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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.16

07/28/97 - 08/10/97

CONTENTS


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

    Remembering Betty Shabazz -- To Understand One Death, We Must Know History and Then Move Past It
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 08-05-97
    At PNS we feel the death of Betty Shabazz, widow of Malcolm X, is one of the most important stories of the decade -- and one of the most difficult to get a handle on. For that reason, we are continuing to run commentaries on the subject, although the stories may not be current by conventional formulas. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father" (Viking-Penguin), is a contributing editor of Harper's and the Los Angeles Sunday Times.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    The Other Side of the Population Explosion -- Finding Room for the Dead
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 08-07-97
    Everybody talks about population growth, but little attention is paid to an inevitable byproduct of that problem -- the growing number of dead bodies. Limitations of space, environmental concerns, local laws, even larceny complicate attempts to resolve the situation, according to PNS commentator Walter Truett Anderson. 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.


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

    U.S. Changes Flow of History with New Pipeline Deal
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 08-01-97
    A new set of geo-political winners and losers are emerging in the wake of a decision last month by the Clinton administration to drop opposition to a 2000-mile natural gas pipeline from Central Asia through Turkey across Iran. The winners are the U.S. and Iran. The losers are Russia, Pakistan and -- for now at least -- the Taliban, the ultra-Islamic revolutionary forces in Afghanistan. But the Taliban could wind up reversing the tables and emerging as the biggest winners of all. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, traveled widely in Afghanistan in the late 1950s and has written extensively about the country.


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

    From a Life Expectancy of 28 to 60 -- Measuring India's Advances Over 50 Years of Independence
    By Sanjoy Banerjee
    Date: 07-29-97
    It is fifty years since India won its independence from the British, and its problems are widely advertised. Problems there undeniably are -- with nearly a billion people occupying a land area about a third the size of the United States -- but the second half of the century has witnessed dramatic advances in the quality of life of most Indians, despite the enormous economic reversals suffered during the first half under British colonial rule. PNS commentator Sanjoy Banerjee is professor International Relations in the San Francisco State University.


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

    Car Wars -- The New Rift in San Francisco's Fabric
    By Travis Lea
    Date: 07-28-97
    More than 6,000 cyclists managed to bring San Francisco commuters to a dead stop last Friday evening, an action that illuminated a long-standing controversy in this proud (some would say conceited) city -- just how easy should it be to drive through town. The lines in this battle are clearly drawn and visible; the question is how to find an acceptable path between the opposed forces. Travis Lea is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area young people produced by Pacific News Service.

    In the Heat of the Rush Hour -- City's Response Changes Joyride to Rebellion, Sheep to Wolves
    By Michael Blanding
    Date: 07-28-97
    One participant in the demonstration that stopped San Francisco traffic cold last Friday describes some of the factors that turned participants from innocence to anger in a short time. While the group never conformed fully with city rules, there was an air of joyful following at first; but patronizing talk by city officials and a violent police response may have planted the seeds of a conscious movement. Michael Blanding, a freelance writer, bicycles to and from work.


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

    The Utopia Amendment -- Labor Party Says the Right to a Decent Job Is One of the "Blessings of Liberty"
    By Dick Meister
    Date: 07-31-97
    The government recently announced that unemployment dropped below 5 percent, but critics point to evidence that the real percentages are about twice that. Legislation promising full employment has proved ineffective, so activists in the Labor Party have started a campaign that will make a job at a decent wage a constitutionally guaranteed right. PNS commentator Dick Meister, a freelance columnist in San Francisco, has covered labor and political issues for four decades.

    In Cambodia, The Ghosts of Yesterday Help Explain the Evils of Today
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 08-04-97
    The "tragedy of Cambodia" has been the subject of much comment and analysis, but few have considered what might be called the "spiritual" dimensions of the problem. For those who live in Cambodia -- 9 out of 10 of them in the country, 7 in 10 illiterate -- history, recent and remote, involves the active participation of ghosts. PNS editor Andrew Lam is a short story writer and journalist who lives in San Francisco.

    UPS -- The Rebellion of the Young and Part-time
    By David Bacon
    Date: 08-08-97
    Those Americans who think unions are made up of middle-aged white men should take a second look at who's on the UPS picket lines. Young, multi-racial and militant, a new generation of part-time workers are breathing new life into the Teamsters -- and possibly other unions across the United States. PNS associate editor David Bacon is a former union organizer who writes widely on labor and immigration.


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

    New Arms Race in Both Europe and Asia Means Big Payoff for Major US Firms
    By Thi Lam
    Date: 07-30-97
    As NATO expands in the West and ASEAN expands in the East, both regional security blocs are setting off a race for new arms -- and generating windfall profits for the US defense industry. PNS commentator Thi Lam is a former general in the Republic of South Vietnam and the author of "Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam" (1985).

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