Word: grimness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...China's far-western Qinghai province. Like the majority there, he was an ethnic Tibetan, a nomadic yak breeder in town on a pilgrimage. While friendly toward foreigners, Dorje nodded at the video cameras mounted above the road and said we'd better speak somewhere private. It's a grim commentary on the iron grip China maintains on Tibetan areas of the country that even a yak herdsman knows to be wary of video surveillance. In a sheltered corner of the monastery's walls, Dorje enumerated the wrongs visited on ordinary Tibetans by the Chinese authorities: beatings, arbitrary arrests...
...middle finger isn't the only digit with a message. The thumb talks too, but generally in happier tones, with an upward point indicating approval, good news or some other nicety. That pleasant gesture is thought to have sprung from the grim business of gladiatorial combat, when spectators in the Roman Coliseum would give a thumbs-up or down to determine whether a beaten competitor should live or die. What began in Rome similarly went global...
You’d have to be living under a rock these days not to notice the grim state of the American economy. The financial crisis of last October has spiraled into a cataclysmic near-total collapse, with official unemployment figures spiking at 7.6 percent this month. President Obama has already made plans to resuscitate the economy through a massive stimulus package while somehow reducing the largest peacetime budget deficit in American history...
...spoken of the risk of downward "spiral," deepening "crises," potential economic "catastrophe" and the "big challenge" ahead. At the time, such language served a political purpose: to direct public pressure toward Congress to pass the stimulus, while making clear that the problems were inherited. But too much grim talk runs the risk of becoming self-fulfilling. As White House economists will explain, the worst fears of an economic spiral involve a self-perpetuating collapse in consumer confidence that leads to a deflationary spiral: people spend less, so people have less to spend...
Harvard has not escaped the recession. President Faust sent an e-mail last Wednesday to the Harvard community detailing just how grim the state of the endowment is. To compensate for the loss of at least $8 billion, Harvard has understandably chosen to cut down its staff. While it is unfortunate that some may lose their jobs due to the impending cuts, Harvard must be fiscally responsible and carefully define its priorities in such times...