Lil Wayne

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. Formerly a member of the rap group the Hot Boys, he joined the Cash Money Records collective as a teenager. Get It How U Live, released in 1997, was Lil Wayne's first album with Hot Boys, and Tha Block is Hot, his solo debut, came out in 1999.

After gaining fame with two other albums in the early 2000s, Lil Wayne reached higher popularity with 2004's Tha Carter and its two subsequent albums Tha Carter II (2005) and Tha Carter III (2008). He earned various accolades following Tha Carter III, including being nominated for eight Grammy Awards. He will release a rock album titled Rebirth in 2009.
Early life

Lil Wayne was born Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. and grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana.[1] Carter enrolled in the gifted program of Lafayette Elementary School and in the drama club of Eleanor McMain Secondary School.[2][3] He wrote his first rap song at age eight.[4] At age eleven, he met Bryan Williams, rapper and owner of Cash Money Records. Lil Wayne recorded freestyle raps on Williams' answering machine; Williams would eventually mentor the young Carter and include him in Cash Money-distributed songs.[5] When he was 12, he played the part of the Tin Man in his middle school drama club's production of The Wiz.[6] He dropped out of school at age 14 but later earned his GED.[2]

Music career

Hot Boys
Main article: Hot Boys

In 1997, Lil Wayne formed the group Hot Boys along with rappers Juvenile, Turk, and B.G.; at age 15, Wayne was the youngest member at that time. Hot Boys' debut album Get It How U Live! was released the same year, followed in 1999 by the group's major-label debut Guerrilla Warfare,[1] which reached #1 on the Billboard magazine Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #5 on the Billboard 200.[7] During their career, the Hot Boys had two charting singles, "We On Fire" from Get It How U Live! and "I Need a Hot Girl" from Guerrilla Warfare.[8] Lil Wayne was also featured on Juvenile's single "Back That Azz Up", which reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks.[9] Let 'Em Burn, a compilation album of unreleased tracks recorded during 1999 and 2000, came out in 2003, several years after the group disbanded.[10] It reached #3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #14 on the Billboard 200.[7]

Early solo career (1999-2003)

Lil Wayne's debut solo album Tha Block Is Hot at age 17 featured significant contributions from the Hot Boys and went double platinum, climbing to #3 on the Billboard album charts.[1] The album earned him a 1999 Source magazine award nomination for "Best New Artist",[11] and also became a Top Ten hit.[1] The lead single was "Tha Block Is Hot". After the release of Tha Block is Hot, Lil Wayne was featured on the single, "Bling Bling", with B.G., Juvenile, Turk, and Big Tymers.

His 2000 follow-up album Lights Out failed to attain the level of success achieved by his debut[1] but was certified gold by RIAA.[12] Critics pointed to the lack of coherent narratives in his verses as evidence that he had yet to mature to the level of his fellow Hot Boys.[13] The lead single was "Get Off The Corner" which was noticed for an improvement in lyrical content and style, it also received a music video. The second single which received less attention was "Shine" featuring The Hot Boys. Near the release of Lights Out, Lil Wayne was featured on the single, "1# Stunna" with Big Tymers and Juvenile, which rose to 24th place on the Hot Rap Tracks charts.

Lil Wayne's third album 500 Degreez, released in 2002, followed the format of his previous two, with significant contributions from the Hot Boys and Mannie Fresh. While certified Gold like its predecessor,[12] it too failed to match the success of his debut.[1] The title was a reference to the recently estranged Hot Boys member Juvenile's recording, 400 Degreez.[14] The lead single was "Way Of Life" which like the album failed to match the success of his previous singles. After the release of 500 Degreez, he was featured in the single "Neva Get Enuf" by 3LW.[15]

Tha Carter and Tha Carter II (2004-2005)

In the summer of 2004, Wayne's album Tha Carter came out, marking what critics considered advancement in his rapping style and lyrical themes.[16] In addition, the album's cover art featured the debut of Wayne's now-signature dreadlocks.[1] Tha Carter gained Wayne significant recognition, selling over 1 million copies in the United States, while the single "Go DJ" became a Top 5 Hit.[17] After the release of Tha Carter, Lil Wayne was featured in Destiny's Child's single "Soldier" with T.I., which peaked at #3 on the U.S. Hot 100 and the U.S. R&B Charts.[18] The song Get Something (featuring Mannie Fresh) was supposed to appear on the album but failed to make the cut, however the music video was released.[19]

Tha Carter II, the follow-up to the original Tha Carter album, was released in December 2005, this time without production by longtime Cash Money Records producer Mannie Fresh, who had since left the label. Tha Carter II sold more than 238,000 copies in its first week of release, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, and went on to sell 2,000,000 copies world wide. The lead single, "Fireman," became a hit in the US, peaking at 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Other singles included "Grown Man", "Hustler Muzik", and "Shooter" (featuring R&B singer Robin Thicke). Lil Wayne also appeared on a remix of Bobby Valentino's "Tell Me", which rose to #13 on the U.S. R&B Charts.

In 2005, Lil Wayne was named president of Cash Money, and in the same year he founded Young Money Entertainment as an imprint of Cash Money.[20] However, as of late 2007, Lil Wayne reported that he has stepped down from the management of both labels and has handed management of Young Money over to Cortez Bryant.[21]

Collaborations and mixtapes (2006-2007)

In 2006, Lil Wayne collaborated with rapper Birdman for the album Like Father, Like Son, whose first single "Stuntin' Like My Daddy", reached #21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Instead of a follow-up solo album, Lil Wayne reached his audience through a plethora of mixtapes and guest appearances on a variety of pop and hip-hop singles.[1] Of his many mixtapes, Dedication 2 and Da Drought 3 received the most media exposure and critical review. Dedication 2, released in 2006, paired Lil Wayne with DJ Drama and contained the acclaimed socially conscious track "Georgia Bush," in which Lil Wayne critiqued former US president George W. Bush's response to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. Da Drought 3 was released the following year and was available for free legal download. It contained Lil Wayne rapping over a variety of beats from recent hits by other musicians. Numerous of features in prominent hip-hop magazines such as XXL[22] and Vibe[23] covered the mixtape. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine considered the mixtapes Da Drought 3 and The Drought Is Over 2 "among the best albums of 2007."[24]

Despite no album release for two years, Lil Wayne appeared in numerous singles as a featured performer, including "Gimme That" by Chris Brown, "Make It Rain" by Fat Joe, "You" by Lloyd, and "We Takin Over" by DJ Khaled (also featuring Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and Birdman), "Duffle Bag Boy" by Playaz Circle, "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" by Wyclef Jean (also featuring Akon), and the remix to "I'm So Hood" by DJ Khaled (also featuring T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Rick Ross). All these singles charted within the top 20 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Rap Tracks, and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. On Birdman's 2007 album 5 * Stunna, Lil Wayne appeared on the singles "100 Million" and "I Run This" among several other tracks. Wayne also appeared on tracks from albums Getback by Little Brother, American Gangster by Jay-Z, and Graduation by Kanye West. "Make it Rain", a Scott Storch production that peaked at #13 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart,[25] was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for 2008.[26]
Performing at the Beacon Theatre in July 23, 2007.

Vibe magazine ranked a list of 77 of Lil Wayne's songs from 2007 and ranked his verse in DJ Khaled's "We Takin Over" as his best of 2007, with "Dough Is What I Got" (a freestyle over the beat of Jay-Z's "Show Me What You Got") from Da Drought 3 the second song.[23] At the end of 2007, an MTV poll selected Lil Wayne as "Hottest MC in the Game",[27] The New Yorker magazine ranked him "Rapper of the Year",[5] and GQ magazine named him "Workaholic of the Year".[28] In 2008 he was named "Best Rock Star Alive" by Blender magazine[2] and "Best MC" by Rolling Stone.[3]

Tha Carter III (2008)
Main article: Tha Carter III

Initially planned to be released in 2007, Tha Carter III's largest delay came after the majority of the tracks were leaked and distributed on mixtapes, such as "The Drought Is Over Pt. 2" and "The Drought Is Over Pt. 4". Lil Wayne initially decided to use the leaked tracks, plus four new tracks, to make a separate album, titled The Leak. The Leak was to be released December 18, 2007, with the actual album being delayed until March 18, 2008,[29] The release of The Leak in this format never came to fruition, but an official EP titled The Leak and containing five tracks was released digitally on December 25, 2007.

