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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 4.06

03/16/98 - 03/29/98

CONTENTS


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

    On Sexual Harassment 20-Something Women Fend for Themselves
    By Katherine Kim
    Date: 03-20-98
    For a generation of young women who came of age watching congressmen grill Anita Hill, the term "sexual harassment" once packed a wallop. Today, it's almost an irrelevance, if not a joke. Katherine Kim, a 26 year old writer in San Francisco, is an editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a monthly newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

    Running Past the Rules -- Marathon Winner Races Against Attitudes as Well as Otehr Runners
    By Eve Pell
    Date: 03-24-98
    Running races as a woman over 60 involves a challenge to conventional wisdom as much as to legs and lungs. With the Boston Marathon less than a month away, PNS columnist Eve Pell recounts her own passage from worst runner in the third grade to a championship cup in the Marathon. Pell, who runs for the Impala Racing Team of San Francisco, is currently the top-ranked road runner in the women's 60-64 division. She writes a monthly column on veteran athletes for Pacific News Service. An earlier version of this article appeared in Runner's World magazine.

    Something Un-American About the Boy Scouts of America
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 03-25-98
    The Boy Scouts of America is variously described as one of America's venerable organizations. In truth, for a culture that venerates Huck Finn and Beavis and Butthead, there has always been something vaguely un-American about the Scouts. The irony, according to one ex-Scout, is that the organization now typifies a moralistic culture that has lost its moral center. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez is author of "Days of Obligation" and the forthcoming "The Color Brown." He is a regular essayist for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer and the Los Angeles Sunday Times.

    What's Wrong With Our Adults?
    By A. Clay Thompson
    Date: 03-26-98
    When major tragedies erupt, people ask questions -- as when two boys under 14 in Arkansas allegedly go on a killing spree. But focusing on what's wrong with young people today won't necessarily tell us what we need to know. The better question is what's wrong with adults? PNS associate editor A. Clay Thompson is a freelance journalist and co-editor of The Beat Within, a weekly writing program for incarcerated youth run by Pacific News Service.


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

    Oil Prices More Than Sex Undermining Clinton
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 03-17-98
    The unfolding scandal in Washington should be seen in a wider context. In this case, writes PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a comparison with the events surrounding Watergate and the resignation of Richard Nixon, is particularly instructive. Schurmann is the author of "The Foreign Politics Of Richard Nixon" (University of California, Institute of International Studies, 1987).

    "Ben Hur" Vs. "Titanic" -- Nature Replaced God in Film That Speaks to Environmental Age
    By Sandy Close
    Date: 03-26-98
    Young people have claimed "Titanic" as their epic film--much as baby boomers in the 1950s flocked to "Ben Hur." The two films -- which this year tied for winning the most ever Oscars awarded to a single film -- reveal how the world views of two generations have changed over the last forty years. PNS editor Sandy Close, founder of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people, grew up in New York movie theaters.


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

    Turbulent East Asians Hunger For Justice of Judge Dee
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 03-23-98
    The economic crisis in Indonesia has -- not for the first time -- been accompanied by open hostility toward ethnic Chinese, who control a disproportionate share of the country's wealth. At the same time, observes PNS editor Andrew Lam, ordinary Indonesians are strongly drawn to Chinese culture, old and new. The popularity of a new Hong Kong-produced TV soap opera, based on the millennium-old tales of Judge Dee, is a case in point. Lam, a journalist and short-story writer, just returned from a two month trip to East and Southeast Asia.


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

    Indigenous Movements A Century from Now -- The Indian Americas?
    By Andrew Reding
    Date: 03-16-98
    From Canada's Northwest Territories to the border between Panama and Colombia, indigenous peoples are gaining recognition and control over their own territories and resources. The nature of these gains varies from place to place, writes PNS associate editor Andrew Reding, but the overall trend is clear. Andrew Reding, a political scientist who has worked and traveled widely in Mexico, directs the North America Project of the World Policy Institute.


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

    Harch Reprisals for Those Who Try to Talk Through Prison Walls
    By Michael Kroll
    Date: 03-18-98
    California's prison system has barred any face-to-face contact between prisoners and any member of the media. This is in effect, writes PNS commentator Michael Kroll, a new sedition law and one that has been imposed because the prisons have much to hide. Kroll, an associate editor of Pacific News Service, specializes in criminal justice and death penalty issues.

    Prisoners and Public Will Pay Heavy Price for Correction Policies That Ignore History
    By A Recent Parolee
    Date: 03-19-98
    Despite a virtual blackout on media coverage of prisons and prisoners in California, news of scandals involving prison officials give cause for alarm about what is happening behind bars. One inmate provides a view of 35 years of California prison history from the inside, and warns that an explosion is in the making. The writer, who is on parole and fears official retaliation, asks to be anonymous. A book on his experiences at the California Youth Authority has been published.


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

    Palestinian Issue Losing Its Global and Ideological Edge
    By Rami Khouri
    Date: 03-27-98
    Once the touchstone for the Middle Eastern anti-colonial struggle, the issue of Palestine more and more is turning into one of purely local and material dimensions. This fact helps explain Palestinians' unwavering support for the peace process despite the fact that the ground rules are written by Israel and the U.S. PNS commentator Rami G. Khouri, former editor of The Jordan Times and a widely publicized author and commentator, lives and writes from Amman, Jordan.

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