Extravagant Dubai island project sinks under weight of the credit crunch

// added September 14, 2009 // 62 comments //
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Vierotchka

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http://www.independent.ie/world-news/middle-east/extravagant-dubai-is...

THE Galwayman who bought Ireland is dead, England is deserted, while Australia and New Zealand have merged.

They were designed to make Dubai the envy of the world: a series of paradise islands inhabited by celebrities and the super-rich reclaimed from the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a map of the Earth. It was called The World.

As millions of tonnes of rock were dumped into the sea for the foundations, timely leaks suggested that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were to buy Ethiopia, Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland.

Hazard

Instead it has become the world's most expensive shipping hazard, guarded by private security in fast boats and ringed by warning buoys to keep the curious away.

A development that was meant to send Dubai's star into the firmament of First World cities has been left to the mercy of the waves and the baking winds.

Mile after mile of breakwater built from boulders brought hundreds of miles by ship has been laid, but inside its man-made lagoon, work has completely stopped.

The expected map of the world of 300 islands is instead a disjointed and desolate collection of sandy blots -- a monumental folly just out of sight of Dubai's shore.

*******

More at link.

Rising seas due to climate change would have drowned these islands anyway.
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62 comments // Extravagant Dubai island project sinks under weight of the credit crunch

  • Solarlife
  • hunzedog
  • Betico
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • Betico:

      I hope it fails. Its luxury islahds for the world's richest people where they can go and get away from all the slave wages and just plain slaves who helped them acquire their wealth.

      I hope it sinks beneath the sea.

    • 5 months ago
  • privateibber
  • privateibber
  • privateibber
    • 0
      privateibber  

    • What happened to this big waste of money?
      Wonder if the teacups are surrounded by kids who still dont' have electricity or fresh water.
      This is what I mean by who the hell sets the priorities.
      Where did they money come from? Did they get a bailout?
      What in the heck is going on? Does anyone remember anything that happened before Michael's sudden death?
      This is one year ago.

    • 5 months ago
  • privateibber
    • 0
      privateibber  

    • What have these folks in that man made piece of ugliness ever contributed to the world in anything that is not just opulent yuk?

      I'm going back to the music section. This is a waste of time.\
      These were the people that were going to sell us down the river with five dollar a gallon gas in order to invest in "emerging economies" such as India and China. Maria Bartiromo intereviewed their CEO a couple of years ago and it was the greatest American insult of all time. He called us "no longer an industrial or producer nation but nothing but a CONSUMER nation." He was an American working for the main fund wing of the Dubai government. Check it out. It was disgusting and he was smug and arrogant and then the bottom fell out. Just like Pericles addressing the citizens of Athenian Empire about their exceptionality and inability to fail.
      Same happened in Roman Empire. You know the story.

    • 5 months ago
  • privateibber
    • 0
      privateibber  

    • Carmalite is correct. Look at the giving patterns of poor and rich. When the tax codes were changed for donations to non profits, they suffered terribly. It was a great write off. When that shrunk, the tithings changed completely.

      Take a look at major charities and who gives what. Check out the Dubai government and holders and see what they gave. That's why they have people in the streets begging for a few coins in front of their holy sites.
      Charity is cultural. Some cultures do not the theory of giving for it's own sake. "What do I get in return?" Prove me wrong. I'd love it.

    • 5 months ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • privateibber:

      I think it is cultural and personally a moral issue. I know people who are not wealthy who donate a large amount in proportion to income and then there are very rich people who are hoarders.
      What I find interesting is that some of the most affluent who do not donate, are the very one screaming that everything should be left to chairities and that there should be no public institutions to help the poor.
      I imagine the bankers who ripped everyone off were not a giving bunch.

    • 5 months ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  

    • Oh so sad. All those billionairs from all over the world might not have this new luxury place to live. Oh how sad.
      And alll the rich investors might lose money. So sad.

    • 5 months ago
  • krush_productions
  • bailey78
    • 0
      bailey78  

    • Well maybe you can get a good deal on your own Island. providen you want to buy a peice of property that you can never live on. Oh yea! I want to buy canada.

    • 5 months ago
  • Marcellus
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • Still like the "Risk" idea. Just allow the Somali pirates free reign in the surrounding waters, that will liven up the game! Cant move your "pieces" if the pirates take-em! Now HOW FUN is that! Move the "chitsnmarkers" with fully loaded super-tankers for excitement,.....and with all the blood and oil in the water, break out the "optional rules"! (Say,..........whose got a match.) GOD you have to love the game of capitalism/nationalism/egoism/fanaticism/play-the-game ism.

    • 5 months ago
  • agreeablestatistic
    • 0
      agreeablestatistic  

    • dubai will do better in the future though since most its services are luxury oriented of course most people would avoid it during recession when the economy starts showing growth tourism will increase and dubai will become the most important financial center in the middle east. it was wise to spend their money like this or they'd have nothing when oil runs out. i dont know why current hates rich people so much if you have money you spend it and that alone helps poor people. i guess you dont think about the fact that building and maintaining these projects creates jobs that are filled up by the "poor" who in turn spends their money to create more jobs.