Tha Carter III was released on June 10, 2008, selling more than a million copies in its first week of release, the first to do so since 50 Cent's The Massacre in 2005.[30] The first single "Lollipop", featuring Static became the rapper's most commercially successful song at that point, topping the Billboard Hot 100, making it the first Top 10 single for Lil Wayne as a solo artist, as well as his first #1 on the chart. His third single from Carter III', "Got Money" featuring T-Pain, peaked at #13 on the Billboard 100. Along with his album singles, Lil Wayne appeared on R&B singles "Girls Around the World" by Lloyd, "Love In This Club, Part II" by Usher, "Official Girl" by Cassie, "I'm So Paid" by Akon, "Turnin' Me On" by Keri Hilson, and "Can't Believe It" by T-Pain; rap singles "My Life" by The Game, "Shawty Say" by David Banner, "Swagga Like Us" by T.I., "Cutty Buddy" by Mike Jones, and "Haterz" and the remix to "Certified" by Glasses Malone; and pop single "Let It Rock" by new Cash Money artist Kevin Rudolf. On July 14, 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America certified Tha Carter III two times platinum.[31] In an October 2008 interview with MTV News, Lil Wayne announced plans to re-release this album with all new tracks, including a duet with Ludacris and remixes of "A Milli".[32]

The lineup for New Orleans' 2008 Voodoo Experience concert, to be held in October, featured Lil Wayne. Jonathan Cohen of Billboard magazine reported that the event would mark his biggest hometown headlining set of his career.[33] Lil Wayne will be reuniting with Hot Boys alongside Juvenile, Turk, and B.G. They plan to release an album after B.G.'s solo album Too Hood to Be Hollywood is completed.[34] Wayne also performed as the 2008 Virgin Mobile Music Fest with Kanye West, performing the remix of "Lollipop" with West and also lip-syncing to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You".[35]Lil Wayne also performed at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards with Kid Rock ("All Summer Long"), Leona Lewis ("DontGetIt (Misunderstood)") and T-Pain ("Got Money").[36] On the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, he performed "Lollipop" and "Got Money".[37] He later performed at the homecoming rally at Vanderbilt University[38] and the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards with 12 nominations.[39] He won the "MVP" title at the BET Hip Hop Awards and seven others.[40] It was revealed that M.I.A. dropped out of performing on the tour due to her pregnancy, however Jay Z is expected to perform with Wayne on the song "Mr. Carter" at select shows.[41]

On November 11, 2008, Wayne became the first hip-hop act to ever perform at the Country Music Awards. He played alongside Kid Rock for the song, "All Summer Long", in which Wayne did not rap but instead played guitar along Kid Rock's band.[42] Shortly after, Wayne was nominated for eight Grammys - the most for an artist nominated.[43] Wayne was then named the first ever MTV Man of the Year at the end of 2008.[44]

DJ Drama stated that there would be a third installation of the Dedication mixtape series with Lil Wayne,[45] who insisted that it will would be a full album under the title.[46] However despite the fact Wayne wanted to release Dedication 3 as an album, it was released as a mixtape on November 14, 2008.

Rebirth (2009)

Wayne stated that he would release a debut rock album titled Rebirth. It was set to be released on April 7th, 2009 but is now slated for a May 19, 2009 release.[47] "Prom Queen", the lead single, debuted on January 27 immediately after a live Internet broadcast of his concert in San Diego.[48] "Prom Queen" peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.[49]

Future work

He has announced several possible upcoming projects, including a collaboration album I Can't Feel My Face with rapper Juelz Santana that has been in production for several years.[50][51] On the website HipHopDX.com, he has discussed a possible R&B album titled Luv Sawngz, for which he will heavily rely on a vocoder.[52] He has also talked with singer Lloyd about doing a collaboration album in the future.[53] On June 19, 2008, Lil Wayne and T-Pain formed a duo called T-Wayne[54] and planned to release an album.[55]

In an interview on MTV's Mixtape Monday, Wayne asserted the possibility of an album titled Tha Carter IV.[56] Following Tha Carter III's achievement of selling over 2 million copies, becoming 2008's best record, Wayne re-signed with Cash Money Records for a multi-album deal.[57] Wayne said Tha Carter IV will be released in 2009 just before the holidays.[58]

It has also been confirmed that Wayne will be releasing a collaboration album with Young Money, with the first single confirmed as "Every Girl". [59]

Television and film career

Lil Wayne was a guest debater going up against Skip Bayless on the "1st & 10" segment on the January 6, 2009 edition of ESPN First Take.[60] On February 10, 2009 he also appeared on ESPN's Around The Horn and beat out veterans Woody Paige, Jay Mariotti and fellow New Orleanian Michael Smith to win that show's episode.[61]Wayne is set to produce and compose music for the film Hurricane Season.[62] A documentary titled Tha Carter is also in production and was released at the Sundance Film Festival.[63] Prior to the 2009 Grammy Awards, Wayne was featured in an interview with Katie Couric.[64] On February 7, 2009, he presented the Top Ten List on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman.[65]

Personal life

Family and education

Wayne has two daughters. One was born when he was a teenager[4], and another named Reginae Carter with his high school sweetheart Antonia "Toya" Johnson. Carter and Johnson married on Valentines Day of 2004 and divorced in 2006.[66] His newborn son, Dwayne Carter III, was born on October 22, 2008 at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati.[67]

After earning his GED, Wayne enrolled at the University of Houston in January 2005 with plans to major in political science.[68] To earn his degree, he had been taking online courses,[4] An article in Urb magazine in March 2007 asserted that Wayne had been earning high grades at Houston,[69] and by the end of the year Wayne discontinued his education there.[70]

Sports and musical interests

In an interview with Blender magazine, Lil Wayne revealed one of his favorite bands from childhood to be rock group Nirvana, and cites them as a major influence in his music.[71]

On September 24, 2008, Lil Wayne published his first blog for ESPN in their issue, ESPN The Magazine. Wayne revealed he was a fan of tennis, the Green Bay Packers, the Boston Bruins, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Red Sox.[72] Wayne continued writing for ESPN, eventually reporting at the ESPN Super Bowl party.[73]

Lil Wayne made his debut on ESPN's daily sports round table show "Around The Horn" on Feb. 10, 2009. On February 24, 2009, Wayne was saw wearing a red adhesive bandage on his cheek at the Miami Heat-Detroit Pistons, honoring Dwyane Wade and his "Band-Wades".[74]

Drug use and arrests

Wayne told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric on her All Access Grammy Special in 2009 that he enjoys smoking marijuana recreationally.[75] He has been arrested for use or possession of marijuana and other drugs.

In the latter half of 2007, Lil Wayne was arrested twice. On July 22, 2007, Lil Wayne was arrested in New York City following a performance at the Beacon Theatre; the New York City Police Department discovered Lil Wayne and another man smoking marijuana near a tour bus. After taking Lil Wayne into custody, police discovered a pistol on his person, and he was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and marijuana.[76] Another arrest was on October 5, 2007, following a performance at Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho, on felony fugitive charges after Georgia authorities accused the rapper of possessing a controlled substance.[77] The incident was later described as a "mix-up" and the fugitive charges were dropped.[78]

On January 23, 2008, Lil Wayne was arrested alongside two others. His tour bus was stopped by Border Patrol agents near Yuma, Arizona. A K-9 Unit recovered 105 grams of marijuana (3.7 ounces), almost 29 grams of cocaine (1.02 ounces), 41 grams of MDMA (1.4 ounces) and $22,000 in cash. Lil Wayne was charged with four felonies: possession of narcotic drug for sale, possession of dangerous drugs, misconduct involving weapons and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was granted permission to travel outside of the state and remain out of custody on the $10,185 bond he posted.[79] On May 6, 2008 Wayne returned to court in Arizona to plead not guilty to the charges.[80]

In February 2009, production company RMF Productions filed a $1.3 million lawsuit against Wayne, following a $100,000 advance payment for three shows, all of which were cancelled by the artist.

Sergey Brin

Sergey Brin (born August 21, 1973, in Moscow, Soviet Union) is co-founder of Google, Inc., the world’s largest internet company, based on its search engine and online advertising technology.[5] He is ranked by Forbes as the 32nd richest person in the world. In 2007 he and co-founder Larry Page were together ranked #1 of the “50 Most Important People on the Web” by PC World Magazine.

Brin emigrated to the United States at the age of six due to his family’s educational barriers in the Soviet Union. Earning his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland, he followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by studying mathematics, double-majoring in computer science. After graduation, he moved to Stanford to acquire a Ph.D in computer science. There he met Larry Page, who quickly became his intellectual soul-mate and close friend. They crammed their dormitory room with inexpensive computers and applied Brin’s data mining system to build a superior search engine. The program became popular at Stanford and they suspended their Ph.D studies to start up Google in a rented garage.

The Economist magazine referred to Brin as “Enlightenment Man," and someone who believes that “knowledge is always good, and certainly always better than ignorance," a philosophy which is summed up by Google’s motto of making all the world’s information "universally accessible and useful."

Sergey Brin was born in Moscow, in the former Soviet Union, to Russian Jewish parents, the son of Michael Brin and Eugenia Brin, both graduates of Moscow State University. His father is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland, and his mother is a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. [7] [8]

Childhood in the Soviet Union

In 1979, when Brin was six, his family felt compelled to emigrate to the United States. In an interview with Mark Malseed, author of The Google Story,[9] Sergey's father explains how he was "forced to abandon his dream of becoming an astronomer even before he reached college. Officially, anti-Semitism didn't exist in the U.S.S.R. but, in reality, Communist Party heads barred Jews from upper professional ranks by denying them entry to universities. Jews were excluded from the physics departments, in particular..." He therefore changed his major to mathematics where he received nearly straight A's. However, he said, "Nobody would even consider me for graduate school because I was Jewish." [10] The Brin family lived in a small, three-bedroom, 350 square foot apartment in central Moscow, which they also shared with Sergey's paternal grandmother. Sergey told Malseed, "I've known for a long time that my father wasn't able to pursue the career he wanted," but Sergey only picked up the details years later after they had settled in America. He learned how, in 1977, after his father returned from a mathematics conference in Warsaw, Poland, he announced that it was time for the family to emigrate. "We cannot stay here any more," he told his wife and mother. At the conference, he was able to "mingle freely with colleagues from the United States, France, England and Germany, and discovered that his intellectual brethren in the West were 'not monsters.'" He added, "I was the only one in the family who decided it was really important to leave...".[10]

Sergey's mother was less willing to leave their home in Moscow, where they had spent their entire lives. Malseed writes, "For Genia, the decision ultimately came down to Sergey. While her husband admits he was thinking as much about his own future as his son's, for her, 'it was 80/20' about Sergey." They formally applied for their exit visa in September 1978, and as a result his father "was promptly fired." For related reasons, his mother also had to leave her job. For the next eight months, without any steady income, they were forced to take on temporary jobs as they waited, not knowing whether their application would be granted. During this time his parents shared responsibility for looking after him and his father taught himself computer programming. In May, 1979, they were granted their official exit visas and were allowed to leave the country.[10]

