Voices | Heresies | Vectors | Pacific Pulse | The Americas | California | Movements | Civil Conflicts | YO!
JINN MAGAZINE
PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE
Issue No. 4.17
08/17/98 - 08/30/98
VOICES: First-Person Essays Linking the Private to the Public
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Devaluing Black Life: The Murder of Sherrice Iverson
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Date: 08-18-98
In one of those cases that seem particularly compelling because they are particularly horrible, a 7-year-old girl was raped and murdered in a Nevada casino last year allegedly by a 19 year old man. Yet the story has drawn little attention, for reasons that PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson finds all too painfully familiar. Hutchinson is the author of "The Assassination of the Black Male Image" and "The Crisis in Black and Black."
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Where's the Justice? He Gets an Approval Rating, She Gets a Rep
By Nell Bernstein
Date: 08-18-98
A family man once again, and fiercely so, President Clinton vows to protect his privacy even as Monica Lewinsky's has been irrevocably shattered. That's what happens when the man -- typically -- gets to control the story, say what it didn't mean. Nell Bernstein is a Bay Area journalist and editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.
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Hillary Clinton Owes an Explanation to Women of the Third World
By Sarita Sarvate
Date: 08-21-98
Many women of the Third World took heart from Hillary Rodham Clinton's message of personal liberation at the Beijing Women's Summit. Now they feel confused, even betrayed, by what they see as personal capitulation to the demands of realpolitik. PNS commentator Sarita Sarvate, a Bay Area writer who trained as a physicist, was born and raised in India.
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What Arabs and Muslims Hear in Clinton's Terrorism Speech -- Lies About Yet Another Troubled Relationship
By As'ad AbuKhalil
Date: 08-21-98
C. Wright Mills called the quintessential tools of American Politics "deception, flattery and entertainment." For the Arabs and Muslims, Mills' words ring true as they dissect Clinton's speech on terrorism. As'ad AbuKalil is associate professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and Research Fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at University of California, Berkeley.
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Time to Get Back on the Bus
By Peter Y. Sussman
Date: 08-25-98
It may difficult to realize, 35 years after the fact, the sheer surprise of the success of the first March on Washington. PNS commentator Peter Sussman, who was there, remembers that feeling, the words of one speech -- and some lessons apparently unlearned. Sussman, a San Francisco writer and editor, is co-author with Dannie M. Martin of "Committing Journalism" (W.W. Norton). Sussman is a former editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, where this article will appear.
HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future
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Food for Thought -- Maybe Cannibalism Wasn't So Abnormal After All
By Walter Truett Anderson
Date: 08-20-98
The idea of cannibalism has long occupied a small and frightening niche in human imagination -- and is generally considered both aberrant and more talked about than practiced. Some current work in archeology, however, suggests that the practice is both more common and more widespread than people; (including archeologists) like to think. PNS associate editor Walter Truett 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
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Three Trouble Spots Now Threaten War-- Taliban Victory The Trigger
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 08-17-98
The world's attention is riveted on financial crises in East Asia and now Russia. But there are signs of looming crises of a far more dangerous sort in three regions. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at U.C.-Berkeley, is author of numerous books on world affairs.
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The Big War Has Begun
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 08-21-98
For over twenty years, Americans have grown increasingly convinced that Islam and our way of life are fundamentally incompatible -- so much so that each poses a mortal threat to the other. This mind-set, more than any military buildup, has set the stage for what is now the start of a new big war -- a war that Clinton's so-called strike against terror has finally triggered. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC Berkeley, is author of numerous books on foreign affairs. A reader of the Arab-language media, he has traveled widely in the Islamic world.
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Crowing About Our Strong Economy Can't Keep Out the Storms
By Franz Schurmann
Date: 08-28-98
A lot of economic observers have come to believe the American economy has acquired some sort of immunity to foreign turbulence. Not so, writes PNS editor Franz Schurmann. Adam thought he could live forever in the Garden but the serpent, Eve and God pushed him out into the real world. Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC Berkeley, is author of "American Soul," reflections on America's direction in the world.
MOVEMENTS: Strategies For Survival, Identity and Direction by People on the Margins
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Two Decades of Union Struggle Begin to Pay Off
By David Bacon
Date: 08-26-98
In what may be a world record for long-term union bargaining, farm workers in the Salinas Valley are striking after 22 years of negotiations. The union is having considerable success persuading replacement workers to join them -- a success that is in part the fruit of those years. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on immigrant and labor issues.
CIVIL CONFLICTS: Interpretive Reports on Ethnic, Religious, and Inter-National Conflicts Worldwide
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Follow the Oil Trail-- Mess in Afghanistan Partly Our Government's Fault
By William O. Beeman
Date: 08-24-98
The twists and turns of U.S. involvement in Central Asia are worthy of spy fiction, but it is clear that our continued support for forces opposed to Iran has led to some uncomfortable alliances. And these must be recognized, according to PNS commentator William O. Beeman, in any analysis of the bombings of U.S. embassies and the reprisal raids that followed. Beeman, anthropologist specializing in the Middle East at Brown University, is currently conducting research in Islamic Central Asia.
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Money, Politics, Garbage and School Lunch
By Michele Simon
Date: 08-25-98
The words "school lunch" may not evoke pleasant memories, but we tend to assume the menu will be a healthful one. Indeed, that is the law -- but a combination of forces, including the federal government, seems to work in ways that provide students with something less than they deserve. PNS correspondent Michele Simon, an attorney with a background in public health, has published several articles on food policy and has been researching the National School Lunch Program for the past year.
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