Word: augean
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...obstacle to the republics' independence and too cautious in enacting economic reforms. (They too were correct.) This man with the stain on his forehead attempted simultaneously to contain and transform the country, to destroy and reconstruct, right on the spot. One can be Hercules and clean the Augean stable. One can be Atlas and hold up the heavenly vault. But no one has ever succeeded in combining the two roles. Surgery was demanded of Gorbachev, but angry shouts broke out whenever he reached for the scalpel. He wasn't a Philippine healer who could remove a tumor without blood...
Before coming to CSN, Marques was finance secretary for the city of Rio de Janeiro--a job of Augean proportions. When she arrived in 1993, city coffers held a paltry $5 million. In two years' time, Marques--earning the epithet "the Billion-Dollar Woman"--turned Rio's battered fortunes completely around, cutting wasteful programs, renegotiating service contracts and declaring war on tax dodgers. By the time she left, the city's reserves were pumped up to $1.2 billion...
...president has a Herculean problem of cleaning his inherited Augean stables across the University. The only tools he will require are an ax, a broom and a shovel, and perhaps the prayers of all who truly care for Harvard...
...crushing whatever chance the U.S.S.R. had of making it into the 21st century as a modern, civilized country. All those missiles in their silos, all those troops in foreign lands, all those rubles and cheap oil flowing to Cuba, represented resources that he desperately needed for the Augean task of cleaning up the mess that stretches from Vilnius to Vladivostok...
...Augean mess left by Marcos has proved even more paralyzing in the economic sphere. Although Aquino's very presence has helped to restore the confidence of the international business community, new investments have been slow to arrive. By one estimate, the government would have to maintain a formidable 6.3% annual growth rate just to repay on schedule a fortune in foreign loans. Meanwhile, roughly 45% of the work force is underemployed, and two of every three Filipinos live below the poverty line...