At an interview in October, 2000, Brin said, "I know the hard times that my parents went through there, and am very thankful that I was brought to the States."[11] A decade earlier, in the summer of 1990, a few weeks before his 17th birthday, his father led a group of gifted high school math students, including Sergey, on a two-week exchange program to the Soviet Union. "As Sergey recalls, the trip awakened his childhood fear of authority" and he remembers that his first "impulse on confronting Soviet oppression had been to throw pebbles at a police car." Malseed adds, "On the second day of the trip, while the group toured a sanitarium in the countryside near Moscow, Sergey took his father aside, looked him in the eye and said, 'Thank you for taking us all out of Russia.'"[10]

Education in America

Brin attended grade school at Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland, but he received further education at home; his father, a professor in the department of mathematics at the University of Maryland, nurtured his interest in mathematics and his family helped him retain his Russian-language skills. In September 1990, after having attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Brin enrolled in the University of Maryland, College Park to study computer science and mathematics, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in May 1993 with honors.[12]

Brin began his graduate study in Computer Science at Stanford University on a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation. In 1993 he interned at Wolfram Research, makers of Mathematica[13]. He is on leave from his Ph.D. studies at Stanford.
Search engine development

During an orientation for new students at Stanford, he met Larry Page. In a recent interview for The Economist, Brin jokingly said "We're both kind of obnoxious." They seemed to disagree on most subjects. But after spending time together, they "became intellectual soul-mates and close friends." Brin's focus was on developing data mining systems while Page's was in extending "the concept of inferring the importance of a research paper from its citations in other papers." [6] Together, the pair authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine."[15]

Combining their ideas, they "crammed their dormitory room with cheap computers" and tested their new search engine designs on the web. Their project grew quickly enough "to cause problems for Stanford's computing infrastructure." But they realized they had succeeded in creating a superior engine for searching the web and suspended their PhD studies to work more on their system.[6]

As Larry Malseed wrote, "Soliciting funds from faculty members, family and friends, Sergey and Larry scraped together enough to buy some servers and rent that famous garage in Menlo Park. ... [soon after], Sun Microsystems co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote a $100,000 check to “Google, Inc.” The only problem was, “Google, Inc.” did not yet exist — the company hadn’t yet been incorporated. For two weeks, as they handled the paperwork, the young men had nowhere to deposit the money."[10]

The Economist magazine describes Brin's approach to life, like Page's, as based on a vision summed up by Google's motto, "of making all the world's information 'universally accessible and useful.'" Not long after the two "cooked up their new engine for web searches, they began thinking about information that is today beyond the web," such as digitizing books, and expanding health information.[6]

Health Information

In May 2007, Brin married Anne Wojcicki in The Bahamas. Wojcicki is a biotech analyst and a 1996 graduate of Yale University with a B.S. in biology. [4][16] She has an active interest in health information, and together she and Brin are developing new ways to improve access to it. As part of their efforts, they have brainstormed with leading researchers about the human genome project. “Brin instinctively regards genetics as a database and computing problem. So does his wife, who co-founded the firm, 23andMe,” which lets people analyze and compare their own genetic makeup (consisting of 23 pairs of chromosomes).[6] In a recent announcement at Google’s Zeitgeist conference, he said he hoped that some day everyone would learn their genetic code in order to help doctors, patients, and researchers analyze the data and try to repair bugs.[6]

Brin's mother, Eugenia, has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. In 2008, he decided to donate a large sum to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where his mother is being treated.[17] Brin used the services of 23AndMe and discovered that although Parkinson's is generally not hereditary, both he and his mother possess a mutation of the LRRK2 gene that puts the likelihood of his developing Parkinson's in later years between 20 and 80%.[6] When asked whether ignorance was not bliss in such matters, he stated that his knowledge means that he can now take measures to ward off the disease. An editorial in The Economist magazine states that "Mr Brin regards his mutation of LRRK2 as a bug in his personal code, and thus as no different from the bugs in computer code that Google’s engineers fix every day. By helping himself, he can therefore help others as well. He considers himself lucky. ... But Mr Brin was making a much bigger point. Isn’t knowledge always good, and certainly always better than ignorance?" [6]

Views Chinese Censorship of Google

Remembering his youth and his family's reasons for leaving the Soviet Union, he "agonized over Google’s decision to appease the communist government of China by allowing it to censor search engine results," but decided that the Chinese would still be better off than without having Google available.[6] He explained his reasoning to Fortune magazine:

"We felt that by participating there, and making our services more available, even if not to the 100 percent that we ideally would like, that it will be better for Chinese web users, because ultimately they would get more information, though not quite all of it." [18]

[edit] Awards and recognition

In 2003, both Brin and Page received an honorary MBA from IE Business School "for embodying the entrepreneurial spirit and lending momentum to the creation of new businesses...". [19] And in 2004, they received the Marconi Foundation Prize, the "Highest Award in Engineering," and elected Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. "In announcing their selection, John Jay Iselin, the Foundation's president, congratulated the two men for their invention that has fundamentally changed the way information is retrieved today." They joined a "select cadre of 32 of the world's most influential communications technology pioneers..." [20]

In February, 2009, Brin was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, which is "among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer ... [and] honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice...". He was selected specifically, "for leadership in development of rapid indexing and retrieval of relevant information from the World Wide Web." [21]

In their "Profiles" of Fellows, the National Science Foundation included a number of earlier awards:

"he has been a featured speaker at the World Economic Forum and the Technology, Entertainment and Design Conference. ... PC Magazine has praised Google [of] the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines (1998) and awarded Google the Technical Excellence Award, for Innovation in Web Application Development in 1999. In 2000, Google earned a Webby Award, a People's Voice Award for technical achievement, and in 2001, was awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards." [22]

[edit] Other interests

Brin is working on other, more personal projects that reach beyond Google. For example, he and Page are trying to help solve the world’s energy and climate problems at Google’s philanthropic arm google.org. He had Google invest in the alternative energy industry to find wider sources of renewable energy. They are trying to get companies to create innovative solutions to increasing the world's supply.[23] He is an investor in Tesla Motors, which is developing the Tesla Roadster, a 221-mile (356 km) range battery electric vehicle.

Brin has appeared on television shows and many documentaries, including Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. In 2004, he and Larry Page were named "Persons of the Week" by ABC World News Tonight. In January 2005 he was nominated to be one of the World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leaders." He and Page are also the executive producers of the 2009 film Broken Arrows.

In June 2008, Brin invested $5 million in Space Adventures, the Virginia-based space tourism company. His investment will serve as a deposit for a reservation on one of Space Adventures' proposed flights in 2011. So far, Space Adventures has sent five tourists into space.[24]

He and Page co-own a customized Boeing 767-200 and a Dornier fighter jet, and pay $1.3 million a year to house them and two Gulfstream V jets owned by Google executives at Moffett Federal Airfield. The aircraft have had scientific equipment installed by NASA to allow experimental data to be collected in flight.[25][26]

Brin is a member of AmBAR, a networking organization for Russian-speaking business professionals (both expatriates and immigrants) in the United States. He has made many speaking appearances.

Sana'a

Sana'a (Arabic: صنعاء, alternate spellings Sanaa or Ṣan‘ā’) (IPA: [sˤanʕaːʔ]) is the capital of Yemen and the center of San‘a’ Governorate. It is Yemen's largest city. Sana'a is located at [show location on an interactive map] 15°21′17″N 44°12′24″E / 15.354722°N 44.20667°E / 15.354722; 44.20667 and has a population of 1,747,627 (2004 census).
Sana'a is one of the ancient Yemeni cities dating back to the Sabaean dynasty of the 6th Century BC. The oldest written reference to its existence is found in inscriptions which date back to the 1st century AD. It is suggested that Sana'a was the capital of the Himyarite kingdom at the onset of the 6th century AD.

When King Yousef Athar (or Dhu Nuwas), the last of the Himyarite kings, was in power, Sana'a was also the capital of the Ethiopian viceroys, then after 570 of the Persians.

As of the dawn of Islam until the detachment of independent sub-states in many parts of Yemen Islamic Caliphate, Sana'a persisted as the governing seat, who himself is Caliph's deputy in running the affairs of one of Yemen's Three Makhalifs: Mikhlaf Sana'a, Mikhlaf al-Janad and Mikhlaf Hadhramawt. The city of Sana'a recurrently assumed an important status and all Yemenite States competed to control it.

The Mamelukes arrived in Yemen in AD 1517. Following the collapse of the Mamelukes in Egypt at the hands of the Ottoman Turks, Yemen fell under the Ottoman Rule and during the first Ottoman rule of Yemen between 1538-1635, Sana'a became the capital of the Ottoman Vilayet and also during the Ottoman second rule 1872-1918. In 1918, Sana'a was the capital of Imam Yahya, who ruled North Yemen. At the onset of the 1962 revolution which deposed the imamate rule, it became the capital of the Yemen Arab Republic. It was then the capital of unified Yemen in 1990 where it is dubbed as the historical capital of Yemen.

Yerevan

Yerevan (Armenian: Երևան or ԵՐԵՎԱՆ, Armenian pronunciation: [ˌjɛɹəˈvɑn]; sometimes written as Erevan, Iravan, Erewan, Ayrivan, and Erivan; former names include Erebuni, Revan, Ereun) is the capital and largest city of Armenia. It is situated on the Hrazdan River, and is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country. It has been the capital of Armenia since 1918 and the twelfth in the history of Armenia.

The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, with the founding of the Urartian fortress of Erebuni in 782 BC at the western extremity of the Ararat plain.[2] After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the Democratic Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide settled in the area. The city expanded rapidly during the 20th century when Armenia became one of the fifteen republics in the Soviet Union. In fifty years, Yerevan was transformed from a town of a few thousand residents during the first republic to the principal cultural, artistic and industrial center as well as becoming the seat of the political institutions of the country.

With the growth of the economy of the country, Yerevan has been undergoing a major transformation as construction sites have appeared all over the city since the early 2000s. Today, the appearance of new buildings, roads, restaurants, boutiques, quarters etc. have started to erase the traces of 70 years of Soviet dominance.

