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Attention seekers like the Salahis are the sort of people referred to as "famous for being famous" - an accurate description and not the same as "famous for nothing." Being famous is a skill, which requires knowing how celebrity works today...
John Lee Hancock's movie, based on the Michael Lewis nonfiction best seller, is about Michael Oher, a homeless black teenager who was adopted by a white couple and, after many a challenge, became a star tackle at the University of Mississippi. (Today, Oher is an acclaimed rookie for the Baltimore Ravens.) A true story that sounds like it's the most improbable type of uplifting fiction, The Blind Side could have been one of the dozens of sports inspirationals that reach their core audiences, moisten many eyes and retire quickly to the DVD shelves. Yet it's obviously connecting...
...Visitors today to the Indonesian capital might find Pram's take extreme. True, men and boys still relieve themselves in Kebon Jahé Kober's sewers. But the small neighborhood, in the middle of Jakarta's bustle, is an oasis of quiet lanes with socks drying on bamboo poles and friendly bakso (meatball) vendors sucking on spicy, crackling kretek. They'll smilingly guide you to the still standing, ramshackle house of its most famous onetime resident, at No. 8, Gang (Lane) III - although Pram didn't really do much to deserve local affection. Not only did he quickly tire...
...prostitutes have since moved elsewhere, and as it was for the Dutch, who knew it as Koningsplein (King's Square), the area today is a place of easy leisure, of bucolic clumps of crape myrtle and mahogany trees, whose center is the Monumen Nasional - founding father Sukarno's heroic white obelisk. From its observatory deck, you'll see the Kali Besar, Jakarta' big canal dug during the city's prosperous days as a tropical spice-trading port, running north. South is Menteng, the early 20th century planned garden neighborhood where local élite, like the late Suharto's clan, reside...
...that of their students. A fraction of the money spent on expensive foreign development consultants or military assets could be invested in nationwide literacy programs with far greater returns. For those who complain that education programs take at least a generation to mature, imagine what Afghanistan would be like today if there had been widespread investment in literacy and education eight years ago. There would be not only fewer complaints about Afghan capacity, but also fewer problems with corruption, which flourishes when people lack education about their rights and venues of redress. "I'm sorry, Obama Administration, but your troop...