Word: rural
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Japan's politics are pretty much a no-laugh zone, so you might excuse voters in the rural southwestern prefecture of Miyazaki for electing independent candidate Hideo Higashikokubaru?a political neophyte better known as former TV comedian Sonomanma Higashi?to be Governor in a landslide win on Jan. 21. But Higashikokubaru's win may have less to do with entertainment than with public dissatisfaction over Japanese politics, increasingly seen as corrupt and ineffective. His predecessor, also an independent, resigned amid corruption allegations, and scandals have forced two of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's top ministers to resign...
...huge profit, but many poorer farmers and farm laborers are understandably opposed to having their livelihoods forcibly sold out from underneath them. Opposition to the SEZs is growing, and the consequences of that for the Congress, or any political party in India that hopes to win the rural vote - and given that a majority of Indians still live outside urban areas most parties do - could be particularly painful come polling...
...Although the Chinese authorities are mindful of the danger of a socially disruptive backlash by poor rural citizens, there are no national elections to worry about. "Voting is a much more immediate, more powerful threat," says Indian economic analyst Paranjoy Guha Thakurta. "And even when there's no election looming, Indians can put pressure on their representatives to have the bureaucrats transferred if they don't like them. In China you have a one-party state so that's a bit harder...
...Guru is another fictionalized bio-pic, this time taking inspiration from the career of Indian business executive Dhirajlal Ambani. Known as Dhirubhai, Ambani rose from rural nobody to towering tycoon without the usual benefits of family wealth, education or connection. He was the founder and chairman of Reliance Industries, manufacturer of the polyester that clothed India (and in the 70s lent its kitchy style to tight-pantsed Bollywood actors like Amitabh). By Dhirubhai's death in 2002, Reliance was India's largest corporation, a leader in petrochemicals and a dozen other interests and the largest corporation. A Times of India...
...away. For 25 years, he worked at Imo's, a pizza parlor even closer by. And to commit the crimes he is accused of, all he had to do was take his Nissan truck two blocks to Interstate 44. The 50 miles or so he would drive to the rural towns of Richwoods and Beaufort were the most significant travel he would do. That's where, back in 2002, he found Shawn Hornbeck, then 11; and Ben Ownby, 13, just last week...