In 2007, the population of Yerevan was estimated to be 1,107,800 people with the agglomeration around the city regrouping 1,245,700 people (official estimation[3]), more than 33% of the population of Armenia.
Industry

In 2001, Yerevan's share of national industrial production was approximately 50%.[50]. Yerevan's manufactures include chemicals, primary metals, machinery, rubber products, plastics, textiles, and processed food. Even though the economic crisis of the 90s ravaged the industry of the country, several factories remain always in service, notably in the petrochemical and the aluminium sectors. Not only is Yerevan the headquarters of major Armenian companies, but of international ones as well, as it's seen as an attractive outsourcing location for Western European, Russian and American multinationals. Yerevan is also the country's financial hub, home to the Armenian National Bank, the Armenian Stock Exchange, as well as some of the country's largest commercial banks.

Yerevan's location on the shores of Hrazdan river has enabled the production of hydroelectricity. Two plants are established on the territory of the municipality.[51] There is also a thermal central station, situated to the city's south, that furnishes equally a little electricity.

[edit] Construction

The construction sector has experienced strong growth since 2000.[52] Recently, Yerevan has been undergoing an extensive and controversial redevelopment process in which Czarist and Soviet-period buildings have been demolished and replaced with new buildings. This urban renewal plan has been met with opposition[53] and criticism from some residents. Coupled with the construction sector's growth has been the increase in real estate prices.[54] Downtown houses deemed too small are more and more demolished and replaced by high-rise buildings. Jermaine Jackson has planned to build an entertainment complex in a new 5-star hotel which is being built in the city.

Amman

Amman (pronounced [ɑˈmɑːn]), sometimes spelled Ammann (Arabic عمان ʿAmmān), is the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, a city of 2,525,000 inhabitants (2008 estimate), and the administrative capital and commercial center of Jordan. It is also the largest city in Jordan. It is the capital city of Amman Governorate. It sits atop seven hills, which are represented by the seven pronged star depicted on the Jordanian flag.
During its long history, Amman has been inhabited by several civilizations. The first civilization on record is during the Neolithic period, around 8500 BC, when archaeological discoveries in 'Ain Ghazal, located in eastern Amman, showed evidence of not only a settled life but also the growth of artistic work, which suggests that a well-developed civilization inhabited the city at that time. In the 13th century BC Amman was called Rabbath Ammon or Rabat Amon by the Ammonites (רַבַּת עַמומּוֹן, Standard Hebrew Rabbat ʿAmmon, Tiberian Hebrew Rabbaṯ ʿAmmôn). It was later conquered by the Assyrians, followed by the Persians, and then the Greeks. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Hellenic ruler of Egypt, renamed it Philadelphia. The city became part of the Nabataean kingdom until 106 AD when Philadelphia came under Roman control and joined the Decapolis.

In 326 AD, Christianity became the religion of the empire and Philadelphia became the seat of a bishopric during the beginning of the Byzantine era. One of the churches of this period can be seen on the city's Citadel.
Temple of Hercules, Roman Coernthic Columns at Citadel hill

Philadelphia was renamed Amman during the Ghassanian era, and flourished under the Caliphates (with nearby capital) of the Umayyads (in Damascus) and the Abbasids (in Baghdad). It was then destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters and remained a small village and a pile of ruins until the Circassians settlement in 1887. The tide changed when the Ottoman Sultan decided to build the Hejaz railway, linking Damascus and Medina, facilitating both the annual hajj pilgrimage and permanent trade, putting Amman, a major station, back on the commercial map.

In 1921, Abdullah I chose Amman as seat of government for his newly-created state, the Emirate of Transjordan, and later as the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. As there was no palatial building, he started his reign from the station, with his office in a train car. Amman remained a small city until 1948, when the population expanded considerably due to an influx of Palestinian refugees from what is now Israel. Amman has experienced exceptionally rapid development since 1952 under the leadership of two Hashemite Kings, Hussein of Jordan and Abdullah II of Jordan.

In 1970, Amman was the site of major clashes between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Jordanian army. Everything around the Royal Palace sustained heavy damage from shelling. Most of Amman suffered great damage from PLO rockets and the Jordanian army's shells.
The Roman Theater in downtown Amman - Zade Dirani Concert-June 2008


The city's population continues to expand at a dizzying pace (fueled by refugees escaping the wartime events in the Disputed Territories and Iraq). The city received refugees from these countries on a number of occasions. The first wave of Palestinian refugees arrived from Israel in 1948. A second wave after the Six-Day War in 1967. A third wave of Palestinian and Jordanian and Southeast Asians, working as domestic workers, refugees arrived in Amman from Kuwait after the Gulf War of 1991. The first wave of Iraqi refugees settled in the city after the first Gulf War, with a second wave also arriving after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the last 10 years the number of new buildings within the city has increased dramatically with new districts of the city being founded at a very rapid pace (particularly so in West Amman), straining the very scarce water supplies of Jordan as a whole, and exposing Amman to the hazards of rapid expansion in the absence of careful municipal planning.

On November 9, 2005, coordinated explosions rocked three hotels in Amman, resulting in the death of 60 people and the injury of 115 others. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility responsibility for the act, which was carried out despite the fact that the birthplace of since-killed Al Qaeda terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is the town of Zarqa, less than 30 km (19 mi) from Amman. The sheer brutality of the attacks, which targeted, amongst other things, a wedding party being held at one of the hotels, caused widespread revulsion across the widest range of Jordanians. Large protests and vigils followed in the wake of the attacks.
The city's largest airport, Queen Alia International Airport, situated about 30 minutes south of Amman, is the major international airport for Jordan and the hub for Royal Jordanian, the flag carrier. The airport has three terminals, two passenger and one cargo, and in 2007 handled between 4 to 5 million passengers. The airport is undergoing expansion, including a new terminal costing $600M, that will allow the airport to handle over 9 million passengers. A new rail line being constructed will connect Queen Alia International with Raghadan, Mahatta, and Zarqa. Taxis and buses serve the airport 24/7.

Marka International Airport is a one-terminal airport that serves primarily domestic and nearby international routes and the military.

The recently constructed Abdoun Bridge spans Wadi Abdoun, and connects the 4th Circle to Abdoun Circle. It is considered one of Amman's many landmarks,it is the first suspended bridge made,that has a curve.

The Hejaz railway, built in the early 20th century, was used primarily for pilgrims to reach the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, but now the rail line is basically used by tourists. There are new projects that are being built to add more railines in the Kingdom, most of which will go through Amman.

There are plans to construct a metro line in Amman. The first phase would connect University of Jordan Street with Raghadan. Then from Raghadan to Airport Road. The project would cost more than half a billion dollars.

Amman has a extensive highway system that links every part of the city to one another. Its highways also link nearby cities such as Zarqa and Madaba. The Amman-Zarqa highway becomes very congested with commuters at rush hour which is why a new commuter rail line is being constructed. Amman also has an extensive bus system. There are pedestrian tunnels that bring pedestrians from one side of a highway to another.

There are eight circles, or roundabouts, that span and connect West Amman. However, the city lacks an operable rail or metro system which causes severe congestion, especially in old Amman, where its narrow streets cannot handle many people. To add to the congestion, all the Kingdom's highways pass through Amman, further increasing traffic in the capital.

By land, the city has frequent bus connections to other cities in Jordan, as well as to major cities in neighboring countries; the latter are also served by service taxis. Internal transport is served by a number of bus routes and taxis. Service taxis, which most often operate on fixed routes, are readily available and inexpensive. The two main bus and taxi stations are Abdali (near the King Abdullah Mosque, the Parliament and Palace of Justice) and the newly built Raghadan Central Bus Station (near the Roman Amphitheater in downtown). The city can suffer from considerable traffic congestion at peak hours, especially during summer months when affluent vacationers from the Gulf region summer in Amman to take advantage of its relatively mild weather.
Amman is a regional hub in communications, transportation, medical tourism, education, and investment. Amman is aggressively positioning itself as a hub for business, and new projects are continually transforming the city's skyline. Following the 2003 Iraq War, all business dealings with Iraq flow through Amman in some way. Its airport, Queen Alia International Airport, is the hub of the national carrier, Royal Jordanian, which is a major airline in the region. Amman is a major tourist gateway in the country because most of the country's foreign tourists arrive in Jordan through Amman. Amman is currently experiencing rapid growth in many different areas, with large growth seen in the real estate, construction, banking, finance and business sectors. Numerous skyscrapers are under construction as the city municipality recently lifted the ban of buildings taller than 4 stories and allocated designated areas for high rises. All major highways of Jordan cross in Amman making the capital busy with freight trucks, buses and cars passing through the city.

Amman has both a modern and historic touch. East Amman is the older part of the capital where single family dwellings on the hill side and small shops and bazaars in the wadis, or valleys, dominate East Amman's layout. Old Amman is filled with souks, or bazaars, small shops, and single family dwellings all.

Several industrial cities are being developed near Amman, most important being Al-Mushatta, poised at turning this once sleepy village into a global economic powerhouse.

West Amman, however, is less densely populated and more scenic. It is also the more prosperous part of Amman, with much of the city's economic activity being centered in West Amman. Parks and wide boulevards with towering apartments and office buildings dominate the scenery. Most of the city's 5-star and 4-star hotels are located in West Amman. Important districts include Shmeisani and Abdali, the main economic centers of Amman, Abdoun, the up-scale residential district, and Jabal Amman, one of Amman's historic districts. A large contrast exists between the more affluent districts of West Amman and the more middle and working class districts of East Amman.

Amman has a very large expatriate population because of its reputation as a haven for refugees seeking political asylum. Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Armenians, Circassions, and Chechens are among the many different expatriate populations currently residing in Amman. Egyptians, Syrians, and South East Asians also reside in vast numbers that work as domestic or civil servants. Many Westerners currently reside in Amman as many international organizations and diplomatic missions have regional offices in Amman.

