Er... China was the same way until very recently... Chinese police used to go into hotel rooms checking marriage certificates. If you and your wife didn't have your papers, both of you got arrested or fined. But the story of Dubai is so ridiculous. The "keeping up with the Jones" attitude that has struck the Arab world is without equal. But it's all going to fall flat, because it is form without function. Do people realize what it entails to maintain one of these "tallest" buildings in the world. Aside from walking around with a machismo knowing that mine is bigger than yours, it takes millions a year just to keep a building like that running. How do you pay for it? Tenants of course. Where these 'tenants' come from is the biggest question of all. The big spending foreigners are gone with the down slide of the world economy. So who's going to occupy those grand multi-star places? I doubt that many of those projects would ever be completed given the world economy at present. Further, what does one gallon of water costs there? If such a city is occupied to full capacity, how many millions of thirsty mouths will there be and how much will it costs to quench them? You have to remember that this is a sand dune by the sea. Drinkable water is a luxury item there. -hellothar This whole thing sort of reminds me of Shanghai, where only foreigners live now. There are almost no Shanghainese there any more because none could afford to live in any of those new buildings that were built in the last generation. The real people from Shanghai have all but moved out to the outlying areas. And yes, having enough drinking water there too is a constant issue, and they're not even in a desert. >.< Final Dubai analysis? Lots of sizzle, and a very small, frightfully expensive steak. It's going to be a high tech ghost town. LOL... the power requirements to keep that building undulating like that would probably be enough to supply the needs for a major city. -sweat
With what? Empty office buildings? LOL... :nuts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk9Sbpnkd-4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKVxOUONEYY&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67dYh4UQmUE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_RNoxO-5ms Driven down by debt, Dubai expats give new meaning to long-stay car park Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down Not a rosey picture if you ask me. Dubai is real smart? Yeah right. -what? IMHO, it is rapidly becoming one of those movie set towns, where the building looks authentic when viewed from the front; but if you look closely or view it from the back, you'll see that it was being barely held together by two by fours and duct tape. The only thing real is the facade, the rest of the building is fake or nonexistent. Dubai is a modern day version of this. The town is a shell with nothing of substance. It's a facade of speculation, fanciful artwork, and imagination. Take a real long hard look and you'll realize it's a house of cards.
^ i was reading the car park article a few weeks ago lol, quite amusing. What's going on in dubai is similar to Beijing during the olympics. The building of a lot of impressive infrastructure with no long term plans on how to utilize the new capital. I wish i was a bit older with more investment capabilities. I could have bought some houses on the Palm for 200 K and resold a month later for 1.2 million, but now its too late. The credit crunch could destroy dubai if they aren't careful
My understanding was, the same type of economic bail out that the US is giving to its own banks was preceded by a quiet bailout of Dubai by the United Arab Emirates several months ago. Dubai is what many in the US would classify as 'sub prime', meaning that they are people that have no way of paying money back, as they are simply living way beyond their means. The rapid flips of the real estate market was really a huge game of financial musical chairs. Well, the music has finally stopped. All the ones that don't have a place to sit down are now fleeing the country and leaving billions, if not trillions of bad debt behind. Well, it's nice to know that Arabs are just as stupid as us Americans when it comes to money and greed. :rolleyes2:
i would think that the only ones that can truely afford to live there are the oil sultans makin bank off of the oil that they sale to other countries and the ones who are true "dubian" who receive stipends from the government and all other cost are covered by the government
There's been similar news about Macau too and how the credit crunch is affecting the number of half-finished hotels/casinos from being completed.
There's a big distinction between Islamic faith and religious politics. Indeed, many aspects of extremist Islamic views have been looked upon as being religiously stagnant. Even within Muslim religious circles, there is great debate about the direction that Islamic faith should progress; should it change and adapt itself to the modern world or should it remain strictly fundamentalist in its interpretations and teachings. Some of these strict interpretations have been viewed as unchanged from that of hundreds of years ago, and hence is referenced by some (unfairly or not) as backwards, with an allegorical dark ages description. Of course, that is not to say that the entirety of Islam falls under such a view. There is a divergence even within Islam that may one day equal the profound split of the Catholic church heralded by the Protestant Reformation. It would do well for the world to keep an eye on the current Islamic religious power politics.
just wondering what will happend when the world's need for oil falls. What can they use the building/shops/parks/resorts/ect when nobody wants to live in a place with no water... But the projects are crazy. If I had LOTS of money I will likely do the same (or just buy a continent or two)...
