Word: civilizations
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...regard the whole exercise somewhat cynically, and the very concept of "volunteerism" under this kind of pressure may turn the word into a joke. The exclusion of kids whose parents are wealthy enough to buy their way out - as young men could buy their way out of the Civil War - will do nothing to reduce such cynicism. And young people may ask why, for example, farmers are not required to "volunteer" for a year or two in exchange for the massive subsidies they enjoy. Or what about boomers like the editor of TIME, when they start collecting Social Security...
...main employers' organization, Medef, was a tour de force fusing policy objectives with performance art, with Sarko alternately playing stand-up comic and revival-meeting preacher. Playing to a friendly crowd, Sarkozy vowed to further lower taxes, reduce companies' salary-linked labor costs, cut thousands of jobs from the civil service, legalize Sunday trading, generally liberalize France's labor market and adopt a small business act using the American law as his model...
...Morocco's Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD). That 47% turns out to be a curiously recurrent statistic. In 1991, the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front won the first round of elections with 47%, an outcome that plunged the military into panic and the country into a bloody civil war. This July, Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) was victorious in parliamentary elections, winning 47% of the vote. While the Turkish generals are uneasy with the akp's success, there's no reason to think that its rise will lead to open confrontation or violence with secular forces...
...civil was your last flight? Southwest Airlines has first-come, first-served festival seating. But for $5 per flight, an unaffiliated company called BoardFirst.com will secure you a coveted "A" boarding pass when that airline opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. Thus, the savvy traveler doesn't even wait in line when he or she is online...
Such pressures reflect the system's growing obsession with security. Earlier this year, the system detained four Iranian-American academics for plotting to overthrow the regime through support for a civil society. (Authorities released one, Haleh Esfandiari, from prison on Aug. 21.) The message to Iranians was clear: Cut your ties with the outside world or face the consequences...