Word: act
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...concocting cruel experiments to prove far-fetched points, both then and now, has its critics. "I think often our conversations about animals tend to go to these weird extremes and act to conceal what we are doing to them every day," says Jonathan Safran Foer, whose new book, Eating Animals, relates his attempt to understand how animals become food. "Should we swat flies, is it possible that plants like it when we play classical music, can dogs commit suicide - all of these things may be interesting, but they have nothing to do with how we regularly interact with animals...
...Fico has backed Slota's patriotic act, but now says he prefers to delay its implementation until Sept. 1, a move analysts view as a way of mitigating public outrage before elections scheduled for June. But the legislation already seems to have done enough pre-election harm. "This law makes Slovakia look ridiculous," says Eliska Slavikova, a 57-year-old elementary school teacher. "And it's returning us to the 19th century...
...argue that it will have the opposite effect. "If you want to foster patriotism you must set an example," says Bela Bugar, a veteran ethnic Hungarian parliamentarian and a Slota rival. "Everything that is forced produces aversion." Thousands have signed a petition urging President Ivan Gasparovic to veto the act (he has until Saturday to do so), while others have joined groups opposing the measure on Facebook. Last week, hundreds of students and teachers sang the national anthem and jingled their keys in a march through Bratislava, a gesture that recalled the days of the Velvet Revolution when people shook...
...become a central figure in the government's push toward establishing Slovak heroes. Fico also triggered a heated debate when he described the nation's ancestors as "old Slovaks" -an attempt to demonstrate that the country has a deep and respectable history. And last year, parliament passed a language act that, among other things, instituted a fine of $6,800 for failing to use the Slovak language in official and public communications -a move that further estranged the country's 500,000-strong Hungarian minority. "Fico wasted the opportunity to build national self-confidence on positives, on what Slovakia...
...says Senator Jeanty Jean Williams of the southern Nippes department, is that the current legislature create a "regional state council," with 30 members chosen from designated civic groups around the country. That body's job in turn would be to help put together a "national state council" to act as a sort of interim parliament until formal legislative elections can take place, perhaps next year. "That is the most popular alternative," says Williams, "because of its [regional] inclusiveness" in the process of not only choosing Haiti's leaders but directing quake recovery. "It involves a broad representation of Haitian society...