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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 6.20

10/02/00 - 10/16/00

CONTENTS


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

    Oslo Is Dead, Peace Making Is Alive
    By Rami Khouri
    Date: 10-13-00
    Since 1993 every violent incident between Israelis and Palestinians has led to a brief pause in the negotiations, only to be followed by intense international diplomacy and a faster pace of resumed peace-making. The same diplomatic dynamic is already underway even as military and civilian violence intensifies. PNS commentator Rami Khouri, a Palestinian-Jordanian, is a syndicated political columnist, author, and television talk show host.

    Clinton May Get A Peace Agreement, Oil Prices May Drop -- But Islamic Upheaval Will Continue
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 10-13-00
    While gruesome pictures from the Holy Land are splashed all over the media, what is really going on among those who hold power is not war but politics. Barak and Arafat may curse each other, but it is President Clinton who wields the greatest power because both Israel and the emerging Palestine are essentially American protectorates. Franz Schurmann has written on Middle East issues since the late 1970s. He is professor emeritus at UC Berkeley.

    A Powerful Triangle That Could Usher Peace
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 10-12-00
    Today's economic giants -- the countries able to draw the most investment capital -- are Asian-Pacific rather than Euro-Atlantic: China, Japan and the United States. Despite the considerable differences among the three, this triangle could become a stable base for peace, provided Korea's reunification becomes a reality. PNS commentator Franz Schurmann, emeritus professor at UC-Berkeley, has written on international affairs since the early 1970s.

    Million Man March Still Inspires As Million Family Event Approaches
    By Max Millard
    Date: 10-11-00
    Those who were at the "Million Man March" in 1995, some reluctantly, some accidentally, recall it as a high point in their lives. On the fifth anniversary of that march, a more broadly based Million Family March will try to recapture some of that spirit. PNS commentator Max Millard is a freelance journalist and former staff writer for the Sun Reporter, San Francisco's oldest black weekly.

    New Ruling Could Give Labor A New Toehold In Silicon Valley
    By Raj Jayadev
    Date: 10-10-00
    After 27 years, the National Labor Relations Board has overturned a rule that said workers employed through a temporary agency could not join the union representing other employees at their workplace. The change is of great interest in Silicon Valley, where temp employees are the rule in some parts of the high-tech industry -- parts the unions have tended to overlook. PNS correspondent Raj Jayadev is the Silicon Valley/Digital Divide editor for YO! Youth Outlook, a monthly newspaper by and about Bay Area youth published by Pacific News Service.

    Getting Smart In The War On Drugs
    By Vincent Shiraldi
    Date: 10-09-00
    If prisons were the answer to drug abuse, California would be a drug-free paradise by now. Yet it leads the country in drug abuse rates. Now a new initiative on the November ballot proposes a radically different approach. PNS commentator Vincent Schiraldi is Director of the Justice Policy Institute located in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

    Rankism -- The Mother Of All Isms
    By Robert W. Fuller
    Date: 10-06-00
    In America's celebrity culture, "somebodies" are sought after, given preference, lionized. "Nobodies" get insulted, dissed, exploited, ignored. The syndrome might be called rankism. PNS correspondent Robert W. Fuller taught physics at Columbia, created a program for high school dropouts in Seattle and served as president of Oberlin. His book, "Rankism: Breaking Ranks in Pursuit of Individual Dignity," can be accessed at www.breakingranks.net.

    Oslo Is The Root Of Mideast Violence, But Not The Victim
    By Kathryn J. Casa
    Date: 10-04-00
    The Mideast peace process is not the victim of the current violence but the root of it. Unless the American, Israeli and Palestinian officials who meet in Paris this week acknowledge that fact, efforts to stem the current bloodletting will be nothing more than palliatives. PNS commentator Kathryn J. Casa reports from Israel.

    Sharon's Fatal Mistake -- Conjuring Up The Islamic Genie
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 10-03-00
    Likud leader Ariel Sharon made a fateful miscalculation when he ascended the Dome of the Rock -- he underestimated a powerful surge of strength coursing through the Arab and Muslim worlds that has rendered their traditional power equation with Israel and the West moot. One key factor in that surge is the final consolidation of power by the Taliban. PNS associate editor Franz Schurmann, who has studied and traveled widely in the Muslim world, is a professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley.

    Mounting Bolivian Unrest Targets U.S. War On Drugs
    By Jim Schultz
    Date: 10-02-00
    While world attention is focused on events in Colombia and Peru, another Andean nation, Bolivia, is battered by civil unrest over a host of issues, including plans to build U.S.-bankrolled military bases in a coca-growing region. PNS correspondent Jim Shultz is executive director of The Democracy Center (www.democracyctr.org). He lives and writes in Cochabamba, Bolivia.


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

    Mexico's Cold War Wounds -- The Disappeared That Won't Go Away
    By Martin Espinoza
    Date: 10-05-00
    The Mexican government's recent arrest of high-ranking military officials on drug-trafficking charges has unwittingly brought renewed public attention to Mexican military officials' role in the extra-judicial liquidation of political dissidents. PNS commentator Martin Espinoza reports from Mexico City, Mexico.


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

    Missing Voices In Pundit Reactions -- Youth Weigh In On Debate Forum
    By Russell Morse, Swan Gant, and Charles Jones
    Date: 10-04-00
    Rarely heard in the reactions to the first presidential candidates' debate were the voices of young people -- perhaps because youth have the lowest voter turnout of any population group. YO! Youth Outlook offers a sampling of perspectives from San Francisco and Oakland youth whose preference for Gore reflects the traditionally liberal democratic voting trends of the Bay Area but is at odds with overall poll findings showing American youth favoring Bush. The second debate will feature youth reporters who work in Silicon Valley. The third debate will be covered by youth reporters from the Bay Area's bedroom communities.

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