Word: raine
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...after two short years, do hundreds of thousands, even millions, again face starvation? While Western experts primarily blame the lack of rain, many place much of the responsibility on the shoulders of Ethiopian President Mengistu Haile Mariam, whose rigid and secretive Communist regime has done little to avert another tragedy. Not only does the Addis Ababa government seem more concerned with putting down various insurgencies than with feeding the hungry, but it has also continued policies that seem designed to aggravate rather than resolve problems of poverty...
...been subject to ecological disaster. Droughts and famines were reported as early as 253 B.C. In the great drought of 1888, a third of the population is said to have died from malnourishment and disease. This latest calamity is part of a 30-year pattern that has seen the rains repeatedly fail along the Sahel, the wide swath of land that cuts Africa in half just below the Sahara. After the 1984-85 drought, which killed an estimated 2 million people in Africa, there was a brief period of uncommon optimism in Addis Ababa. In 1985 and 1986 the rains...
...rain was sharp and relentless, and I almost decided not to go. Magic cannot return when your shoes are soaked. I had left the Mary Janes and holiday dress at home, in the photo album. I came in jeans and a casual sweater, but on my ears, I wore pearl earings; some habits are hard to break. I thought it would be different; in fact, I hoped it would be different. The culture of the holiday classic seemed somehow associated with graham crackers, Chutes and Ladders, and the trappings of childhood you don't retain. The little girl...
...Friday and Saturday at midnight, fans across the nation arm themselves with toilet paper, rice and toast in preparation for the bizarre ritual. When the film's crazy Dr. Frank-n-furter proposes a toast, the audience pelts the screen with--you got it--slices of toast. And when rain soaks movie characters Brad and Janet, audience members drench each other with water pistols...
Stopping to touch a clump of dead bunchgrass, he looks up at us. "Only the whole is reality," he says. Thunderclouds wheel over the Sandia Mountains but bring no rain. It is 95 degrees F in the shade. We've been brought to a piece of land on the outskirts of Albuquerque and asked why very little is growing here. We measure the distance between plants, look for new seedlings, identify animal tracks, examine the watershed. The soil surface is hard-capped and smooth -- no water can penetrate. The anthills are empty, and under the ground there are no worms...