JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.09

04/21/97 - 05/04/97

CONTENTS

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

The Poet Ginsberg as a Fair-Sized Crowd-- Why Poetry Endures
By David Reid

Obituaries and memorial services marking the death of Allen Ginsberg suggest something of the strength of his idea that poetry can make things happen. The country's poet laureate, Robert Pinsky, wrote that Ginsberg's "genius for public life should not obscure his genius as an artist or his study of his art," but it is precisely his understanding of the interconnection between public life and art that accounts for his success. California historian David Reid is editor of "Sex, Death and God in L.A." and is at work on "The Brazen Age: 1944-1950."

A Boy, A Dog, A Roof Above Their Heads-- A Tale of True Love
By A. Clay Thompson

Finding an apartment in the city can be hard enough -- finding a place when you have a dog is nearly impossible. PNS commentator A. Clay Thompson explains why the pleasure of his dog's company makes it all worthwhile. Thompson is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a publication by and about Bay Area young people produced by Pacific News Service.

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

A Gender Tug of War -- While Men Migrate to the City, Nepalese Women Work to Save the Village
By Franz Schurmann

The road to development typically involves dramatic migration from countryside to city. But in Nepal, there is a firm pull in the opposite direction and the pull comes from women determined to keep village life viable. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is author of "American Soul" (Mercury Press).

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

Possible Steps to Peace Amid the Tensions of Two Koreas
By Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer

Warnings of war have darkened the already grim picture of conditions in North Korea, and it is difficult to find much reason for optimism in a situation which has persisted for nearly 50 years. Yet there are a few encouraging signs, and with some relatively minor changes in policy and attitude, a peaceful and cooperative Korea might become a reality according to PNS correspondents by Johan Galtung and Dietrich Fischer. Galtung is a professor of peace studies at several universities and director of TRANSCEND, a peace and development network. Fischer, a professor at Pace University, is co-director of TRANSCEND.

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

A Fierce and Beautiful World -- Life on an Alaskan Trapline
By Miki Collins

Full spring marks the end of another trapping season in Alaska's bush country for Miki and Julie Collins, twin sisters who spend four months traveling 10 to 20 miles a day in temperatures ranging from 10 above to 40 below zero. Miki Collins is a handcrafter and writer as well as a trapper; the twin sisters have authored two books: "Trapline Twins" (Alaska Northwest Books), and "Dog Driver: a Guide for the Serious Musher" (Alpine Publications), with a third on the way from Epicenter Press. FOR PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE CALL PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE.

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

Rebellion in Zaire-- Former Cuban Comrades Cast Doubts on Kabila's Rebel Image
By Jean Damu

The leader of rebel forces in Zaire, Laurent Kabila, is often identified in terms of his history of fighting with popular opposition movements for more than 30 years into the past. But interviews with some of those where close to the situation at the time suggest that picture is seriously flawed. Jean Damu is a San Francisco-based freelance writer who is researching a book on the Cuban military brigades in African over the last three decades.

Five Years After Riots -- LAPD Back to Square One
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

When two motorists -- one white, one black -- squared off last month at a Los Angeles traffic light, neither knew the other was a 10 year veteran of the LAPD. The incident left the black motorist dead, and many black officers and black urban residents wondering just how far the city's troubled police department has come in the five years since America's worst urban riots this century. PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "Beyond OJ: Race, Sex and Class Lessons for America." His e-mail address is <ehutchi344@aol.com>.

Peruvian State Terror Dwarfs That of the Terrorists
By Andrew Reding

The success of last week's raid on the Japanese Embassy in Lima is prompting praise from hemispheric leaders -- including President Clinton -- for President Alberto Fujimori's "decisive leadership." A closer look suggests that the Peruvian government applied a level of state terror that only reinforces the accusations made by the terrorists. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute.

Peruvians Should Beware Coming Repression
By Andres Tapia

A Peru-born journalist in the United States, who travels regularly to his home, warns that Peru's military hawks have won the day. The Lima raid marks the opening of a campaign designed to remove any elements that threaten Peru's flourishing economy. PNS associate editor Andres Tapia writes regularly on Peru.

A Letter From the Future -- Fifty Years After the L.A. Riots
By Richard Rodriguez

How will the L.A. riots of 1992 be remembered fifty years from now? PNS editor Richard Rodriguez writes from the vantage point of 2042 that the riots marked a turning point in how the city understood itself. Rodriguez, the author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father" (Viking), is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times opinion pages.

Five Years After L.A. Riots-- Fear of Police Still Haunts Black America
By Michael Datcher

It is five years since four Los Angeles police officers were found not guilty of charges connected with the Rodney King case, a verdict which sparked the worst civil unrest seen in the United States in a century. Since then little has changed in the forces underlying that disturbance, forces well explained in this account of life as a black man in the Los Angeles area. PNS commentator Michael Datcher is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and co-editor of "Tough Love: The Life and Death of Tupac Shakur."

As Crime Drops Experts Backpedal -- Where Have the "Super Predators" Gone?
By Vincent Schiraldi and Mark Kappelhoff

Recent Justice Dept. figures showing a distinct drop in juvenile crime have evidently surprised some experts who predicted a new wave of superpredators would sweep through the country in a "bloodbath of teen violence." Their sudden change of tone would be amusing -- except that their rhetoric has served, and is still serving, to justify particularly harsh treatment of young offenders. Vincent Schiraldi is director of the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, DC. Mark Kappelhoff is legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.

YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

The Secret Language of Pagers-- Revealed!
By Lyn Duff

Teens today claim that you have to have a pager if you're going to have a social life. Parents everywhere are sighing as pagers start beeping at dinner and on family outings -- but what they don't appreciate is the complicated language of pager codes that young people have developed to allow them to communicate. Lyn Duff is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a publication by and about young people produced by Pacific News Service.

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