Word: bazaar
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...matter how good the rug selection, the endless variations in style and quality make bazaar bargaining a daunting exercise. And any transaction can conjure old clichés of naive Americans and wily, opaque locals. But such clichés are exactly that. Rug traders drive a hard bargain for the same reason everyone else does: money. And anyone who thinks Western capitalism is transparent should look to the subprime-mortgage-derivatives mess. Still, there are some useful lessons I've learned from buying rugs, which, when taken with a healthy dose of skepticism for metaphor, are also perhaps a useful guide...
...There is no bazaar here," says another. Daily essentials, like cooking oil, sugar and tea are on the other side of the checkpoint. "If I go to the bazaar they will say I am an informant...
...Even in Syria, however, rug buying can be intimidating for the beginner. Innumerable variations of region, style and quality make establishing the value of any particular rug daunting. And then there's the relentless bazaar bargaining that can turn any transaction a microcosmic "clash of cultures" between in which straight-forward, naïve Westerners imagine themselves being conned by wily, opaque "Orientals...
...police arrested large numbers of Uighur men, apparently hoping to prevent an escalation of unrest, according to Khotan residents and activists outside China. But the detentions had the opposite effect and on March 23, an estimated 500-700 women in black dresses, headscarves and veils demonstrated during the weekly bazaar, a market that authorities say draws some 100,000 attendees. "They pulled placards calling for independence from under their robes," recounts one Uighur teacher who wasn't at the bazaar that day but spoke to many witnesses. "Every time the police arrested one group, another protest would start...
...casual visitor, the streets of Khotan now seem back to normal. The bazaar is open every morning, selling everything from roast lamb and athletic shoes to handwoven local carpets and the famous local white jade. But the almost exclusively Chinese traders whose small shops line the streets between the large People's Liberation Army base and Unity Square are evasive when asked about relations between the races and the events of March 23, after which many of these shops stayed closed for days. One young woman from Sichuan province says it is getting dark outside and she must close...