Monday, March 27, 2006

One Big Construction Site: Insane in the membrane

samuraisam has a deep attachment to Dubai bordering on affection. He wants to see Dubai succeed. So, take note when he writes:

Possible reasons for building the Burj Dubai
- Because it’ll be the worlds tallest building, and everyone will know about Dubai
- Because it’s pretty, it’ll become a world landmark
- Because it’ll increase tourism
- Because it’ll highlight how [expletive deleted] laborers are treated in Dubai, and everyone will know that Dubai is built on exploited employment (and has pretty towers)
Does anyone else sense the vast contradiction in building it? Is there any point in such a vast investment if it’s going to be made entirely redundant by the fact that it’s going to attract negative attention?

Why not a good 10 year or so wait until it actually looks like Dubai is ready to be in the world spotlight?

3 Comments:

Blogger samuraisam said...

thank you for linking!

5:50 PM  
Blogger flamin said...

Warning. This is going to be a long reply and it is likely to get off-topic in parts (or most). So bear with me.

UAE is my home and when I started blogging, it really annoyed me to see people rant constantly. Yet, a few months later, I now try to segregate the patriotic bias from the expat life and I can see the difference. You either have the patriots or you have the rants. There's no middle-path. Anyway, today I was mentioning this to a local friend, how Dubai is changing rapidly. I'm not sure it is 'evolving', but I know it is 'changing'. We're spinning so fast that we are struggling to keep up the pace and we're losing out so many other things in the process.

Cultural identity is one part.

I was proud of Dubai Marina when it was announced because it was one-of-a-kind THEN. Now, the whole area near DM is unrecognisable. To be honest, it doesn't make me proud.

It's losing the essence. Why are we spinning so fast? Where are we going to land? WHY are we moving so fast anyway? Who wants this change?

I think proper values and living conditions in the country will speak volumes, compared to a mute, tall building. Any country can make the tall tower and add ONE more floor to it and nudge Dubai out of the Guiness Book. How difficult is that?

I wish there was a soul to all this. But these buildings are cheap gloss: seemingly beautiful from the outside but empty from the inside. I wonder who will live in them.

As much as I wish to be proud of it, I am not. I wish Shk Zayed (Allah yr7ama) was still alive and I wish it was still the 80s.

9:13 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Dubai is the city of the future. It is the city of wonders, this city came from no were to be one of the most important cities in the word. Dubai has many projects that seem unreal, but they made it real. I have heard a lot of about amazing and breathtaking Dubai property constructions, that is why so many tourists are really willing to visit Dubai, to see the masterpieces alive. I visited Dubai last summer. And I also was impressed with Dubai's progress and magnificent buildings and architecture. These Burj Dubai,World and Palm Islands, Dubailand, and other projects like the underwater hotel etc. are wonderful.
Thanks for nice blog.

4:34 PM  

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