Word: rareness
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...polished. After merrily emptying canisters of emeralds, a local dealer there, Ashok Chordia, abruptly signaled his assistants to close the wooden shutters overlooking his competitors' offices. In the dark, he flipped the lids of two metal boxes filled with nuggets he identified as tanzanite. "Very, very rare," he said mysteriously. "More precious than diamonds...
Faced with a glut of diamonds in South Africa that risked destroying prices, De Beers in 1890 organized a cartel to control supply, which was further tightened in 1925. Beginning in 1938, the company commissioned a series of clever promotions in the U.S. to convince consumers that diamonds were rare (they were not), that they symbolized romantic love (a copywriter's concoction) and that they should never be sold, further limiting the number in circulation. The pinnacle of this campaign was the advertising tagline introduced in 1948: "A diamond is forever." It was used to cement the role...
...crucial for Lebanon, the Middle East and the U.S. that Siniora succeeds in safeguarding Lebanon's independence and guiding its political and economic reconstruction. In a struggle between a rare Arab democratic movement supported by the West and parties backed by authoritarian regimes in Syria and Iran, his defeat would shatter a model for other Arab states to follow and dash the Bush Administration's only realistic hope for a Middle East success story. Victory for Iran, Syria and its allies, on the other hand, would probably doom the country to future conflicts with Israel and trigger a new exodus...
...hero for fighting Israel have been slow, not surprisingly, to commend Siniora's stand for freedom. But he has won the hearts of many Lebanese and enjoys broad support among Sunnis, Druze, Christians and some Shi'ites. When he sneaks from the Sérail for a rare meal outside, surprised restaurant patrons drown his arrival in applause. "He is a source of pride," says Elie Khoury, a leading pro-democracy activist who created the "I Love Life" advertising campaign to perk up Lebanese spirits. "We have a Prime Minister who is not performing like a politician." Adds Druze leader...
Barely two days have passed since Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed the country's new petroleum law as a "solid base for unity of all Iraqis" - a rare boast these days. President Bush has also trumpeted it as proof that Iraq has a viable future. But parliamentarians and Iraq's oil unions have already begun mobilizing against the draft legislation, arguing that it is a desperate attempt by al-Maliki's government to satisfy Western demands, which could damage Iraq's economic future and speed the country's ultimate disintegration...