Word: islands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...were deposited in Yanggakdo International Hotel, a 47-story structure that sits on an island in Pyongyang's Taedong River and abuts a nine-hole golf course, where I imagine it's pretty easy to get a tee time. The hotel is in an isolated spot, far from the streets where we might encounter ordinary North Koreans. And that was the point: our hosts plainly didn't want us mingling. When I later groused about it to the Pyongyang correspondent for the Russian news agency ITAR TASS, he just chuckled. "Don't you know what foreigners here call your hotel...
When A.J. Longmaid spent his boyhood summers on Spectacle Island, a private 4.5-acre (1.8 hectare) refuge off the coast of Bar Harbor, Maine, his family had no electricity or pressurized water. He read by kerosene lamp and showered by pouring a bucket of freezing water over his head. Today Longmaid, 30, not only has hot showers and electric power on the island but also can make cell-phone calls, watch television and surf the Net via satellite. "People don't even realize they aren't connected to the mainland when they're here because everything is the same," says...
Driven by the seemingly endless American fascination with real estate and the continual thirst for affordable, less developed seaside views, island dwelling has become practicable and increasingly popular. Many islands that were once considered uninhabitable wildernesses have become desirable properties. Over the past 10 years, a growing number of people have been snapping them up in the U.S., paying anywhere from $200,000 to $5 million, depending on size and location. Typically, prices run about 20% cheaper per acre than traditional waterfront properties in the same locale--a discount reflecting the extra hassle it takes...
...hold the 25th lowest infant mortality rate (a useful indicator of public health care) in the world, but prior to the revolution it held the 13th lowest rate. The reforms that were enacted after the revolution were only extended insofar as they helped Castro consolidate his control over the island. Doctors, for example, are expected to keep records of each family’s “political integration,” assessing their patient’s commitment to the failed ideals of the revolution prior to treating them...
...Cuban citizens lack the right to travel and are denied access to hotels and beaches on their own island. Those areas are reserved for tourists. Cubans are paid in Cuban pesos while goods must be purchased at high prices in “convertible” pesos, keeping daily essentials out of reach. Ration cards, which Cubans have to pay for, provide scarce allotments of basic goods, such as two rolls of toilet paper per month. Possessing red meat is illegal, and killing a cow will result in four to 10 years in prison. These are just some examples...