The separation barrier in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis, with graffiti. The 30-foot-high concrete barrier snakes through the neighborhood, separating neighbors, keeping employees from workplaces and children from schools.
Mike Shuster is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent for NPR News. He is based at NPR West, in Culver City, CA. When not traveling outside the U.S., Shuster covers issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim.
Canon-making is a core part of rap fandom, the subject of endless barbershop parleys and message-board battles. But something curdles when the companies that control the music business enter the chat.