    • 5 months ago
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  

    • Hmm. Sure the money these guys have spent and will spend will fix the problem. They won't give up.
      Too, bad they get money selling resources to us that we're sitting on.
      Like letting your crop rot but pay a premium price to buy the same crop from a foriegn country getting filthy rich on the crop. That's another reason they think we Americans are crazy.....

    • 5 months ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • nursediesel:

      I saw a special on the documentary channel about this.
      They are planning ways to keep making money after their oil goes away and this"resort" thing for the richest in the world in one of their ideas, besides being a hiding place for people who are billionairs but don't want to pay taxs.

    • 5 months ago
  • nursediesel
  • skyking3525
  • booksellergirl
  • ras_menelik
  • Jjjjason7
  • J_Jammer
    • 0
      J_Jammer [removed]  

    • Kind of hard for the rich to care about the poor when they don't have worries.....

      rich and poor are not that much different. Just like Democrat and Republican.

      But it's cute people try to create this massive canyon. It's entertaining.

    • 5 months ago
  • Nocturnus
    • 0
      Nocturnus  

    • I really feel bad for the rich.Kinda hard to care about this if you are wondering were your next meal is coming from. Karma is a Bitch .. OIL PROFITS = WEATLH + PRIVATE ISLAND + GLOBAL WARMING / Sinking Island

    • 5 months ago
  • booksellergirl
    • 0
      booksellergirl  
    • Nocturnus:

      You are so right. Karma IS a Bitch and she's been taking names. I knew that something was up when I saw that some former real estate agents have been stripping to make the rent and that NYC has been storing homeless people in empty luxury condo complexes. Is this reverse gentrification? In any case, it kinda tickles my funny bone.

    • 5 months ago
  • AlbeeYap
  • J_Jammer
  • freshfish
  • J_Jammer
  • hollyMiamiFla
  • J_Jammer
  • dondonyen
    • 0
      dondonyen  
    • J_Jammer:

      It's not hate for people with money, its hate for what they're doing with it. People should care because they have the rich have power to affect positive change in the lives of those not as fortunate as themselves. Your attitude is disgusting, and your logic is flawed. If i can't do as the rich do, i have no room to demand anything? The actions of the rich have reprocussions for huge amounts of people all over the world. We aren't control freaks because we are disgusted with projects like this, we have perspective on what could be done with the billions of dollars they have wasted on a playground for the wealthy. Also there is plenty of room to demand quite alot from the individually wealthy, as they have the power to help so many people if they chose to spend their money on something other than creating islands they can drive their yachts around. And don't think the profits from this venture will be generously given to all the lower class working the jobs it creates. It will still be the ones at the top stuffing their pockets.

      and I also agree, fuck off.

    • 5 months ago
  • shanklinmike
    • 0
      shanklinmike  
    • J_Jammer:

      The problem is, everyone wants everyone else to do what they want. Most people could do more than they are doing right now, but complaining is just easier and it might actually have short-term gains like getting the government to steal to give to others, ignoring the long-run consequences of violence, coercion, and the fraud that comes with politics. Too often, people actually put faith in this lala government magic that isn't so. They want to believe that the bureaucrats are altruistic, but in all reality, only the market/or the lack of the market is responsible for the varying living standards of most people. Freer societies are more prosperous, tribal totalitarianism and corporate/government interests have drained Africa of any freedoms and left them with complete statism, even based around corporate charity to dictators. People are just too lazy, too lazy to research, too lazy to work to better the world around them.....no, American Idol and bitching is much easier than sweat and tears....

      I feel bad for all the people living in abject poverty because of fascism/socialism/central planning.

    • 5 months ago
  • nursediesel
  • J_Jammer
  • hollyMiamiFla
  • J_Jammer
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  
    • J_Jammer:

      Dear Sweet Holly, I'm so sorry you don't understand that we have allowed ourselves to be outlawed in this country (USA) to drill for and use the resources we have right here beneath us... Instead we must buy at exorbitant prices the same resources from the Middle East!
      As for the potty mouth, if someone 'peed in your Wheaties' a little soap in the mouth will fix it, LOL! =D

    • 5 months ago
  • booksellergirl
  • dondonyen
    • 0
      dondonyen  
    • J_Jammer:

      Short term gains like government stealing and ignoring violence, fraud, and corruption? Socialism? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. Those aren't gains, and no one mentioned anything your blabbering about. Same to you nurse diesel, neither of you said anything relevant.

      At least "complaining" fosters improvement, while complacency and adversity to change accomplishes nothing. You might want to research why the "markets" are the way they are in Africa, because you seem to know jackshit, as you typed a paragraph of nothing substantial.

    • 5 months ago
  • NotFooled
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  
    • J_Jammer:

      The vast majority of people in the world are just keeping themselves fed, and the middle class in America is slowely going away. So you expect people to feel guilty because some obsecenly greedy rich people make a bad investment in an island created community? I don't think so.
      The entire Walton family donated 6000 to chairity one year. I know Southern Baptistst who donate more to their church. The rich do not give more proportionately than other classes.

