Word: grips
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...charm. "He will convince you that he is a most reasonable and sympathetic individual," says a U.S. analyst, and his political instincts are remarkably shrewd. His arrival as head of the Belgrade party in 1984 ended a rudderless period of creeping liberalization, when the communists needed to solidify their grip on power after the death of Tito."What I liked most about him was that his desk was always empty -- he knew how to work," says Jurij Bajec, an economist now fiercely critical of Milosevic who once worked under him at Belgrade's largest bank and later followed him into...
...silent majority that kept its grip on mainstream values, the kids in San Francisco were nihilists and dropouts, refusing to work a day job, pay taxes or serve in the military...
...economic boom that has helped loosen the military's grip may also indirectly restrain more attempts by the generals to hang on through violence -- they have as much to lose as anyone else. Not the least reason King Bhumibol was able to broker last week's compromise was a growing fear on both sides that continued bloodshed would severely damage the economy by frightening away tourists and foreign investors. It simply is not as easy for the military to maintain control of the affluent and educated Thailand of today as it was in the simpler peasant society that the nation...
...make society more comfortable. He blames the system for making that impossible. Initially, he said, some progress was visible, but when senior officials of the party and state saw how the reforms might threaten their power and positions, they put on the brakes. If the ruling hierarchy's grip was to be broken, he decided, a more democratic form of politics would have to be introduced. He assumed that power would have to be decentralized and that he would have to give up some of his authority. But he could not and did not know where it all was headed...
Perhaps so. But it's hard for citizens in the industrialized U.S. -- which is relatively self-sufficient and historically prone to protectionist impulses -- to get a grip on GATT, let alone get very alarmed about its potential failure. Successive rounds of negotiations, diligently conducted since 1947, have pushed down tariffs from 40% to 4% in member countries. Still, people find it difficult to connect the statistical aggregates of GATT-speak with their lives and wallets...