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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 5.03

02/01/99 - 02/14/99

CONTENTS


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

    Part Time Purgatory-- The Loneliness of an Adjunct Professor
    By Chris Cumo
    Date: 02-01-99
    As universities have turned more and more to models of management based on such concepts as "cost cutting," they have expanded the use of teachers who are paid by the hour or by the student, and are not granted tenure. The lack of standing and perquisites can make a bitter mix according to PNS commentator Chris Cumo, a teacher and writer lives in Northern Ohio.

    From Six Million Dollar Man to Lara Croft and the IMac -- What Dolls Can Teach Us
    By Jacqueline Keeler
    Date: 02-05-99
    The new candy-colored iMac may seem a far cry from the Six Million Dollar Man. But for children raised on techno-play in the late 20th century, it's not a difficult leap to imagine cyborgs who are human beings evolving into machines -- let alone human beings who "lust" for firewire I/O ports. This is new terrain for the human psyche -- and evokes nostalgia in one American Indian writer for the dolls of her ancestors. PNS associate editor Jacqueline Keeler is a Bay Area writer.

    Getting Real-- NAACP Image Awards Need to Improve Their Image
    By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
    Date: 02-10-99
    The "Image Awards" offered by the NAACP are supposed to honor those who have done something to promote an honest image of the black community. Instead, according to PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson, they have become yet another celebration of celebrity. The 30th NAACP Image Awards take place Saturday, February 13th and Sunday, February 14th in Pasadena. The two-hour telecast is tentatively scheduled to air March 4th on the Fox Network. PNS contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."


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

    Mischief Reef-- Weakened Neighbors, Distracted U.S. May Set Stage for Chinese Expansion
    By Thi Lam
    Date: 02-03-99
    China has recently moved to establish a military presence on Mischief Reef, one of the collection of oil-rich reefs in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands. The country's expansionist tendencies seem to flourish when its neighbors are weak and other major powers are looking elsewhere. PNS commentator Thi Lam is a former general in the Republic of South Vietnam and the author of "Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam" (1985).


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

    Gleanings from the Ethnic Media
    By Emil Guillermo
    Date: 02-04-99
    What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS monitors the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese, Korean, Arabic-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.

    Merc's New Viet Language Offering Stirs Mixed Feelings in Community
    By Nguyen Xuan Nam
    Date: 02-09-99
    The San Jose Mercury News, part of the second largest newspaper chain in the United States, has begun to publish a Vietnamese language newspaper. This has produced some feelings of pride in the community, and also some fears that the daily will use its size and muscle to snuff out existing ethnic publications. PNS commentator Nguyen Xuan Nam is editor of CaliToday, a bilingual (English and Vietnamese) periodical published in San Jose.

    Gleaings from the Ethnic Media #8
    By Emil Guillermo
    Date: 02-10-99
    What does the world look like as reported on the pages of California's growing ethnic newspapers? PNS monitors the Chinese-, Spanish-, Vietnamese-, Japanese-, Korean-, Arabic-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.


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

    Asthmotown-- Unseen, Unnoticed Industrial Islet Seems to Threaten Residents' Health
    By David Bacon
    Date: 02-02-99
    The residents of three apartment buildings in a little corner of a modest-sized town south of Los Angeles often wake up coughing . They blame the fumes from one nearby plant, but no one is listening, and no one has any idea of what they might do about it. As Hillary Clinton announces administration plans to spend more than $100 million fighting childhood asthma, it may be that, for some, the key to success in that fight lies in alternative housing. PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on immigrant and labor issues.


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

    GOP's "Fatal Attraction" To Bedroom Politics
    By Peter Y. Sussman
    Date: 02-04-99
    For the Grand Old Party the ultimate wedge issue has turned out to be the impeachment of President Clinton -- only it's the republicans who are being driven apart. Peter Y. Sussman, a Berkeley Ca. writer and editor is the co-author of "Committing Journalism" (W.W. Norton).

    Home View of King Hussein Does Not See a Kindly Democrat
    By As'ad AbuKhalil
    Date: 02-08-99
    The death of Jordan's King Hussein has brought an outpouring of praise from world leaders and editorialists. But a look at the history of his reign suggests the King was neither the popular leader nor the democrat discussed in the eulogies. 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.

    Fearing Secret Weapons Tarnsfers -- Dutch Parliament Investigates Deadly 1992 Crash of El Al Jet
    By Yoichi Clark Shimatsu
    Date: 02-11-99
    In a saga that could have been scripted by the X-Files, Dutch journalists have been investigating the 1992 crash in Amsterdam of an El Al cargo jet on its way from New York to Tel Aviv. Now the Dutch parliament is taking up their charges that the jet carried a secret Israeli military shipment of weapons-grade plutonium and the chemical ingredients for sarin. As many as 2,000 local residents and firemen reported health complaints they believe were caused by the crash. Meanwhile, the El Al cargo jet flights continue to stop over at Schiphol, raising fears that the commercial airport is a hub for secret weapons transfers. PNS associate editor Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is an investigative reporter and former editor of the English-language Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo.

    Crying Wolf or Crying Bear? LIttle Azerbaijan Comes in from the Cold
    By Thomas Goltz
    Date: 02-12-99
    An invitation to the U.S. military to establish a base is not all that common, but nothing is quite as it seems in Azerbaijan, which did the inviting. In a report that he is uniquely qualified to provide, PNS commentator Thomas Goltz traces the convoluted history of this invitation. Goltz is the author of "Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-rich, War-torn, Post-Soviet Republic" (M.E. Sharpe, 1998)

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