Word: uselessly
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...Susan's fellow monsters have a feckless charm, but they're all but useless in approaching the job at hand. Susan/Ginormica does all the heavy lifting, literally and figuratively. The guys are there for what many women think men were put on earth to provide: comic relief. Outside the core group, the general is your standard-issue blowhard, while the U.S. President, voiced by Stephen Colbert, is a pompous doofus with little of the appeal of the character Colbert plays on his own show. Add Susan's clumsily ambitious near husband (Paul Rudd) to this bunch, and the movie...
...here - securitized debt? credit-default swaps? uh, sure, whatever - Americans can now revert to their ruthlessly pragmatic, commonsensical selves. Admitting that we aren't certain exactly how to proceed is liberating, and key. Hyperbolic rants and rigid talking points, in either Limbaughian or Olbermannian flavors, now seem worse than useless, artifacts of a bumptious barroom...
...answer, of course, was less important than what Burmese living under one of the world's most Orwellian regimes thought. And what they said surprised me. Yes, some deemed the elections "useless." Others conceded that the obstacles to even a semblance of electoral freedom are formidable. Before a single vote is cast, Burma's elections will be rigged. The newly minted constitution ensures that top leadership posts are reserved for the military, which, above all, appears to be motivated by self-preservation. Many members of the political opposition - including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who still languishes...
...Today, the KIO is waging an information campaign on a series of seven planned dams in Kachin, which will flood hundreds of villages and could threaten many others because the region's frequent seismic activity could trigger reservoir floods. (Two previously built dams in Kachin were rendered useless after breaking, and nearby villagers, who never received any electricity, were killed by the rush of water.) The dams, which are slated to generate seven times Burma's entire current electricity capacity, are being jointly developed by state-owned Chinese companies and a Burmese firm, Asia World, whose managing director...
...Goldman Sachs for almost a decade, Moyo is particularly angry at the way overly solicitous Western financial aid has made Africa's "poor poorer." As she writes, "The notion that aid can alleviate systemic poverty ... is a myth." That $1 trillion-plus the U.S. has poured into Africa? Mostly useless. All that Bono-supported "glamour aid"? Somewhat insulting. The truth, Moyo argues, is that massive foreign aid encourages corruption and stifles the investment and free enterprise that can provide long-term stability. Her alternative solutions include widespread microfinancing and unfettered agricultural trade with the West. Africa could also use more...