Read This: April 2, 2010 04/02/2010
Not the Easiest Way to Make a Buck in NYC (RFE/RL)
Mastering a language is only the start to being a good interpreter. In a UN guide for would-be language specialists, the job appears to be equal parts diplomat, rocket scientist, and traffic cop. "A good translator," it reads, "knows techniques for coping with a huge variety of difficult situations, has iron nerves, does not panic, has a sense of style, and can keep up with a rapid speakers."
The Saudi Soul (The Economist)
Saudi Arabia is a land of superlatives. It has the biggest oil reserves in the world, the driest deserts and the holiest cities of Islam, as well as the most stubbornly autocratic of governments and irksomely puritanical people. But the realm that was patched together in the early part of the last century by its first king, Abdel Aziz ibn Saud, with an equally energetic mix of jihad and tribal diplomacy, also ranks as one of the most poorly understood countries. Critics portray the kingdom as an oily heart of Islamic darkness, a wellspring of the fanaticism that threw up Osama bin Laden and his furious ilk. Apologists, swayed as often by the ruling Al Sauds’ courtly manners as by their fat purses, paint it instead as a repository of noble Arab tradition, a bastion of stability in a strategically crucial but hopelessly troubled region.
You Can Never Tell How These Things Will Turn Out (Wealth of Nations)
The backlash against Russia's cops should give strength to Medvedev's liberal supporters, who were already calling for deep reforms of Russia's notoriously corrupt Interior Ministry. Popular resentment against law enforcement had been building for at least a year before the attacks, thanks to a series of scandals including a supermarket shooting spree by a drunken officer; a YouTube appeal by a police major in southern Russia complaining of "pure banditry" among his colleagues; and press revelations of how paramilitary cops regularly blackmail, terrorize, and even kidnap businessmen for profit. A poll just before the bombings showed that 81 percent of Russians consider the police to be "outlaws." The outbursts of indignation since the bombings suggests that people's opinion of the police has now sunk even lower.
Mastering a language is only the start to being a good interpreter. In a UN guide for would-be language specialists, the job appears to be equal parts diplomat, rocket scientist, and traffic cop. "A good translator," it reads, "knows techniques for coping with a huge variety of difficult situations, has iron nerves, does not panic, has a sense of style, and can keep up with a rapid speakers."
The Saudi Soul (The Economist)
Saudi Arabia is a land of superlatives. It has the biggest oil reserves in the world, the driest deserts and the holiest cities of Islam, as well as the most stubbornly autocratic of governments and irksomely puritanical people. But the realm that was patched together in the early part of the last century by its first king, Abdel Aziz ibn Saud, with an equally energetic mix of jihad and tribal diplomacy, also ranks as one of the most poorly understood countries. Critics portray the kingdom as an oily heart of Islamic darkness, a wellspring of the fanaticism that threw up Osama bin Laden and his furious ilk. Apologists, swayed as often by the ruling Al Sauds’ courtly manners as by their fat purses, paint it instead as a repository of noble Arab tradition, a bastion of stability in a strategically crucial but hopelessly troubled region.
You Can Never Tell How These Things Will Turn Out (Wealth of Nations)
The backlash against Russia's cops should give strength to Medvedev's liberal supporters, who were already calling for deep reforms of Russia's notoriously corrupt Interior Ministry. Popular resentment against law enforcement had been building for at least a year before the attacks, thanks to a series of scandals including a supermarket shooting spree by a drunken officer; a YouTube appeal by a police major in southern Russia complaining of "pure banditry" among his colleagues; and press revelations of how paramilitary cops regularly blackmail, terrorize, and even kidnap businessmen for profit. A poll just before the bombings showed that 81 percent of Russians consider the police to be "outlaws." The outbursts of indignation since the bombings suggests that people's opinion of the police has now sunk even lower.
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