Word: authoritarians
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...whether Ortega has shed his penchant for cynicism is another question. He and his Sandinista comrades were global guerrilla heroes when they overthrew the brutal dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1979. As Nicaragua's Marxist comandante, Ortega was widely criticized for being as incompetent and corrupt as he was authoritarian. Those who know him say his quest to regain the presidency--he lost elections in 1996 and 2001--stemmed less from leftist ideals than from a raw need to accumulate power and avenge his 1990 humiliation. In 2000 he formed an alliance with President Arnoldo Alemán--a right-wing Somoza...
...fact that Beijing will host the Olympics in 2008. It's hard to exaggerate the importance to the Chinese authorities of an event they see as China's coming out party as a major world power. Yet, even with so much at stake and the executive power bestowed by authoritarian rule, Beijing'S doggedly dirty atmosphere may yet defeat the government's seemingly half hearted attempts to clean up. The capital remains a standout among Chinese cities in that it has no restrictions on the number of new cars hitting its streets. Shanghai for example limits new cars sales...
...election of Ortega - who won with 38% of the vote, about 8 points ahead of his U.S.-backed opponent, conservative banker Eduardo Montealegre - is no doubt a concern. After he and Sandinista guerrillas toppled Nicaragua's brutal dictator, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, in 1979, Ortega led an authoritarian, Soviet-backed regime that wrecked the economy and fought a civil war with U.S.-backed contra rebels that killed some 50,000 people. Ortega was finally ousted in a 1990 election, and for the past 16 years, during which he twice failed to recapture the presidency, he seemed little more than a relic...
...disturbed by Alibhai-Brown's column on her opposition to Muslim veils. Wearing the veil does not oppress women. It is only by coercion?which is the mark of an authoritarian society?that it becomes a symbol of oppression. I would not be as disconcerted if Alibhai-Brown expressed her views only in private. But by denouncing the veil publicly, she does not do justice to the Islamic faith, which remains part of her identity. Abdul Aziz Singapore...
...Britain in the 21st century, not the Arab world or the Middle Ages. Judith Lawrence Filey, England I was disturbed by Alibhai-Brown's column on her opposition to Muslim veils. Wearing the veil does not oppress women. It is only by coercion - which is the mark of an authoritarian society - that it becomes a symbol of oppression. I would not be as disconcerted if Alibhai-Brown expressed her views only in private. But by denouncing the veil publicly, she does not do justice to the Islamic faith, which remains part of her identity. Abdul Aziz Singapore Game Over...