Word: boom
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...interpreted as a sign of catastrophic breakdown. But in Thailand they signal that the country no longer consists of a mass of illiterate peasants who meekly submit to military rule. That may have been true for most of the past six decades, but now a five-year economic boom has created an urban, affluent, well-educated middle class that is demanding a voice in politics, and it cannot be subdued by bullets. The very name given to the demonstrators by the Thai press -- mob mua thue, or mobile-phone mob -- testifies to the interaction of affluence and politics: democracy activists...
Throughout the 1980s, Thai society changed rapidly. A boom spurred largely by Japanese and Western investment in chemicals, textiles, consumer electronics and other industries gave the country one of the highest economic growth rates in the world, averaging around 11% from 1987 through 1990 and slowing only to 7.5% in 1991. Thailand, a nation of more than 55 million people, is the world's largest rice exporter, a leading producer of seafood and one of Asia's top tourist destinations. Living and educational standards have expanded enormously: in 1965 only about 16,000 Thais were attending college; today the number...
...economic boom that has helped loosen the military's grip may also indirectly restrain more attempts by the generals to hang on through violence -- they have as much to lose as anyone else. Not the least reason King Bhumibol was able to broker last week's compromise was a growing fear on both sides that continued bloodshed would severely damage the economy by frightening away tourists and foreign investors. It simply is not as easy for the military to maintain control of the affluent and educated Thailand of today as it was in the simpler peasant society that the nation...
Older suburbs are also suffering from a graying effect. The newlyweds who set off the baby boom are now retirees with fixed incomes but growing demands on local services. "Senior citizens tend to have an increasing need for home maintenance, transportation, meals on wheels and a host of other support services," says Patricia Paruch, the mayor of Royal Oak, a century-old suburb of Detroit, where more than 20% of the 65,000 residents are over...
...fictional TV news crew is carried to a new level in the baby-shower episode. The visiting TV newswomen do surprisingly well in their cameo appearances, delivering quips about such things as balancing career and motherhood. (Says Williams: "I once asked Garrick Utley if he had to make a boom-boom.") But the encounter simply lends a bogus aura of credibility to a show that seems phony at its soul. And why do all the guests at the shower come from the soft-news world of morning TV? Apparently, the hard-news reporters whom Murphy is really modeled after -- Diane...