Word: ruralism
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...domestic agenda. His maiden Diet speech contained a lot of rhetoric about the need to make Japan a "beautiful country" without mentioning specific, results-oriented policy initiatives that were a hallmark of Koizumi's administration. "He talks about economic revitalization and closing the gap between urban and rural regions, but he insists on cutting public spending," says Nihon University's Iwai. "There are certain inherent contradictions in what he says, and he hasn't addressed them." Adds Etsushi Tanifuji, director of the Institute for Research in Contemporary Political and Economic Affairs at Waseda University: "We'll see Abe's competence...
...blue sky stretch across the front pages of the nation's newspapers. Canberra is issuing a burst of agricultural terms-relief package, subsidies, exceptional circumstances and "our farmers." "It is part of the psyche of this country, it is part of the essence of Australia, to have a rural community," Howard said last week after announcing an extension of drought support to farmers. "We would lose something of our identification as Australians if we ever allow the number of farmers in our nation to fall below a critical mass...
...government has spent $A1.2 billion on drought assistance during the past five years; 53,000 rural families have been helped through interest-rate subsidies and welfare payments designed for those calamities that happen only once in 25 years. Howard told ABC-TV's Landline program that the point of the assistance is to help farmers "keep food on the table and to meet normal living expenses." Given the hardship in many parts of the bush, urban taxpayers can hardly be called heartless or stingy. In any case, it's a fat time for government revenue collection, so a helping hand...
...rural adviser from a major bank says that when a farmer has the bad luck to be stuck with marginal land, staying on it can often be a matter of choice, even a "lifestyle decision." Government handouts only "prolong the day of having to make a tough call," he says. "It's like if I set up a small shop on the outskirts of town and then Coles comes along. Would the government protect me?" Observers foresee a day of reckoning brought about by agricultural consolidation. Foreign investors, such as major hedge funds, are picking up prime farm land...
...voter's psyche. Even a global-warming skeptic like Howard can read the shift in the electorate's fears; he and his intimates have adjusted their thinking and public words. With an election expected next year, Howard's team are devising an environmental platform based on water policy, rural land care and alternative energy sources. Howard has traveled widely in the bush. Farmers are one of his touchstones, and more measures to help them are expected this week. But when Howard talks about "drought-proofing" the country, you wonder: Has the Prime Minister absorbed the lessons that farmers...