Friday, February 08, 2008

This is why I'd consider moving to Dubai . . .

(Thanks to Cliff Pickover's Reality Carnival.)
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good lord. It's like something out of a '60's or '70's science fiction novel. Only one problem. It's in the Middle East....

1:30 AM
Mac said...

Only one problem. It's in the Middle East....

There's always a catch.

1:31 AM
Zubin Pastakia said...

You might find this article by Mike Davis relevant (don't miss the imagery in the first section of the narration):

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/5807/mike_davis_on_a_paradise_built_on_oil

"Sheikh Mo, who fancies himself a prophet of modernization, likes to impress visitors with clever proverbs and heavy aphorisms. A favorite: "Anyone who does not attempt to change the future will stay a captive of the past."

Yet the future that he is building in Dubai -- to the applause of billionaires and transnational corporations everywhere -- looks like nothing so much as a nightmare of the past: Walt Disney meets Albert Speer on the shores of Araby."

1:58 AM
Zubin Pastakia said...

For some reason the entire link did not appear in the post above. So just try Googling, "Does the road to the future end at Dubai" + "Mike Davis".

2:02 AM
Anonymous said...

Dubai: oil capitalism gone insane.

Child slavery, indentured servants, slave workers, foreign whores, etc. What a wonderful place to live, if you have no conscience. A psychopath's paradise.

10:41 AM
Peter Watts said...

Right. Like anyone whose income is within four orders of magnitude of ours would ever get past the front gate...

2:45 PM
Anonymous said...

Child slavery, indentured servants, slave workers, foreign whores, etc. What a wonderful place to live, if you have no conscience. A psychopath's paradise.

I understand Dick Cheney owns some retirement property there....

(Not completely kidding. I seem to recall reading something about Cheney/Haliburton's connection with Dubai somewhere?...)

7:12 PM
Mac said...

Dubai: oil capitalism gone insane.

Makes you wonder what this place is gonna look like when the oil is gone.

7:22 PM
David Biedny said...

Halliburton essentially moved their primary headquarters there last year, hence the Cheney connection.

8:39 PM
Anonymous said...

Mac,
Thats exactly what I thought. I looked at that city and invisioned deserted crumbling buildings, after the oil is gone. Of course, by then it will probably be underwater.

Stan

5:33 AM
Mac said...

I looked at that city and invisioned deserted crumbling buildings, after the oil is gone. Of course, by then it will probably be underwater.

What a setting for a science fiction novel! (Hmmm...)

8:31 PM

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