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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 5.24

11/29/99 - 12/10/99

CONTENTS


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

    An Amputee From America's Success Story
    By Charles Jones
    Date: 12-07-89
    Lamont, Squirt and Cerj -- young African American men in their early twenties -- feel no progress in their lives, even though they all now have jobs, a change in status from four or five years ago. Charles Jones is a 22-year-old father of two who writes for YO! Youth Outlook, a monthly newspaper by and about young people published by PNS. One in a series of commentaries by writers in their teens and early twenties looking at America's political landscape at the end of the century.

    Other Voices -- Saga Of A Vietnamese Jeweler In A Cambodian Market Takes Stock Of Life
    By Thien Tran, Pacific News Service (As Told To PNS Editor Andrew Lam)
    Date: 12-03-99
    No one knows for sure how many Vietnamese there are in Cambodia -- estimates range from 100,000 to a million. But it's obvious that Vietnamese and Chinese dominate in commerce. Thien Tran, once a soldier, is now a successful 32-year-old businessman with a Cambodian wife and children. He is also one of hundreds of millions of migrants whose search for a better life are melting borders around the world. He is part of the human engine fueling the global economy just as much as the growth of multinations and the spread of communications technology. This piece is culled from an extensive interview with PNS associate editor Andrew Lam. Lam can be reached at psilobin@hotmail.com.

    Who Is The "Little Man?"
    By Mark Schurmann
    Date: 12-07-99
    In the battle to draw up battle lines, individual lives and names are lost in favor of large abstract political causes. So the "little man" becomes the focal point for activists campaigning for the challenger in San Francisco's mayoral runoffs -- and for protesters at the WTO meetings in Seattle. But one of the realities of the global era is that the "little man" no longer exists, and maybe never did. Commentator Mark Schurmann, an ex-barback and boxer, teaches writing in PNS' Beat Within program in Bay Area juvenile halls. This is the first of several articles by teenage and twenty-something writers exploring the political landscape at the end of the century.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future


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

    Irony In Seattle -- Nothing Globalizes Like Anti-Globalism
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 11-30-99
    The Seattle meeting of the World Trade Organization has attracted unprecedented coverage, partly because of the number and variety of planned protests. But it is very much worth noting, writes PNS commentator Walter Truett Anderson, that the opposition forces are themselves a product of the globalism they find so objectionable. Walter Truett Anderson is the author of "The Future of the Self" (Tarcher Putnam, 1997).

    Trade Is Not The Real Issue In Seattle
    By Andrew Reding
    Date: 12-01-99
    While the nominal focus of both delegates and protesters at the meeting of the World Trade Organization is trade itself, the real issue of concern is whether democracy can prevail in a world ruled by the managers of global enterprises. Pacific News Service associate editor Andrew Reding directs the Americas Project of the World Policy Institute in New York.

    "Long Past Time" -- AFL-CIO Reverses Course On Immigration
    By David Bacon
    Date: 12-06-99
    American labor has been no friend to immigrants in recent years, with unions strongly backing the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Law But at their annual convention in Los Angeles this fall, top AFL-CIO officials acknowledged this support was a mistake. The federation seems to have accepted the need for a basic change in immigration policy that some union activists say is "long past time." PNS associate editor David Bacon writes widely on issues of labor and immigration.


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

    As New Millennium Arrives, Old Asian Empires Stand Their Ground Against The Solo Superpower
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 12-10-99
    The United States is widely touted as the world's Solo Superpower, but four nations -- heirs to vast empires -- harbor alternative visions of the world, as Russian President Boris Yeltsin's recent visit to China underscored. Superpower or not, the United States will do well in coming years to stay mindful of the imperial histories of China, Russia, India and Iran. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley, is author of numerous books and articles on foreign politics.


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

    The Kill Penalty Issue
    By Michael Kroll
    Date: 12-08-99
    Death penalty politics are once again at the forefront of the bitterly contested race in San Francisco for district attorney. The only twist is that in a city where capital punishment is unpopular, the preemptive strike comes from anti- rather than pro-death penalty forces. PNS associate editor Michael Kroll, a founder of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., writes widely on legal issues.


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

    Fighting For Peace On The Front Lines In Seattle
    By Gabriel Taylor
    Date: 12-01-99
    Although media coverage of the protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle focuses on violence, the real news is that many of those involved are determined to avoid harm to all concerned. PNS commentator Gabriel Taylor reports from the barricades on a successful effort to keep the peace. Taylor is a recent graduate in political science from Evergreen College in Olympia Washington, and apprentice carpenter.

    After Seattle -- Uneasy Allies Aim To Take Protest Movement Mainstream
    By Rene Ciria-Cruz
    Date: 12-09-99
    Diverse opponents of globalization who came together in Seattle to derail the WTO now have even bigger goals in mind. But keeping their alliance together may prove their biggest challenge, writes Rene Ciria-Cruz, executive editor of New California Media which hosts a multi-ethnic news media web site at www.NCMonline.com. Ciria-Cruz is also the consulting editor of Filipinas Magazine.


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

    Without Role Models For Married Life, Young People Still Dream About Marriage
    BYy Amber Powers and Stanley Joseph
    Date: 11-29-99
    Only 26 percent of American households are made up of married couples with children according to a recent University of Chicago survey -- a steep drop from the 45 percent in the early 1970s. When asked how they viewed marriage, most youth reporters for PNS' YO! newspaper noted that they had no role models for married life in their own childhoods. Nevertheless, most young people we asked still "dare to dream" they will get married. Here are two essays by YO! reporters on how they imagine marriage. Amber Powers is a 16 year old high school student living in Mendon, Mass. Stanley Joseph, a 25 year old Haitian-Afro American, is a founding editor of YO! and a senior at San Francisco State University.

    Andrea N. Jones, Marriage, Monica, Mores, Motherhood, Myth And Mystery
    By Andrea N. Jones
    Date: 12-03-99
    In her latest TV interview, Monica Lewinsky revealed that fame and material success notwithstanding, her real dream involves being part of a conventional family. This may seem ironic, but many women in their mid 20s share this dream in a world where such a family is harder and harder to find. Andrea N. Jones is on the staff of YO! (Youth Outlook), a newspaper by and about young people published by Pacific News Service.

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