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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 4.04

02/16/98 - 03/01/98

CONTENTS


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

    Gulf War Bombing Survivor Questions "Acceptable Damage"
    By Dennis Bernstein
    Date: 02-17-98
    Official announcements of plans to bombard Iraq usually contain a phrase or two about "regrettable civilian casualties." The regret, in reality, is usually felt by the civilians, as a conversation with a survivor of the last US "surgical strike" on Bagdad makes clear. PNS correspondent Dennis Bernstein is a producer for Pacifica Radio and an award winning investigative reporter.

    Message to the Moral Majority: Take Another Look at King David
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 02-24-98
    The continuing high levels of public support for the president in the face of accusations of "immoral" behavior may suggest a more tolerant attitude, not confusion or equivocation. Indeed, notes PNS editor Joe Loya, it may show that people are more familiar with the bible than those who wave it aloft most fiercely. Loya is a California writer currently writing an autobiography.


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

    Delenda Est Iraq -- Why U.S. Is On Warpath Against Saddam
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 02-16-98
    Reports have been circulating that this week is the deadline for Saddam Hussein to surrender or face a U.S. onslaught that could dwarf that of the Gulf War. Iraq is now in the tragic position of having been selected as the place where the U.S. will once again make its power credible. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of U.C. Berkeley, has authored numerous books on international affairs and reads widely in the Arab-language press.

    The Browning of America
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 02-23-98
    From John Hope Franklin to the authors of the newest books on race relations, America thinks in terms of black and white. Yet brown is pushing relentless up from South of the border. Brown -- the color of family secrets, the shade of love -- has always terrified white racists because they allow no complexity or shadings. But increasingly, America grows messy, brown. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, an author and essayist for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, is completing a book on The Color Brown.

    "Cartoon Diplomacy" -- One Step Forward, Maybe Two Steps Back
    By Rami G. Khouri
    Date: 02-23-98
    There is reason for satisfaction and reason for concern in the news from Baghdad. There is also a danger that the Anglo-American approach to Iraq portends future problems, especially if all parties continue to ignore underlying, disintegrative forces in the region. PNS commentator Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, writes a regular column from Amman.

    Shackled Gladiators -- What Do We Call the Opposite of Peace in a Post War World?
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 02-25-98
    We are living in a postwar world -- a world in which the all-out clash of sovereign powers is no longer possible. While violence persists, it is hemmed in with complications, a ponderous dance of shackled gladiators. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson looks at the reasons for this change and ponders what to call the opposite of peace in such a world. 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.


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

    A Woman Warrior Puts Faith in Words -- U.N. Investigates Navajo Removal
    By Jacqueline Keeler
    Date: 02-19-98
    In a clear reversal of the usual international scenario, the United States is being investigated for violation of human rights. The specific charge involves allegations of religious intolerance in the Black Mesa area of Arizona. PNS correspondent Jacqueline Keeler writes that these charges have resonance for her and thousands of Navajo people. Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux works with the American Indian Child Resource Center in Oakland, California. Her work has appeared in Winds of Change, an American Indian journal.

    California Janitors' Long March to Win Labor Rights
    By David Bacon
    Date: 02-27-98
    In what is almost an epic labor struggle, a largely immigrant janitorial workforce in California has upped the ante against one of the state's biggest building service companies and its largest client, Hewlett-Packard. An eleven day march brought 40 janitors to the company's annual shareholders' meeting to demand the right to organize. PNS associate editor David Bacon, a former labor organizer, reports on immigrant and labor related issues. Photos © 1998 by David Bacon


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

    Big Risk in Iraqi Strike -- Losing Pax Americana
    By Peter Dale Scott
    Date: 02-17-98
    President Clinton's decision to launch a campaign against Saddam Hussein, whether or not it translates into real firepower, indicates that one key lesson of the last 50 years has yet to be learned -- when the U.S. acts alone its efforts more often serve to prop up dictators than to topple them. PNS commentator Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat, is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

    Baku Bubbles With Oil Boom and Fractious Politics
    By Thomas Goltz
    Date: 02-26-98
    The new hot spot in the oil business is Baku in Azerbaijan, which hopes to profit considerably from the enormous reserves of oil in the Caspian Basin. One of the few American journalists who really knows the area is Thomas Goltz, who has been filing dispatches in his distinctive style from the region for many years. PNS will offer his pieces from time to time as interest in the region grows. Goltz is the author of "Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic" due out in March from M.E. Sharpe of Armonk, New York.


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

    Twenty-Something Perspectives-- Iraq Creates Some Ripples in Sludge of Campus Life
    By Annie Decker
    Date: 02-20-98
    For months the U.S. buildup against Iraq attracted almost no notice on U.S. campuses, including those at the forefront of anti-war protests in the past. But opposition is beginning to stir, although nothing even vaguely resembling a movement. PNS reporter Annie Decker, a recent Harvard University graduate, surveyed editors at a dozen college campus newspapers, from the Stanford Daily to Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times. This is part of an ongoing series on the politics of the twenty-something generation.

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