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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 4.20

09/28/98 - 10/11/98

CONTENTS


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

    Impeach of Not -- The Voters Can Decide on Nov. 3
    By Michael Kroll
    Date: 09-29-98
    It is exceedingly rare in American electoral politics when one's vote for his or her congressperson can have an immediate and predictable result over a momentous question. But come this Nov. 3, Americans will have the opportunity to determine whether President Clinton is impeached or not. PNS associate editor Michael Kroll spells out the high stakes in the upcoming House of Representatives election.

    Lewinsky War Claims First Casualty -- Why One Reporter Wouldn't Stoop to Conquer
    By Jonathan Broder
    Date: 10-06-98
    Anything's fair in love and war, goes the adage. But when the on-line magazine Salon decided to match "ugly times" with "ugly tactics" by printing a report about Congressman. Henry Hyde's inappropriate love affair 30 years ago, one staffer objected -- publicly -- that it was crossing a journalistic threshold he didn't want to cross. PNS commentator Jonathan Broder recently resigned from Salon. A former foreign correspondent, Broder is filling in as an editor on the foreign desk at National Public Radio.

    A Sitcom That Gets It Wrong -- Dismembering History for Laughs
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
    Date: 10-07-98
    A new television series depicting a black man acting as an advisor to President Lincoln during the Civil War provides a gross distortion of both Lincoln's ideas and the actual situation of blacks at the time. This is done in the name of comedy, but in reality presents just another example of a generalized contempt for black life and history. PNS commentator Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "The Assassination of the Black Male Image" and "The Crisis in Black and Black."


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

    Yen Wars -- Currency Markets Have Become the World's Battleground
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 10-09-98
    The dazzling zigs and zags of financial markets have pundits rushing out explanations almost on the nanosecond. But the recent fluctuations between the yen and the dollar may betoken a very ancient sort of world view. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus in history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, has lived and studied in Japan and is the author of numerous books on foreign politics and East Asia.


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

    He's Back -- Brazil's Scrappy "Lula" Challenges Globalization
    By Roger Burbach
    Date: 10-01-98
    Brazil may seem distant, but with Russia and most of Asia in deep financial trouble the largest economy in Latin America -- which accounts for 20 percent of U.S. exports -- takes on new importance. The current regime has faithfully followed the dictates of the IMF, and opposition forces have made that the central issue of the campaign. PNS correspondent Roger Burbach, founder and director of the Center for the Study of the Americas, is the co-author of several books on Central America.


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

    Revenge-Closing -- Cross-Border Organizing Brings Trouble on All Sides
    By David Bacon
    Date: 09-29-98
    As the U.S. auto industry relies increasingly on parts made in Mexico's maquiladoras, unions are focusing on cross-border organizing. Late in August, workers at a California factory who spearheaded one such drive paid for their efforts by losing their jobs. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on immigrant and labor issues.


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

    Germany Grasps at Hope -- Seeking a Healer for Social and Cultural Malaise
    By William O. Beeman
    Date: 09-28-98
    On Sunday, September 27, Germans did something extraordinary -- for the first time since World-War II, they voted a sitting Chancellor, Helmut Kohl, out of office. However, this was not so much a true victory for the winning Social Democratic Party, according to PNS commentator William O. Beeman, as the action of a wounded society grasping at hope. Beeman, who teaches anthropology at Brown University, lived and worked in Chemnitz, Germany, an important industrial city in the Eastern state of Saxony from 1996 to 1998. He is currently writing a book about his experiences there.

    Do Loose Chips Sink Ships? Internet Horror Stories Stress Out the Pentagon
    By William M. Arkin
    Date: 10-02-98
    Pentagon information warriors have convinced themselves -- and the defense leadership -- that adversaries such as Iraq can use the Internet and other information to do harm to the United States. But anti-information is a dangerous course. PNS commentator William M. Arkin explores the growing debate over the dangers to national security stemming from the Web. Arkin (warkin@igc.org) is author of "The U.S. Military Online: A Directory for Internet Access to the Department of Defense" (Brassey's, 1998).

    End of Thatcher's Road? German Elections Mark a Major Sea Change
    By Andrew Reding
    Date: 10-05-98
    Election results in Germany have significance far beyond that country's borders. A shift away from the conservatives there, according to PNS associate editor Andrew Reding, signals all of Europe will turn toward core social democratic ideas. Reding, born in Switzerland and raised in Belgium, is a dual citizen of the European Union and the United States. He directs the North America Project of the World Policy Institute.

    A Quiet Dissident From China Sees Hope for Reform in Prison Labor Camps
    By A. A. Quong
    Date: 10-08-98
    Can a "quiet dissident" accomplish more to improve prison conditions in his homeland than militants who target the country and its government as a whole? Fan Shidong thinks so -- and has dedicated his life to informing the public in both the United States and China about prison conditions without entering into what he described as "extremism." PNS correspondent A. A. Quong is a freelance journalist.


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

    Homerun Derby Draws in Baseball-Spurning Young People
    By Ri'chard Magee
    Date: 09-30-98
    It has been a memorable baseball season -- and that may be what is needed to bring the "national pastime" back into its customary limelight. But the effects go beyond statistics, maybe even beyond sports, especially for those inclined to scoff at the game. PNS commentator Ri'Chard Magee is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.

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