Word: latins
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...seen four straight years of near record economic growth, and they are driving up domestic oil demand: almost 500,000 new cars are expected to be sold this year. (Why not, with gas at 12¢ a gal.?) But the bolívar is sharply overvalued, inflation is the highest in Latin America, and even Chávez fears that his "21st century socialists" are living like capitalist nouveaux riches, the so-called boli-bourgeoisie...
Elections and plebiscites are a sort of a moral Teflon for Chávez against charges from enemies like the U.S. that he's another Latin despot. (And he has developed some expertise at them: he has been elected three times and beat back a recall referendum in 2004.) But despite Chávez's claims that he's forging "a more genuine democracy" that finally enfranchises the nation's majority poor, Venezuela hardly looks poised to become a showcase for the separation of powers. The National Assembly and Supreme Court are Chávez's virtual rubber stamps; and, while free speech...
...decade after most of Latin America returned to democratic elections, it was thought by now the region would also be governed more completely by democratic institutions. Instead, says Robert White, head of the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C., and a former U.S. ambassador in Latin America, "Personalismo is alive and well," referring to the region's historical penchant for protracted personal rule. A chief reason, White notes, is that traditional democracy and capitalism have largely failed to improve Latin America's gaping inequality and frightening insecurity - so voters have largely decided to "cling as long as possible...
...Language, such concerned citizens fail to realize, is a living organism; languages have always grown, evolved, and eventually died out and will doubtless continue to do so. Today’s French, Italian and Spanish effectively “killed off†Latin. In mainland China, a simplified script and the phonetic system pinyin have replaced the traditional script. Modern English includes “you,†but rarely Shakespeare’s “thee†or “thou...
Located in a leafy Rome neighborhood, the Iranian embassy to the Holy See features an entryway lined with a large photograph of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and framed, centuries-old correspondence between popes and Persian monarchs, including a Nov. 16, 1561, letter in Latin from Pope Pius V to Shah Tahmasp I. The current No. 2 official at the embassy, Vice-Ambassador Ahmad Fahima, said that despite some concern last year about the Pope's provocative speech about Islam in Regensburg, Germany, "relations between Iran and the Holy See are very good." Last April's release of 15 British sailors held...