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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.06

03/10/97 - 03/23/97

CONTENTS


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

    R.I.P. to Notorious B.I.G. -- The Good Die Mostly Over Bull
    By Charles Jones
    Date: 03-11-97
    A young black hip hop writer tries not to loathe the two rap giants Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. whose preoccupation with death wound up becoming self-fulfilling prophecy. Other rappers chose an alternative -- transcending and transforming the reality of the street through edu-tainment. PNS commentator Charles Jones writes for YO! Youth Outlook, a newspaper by and about young people published by PNS.

    "The English Patient" -- Movie of the Year Ignores the Real (Hybrid) World Outside Hollywood
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 03-19-97
    With 12 Oscar nominations, the film version of the novel "The English Patient" is a clear Hollywood favorite this year. But where the book is a solid example of the new literature of a world where borders are dissolving and identity is no longer tied to one place, the filmmakers have chosen to make a romance in the sand with the usual thoroughly European figures. PNS editor Andrew Lam is a short story writer and journalist who lives in San Francisco.


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

    The Peaceful Continent -- Poverty, Not Ethnicity, Drives Conflict in Zaire
    By Steven Were Omamo
    Date: 03-17-97
    It feels like a familiar story -- ethnic groups clash in civil war in Africa -- but in Zaire, indeed in most of Africa, that story bears little relation to reality. In fact, if ethnic differences alone were sufficient to breed violence, the entire continent would constantly be at war, and most of Africa is at peace. The problem in Zaire is poverty, poverty brought on by 30 years of misrule. PNS correspondent Steven Were Omamo is a writer and agricultural economist based in Nairobi. He is a Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellow at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.


* PACIFIC PULSE: The Pacific Century and Its Impact on the Americas

    Another Casualty of Subway Gassing -- Japan's Falling Out of Love with Sci-Fi
    By Yoichi Shimatsu
    Date: 03-20-97
    In the two years since commuters were overcome by nerve gas in the Tokyo subway, Japan has shown signs of falling out of love with science and technology. The most striking evidence may be the plummeting interest in the once wildly popular science fiction animation films. PNS associate editor Yoichi Shimatsu, a Tokyo-based writer, is former editor of the English language weekly Japan Times.


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

    Whose Country is It? The Other Hostage In Lima is Peru's Middle Class
    By Andres T. Tapia
    Date: 03-13-97
    Peru's hostage crisis comes just as Peru's middle class was beginning to realize their own version of the American dream for the first time in more than a generation. Talking to family and friends in Lima after three years in the U.S., PNS associate editor Andres T. Tapia hears of major changes, sees much that is unchanged, and finds that the seizure of the Japanese ambassadors' residence by Tupac Amaru members raises vital questions about who gains and who loses if Peru stays on its present course. Tapia, who was raised in Peru, covers religion for Christianity Today.

    Selena's Story -- "Pochos" Have Come of Age
    By Gregory Rodriguez
    Date: 03-21-97
    When the Tejano star Selena died, nobody quite knew where to place her culturally. But her tremendous popularity on both sides of the border is a symbol of how hyphenated Mexican-Americans have gone from the margins to the mainstream. PNS associate editor Gregory Rodriguez is a contributing writer to Los Angeles Magazine and the Los Angeles Eastside Sun.


* MOVEMENTS: Strategies For Survival, Identity and Direction by People on the Margins

    PNS Profiles a Spiritual Advisor -- "More About Giving Direction than Making a Profit"
    By Angela Eaton
    Date: 03-12-97
    To an outsider, her work may seem like a mystic mix of candles and costumes, statues and superstition. But for Xosi, an "intuitive counselor," it is a business -- even though making a profit is not always the first order of the day. And it's a business that is booming as people in poorer neighborhoods look to "spiritual advisors" for reassurance in post-welfare times. This is the first of several profiles of brujas, diviners and fortune tellers in the United States, and how they view their clients and themselves. PNS correspondent Angela Eaton is a San Francisco-based freelance journalist.


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

    "The Kiss" -- Why We Love to Hate
    By Nell Bernstein
    Date: 03-18-97
    A new book, a memoir, has been denounced with extraordinary scorn by a number of reviewers and commentators. The strength of these reactions to "The Kiss" by Kathryn Harrison says a great deal about the critics, and about our view of human weakness -- in others and in ourselves. PNS Associate Editor Nell Bernstein writes for national magazines on women's issues and edits YO! (Youth Outlook), a magazine by and about young people published by the Pacific News Service.


* YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

    A Special Report on How Young People View the World After Welfare
    By YO! Staff
    Date: 03-10-97
    Almost no young person interviewed by PNS who grew up on or around welfare had positive things to say about it. "It's like novocaine for a rotten tooth," remarked one teenager from a San Francisco inner-city neighborhood. "It's a form of financial incarceration," offered another. But most now agree that the future -- already uncertain -- suddenly feels a whole lot more so. They are already feeling the consequences of welfare reform -- from the eldest son of a non-English speaking Cambodian family who ponders quitting school to look for a job, to an African-American teenager in Juvenile Hall now determined to make good on his grandmother's sacrifices. The following pieces were written by teenagers who write for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about teenagers published by Pacific News Service.

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