Word: stilling
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Still, the Vietnamese people (and the government, though more quietly) contend it's the U.S. that should be doing more - much more. Some point out that the U.S. spends only a fraction on Agent Orange cleanup compared to the $50 million it spends every year on searching for the remains of American soldiers missing in action. Thao Griffiths, country director of Vietnam Veterans of America, which works on lingering war issues, points out that the legacy of each is equally painful. "The issue of MIAs for Americans holds the same importance that Agent Orange does for the Vietnamese," she says...
...game or that powerful interests will tear up agreements. Brazilian lawyers said Sean Goldman's stepfather, João Lins e Silva, has diligently followed due process in his attempt to retain custody of his late wife's son. (She died in childbirth earlier this year.) But there is still a sense that the already slow legal system is being swayed, in part, by money and influence. Sean's stepfather's family, the Lins e Silvas, is well known in Brazilian legal circles and they have so far used the system skillfully to retain custody of the child...
...that Brazil has opened itself to charges of especially egregious hypocrisy. It's no secret that Brazil, especially under hugely popular President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has become a hemispheric counterweight to the U.S. And it loves to play tit-for-tat with Washington. Because Washington still insists Brazilians secure a visa before entering the U.S., Brasilia makes Americans pay for a "reciprocal" permit to get into Brazil; after the U.S. started thumb-printing foreigners in immigration lines after 9/11, Brazil obliged Americans to do the same. Those are understandable counterjabs. But while no one is suggesting...
Remarkably, even after she died in childbirth last year, David still had to fight a legal battle to win custody of Sean from the boy's Rio stepfather. And keep in mind, it isn't as if David barely knows Sean: before the abduction he'd helped raise his son for four years. Most fathers would agree that losing the past five years after that - the first little-league games, reading lessons, trips to Disney World - would have been wrenching. It would have been as if Juan Miguel González had lost Elián for seven years instead...
...progress of late means that powerful families can no longer manipulate the courts, especially when poking the U.S. in the eye is at stake, think again. Just as Miami exile leaders were able to make Elián's case drag out for as long as possible (it might still be dragging out today if the feds hadn't finally taken the boy forcibly), the Rio relatives have turned Sean's case into a Brazilian Bleak House...