If you're into architecture and buildings you'll get a kick out of these pics: Dubai is F-ing nuts The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands. They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space. Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel. Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2006.
Those are amazing architectural/engineering feats. I saw this on a special on Dateline NBC a month or so ago and although these are beautiful, the laborers working on these are pretty much slaves. They get paid pennies per hour and live in horrible conditions (worse conditions than the horses the king/prince owns)...They said he once spend over 60 million dollars on 2 horses yet treats laborers building his beautiful kingdom like slaves. It was really sad to see. Some info on the human rights violations: LINK
I guess all great monuments were built with slaves... pyramids for example anyways.. very nice architecture. It's nice to see places and such that I will never ever ever ever even dream about affording to go to.
Impressive. And a little tacky. It's like what would happen if everyone in a trailer park won the lottery and decided to pool their money to build a super-island: 'Let's build an island, ya'll!' 'In the shape of uh...palm tree!' 'Hyuk!'
i've seen the palm islands on discovery channel, however the underwater hotel is all new to me. that's amazing. have y'all seen the indoor skiing/snowboarding mountain they have in that thar desert? http://www.skidubai.com/ nice.
" . . .they said the streets were made of gold but whoever paved that sh*t . .got minimum wage too " - The Coup Such Grandness demonstrates the greatness of humanity the way it is accomplished demonstrates the deprivatity and inhumanity of humanity Rocket River
Recent archeaological evidence has shown that the pyramids weren't built by slaves, Hebrew and otherwise, but instead by Egyptian farmers who would work on the pyramids during the non-growing periods. I will see if I can find a link.
I've been hearing a lot of stuff about he Palm Islands. The one thing I wonder about them, and the underwater hotel, is what are weather conditions like in the Persian Gulf? Is it subject to cyclonic storms? If so then those projects are probably going to be toast the first time a big storm hits. Also man-made islands takes a big toll on the environment as silt from the construction smothers coral and other environments. Design wise I agree with Xerobull, tacky, then again I've worked on some pretty tacky projects so I can't complain.
You touched on the biggest problem with the Palm Islands. There are actually 3 sets of man-made island patterns that are planned. (The palm being the first) Originally, it was thought that water would just flow through the cracks in the Palm Islands to move silt out. However, they later discovered that water takes the path of least resistance and goes around the islands meaning everything trapped within them becomes stagnant and just continues to have large silt buildup. The architecture team basically hasn't found a solution and has settled on just periodically removing the silt buildup. There isn't any coral reefs in that area but I'm sure there are significant environmental impacts nontheless. Also, Dubai has more wacky stuff. They're building two seperate malls that are competing with each other to become the largest in the world. They're building the largest indoor skiing complex. They're building the largest waterpark in the world and of course they're trying to build the largest building. Dubai is the epitomy of decadence and spending but it's a blast there and is probably the most liberal area of the Middle East.
I haven't been there in 4 years, but from the pictures it seems the place is just exploding with development. I guess they want to be a Las Vegas for the world in the middle east. I respect that their government wishes to promote building and commerce so when the oil runs out they won't be turned into congo or niger like the other oil producing countries will be. The only question though is if they are able to maintain that open nature to the world through commerce and development or will a new monarch take (such as the very conservative King's brother) take charge and seize international assets and Islamicize (don't know if thats a word) the country. As one who believes in risk management, I'd visit these areas but would be weary of oppressed arab nations and the hatred and resentment they seem to foster towards their people. I know that UAE and Qatar are making changes to promote democracy, but the will of the people may be contrary to what international investors want.
This is a metaphor saying that until we change our reliance on oil, the Middle East will have us by the nuts. And they'll keep squeezing and building phallic hotel resorts just to mock us. More power to them, though, I would do the same thing.
The UAE is different though. It's incredibly decentralized and each emirate wields significant power in determining its own policy. So while Dubai is more liberal, other emirates can mandate more conservative policy. If Dubai has staked out its policy on being liberal and embracing the idea of being a global tourist destination then nothing will stop that. Other countries should worry about having some conservative take power but Dubai won't have that issue. The people there strongly benefit from their economic growth and won't do anything to mess that up.
Dubai doesn't have any oil money. Their GDP is only about 5% oil money. Dubai is the model for a non-oil reliant Arab nation.
That seems like a big problem and one that would come about from trying to impose an artificial shape without considering the natural current pattern. In addition to the artificial lagoons silting up I could see the coast around the eroding and building up in unexpected ways as they disrupt currents. To keep that palm shape they're probably going to have to do a lot of dredging and redepositing for years.
