Word: problems
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...each country, Naipaul runs across the same problem: imperialism dies hard. Imperial powers left scars on the cultures as well as the economies of their colonies. With acute powers of observation, Naipaul isolates their lingering presences in the rhetoric of Third World leaders. They are entertainers who distract their followers from facing the problems of development. Their songs use borrowed words: angry, anti-imperialist jargon grafted on to desires for a Western, consumer economy...
...problem of writing history dominates the book. Imperialism robbed all the countries Naipaul writes about of histories uniquely their own. That's important, but for Naipaul to focus on it displays an unspoken Western faith in the ability of history to clarify present problems. The conditions of colonization shaped the identity, the problems of each country. It puzzles Naipaul that he finds no analysis of these conditions. Why is there no mention of the Arab slave trade in Zaire? Where are accounts of the genocide which wiped the Argentine pampas clear of Indians...
...Ramey: "We are roughly in the same position today regarding incest as we were a hundred years ago with respect to our fears of masturbation." Ramey, a researcher who has worked with many of the leading sex investigators, says the incest taboo owes something to "a peculiarly American problemthe withdrawal of all touching contact." With a little more touching in the home, he thinks, the nation might not be facing "the present rash of feverish adolescent sexual activity outside the home...
...problem is that everyone wants to do that: the Household Cavalry, Special Air Service, New Scotland Yard, as well as antiterrorist experts flown in from Israel, West Germany and Japan. While the new Prime Minister dithers, responsibility for the rescue is divided between the S.A.S. and the admirable Jack Lash, head of the Yard's antiterrorist squad and holder of the George Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry awarded by the Crown to a civilian. Meanwhile, the invaders have imprisoned Her Majesty and a young lady-in-waiting in the palace's royal apartments. Almost as pressing...
...same problem undoubtedly troubles Lewis Orde and Bill Michaels, co-authors of The Night They Stole Manhattan (Putnam; 334 pages; $11.95). After all, as they note, this is "the most audacious hijacking of all time." (British readers might disagree.) It also involves "the biggest ransom in history": a cool billion plus a jumbo jet for the surviving perpetrators. In fact, heisting Manhattan turns out to be less farfetched than it sounds. A few well-planted bombs all too easily close train and subway access; destruction of six major bridges and four tunnels completes the island's separation from...