Word: boomtown
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That's easier said than done in a throbbing boomtown like Macau. In 2002 the Chinese government lifted a 40-year monopoly on casinos in Macau, prompting a gambling-and-tourism explosion that brought a record 22 million visitors to the territory last year. Fueled by punters from mainland China, it has surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest gambling center. As it has grown, Macau has begun to shed its image as a shady place that handles illicit international finance. When the U.S. Treasury Department in 2005 named Macau's Banco Delta Asia a "willing pawn...
...That's easier said than done in a throbbing boomtown like Macau. In 2002 the government lifted a 40-year monopoly on casinos, prompting a gambling and tourism explosion that brought a record 22 million visitors to Macau last year. Fueled by punters from mainland China, it has surpassed the Las Vegas strip as the world's biggest gambling center. The territory has also been dragged into the current standoff between North Korea and the U.S. The U.S. Treasury Department has named Macau's Banco Delta Asia a "willing pawn" in money laundering for Pyongyang, prompting the territory's regulators...
...touted to overtake the United States in Internet usage, but the country's blogosphere is a fascinating, still evolving animal. When mobilized, China's 100 million-plus netizens can, by collective effort, accomplish noble ends. Take the case of Foxconn, a Taiwanese company with a factory in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen. After two local journalists published an article questioning labor conditions in the factory (which made parts for Apple's I-pod), Foxconn sued them personally for millions of dollars. But the resulting hue-and-cry on the web prompted the company to back down. Admirable...
Those new energy-fueled tastes are turning Baku into a boomtown, despite widespread poverty in the rest of the country. Regular Azeris, who have an average cash income of $1,140 a year, are reeling from inflation (tomatoes have recently doubled in price). But much of Baku is upbeat and partying. "There's a mood that Azerbaijan is now sustainable," says Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. BP's operation has brought in thousands of oil workers and businesspeople, mostly British, who pack nightclubs with names like Le Chevalier and Le Mirage to dance with local women dressed in spiked boots...
...India last week, the high-tech boomtown of Bangalore was wiped from the map. No, it wasn't hit by a nuclear attack or a natural disaster. Instead, the city simply ditched its British colonial--era moniker in favor of Bengalooru, which, in the local Kannada language, means "town of boiled beans." Other big Indian cities have already taken new names--Bombay is now Mumbai and Madras became Chennai. According to Kannada writer and Bengalooru advocate U.R. Ananthamurthy, such moves are a long-overdue reassertion of local identity. "It was the colonizer who changed the name first," he says...