Word: fixing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1976. Influence peddling-called blat in Russian-prevails at all levels of Soviet society, from the Kremlin down to the local butcher, who can set aside a choice cut of beef for a friend or perhaps his plumber-who will then come and fix his leaking pipes...
Cash or credit cards may be the accepted way to pay for services in most parts of the world, but in the U.S.S.R. the popular medium of exchange is vodka. Want a repairman to make a house call to fix the TV set? Pay him with a half-liter of vodka. Need someone to paint a room? Offer him his wages in bottles. Vodka is also the ideal gift for minor officials from whom a small favor is needed. Since vodka flows as freely as the Volga in the U.S.S.R., why do so many Soviet citizens welcome it as either...
...cover story on military manpower emerged from just such a process. Says Associate Editor Burton Pines, the Nation section's expert on military affairs and principal author of the story: "It was a natural. The issue was very important, potentially explosive, but not susceptible of a quick fix. It was clear it would lend itself to a symposium treatment." TIME assembled five experts on military manpower problems, who joined 19 TIME staffers for a 5½-hour seminar in the Time-Life Building in New York City. The results not only inevitably helped shape this week's cover...
...conscript for quality. So you would go through a wrenching political upheaval to yield a manpower system that would have as many or more problems than the present one has. This is a way of saying that I prefer the present system. I think that we can fix it up and make it work in the long...
Pirie: It is a matter of concern that the color-blind way that we manage induction into the armed forces, when coupled with the pressures of unemployment and various other factors, lead to disproportionate minority representation in some of our units-essentially combat units. But a draft would not fix that. What kind of draft would be needed? One which would result in bringing white, middle-class people into the armed forces, who do not want to be there, while at the same time turning away blacks from the inner city who want and can do jobs in the military...