Posted on 09/15/2009 11:21:20 AM PDT by opentalk
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. Instead it has become the world's most expensive shipping hazard,
(Excerpt) Read more at current.com ...
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.
Looks cool.
Alas, the world financial crisis has caused a financial crisis for “The World”.
looks like a good fishing area.
Good place to drop anchor and cast a few lines.
Looks like it would be a good setting for Hostel III.
parsy, who fears the super rich
I couldn’t decide between buying Camden, NJ or Somalia. Then I found a property here in VA overlooking the Assomoosick Swamp...
Might end up being a pretty cool dive site with all that underwater foundation work soon becoming reef.
Dang, I need to preview before I post, that first sentence is suppose to be, “ If I mysteriously become a billionaire...”
What a great idea!
Hopefully the World will still be there when the Depression ends.
A fantastic testimony to the vanity of this life. Wow.
OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Forgot the credit for “Ozymandias” to Percy Bysshe Shelley
We’re a pretty literate crew, attribution probably wasn’t all that necessary.
They should sell it to the UN. Every delegation its own island. Just add a place called “Memories of Turtle Bay” for the big bashes. Gaddhafi could even set up a permanent tent on Lybia. Obama could try his health bill on a small scale. Perfect and useful world...
Then they could lease the whole thing to the G20 during the holiday season.
Nice idea Dubai had with this. Just wrong market.
Wow. That Google map brings back memories. I miss Dubai. Great place!
Why, do you think they’re going to eat ya ?
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