Word: figleaf
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...from the Carnation company which for three years running has failed to meet the basic requirements of the Sullivan Principles a set of fair labor and equal opportunity guidelines for U.S. firms in South Africa. The Sullivan guidelines are far from perfect, they have been widely attacked as a figleaf to cover up the sins of corporate involvement in the country. But they are the closest thing there is to reasonable standards of behavior for U.S. firms, and Carnation has not shown the least indication of concern or attempts at improvement. Here is an ideal opportunity for Harvard to pressure...
...number of anti-apartheid activists have pointed out, the principles themselves are only minimum guarantees. Exiled South African poet Dennis Brutus calls them "a figleaf to cover up the obscenity of the Corporations" working in South Africa. We agree with Brutus and others like him. So what if IBM treats its 200 Black employees nicely when its computers help the illegitimate South African government maintain its systematic repression of millions of others...
...Jews. Many scholars have seen it as an anti-Semitic tract. To Cuddihy, on the contrary, it is a description of the Jew as the universal capitalist whose "worldly God" is money. The Gentile capitalists worshiped the same God, except that they affected a veneer of civility as "a figleaf for the cash nexus ... The civilities are a kind of games goyim [Gentiles] play...
Other awards: Worst Supporting Actor (Roy Cohn in "Point of Order"), The Bratwurst for worst child actor (the entire cast of "Lord of the Flies"), the Cellophane Figleaf for false modesty (Ann Margret or "insisting she is not oversexed"), and the Woodward A. Wickham citation for consistency of performance (Steve Reeves in "Samson Agonistes...
...figleaf of American imperialism," as the Soviet radio called him last week, proposed that five constitutional and enforceable powers must be given to the United Nations to enable it to preserve peace...