Word: paya
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...world was looking the other way to launch a roundup of dissidents opposed to his 44-year-long communist rule. Since March 18, 78 dissidents and journalists have been jailed, accused of treason for allegedly being financed by the U.S. One who has not been arrested is physicist Oswaldo Paya, 51, head of the Varela Project, which is calling for a constitutional referendum on free speech and elections. Paya's growing popularity may have triggered the dragnet, since most of those arrested are Varela activists. Paya himself, who last year won the E.U.'s Sakharov Award for human rights, remains...
...Locals know the phenomenon as bung fai paya nak (Naga fireballs), which have been bubbling up from the mighty river on the late autumn night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent for as long as anyone can remember. "I've seen them since I was a little girl," says Pang Butamee, 70, who lives in a flood-prone hut on the river's edge. Nearby is Wat Paa Luang?an elegant, 450-year-old temple and one of the most popular spots to watch the fireballs. "I've seen them come up from the river...
...music. This month, the girls will tour the Americas - Asereje is No. 1 in Argentina, Mexico and Puerto Rico - and release their album in Britain. Later this year, Las Ketchup will try to prove that they're not just a one-hit wonder with a second single, Kusha las Payas. The song, which they wrote themselves, is only slightly more comprehensible than Asereje; kusha is another meaningless word, but a paya is a non-gypsy. This one's about girls who head for the beach to do all the things Mom and Dad would never let them do at home...
Middle-class blacks who live in Webster Groves and have strong role models tend to score higher--but can still feel isolated. By third period, senior Paya Rhodes, 18, is in her advanced-calculus class, sitting beside the only other black student. Rhodes has a 3.6 GPA, and in most of her advanced classes, she's the only black. Paya used to take pride in that status and in her family's record of excellence at Webster Groves. Her oldest brother maintained a 4.0 for four straight years; another went on to Washington University. Her mother and a third brother...
...last year a seemingly innocent bit of history homework left Paya feeling bitter and alone. The assignment was for students to write anonymous essays about their views on racism and whether they themselves might be racist. Days later, when the teacher read some of the essays aloud, Rhodes couldn't believe what she heard. One paper, she recalls, described black kids as "loud, obnoxious show-offs." Another depicted blacks as inferior. As usual, Paya was the only black student in the class. "I felt real uncomfortable and out of place," she recalls. "These were people I talked to and worked...