    • 5 months ago
  • privateibber
    • 0
      privateibber  

    • Dubai is doing just fine. Take a look at their holdings. Not too shabby. Maybe the fake everything just died because it had no soul and was just conspicuously disgusting. I would think any place that is so wealthy and has so little pity for it's nearby impoverished brethren just melts away in it's own flash. Hell, it made Las Vegas look like the Vatican on Holy Week. Although well funded it was so much cheezier than LV could ever hope to be. I just wanted to see it succeed so I could see it get tacky and then have people wearing SHIT HAPPENS tee shirts with flip flops in the big hotel lobbies. That's gonna bug me.

    • 5 months ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • "Risk" would kind of make it come alive for me as well,...hmmmmmmm; perhaps giant square balloons in primary colors holding "territories and continents"? Sort of a "fun with jihad" sort of thing, should go over well.

    • 5 months ago
  • hunzedog
  • bailey78
  • Vierotchka
  • J_Jammer
  • unimatrix0
    • 0
      unimatrix0  

    • There was always something ugly and perverse about that project. The utter waste of manpower, energy and resources was hubris, and an empty and shallow vanity.

    • 5 months ago
  • ampersand
  • pandaman2105
    • 0
      pandaman2105  
    • unimatrix0:

      totally!!!! i don't get dubai's goal of wanting to be THE #1 DESTINATION IN THE WORLD. It's pretty grotesque and too extravagantly selfish.

      all the money, energy, off-land development, worker exploitation and extremist luxury pisses me off.

      how about the UAE trying to use some money to help their fellow Middleastern countries better themselves.

      i mean, C'MON, five man-made islands, an underwater hotel, those fucking indoor skiing monstrosities????

      the people are rich enough to fly to a real resort anywhere in the world!

    • 5 months ago
  • TheEmpireGuy
  • Manatee_man
  • TheEmpireGuy
    • 0
      TheEmpireGuy  

    • I had planned to own several islands in Antarctica, found the nation of Anticia (Pronounced "Ann-Tie-Cia"), build my army and naval forces, and then invade Australia.

      MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!

    • 5 months ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  

    • I watched an expose' on this project on some DishTV
      satelite network channel. I would have continued surfing the channels had I not tuned in as a Dutch engineering company's spokeperson was commenting on their work. The Dutch have hundreds of years of experience in keeping the sea out. And since I mean to be a Dutch national after I emigrate there, I spent a little while to see what they had to say. And then I watched the Dubai Big Oil corporate bean counter emotionaly concerned that Billions of dollars were at stake as though he were some humanitarian talking about Billions of lives being at stake. As soon as I saw that I shook my head and came to the conclusion that only monkeys could come up with the lame idea of buring fossil fuels in the first place instead of financialy sustainable recyclable electrical energy. That only monkeys could consider it perfectly OK to allow a world wide Big Oil Monopoly to continue for 150 years, bankrupting many of the industrialized nations in the world as Nicolas Tesla forcast would occur in 1900. And that only monkeys could presume the effects of their oil sale wealth would not be disolved like sand castles washing away with the tide as world wide water levels rose from ice melt. Want to end the bad habit those Dubai idiot shits have of burning your money to light their cigars with ? Then refuse to buy anything but an all electric vehicle. When you continue to support that vicious cycle of patronizing auto makers whom Big Oil has in their pocket you may as well give a monkey matches and let him loose in a dry forrest. The people of California know what the effects of climate imbalance are. They have to watch as their forrests burn. Ironicaly, it's the trees producing CO2 that are nature's only way of restoring the balance. So when you give no thought to the consequences of fueling up
      you're mindlessly helping to drown someone's grandchildren. Electric cars are due out this year.
      Even better ones are due out next year. It's human to think ahead. The more you develop yourself to be able to, the more homo sapiens you are. Better than monkey see, monkey do huh ? As for the "World Islands" shrinking under the weight of the credit crunch,.. Trust me. That's nothing compared to how heavy water is. Waste not, want not.

    • 5 months ago
  • CMartel2
    • 0
      CMartel2  
    • PressCore:

      You act as if California never had wildfires before this
      "global warming" scam. I find it quite hilarious that you're all over the corporate greed of big oil yet seem to have no qualms with all the profiteers on this "global warming" nonsense. As someone involved in actual scientific research (granted, medical research), let me not be the first to say that the "science" used to predict this "global warming" is at best weak and very rarely based on any substantial data. Were that not the case, you'd actually see these models putting forth a bit of truth. Instead, they're wrong again and again. Ever wonder why men like Algore have sunk millions into "green companies? *rolls eyes* Scare tactics have a way of working quite well. You're obviously sold hook, line, and sinker.

    • 5 months ago
  • Vierotchka
  • artist_al_fine
  • pjacobs51
  • regjoeschmo
  • Progresshiv
  • FallenMorgan

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