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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.07

03/24/97 - 04/06/97

CONTENTS


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

    A Man in an Iron Lung Who Turns His Breath into Poetry
    By Mark O'Brien
    Date: 03-25-97
    Mark O'Brien, a 46-year-old poet and journalist, is the subject of the 1997 Oscar-award winning documentary film "Breathing Lessons," directed by Jessica Yu and co-produced by Pacific News Service and Inscrutable Films. O'Brien contracted polio at the age of six and has spent most of the last forty years in an iron lung. His determination to live independently, write and obtain a university degree (he is a graduate of UC Berkeley) gained the support of the then-growing movement for the rights of disabled people. His first book of poems, entitled "Breathing," was published by Little Dog Press in 1987. He is currently completing an autobiography to be published by Kodansha. His Web site is <http://www.pacificnews.org/marko>

    Oscar and Me -- Why America Loves Our Golden Calf
    By Sandy Close
    Date: 03-31-97
    Messages continue to pour in congratulating PNS for co-producing an Oscar award winning documentary. Even strangers gush to learn PNS editor Sandy Close was just in the audience. So what explains the powerful grip Oscar has on our culture? In part, Close writes, we love the gold plated man because he helps us have faith in ourselves.

    A Brujo Admits Future is Too Murky to Foretell
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 04-01-97
    As ripples of fear spread through Los Angeles' immigrant communities on the eve of drastic changes in welfare and immigration laws, a writer decides to consult a "hechicero" -- a Mexican sorcerer. The seer admits his skills have become clouded, but he knows the future is worse on the other side of the border, and discrimination everywhere is on the rise. PNS associate editor Joe Loya is a writer based in Los Angeles who recently completed a prison term for bank robbery. (Second in an occasional series profiling fortune tellers, brujos, diviners and their insights about the future.)


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

    New Nuclear Bomb Enters the Ranks in Resounding Silence
    By William Arkin
    Date: 03-24-97
    The just-completed Clinton-Yeltsin summit included a handshake agreement on numerical reduction of nuclear weapons, though it was noticeably short on details. This could be a good sign, indeed, but PNS commentator William M. Arkin is troubled by the nearly unnoticed appearance of a new nuclear weapon -- the first since the end of the Cold War, and a weapon that could make the Russians feel more threatened than ever. Arkin is a columnist for The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

    Discovery Promises to Change Face of America
    By George Spelvin
    Date: 04-01-97
    - A PNS BONUS APRIL 1ST STORY. Announcement of what may be the long-awaited breakthrough product of the biotech industry has San Franciscans in a whirl. While whirling is not unknown in the region, this time it may be the only possible response, according to extremely knowledgeable sources who don't usually talk to anyone. PNS correspondent George Spelvin is almost always somewhere else.


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

    Rosa's Story -- At Home in the World
    By Ruben Martinez
    Date: 04-04-97
    Whether crossing borders in planes, in cars, or on foot, migrants are driven by dreams that already mark them as part of a global middle class. In the process, they are creating a borderless world where home is Portland, Michoacan. Ruben Martinez is an editor at Pacific News Service. Based in Mexico city, he is working on a "non-fiction novel" about the borderlands for Metropolitan/Holt Books.


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

    Paradise Lost
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 03-31-97
    For over a century, people have come to California in search of paradise only to discover land's end -- "the end of the line." So, too, the 39 people, mainly middle-aged, who came to Rancho Santa Fe, desperate for paradise, and wound up prefering to enter the cool of cyberspace. Unlike the world's great religions, which prepare us for death but do so by teaching us how to live, Heaven's Gate taught its followers only about the afterlife. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father" (Viking-Penguin), is a contributing editor of Harper's and the Los Angeles Sunday Times.


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



    Grunts of Welfare Reform -- Case Workers Bitter About Rule
    By A. Clay Thompson
    Date: 03-27-97
    The voices of the front line soldiers of the welfare system -- social workers and others charged with day-to-day decisions about eligibility for benefits -- have been conspicuously absent in the discussion of welfare reform, perhaps because nobody asked. Though most of these workers are not in danger of losing their jobs, some are bitterly unhappy with the changes. A. Clay Thompson  takes advantage of an insider connection to bring us one caseworker's point of view.



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

    Why Some Young People Join Cults
    By Skye Nelson
    Date: 03-28-97
    On her own at the age of 14, afraid of being alone, a young woman describes what prompted her to join the Unification Church -- and why she finally wound up leaving. Skye Nelson, 17, lives on the streets of San Francisco and writes for YO!, (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

    Annals of Baby-Sitting--The Newest Growth Industry
    Compiled by Caille Millner and Mike Blanding
    Date: 04-02-97
    With welfare programs now requiring mothers to return to work, and support programs of all kinds being cut, baby-sitting may become a growth industry. Reporters Mike Blanding and Caille Millner compiled this report from teenagers, who are on the front line of this smallest scale human service industry. Blanding and Millner are on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a publication by and about young people produced 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 © 1997 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>