JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.14

06/30/97 - 07/13/97

CONTENTS

HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

Minor-League Cannibalism -- Tyson's Violence Represents the Beast Within All of Us
By Joe Loya

Disgust and a chilly superiority have marked the response to Mike Tyson's use of his teeth in a boxing match. This may be reassuring, but PNS commentator Joe Loya, speaking from direct experience, suggests we might be better advised to realize that there is something of all of us in Tyson's action. Loya is a writer based in Los Angeles who recently completed a prison term for bank robbery.

Once They Straddled the Line Between Animal and Angel -- Why Today's Athletes are Becoming Brutes
By Richard Rodriguez

Athletes have always straddled the line between animal and angel. But it was their self-control -- the poetry of body and spirit exemplified by the wrestler, the runner, the boxer -- that writers have long celebrated. Last week, the spectacle of Mike Tyson biting his opponent revealed how the brutishness of the streets has invaded the sports arena. While Americans were shocked by the bite, we barely noticed the riot after the fight. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez is author of "Days of Obligation" (Viking) and a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Times Sunday Opinion.

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

Hand Back, Not Hand Over -- Hong Kong Offers New Lessons in Living History
By Sandy Close

At times, history is not a matter of dates and rulers, wars and treaties, but an essential element of the fabric of everyday life. The transition in Hong Kong is just such a time for the people there, and an analysis that does not address this fact is fated to misunderstand the occasion. PNS editor Sandy Close worked and lived in Hong Kong some 30 years ago, and returned there to witness the the "hand-back" to China.

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

Among the Waiapi -- Intesely Local Solutions may Offer Only Weapons for Fighting Intensely Global Problems
By Mary Jo McConahay

The Waiapi, an indigenous group in the Amazon jungle, was almost destroyed following first contacts with the outside world in the 1970s. Now they have found a way to protect the rain forest which may let them survive. The action was pushed along by measures taken at the Earth Summit of 1992, but five years later the story of the Waiapi shows that any gains rest on very fragile ground.

Mexico City Heralds Rise of Aztec Sun
By Andrew Reding

The big winner in Mexico's election literally embodies the emergence of a new leadership in the country -- darker-skinned and less likely to follow directives from Washington. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, who now holds the second most powerful office in the country, has a distinct relationship with the country's impoverished majority, one that begins with their respect for his father and has grown through a series of direct personal contact. PNS associate editor Andrew Reding, a freelance writer specializing in Latin America, writes for Newsday, the Miami Herald and other publications.

Jubilation and Optimism -- Mexico's Political Shift Only One Sign of Profound Change
By Ruben Martinez

The vote in Mexico, which seems to signal the fall of the hemisphere's longest-lived political regime, has brought a feeling of optimism in a generally bleak time. In an important sense, the election results are not so much the mark of dramatic change as they are a sign that the political sphere is catching up with the cultural complexity that is Mexico. Commentator Ruben Martinez, an editor at Pacific News Service, lives in Mexico City, where he is finishing a book for Metropolitan/Holt on life and death in the borderlands.

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

Gleanings from the New California Media
Edited By Andrea Quong and Franz Schurmann

In California, as in the country as a whole, an increasing number of citizens see themselves in part in terms of national or ethnic identity, and turn to the ethnic press (in both English and other languages) for news and comment. To offer a taste of the stories and ideas circulating in this overlooked section of the media, PNS offers a monthly column of gleanings from California ethnic publications with the help of a network of over 50 editors.

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