Word: mau
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...assessment marked the end of the era of Mau-Mauing Westerners into a chic guilt. The World Bank, the IMF and the so-called donor countries made it clear they wanted to wean African countries from thinking of aid as a permanent fact of life. Part of the trend, especially in West Africa, has been to move African executives trained at the World Bank into key decision-making posts within national governments. The Ivory Coast's Prime Minister, Alassane Ouattara, for example, worked for the IMF for nearly two decades before taking a post at home...
...beginning. Basically, these people and their video cameras would demand to see a politician in order to have a face-to-face dialogue. If the politician refuses, the group gets a nice video, a la "Roger and Me," that it can distribute to television stations. It is "Mau-mauing the Spin Doctors" and it turns the weapon of the political hack--the negative sound bite--against those who refuse to meet and talk to their constituents. It is punishment for the wicked...
Admittedly, mau-mauing is a dubious tactic, but the sad fact is that politics have changed: If we want to make our representatives listen to us, we have to hit them with weapons they understand. Unresponsive politicians would learn quickly that ignoring constituents with cameras, voices and energy does not pay. This tactic forces our politicians, who are widely perceived as disconnected to citizens, to connect or be burned...