Word: americanizing
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...understable that the American people are wary of political consultants, who sometimes seem to be masters of the obvious. Bill Clinton had a gaggle of strategists he really didn't need. He won the 1992 elections because his idealism inspired voters and because H. Ross Perot stole votes and momentum from George Bush. He beat Bob Dole principally because the economy was strong and Dole was weak. None of these require a Harvard education--or a campaign consultant--to figure...
Comitan doesn't attract tourists. The flocks of Europeans (there are conspicuously few American sightseers in Chiapas) visit the colonial city of San Cristobal or the ruins at Palenque. They usually just use Comitan as a stop-off point to obtain a Guatemalan visa or to take a colectivo to the Lagunas de Montebello, 52 km away. Thus, my being here has become known throughout town. People are curious as to what brought me to Comitan and want to know about life in the United States and try out the few English words they have learned...
There are ways, however, in which Comitan is like life back home. I exercise daily at a gym; I eat Quaker Instant Oatmeal; I can have my photos developed in an hour; I can check my e-mail daily. American marketing is everywhere. Coca-Cola (a.k.a. "Coca") and Pepsi have made inroads to even the most remote towns--towns which still do not have running water. (I even visited a Mayan village where the bubbly has been incorporated into a sacred healing ceremony.) If you walk through Comitan in the late afternoon, you can hear the loud cheers...
...thing, Mike informed me that, if I chose to move in, I was going to be sharing a room with him. While less than desirable, this is not quite as sketchy as it sounds. For several years, the Bayswater flat had been populated by an ever-changing stream of American and Canadian students working in London. Inexplicably, the pool of students who chose to spend their free time by earning pounds rather than dollars was overwhelmingly female. Thus, in all the flat's known history, Mike had been its only male resident. It was a two-bedroom flat, with...
...Republicans, mind you, are just trying to help. They?re for small government -? a good thing by most reckonings, and especially by the Fed?s ?- and for giving American consumers back, out of the government newly-teeming annual coffers, some of what they?ve been consuming so furiously to put in. It?s their economy, stupid; they made the boom, with some help from Asian imports and Robert Rubin, and wouldn?t it be nice for the GOP to show its appreciation (and hopefully win a few elections) by cutting America a check...