Word: oxen
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This year, the cows had no good news for Cambodia's farmers. Each year before the planting season commences, all eyes in the capital turn to a pair of hungry royal oxen for guidance. Placed before the sacred beasts are seven golden trays bearing, respectively, rice, maize, sesame, beans, rice wine, water and grass. What the cows eat - and don't eat - during the ancient Royal Plowing Ceremony predicts the upcoming year's harvest. Munching on rice is good, a signal of a bountiful crop to come. Forgoing water for rice wine could presage a drought, along with a possible...
...This year, the oxen sniffed contemplatively at several of the trays. One then wandered away from the plentiful buffet. As the crowd held its collective breath, the other finally deigned to chew half the corn on offer before it, too, moseyed off. The outcome was grim: a drought, for sure, since no water was drunk, and a poor harvest to boot...
...suffers from rampant corruption, and there has been little transparency in the awarding of exploration contracts to foreign oil companies. Longtime Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has dismissed concerns that oil will be anything other than a huge boon for his country. But for the poor farmers watching the oxen decline to feast at the Royal Plowing Ceremony, the potential of oil revenues must feel completely removed from their hand-to-mouth lives. What will they do if a drought does indeed strike this year, and their crops wilt in the tropical sun? If the sacred cows know the answer...
...especially urgent in places like Oaxaca. The Mixtecs send more undocumented workers across the border than any other of the 56 indigenous groups in Mexico, such as the Maya and the Zapotecs. It's easy to see why in Santa Cruz, where farmers still till the soil with oxen and wooden plows. But about five years ago, villagers like Olivia Mendoza, Bautista's aunt, decided to invest remittances in something more productive than pickup trucks and wide-screen TVs. "It was time to use that treasure to find ways to bring our families back together," says Mendoza, 40. With help...
Just to reach the banks of the River of Doubt, however, Roosevelt and his men had to endure a grueling monthlong journey across the Brazilian Highlands. They lost dozens of pack mules and oxen to starvation and exhaustion and were forced to abandon crates filled with provisions. At the river's edge, Roosevelt had taken stock of what was left and realized that he and his men would have to cut their provisions in half before they launched a single boat...