Word: westernism
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...because we've been in politics and government since the 1800s," says Egypt's urbane Finance Minister. The family name acquired international renown in 1991, when his uncle was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. Then came ignominy. Denounced as divisive and incompetent by the U.S. and other Western nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali became the first Secretary-General not to be re-elected for a second term...
Last fall, some of those same Western nations helped elect Youssef chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policymaking committee, giving him a powerful voice in determining the IMF's role in the global economic crisis. It's the first time a non-Westerner has held the job, and Boutros-Ghali knows he carries the developing world's expectations. His main task, he says, is to get the IMF to better understand its borrowers. "[I've] experienced the pointy end of IMF policies," he says. "I bring a view different from a G-7 Finance Minister. I am sensitive...
...policymaking committee's other critical task is to reform the IMF itself. Its 24-member executive board is dominated by Western nations, and doesn't take into account the rise of new powers like Brazil, Russia, India and China - the "BRIC" nations. Under a complex system of voting rights, Italy has greater clout than Russia or India. "Belgium and the Netherlands have one seat each, the same as Brazil, which is totally absurd," says Cornell's Prasad...
...Eastern countries expressed their religious principles by voting Islamic. Today, a growing number are doing so by buying Islamic, connecting to their Muslim roots by what they eat, wear and play on their iPods. Rising Muslim consumerism undermines the specious argument often heard after 9/11: that Muslims hate the Western way of life, with its emphasis on choice and consumerism. The growing Muslim market is a sign of a newly confident Islamic identity - one based not on politics but on personal lifestyles. "Muslims will spend their money more readily on halal food and products than on political causes," says Zahed...
...location may have been the first hint. The 23rd European Union-Russia summit on Friday was held in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk, a former Tsarist army outpost just a few dozen miles from the Chinese border and 5,000 miles east of Western Europe. The location seemed more aimed at inducing jet lag and awe at Russia's size than at forging agreement on energy, an issue that has consistently soured relations between the two powers over the past months - and which the summit failed to resolve...