seventeen-year- old Hector told her in Lima: 'We don't want to be like the people in Hollywood films: we want to be like we are, but with a bit more money'; and Lucia in Caracas said: 'Life shouldn't be about having and getting but being and becoming.' Having listened to these eager teenagers, Wright has produced a book that combines vivid reportage with a highly readable history of the political and cultural travails of Latin America.

GRANT, Richard. American nomads; travels with lost conquistadors, mountain men, cowboys, Indians, hoboes, truckers, and bullriders. Grove. 311p. map. bibliog. c2003. 0-8021-4180-3. $14.00. JSA
America seen from the outside is a literary tradition, dating back since before it was a nation. Grant, a British writer with wanderlust in his blood, writes in this tradition. Raised in Kuwait and other exotic places, Grant finds living in one country, like his own England, or even sleeping in the same bed for too long, very confining. In some brilliant descriptions, Grant writes about his own travels by comparing them with travels of American nomads, ranging from modern truck drivers, hoboes and hippies to historical figures from the past like Coronado, DeSoto, Scotch-Irish pioneers, and Native American tribes like the Apaches. It is no wonder that America, founded by people who left their own countries to "settle" here, is filled with people who don't want to settle anywhere. Grant agrees with Rudyard Kipling, who wrote, "there are two types of men: those who stay at home and those who do not," with the caveat that "men" has to be expanded to "people."
Grant is a good writer, but librarians may be concerned that their young readers will be too inspired by his adventures and take off for parts unknown! Nola Theiss, Sanibel, FL
J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.
S--Recommended for senior high school students.
A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.

Can there be any ethnic group more maligned than the Roma in contemporary Europe? Garth Cartwright seeks to dispel distorted, bogus notions of Roma life to reveal the enduring joy, sorrow and pathos at the hear; of Gypsy culture--a vibrant, diverse and evolving culture in which music has always been a crucial driving force. In a style at times reminiscent of Jack Kerouac or Hunter S Thompson, the author wanders through extremes of Balkan post-modernity: he gawks at the 'castle' constructed by Ceca, the widow of fascist warlord Arkan in Serbia; is struck by the optimism and relative freedom of Gypsies in Macedonia; confronts a right-wing, gender-bending Roma pop star called Azis in Bulgaria and winds up with pneumonia in Romania. He notes the failure of Western governments to provide constructive intervention in the horrific ethnic conflicts of the Balkans and explores links between Jewish and Roma communities. Along the way, leading musicians speak of their music and culture with an illuminating openness and honesty. Although Cartwright's account is highly subjective, and readers may tire of the way he ogles women when drunk, the prose is carefully written and keenly observed.

Twilight of Love: Travels With Turgenev Robert Dessaix Shoemaker and Hoard, $24
Following in the footsteps of the great Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev, out Australian author Robert Dessaix takes us to Germany, France, and Russia in search of what exactly Turgenev meant by the word at the core of his life and world love. Though his only direct queer reference is a personal aside about a memorable sexual peccadillo in Paris, Dessaix constructs this literary travelogue with observations and anecdotes that will resonate with any curious queer traveler, Like Edmund White's The Flaneur (an homage to loitering through Paris, aimless yet attuned to history and chance adventure), Twilight of Love revels in the thrill of allowing whim and obsession to unseat the rigid travel agent as arbiter of itinerary.