New projects and proposals in and around the city include:
The Jordan Gate Towers , under construction near the 6th Circle, are to become among the largest buildings in Amman.

* The Abdali Downtown project: this new development in the heart of Amman is among the largest projects under construction in the kingdom, and is a mixed-use development consisting of retail, outdoor shopping and restaurants, residential and office buildings. The master plan includes a large public green park, along with an outdoor pedestrian strip [4]. The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by 2010.
* The construction of the American University of Jordan.
* The construction of the Jordan Gate Towers near the 6th Circle, which is nearly completed, is being funded by Bahraini and Kuwaiti entrepreneurs. The two identical skyscrapers will house office buildings.
* Bonyan city, which will consist of 5 new skyscrapers that will house apartments and offices
* The Heights Tower, consisting of 35 floors, will house apartments and it is currently under construction.
* Sky Tower, a residential tower consisting of 30 floors, is under construction.
* Amman Financial Tower, consisting of 56 floors, has been approved for construction.
* Betina City consists of 3 central skyscrapers, a mega-mall, a suspended river, and 3 additional towers.
* The Limitless Towers, two identical 65 floor buildings connected by a pedestrian walkway that will house the world's highest swimming pool. This twin tower project will be built in Abdoun.
* The Abdoun suspended bridge, which spans Wadi Abdoun. This recently completed project reduces congestion in Wadi Abdoun and creates a new highway link between West and South Amman.
* The expansion of Queen Alia International Airport.
* The Jordan Twin Towers, which are to be constructed by the Nuqul Group, and will be 34 stories high. Expected to be complete by 2008.
* The Andalucian Village, being constructed near Amman. This project will include over 600 villas, and consists of many facilities such as spas, fitness and health centers, swimming pools, and a recreation area to be completed by 2008. 64% of the village have already been sold.
* A proposed Amman World Trade Center, which will consist of 33 floors.
* A massive new Royal Jordanian headquarters

These projects, along with the boom in the Jordanian real estate market and the construction of numerous other projects, are resulting in a huge boom in terms of development, both in the city of Amman and in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as a whole.

Beirut

Beirut (Arabic: بيروت‎, Bayrūt) is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut District area, which consists of the city and its suburbs. The first mention of this metropolis is found in the ancient Egyptian Tell el Amarna letters, dating to the 15th century BC, and the city has been continuously inhabited over the centuries since.

Beirut holds Lebanon's seat of government and plays a central role in the Lebanese economy with its Downtown, Hamra, Verdun, and Ashrafieh based corporate firms and banks. The city is also the focal point of the region's cultural life, renowned for its press, theaters and cultural activities. After the destructive Lebanese civil war, Beirut underwent major reconstruction,[2][3][4] and the redesigned historic city center, marina, pubs and nightlife districts have once again rendered it a popular tourist attraction. Beirut was named the number one Place to Visit in 2009 by The New York Times.[5] It was also list as one of the top ten liveliest cities in the world by the Lonely Planet list of the top ten cities for 2009.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following World War I, Beirut, along with all of Lebanon was placed under the French Mandate.

Lebanon achieved independence in 1943, and Beirut became its capital city. Beirut remained an intellectual capital of the Arab world and a major commercial and tourist center until 1975 when a violent civil war broke out in Lebanon.[26][27] During most of the war, the city was divided between the largely Muslim west part and the Christian east.[28] The central area of the city, previously the focus of much of the commercial and cultural activities, became a no man's land. Many of the city's inhabitants fled to other countries. In 1983, French and US barracks were bombed.[29][30][31]

Since the end of the war in 1990, the people of Lebanon have been rebuilding Beirut, and by the start of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the city had somewhat regained its status as a tourist, cultural, and intellectual center in the Middle East, as well as a center for commerce, fashion, and media. Reconstruction of downtown Beirut has been largely driven by Solidere, a development company established in 1994 by Rafik Hariri. Beirut is home to the international designer Elie Saab, jeweller Robert Moawad, and to some popular satellite television stations, such as LBC, Future TV, New TV and others. The city was host to the Asian Club Basketball Championship and the Asian Football Cup. Beirut also successfully hosted the Miss Europe pageant eight times, 1960–1964, 1999, 2001–2002.

The 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri near the Saint George Bay in Beirut shook the entire country.[32][33][34] Approximately one million people gathered for an opposition rally in Beirut, a month after the death of Hariri.[35][36] The "Cedar Revolution" was the largest rally in Lebanon's history.[37] The last Syrian troops withdrew from Beirut on 26 April 2005.[38] Both countries established diplomatic relations on 15 October 2008.[39]

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Beirut was far from the front lines but some Hezbollah targets were attacked by the Israeli Air Force.

In May 2008, violent clashes broke out in Beirut and opposition militants briefly controlled West Beirut before giving it to the control of the Lebanese Army.

Paris

Paris (pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English; Paris1.ogg [paʁi] (help·info) in French) is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,167,994 (January 2006),[2] but the Paris aire urbaine (or metropolitan area) has a population of nearly 12 million,[3] and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe.[4]

An important settlement for more than two millennia, Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.[5] According to 2005 estimates, the Paris urban area is Europe's biggest city economy,[6] and is fifth in the world's list of cities by GDP.[7]

Paris and the Paris Region, with €533.6 billion (US$731.3 billion) in 2007, produces more than a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP) of France.[8] The Paris Region hosts 37 of the Fortune Global 500 companies[9] in several business districts, notably La Défense, the largest purpose-built business district in Europe.[10] Paris also hosts many international organizations such as UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the informal Paris Club.

Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with 45 million tourists every year in the Paris Region, 60% of whom are foreign visitors.[11] There are numerous iconic landmarks among its many attractions, along with world-famous institutions and popular parks.
Parisians revolted against the monarchy during the July Revolution of 1830. King Charles X was forced to abdicate the throne. The "February Revolution" of 1848 ended the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe, and led to the creation of the Second Republic.

The Industrial Revolution, the French Second Empire, and the Belle Époque brought Paris the greatest development in its history. From the 1840s, rail transport allowed an unprecedented flow of migrants into Paris attracted by employment in the new industries in the suburbs. The city underwent a massive renovation under Napoleon III and his préfet Haussmann, who levelled entire districts of narrow, winding medieval streets to create the network of wide avenues and neo-classical façades of modern Paris. This programme of "Haussmannization" was designed to make the city both more beautiful and more sanitary for its inhabitants, although it did have the added benefit that, in case of future revolts or revolutions, cavalry charges and rifle fire could be used to deal with the insurrection, while the rebel tactic of barricading so often used during the Revolution would become obsolete.[22]
Typical Haussmannian building

Cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849 affected the population of Paris; the 1832 epidemic alone claimed 20,000 of the then-population of 650,000.[23] Paris also suffered greatly from the siege, which ended the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871): in the chaos caused by the fall of Napoleon III's government, the newly-established Commune of Paris sent many of Paris' administrative centres (and city archives) up in flames while 20,000 Parisians were killed by fighting between Commune and government forces in what became known as the semaine sanglante (Bloody Week).[24]

Paris recovered rapidly from these events to host the famous Universal Expositions of the late nineteenth century.[25] The Eiffel Tower was built for the French Revolution centennial 1889 Universal Exposition, as a "temporary" display of architectural engineering prowess but remained the world's tallest building until 1930, and is the city's best-known landmark, while the 1900 Universal Exposition saw the opening of the first Paris Métro line. Paris' World's Fairs also consolidated its position in the tourist industry and as an attractive setting for international technology and trade shows.
During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared a German invasion by the French and British victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In 1918-1919, it was the scene of Allied victory parades and peace negotiations. In the inter-war period Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic communities and its nightlife. The city became a gathering place of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway.[26]
Exposition Universelle (1900).

On 14 June 1940, five weeks after the start of the Battle of France, Paris fell to German occupation forces, who remained there until the city was liberated in August 1944, two months after the Normandy invasion.[27] Central Paris endured World War II practically unscathed, as there were no strategic targets for Allied bombers (train stations in central Paris are terminal stations; major factories were located in the suburbs). Also, German General von Choltitz did not destroy all Parisian monuments before any German retreat, as ordered by Adolf Hitler, who had visited the city in 1940.[28]

In the post-war era, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the Belle Époque in 1914. The suburbs began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as cités and the beginning of the business district La Défense. A comprehensive express subway network, the RER, was built to complement the Métro and serve the distant suburbs, while a network of freeways was developed in the suburbs, centred on the Périphérique expressway circling around the city.[29][30][31]

Since the 1970s, many inner suburbs of Paris (especially the north and eastern ones) have experienced deindustrialization, and the once-thriving cités have gradually become ghettos for immigrants and oases of unemployment.[32][33] At the same time, the city of Paris (within its Périphérique ring) and the western and southern suburbs have successfully shifted their economic base from traditional manufacturing to high-value-added services and high-tech manufacturing, generating great wealth for their residents whose per capita income is among the highest in Europe.[34][35][36] The resulting widening social gap between these two areas has led to periodic unrest since the mid-1980s, such as the 2005 riots which largely concentrated in the northeastern suburbs.
With a 2007 GDP of €533.6 billion[8] (US$731.3 billion), the Paris region has one of the highest GDPs in Europe, making it an engine of the global economy: Were it a country, it would rank as the seventeenth-largest economy in the world, almost as large as the Dutch economy.[42] The Paris Region is France's premier centre of economic activity: While its population accounted for 18.8% of the total population of metropolitan France in 2007,[43] its GDP accounted for 28.7% of metropolitan France's GDP.[8] Activity in the Paris urban area, though diverse, does not have a leading specialised industry (such as Los Angeles with entertainment industries or London and New York with financial industries in addition to their other activities). Recently, the Paris economy has been shifting towards high-value-added service industries (finance, IT services, etc.) and high-tech manufacturing (electronics, optics, aerospace, etc).

