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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 6.30

02/19/00 - 03/04/01

CONTENTS


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

    Colombia, Mi Pais Pero No Mi Patria (Colombia, My Country But Not My Home)
    By David Higuera
    Date: 03-02-01
    Born to a large family in Bogata, Colombia, PNS contributor David Higuera faced the horror of a cheating father at age 2, and relocation to the U.S. by age 5. The distance he traveled, he would find, was not just made of physical miles, but emotional ones as well. Higuera, 25, came to the U.S. with his mother and sister in 1980 from Colombia. He's an educator and student in San Francisco.

    Trade Imbalance Could Signal More Dangerous Kinds Of Imbalance
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 03-01-01
    Recent news that China has replaced Japan as first in exports to the United States can be read in any of several ways. One unsettling interpretation looks at history, and sees some unhappy parallels. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley, is author of numerous books on foreign affairs.

    Lifting The Islamic Woman's Veil, Part II
    By Muddassir Rizvi, Hadia Nusrat And Fariba Nawa
    Date: 02-28-01
    Today, Pacific News Service offers the second and third parts of a four-part series that lifts the veil of stereotype from Islamic women's lives. For instance, despite the strenuous objections of religious conservatives, women are taking seats in local government councils in Pakistan as part of a program enunciated by the country's military leaders. More than 4,000 were elected in a first round and there is a widespread feeling that the world will never be quite the same, say PNS commentators Muddassir Rizvi and Hadia Nusrat. Rizvi is a Pakistani journalist specializing in development issues; Nusrat works with an Islamibad-based public health publication. For PNS contributor Fariba Nawa, author of the second piece, the last 20 years have been particularly unkind. The daughter of exiles raised in America, who is old enough to remember but gone long enough to forget, she returns to Afghanistan, providing a series of unsettling contrasts. Nawa travels frequently to the Middle East and South Asia.

    Lifting The Islamic Woman's Veil
    Date: 02-27-01
    Today, Pacific News Service offers the first two parts of a four-part series that lifts the veil of stereotype from Islamic women's lives. For instance, despite overall dismal human rights conditions in Iran (stoning, imprisonment and harassment), women there have progressed. In these first two stories, William O. Beeman and Zara Houshmand pay tribute to the women in an overview and focus on the courage of women filmmakers, respectively. PNS contributor William O. Beeman is an anthropologist from Brown University. PNS Commentator Zara Houshmand is an Iranian-American writer living in San Francisco whose work focuses on cross-cultural issues. Tomorrow, a daughter of exiles raised in America, returns to Afghanistan and women take their place in local government councils in Pakistan thanks to a program initiated by military leaders. Photo available for Houshmand's story. E-mail slouie@pacificnews.org for more information.

    Five People Wielding Lots Of Power -- Is The Supreme Court Getting Out Of Hand?
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 02-26-01
    In U.S. legal history, decisions of great and lasting importance have often been linked to cases that seem relatively insignificant. This may be true of a recent ruling in a pair of cases involving an employer's response to an individual illness -- and if so, many find that extremely unsettling. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson is the author of "The Future of the Self" (Tarcher Putnam, 1997).

    Pinochet Judge Has Changed His Mind -- Judiciously But Completely
    By Roger Burbach
    Date: 02-23-01
    Son of an ambassador and relative of important military figures, Juan Guzman was among those Chileans who welcomed the violent coup overthrowing Salvador Allende. But sitting as a judge for more than 25 years has changed his mind and he has pursued the case against Augusto Pinochet, leader of the coup, despite opposition from every side. Judge Guzman was interviewed by PNS commentator Roger Burbach, director of the Center for the Study of the Americas and author of "Globalization and Postmodern Politics: From Zapatistas to Hightech Robber Barons" (Pluto Press).

    Double Fence Will Make It Twice As Hard To Preserve Unique Natural Area
    By Rasa Gustaitis
    Date: 02-22-01
    At a cost of over $1 million a mile, fence between southern San Diego county and Tijuana, Mexico, will soon become a nearly impenetrable double fence. The stated goal is to stop undocumented workers, but the real effect may be irrevocable damage to a natural area that has thrived with cross-border cooperation. PNS commentator Rasa Gustaitis is the editor of California Coast & Ocean magazine.

    Rap And Hip Hop Is Dead -- Long Live Funk
    By Kevin Weston
    Date: 02-21-01
    The now-familiar sounds of rap and hip hop have morphed into just a style of pop music and soon will be only a memory. A new wave of artists, however, come from places no pop artist can reach PNS commentator Kevin Weston is verse editor of the San Francisco Bay View and co-editor of YO! Youth Outlook, a publication by and about Bay Area teens published by Pacific News Service.

    Arab World Greets Lockerbie Verdict With Skepticism And Ridicule
    By Franz Schurmann
    Date: 02-20-01
    The altogether unexpected verdict in the 15-month long trial of two Libyans for a terrorist act -- blowing up a plane over Lockerbie, Scotland - has gone unremarked in the western press. But in fact the verdict can only be seen as a rejection of the prosecution case, leaving many to speculate on the possibility that other interests are at stake. PNS editor Franz Schurmann, professor emeritus of history and sociology at UC-Berkeley, has traveled widely in the Middle East and reads the Arab- and Farsi-language press.

    Sub's Sinking Of Fishing Boat Threatens To Scuttle Japan-U.S. Relations
    By Yoichi Clark Shimatsu
    Date: 02-19-01
    On the scale of fleets and navies and sovereign states, the accidental sinking of a fishing trawler seems small indeed. But this collision between a U.S. nuclear submarine and the Ehime Maru, added to a long string of grievances, may prove just enough to destabilize an increasingly fragile security alliance. PNS commentator Yoichi Clark Shimatsu is former editor of The Japan Times Weekly in Tokyo.

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