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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2419 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 23, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Are there any other countries like the US where the legal/political center (DC), financial center (NYC), technology center (Bay Area), and entertainment center (LA/NYC) are in separate cities? It seems that for most countries all of these are in the capital, but I'm not well-traveled enough to know.

Germany: political center (Berlin), legal center (Karlsruhe, weirdly), financial center (Frankfurt), tech hub (Munich)

Some of these are debatable because Germany is extremely decentral

Canada has its political center in Ottawa, financial center in Toronto and cultural center debatably in Montreal, but these are all in the same broad region of the country.

Well, in India:

The political center would be Delhi. The financial and entertainment center would be Mumbai, courtesy of the stock market and Bollywood. And the tech center is a tossup between Bangalore and Hyderabad.

South Africa seems to fit the bill, with Pretoria as the administrative capital, Johannesburg as the financial center, and Cape Town as the cultural center.

South Africa even has separate executive, legislative, and judicial (until 2013) capitals - Joburg, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein respectively.

I'm not sure if you could find 4 competing major cities in most countries but there are countries where the capital isn't the biggest city, for example Australia (Canberra), Brazil (Brasilia) Turkey (Ankara).

I don't know much about Spain and Germany but they're pretty decentralised so I'd expect Berlin and Madrid not to be the centre of everything.

The obvious one is China:

Political - Beijing

Financial - Shanghai

Tech - Shenzhen

Media - Dongyang or Shanghai

I think there is also a case to be made for Germany:

Political - Berlin

Financial - Frankfurt

"Tech" - There are arguments for both Berlin and Munich here

Media - Cologne or Hamburg

Germany has Berlin as the political, start-up tech and substantial cultural capital. Obviously with the state broadcasters, ZDF in Mainz etc it’s hard to be definitive, but in the arts world and certainly in terms of music / youth culture / the international image of German culture Berlin is the undisputed capital.

Couldn't the same can be said for America? The art center certainly isn't Hollywood. Neither is youth culture.

Televised media is in cologne/Mainz, print media is in Hamburg.

As for tech the "perception" certainly is that Berlin is the center but I'm not sure it's true. It is true that the primary start up scene is in Berlin but far more information technology workers are employed in Munich (SWEs etc., not mechanical engineers), which is why I said there is an argument for both Berlin and Munich.

Where does Hong Kong fit in there?

Used to be more important but is still a very important financial and media center. The undisputed nr 2.

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