Word: third world
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...third democratic revolution in a former Soviet state in 18 months. This remarkable turn toward democracy has not been limited to the former USSR; in the last three months, post-Saddam Iraq has held its first democratic elections, Palestinians have freely elected the moderate Mahmoud Abbas, demonstrators have caused the downfall of the Syrian puppet-government in Lebanon and created fierce pressure for Syria to withdraw its troops, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s ruler for 24 years, has scheduled multiparty presidential elections for later this year, and even Saudi Arabia has held its first municipal elections. Around the world...
However, the spread of democracy is no panacea; by itself, democracy will not solve all of the problems in the third world. Poverty will not magically disappear, corruption will prove difficult to eradicate, ethnic tensions could increase, and democracy itself can backslide toward authoritarian personal rule (e.g., Russia). Nevertheless, democratic rule is almost always a step forward. The problems faced by a new democratic leadership—like secessionist regions in Georgia or control of Kirkuk in Iraq—will have to be faced eventually. Autocratic rule did not solve these problems, and continued repression will only make them...
Getting over that will be Foer’s greatest obstacle when he sits down to write his third book. “Extremely Loud,” for all its richness and readability, exposes his apparent fear of writing about himself, and suggests a fatal flaw that will hold him back if he doesn’t get over it soon. While his rhetoric has gotten less stilted and his storytelling has become more fluid since “Everything Is Illuminated,” his continued reluctance to just be himself, instead of impersonating a grandmother, a young...
...most countries, women are still hampered in their quest for equality by cultural, religious and social tradition. Despite laws to the contrary, for example, female circumcision and wife beating are commonly practiced in the Third World. In India, which banned dowry systems in 1961, just last year thousands of cases were reported of husbands torturing their wives to extract dowry payments or even murdering them to marry other women. "I saw the body of a girl who had been bound, sprinkled with oil and then burned" by her husband, said NGO Delegate Ranjana Kumari, a political scientist at the Center...
...dismissed it as "one giant commemorative stamp." But for many participants, particularly those at the NGO forum, the significance of Nairobi was found less in the official proceedings of the U.N. meeting than in the peaceful and joyous way the swirling mix of women from the developed nations, the Third World and the Soviet bloc worked together on a one-to-one basis. Time after time, women linked arms and belted out what came to be the conference's unofficial theme song: "We are the world/ We are the women...