The Paris region's most intense economic activity through the central Hauts-de-Seine département and suburban La Défense business district places Paris' economic centre to the west of the city, in a triangle between the Opéra Garnier, La Défense, and the Val de Seine. Paris' administrative borders have little consequences on the limits of its economic activity: Although most workers commute from the suburbs to work in the city, many commute from the city to work in the suburbs. Although the Paris economy is largely dominated by services, it remains an important manufacturing powerhouse of Europe, especially in industrial sectors such as automobiles, aeronautics, and electronics. Over recent decades, the local economy has moved towards high-value-added activities, in particular business services.

The 1999 census indicated that, of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the Paris urban area, 16.5% worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defence, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. In the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), with the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce distributed among many other industries. Tourism and tourist related services employ 6.2% of Paris' workforce, and 3.6% of all workers within the Paris Region.
The role of Paris as an international trade centre has caused its transportation system to develop considerably throughout history, and it continues its growth at a fast pace today. The public transit networks of the Paris region are coordinated by the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France[61] (STIF), formerly Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP). The members of this syndicate are the Ile-de-France region and the eight departments of this region. The syndicate coordinates public transport and contracts it out to the RATP (operating 654 bus lines, the Métro, three tramway lines, and sections of the RER), the SNCF (operating suburban rails, a tramway line and the other sections of the RER) and the Optile consortium of private operators managing 1,070 minor bus lines.

The Métro is Paris' most important transportation system. The system, with 300 stations (384 stops) connected by 214 km (133.0 mi) of rails, comprises 16 lines, identified by numbers from 1 to 14, with two minor lines, 3bis and 7bis, so numbered because they used to be branches of their respective original lines, and only later became independent. In October 1998, the new line 14 was inaugurated after a 70-year hiatus in inaugurating fully new métro lines. Because of the short distance between stations on the Métro network, lines were too slow to be extended further into the suburbs, as is the case in most other cities. As such, an additional express network, the RER, has been created since the 1960s to connect more-distant parts of the urban area. The RER consists in the integration of modern city-centre subway and pre-existing suburban rail. Nowadays, the RER network comprises 5 lines, 257 stops and 587 km (365 mi) of rails.

In addition, Paris is served by a light-rail network of 4 lines, the tramway: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy, line T3 runs from Pont de Garigliano to Porte d'Ivry, line T4 runs from Bondy to Aulnay-sous-Bois. Paris also offers a bike sharing system called Vélib' with more than 20,000 public bicycles distributed at 1,450 parking stations, which can be rented for short and medium distances including one way trips. The new ferry service Voguéo has been inaugurated in June 2008, on the rivers Seine and Marne.

Paris is a central hub of the national rail network. The six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare, are connected to three networks: The TGV serving 4 High-speed rail lines, the normal speed Corail trains, and the suburban rails (Transilien).

Paris is served by two major airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Charles de Gaulle International Airport, nearby Roissy-en-France, which is one of the busiest in the world. A third and much smaller airport, Beauvais Tillé Airport, located in the town of Beauvais, 70 km (43 mi) to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. The fourth airport, Le Bourget nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum.

The city is also the most important hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by three orbital freeways: the Périphérique, which follows the approximate path of 19th-century fortifications around Paris, the A86 motorway in the inner suburbs, and finally the Francilienne motorway in the outer suburbs. Paris has an extensive road network with over 2,000 km (1,243 mi) of highways and motorways. By road, Brussels can be reached in three hours, Frankfurt in 6 hours and Barcelona in 12 hours. By train, London is now just 2 h 15 min away, Brussels can be reached in more or less 1h30min, and the south of France with cities like Marseilles or Bordeaux in 3 hours.

Monaco

Monaco en-us-Monaco.ogg /ˈmɒnəkoʊ/ (help·info), officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe (Monaco is the name of the country as well as the name of its only city). The territory lies on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is often regarded as a tax haven, and many of its inhabitants are wealthy and from foreign countries making up a majority of the population, at around 84%.[3]

Monaco is a constitutional monarchy and principality, with Prince Albert II as head of state. The Grimaldi family has ruled over Monaco since 1297 and the state's sovereignty was officially recognized by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861. Despite being independent, Monaco's defence is still the responsibility of France.

Monaco is the world's most densely populated sovereign country, and the world's smallest French-speaking country. An average person takes only 56 minutes to walk across the width of the country.
Monaco's name comes from the nearby Phocaean Greek colony, in the 6th century, which referred to the Ligurians as Monoikos, from the Greek μόνοικος "single house", from μόνος "alone, single" + οίκος "house", which bears the sense of a people either settled in a "single habitation" or of "living apart" from others. According to an ancient myth, Hercules passed through the Monaco area and turned away the previous gods. As a result, a temple was constructed there, the temple of Hercules Monoikos. Because the only temple of this area was the "House" of Hercules, the city was called Monoikos.[4]

Following a land grant from Emperor Henry VI in 1191, Monaco was re-founded in 1228 as a colony of Genoa. Monaco has been ruled by the House of Grimaldi since 1297, when Francesco Grimaldi ("Il Malizia", translated from Italian either as "The Malicious One" or "The Cunning One") and his men captured the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco while he was dressed as a Franciscan monk - a Monaco in Italian, although this is a coincidence as the area was already known by this name.
A statue of François Grimaldi says "il Malizia" (the Shrewd) guised as a monk with a sword under his frock before the Prince's Palace of Monaco.

In 1793, French Revolutionary forces captured Monaco, and it remained under French control until 1814. The principality was re-established that year, only to be designated a protectorate of the Kingdom of Sardinia by the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Monaco remained in this position until 1860, when by the Treaty of Turin, Sardinia ceded to France the surrounding county of Nice (as well as Savoy). During this time there was unrest in the towns of Menton and Roquebrune, which declared independence, hoping for annexation by Sardinia. The unrest continued until the ruling prince gave up his claim to the two towns (some 95% of the country), and they were ceded to France in return for four million francs. This transfer and Monaco's sovereignty was recognised by the Franco-Monegasque Treaty of 1861.

Until the adoption of the 1911 constitution, the princes of Monaco were absolute rulers. In July 1918, a treaty was signed providing for limited French protection over Monaco. The treaty, part of the Treaty of Versailles, established that Monegasque international policy would be aligned with French political, military, and economic interests.

In 1943, the Italian army invaded and occupied Monaco, setting up a Fascist administration. Shortly thereafter, following Mussolini's collapse in Italy, the Nazi German Wehrmacht occupied Monaco and began the deportation of the Jewish population. Among them was René Blum (Paris, 13 March 1878 - Auschwitz, 30 April 1943), who founded the Ballet de l'Opera in Monte Carlo. He was held in the Drancy deportation camp outside Paris, France from whence he was then shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died.
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, 1949 to 2005

Rainier III who ruled until 2005 acceded to the throne following the death of his grandfather, Prince Louis II, in 1949. On April 19, 1956, Prince Rainier married the American actress Grace Kelly; the event was widely televised and covered in the popular press, briefly focusing the world's attention onto the tiny Principality.

A new constitution, proclaimed in 1962, abolished capital punishment, provided for women's suffrage, and established a Supreme Court of Monaco to guarantee fundamental liberties. In 1993, the Principality of Monaco became a member of the United Nations, with full voting rights.

In 2002, a new treaty between France and Monaco specified that, should there be no heirs to carry on the Grimaldi dynasty, the principality would still remain an independent nation rather than revert to France. Monaco's military defence, however, is still the responsibility of France.

On 31 March 2005, Prince Rainier III, too ill to exercise his duties, relinquished them to his only son and heir, Prince Albert Alexandre Louis. Prince Rainier died on 6 April 2005, after a reign of 56 years, and his son succeeded him as Albert II, Sovereign Prince of Monaco.

Following a period of official mourning, Prince Albert II formally assumed the princely crown on 12 July 2005, in a celebration that began with a solemn Mass at Monaco cathedral, where his father had been buried three months earlier. His accession to the Monegasque throne was a two-step event, with a further ceremony, drawing heads of state for an elaborate levée, held on 19 November 2005 at the historic palace in Monaco-Ville. Albert II is the son of the late Princess Grace, known prior to her marriage to Prince Rainer III in 1956 as Grace Kelly.
One of Monaco's main sources of income is tourism; each year many are attracted to its casino and pleasant climate. (Monaco's own citizens are not allowed to gamble in the casino.) In 2001, a major new construction project extended the pier used by cruise ships in the main harbour. The principality has successfully sought to diversify into services and small, high-value-added, non-polluting industries such as cosmetics and biothermics.

The state retains monopolies in numerous sectors, including tobacco and the postal service. The telephone network (Monaco Telecom) used to be owned by the state; it now owns 45%, while the remaining 55% is owned by Cable and Wireless (49%) and Compagnie Monégasque de Banque (6%). It is still, however, a monopoly. Living standards are high, roughly comparable to those in prosperous French metropolitan areas.

Monaco is not a member of the European Union but is very closely linked to it via a customs union with France, and as such its currency is the same as that of France: the euro. Before 2002, Monaco minted its own franc coins, the Monegasque franc. Monaco has acquired the right to mint euro coins with Monegasque designs on their national side.
Monaco levies no income tax on individuals. The absence of a personal income tax in the principality has attracted to it a considerable number of wealthy "tax refugee" residents from European countries who derive the majority of their income from activity outside Monaco; celebrities such as Formula One drivers attract most of the attention, but the vast majority of them are less well-known business people.
Monte Carlo Casino

In 2000, a report by French parliamentarians Arnaud Montebourg and Vincent Peillon alleged that Monaco has lax policies with respect to money laundering, including within its famed casino, and that the government of Monaco puts political pressure on the judiciary so that alleged crimes are not properly investigated.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued in 1998 a first report on the consequences of the tax havens financial systems. Monaco did not appear in the list of these territories until 2004, when OECD became indignant regarding the Monegasque situation[5] and denounced it in its last report[6] (as well as Andorra, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Liberia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands) underlining its lack of co-operation as regards financial information disclosure and availability.

