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Pascale Harter presents a special edition full of stories of global gentrification. What does it mean for any country or city when outsiders arrive in numbers - even if they come bearing wads of money? Our correspondents investigate. John Pickford finds the tide of Chinese money and influence in the South Pacific leaves some Tongans unmoved; Mike Webb hears what Panamanians make of the northern "snowbirds" - retirees from the USA and Canada - moving into their country's highlands; Lucy Daltroff reveals how one eccentric American inventor revived the cocoa plantations of Grenada. Battle is also joined in two of the world's most notable cities: Damien McGuinness sips expensive coffee in Prenzlauer Berg and witnesses a new sort of class war in east Berlin, while Jennifer Pak elbows her way through Hong Kong's crowding. No such problems for Jon Donnison, who's gone from one of the smallest possible patches for any reporter, the Gaza Strip, to having an entire continent to cover: Australia, where the distances are vast and even some tourist attractions are simply known as the Big Things.
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