Word: burma
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There aren't any," says the hotelier with an embarrassed laugh when I ask about the best tourist attractions in Burma's new capital. That's no surprise, really. Naypyidaw--the name translates as "Abode of Kings"--was built from scratch just three years ago on orders from the ruling junta. The vast swath of former scrubland didn't even exist when the latest Lonely Planet Burma travel guide was written, and there's not much tourist charm in a dusty bunker town whose sole purpose is the wish fulfillment of paranoid generals...
Naypyidaw is very big and very empty. Even after Cyclone Nargis devastated Rangoon, Burma's former capital, that metropolis of 5 million still teems with life. The authorities claim that Naypyidaw, untouched by the storm, is home to nearly 1 million residents. But on a recent visit, I saw only a few dozen people apart from the gangs of manual laborers painting crosswalks and sweeping spotless boulevards. On the 20-minute drive from the airport to the hotel zone--where all six of Naypyidaw's hotels are located--I passed just three other vehicles. One was a horse-drawn buggy...
Three years after the first wave of government employees moved here, Naypyidaw remains under construction. Workers toil in the searing heat, mostly without modern equipment like cranes and bulldozers. So far, their efforts have produced, among other things, a massive zoo, five police stations and three golf courses. (Burma's generals are notoriously fond of the sport.) Government housing is provided in bright-hued blocks reminiscent of a down-market Florida retirement community, color-coded by residents' occupation: blue buildings are for the Ministry of Health, green for the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation...
...city's only potential tourist attraction is a replica of Rangoon's famous Shwedagon pagoda. It's still under construction. At the building site, child laborers--some appearing no older than 6--lug piles of rocks on woven stretchers. Burma's junta has long been considered one of the world's worst human-rights abusers. But the generals don't have to see these tiny laborers build a golden temple for their Abode of Kings. That's because the top brass is bunkered in another, faraway part of the city, an isolation that could help explain the junta's underwhelming...
...Burma AID TRICKLES IN More than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis left an estimated 134,000 dead or missing and 2.5 million homeless, Burma's ruling junta bowed to international pressure and agreed to accept substantial foreign aid, as long as it's funneled through ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asia Nations. The U.S. and U.N. have landed supply planes in the city of Rangoon but have not been able to directly reach the delta, hindering the much needed large-scale disbursement...