Word: rigidities
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...world began to float in 1603, when Tokugawa Ieyasu vanquished his rivals to become shogun of Japan, ushering in more than two centuries of peace, prosperity and rigid social stratification. Lowest of the official classes were the merchants?lower even than farmers and artisans, who at least produced something. That was fine with the merchants. They were getting rich. Besides, a new world was being created for them, one that offered more interesting diversions than political power...
...Islamic law should govern family and personal matters. "His vision of the good state," says a Western diplomat in Baghdad, "is not where my wife and daughter would want to live." But Sistani's aides say he considers the Khomeini and Taliban experiments in theocracy failures--too extreme and rigid for modern society, especially one as demographically diverse as Iraq. And he opposes al-Sadr in large measure because the upstart is pushing to make Iraq a carbon copy of Iran, with al-Sadr at the helm...
...least. Since the invasion of Baghdad, President Bush has stage-managed the Iraq war like the patriarchal paragon of an earlier era, flouting his rigid style as not only the best way to maintain rule of the roost, but also the only appropriate one. Wielding a firm hand and a tight leash (literally, in the case of Abu Ghraib), the Bush administration has been crystal clear about its house rules: dissent is disregarded (and, in some cases, ridiculed); information is routinely withheld; and input from members of our global family deemed bothersome...
...Kamwokya primary school in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, silently reviews the students, who stand politely at attention, five to a bench. Most wear the navy-and-turquoise school uniform, but other colors speckle the crowded classroom: a yellow shirt, a red dress, a white blouse. "We are not rigid here, as long as a child can come," says Kansiime, 40. "It's not the clothes that make the child learn." Six years ago, before Uganda became the first country to have its debt burden eased under a World Bank?administered initiative, classrooms like Kansiime's were half empty. Parents couldn...
...everyone is getting the same chances. I'm more for equity than equality. If that's an ideology, then you can label me with it." Sarkozy will find his political courage tested if he does get the chance to fix France, which continues to suffer from chronically high unemployment, rigid labor laws and falling competition rankings. Sarkozy seems convinced that his communication skills and political instincts will serve him well in the run-up to the 2007 campaign. But it's almost three years until the presidential election, and that must seem an eternity to one as fond...