Word: postings
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...that wealth-creating, job-generating activity is dwindling. Fresh government figures reveal a drop in consumer spending of 0.2% this fall, the worst performance in 13 years, and experts predict profound misery in the final quarter, usually a boom-time for shops thanks to pre-Christmas gift splurges and post-Christmas bargain-hunting. Market research company Synovate forecasts a drop of 7.3% on shopping trips in December. Says Tim Denison, a retail psychologist and director of Synovate, which has used the same matrix to predict retail trends since 1995: "We haven't seen a figure like that leap...
...other words, it's not just about food parcels or blankets. It's about an idea of what the world's most populous nation can be. And that gets CEOs sheepishly arising from their cognac and shark-fin banquets to write checks. It makes the poor queue at post offices to offer gifts of a few grubby notes. It even persuades Italian fashion icons to sully their extravagant shoes in the mud of ravaged rural Sichuan...
...spare change. Ordinary Chinese donate by patronizing one of many businesses that Li has signed up - by dining at the South Beauty restaurant chain, for example (one renminbi off the bill goes to the foundation), or by using their China Merchants Bank credit cards. They can also donate at post offices, through PayPal or via SMS. By these means, the foundation had raised, as of July this year, $13.7 million, the great bulk of which has gone to Sichuan earthquake relief...
...PNTL police posts within the Comoro district of the city's west, poorly equipped officers paid $125 a month live in tents without mosquito nets or proper toilets. At one post the single radio shared by eight men is broken, forcing them to call in reports on their personal mobile phones. At another post, responsible for a 4-sq.-km district, officers have no patrol vehicles and sprint to jobs on foot. "The U.N. is providing everything," says one UNPOL officer. "Even the toilet paper...
...tanks roll on the streets presumably derives from the fact that its last political interference didn't pan out. True, Thaksin - a nemesis of the army in part because his showy, autocratic style was perceived as threatening the influence of Thailand's beloved King - was removed from office. But post-coup elections last year brought to power a party dominated by acolytes of the ousted Premier. In essence, Thailand in late 2008 is back to where it was two years ago: divided and rudderless...