Word: strongmanism
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When Ferdinand Marcos arrived in Hawaii last week, he looked like most other visitors to the island paradise. Bowing to have a lei draped around his neck on an airport tarmac similar to the one Benigno Aquino was gunned down upon, all that the former Filipino strongman needed to complete the costume of a stereotypical vacationer was an instamatic camera dangling from his neck...
Marcos' call for elections caught Washington flat-footed. The strongman, who suffers from a form of systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease that often affects the kidneys, had grown increasingly withdrawn from the country's plight; he had craftily evaded previous U.S. pressures for reform. Most experts were skeptical that the vote would lead to any significant power shift in Manila. But among many Filipinos, the notion that the balloting might lead to change seemed to take on a life of its own. Philippine voters might even provide the occasion for an all too rare peaceful transition from authoritarianism to democracy...
...capital of Riyadh, Hussain Lwasani, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's director for African and Arab affairs, met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal. Lwasani's mission, said a Saudi spokesman, was "related to the current oilmarket situation." A day later, Major Khoualdy Humaidi, a member of Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi's governing Revolutionary Command Council, showed up for a session with Saudi King Fahd. Later, it was announced that the 13-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries would hold an emergency meeting in mid-February...
...Washington. In both places, there is a near overwhelming sense that a chapter of history is almost over: the Marcos era. Over the two decades since his first democratic election in 1965, the President has run the gamut of transformation, changing from a populist reformer to a modernizing strongman to, in recent years, a fading and often grotesque shadow of his former authoritarian self. In the process, he has profoundly changed his country, at times in the past for the better, but of late decidedly for the worse...
...General Assembly chamber, an anti-Castro group fired a 3 1/2-in. bazooka round at the U.N. from the Queens side of the East River. (It fell 200 yds. short, rattling the windows and more than a few delegates.) The security chiefs' greatest fear this time around is that Libyan Strongman Muammar Gaddafi and Cuban President Fidel Castro, both of whom are expected to attend, will arrive at the U.N. on the same...