March 15, 2005
The Palm Jumeirah
(flash) is part of a truly breathtaking holiday and residential development. The 'eighth wonder of the world', this involves the largest man-made islands in the world, in the shape of stylised palm trees. The great assets of the site include natural coral teeming with wildlife which is being enhanced with ambitious artifical reefs. But divers now say the site is an ecological catastrophe.
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Fuck the fish, let's do some terraforming for the rich, 'cos what they really need right now is an island shaped like a tree. Christ on a bike!
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hyper-real! report from 10,000: eventually rich people were able to live on a planet much like the earth, only better, with plentiful six star hotels, golf courses, helipads and such-and-such. we who only hoped to provide goods and services to these new gods had to make do with the real thing, a far less "info-taining" version located just beyond its perimeter. oh, and their one was pink. transmission ends.
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Mine was pink once too. Sorry, what are we talking about again...?
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if it's bad for marine life now, just wait until the people move in... slight derail, from the divernet article: this seems bizarre to me. where does rod stewart get that kind of money? still, he'll be able to sing about sailing all he wants, and i won't be able to hear him.
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Wot in the world in the world of folly is this?
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It is actually quite understandable that those in power want to flee the world they created and go to Disneyland instead. Three cheers for escapism!
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Every culture brings about buildings representative to them. The Aztecs built their pyramids to slaughter people on, the American Industrial Tycoons built scyscrapers so that they could look down on people from their top-floor bureaus and penthouses, Rome built the ridiculous St. Peters for intimidation and this one speaks of its times too. It is the ultimate in gated communities, a place to lock away the world.
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For some reason this place makes me think of the carniverous island in The Life of Pi. But then maybe I'm just wishing it were so...
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Pi... As in the number? /google Ahh. Is it a good book?
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Yup. Loved it to death- gory seafaring adventure with lots diversions into biology & religion thrown in. More than you ever wanted to know about French public swimming pools, too.
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It's gonna be fun when the oil money runs out and all those harbours and country-shaped islands start getting invaded by asian pirates. I hear they really love rich people.
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I loved Life of Pi too, never got the symbolism of the island, though. Nice post. What's the name of that tourist resort at the tip of the Yucatan Peninsula that's basically wrecked the local ecology? It reminds me of that.
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Oh, Cancun. I knew I'd remember right after I posted.
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Cancun, the proper hotel zone, is more like a chunk of Miami dropped on what was a barren island with white sand beaches all around. The danger is that there are plans in motion for expanding the tacky, air-climatized resort area all the way to the south of the peninsula, exerting a terrible impact on the ecological reserves there. Some proyects have been stopped due to green groups pressure, and political blunders; plans for a big cruise harbour in the Xcaret eco-park, that could have damaged the coral reefs, backfired due to economic interests.
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Wow. Just looked at the plans for The Palms at Jebel Ali. The inner crescent spells out a bit of poetry: "Take wisdom from the wise; Not everyone who rides a horse is a jockey." On these letters stand roughly 1,000 beach houses. Amazing.