Word: spain
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When conquistadors subjugated Peru in 1534, the Inca civilization was only their first victim. Spain too would eventually pay a heavy price. The Spaniards discovered a veritable mountain of silver at Potosí, but it was only thanks to the potato - domesticated in Peru's uplands some 8,000 years earlier - that Spanish slave drivers could feed the army of conscripted miners they deployed to dig up the silver. As John Reader recounts in Propitious Esculent: The Potato in World History, the flood of bullion proved more than the Old World could absorb. The unintended result: inflation that shredded Europe...
...coalition government wants to stick its neck out on the unpopular proposal in the runup to elections next year. France is considering the request but any decision to dispatch more troops will likely be tied to a greater role in strategic decision-making. Other countries such as Italy and Spain have also been approached, but they aren't aren't responding with the alacrity NATO feels is called for in its biggest and most dangerous deployment ever...
...outside Spain, some authorities have been unimpressed with that response. The International Automobile Federation, which oversees Formula One, warned that it may impose sanctions against Spain, including possibly removing the country's two Grand Prix races - including one at Montmeló - scheduled for later this year. Calling the events "sickening," British sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe told the BBC that the events "bring in question whether the Grand Prix should be held at this track." He also said that he would be writing to his Spanish counterpart, Jaime Lissavetsky, to express his outrage. "Racism should not be tolerated and this...
...racing, Spanish soccer has an unfortunate recent history of spectator racism. In 2004, Spanish national team coach Luis Aragonés publicly applied the same "negro de mierda" epithet to Arsenal striker Thierry Henry and Spanish fans bellowed monkey chants at black players in a "friendly" match between Spain and England later that year. FIFA fined the Spanish Football Federation $77,000 on that occasion. In 2006, FC Barcelona's Cameroon-born striker Samuel Eto'o walked off the field in protest after Zaragoza fans repeated the noises whenever he took to the pitch...
...legal organ donations remain rare in India. The Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN), a Chennai-based non-government group that promotes legal organ donation, puts donation rates in India at well under 1 per million, compared to rates of more than 20 per million in places such as Spain, the U.S. and France. The group's head Dr Sunil Shroff rejects the idea that Indian culture or religion is behind the low donation rates. "The reason is we haven't got our act together basically," he says. "The infrastructure is not there. The general perception is lacking...