It is a slog, involving laborious case-by-case reviews, which, since 2008, yielded success in more than 2,000 cases before slowing to a standstill in recent months.
The completion of the metro system is in sight and the remodelling of the Piazza Garibaldi and Piazza Municipio areas, that has brought traffic to a near standstill in recent years, is almost finished.
The offering could also help investment banks, which get fees from underwriting deals, after the market for initial public offerings all but came to a standstill in recent months as the growing credit crisis prompted investors to withdraw.
Life in and around it has come to a standstill this summer — one recent afternoon, boats could be tallied on one hand.
Nevertheless the prospect of ending years of political deadlock appeared to satisfy political leaders of both parties, whose expectations have been lowered by the recent government shutdown and a virtual standstill on a host of other issues.
To date, the government has signed 13 ceasefire agreements according to the Myanmar Peace Monitor website, and only in recent weeks has violence come to a standstill.
While the U.S. economy officially climbed out of recession two years ago, growth has been painfully slow since then, and in recent months has threatened to come to a standstill.
As Paul Krugman put it in a recent New York Times column, we need "a standstill on further deals, or at least a presumption that proposed deals are guilty unless proved innocent".
Television newscasts in recent days have been filled with cars at a standstill and fuming drivers, some of whom wondered what the gridlock says about leadership and planning in Kenya as a whole.
Coal gasification can also help address local pollution problems that have in recent months brought parts of the country to a virtual standstill.
