Word: coupes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...bloodless coup d'etat and kidnaping last week stunned a country that, from its first sighting by European explorers in 1643, seemed to be stirred only by the tide washing over coral reefs into palm-fringed lagoons. It was the first military takeover ever in the South Pacific. Fiji's democratic neighbors, including Australia and New Zealand, unanimously condemned Rabuka's actions. Even more disturbing was the coup's racist factor. Rabuka and his colleagues were expressing the resentment of ethnic Fijians against the recent political inroads of ethnic Indians. Bavadra's government, elected just last month, was the first...
Rabuka's takeover was slowly, if incredulously, accepted by Fijians, though some banks reported queues of people withdrawing money. Elsewhere the outcry against the coup was loud and clear. Prime Minister David Lange of New Zealand and Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia conferred by phone, then condemned the coup. Hawke called the events a "tragedy," and said he hoped that "parliamentary democracy can be restored." Both men were expected to exert diplomatic pressure on the regime. However, each ruled out military intervention. Washington, too, expressed concern at the overthrow of Bavadra...
...week's end, when Indian shopkeepers and workers went on strike to protest the coup, Rabuka abolished trade unions. He simply ignored the Governor General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, the representative of Queen Elizabeth as Fiji's head of state, who declared a state of emergency to meet an "unprecedented situation which must not be allowed to continue...
...regime lost no time cracking down on other forms of dissent. The day after the coup the Fiji Sun said in an editorial, "Democracy died in Fiji yesterday." That night Rabuka shut down all newspapers. In tropical Suva, the big chill...
...people consider the commercial a dazzler and the use of the Beatles a clear coup. "It's an interesting development," comments Stephen Novick, a production director at Grey Advertising, "and a very, very powerful tool." Others express some doubts. John Doig, a creative director at Manhattan's Ogilvy & Mather, remembers the days of anti-Viet Nam demonstrations with "bloody police truncheons coming down and Revolution playing in the background. What that song is saying is a damned sight more important than flogging running shoes." "Music is replete with the meaning of the time," reflects Marshall Blonsky, a professor of semiotics...