Word: townes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...chronically scruffy auteur may play the game tonight and get all tuxed up. But he's still a blue-collar kid from Flint, Michigan - the car town that became a poor town when GM closed many of its plants. A classic entertainer and a professional mensch, he knows how to couch a daunting issue in human terms. In Sicko, as he said at a Cannes press conference today, the larger questions are: "Who are we? What has become of us? Where is our soul...
...year-old sister Suwarana, and then pay her dowry and arrange a suitable wedding-responsibilities that would push him further into debt. What his family knows is this: on a sunny morning in central India in late November last year, Pravin, 27, rode his motorbike to a nearby town, bought a few meters of red and yellow nylon cord, returned to his gently sloping cotton farm and hanged himself from a concrete power pole. Neighbors found him within minutes, blood trickling from his mouth...
...those who kill themselves have debts of between $110 and $550. Many farmers complain that banks don't offer them credit, forcing them to turn to rapacious moneylenders, who typically charge up to 20% interest on a four-month loan. As collateral, explains one lender in the bustling town of Pandharkawada, farmers often sign away title to their land. "If they pay back the loan, we give them back their deed," says the lender, who called himself "Ratanbhai" but refused to give his full name because of a recent government crackdown on unlicensed lenders. "If they...
...That's how it went with Pravin, who wanted the best for his family even if he couldn't afford it. Pravin's family lives near Pandharkawada town, in Sunna, a village of dirt streets and pale blue and whitewashed brick houses. The air hangs heavy with the smell of goats, cattle and chickens, and farmers use wooden bullock carts to carry their cotton and animal feed. Doors are strung with mango leaves to bring good luck, and women stretch their washing over twig fences. Pravin took over the family farm from his father four years ago when...
...pulverized by a homemade bomb in 2005. To keep their bearings, the troops have taken to identifying routes by the names of 1980s heavy-metal bands. We drive down Bon Jovi, where the barbershop used to be, and pass Skid Row, which had the best falafel in town. At the end of the block is Poison, which four years ago was Mansour's commercial hub, lined with restaurants, shops, a gym and even a liquor store. Now every storefront is shuttered, and there isn't a car on the road. The mostly Sunni residents who live in Mansour have their...