Word: plight
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Among the sensitive topics studiously avoided by the local media is the plight of the roughly 300,000 Hmong that remain in Laos. Persecuted because of their pro-American, anti-communist stance during the war, many Hmong retreated to remote mountain jungles to avoid further government reprisals. Clashes between government troops and ragtag Hmong forces continue to this day, and refugees have poured into neighboring Thailand. This month, U.S. lawmakers petitioned the Thai King to halt the deportations of 8,000 Hmong living in makeshift settlements along the Thai-Laos border. Many of the refugees claim they are descendants...
...perhaps it's our empathy for animals that explains the difference in reaction. According to Hitwise, the #1 news search term sending traffic to the New York Times for last week wasn't the plight of the trapped miners in Utah, it wasn't the Hurricane Dean threatening the Yucatan Peninsula, or the hundreds dead in the Peru earthquake; it was searches for "Michael Vick." Sure, the charges the Atlanta Falcons quarterback faces for running a dog-fighting ring and the allegations of animal cruelty are reprehensible, but amongst a field of human tragedy and a potentially catastrophic storm, search...
...feels pity for the plight of the Pakistani man on the street: he is either crushed under the heavy boots of military dictators or under pressure from fanatical clergy, and has been allowed only a few fleeting moments of democratic sunshine. But recent signs are very encouraging. People are rising in loud protests against the dismissal of their Chief Justice and the reactions of everyday Pakistani people to Musharraf's invasion of the Red Mosque seem to be sympathetic to the opponents of extremism. Whenever the silent majority remains silent, those countries fall prey to military or theocratic dictatorship...
Both Gaer and White point out that the plight of the remaining Jews is not very different from the hardships faced in Iraq by other religious minorities such as Christians, Mandeans (a gnostic group to whom John the Baptist is a central figure) and Yazidis (whose faith draws from Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity and other sources). However, the priest says that the Jews have not able to get any material aid from the Iraqi government, and have been advised by officials "to say that they are Christians or to become Christians, because it's a lot safer...
...case, it was just another sign of Sarkozy's results-focused approach to politics and his intent to raise France's profile in foreign affairs. He first pledged to concentrate on the prisoners' plight when he took office in May. Convicted of purposely infecting nearly 440 Libyan children with HIV in a Benghazi hospital, the medics--five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor--faced execution until Libya commuted the sentence to life in exchange for a $460 million compensation to victims' families. When further talks to get them out of Libya stalled, Sarkozy sent his wife to meet with Gaddafi...