JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 5.08

04/12/99 - 04/25/99

CONTENTS

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

Bombs, Bits and Bytes-- A Cyber War That Reaches Us Through Cyberspace Is Hard to Grasp In Human Terms
By Katherine Cowy Kim

News of the U.S.-NATO action in Serbia reaches us through television and computer networks -- and is, to a great extent, fought with the same technology. This makes a personal response more difficult, especially for young people who rarely respond on any other terms. PNS commentator Katherine Cowy Kim, a 27 year old writer in San Francisco, is an editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a monthly newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

African-Americans Are Deafeningly Silent on Kosovo
By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

One topic not on the list of African Americans, including their leaders, is the U.S. action in Kosovo -- a striking contrast to that community's opposition to recent U.S.military ventures. PNS commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson explores some of the many reasons for this silence, and finds them wanting. Hutchinson is the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."

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

Kosovo to Pinochet -- The Last Act of National Sovereignty Now Being Played Out on the European Stage
By Andrew Reding

Events in the easternmost and westernmost points of the European continent, while not directly related, mark the end of the concept of the sovereign nation which has held sway for hundreds of years. Both the events in Kosovo and the extradition of Chile's Augusto Pinochet reveal the power of new, supranational institutions. Pacific News Service associate editor Andrew Reding is senior fellow for hemispheric affairs at the World Policy Institute in New York. A second related commentary will run tomorrow.

In Both Serbia and America -- History is Driving Kosovo War
By Franz Schurmann

When troops start fighting wars over land, a sense of history arises. History can be seen as streams whose currents pull people along or, sometimes, drown them. People know that they are thinking historically when their minds become filled with strange images as vivid as personal experiences. That's already happened in Serbia and may now happen in America as well. PNS editor Franz Schurmann is a professor emeritus of history and sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of numerous books on foreign politics.

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

Vietnam's Lost Paradise -- Grim Economic Predictions Shatter Socialist Dreams
By Thi Lam

Vietnam has remained largely insulated from the financial crises afflicting its Asian neighbors, but this insularity has carried a high price: complacency. As the region begins to rebound, Vietnam will be left holding the bag. PNS commentator Thi Lam looks as the state of his homeland 24 years after its reunification. Lam is a former general in the Republic of South Vietnam and the author of "Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam" (1985).

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

Countrywide Protests -- Mexicans Living in the U.S. Hit With Unfair Policies From Both Sides of the Border
By Jesus Martinez

Mexicans who live in the United States face open hostility on many fronts, particularly in California. Rubbing salt into these wounds, their own government has started to attack them in the most virulent way for reasons they may have to do with the fact that they now number in the millions and are seeking the right to vote. 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 #17
By Emil Guillermo

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 #18
By Emil Guillermo

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

Genocide Day -- Rwandans Struggle to Come to Terms With Murderous Past in Building a New Country
By Farah Stockman

With the word "genocide" back on front pages, many commentators have contrasted U.S. moves in Serbia with U.S. inaction in Rwanda five years ago. In that country, the return of exiles has created an ethnic mix resembling the situation before the massacres, and there is talk, sometimes tentative, of national unity. PNS correspondent Farah Stockman, a journalist who works with Internews, reports from Kigali.

India's Missile Test -- The Newest in Technolgoy in the Service of the Oldest of Objectives
By Andrew Robinson

India's most recent example of missile-rattling has produced a predictable response from Pakistan, which promises to send a comparable missile aloft, and at home, from Indians hailing their country's technological prowess. In reality, says PNS commentator Andrew Robinson, this is no demonstration of expertise but a desperate move by a threatened political party. Robinson, a freelance writer, worked as a consultant on Internet-related issues in Bangladesh and India for three years.

Geopolitics, Not Compassion -- It May Be A New Style War, But It's Being Fought for the Same Old Reasons
By Michael T. Klare

The U.S.-NATO bombings and missile attack on Serbia have been explained with a great deal of talk about protecting human rights. But a close look at the situation shows that the U.S. policy is more concerned with protecting markets than with refugees. PNS commentator Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Massachusetts and author of "Rogue States and Nuclear Outlaws."

A Peasant Philosopher Looks at the War From His Kosovo Farm
By Terence Sheridan

To escape the lunatic war on Serbia, an American reporter decides to drive to Kosovo where he talks with a 72 year old Serbian farmer about America, cigarettes and dancing bears. PNS corespondent Terence Sheridan, a former reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has been living and writing in the former Yugoslavia for the last eight years.

East Timor's Massacres Could Become Another Kosovo
By Peter Dale Scott

Militias acting with the encouragement of Indonesia's army are attacking villages in East Timor, hoping to prevent a vote for independence in the long-contested island. Washington, unlike Australia, has yet to use its influence to tilt the Indonesian army away from violence. PNS contributor Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat, has authored numerous books and articles on U.S. foreign affairs.

YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

A 23 Year Old at High School Shooting-- "They Were Just Never Good Enough"
By Lyn Duff

Only about five years away from the cruelties of high school life herself, a young woman assisting the Red Cross at the scene of the shooting in Littleton, Colorado, finds herself overwhelmed by the violence, but not mystified. For PNS commentator Lyn Duff, the shooters are creatures of a society that ignores its children and focuses on a particular kind of success. Duff is a founding editor of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado.

Odd Boys Out
By Russell Morse

"Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go," wrote the great English bard. Today thousands of young people fantasize about exploding with rage -- rage which could be soothed by even one adult's attention. Russell Morse, 18, writes for YO! Youth Outlook, a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service. (Second of four essays by YO! writers on the "losers" of Littleton. The first two will run today, the last two will run on Friday.)

An Inner City "Loser" Too Scared to Shoot
By Charles Jones

Picked on and beaten up in school, Charles Jones recalls the day he brought a gun to class, determined to do in his tormentors. What made him hold back? Why does he think his childhood as an inner city African American gave him an advantage the two teenagers in Littleton, Co., did not have? Jones, now 22, writes for YO! Youth Outlook, a publication by and about young people published by Pacific News Service. (First of four essays by YO! writers on the "losers" of Littleton. The first two will run today, the last two will run on Friday.)

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