JINN - THE GENIE OF THE CULTURE
Jinn Home Page | About Jinn | Search | Net-Links
Voices | Heresies | Vectors | Pacific Pulse | The Americas | California | Movements | Civil Conflicts | YO!

JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 5.01

01/04/99 - 01/17/99

CONTENTS


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

    A Child's View-- Watching Bombs, Hearing Bombs in Memory
    By Andrew Lam
    Date: 01-05-99
    For someone who grew up amidst the sound of bombs, television coverage of the missile attack on Iraq -- or anywhere -- brings vivid childhood memories to mind. These in turn lead to questions about what possible justification there could be for bombing children. PNS editor Andrew Lam is a journalist and short-story writer based in San Francisco.

    Family Tie Can Keep the World Together
    By Tiffany Johnson, as Told to Nell Bernstein
    Date: 01-07-99
    At 22, Tiffany Johnson is a vocational coordinator and teacher at the Independent Living Skills Program of San Francisco, an organizer with the foster youth advocacy group California Youth Connections, and a student at California State University at Hayward. From age 10 to age 15 she lived together with her three younger sisters in a group home.

    In the Land of the Individual, Sports Is No Longer King
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 01-11-99
    Reactions to the settlement of the pro basketball dispute show that our society has moved beyond sport as a communal, connected enterprise. Instead, we have placed individual effort at the center of attention -- both in our fascination with celebrity and in our very definition of definition of sport itself. 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 where a version of the article also appeared.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    Green Power -- A Scam or an Issue of Personal Responsibility?
    By Peter Asmus
    Date: 01-13-99
    The concept of "green" power is less than a year old and already it's generating a heated debate in California over just how much good it's doing for the environment. Since deregulation is the trend of the future, and California has progressed furthest along the green marketing path, the issues being debated in that state are bound to crop up around the world in the coming decade. Peter Asmus is the Sacramento-based co-author of "Reinventing Electric Utilities: Competition, Citizen Action and Clean Power" (Island Press, 1997). He is currently writing an Island Press book about wind power.


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

    It's The O's That Make the Millennium Special
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 01-04-99
    If "999" is filled with finality, then "000" holds mystery and uncertainty. But an examination of the "0" as a number as it has evolved through history suggests some reasons for optimism. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley, is author of "American Soul" (Mercury House, 1995).


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

    "Fire" Illuminates Some Burning Questions
    By Sandip Roy-Chowdhury
    Date: 01-05-99
    A new Indian movie has encountered vigorous, even violent opposition in that country. Reports of this protest have focused on the plot line of the film, but the issues involved -- for both detractors and defenders -- are far more profound. PNS commentator Sandip Roy-Chowdhury is a film critic and contributing editor at "India Currents," a Bay Area magazine.


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

    This Papal Visit Brought to You By...
    By Jesus Martinez
    Date: 01-12-99
    The Pope is coming to Mexico -- this time with enough sponsors to cause a severe outbreak of envy in any commercial enterprise. While the need for financial support may be real enough, the style and the implications are troubling. PNS commentator Jesus Martinez is an immigrant researcher and activist who was formerly a member of the Political Science Department at Santa Clara University.


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

    Gleanings from the Ethnic Media
    Edited by Emil Guillermo
    Date: 01-08-99
    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. "Gleanings from the Ethnic Media" is now a regular weekly column compiled by Emil Guillermo, host of "NCM: New California Media TV" (seen on PBS station KCSM-TV60 in the Bay Area); assisted by Pacific News Service and the NCM Network. 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.

    Gleanings From the Ethnic Media
    Edited By Emil Guillermo
    Date: 01-14-99
    What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS monitors 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. "Gleanings from the Ethnic Media" is a regular weekly column compiled by Emil Guillermo, host of "NCM: New California Media TV" (seen on PBS station KCSM-TV60 in the Bay Area); assisted by Pacific News Service and the NCM Network. 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.


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

    Pro-Adoption Policy Challenged as a Step Away From Protecting the Family
    By Nell Bernstein
    Date: 01-07-99
    One recent and significant -- if little noticed -- shift in social policy involves an attempt to reduce the number of children in foster care by encouraging adoption. A side effect of this policy is, often, the separation of brothers and sisters, a separation that can add distress to an already unhappy situation. A sidebar offers a first-hand account of the value of keeping siblings together in foster care. PNS commentator Nell Bernstein is the Editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a magazine by and about young people published by the Pacific News Service.


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

    Pinochet Ball in Reno's Court
    By Andrew Reding
    Date: 01-14-99
    The focus for the newest phase of the legal drama for Augusto Pinochet now opens in the U.S. Department of Justice. Janet Reno must decide whether or not to file charges against the former Chilean dictator for a 1976 car bombing in the District of Columbia that killed a U.S. citizen. While there is ample evidence of Pinochet's direct involvement, filing charges could further expose the United States' complicity in the 1973 coup that brought him to power. Pacific News Service associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute.


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

    A Youth Perspective -- The Deadly Equation Where Ignorance and Embarrassment Equal Disease
    By Stanley Joseph
    Date: 01-06-99
    One of the confounding puzzles about AIDS is the fact that it has struck with particular force at the African American community, a community notable for its openness about sexual activity. A closer look suggests there are limits to that openness, and understanding those limits is key to fighting the disease. PNS commentator Stanley Joseph is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people produced by Pacific News Service.

    And Now, A Word From the Students...
    By YO! Staff
    Date: 01-15-99
    With an audible sigh of relief, news media dubbed the latest Oakland public school controversy over a teach-in about death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal "much ado about nothing." And with good reason, at least on the surface. After all, the planned assemblies were canceled without an uproar, city officials turned full attention on the funeral of a slain police officer, and a handful of teachers who wanted to focus classroom time on the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, convicted of killing a police officer, were allowed to do so. But the controversy is far from over as far as many young people -- students and non-students alike -- are concerned. For them, the real civics lesson was watching their elders debate the pros and cons of dissent in the classroom without including their voices in the final determination. What they want more than anything is an education that is relevant to their lives -- and one that assumes they are capable of learning, as well as hungry to learn. In the following essays, YO! writers comment on the issues raised by the recent events in Oakland as they see them -- ranging from what would make schools work better to why a young man would shoot a police officer from a freeway overpass. Hazel Tesoro, Sayyadina Thomas, Redhouse Poncho, Ri'Chard Magee and Joshua Parr are on the staff YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people produced by Pacific News Service.

Pacific News Service, 660 Market Street, Room 210, San Francisco, CA 94104, tel: (415) 438-4755.
Jinn Magazine: <http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/>
Email: <pacificnews@pacificnews.org>

Copyright © 1998 Pacific News Service. All Rights Reserved.
Please do not reprint our stories without our permission.
Our articles are available for reprint. For rates and information, call (415) 438-4755 or send e-mail to <pacificnews@pacificnews.org>