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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.10

05/05/97 - 05/18/97

CONTENTS


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

    Harsher Treatment for Juveniles Compounds the Felony
    By David Gaither
    Date: 05-14-97
    The idea of rehabilitation, fast disappearing from discussions of adult crime, now seems to be losing ground even with respect to offenders as young as 13. One such offender, spared from prison and soon to be a college graduate, suggests that legislation now before Congress mandating more punitive treatment of juveniles will not only breed more trouble but compounds the crimes of neglect already visited on our youngest citizens. David Gaither is a senior at Howard University.

    A Commencement Message for English Majors -- How to Live By the Word
    By Mark O'Brien
    Date: 05-16-97
    Mark O'Brien, disabled by polio at the age of six, has spent forty of his 46 years in an iron lung. A writer and poet who graduated from the University of California in 1982, O'Brien returned to campus this month to give the commencement address to graduates of the English Department. Author of two books of poetry and a forthcoming autobiography, "How I Became A Human Being" (Kadansha Press, 1998), he is the subject of the 1997 Oscar-winning documentary "Breathing Lessons" (Inscrutable Films in collaboration with Pacific News Service). A photo of Mr. O'Brien is available from PNS (415-243-4364).


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

    Christianity's Third Force -- Pentecostals Return to "Scandalous" Roots
    By Dan Ramirez
    Date: 05-13-97
    After many years in their separate wildernesses, Pentecostal churches are returning to their original vision of inclusion across racial and cultural lines -- a vision critics once branded as heretical. Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, commemorates the appearance of the Holy Spirit before the Apostles, and the Pentecostal movement is especially concerned with the Spirit, and uninhibited celebration of it. Though it was founded less than 100 years ago, the movement now numbers some 400 million adherents. PNS commentator Dan Ramirez, pursuing a Ph.D. in Religion at Duke University, belongs to the Apostolica Iglesia in East Palo Alto.


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

    Clinton Trip Highlights Mexico's Patronage Status
    By Andrew Reding
    Date: 05-08-97
    President Clinton took pains to emphasize Mexico's sovereign status during his first visit there. Yet the overall effect of his trip was to patronize Mexico all over again. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute.


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

    Gleanings From the New California Media
    Edited By Andrea Lewis and Franz Schurmann
    Date: 05-15-97
    As non-white immigrants as well as native born ethnic minorities make up an ever greater share of California's population, the ethnic press (both foreign and English language) plays an ever more important role in informing citizens of the state. What stories and ideas are circulating in these newspapers? A network of over 50 ethnic media editors from California -- called the New California Media -- help PNS compile a monthly column of gleanings from this vital but often overlooked segment of the news media.


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

    Promotores -- A New Breed of Health Care Provider in Post-Welfare U.S.
    By Samuel Orozco
    Date: 05-09-97
    In China they are known as "barefoot doctors"; in Latin America, they are "promotores" or health promoters. In the U.S., a similar breed of health care provider, often with only a six-week training course at a local clinic, is working to stretch the health care safety net to those communities in greatest need. PNS correspondent Samuel Orozco recently visited the Opening Doors project of the Community Health of South Dade which trains and oversees health promoters working with migrant farm workers in the Everglades. In June health care providers from around the country will meet in New York City, sponsored by a number of foundations, to evaluate the role of these projects in the post-welfare era. PNS correspondent Samuel Orozco is a Kaiser media fellow and news director of Radio Bilingue, a Spanish language radio station based in Fresno, CA. PNS HAS PHOTOGRAPHS FOR THIS ARTICLE. CALL 415-243-4364 FOR MORE INFORMATION.


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

    Time is Running Out for North Korea
    By Thi Lam
    Date: 05-06-97
    News of widespread hunger, and of potential famine, in North Korea has brought new tension to relations between the two hostile halves of that country. Both seem to have struck immovably hard postures -- the South unwilling to provide needed food aid without political concessions; the North refusing to ask for anything. PNS commentator Thi Lam suggests that even in the short run the North will have to undergo basic changes if its people are to survive. Lam, a former general in the Republic of South Vietnam, is the author of "Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam" (1985).

    It Takes a Mother to Raise a Village
    By Grace Manning-Orenstein
    Date: 05-07-97
    Historically mothers have gotten most of the blame when things go wrong with their children, and very little recognition when things go well. Now, the notion that it takes a village to raise a child, though well intended, again makes the role of mothering invisible, argues Grace Manning-Orenstein, Ph.D., a family therapist in Albany, California. THIS IS THE FIRST OF TWO ARTICLE ON MOTHERS DAY. SEE "PNS-MOM"


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

    Challenge for the Hip Hop Generation-- Creating Family
    By Jeannine Etter
    Date: 05-05-97
    The new term "baby mama," as in "That's my baby mama," symbolizes how fragmented family relationships have become for young African Americans. Marriage used to mean the uniting of two families, but, living in the aftermath of slavery and the struggles of subsequent decades, few in the hip hop generation have a healthy sense of love and commitment. What's needed now is community support and individual efforts to teach young people how to have strong relationships. Jeannine Etter is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.

    Dear Mom -- Why Do You Hate Me?
    By Rachel B.
    Date: 05-07-97
    A young woman who used to be best friends with her mom now writes a letter because her mom will no longer talk to her, even by phone. Rachel B. lives on the streets of San Francisco and writes for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people produced by Pacific News Service.

    Spiritual Fallout -- Passing Comet Strikes Profound Chords in Young People
    By Malcolm Marshall
    Date: 05-12-97
    As the Hale-Bopp Comet very slowly fades into invisibility in our hemisphere, it is possible to speculate on the lasting effects -- if any -- of the phenomenon. One interesting set of reactions has little to do with astronomy: the comet seems to have brought a deep spiritual response in many young people. Malcolm Marshall is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area teens produced by Pacific News Service.

    You Don't Have to be Old to Dig the Cocktail Nation
    By Gabrielle Turner
    Date: 05-12-97
    Will hep return? The reet pleat and the big beat? Is the new generation looking for the perfect martini and slow flirtation? PNS commentator Gabrielle Turner, not quite old enough to order a Cosmopolitan but otherwise with it all the way, explores these questions. Turner is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area young people produced by Pacific News Service.

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