Word: longings
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...Kongers seem to have faith in a gradualist approach. Although support for democracy hovers around 70%, almost half the elected officials are from pro-Beijing parties that advocate cooperation and incrementalism. Some Hong Kongers even question whether the special administrative region is ready for democracy. A common refrain: If "Long Hair," a Trotskyite pro-democracy legislator known for his long hair and Che T-shirts, can become the second most popular politician in the city, the people aren't ready to pick their own Chief Executive. For some, the skepticism runs deeper. As Tam Yiu-Chung, the pro-Beijing chairman...
...This isn't the first roadblock on Hong Kong's long march toward democracy. The British routinely co-opted or marginalized opponents to colonial rule until the 1980s, when they finally allowed a certain number of local district councilors to be elected. In the early 1990s, the first legislative elections were held, but after the handover, the Chinese temporarily replaced the whole legislature. Since then, it has postponed democracy twice. In 2004, Beijing decreed that Hong Kong could not have universal suffrage before 2012. In 2007, after the pan-democrats defeated a package of reforms almost identical to the ones...
...luxury stores and hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails. The police responded by covering central Athens with a haze of tear gas. "War against the capitalists!" the protesters shouted, many with their faces covered to protect against tear gas. "No more sacrifices!" (See why Greece's austerity program may be long overdue...
...pace and scale of the protests have escalated. Polls also indicate that popular support for the government's handling of the crisis is slipping - a recent survey by the Sunday edition of To Vima, an Athens newspaper, for instance, showed that most Greeks think it will take a long time for the country to pull itself out of its economic mess. More than 37% thought the recession would last three to four years, while 22% said it might last as long as a decade...
...stakes in Iraq's political process - domestically and regionally - are high, and reflect the absence of a consensus on both fronts. Despite their distaste for Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Arab neighbors had long looked to his regime to serve as a regional bulwark against Iranian influence in the Middle East, and supported his eight-year war against the Islamic Republic in the 1980s. The U.S. invasion removed that bulwark, and Iran has profited greatly from Iraqi democracy. The governments elected since Saddam's overthrow have been uniformly friendly toward Tehran and dominated by Shi'ite parties. While none of these...