JINN - THE GENIE OF THE CULTURE
Jinn Home Page | About Jinn | Search | Net-Links
Voices | Heresies | Vectors | Pacific Pulse | The Americas | California | Movements | Civil Conflicts | YO!

JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.12

06/02/97 - 06/15/97

CONTENTS


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

    A Business Professor Transforms How Prisoners Imagine the World
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 06-04-97
    Pat Little taught a course in business to a roomful of convicted felons, but what they learned was a different view of the world -- a view that allowed them to imagine a place for themselves. PNS Associate Editor Joe Loya recently had lunch with his former professor -- far from the campus -- and explains why cutbacks in prison-based education programs can rob inmates of far more than a college degree.


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

    A Revolutionary Vision Drives Afghanistan's Taliban
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 06-02-97
    Most Westerners believe revolution connotes something coming from the progressive left, forgetting that the most revolutionary upheaval to befall the West before recent times was a huge revolution on the right: the Protestant Reformation. Today's most revolutionary movement is that of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Despite last week's defeat at Mazar-i Sharif, its first in three years, the Taliban are driven by a vision with broad appeal to the devoutly religious and impoverished rural peoples of the Muslim world. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, is author of "American Soul" (Mercury Press).

    Stakes in MFN Debate -- U.S. and China -- Friends and Foes at the Same Time
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 06-11-97
    Not since the 1950s has China been the target of such intense hostility in the U.S. as it is today, yet at the same time never has it had more influential friends as well as general public support. While this two-headed policy is likely to survive Congress' upcoming vote on renewing MFN status for China, the U.S. underestimates the Chinese policy of riding with the first blow and then smashing back hard. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of several books on contemporary China, recently returned from a trip to China and Tibet. This is the first of two articles on the MFN debate.


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

    Loophole In the Law California Governor's End Run Around Public on Prisons
    By Vincent Schiraldi
    Date: 06-10-97
    California Governor Pete Wilson has once again suggested whopping increases in state spending on prison construction -- despite the fact that voters have turned down prison bond issues in recent elections. Wilson's plan involves a somewhat creative use of the state's bond-issuing power, according to PNS commentator Vincent Schiraldi, rather than a creative approach to the very real problems in the area of corrections. Schiraldi is director of the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, DC.


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

    Seeking Light in Darkness-- Force Behind the Resurgence of the Black Madonna
    By Colleen O'Connor
    Date: 06-03-97
    From Rio de Janeiro to Oakley, California, Montserrat, Spain to Dayton, Ohio, the figure -- and the idea -- of the Black Madonna is capturing popular interest. On one level, she shows beholders exactly what they want to see. But scholars believe that this striking level of attention may signify a new willingness to search in darkness for the secrets of the soul. PNS correspondent Colleen O'Connor, a former staffer at the Dallas Morning News, Glamour and Mademoiselle, writes regularly on religious issues. A COLOR PHOTOGRAPH OF THE BLACK MADONNA OF EINSIEDELN BY CHINA GALLAND IS AVAILABLE FROM PNS. CALL 415-243-4364.


    Back Pay Award a Bittersweet Victory for Domestic Worker
    By David Bacon
    Date: 06-12-97
    In an era of multi-million-dollar lawsuits, an award of $47,000 may seem insignificant, but this one marks a breakthrough for the most invisible sector of the workforce. The case is a victory for a law office dedicated to defending immigrant workers -- an office which has just been put out of business by funding cuts. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on immigration and labor issues.


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

    Lessons of the Shabazz Tragedy -- A New Generation Hears a Call to Restore the Home
    By David Gaither
    Date: 06-05-97
    Accounts suggesting that the fire which gravely injured Betty Shabazz, the widow of Malcolm X, was deliberately set by her grandson have had a particular impact on young African Americans. For one young man raised to think of Malcolm's words as a major source of empowerment -- and, like Malcolm's family, living through the confusion of a fragmented family life -- the lessons are straightforward. This is the first of two perspectives by young African Americans. PNS commentator David Gaither is a senior at Howard University.

    Lessons of the Shabazz Tragedy -- Rising Above Anger Into the Thinking of God
    By Ladie Terry
    Date: 06-06-97
    A young woman reflects on the troubles of Betty Shabazz's 12-year-old grandson Malcolm. Like Malcolm Shabazz, the author grew up filled with anger and only began to learn how to control it at the age of 22, when she went to the Nation of Islam. Ladie Terry, now 23, attends City College of San Francisco and works as the office manager at Pacific News Service.

    Geronimo -- No Longer the Last Man Standing
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
    Date: 06-13-97
    As America's last major political victim of the 1960s, Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt has haunted the legal establishment for close to thirty years. For some his release from prison suggests a rebirth of left radicalism. In fact, it severs the last tie with the radical movement of the 1960s. 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>.


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

    Three Fathers
    By YO! Staff
    Date: 06-09-97
    The very idea of fatherhood seems endangered in many communities. In this week before Father's Day, three young writers go past the abstractions and describe the roles their real fathers have played in their lives -- a young man whose father stayed away, another whose father was taken away, and a young woman whose father will not let go. Edward Wallace, Douglas Evans, and Thanh Tran are all contributors to YO! (Youth Outlook), the youth newspaper of 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>