Word: socialism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With the influence of the consulting apparatus, it's not hard to see how the modern political machine can make idealism chimerical--a sad social construct. We all know this: For all the retail politics, modern campaigns are about 1980s buzzwords like organization and strategy--and 1990s buzzwords like synergy and Internet...
...presence of machine-gun equipped forces in the center of town certainly reminds me of the recent strife between the Zapatistas and the government. And at times, there are silent protests by supporters of the indigenous minority. Yet, only once in a while can you feel the tension in social discourse. Life has gone on in Comitan, and in fact, I believe it is a far safer city than Cambridge. Alongside the troops, are people playing the marimba and others sipping coffee at a cafe. Right now, the city is gearing up for its ten-day annual festival...
Nevertheless, the deep structures of social inequity persist. One of my first days here, my supervisor at work said to me, "Americans have the time to worry about everyone else. People in Comitan can't be bothered about events happening half-way around the world; they need to worry about themselves." Newspapers covering events beyond the state of Chaipas are scare here. Individuals have to worry about more immediate, personal concerns: clean water, food and some sort of health care. (At 6 a.m., there is a line outside the only hospital in the area...
...year-old girl who lives in my boarding house. She left school a few years ago to earn money for her family and is up at dawn each day doing domestic chores until late in the evening. As a Harvard student, I complain about excessive homework, the lack of social life at school and what was served in the dining hall for dinner. The disparity between livelihoods is just so unbelievably vast. Who's the adult here? And this week, with this pained awareness of the grave injustices that linger, I am returning home to my own fortuitous life...
...leadership maintains that they can do it all ?- save Social Security, save Medicare and slash taxes ?- and yet few, including moderates in their own party, seem to believe that. And Greenspan may have hit upon the reason why: this multi-trillion-dollar surplus, which materialized in the last year as if from thin air, is still just a promise -- a hunch, even -- by a bunch of Washington politicians. And it could disappear just as quickly. "Things are happening which we call technical factors, which is another way of saying we don't have a clue, and they could just...