Word: peasants
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...sent to the countryside to toil miserably as field hands during Mao Zedong's program to "reeducate" the intelligentsia. Not all who were targets of class warfare were destroyed by it, however. Mao's Last Dancer, the latest biography set in the Cultural Revolution, tells the story of a peasant boy from northern China who was propelled to international stardom by Mao's social engineering...
...Those who attended the Sands opening enjoyed a similar vision. Inside the front door, showgirls in pink, sequined bikinis and multicolored feathers pranced and greeted visitors. Towering above the busy slot machines, a 33-m-wide video screen flashed fireworks and ocean sunsets. Waiters in traditional Chinese peasant hats scurried between the tables with free cups of tea. A jazz band jammed at the casino bar. At the "888 Las Vegas Buffet," gamblers stuffed themselves silly with all-you-can-eat sushi, pasta and Indian curries for $17 a head?a bargain by local standards. Behind wooden doors, big spenders...
...taking over China's presidency from Jiang Zemin. At home, Hu fashions himself as a uniquely accessible Communist Party leader concerned with the plight of common folk--far different from Jiang, who seemed most comfortable in his glitzy Shanghai hometown. Ordinary Chinese welcome Hu's pledge to raise stagnant peasant incomes, his firing of officials for covering up last year's SARS epidemic and his ban on ostentatious airport send-offs for traveling dignitaries. At the same time, he has hobnobbed with leaders of capitalist nations at G-8 meetings and pressured North Korea to surrender its nuclear-weapons program...
Telephone reception in remote Haitian villages is apparently pretty weak, so I had to wait four days for a peasant to switch a broken cord on Farmer's Internet-based phone. When we finally talked--after Farmer had driven four hours each way for a meeting with a Dominican health commissioner--I informed him that he wasn't top-100 important. He tried to take the news in stride, though he was clearly bummed out. "I was reading PEOPLE magazine recently, and a pop star--her first name is Jessica, but her last name escapes me, a blond--was saying...
...phone conversation because I had a dinner reservation, and he had to deal with a peasant with an unremitting fever. But interviewing Farmer made me feel better about myself. By not making the list, we are in a way equals. Plus, I figure it's just this kind of socially responsible journalism that will move me up higher on next year's list. And if I ever come down with a communicable disease, I know a really good doctor...