macau – what a surpise
one of the biggest surprises during my trip to hong kong was going to macau not once but twice. to be honest, i really didn’t want to go to macau since i’d gone four years prior. that being said however, kosta seemed to be excited with the idea of going, so i obliged. i figured it’d be a waste of a trip if kosta and nick flew all the way to hong kong and didn’t get a chance to see as much as they could.
during chinese new years, my fourth aunt and her family took me to their cottage in china. the twist came when my third aunt and her husband invited us along since they had booked a room in macau on the last day of our trip. for the longest time i had not idea which hotel we were staying in. they kept on saying (in cantonese) that we would be staying at the “wai nay see” (which turned out to be the venetian). completely clueless, we arrived in macau. my jaw dropped instantly. the building, construction, and expansion of macau within four years was massive. the city had changed dramatically since the last time i had been there.
you see, macau has been trying to revitalize it’s economy and the route they chose was to add more and more casinos, hotels, and shopping areas. during the last four years the wynn hotel and casino, the mgm grand, the grand lisboa, and many other hotels and casinos had been built. the change has been enormous the city has indeed transformed.
as i reflect on all of this, i cannot help but muse at the pros and cons these decisions have brought to a city that is fast becoming the “sin city” of asia. on the one hand all of this expansion has brought economic growth through gambling, shopping, tourism and so forth. on the other hand, the city seems to have traded it’s once historic past and innocence in order for financial gain. i don’t mean to point the finger or place blame, but i cannot help but think that there could have been a better way. the expansion has brought great wealth, but also fantastic poverty as well.
i was speaking to a friend of mine who works in macau and she was saying that new hope for the young students of macau is to stop working hard in school and pursue jobs at the casinos and the hotels. these jobs do not offer a long term career and their labour can be exchanged easily by younger people who are willing to work for longer hours and for less pay. this seems to be a problem that will continue to perpetuate and the future of macau or more specifically of the young macanese needs to be considered.
i cannot help but to write down a few of these thoughts as i continue to process the situation arising in macau. the city is in the midst of revitalization, but at what cost?
