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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 4.05

03/02/98 - 03/15/98

CONTENTS


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

    Hillary Clinton Fails Feminist Test for Third World Women
    By Neera Sohoni
    Date: 03-03-98
    In the Third World, where she has traveled widely, Hillary Clinton has become something of an icon of feminism. This makes her "stand by your man" response to allegations that her husband has cheated on her particularly distressing, writes PNS commentator Neera Sohoni from Bombay. Sohoni is a freelance author and writer living in Bombay.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    Showpiece or Scapegoat? Army's Trial of Top Noncom May Signal Old Racism More Than New Sensitivity
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
    Date: 03-02-98
    The continuing court martial of Gene McKinney, the army's top noncommissioned officer, has been hailed as a sign that the military is ready to pay serious attention to questions of sexual  harassment. Yet the fact that no white officers appear to have faced similar charges, writes PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, leaves room to wonder whether the court martial is not simply an example of scapegoating. Hutchinson is the author of including The Assassination of the Black Male Image and the forthcoming The Crisis in Black and Black.


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

    The Death of Privacy and the Birth of Wisdom
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 03-05-98
    The most recent incarnation of the information explosion seems to offer more than we want to know about nearly everyone, including the president. This is not a passing fad, writes PNS editor Walter Truett Anderson, but a sign of the death of privacy -- a death that could, with care, provide a more subtle and realistic view of our political leaders. 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.


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

    The View From Asia -- To Be American Is To Be White
    By Tony Shen
    Date: 03-04-98
    It sounds like a bad joke: a Chinese man turned down for a job in a Chinese country by a Chinese because he looked Chinese. But PNS commentator Tony Shen finds that the idea that an American is a white person prevails in Taiwan much as it does in Kansas City -- with unhappy effects in all places. Shen is a freelance journalist recently returned from an extended stay in Taiwan.

    From Rudeness to Civility -- Vietnam's Revolution in Manners
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 03-10-99
    In Vietnam, a culture of "snatching and grabbing" is giving way to a new civility. But there is reason to wonder whether this will last any longer than any other transformation in this most changeable of countries. PNS Associate Editor Andrew Lam just returned from an extended trip through Thailand, Vietnam and Burma.


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

    Assimilated Acupuncture May Miss the Point
    By Dorothy Chin
    Date: 03-09-98
    In the mix that is "American culture," the line between acceptance and rejection can be hard to cross. But being accepted, writes PNS commentator Dorothy Chin, may have some less-than desirable aspects as well -- as in the case of acupuncture, now viewed by many Americans as the Chinese equivalent to aspirin. Chin is a psychotherapist and writer living in southern California.

    What Books are Relevant to Today's Students? Why Not Ask Them
    By A. Clay Thompson
    Date: 03-13-98
    In San Francisco -- with its highly diverse student population -- a battle has erupted over a school board proposal to require that up to seventy percent of the curriculum consist of works by non-white authors. What do young teachers and youth workers on the front lines of the new California majority think of the proposal? This is the first of three articles today by contributors to Brave New Word, a Pacific News Service-based coalition of writers in their twenties. A. Clay Thompson is a freelance writer and coordinator of The Beat Within, a Pacific News Service/YO! writing program for incarcerated youth. FIRST OF THREE ARTICLES.

    When "Multiculturalism" Means Fighting Over Scraps
    By Josh Parr
    Date: 03-13-98
    In San Francisco -- with its highly diverse student population -- a battle has erupted over a school board proposal to require that up to seventy percent of the curriculum consist of works by non-white authors. What do young teachers and youth workers on the front lines of the new California majority think of the proposal? This is the second of three articles today by contributors to Brave New Word, a Pacific News Service-based coalition of writers in their twenties. Josh Parr is editor of Revolutionary Judo and an editor at YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people produced by Pacific News Service. SECOND OF THREE ARTICLES.

    Student-Driven Change is the Only Answer
    By Kevin Weston
    Date: 03-13-98
    In San Francisco -- with its highly diverse student population -- a battle has erupted over a school board proposal to require that up to seventy percent of the curriculum consist of works by non-white authors. What do young teachers and youth workers on the front lines of the new California majority think of the proposal? This is the last of three articles today by contributors to Brave New Word, a Pacific News Service-based coalition of writers in their twenties. Kevin Weston is a counselor at RISE in Berkeley, California, and AntiVerses editor at the Bay View in San Francisco. THIRD OF THREE ARTICLES.


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

    Teens Face Life in Prison Before Having a Life of Their Own
    By PNS Writers in Juvenile Hall
    Date: 03-12-98
    The much publicized assault on "youth crime" has taken a particularly harsh turn with laws that allow juveniles to be tried and sentenced as adults. This means that some very young offenders face life in prison. In this article, young people facing very long prison terms write about their lives and how the are coping with their futures behind bars. The following young people write for "The Beat Within," a weekly newsletter by and about incarcerated youth published by Pacific News Service. This is the second of two articles on the teenage gulag.

    A Beginning or an End? The Riddle for Prison Bound Teens
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 03-11-98
    The much publicized assault on "youth crime" has taken a particularly harsh turn with laws that allow juveniles to be tried and sentenced as adults. This means that some very young offenders face life in prison. In this first of two parts, PNS associate editor Joe Loya talks of his own experience with some of these young people. The second part features essays by young people facing the possibility of a life in prison. Loya is a California writer currently at work on a memoir.

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