Word: explained
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...This adopt-or-perish attitude helps explain how Thais have survived three decades of breakneck development. "In one dizzying spasm," writes Cornwel-Smith, "Thailand is experiencing the forces that took a century to transform the West." How does a nation modernize this fast without eroding the traditions that define it? In Thailand, "traditional" is now often a pejorative term, meaning low-class or old-fashioned. Many of the temple's social functions have been replaced by the mall, where, the author notes, "the principal rite is the right to shop." What matters most is looking dern. Yes, that's Thai...
Following “Poor Planning Sunk The Administration’s Proposal” (Letters, Feb. 28), we should like to make it clear that our suggestion at the Faculty Meeting on Feb. 22 (when we offered to try to mediate, and to identify and explain Faculty concerns to the President and to the Corporation) was in no sense an “administration proposal.” The idea was our own, and we had hoped to move the Faculty forward from the divisive situation that currently obtains. Nor, of course, were we trying...
...exploiting the anxiety of single women. We are constantly deluged with messages that we really should get it together and find a man--and the sooner, the better. Why else would so many angry viewers be predicting that Jen will wind up an old maid? How else to explain the 25 bridal magazines at my local bookstore, including one that boasts "over 900 wedding gowns" on its cover and another that is 810 pages long? Why else would there be dozens of dating books with titles like How to Make a Man Fall in Love with You, Why Men Love...
...especially those in Africa. Everything comes back, again and again, to corruption and misrule. Western officials argue that Africa simply needs to behave itself better, to allow market forces to operate without interference by corrupt rulers. Yet the critics of African governance have it wrong. Politics simply can't explain Africa's prolonged economic crisis. The claim that Africa's corruption is the basic source of the problem does not withstand serious scrutiny. During the past decade I witnessed how relatively well-governed countries in Africa, such as Ghana, Malawi, Mali and Senegal, failed to prosper, whereas societies in Asia...
...fair, it’s not just something in the water. The more I drive around this town, the more I realize how little sense it makes. The concrete spaghetti that crisscrosses the landscape is unbelievable. Every time I comment on this, someone explains: “Boston is a really old city.” I appreciate that. But this argument does not explain the horrible signage and inexplicable lack of lane lines in so many places. Also, the Big Dig was not inevitable. Urban planning? Anybody...