In 2000, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) underlined that Monaco suffers a great lack of adequate resources.[7] The Principality is no longer blamed in the FATF 2005 report,[8] as well as all other territories in 2006.[9]

Since 2003, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has identified Monaco, along with 36 other territories, as a tax haven.[10]

The Council of Europe also decided to issue reports naming tax havens. Twenty-two territories, Monaco included, were thus evaluated between 1998 and 2000 on a first round. Monaco is the only territory that refuses to perform the second round, initially forecast between 2001 and 2003, whereas the 21 other territories are implementing the third and last round, planned between 2005 and 2007.

Zanzibar

Zanzibar (pronounced /ˈzænzɨbɑr/) is part of the East African republic of Tanzania. It consists of the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 25–50 km (15–30 mi) off the coast of the mainland. There are numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, informally referred to as "Zanzibar"), and Pemba. Zanzibar was once a separate state with a long trading history within the Arab world; it united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania in 1964 and still enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the union. The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar City, and its old quarter, known as
Stone Town, is a World Heritage Site.

Zanzibar's main industries are spices, raffia, and tourism. It is still sometimes referred to as the Spice Islands (a term also associated with the Maluku Islands in Indonesia) because of the significance of its production of cloves (of which it used to be the world leader in the 70s)[citation needed], nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper. Zanzibar's ecology is of note for being the home of the endemic Zanzibar Red Colobus and the Zanzibar Leopard. The word "Zanzibar" probably derives[citation needed] from the Persian زنگبار, Zangi-bar ("coast of the blacks").
The presence of microlithic tools attests to 20,000 years of human occupation of Zanzibar. The islands became part of the historical record of the wider world when Arab traders discovered them and used them as a base for voyages between Arabia, India, and Africa. Unguja offered a protected and defensible harbour, so although the archipelago offered few products of value, the Arabs settled at what became Zanzibar City (Stone Town) as a convenient point from which to trade with East African coastal towns. They established garrisons on the islands and built the first mosque in the Southern hemisphere.[1]

During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and the Portugese kept it for nearly 200 years. In 1698, Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops with a ruling Arab elite. Plantations were developed to grow spices, hence the moniker of the Spice Islands. Another major trade good for Zanzibar was ivory. The third pillar of the economy was slavery, giving Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade. Zanzibar City was the main trading port of the East African slave trade with about 50,000 slaves a year passing through the city.[2] The Sultan of Zanzibar controlled a substantial portion of the East African coast, known as Zanj; this included Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, and trading routes that extended much further inland, such as the route leading to Kindu on the Congo River.

Sometimes gradually and sometimes by fits and starts, control of Zanzibar came into the hands of the British Empire; part of the political impetus for this was the 19th century movement for the abolition of the slave trade. The relationship between Britain and the nearest relevant colonial power, Germany, was formalized by the 1890 Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged not to interfere with British interests in insular Zanzibar. That year, Zanzibar became a protectorate (not a colony) of Britain. From 1890 to 1913, traditional viziers were appointed to govern as puppets, switching to a system of British residents (effectively governors) from 1913 to 1963. The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War. On the morning of 27 August 1896, ships of the Royal Navy destroyed the Beit al Hukum Palace; a cease fire was declared 38 minutes later, and the bombardment subsequently became known as The Shortest War in History.[citation needed]

The islands gained independence from Britain in December 1963 as a constitutional monarchy. A month later, the bloody Zanzibar Revolution, in which thousands of Arabs and Indians were killed in a genocide and thousands more expelled,[3] led to the establishment of the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba. That April, the republic was subsumed by the mainland former colony of Tanganyika. This United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was soon renamed (as a portmanteau) the United Republic of Tanzania, of which Zanzibar remains a semi-autonomous region.
Zanzibar, mainly Pemba Island, was once the world's leading clove producer during the 1970s, but annual clove sales have since plummeted by 80%. Explanations given for this are a fast-moving global market, international competition and a hangover from Tanzania’s failed experiment with socialism in the 1960s and ’70s, when the government controlled clove prices and exports. Zanzibar now ranks a distant third with Indonesia supplying 75% of the world's cloves (compared to Zanzibar's 7%).[5]

Zanzibar exports spices, seaweed and fine raffia. It also has a large fishing and dugout canoe production. Tourism is a major foreign currency earner.

During May and June 2008, Zanzibar suffered a major failure of its electricity system, which left the island without mains electricity for nearly a month. The Mainland, where the fault originated, managed to be restored at the same time, but the Islanders stayed powerless and entirely dependent on alternative methods of electricity generation from May 21 to June 19 (mainly diesel generators). This led to a serious and ongoing shock to the island's fragile economy (mainly based on international tourism).

Generally, Zanzibaris live in worse conditions than in mainland Tanzania. Most people in Zanzibar subsist on incomes of less than US $ .50 per day, with tourism being the only major provider of employment.

Some foreign embassies have relocated to Zanzibar to serve both Zanzibaris and their own citizens, who find it hard to travel to Dar Es Salaam for consular services.

Cape Town

Cape Town (Afrikaans: Kaapstad; Xhosa: iKapa) is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the City of Cape Town. It is the provincial capital of the Western Cape, as well as the legislative capital of South Africa, where the National Parliament and many government offices are located. Cape Town is famous for its harbour as well as its natural setting in the Cape floral kingdom, including such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is one of the most popular South African destinations for tourism.[5]

Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling (supply) station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck's arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa. Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa.

As of 2007[update] the city had a population of 3.5 million.[3] Cape Town's land area of 2,455 square kilometres (948 sq mi) is larger than other South African cities, resulting in a comparatively lower population density of 1,425 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,690 /sq mi).
There is no certainty as to when humans first occupied the area prior to the first visits of Europeans in the 15th century. The earliest known remnants in the region were found at Peers cave in Fish Hoek and date to around 12,000 years ago.[citation needed] Little is known of the history of the region's first residents, since there is no written history from the area before it was first mentioned by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias in 1486. Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, and the area did not have regular contact with Europeans until 1652, when the Netherlands' Jan van Riebeeck and other employees of the Dutch East India Company (Dutch: Verenigde Oost-indische Compagnie, VOC) were sent to the Cape to establish a way-station for ships travelling to the Dutch East Indies. The city grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the city to import slaves from Indonesia and Madagascar. Many of these became ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the Netherlands was repeatedly occupied by France, and Great Britain moved to take control of Dutch colonies. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but the Cape was returned to the Netherlands by treaty in 1803. British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Cape Town was permanently ceded to Britain. It became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony, whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s.[citation needed]

The discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1869, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigrants to South Africa.[citation needed] Conflicts between the Boer republics in the interior and the British colonial government resulted in the Second Boer War of 1899-1901, which Britain won. In 1910, Britain established the Union of South Africa, which unified the Cape Colony with the two defeated Boer Republics and the British colony of Natal. Cape Town became the legislative capital of the Union, and later of the Republic of South Africa.
Nobel Square at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.

In the 1948 national elections, the National Party won on a platform of apartheid (racial segregation) under the slogan of "swart gevaar". This led to the Group Areas Act, which classified all areas according to race. Formerly multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town were either purged of unlawful residents or demolished. The most infamous example of this in Cape Town was District Six. After it was declared a whites-only region in 1965, all housing there was demolished and over 60,000 residents were forcibly removed.[6] Many of these residents were relocated to the Cape Flats and Lavendar Hill. Under apartheid, the Cape was considered a "Coloured labour preference area", to the exclusion of "Bantus", i.e. blacks.

Cape Town was home to many leaders of the anti-apartheid movement. On Robben Island, a former penitentiary island 10 kilometres from the city, many famous political prisoners were held for years. In one of the most famous moments marking the end of apartheid, Nelson Mandela made his first public speech in decades on 11 February 1990 from the balcony of Cape Town City Hall hours after being released. His speech heralded the beginning of a new era for the country, and the first democratic election was held four years later, on 27 April 1994. Nobel Square in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront features statues of South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize winners - Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. Since 1994, the city has struggled with problems such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, a surge in violent drug-related crime and more recent xenophobic violence. At the same time, the economy has surged to unprecedented levels due to the boom in the tourism and the real estate industries.
Cape town's local government is the City of Cape Town, which is a metropolitan municipality. Cape Town is governed by a 210-member city council, which reports to a 28-member executive council. The executive council, in turn, is presided over by a city manager and an executive mayor. The city is divided into 105 electoral wards; each ward directly elects one member of the council, whilst the other 105 councillors are elected by a party-list proportional representation system. The mayor is chosen by the city council.

The current mayor is Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance. In the most recent local government elections, the Democratic Alliance was the largest single party with 90 of the 210 seats on the council, ahead of the African National Congress's 81 seats, but with no party holding a majority. A subsequent by-election has increased the DA's seats to 91.[8] The DA has now increased its majority, by introducing the Independent Democrats (South Africa) to the coalition, and so the DA-led council now has a majority of 22 seats.

