Word: rangoon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Generals' Shame Thank you for using the names Burma, Burmese and Rangoon [May 26]. Those names are precious to all democracy-loving people inside and outside the country. Myanmar, Myanmarese and Yangon are names that belong to the military junta and its followers, who have turned Burma upside down in the same way Hitler did with Germany in the '30s and '40s. Kathy May, Anaheim, California...
Tens of thousands of civil servants have been forced to abandon Rangoon for Naypyidaw, but the new capital has only two markets catering to their needs. There's no sign of movie theaters or karaoke dens, and no cell-phone coverage--for "security reasons," the locals claim. (That still doesn't explain why junta leader Than Shwe has refused to take calls from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was phoning to urge more government aid for cyclone victims...
...Naypyidaw is its 24-hour electricity supply in a country plagued by power shortages. But that's not enough to entice civil servants to bring their relatives here. Asked why her family stayed in the old capital, a 12-year-old girl visiting her father answers in impressive English, "Rangoon is better; here is bad," earning her a slap on the head from her anxious mother...
...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...
...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...