Voices | Heresies | Vectors | Pacific Pulse | The Americas | California | Movements | Civil Conflicts | YO!
JINN MAGAZINE
PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
Issue No. 4.10
05/11/98 - 05/24/98
VOICES: First-Person Essays Linking the Private to the Public
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Why Indians Cheer Yet Fear Bomb Tests
By Sarita Sarvate
Date: 05-14-98
Raised to believe in the transformative power of technology, Indians are proud of their country's nuclear capabilities. The nation of Buddha, the Vedas, and Mahatma Gandhi wants to be recognized as a technological giant. PNS commentator Sarita Sarvate explores this seeming paradox through the lens of her own experiences. Trained as a physicist, she is now a consultant and writer for India Currents Magazine, and a recent recipient of 1998 New California Media award for best essay in the ethnic press.
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A 'Sex Worker' in Bangkok Tells His Own Story
By Chai Sathaporn, as Told to Andrew Lam
Date: 05-15-98
News of turbulent times in Southeast Asia tends to focus on one major crisis after another. Here PNS associate editor Andrew Lam offers the voice of one survivor reflecting on his life, that of Chai Sathaporn a go-go dancer at a gay bar in the Patpong area of Bangkok -- one of an estimated 60,000 sex workers in that city. PNS editor Andrew Lam, a journalist and short-story writer, just returned from a two month trip to East and Southeast Asia.
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Long Distance Racism-- Blatant Discrimination Fails to Draw Protest from Anti Affirmative Action Forces
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Date: 05-19-98
Opponents of affirmative action programs, who claim a principled opposition to any race-based discrimination, have enjoyed considerable success in recent years. Yet not one of them, notes commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, has spoken out about the highly public and explicitly discriminatory rules adopted by many road race sponsors. Hutchinson is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."
VECTORS: A Regular Column on the Ideas and Directions Behind Today's News
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India's Nuclear Tests Challenge U.S. Dominance in Indian Ocean
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 05-14-98
The long-term strategic aim of India's surprise nuclear tests may be to challenge U.S. supremacy in the Indian Ocean. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, who traveled widely in India in 1997, explores the logic behind the tests for India's new leaders. Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at U.C. Berkeley, is author of numerous books on global politics, including "The Logic of World Power."
PACIFIC PULSE: The Pacific Century and Its Impact on the Americas
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From Nonalignment to Strength-- Indian Explosions Mark a Complete Break With the Past
By B.R.P Bhaskar
Date: 05-15-98
Atomic testing in India marks the arrival of leaders with a world view completely opposed to the vision of those who led the country at independence and for many years thereafter. The change, according to PNS contributor Babu Bhaskar, who reported on the country's first nuclear test for PNS in 1974, represents a move from a philosophy of nonalignment to a philosophy of strength. Bhaskar is a former editor of United News India, one of India's leading wire services.
THE AMERICAS: The Growing Enmeshment of the U.S. and Latin Worlds
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Plasticized Peru-- Plastic Culture Threatens to Destroy Land of Inefficient Charm
By Andres T. Tapia
Date: 05-12-98
For a Peruvian now living in the United States, a trip home offers both a chance to escape a privileged but superficial culture, and to return to a land of extremes. But in a recent visit Andres T. Tapia found signs the differences are narrowing. PNS associate editor Andres T. Tapia writes regularly on Peru.
CALIFORNIA COLLAGE: California as Trendsetter for the Country and the World
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Justice -- A Seldom Heard Word in California Governor's Race
By Michael Kroll
Date: 05-13-98
In all the rhetoric of California's gubernatorial campaign, the word "justice" seems to have disappeared completely, Candidates are eager to talk about crime and punishment, writes PNS associate editor Michael Kroll, but this is no substitute for discussion of one of the country's founding principles. Kroll, an associate editor of Pacific News Service, specializes in criminal justice and death penalty issues.
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Labor and Language Initiatives Inspire a Coalition That May Change California Politics
By David Bacon
Date: 05-20-98
The initiative petition has become a permanent feature of the California political scene, and this year's election is no exception. In an odd twist, however, two initiatives heavily backed by conservative forces seem to be spurring a coalition of immigrant and labor voters that could prove a lasting presence. PNS Associate Editor, David Bacon, writes widely on immigration and labor issues.
CIVIL CONFLICTS: Interpretive Reports on Ethnic, Religious, and Inter-National Conflicts Worldwide
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America's High-Tech Hypocrisy on Nuclear Testing
By Bruce Allen
Date: 05-18-98
Hypocrisy is the word that springs to mind as our government professes shock and outrage over India's nuclear weapons tests yet forges ahead with a vast new multibillion dollar weapons program of its own. PNS commentator Bruce Allen is a writer and activist with Peace Action.
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Unless Congress Acts -- U.S. Will Back A New Military Regime In Indonesia
By Peter Dale Scott
Date: 05-18-98
Reassuring buzzwords like "restraint," "reform," and "dialogue" make it clear that at least some U.S. officials think Indonesian President Suharto resignation will stabilize the situation there. But without strenuous leadership from Congress, the U.S. will find itself supporting a military dictatorship, possibly disguised behind a new civilian face. PNS analyst Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat, has authored numerous books and articles on U.S. foreign affairs.
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India-China War of Words -- Titans Joskey for Power in South Asia
By Sanjoy Banerjee
Date: 05-19-98
For a decade China and India have been steadily improving ties, despite an undercurrent of tension marked by weapons tests and exchanges. India's nuclear tests now threaten to end that friendship as each side seeks to shore up its power position in South Asia. PNS commentator Sanjoy Banerjee, a specialist on South Asia, teaches political science at the Institute for International Relations at San Francisco State University.
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A Manifesto for Ethnic Chinese -- Time to End the Silence on Imperiled Indonesian Chinese
By Edward Liu
Date: 05-21-98
For an ethnic Chinese, coverage of the Indonesian crisis, both before and after Suharto's resignation, is striking for what it does not say -- that much of the violence is directed not at the government or the army but at "nonnative" Indonesians. Especially for those who remember the events of 1965, when the current president took power, the silence is threatening. PNS commentator Edward Liu, an ethnic Chinese born and raised in the Philippines, is a practicing attorney in San Francisco.
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Who's Meaner Than Mean Kids? -- Adults Bent on Retaliation
By Robin Templeton
Date: 05-22-98
From Jonesboro, Ark, to Springfield, Or., a handful of problem children are arming themselves with guns and going on shooting sprees against their fellow-students. Mean kids, they've been called in the media. But meaner still are the measures adults are pursuing in the name of combating crime -- including proposed legislation to execute 11 year olds. PNS associate editor Robin Templeton, a youth advocate and prison reform activists, is writing a book about how young people are responding to the punitive legislation of the 1990s.
YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes
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Notes from a Journal (Part IV)-- Making a Human Pace a Priority, Thinking About Leadership
By Caille Millner
Date: 05-11-98
Reaching for the top is a strenuous, nonstop business so a brief break provides a rare opportunity to consider priorities, and the not unconnected problem of just who is or will become a leader. Caille Millner, an 18-year-old African American from San Jose, Ca., is keeping a journal on her experiences as she navigates her way through Harvard University where she is completing her first semester. Here is the fourth entry in her journal. Millner writes for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.
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