Word: toil
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...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 stations and three golf courses. (Burma's generals are notoriously fond of the sport.) The new capital is also home...
...Nicaragua's impoverished countryside, peasants toil under the sun using the same farming techniques as their ancestors did 300 years ago. Shuffling through small plots of land, farmers use a stick to poke holes in the ground into which seeds are dropped, before scraping the dirt back into place with their foot. Then it's time to pray for rain and hope God delivers consistently through the germination period. It's hard to imagine Nicaragua's rustic peasants being called on to save the day as the global food crisis has doubled average food prices in Latin America over...
...design team is quite different. In one room 15 young designers toil away at Macs. Their technical know-how stands in direct contrast to a woman who hand-paints jungle-like flowers for a Ferragamo scarf and a man nearby who loosely sketches polo players for Ralph Lauren. Nearby are the famous archives, stored in an enormous hangar. The archives are organized by style and designer, and walking through the aisles is a heady experience of color fantasy and craftsmanship, a sort of fashion-world memory lane...
Editors are selfless, editors believe. They labor in anonymity and take their satisfaction vicariously. The writer gets all the glory. He gets the big bucks. He gets invited to the parties, the openings, the symposia, while the editors toil at their desks turning the writer's random jottings and pretentious stylistic quirks into something resembling English prose. But that's O.K. Editors don't mind. They say, "Have a lovely time at that writers' conference, and we'll have the rewrite done when you get back." ("And your laundry too, you unappreciative bastard," they mumble under their breath...
...notable Fidelista, National Assembly leader Ricardo Alarcón, is hectored during a visit to the University of Havana. In the video, an angry student peppers a visibly flummoxed Alarcón with the kind of questions that usually get Cubans tossed into jail: Why does a worker have to toil two or three days just to be able to buy a toothbrush? Why can't Cubans freely travel abroad...