WHC NEWS
Re: World Haiku Review's Virtual Resurrection
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From: Susumu Takiguchi
18 January 2007
Dear Kuyu,
Re: World Haiku Review's Virtual Resurrection: http://www.worldhaikureview.org
The World Haiku Club is pleased to announce that its comprehensive world-wide online magazine, World Haiku Review (WHR), has been resurrected virtually, both in a literal and cyberspace senses.
In the absence of a webmaster to succeed WHR's former Editor-in-Chief and Webmaster, Debi Bender (now Deputy-Chairman of WHC), the magazine's position has been threatened. As a person ultimately responsible for WHC's activities, I felt towards the New Year's Eve that I needed to make a hard decision about the future of WHR and let everybody know. The bet was very much heavily on its closure, even though, after all is said and done, the only problem was the mere lack of a webmaster! That is the element which could have made this an unnecessary tragedy.
The Oriental Express would not run without an engine driver. The Titanic could not have even reached the icebergs without a captain. A jumbo jet would not take off without its pilot. Where is a webmaster, or 'the' webmaster for WHR?
I am a completely, utterly and totally non-technical person and that has been a kind of time-bomb, leaving WHR vulnerable and open to danger. In an artificially technology-orientated world, the techno-idiot or techno-illiterate has no place. Were I half technically capable as the average members of WHC, there would not have been any problem at all with WHR.
Then, what I can only term as a divine intervention occurred. On the New Year's Eve I hit upon an idea of using a Yahoo! mailing list as a temporary parking place for WHR's contents until a webmaster is found. Then, out of what I confess to be an act of sheer desperation, I have been tinkering and toying with the blog system, or, more precisely, what I could make very much of the most of whatever limited tools the blog had to offer, after some of my friends' concerned but tentative advice. It was like flying an airplane without knowing how to fly, getting married without knowing how to make love or preparing Japanese sashimi without the skills of how to slice slippery fish! However, the blog system is such that I do not need any technical skills or experience. I could do a lot of things without having any technical know-how. Vive la Google!
Please click on the URL I gave you above (well, I can repeat here: http://www.worldhaikureview.org ) to see what sort of sashimi, or love-making is waiting for you to savour. I have also managed to have the same cover page design and illustration which Debi Bender has had worked so hard to establish. This one is not a temporary or stop-gap vehicle of WHR but IS WHR itself.
I will put much less materials in an issue and hope to publish WHR more frequently with slimmer contents. Time permitting, I will envisage the next issue around April 2007. I will just publish when enough materials are available. When materials come later or too much to put in one issue they will be considered for the following issue. Call for submission will be on a on-going basis. I will announce the details in the near future.
One of the reasons why I decided to carry on with WHR was to pay respect to what enormous achievements Debi Bender made and the lack of a webmaster would be a poor and laughable excuse for discontinuing the magazine which she had worked so hard to establish. Thanks, once again, be to Google!
However, the appeal to a would-be webmaster to come forward and create future issues will continue. Also, I cannot emphasise the importance enough of technically-endowed people to discuss and come to viable solutions of how to publish WHR.
Until the webmaster is found, I will doggedly continue to produce WHR without any technical knowledge, skills or experience. All you get will be within my very limited technical capability. Because all along what matters is the contents and not the format on which the magazine is published.
So, please help me to find a suitable webmaster who will be ready, able and willing to take up this exciting and challenging post.
Enjoy!
Susumu Takiguchi
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Susumu Takiguchi (Mr)
Chairman
The World Haiku Club (World Haiku Festival)
http://www.worldhaikuclub.org
Managing Editor & Acting Editor-in-Chief
World Haiku Review & WHCworldhaikureview
http://www.worldhaikureview.org
susumu.takiguchi@btinternet.com (ST e-mail address)
http://www.floatingstone.net (ST Arts & Poetry Site)
http://www.alc.co.jp/com/eigohaiku/index.html (English Haiku Class)
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/ (Go-Shichi-Go Column with the Daily Yomiuri)
Postal Address: WHC HQ, Leys Farm, Rousham, Bicester, Oxfordshire, OX25 4RA, England
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