

Burma's capital: a super-sized slice of post-apocalypse suburbia - Vigier
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/mar/19/burmas-capital-naypyidaw-post-apocalypse-suburbia-highways-wifi

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erikpukinskis
The is the World Bank's classic scam. Bribe a corrupt government to take
massive loans for infrastructure it doesn't need. It goes hand in hand with
the United States' New Colonialism policy, because we can then demand drilling
rights and military alliance when they default on the loans.

It's just a way for us to siphon off a chunk of developing nations' GDP.
That's the World Bank's charter in a nutshell.

The book Confessions of an Econonomic Hitman lays this all out. The only
difference here is it appears the Japanese got the ball rolling.

~~~
mullen
John Perkins is a conspiracy theorist and sort of a nut job. The building of
Naypyidaw was done by Burma under the orders of its leadership. The World Bank
did not have to twist anyone arms to get this White Elephant built.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins_(author)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perkins_\(author\))

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grecy
For many years Myanmar was the sole country on the planet you couldn't drive
your own vehicle into.. preventing a trans-europe->se asia trip without
shipping your vehicle.

That has all changed in the last 12-24 months, and multiple groups have
reported it's now possible.

[http://wikioverland.org/Myanmar](http://wikioverland.org/Myanmar)

(The details are still a little short, but we're getting there)

I'm planning my trip now :)

~~~
ma2rten
Why can't you go around Myanmar (China -> Laos -> Thailand)?

~~~
lmm
China won't let you into the Tibetan Autonomous Region except as part of an
official tour party from within China. You _can_ go around further to the
north (I went that way by rail a few years ago), but most people on such a
road trip would like to see India (and probably also Nepal), and to then have
to go back all the way to _possibly_ cross the border in disputed Kashmir or
realistically to Uzbekistan is a bit of a detour to say the least.

(Central Asia is fascinating and I do recommend the trip through Uzbekistan
and Kazakhstan at some point).

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ngoel36
I was in Yangon (Rangoon) last weekend - it was nothing like what I've read
about Naypyidaw (didn't have the chance to go). So I would recommend not using
this to stereotype the entire country.

Yangon was beautiful, and ridiculously crowded. It honestly felt like a
version of Delhi, down to the horrific traffic. Most impressive was that any
sort of data was unavailable on AT&T roaming, but there I was standing at the
[real] Shwedagon Pagoda, in a country that hadn't been open to the world until
a few years ago, and I had an abundance of free wi-fi to check in to Facebook.

~~~
peteretep

        > any sort of data was unavailable on AT&T roaming
    

Telenor SIM cards are cheap and have data

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Aqwis
Reminds me a lot of Pyongyang. Empty, wide roads, few people on the streets,
and a whole lot of luxery facilities for the few well-connected.

~~~
WildUtah
"Reminds me a lot of Pyongyang"

Or Brasilia. Three cities built on the communist central planning principles
of the post-war American suburb reflect, each in its own way, the oppression
and alienation that motorcar-oriented planning imposes on humans. [0]

There is an alternative to suburban hell. The traditional city humans have
loved for thousands of years is still possible. [1] There are even great
accessible, affordable examples in Burma and Brazil. In places like North
Korea and the USA, the destruction of traditional free ways of life has been
more complete.

Though if you belong to the powerful and monied elite you might be able to
afford to live in the few remaining neighborhoods in Pyongyang or San
Francisco where traditional city design from decades ago is grandfathered in.

[0] [http://kunstler.com/books/the-geography-of-
nowhere/](http://kunstler.com/books/the-geography-of-nowhere/) [1]
[http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html](http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2008/072008.html)

~~~
cromwellian
"There is an alternative to suburban hell. The traditional city humans have
loved for thousands of years is still possible. [1] There are even great
accessible, affordable examples in Burma and Brazil. In places like North
Korea and the USA, the destruction of traditional free ways of life has been
more complete."

This is nostalgia. For most of human existence, we did not live in cities,
sipping lattes in outdoor, safe, cafes with clean water. We lived nomadically
or in small tribes and villages. The invention of the city brought disease,
slavery, slums, corruption, and a whole host of other problems. The
"traditional free way of life" was not living in a city where you couldn't be
a farmer, but had to work for someone else on someone else's land.

Comparing North Korea to the US is just a non-sequitur.

This reeks of hipster snobby elitism.

~~~
WildUtah
"The "traditional free way of life" was not living in a city where you
couldn't be a farmer"

This is nostalgia. For most of human existence, we did not farm. We lived in
small hunter gatherer bands in very small numbers migrating over vast open
landscapes.

But that doesn't invalidate the dream of being a freehold farmer in today's
world. It's no reason to prohibit being a small independent yeoman farmer the
way North Korea has.

And there's no reason to prohibit building a traditional city and living an
urban life the way US central planning has outside a few grandfathered
exceptions which have become incredibly expensive because demand rises while
supply cannot grow.

~~~
cromwellian
Apparently, you didn't read what I wrote "We lived nomadically or in small
tribes and villages."

Interference with US city organic expansion is primarily due to zoning
regulations and nimbyism, and more than anything it results from people who
have a romantic love affair with keeping the city exactly the way it is
without accommodating for inevitable growth.

Pretty much the only projects that can get approved are those from huge
organizations who have the money and power to overcome years of opposition
until they finally can get projects approved.

The average guy who wants to convert an empty building into a cafe, warehouse,
or living space, or remodel an area faces excessive red tape.

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maxwin
All the residential houses are quite expensive and only bought by rich people
who don't really live there, making it more empty.

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lepht
TFA claims it's 6 times the size of NYC but cost only $4 billion dollars to
build. How is that possible?

~~~
pavedwalden
I'm just speculating here, but it's probably 6x NY's footprint in square miles
yet with large open areas that are not built up.

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fsloth
The characterization "six times the size of New York City" evokes images of
area with the same building density. Actually it seems to be quite sparse

[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Republic+of+the+Union+of+M...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Republic+of+the+Union+of+Myanmar/@19.7491033,96.0908636,9345m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x305652a7714e2907:0xba7b0ee41c622b11?hl=en)

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reustle
I spent 3 weeks in Myanmar about a month ago. Now I regret not visiting
Naypyidaw. Everyone I met, including locals, said it wasn't worth my time.

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hyperliner
For a second there I thought this was a parody about San Francisco: poor
people displaced, privileged people moving in who couldn't care less, pretty
looking, empty inside.

