Democracy Now! February 5, 1999

The Passing of King Hussein of Jordan The Passing of King Hussein of Jordan Moments after a gravely ill King Hussein arrived this morning in Amman, Jordan, doctors pronounced him clinically dead and said he was surviving on life support. In his 46-year rule of Jordan, King Hussein had helped to broker difficult Israeli-Palestinian talks, and was considered crucial in keeping the peace process from collapsing. Arab leaders are worried about what a power shift in Jordan might mean fro the region as a whole. Last month, in a controversial move, he deposed his brother Hassan as Crown Prince and instead named his eldest son Abdullah as the heir to the Jordanian throne. GUEST: Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for the Independent of London. Amos Wilson: The Impact of the Media on the African Psyche Last week, a controversy exploded in Washington over the appropriateness of language. David Howard, the recently appointed ombudsman for the District of Columbia, used an obscure term to refer to the budget his office had been given - he said it was "niggardly". Soon after the incident, Howard handed over his resignation.. Although the word means miserly and has no racist roots, rumors had spread that he had used a racial slur. What does this incident say about the state of race relations in the nation's capital, and in the United States as a whole? We turn to the words of a man who studied race and self-perception in the African American community: African American psychologist Amos Wilson, speaking on the impact of the media on the African psyche. TAPE OF: Amos Wilson