Word: importance
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...backpackers particularly keen on local cuisines or cultures. Caf?s specializing in the quasivegetarian backpacker diet of banana pancakes, muesli, fruit shakes and vegetable noodles have sprung up from Lombok to Laos. And flying in a DJ from London is all it takes to import wholesale the exploding club culture from back home. Entire Thai islands have become virtual colonies, offering pints of ale at the Bird in the Hand, ecstasy and colonic irrigation. On the island of Koh Phi Phi, a formerly idyllic haven now crammed with dive shops, restaurants and travel agents offering cut-rate tours to see where...
...Still, my first interview gets off to a promising start. Raghava Varrier, a professor and local historian, seems more knowledgeable about Chinese trade. And not just Chinese. "Traders came from everywhere," he says. "This was Asia's most important entrepot." It was the closest thing to a free port in the medieval world: the local rulers, known as Zamorins, charged 6-10% import duty on all items. They provided traders with guest houses and servants - and the odd courtesan, natch - and guaranteed the security of all goods. Varrier encourages me to think of it as a 15th century Hong Kong...
...most effective limits on the water trade have been economic. Compared with the costs of shipping freshwater by sea, "it's still cheaper to get freshwater by other means, even by desalinization of seawater," admits Turner of WaterBank.com But Turner, who is assembling a consortium of Mexican municipalities to import water from the U.S., adds that aging infrastructure and mounting worries over contaminated groundwater are helping make larger ventures worthwhile. Schwab's Coy estimates that the world market for private distribution of water, and the bill for wastewater treatment, now amounts to $300 billion annually. The market has already attracted...
...what O&A are most famous for is "Whip 'em Out Wednesdays," when women are encouraged to flash guys who have WOW bumper stickers on their cars, or even just the staff of a live Today show, as a listener did last summer. And while Stern has to import porn stars, O&A have little trouble finding young women to play along. "I think it gives women some power," Opie explains. When asked what he means by that, he leans his chair back against the conference-room window and says, "That's a good question. What do I mean...
...grill the committee, Phillips and his team suggested answers the Chinese might have muffed, such as making them omit the usual "evil-cult" epithet from comments on the underground Falun Gong spiritual movement. Phillips even solved Beijing's dreaded puppy problem. Many Chinese eat dogs, and dog farms import the frozen sperm of St. Bernards to breed quick-growing canine roasters. Beijing officials were certain that Swiss visitors would protest at seeing their rescue pooches on chopsticks, and they wanted a response ready. So, Phillips advised, "just tell them Chinese find it strange that Europeans eat horses...