Word: predecessor
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Natsios' first decisions on the job have been forthright and encouraging. He has swept several top Kerasiotes deputies out of office. In stark contrast to his predecessor, Natsios vowed full disclosure of financial information, saying "[The media] are going to have more information than they're going to want to print...
Mori's physical dynamism contrasted sharply with the dour frailty of his predecessor, who lay in a coma last week after a massive stroke. But the L.D.P. secretary-general was picked for the top post mainly because of his skills as a fixer in the back rooms of Japanese politics, where real decision making takes place. What his faction-riddled party needs most in these turbulent times--as the country faces a devastating volcanic eruption in the north, economic stagnation and a crisis of confidence--is someone who can hold things together...
Mori's first task will be to restore the public's faith in the government, which was badly shaken by the bumbling and deceitful handling of his predecessor's health emergency. It took 34 hours for Obuchi aide Mikio Aoki, who briefly stepped in as interim leader, to reveal the full extent of the Prime Minister's illness. Whether Mori can inspire trust and move the country along the path of badly needed financial and economic reforms remains to be seen. His 31-year career as a party apparatchik and former Education Minister and Trade Minister provides no evidence...
Perhaps. But what he has most conspicuously arranged in the past has been pork-barrel projects for his home region in western Japan, including an unnecessary $14 billion bullet-train route. Mori made it clear last week that he will continue the profligate spending of his predecessor, who during his brief, 20-month tenure doled out more than $300 billion for government projects, making him Japan's all-time biggest spendthrift. Don't count on Mori to close the spigot. Government spending "has a natural impact on the economy," he said last week. "Right now the economy is slowly recovering...
Back in the 1930s, my predecessor at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, Harry Shapiro, while sensibly warning of the "dangers of prophecy," wondered what humans might become a half-million years hence. His predictions included such features as a rounder skull, a smoothing of the area above the brows, a reduction in the size and number of teeth, and a shrinking of the face in general. Shapiro also predicted that we would get taller and even balder and that body hair would continue to diminish...