Word: rangoon
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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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...
...Naypyidaw is very big, and very empty. Even after cyclone Nargis devastated Rangoon, Burma's former capital, a metropolis of 5 million, still teemed with life. The authorities claim that Naypyidaw, untouched by the storm, is home to almost 1 million. But a recent visit found no more than a couple dozen people, outside of the gangs of manual laborers painting crosswalks and sweeping spotless boulevards. The 20-minute drive from the airport to the Hotel Zone finds just three other vehicles on the road, one of them a horse and buggy...
...Even though tens of thousands of civil servants have been forced to abandon Rangoon for Naypyidaw, the new capital has only two markets and three formal restaurants catering to their needs. There's no sign of movie theaters, bars or karaoke dens, and no cellphone coverage - for "security reasons," the locals explain. Three years after the first wave of government employees moved here, Naypyidaw remains under construction. Workers toil in the searing heat, mostly unaided by such modern conveniences as cranes or bulldozers. So far, their efforts have produced, among other things, the country's only major highway, five police...
...chronic power shortages and blackouts. But that's not enough to entice civil servants to bring their families here. Asked why her family had remained in the old capital, a 12-year-old girl who'd come with her mother to visit her father here answers in impressive English, "Rangoon is better. Here is bad." Her honesty earns the child a slap on the head from her anxious mother...
...city's only attempt at a tourist attraction is a replica of Rangoon's famous Shwedagon pagoda. The Naypyidaw version, though, remains unfinished. At the building site, groups of child laborers - some appearing no older than six - lug heavy rocks on woven stretchers and swing pickaxes into the hard earth. Burma's junta has long been considered one of the world's worst human-rights abusers. But the country's generals don't have to see these tiny laborers build a golden temple for their Abode of Kings. That's because the generals are bunkered in another, faraway part...