Before the unification of Cape Town's local government into the so-called "Unicity", it was divided into six regional "Administrations"; many functions of the Unicity are still divided according to the old Administrations. The administrations include Cape Town, which has the regions of the City Bowl, the Atlantic Seaboard, the southern suburbs, Pinelands, Langa and Mitchell's Plain. The South Peninsula includes Hout Bay, Wynberg, Constantia, Fish Hoek, Kommetjie, Noordhoek and Simon's Town. The Blaauwberg region includes Milnerton, Tableview, and Bloubergstrand. Tygerberg has its own region, with Durbanville, Bellville, and Khayelitsha added to it. Oostenberg includes Kraaifontein, Brackenfell, Kuilsrivier, Blue Downs, and Eerste Rivier. The last administration, Helderberg, includes Somerset West, Strand, and Gordon's Bay.
Cape Town is the economic centre of the Western Cape and serves as the regional manufacturing centre. It also has the primary harbour and airport in the Western Cape. The large government presence in the city, both as the capital of the Western Cape and the seat of the National Parliament, has led to increased revenue and growth in industries that serve the government. Cape Town hosts many conferences, particularly in the new Cape Town International Convention Centre, which opened in June 2003. The city has recently enjoyed a booming real estate and construction market, because of the 2010 World Cup as well as many people buying summer homes in the city or relocating there permanently. The central business district is under an extensive urban renewal programme, with numerous new buildings and renovations taking place under the guidance of the Cape Town Partnership.[10] The central business district is expecting a private-sector investment influx of ZAR30-35billion (US$5-6billion) over the next 5 years, confirmed by the Partnership.[citation needed]

Cape Town has four major commercial nodes, with Cape Town Central Business District containing the majority of job opportunities and office space. Century City, the Bellville/TygerValley strip and Claremont commercial nodes are well established and contain many offices and corporate headquarters as well. Most companies headquartered in the city are insurance companies, retail groups, publishers, design houses, fashion designers, shipping companies, petrochemical companies, architects and advertising agencies.

Much of the produce is handled through the Port of Cape Town or Cape Town International Airport. Most major shipbuilding companies have offices and manufacturing locations in Cape Town.[11] The Province is also a centre of energy development for the country, with the existing Koeberg nuclear power station providing energy for the Western Cape's needs. Recently, oil explorers have discovered oil and natural gas off the coast in the Atlantic Ocean.[12]

The Western Cape is an important tourist region in South Africa; the tourism industry accounts for 9.8% of the GDP of the province and employs 9.6% of the province's workforce. In 2004, over 1.5 million international tourists visited the area.[13]

The mining industry in Cape Town has been booming for the last 6 years. 6000 miners are now employed in the mining industry since 2002.[citation needed]

The city was recently named as the most entrepreneurial city in South Africa, with the percentage of Capetonians pursuing business opportunities almost three times higher than the national average. Those aged between 18-64 were 190% more likely to pursue new business, whilst in Johannesburg, the same demographic group was only 60% more likely than the national average to pursue a new business.
Cape Town is the most popular tourist destination in South Africa due to its good climate, natural setting, and relatively well-developed infrastructure.[citation needed] The city has several well-known natural features that attract tourists, most notably Table Mountain,[15] which forms a large part of the Table Mountain National Park and is the back end of the City Bowl. Reaching the top of the mountain can be achieved either by hiking up, or by taking the Table Mountain Cableway. Cape Point is recognised as the dramatic headland at the end of the Cape Peninsula.[16] Many tourists also drive along Chapman's Peak Drive, a narrow road that links Noordhoek with Hout Bay, for the views of the Atlantic Ocean and nearby mountains. It is possible to either drive or hike up Signal Hill for closer views of the City Bowl and Table Mountain.[17]

Many tourists also visit Cape Town's beaches, which are popular with local residents.[18] Due to the city's unique geography, it is possible to visit several different beaches in the same day, each with a different setting and atmosphere. Beaches located on the Atlantic Coast tend to have very cold water from the Benguela current which originates from the Southern Ocean. The water at False Bay beaches is often warmer by up to 10 °C (18 °F).[19] Both coasts are equally popular, although the beaches in affluent Clifton and elsewhere on the Atlantic Coast are better developed with restaurants and cafés, with a particularly vibrant strip of restaurants and bars accessible to the beach at Camps Bay. Boulders Beach near Simon's Town is known for its colony of African penguins.[20] Surfing is popular and the city hosts the Red Bull Big Wave Africa surfing competition every year.

The city has several notable cultural attractions. The Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, built on top of part of the docks of the Port of Cape Town, is one of the city's most popular shopping venues, with several hundred shops and the Two Oceans Aquarium.[21][22] Part of the charm of the V&A, as it is locally known, is that the Port continues to operate and visitors can watch ships enter and leave. The V&A also hosts the Nelson Mandela Gateway, through which ferries depart for Robben Island.[23] It is possible to take a ferry from the V&A to Hout Bay, Simon's Town and the Cape Fur Seal colonies on Seal and Duiker Islands. Several companies offer tours of the Cape Flats, a mostly Coloured township, and Khayelitsha, a mostly black township. An option is to sleep overnight in Cape Town's townships. There are several B&Bs where you can spend a safe and real African night.[24]

Cape Town is noted for its architectural heritage, with the highest density of Cape Dutch style buildings in the world. Cape Dutch style, which combines the architectural traditions of the Netherlands, Germany and France, is most visible in Constantia, the old government buildings in the Central Business District, and along Long Street.[25][26] The annual Cape Town Minstrel Carnival, also known by its Afrikaans name of Kaapse Klopse, is a large minstrel festival held annually on January 2 or "Tweede Nuwe Jaar" (Afrikaans: Second New Year). Competing teams of minstrels parade in brightly coloured costumes, either carrying colourful umbrellas or playing an array of musical instruments. The Artscape Theatre Centre is the main performing arts venue in Cape Town.
Cape Town's historical streets and buildings are a major draw for tourists

Cape Town's transport system links it to the rest of South Africa; it serves as the gateway to other destinations within the province. The Cape Winelands and in particular the towns of Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek are popular day trips from the city for sightseeing and wine tasting.[27][28] Whale watching is popular amongst tourists: Southern Right Whales and Humpback Whales are seen off the coast during the breeding season (August to November) and Bryde's Whales and Killer Whale can be seen any time of the year.[29] The nearby town of Hermanus is known for its Whale Festival, but whales can also be seen in False Bay.[29] Heaviside's dolphins are endemic to the area and can be seen from the coast north of Cape Town; Dusky dolphins live along the same coast and can occasionally be seen from the ferry to Robben Island.[29]

Approximately 1.5 million tourists visited in Cape Town during 2004, bringing in a total of R10 billion in revenue.[citation needed] The forecasts for 2006 anticipate 1.6 million tourists spending a total of R12 billion.[who?] The most popular areas for visitors to stay include Camps Bay, Sea Point, the V&A Waterfront, the City Bowl, Hout Bay, Constantia, Rondebosch, Newlands, Somerset West, Hermanus and Stellenbosch, as well.
Cape Town International Airport serves both domestic and international flights. It is the second-largest airport in South Africa and serves as a major gateway for travellers to the Cape region. Cape Town has direct flights to most cities in South Africa as well as a number of international destinations.[41]

As of June 2006, Cape Town International Airport is being upgraded to handle an expected increase in air traffic as tourism numbers will increase in the lead-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[42] The renovations include several large new parking garages, a revamped domestic departure terminal and a new international terminal plus a new double-decker road system. The airport's cargo facilities are also being expanded and several large empty lots are being developed into office space and hotels.

The Cape Town International Airport was among the winners of the World Travel Awards for being Africa's leading airport.[43]

Sea

Cape Town has a long tradition as a port city. The Port of Cape Town, the city's main port, is located in Table Bay directly to the north of the central business district. The port is a hub for ships in the southern Atlantic: it is located along one of the busiest shipping corridors in the world. It is also a busy container port, second in South Africa only to Durban. In 2004, it handled 3,161 ships and 9.2 million tonnes of cargo.[44]

Simon's Town Harbour on the False Bay coast of the Cape Peninsula is the main base of the South African Navy.

Rail

The Shosholoza Meyl is the passenger rail operations of Spoornet and operates two long-distance passenger rail services from Cape Town: a daily service to and from Johannesburg via Kimberley and a weekly service to and from Durban via Kimberley, Bloemfontein and Pietermaritzburg. These trains terminate at Cape Town Railway Station and make a brief stop at Bellville. Cape Town is also one terminus of the luxury tourist-oriented Blue Train.

Metrorail operates a commuter rail service in Cape Town and the surrounding area. The Metrorail network consists of 96 stations throughout the suburbs and outskirts of Cape Town.

Road

Three national roads start in Cape Town: the N1 which links Cape Town with Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Zimbabwe; the N2 which links Cape Town with Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban; and the N7 which links Cape Town with the Northern Cape Province and Namibia. The N1 and N2 both start in the Central Business District, and split to the east of the CBD, with the N1 continuing to the north east and the N2 heading south east past Cape Town International Airport. The N7 starts in Mitchells Plain and runs north, intersecting with the N1 and the N2 before leaving the city.

Cape Town also has a system of freeway and dual carriageway M-roads, which connect different parts of the city. The M3 splits from the N2 and runs to the south along the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, connecting the City Bowl with Muizenberg. The M5 splits from the N1 further east than the M3, and links the Cape Flats to the CBD. The R300, which is informally known as the Cape Flats Freeway, links Mitchells Plain with Bellville, the N1 and the N2.

Buses

Golden Arrow Bus Services operates scheduled bus services throughout the Cape Town metropolitan area. Several companies run long-distance bus services from Cape Town to the other cities in South Africa.

Taxis

Cape Town has two kinds of taxis: metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city to solicit fares and instead must be called to a specific location.

Minibus taxis are the standard form of transport for the majority of the population who cannot afford private vehicles.[45] Although essential, these taxis are often poorly maintained and are frequently not road-worthy. These taxis make frequent unscheduled stops to pick up passengers, which can cause accidents.[46][47] With the high demand for transport by the working class of South Africa, minibus taxis are often filled over their legal passenger allowance, making for high casualty rates when minibuses are involved in accidents. Minibuses are generally owned and operated in fleets, and inter-operator violence flares up from time to time, especially as turf wars occur over lucrative taxi routes.