Word: grasping
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Still, there are moments, says Carrington, when the two cultures don't exactly mesh. When functioning in an official capacity, Carrington has a tribal "linguist" on hand who acts as his mouthpiece. One day, while entertaining a group of Ghanaian friends at his home, Carrington decided to demonstrate his grasp of Ashanti traditions. "I told [the linguist] to tell my wife to get me a glass of water," says Carrington, laughing. She was sitting next to him. Her answer did not require the assistance of linguists. "I learned that you have to know when to be Ghanaian and when...
Because the real challenge in the U.S. today is not predicting catastrophes. That we can do. The challenge that apparently lies beyond our grasp is to prepare for them. Dennis Mileti ran the Natural Hazards Center for 10 years, and is the country's leading expert on how to warn people so that they will pay attention. Today he is semiretired, but he comes back to the workshop each year to preach his gospel. This July, standing before the crowd in a Hawaiian shirt, Mileti was direct: "How many citizens must die? How many people do you need...
...about our people which surprised and disarmed me." As First Lady, Hillary told Keane, she had traveled the globe and had often been able to see parts of the world that security prevented her husband from visiting but where the U.S. Army was always present. "She had an extraordinary grasp of our military culture, our soldiers, our families and what it was like for them," Keane marvels...
...most physical manifestation of suspicion I have seen, and begins a lengthy interrogation. Where I’m from, what I’m studying, why I want to study it, and so on—she seems to disbelieve some of my answers for reasons I cannot grasp. She looks askance and solemnly declares, “I just do not understand. The Americans are well aware of these procedures.”Ah yes, the Americans.It emerges that the ‘only one day’ notion is, naturally, untrue. I am to apply...
...PUMPOS, Guatemala—As a 20-year-old college student who has spent his entire waking life carrying out the abstract task of learning, it’s hard for me to grasp what it means to make a living for myself in this world. It’s strange how the quest for “Veritas” can push me further and further away from reality. Yet, I’m fortunate that every trip to Guatemala slaps me in the face with a taste of that reality. In my latest journey home, I realized...