JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 1.04

12/16/95 - 12/31/95

CONTENTS

VOICES: First-Person Essays Linking the Private to the Public

Not Just a Black Christmas -- Kwanzaa and the Million Man March
By Linn Washington Jr.

A black writer who still remembers his shock as a child seeing his first black Santa Claus ponders the spiritual significance of Kwanzaa. This year, he writes, the Afrocentric holiday founded by Ron Karenga in 1966 will assume greater significance in the wake of the Million Man March, whose core principles Karenga also authored. PNS commentator Linn Washington Jr. is author of "Black Judges on Justice" (New Press 1995).

Rose Bowl Reflections -- Lessons About Winning and Losing From Northwestern's Unlikely Success
By Andres Tapia

Until this year Northwestern University's one claim to football fame was having broken the record for the most games lost among college teams in 1981. Now that the team has made it to the Rose Bowl, renegade fans that once rebelled against the whole ethos of winning are embracing the thrill of winning. PNS associate editor Andres Tapia graduated from Northwestern in 1983. While there he earned a varsity letter playing on NU's Big Ten soccer team.

HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

New Role for CIA -- Spying on Biological Invaders
By Walter Truett Anderson

In the post-Cold War world what people worry more about biological invaders -- diseases, weeds, insects -- than the dangers of a nuclear holocaust. Yet political leaders have been slow to catch on to the brave new world of biological globalization and the threats it poses. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson attended a conference of ecologists and medical scientists in Lisbon on the subject. Anderson is a political scientist who writes widely on issues of the environment and global governance. His newest book, "Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be," will be published in 1996.

THE AMERICAS: The Growing Enmeshment of the U.S. and Latin Worlds

Mexico's Artisans Abandon Their Crafts -- Guitar-Makers of Paracho Compete with Factories of Asia
By Sam Quinones

Thousands of Mexico's artisans are in trouble. Facing a global economy, free trade, stagnant sales and rising raw material costs, they are unprepared to compete. One town famous for its hand-made guitars is falling prey to battalions of cheaper, factory-made guitars from Asia. PNS associate editor Sam Quinones is a freelance reporter based in Mexico City.

CALIFORNIA COLLAGE: California as Trendsetter for the Country and the World

Latinos Making Their Mark Through Unions -- Not Ballot Box
By David Bacon

As California's workers grow younger, poorer and more immigrant, a new generation of Latino union organizers is working to draw them in. They are motivated by a broad vision of union organizing that goes beyond wage and benefit struggles or electoral politics. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on labor and immigration issues.

MOVEMENTS OF THE DISPOSSESSED: Strategies For Survival, Identity and Direction by People on the Margins

A Woman Who Fights Demons on Death Row
By Kathy Dobie

Last month a Jacksonville, Fl., a jury recommended the death sentence for Andrea Jackson, a black woman convicted in the 1982 fatal shooting of a black police officer. If the judge presiding in the case formally sentences her to die in early January, she will be shipped back to death row where she has spent most of the last 13 years. Jackson is one of approximately 270 women living on death row in America. PNS editor Kathy Dobie profiles Jackson as a woman of faith whose life is devoted to turning death row into life row. Dobie writes for Vibe, Vogue, the Village Voice and Salon, the new San Francisco-based online magazine.

CIVIL CONFLICTS: Interpretive Reports on Ethnic, Religious, and Inter-National Conflicts Worldwide

Algeria's Vote a Turning Point for Arab World
By Mamoun Fandy

For the first time in four years of civil war, Algerians have a real chance to end the tragedy that has claimed 40,000 lives. By including Islamist parties in their presidential elections last month, they have also set a model for political inclusion that is bound to influence the rest of the Arab world. PNS commentator Mamoun Fandy, a professor at Georgetown University, writes widely on the Middle East for the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times.

Bosnia Mission Reopens Gulf War Issue of Informed Consent
By Annette Fuentes

On January 12 a special Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses will hold a hearing on the issue of informed consent -- when do troops have the right to know what drugs they're being given and refuse the injections? Thousands of vets are suffering from as yet undiagnosed illnesses many believe stem in part from the drugs. But the issue of informed consent has gained new relevance in light of thousands of new Bosnia-bound troops getting injections. Annette Fuentes is an award-winning investigative reporter who has worked for Newsweek, the Daily News and the Village Voice.

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