Word: bitterness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...widower, which surely explains his pensive silences. His son is in jail, his daughter-in-law is in need of rescue from drugs and low company, and his granddaughters, who live with him, require large helpings of love, patience and understanding. All that, doubtless, justifies the bitter flashes that occasionally illuminate his frozen taciturnity...
China's leaders have been paralyzed by the conundrum of Shenyang. Failure to stop the spiraling losses of the state factories could destroy China's economic miracle, yet the cure is an exceedingly bitter one: the dismantling of the system that guaranteed workers lifelong employment and social benefits. Pushing ahead with reform depends on how much pain and suffering people will take before they resort to rebellion. In March, Finance Minister Liu Zhongli acknowledged that reform of the enterprises was "important for the destiny" of the nation, but President Jiang Zemin has been moving ahead very cautiously. He seems...
Takeover wars are always messy clashes of money and egos in which each side accuses the other of trying to give shareholders the shaft. But the bitter and protracted fight for ITT (1996 sales: $6.6 billion) is a throwback to the corporate wars of the 1980s. "It is very troubling that he didn't put the hotel properties up for bidding," says Mark Sirower, a professor of corporate strategies at N.Y.U.'s Stern School of Business and author of The Synergy Trap: How Companies Lose the Acquisition Game. "He's supposed to maximize the value of these assets...
Rather than settling the issue, the report is likely to mark the opening round of long and bitter debate. Several congressional committees have made plans to ask the commission members to explain their findings, perhaps as early as this week. Those hearings could get heated. "It's a question of where the pro-life movement wants to draw the line," says Connecticut Congressman Christopher Shays, a Republican. "If they believe that life begins at conception, as they do, this could, sadly, become a very contentious issue...
Believe in institutions, but do not marry them. Establishments exist to moderate; they look for function. You are likely to work for some company or other, but keep a safe distance. There is no contempt as bitter as that felt by compromised minds for the independent ones that have joined them. Grin broadly at the water cooler, and go home to where you live...