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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 5.06

03/15/99 - 03/28/99

CONTENTS


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

    Ignorance Fuels Media, Government Charges of Spying by China
    By George Koo
    Date: 03-15-99
    Accusations that China has stolen nuclear technology from the United States and the firing of a Chinese American official have brought a storm of accusations. But a calm look at the realities of technological change suggest that these charges are completely without substance. PNS commentator George Koo is an independent business consultant, former Chairman of Silicon Valley based Asian American Manufacturers Association, a Human Relations Commissioner of Mountain View, Ca. and a member of Committee of 100, a national organization of prominent Chinese Americans.

    First Americans in the Arts -- A Wannabe Oscar for American Indians
    By Jacqueline Keeler
    Date: 03-19-99
    You may be forgiven if you did not know that Melrose Place temptress Heather Locklear, blonde and blue-eyed, is an American Indian. Yet she definitely fits Hollywood's criteria of preferred actresses, which may be why the First Americans in the Arts -- the wannabe Oscars for American Indians -- awarded her Best American Indian Actress on TV this year. PNS associate editor Jacqueline Keeler, a member of the Dineh Nation and the Yankton Dakota Sioux, is a Bay Area writer.


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

    The Bells Toll -- For Serbs, History Repeats Itself as New Enemies Challenge Their Existence
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 03-24-99
    Six centuries ago the Turkish empire conquered the empire that was Serbia. Some Serbians moved toward Islam, others to Roman Catholicism, but many -- mostly monks and shepherds -- held to their belief in the Orthodox church and to memories of the Serbian empire. For these Serbians, bombing by the U.S.-NATO forces is only the most recent in a string of efforts to deprive them of their heritage. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at U.C.-Berkeley, is author of numerous books on world affairs.

    It's Easier to Get in to Wars Then Get Out of Them
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 03-25-99
    What's really dangerous about President Clinton's military gambit in Yugoslavia is that he may soon face the choice of whether or not to commit ground combat NATO forces into Kosovo. Those forces will include American troops. A lot of past history indicates that when any leader as awesome as the American president changes the rules from peace to war the old saying soon prevails: "it's much easier to start wars than end them." PNS editor Franz Schurmann, a professor emeritus of history and sociology at U.C.-Berkeley, is author of numerous books on world affairs.


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

    Chinese-Language Media Focuses on Spy Scandal Fallout on Chinese Americans
    By A. A. Quong
    Date: 03-15-99
    Accusations that China has stolen nuclear secrets from the United States, and the firing of one Chinese American employee at Los Alamos have produced a spate of editorials on relations with China, nuclear danger, and the like. But for the Chinese-language media, the story is smaller and hits very close to home. PNS correspondent A. A. Quong is a freelance journalist.

    4 Years After Sarin Attach -- Aum Shinrikyo Sect is Regrouping and Growing
    By Yoichi Clark Shimatsu
    Date: 03-16-99
    In March of 1995, the group called Aum Shinrikyo released nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12, injuring thousands, and creating a climate of fear which spread far beyond Japan. Four years later, the sect is apparently strong and growing, and there are serious, unanswered questions about the government's conduct in the case. PNS associate editor Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is an investigative reporter and former editor of the English-language Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo.


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

    Gleanings from the Ethnic Media #13
    By Emil Guillermo
    Date: 03-16-99
    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.

    Gleanings from the Ethnic Media #14
    By Emil Guillermo
    Date: 03-24-99
    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

    An Unusual Journey-- Following the Refugee Path Step by Step
    By Veronique Mistiaen
    Date: 03-22-99
    While human rights groups in many countries worry about hostile public attitude towards refugees, their counterparts in France have taken an unusual approach -- one that is directed at individual citizens. PNS correspondent Veronique Mistiaen reports on an unusual journey from Paris. Mistiaen is a London-based freelance reporter.


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

    China Spy Scandal Taps Reservoir of Racism
    By Ling-Chi Wang
    Date: 03-18-99
    In a front page article, the New York Times reported on March 6 that China had made "a leap in the development of nuclear weapons" by stealing secrets from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Two days later, in a leak to the paper, Chinese American computer scientist, Wen Ho Lee was identified as the suspect, and under intense media and Republican pressure was summarily dismissed. No evidence against Lee has been produced to date, nor has he been arrested or charged. PNS associate editor Ling-Chi Wang chairs the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California-Berkeley.

    NATO Bombs Will Encourage Repression
    By Eric D. Gordy
    Date: 03-26-99
    President Clinton has emphasized humanitarian concerns as a prime rationale for the NATO bombing of Serbia. In fact, the Serbian regime will only use the bombing as an excuse to step up repression and consolidate its power. Given this pattern one might even ask whether the U.S. views Milosevic as an enemy or as a partner. PNS commentator Eric D. Gordy is a sociologist at Clark University who has lived and worked in Serbia.


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

    Oakland Students Wary of Operation Urban Warrior's Real Target
    By Joshua Parr
    Date: 03-19-99
    All last week the Oakland Hills were filled with Marines and low flying helicopters shook the glass windows of Castlemont High in the city's flatlands. The elite U.S. troops, invited to hold week-long "Operation Urban Warrior" exercises by Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, explained the training was "to handle a breakdown in law and order" and prepare for "increased civil chaos and confrontations with enemy fighters in an urban setting." An Army strategist told local media that the other purpose of the exercises -- soon to be replicated in other American cities -- was to "recondition our populace again, so that a soldier practicing for a war is seen as a regular and good thing."

    Students at Castlemont High, situated not far from the former headquarters of the Black Panther Party at the eastern edge of Oakland's flatlands, weren't entirely convinced, judging from short essays they wrote for Pacific News Service's YO! (Youth Outlook) about the program. Several endorsed the exercises as a way to prevent "breakdown" and "chaos" that could be triggered by Y2K, the Millenium Bug. Most felt the Marines were there to intimidate them. PNS editor Joshua Parr runs two weekly writing workshops at Castlemont attended on average by 20 students.

    Chevron Fire -- Just Another Day to Richmond Teens
    By Katherine Kim
    Date: 03-26-99
    As a fire at a Chevron oil refinery sent roils of black smoke in to the air around Richmond, Ca., PNS editor Katherine Kim was running a writing workshop with students at Richmond High School. She found that these teenagers, while disturbed, ultimately viewed fire's havoc as just another part of their everyday lives. Kim is an editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a magazine by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

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