Dubai

Like I said, the waste of money isn't even the point.

 

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It's atrocious and it promotes an atrocious ethic, to say nothing of the actual money wastage.

 

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It's an amazing feat to create islands when and where we want them and to build taller and taller buildings. We're getting better at it, too.

It is fairly pointless, on a global scale. To the developers, it's their retirement and then some. To the people who buy these places, it's keeping up with the Joneses and something to discuss at social gatherings. I'd say that the money will do some good. If you think about the amount of worker migrants who have gone to the UAE and are involved in the booming construction trade, then money is being moved around that part of the world quite well. They probably send money home to relatives, wives, family and so on, and the money is spent in their community.

The kind of people who have shitrakes of money to spend usually feel guilt-tripped or socially responsible to give money to charity, often to be seen giving money to charity, even if it's only to make themselves feel good.

Without the real estate, the islands, the glitz and the glam, I doubt any of these incredibly wealthy people would hand over any money. Without the construction, a lot of migrant workers would have less or no work, and I doubt money would spread as well to poor families throughout Africa the Middle East and Asia. Even if it isn't intentional, charitable effects are probably being seen more than if the construction didn't happen.

 

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pretty soulless city among empty people.

 

Wow... the difference between '91 and '05 is ridiculous. Where do they get all that money?

 

black gold, where else. good, while it lasts.

 

I've been informed that the building is done mostly by migrant workers from India. UAE does not give citizenship to foreigners, so those workers (who now make up a considerable portion of the population) live with no rights in awful conditions.

I've also been told that UAE has exhausted its oil reserves and is now servicing oil companies. The opportunities in finance and banking are great there.

That city is a great feat! Yes, it's all for artistic value and not much more, but consider that humans have been creating objects of plain artistic value ever since stone age. The architectural achievements in Dubai are a cool contribution to human civilization. If they can afford to do it, then why not? The money for the building projects comes from the citizens' pockets and it is the natives who live and work in the beautiful residential complexes. It's a great tourist attraction as well as a place where ex-patriots like to stay to make money and relax. American and Russian elite chill there all the time.

 

Is 32.7 the real number? Seems impossibly low.

Your movie going to 32.7 million is is like what 32.7 million to military budgets imo.

 

Have you been there? I have, and it's fucking amazing. Very peaceful actualy. If I had the dough, I'd move there in a New York minute!

~String

 

You don't want to know about the numbers of lives lost to make such locations prosper in regards to the oil industry.

 

according to some people on this board it's only the americans that suffer from corporate greed, it's only america that walks on the backs of the poor.
objective indeed.

 

never been there...but they disgust me.

 

My grandparents live there. They took me to the Ice Bar. It was FREAKING AWESOME. Exemplary architecture and very innovative.

 

So you don't like people making aesthetic improvements to their environment or you just don't like their taste?

 

I remember reading a quote from a Roman Senator visiting the Great Pyramids and lamenting what a colossal waste of time, energy and money building them were. But who could imagine a world without those monuments. Dubai is building a legacy.

 

I don't get why people criticize other people for building something artistic and beautiful. People have always starved and lived in horrible conditions-- if we forwent all artistic expression out of some passion for the redistribution of wealth (and wealth has always been the patron of the arts), then there'd be nothing worth remembering. The old world is loaded with fulsome expenditures which people respect as historic and vital to our culture, but when modern society does the same thing we get lots of annoying caterwauling about that smack of proletariat utilitarianism.

Societies rise and fall, but it's the art that are remembered.

~String

 

I'm not sure about the Islands, with global warming and islands in the pacific sinking under the rising water, maybe a waste of money. But I really like the mega structure / super sky scraper they are building. ITS HUGE. Anyway, what is money anyway? It's not going to feed the starving because its not edible. It simply a manner in which to motivate people to work.

So I say keep building Dubai!

Also, Dubai needs to remake itself in order to be relevant in a oil-less world. They are literally building their future.