Posted on 09/12/2009 12:57:48 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
England is deserted, Australia and New Zealand have merged, and the man who bought Ireland has killed himself.
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, Sir Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland.
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.
Those who bought into what was the world’s most ambitious building project were not celebrities. Many were more ordinary investors who put down 70 per cent deposits, some of them Anglo-Indians. John O’Dolan, who fronted a consortium that bought Ireland in 2007 for $38 million (£27 million), committed suicide earlier this year. The others have little prospect of seeing a return. Now The World has stopped they can’t get off.
“The World has been cancelled. It doesn’t even look like
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
When the economy was steamrolling along, I admired the forward thinking. Was it extreme? I think it was borderline extreme. I still admire the concepts and the intent to pull it off. If the economy hadn’t tanked, these guys would have come off looking like geniuses. That’s how life works sometimes.
The one good thing, is that the Hollyweird celebrities won’t get top billing by owning one of these islands. Thank heaven. The idolatry rained upon them is already enough to gag a maggot.
I’m with you on gagged maggots. Now here’s an interesting thought~~~Dubai is having it’s debts called in and now Ahmad-e-Wack-Job now wants a say with the WH. How curious that is to say the least.
Undoubtedly, “The World” is just so over the top it’s beyond over the top.
WackJob certainly isn’t meeting w/da Arabs but the Arabs met w/Obeyme most recently i believe and all this including that pic of Obeyme bowing & scraping to “the King” and you know for the life of me when i first saw THAT pic i couldn’t believe my doubting eyes.
Vision re-adjusted is now 20-20 I no longer doubt,yes, I did see that pic. But ya’ know, I don’t think the Arabs are going to be happy for very long w/this situation.
Maybe THEY should get together w/Obeyme’s puppet master George Soros - have tea and talk.
Call me crazy but I don’t think the Arabs are going to go for the WackJob’s most recent proposals w/or w/o sanctions.
P.s.WackJob doesn’t give a flying fig about sanctions- he gets most everything he needs on the international black market including Japan, Germany, France, Itay
There’s an old saying in persian going something like this(english translation) “When persians starve, the Arab belly is full”(oil revenues) perhaps WackJob is about to fill the persian belly
I prefer the Taj Mahal.
At the top of The Palm they are dublicating Atlantis, Paradise Island that is in the Bahamas.
The google pic is Feb. 2009.
yitbos
google earth coords for the curious
25°13’58.49”N
55° 9’14.60”E
What was curious to me about this project...is that the guys who dreamed this up...thought that the ultra rich would come and “play” in this town? With summer temperatures like they are....this is a place where you’d prefer to avoid for six months out of the year. And there are a thousand better places to invest your wealth...and have more fun. This is a zero in terms of long-term gain.
Funny how these “oil rich” sheikdoms became welfare babies.
The populations became accustomed to receiving a govt. stipend while the oil boom went full bore.
Now that oil has halved in price they can’t afford the opulent projects and now have a populace used to getting those stipends.
Hope their populaces turn against their “rulers” in due time.
Couldn’t happen to more deserving.
Geezz...it’s really simple. From what I’ve seen on TV in the last 48hrs, ACORN can have the place sold out by 1:30pm EST this Monday just in time for Obamassiah’s Wall Street Economy speech.
I am kind of happy that more money is not being poured into Arab countries. Eventually that money will be used against us. The last place I would want to have a vacation get away is in an Arab controlled territory anyways.
They’re Moslems. Screw ‘em.
Dubai itself does not actually have much oil. It is all tourism and finance.
Dubai uses 3rd world slave labor to build this crappy resort and these Hypocrites deserve to take a bath.
Big LOL here!! The bubble economy..... the 0bama bubble
I think the Persian belly is still going to be a problem. Ahmad-e-Whack-Job is something like a family member going into a 7-11 with a gun. It isn’t going to turn out pretty, and the rest of the family will suffer.
Nice...
Thanks for the mention. No I hadn’t heard about it until now.
It is interesting to see that thing looking ‘built’, then to look at the parking lot with only a couple of cars parked near it.
Link:
http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/4845
I thought that was a road heading out to the top of The Palm. It’s actually a tram of sorts, and it seems to be operating in the photo.
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