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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.08

04/07/97 - 04/20/97

CONTENTS


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

    Perils of Celebrity -- "Winning an Oscar Beats Being in an ICU"
    By Mark B'Brien
    Date: 04-10-97
    As the subject of an Academy Award-winning documentary, "Breathing Lessons," Mark O'Brien has been faced with the pitfalls of celebrity in recent weeks, especially the media's tendency to believe that only brave disabled people escape from nursing homes. But it also enabled him to imagine God in a tuxedo. 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.

    A Public Course Win -- Tiger's Victory Marks a New Stage in Cultural History
    By Andrea Lewis
    Date: 04-16-97
    Tiger Woods' extraordinary victory in the Master's tournament crosses a number of lines -- between the genteel and the popular, between a black and white view of race and the multiracial reality. PNS editor Andrea Lewis offers a public course and private course view of the game of golf, and suggests admiration of Woods may mark the start of a new cultural understanding.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    "I Never Had It Made" -- The Real Jackie Robinson Story
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
    Date: 04-07-97
    On the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first appearance in a major league baseball game -- breaking a solid color line -- President Clinton is expected to add his contribution to the self-congratulatory rhetoric of the hour. But the reality of Robinson's life left the hero of the hour himself in a position that was anything but celebratory. PNS correspondent Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "Beyond OJ: Race. Sex and Class Lessons for America."


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

    A Frontier Town in the Strawberry Labor Wars
    By David Bacon
    Date: 04-15-97
    Watsonville California, tucked into a corner of the California coast between Monterey and Santa Cruz, is usually an almost invisible town. But it is an important center of strawberry production, and on a recent Sunday, some 30,000 people found their way to the town to show support for the first major farmworker organizing drive in many years. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes on immigration and labor issues. The photographs are available from Pacific News Service.

    A 15-Year-Old Guatemalan Sweatshop Worker Explains -- Why I Can't Lose My Job
    By Myra Esperanza Mejia, as Told to Mary Jo McConahay
    Date: 04-18-97
    A new code of conduct designed to curb sweatshop abuses by apparel manufacturers includes a prohibition on using workers younger than 15. Yet for Myra Esperanza Mejia, who started working at 13, loss of her job would have left her family without shelter or food. Her biggest complaint is that young people under 15 get less pay than older women even though they work just as hard. PNS associate editor Mary Jo McConahay compiled the following essay from three lengthy conversations with Myra Esperanza Mejia, a 15-year-old seamstress in Guatelama City. PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH PNS.


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

    HUD's Hope -- In Willie Brown's City Exodus of Black Residents Accelerates
    By Peter Byrne
    Date: 04-10-97
    San Francisco, a town long known for its diversity, and liberal politics, elected a black mayor for the first time in 1996. Yet, one year after his election, the administration of Willie Brown is vigorously pursuing policies that are pushing members of the mayor's most loyal constituency out of town. PNS corespondent Peter Byrne is publisher of the San Francisco Investigator, a monthly newsletter which examines city politics and finance. He has worked as a consultant and organizer in public housing for ten years.


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

    Denizens -- The Aliens Who Become De Facto Citizens of the World
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 04-17-97
    "Denizenship" is a term coined by legal scholars to reflect people residing in a country who are not exactly citizens, but who are not foreigners either. Many of them came as refugees or guest workers, but as their stay grows longer, host countries are struggling to define their official place in society. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, author of "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be" (W.H. Freeman), is a political scientist who writes widely on technology and global governance.


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

    It Can't Happen Here-- Union Representation Election Mocks the Democratic Process
    By David Bacon
    Date: 04-08-97
    From grade school on, Americans are encouraged to understand and participate in the democratic process on one level or another, and it is our proud boast that we live in a country where people are free to choose. This may make it hard to understand the undemocratic corners of our society -- to see just how difficult and risky it is to exercise choice in some situations. A recent union representation election at a videotape factory provides an excellent case in point. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes on immigration and labor issues.

    Blink, Please, Grandma, Blink
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 04-09-97
    For one immigrant family -- legal, hardworking moderately successful, taxpayers and citizens -- the future hangs on the blink of an eye or the nod of a head. Their story illustrates the cruel effects of the changes in immigration law, a cruelty which is the inevitable result of turning our backs on our own history. PNS editor Andrew Lam is a short story writer and journalist who lives in San Francisco.

    Why Arabs Feel Demeaned by Peace Process
    By Rami Khouri
    Date: 04-14-97
    When many in Jordan and the Arab world weigh the seemingly small gains of the peace process -- and watch the Israeli bulldozers working in Jerusalem -- they do not just see a frightening vision of the future. They see the failed ghosts of their demeaning pasts. PNS commentator Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, writes a regular column from Amman.


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

    Godzilla's Legacy Survives His Creator
    By Patrick Macias
    Date: 04-11-97
    Godzilla's creator, Tomoyuki Tanaka, died this month at age 86, but the Great One is slated to make a comeback in his first-ever wholly American film. For one devoted fan, the sight of a "real" monster rampaging on the silver screen will be a welcome relief after twisters, volcanoes and anacondas. Patrick Macias is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area teens produced by Pacific News Service.

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