Word: vietnamize
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...that industrial waste discharged into the Thi Vai had poisoned their wells, killed all the fish and was making them sick. Yet it wasn't until cargo companies refused to dock at the river's main port - saying that the toxic brew was eating through the ships' hulls - that Vietnam officials were willing to get tough on polluters...
...Last month, with pressure mounting, investigators announced they had caught a Taiwanese-owned monosodium glutamate factory red-handed. Though it had taken three months of undercover work, inspectors discovered that Vedan Vietnam, a foreign-owned company, was illegally dumping untreated waste into the river. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen called it "not just a violation but, in fact, treacherous behavior." An unprecedented crackdown followed: a Korean MSG manufacturer was nabbed dumping toxic waste. Several foreign-owned starch factories, which can release cyanide during processing, were shut down. On October 10, inspectors caught a Vietnamese leather tanning company...
...This sudden, aggressive enforcement of environmental regulations has become almost a rite of passage for industrializing nations. Now it's Vietnam's turn. The communist government's embrace of the free market has lifted millions out of poverty over the last decade. But just as in neighboring China, environmental considerations have been largely pushed aside in the race to build factories and industrial parks, few of them equipped with adequate wastewater treatment facilities...
...predictable result: pollution of the country's lands and waters on a shocking scale. According to Vietnam's state media, thousands of large - and small-scale industries - discharge at least 33,000 cubic meters of waste into the Mekong River system every day. Midwife Le Thi Thanh Thuy, who lives a kilometer from the Vedan plant, tells pregnant women living along the Thi Vai River not to drink the water. Even some well water burns people's skin and isn't used to wash clothes. "They are so poor, they don't have enough money to buy rice," says Thuy...
Ayers, 63, is the University of Illinois at Chicago education professor who, during the Vietnam era, was a leader of radical group the Weather Underground. In recent weeks, Republicans have mounted an increasingly potent assault on Obama's past dealings with Ayers. Sarah Palin, the GOP vice-presidential candidate, depicted Chicago as a hotbed of radical politics. Earlier this month, she referred to Ayers when she said Obama "sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country." During Wednesday night's final presidential debate, Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, continued to question...