JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 2.14

06/30/96 - 07/13/96

CONTENTS

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

It's the Political System, Stupid!
Why Southern Mexico is Turning into Cauldron of Discontent
Andrew Reding

As desperate peasants throughout southern Mexico take up arms, Mexico's ruling party has responded with repression. Four southern states are now militarized and other states are tinderboxes awaiting a spark. What's fueling the crisis is the failure of the government to guarantee the rule of law. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding, who has travelled widely in Mexico, directs the North America Project of the World Policy Institute at The New School for Social Research, where he is also Senior Fellow for Hemispheric Affairs.

U.S. Needs to Curb Arms Exports Abroad --
Not Just Gun Sales at Home
By Jennifer Washburn

In a bid to curb violence in the U.S., President Clinton advocates a computer tracking system for arms dealers who sell guns to juveniles. He would do well to espouse a Code of Conduct law to tighten controls over U.S. arms exports abroad, at least 85 percent of which go to undemocratic or repressive governments. PNS analyst Jennifer Washburn is a research associate at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City. (This is the first in a special PNS series on global guns.)

World's Most Lethal Arms Race is in Light Weapons
By Michael T. Klare

The world is being inundated with vast quantities of small arms and light weapons and there is strong evidence to suggest that their growing availability is fueling ethnic and internal warfare. Long discounted by arms control experts, the global trafficking in light weapons now poses the gravest threat to international peace and stability. PNS analyst Michael T. Klare teaches peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and is author of "Lethal Commerce: The Global Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons" (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1995). (This is the second of three parts on global guns).

Weapons of Choice on the Street --
The Mouth, God, the Machete
Edited by Sandy Close

In a post-Cold War era inundated with guns, more and more policy makers are scoring guns -- not nuclear bombs or conventional weapons -- as the key threat to world peace and stability. American teenagers who've grown up in violent neighborhoods don't necessarily buy the "ban the gun" argument. Many view guns as tools for staying alive, but at least as many rely on less-lethal weapons. And their chief fear isn't of guns but of the minds of those who wield them. PNS's YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people, surveyed over 60 teenagers in the San Francisco Bay Area, half of whom are currently locked up in county detention facilities. PNS editor Sandy Close compiled their oral and written responses. (This is the third of three articles on global guns.)

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

California Timber Industry Opens Road to Baja's Ancient Forests
By Elisa Adler

Rising some 9,000 feet above the desert between the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez are the old growth forests of the Sierra San Pedro Martir. The forests' days may be numbered, however, as California's timber industry eyes their "pumpkin" trees (worth $3-$4,000 each) and a new law allowing local ejido farmers to sell logging rights to their land. PNS commentator Elisa Adler works on and writes about rural and environmental issues in Mexico and the United States.

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

Other Voices -- Saudi Bomb Attack an Act of Despair
By Abdelrahman Munif

Despair fueled the bomb attack on U.S. soldiers in Dhahran, writes one of the Arab world's foremost novelists -- a despair born of a profoundly unequal relationship between America and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. Unless that imbalance is remedied, fundamentalism will spread and turn violent. PNS commentator Abdelrahman Munif, author of the "Cities of Salt" trilogy, was stripped of his Saudi citizenship for political reasons. Former director of planning for the Syrian Oil Company, he lives in Damascus. This article was translated from Arabic by Peter Theroux, author of "Sandstorms" (W.W. Norton).

HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

Pharming -- A Word to Watch
By Walter Truett Anderson

Pharming is only one of dozens of new words being grafted onto the English language by revolutionary advances in technology. But this one may have a far greater impact on the health and welfare of the world's poorest countries than other advances in science and technology like the computer. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is a political scientist and author of numerous books exploring future trends.

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

New U.S. Surrogate in Mideast -- Turkey
By Franz Schurmann

The bomb attack on U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia is only one ominous sign of escalating violence in the Middle East. And as one result the U.S. is looking increasingly to Turkey as a surrogate power that can keep the region in its orbit. But Turkey's reemergence is anything but reassuring, either to Arab states or Iran. PNS associate editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, reads widely in the Arab and Turkish language news media and has lived and traveled in the Middle East.

YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

Looking For My Pretty Face in the Mirror
Ladie Terry

A young black woman who grew up convinced she was ugly because she was too dark turned to sexy fashions and make-up to find her pretty side. But the short skirts, tight pants and lipstick, for all the attention they attracted, made her feel profoundly uncomfortable. Now she has taken to a different fashion approach and discovered the beautiful face in the mirror is her own. Commentator Ladie Terry writes for YO! (Youth Outlook) and is an editorial assistant for 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>