@Super_Moose: Isn't it this same hatred of excess that inspires terrorists to attack the US? As distasteful as many of Dubai's developments seem, I cannot help but see parallels in American society.
@laio: expats or ex-patriots. Dubai is horrible place built solely upon slave labor and immense debt. Someday the desert will reclaim what is rightfully earths' and will be lost to our ancestors as a testament to human excess.
I love dubai! No where else in the world is doing such a fabulous job at maximizing unsustainable consumption. The collapse should be just as exciting.
Anyone reminded of that poem we all read in 11th grade english? This is life imitating art at it's best!
"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
@Intersection: An even more in-depth article (I couldn't find it earlier). Great read about how Dubai's "bright side" hides a very disturbing, essentially slave-based culture underneath. Nasty stuff - I love traveling but I can't say I have any desire to go there.
@fargi: All of this is exactly the same as the US housing bubble, except that in Dubai, it's fewer and larger real estate projects (skyscrapers) and in the US, it's many smaller ones (houses). Basically, people keep borrowing money to build things under the assumption that real estate prices will keep rising. However, when real estate prices fall, they are left with unserviceable loans, i.e. "toxic assets".
06/20/09
Looks like he succeeded.
06/20/09
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05/11/09
Except our excesses never involve public works...
...not that this statue is really helping anyone, but it is a park right?
05/10/09
05/11/09
If it doesn't do that, I will be sorely disappointed.
05/11/09
05/10/09
05/10/09
maybe, when they finish the city, it will be an awesome place. been there in december, an all i saw was a LOT of WIPs. and malls.
05/10/09
do you know were the workers there live, where they came from? dubai is much more like alcatraz to them.
05/10/09
At least one can hope.
05/10/09
Anyone reminded of that poem we all read in 11th grade english? This is life imitating art at it's best!
"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
- Shelley
05/10/09
[www.nytimes.com]
05/10/09
[www.independent.co.uk]
05/10/09
This and Shelley's poem makes me think that the collapse might be for greater good.
05/11/09
05/10/09
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05/11/09