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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 4.26

12/21/98 - 01/03/99

CONTENTS


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

    The Trouble With the Messiah Complex
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 12-22-98
    In times like these, the moral hue and cry across the land assumes Old Testament proportions and men act like prophets in the hard wilderness. But if political leaders are going to use the Bible as their moral barometer, they would do well to acknowledge that the Good Book supports mercy as well as sanction. PNS Associate Editor Joe Loya is a California writer currently writing an autobiography.

    From Prison-- Looking at the New Year Through the Pain of Loss
    By Joe Loya
    Date: 12-28-98
    What does it mean to wish a happy new year to someone whose new year will be exactly like the old one -- facing prison walls? The question stretches the conventional language of the holiday season according to PNS commentator Joe Loya, who has been on both sides of those walls. Loya, an associate editor at PNS, spent seven years in federal prison on bank robbery charges and is writing an autobiography.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    Impeachment Debate is Not Just Party Politics -- It's a Battle in the Culture War
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 12-22-98
    Party lines cannot always be defined in terms of "Republicans" and "Democrats" even when the divisions between them seem especially pronounced. This is most definitely true of the debate over impeaching President Clinton, which is in reality an explosion of major cultural differences. PNS 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.


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

    PNS Inaugurates New Weekly Column -- Gleanings from the Ethnic Press
    Edited by Emil Guillermo
    Date: 12-29-98
    What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS for two years has monitored the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese, Arab-language news media as well as English-language newcomer and native-born ethnic press published and/or distributed widely in California. Every month PNS has released a digest of select items. This week, we're sending two samples of a column of gleanings we will publish weekly in 1999, compiled by PNS and written by Emil Guillermo, executive producer and host of PNS's New California Media weekly TV show. Just as the alternative news media connected the disaffected populations in the 1960s, so in the 1990s the ethnic media connects the new ethnic majority communities of California -- to one another and to the larger public forum. We hope you will find the column an intriguing window into the new California. (First of two columns)

    Gleanings from the New California Media-- Perspectives on Impeachment and the Bombing of Iraq
    Edited by Emil Guillermo
    Date: 12-29-98
    What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS for two years has monitored the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese, Arab-language news media as well as English-language newcomer and native-born ethnic press published and/or distributed widely in California. Every month PNS has released a digest of select items. This week, we're sending two samples of a column of gleanings we will publish weekly in 1999, compiled by PNS and written by Emil Guillermo, executive producer and host of PNS's New California Media weekly TV show. Just as the alternative news media connected the disaffected populations in the 1960s, so in the 1990s the ethnic media connects the new ethnic majority communities of California -- to one another and to the larger public forum. We hope you will find the column an intriguing window into the new California. (Second of two columns)



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

    A Culture at War With Itself
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 12-21-98
    The bitterness of a civil war becomes more intense when members of one family find themselves on opposite sides. Amid the multiple ironies of recent weeks, it may be helpful to keep that in mind. 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.

    U.S. Increases Quotient of Suffering on Iraq
    By As'ad AbuKhalil
    Date: 12-22-98
    The long road to democratic rule in Iraq remains elusive as long as the U.S. insists that it, and it alone, knows what is in the best interests of the Iraqi people. The U.S. should leave Iraq alone and let the international community devise a formula for lifting sanctions. PNS commentator As'ad AbuKhalil, a research fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at UC-Berkeley, teaches political science at California State University, Stanislaus.


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

    Goodbye Abl, Long Live Women's Basketball!
    By Charles Jones
    Date: 12-30-98
    Although professional athletics remains largely a male preserve, women and women's leagues have begun to assert themselves in recent years. The recent failure of one of two women's basketball leagues prompted this reflection on the sport from Charles Jones. An accompanying article describes the game from a player's point of view. Jones is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.

    Playing B-Ball With the Boys
    By Teniesha Williams
    Date: 12-30-98
    Basketball remains largely a male preserve, but women and women's leagues have begun to assert themselves in recent years. The road can be bumpy but rewarding, writes PNS commentator Taniesha Williams. An accompanying article considers the recent failure of a women's basketball league. Williams wrote this article for YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about Bay Area youth produced by Pacific News Service.

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