Dubai's Climate-Controlled Dome City Is a Dystopia Waiting To Happen 265
Daniel_Stuckey writes: Dubai is building "the world's first climate-controlled city" — it's a 4.3 mile pedestrian mall that will be covered with a retractable dome to provide its shoppers with air conditioning in the summer heat. The Mall of the World, as it's called, will become the sort of spectacular, over-the-top attraction Dubai is known for. Shortly after, it will probably become an equally spectacular real-world dystopia.
By sectioning off a 3-million-square-foot portion of the city with an air conditioned dome, Dubai is dropping one of the most tangible partitions between the haves and the have nots of the modern era—the 100 hotels and apartment complexes inside the attraction will be cool, comfortable, and nestled into a entertainment-filled, if macabre, consumer paradise."
By sectioning off a 3-million-square-foot portion of the city with an air conditioned dome, Dubai is dropping one of the most tangible partitions between the haves and the have nots of the modern era—the 100 hotels and apartment complexes inside the attraction will be cool, comfortable, and nestled into a entertainment-filled, if macabre, consumer paradise."
Re:Not about jealousy, but ... (Score:5, Informative)
If you look at the pictures, it's mostly enclosed walkways connecting all the buildings.
It's easier to cool a building if you're not pissing your cold air out the doors.
Re:Fetishising nature + this is after all a desert (Score:3, Informative)
What you say would have more merit if there was free choice for these Bangladeshi people to come and go. Why have their passports been confiscated? Why is there not a viable means (steerage in low cost cargo ships) for them to return home if they wish? The arrangement as it stands amounts to what is called 'Indentured Servitute' which is a fancy name for slavery.
Extra points, though, for trying to turn the issue into something 'dirty and sexual' by using the term fetishise. Tell your masters to give you an extra bonus for your effort, because you've written some excellent propaganda.
Re:Not about jealousy, but ... (Score:4, Informative)
If you read the news from Europe these days, they seem to be doing exactly that.
Re:Dubai has bigger problems (Score:4, Informative)
Forget the fact that once the oil's gone the wealth remaining in the region will leach away as there's so few people (though it'll take a very long time).
Dubai and the other Emirates are acutely aware of the limits to their oil reserves.
They've been very busy turning their States into financial and trade hubs for the Arabian Peninsula,
with plenty of free trade zones (no taxes on corporate income) in order to draw in international corporations.
My advice: Bilk Dubai for all its worth now, because in 50 years it'll be a distant memory of largesse gone awry by modern standards.
Your advice is wrong.
Abu Dhabi is the 800 lb gorilla in the UAE and has the 2nd largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
As long as Dubai's royal family goes along with Abu Dhabi's Sheikh, Dubai can keep borrowing money until the end of time.
/The last time Dubai needed cash, they had to reform some laws as a condition set by Abu Dhabi.
Re:Not about jealousy, but ... (Score:3, Informative)
If you buy gasoline, it was probably your money they used.
No, it is their money that they used. Once you traded your money for gasoline, it's no longer your money. If you don't like that then don't make the trade, nobody is forcing you to do so.