the center of the world
a few weeks ago, i bought the june 18 issue of u.s. news world report with the cover story headline reading “where your gas money goes: record oil prices fuel the ambitions of the united arab emirates.”
to use the word “opulent” is an understatement, as most of you may know. “grandiose” doesn’t even work and “pretentious” it is not since it’s clear what’s going on over there is for the people. i think the word i’d like to use is “rigoddamndiculous.”
dubai’s efforts are the most ambitious in the persian gulf region and it’s only getting bigger and better(?) with a plan to be the business, financial, and tourist center of the entire solar system. but it might be a little too much perfume on the stinky frenchman.
the region isn’t especially beautiful. more construction is going on than actual buildings and the skies are covered in a constant dust of foggy commerce. traffic is a nightmare, the article states, and a transit system won’t be in place until a little over a year. the summers are nasty and humid.
so, i think it will be most effective to provide a list of things that are already constructed or labeled as in construction for the city.
- palm islands
- the world archipelago
- dubai marina
- burj dubai
- dubailand – an entertainment complex costing about $110 billion that will house 12 full-scale amusement parks that include six flags, universal studios, dreamworks animation, legoland, marvel entertainment, as well as arab-themed parks (there it is!) and one filled with 100 animatronic dinosaurs (maybe even a george lucas star wars park)
- six golf courses – one designed by tiger woods
- full-scale, FULL-SCALE, replicas of the eiffel tower, the pyramids at giza and the taj mahal
- world’s largest shopping mall (small potatoes)
- a $54 billion, six-mile long las vegas-like strip minus the casinos, add 51 hotels, a shitload of restaurants and all the glitz
- an underwater hotel proposed in 2003 had been suspended
okay, so, what does this all mean? it means that laborers are foreign construction workers working for about $175 a month BUT will work through these hot, humid conditions because they have a visa as long as they stay. if that’s up, they go back. and who wants to go back?? legoland! animatronic dinosaurs! man-made islands!
yes, yes, as i said, rigoddamndiculous.
let’s discuss.
Comments
Full-scale? Really?
Hasn’t Dubai been growing for the past 10 years though?
Can we say the same thing about them then, when oil was $15 a barrel?
I always thought they were diversifying their economy for WHEN the oil runs out.
And you forgot the world’s largest indoor ski resort.
oh yes dubai has been growing for years and years. now, their oil is almost run out. but it doesn’t matter. the money is there.
Paris said:Full-scale? Really?
yes. ridiculous.
Is this just a playground for the citizens out there? Or do all the hotels/attractions/etc. actually fill up with vacationing guests? Cost aside, I’d rather visit many other places.
i think it’s a bit of both. a tourist destination indeed. i mean, there are still woman on the beaches in arab garb, next to supermodels and financier’s girlfriends.
I didn’t quite follow the purpose of this post. Where does oil come in? What are you trying to say about Dubai? The first three paragraphs seem to have nothing to do with each other as you go from a us news article on the UAE and oil, to a seemingly random series of word definitions, to Dubai, which is in the UAE, but hasn’t been mentioned up to this point. And then some xenophobia about french people.
Then you list some stuff with a goal of being “effective” but never stating what you’re effectively trying to do. So, in short, I’m a bit confused.
REGARDLESS! Wired printed an outstanding article on Dubai and it’s plans for world domination a few years ago when I was still subscribing. Apparently it’s from ‘04, but it’s still pretty relevant:
have i taken for granted that we all know about UAE’s involvement in the oil industry? i was merely stating the headline of the article.
i was pointing out how ridiculously crazy the things they are building over there. did i miss something?
and i said “dubai’s efforts are the most ambitious” so yes, i did say the name of the city.
I feel like the leader(s) of Dubai read this book and ran with it:
Has anyone here read it, or anything else by the Toffler’s? Pretty interesting ideas about the future.
Paris said:Is this just a playground for the citizens out there? Or do all the hotels/attractions/etc. actually fill up with vacationing guests? Cost aside, I’d rather visit many other places.
It’s a huge playground for the wealthy Westerners. A lot of the stuff built is built with them in mind.
I think David Beckham snapped up a house on the Palm Islands.
All those huge man made islands with huge houses are being bought up by Europeans. But, as it turns out, these huge houses are right on top of each other, don’t always have air conditioning, and some aren’t as nice as they seem. Also, now that the housing/mortgage problems are migrating worldwide, people are going to be trying to offload them.
Also, if you go a mile or so back from the coast, I’ve heard the giant, brand new buildings give way to shanty towns. And it seems kind of silly to plan all of this for when oil runs out, without taking into account the distance they are from the people they want to come enjoy their country.
And its 100 and fucking 10 degrees in the shade, the middle of a desert, and a restrictive theocracy. They have detectors at the airports that can pick up specks of marijuanna, which leads to numerous years of prison.
Admittedly, I would totally peg that guy as a pothead.
One good coastal storm will wipe that story out of the news.
Meh. Wherever there’s a place flush in capital, there’s gratuitous excess. And we were usually there first. In Florida, we’ve devoted an area twice the size of Manhattan to the worship and childlike adoration of a anthropomorphic mouse-beast. We built statues and enormous castles in his honor. While millions of people were unable to afford a car, we pioneered the idea of constructing entire arenas where automobiles can bash against other automobiles until neither of them can move anymore. Then we build fire-breathing dragons from the hulking wrecks.
I don’t care what sort of things they build over there and I don’t see how that could possibly annoy anyone. America patented absurdity first. Then Japan.
I’m sure all of Philly’s poorest people gather around my apartment building at night and whisper to each other about the amazing and wonderous things taking place within. “I hear he’s building a plate of food. I hear it’s delicious.”
Actually, I was reading some national geographic article at work while pooping a few months ago about this amazing ghetto where people live on top of each other that’s rife with culture and amazingness and how some people live and die there without ever leaving and Dubai is threatening to buy it all up and bulldoze it without giving these people a place to live oh my god run on sentence.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7472722.stm
“Dubai plans ‘moving’ skyscraper” I can’t wait to go here!!
WHY? why do any of this stuff?
That looks so goddam cool.
it sure beats looking at fake waterfalls in NY
christina said:WHY? why do any of this stuff?
Cause it looks so goddam cool! It’s only a matter of time before they’re build Arcos.
god that shit is gonna look so fucking awesome from space.
well, close space.
god I wanna play sim city 2000 so bad right now.
i want to play godzilla unleashed