JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 2.07

03/24/96 - 04/06/96

CONTENTS

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

Soil and Water -- Californians Redefine Idea of Who is American
By Richard Rodriguez

Americans have always viewed our soil as special -- just being born on the land entitles you to citizenship. Strangers on the land are entitled to certain civil and human rights. But public reactions to last week's beating by sheriff's deputies of undocumented Mexicans in southern California suggests Americans are tiring of this ideal. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez is author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father" (Viking-Penguin) and a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion.

Challenging High-Tech Giant --
California Unions Up in Arms Over Move to Oust Labor Department Official
By David Bacon

The AFL-CIO has publicly endorsed President Clinton's re-election but California unions are up in arms over a Labor Department decision to suspend -- and possibly oust -- a key official for reportedly siding with the Justice for Janitors campaign. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes on immigration and labor issues.

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

Legalizing Drugs a Death Knell for Black America
By Michael Datcher

Most proponents of legalizing drugs emphasize the urgency of cutting the spiraling costs of criminal justice while taking the profits out of the drug trade. Others stress freeing up the disproportionate number of young black men currently incarcerated on drug-related charges. Largely ignored is the impact drug legalization would have on the street, where some activists worry it will simply favor the corporate pusher over the local dealer and cripple whole communities. PNS commentator Michael Datcher is a Los Angeles-based writer and reporter for the L.A. Sentinel.

Turning the Lens on Ourselves --
Why Latino Activists Must Go Beyond Defensive Mode
By Gregory Rodriguez

The savage beating of undocumented immigrants by sheriff's deputies in Southern California has triggered protests by Latino and civil rights activists across California. But defensive mode politics belongs to an old era when Latinos were a beleaguered minority. As the burgeoning majority in Los Angeles, for example, Latinos need to focus less on how others treat them and more on how they treat each other. PNS associate editor Gregory Rodriguez is a fellow of the Alto California Research Center and the Pepperdine Institute for Public Policy.

HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

Beware Human Rights Crusade that Leads to Demonization
By Franz Schurmann

Uncle Sam is on a values crusade abroad, promoting democracy and human rights while damning terrorism and drugs. The public should beware when the values crusade coincides with a demonizing crusade that divides the world into good guys versus bad guys. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, author of "The Logic of World Power" and other books on foreign affairs, is professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

VECTORS: A Regular Column on the Ideas and Directions Behind Today's News

Cyber-Imperialism in South Asia -- Echoes of the British Raj
By Andrew Robinson

The Internet is extolled in the West for leveling the playing field between the First and the Third Worlds. But much like the vast bureaucratic maze created to facilitate communications under the British Raj, cyberspace in South Asia is mutating from global village into imperial empire. PNS correspondent Andrew Robinson, a freelance writer based in South Asia, is author of a new book of short stories to be published by HarperCollins.

Who Says It's the End of Ideology?
Cyberism -- the Creed of Information -- Claiming Converts
By Walter Truett Anderson

As voter turnout continues its downward spiral, the one group on the political spectrum brimming with the sense that they own the future are cyberists -- those who embrace the new creed of information called cyberism. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, author of the new book "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be" (W.H. Freeman), is a political scientist who writes widely on technology and global governance.

Clinton's Achilles Heel --
U.S. Foreign Policy Messes Evoke Growing Unease
By Franz Schurmann

Polls show President Clinton with a big lead over Bob Dole in the presidential race. But foreign policy messes are piling up that could erode Clinton's leadership image. The sense is spreading that the victory the U.S. won in the cold war is slipping from Clinton's insecure grasp. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, author of "The Logic of World Power" and other books on foreign affairs, is professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.

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

Letter from Antigua --
As Long Night Ends Guatemalans Grapple with Civil Paralysis
By Mary Jo McConahay

Fear still rules the hearts of many Guatemalans, despite visible signs the country is moving towards a democratic structure and the end of 35 years of civil war. The psychological effects of the "long night" are much harder to eliminate than the fighting itself. PNS Central America editor Mary Jo McConahay has lived and worked in Guatemala for over a decade.

YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

Hipsters Grooving Across the Generations
By Travis Lea

Despite a widening generation gap, groovesters young and old are finding common ground in each others' music. Generation-Xer's are finding a new appreciation for smooth crooners -- once the social and musical antithesis of raging rock-'n-rollers. Even more significant is the boundary crossing moves of sixties avant-garde jazz and seventies funk fusions. PNS commentator Travis Lea is a staff reporter for YO! Youth Outlook, a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

Pacific News Service, 660 Market Street, Room 210, San Francisco, CA 94104, tel: (415) 438-4755.
Jinn Magazine: <http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/>
Email: <pacificnews@pacificnews.org>

Copyright © 1996 Pacific News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Please do not reprint our stories without our permission.
Our articles are available for reprint. For rates and information, call (415) 438-4755 or send e-mail to (415) 438-4755 or at <pacificnews@pacificnews.org>