Word: localism
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...seen as partiers, but also as parents," he says. Paris, of course, is not rural France. But even in Barsac, a village of 2,200 people in the country's southwest, gay leaders have seen progress. Philippe Meynard, the mayor for five years, says his own visibility has influenced local attitudes. "People have become aware that a gay person isn't a caricature," he says. People now judge him primarily by his work building parking lots and beautifying the village. (See a timeline of gay marriage...
...website-based game put out by MTV in 2006, in which gamers play refugees risking their lives to fetch water. In the game's first month, it reached 700,000 players. Since then, the game has prompted thousands of people to e-mail the White House or petition local representatives. It has also convinced MTV to include games in all its campaigns. "No other media enables you to literally run in someone's shoes," says Stephen Friedman, general manager of the music network. (See Techland's list of the best video games of the past decade...
First he showed me a small industrial park built not long ago by a local businessman. It's got tenants, and the owner has been making his mortgage payments. But when his loan comes due - commercial mortgages generally run three to 10 years, not the 30 that homeowners get - he almost certainly won't be able to refinance because building prices have dropped and lending standards have tightened. Which means he will either have to cough up a lot more up-front cash or lose the property...
...Local officials have programs in place to help buyers but admit they're frustrated they can't do more. "We want to help families own homes," says Tom Freeman, spokesman for Riverside County's economic-development agency. "We do not want to see outside investors coming in and turning them into rental units." For their part, investors say they are buying up houses in such disrepair that first-time buyers would not be able to secure loans for them - and helping neighborhoods by making these units livable again. "I don't think anybody should have a problem with that," says...
...human trafficking in all its forms. Aid groups estimate that some 38,000 children are trapped in the sex trade there. More than 500 mostly small-scale trafficking syndicates - Nigerian, Chinese, Indian and Russian, among others - collude with South African partners, including recruiters and corrupt police officials, to enslave local victims. The country's estimated 1.4 million AIDS orphans are especially vulnerable. South Africa has more HIV cases than any other nation, and a child sold into its sex industry will often face an early grave...