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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...problems have originated in China. So far, the Chinese have been able to get away with it, despite the fact that not just the U.S. is complaining. In the past few years, sources ranging from the German Chancellor's office to government mainframes as far afield as New Zealand and Belgium have made loud public allegations that they had been the subject of cyberinfiltration from China, all to no avail. (See a story about China's alleged cyberattacks...
...government cost-cutting program aimed at saving taxpayers some $27 million, Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta announced this summer that government ministers, along with assistant ministers and permanent secretaries, must turn in their ubiquitous Mercedes-Benz for Volkswagen Passats, which not only cost about two-thirds the price of a new Benz in Kenya, but are, says the government, cheaper to run and maintain. (See the 50 worst cars of all time...
...lingering threat of political violence. Why, average Kenyans are asking, the Volkswagen Passat and not a Toyota, Honda or some other cheap and more widely available alternative? "To me, these guys are playing around with the minds of Kenyans," says Martin Kitunga, the 37-year-old senior mechanic at New World Auto in Nairobi. "Passat or Mercedes, it doesn't make that big a difference. If they really want to make a change, they should get a Toyota...
...Many people are also puzzled that all 126 new Passats come from a single dealer, CMC Motors, which has the Volkswagen license for Kenya and also enjoys strong political connections (one of its directors is a former attorney general). There is no public record that the government ever issued a competitive tender for the cars. "When every single vehicle is bought from one dealer and nobody could remember ever seeing an advertisement from the government saying, 'We want to buy these vehicles,' alarm bells start ringing," says Mwalimu Mati, who runs an anticorruption organization called Mars Group Kenya. "That...
...European nations have high tax rates and socialized medicine; in the U.S., people flock to fast-food restaurants and pile into SUVs. But according to Peter Baldwin, a professor of history at UCLA, the reigning stereotypes about both groups are mostly untrue. In The Narcissism of Minor Differences, a new book published this month, Baldwin collected data from dozens of organizations and found that the U.S. and Europe are actually more alike than they are different. Baldwin talked to TIME about transatlantic differences in religion, crime and health care - and why the distinctions matter. (See pictures of Obama's travels...