Dubai: a city built on sand

[marmar]

from the Guardian UK:



Dubai: a city built on sand
Before the desert sands close over its luxury follies, lessons should be learned – number one, don't believe the hype

Simon Jenkins
guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 November 2009


Was anywhere heading for a fall so obviously as Dubai? Yet why did no one ever scream? Why did everyone just marvel?

When I first visited the place three years ago, it was already the most dangerous speculative bubble on earth. Breakneck building – using reputedly a quarter of the world's cranes – was sustained on hysterical public relations and $80bn of debt.

By last March the signs of impending doom were everywhere. Property and stock market prices were falling and only the PR firms were still sustaining morale, witness a cringing ITV documentary by Piers Morgan and grovelling coverage of Sol Kerzner's "world's biggest" hotel launch. Building projects worth a reported $300bn were stopping work overnight.

Yet anyone who wrote a word of the impending doom was excoriated. The Guardian was subjected to a campaign of abusive emails when I reflected on the clear parallel with Shelley's Ozymandias and his trunkless legs of stone: "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." What had I against Dubai, they complained. Why could I not recognise the future in Dubai's glorious confidence and its open welcome to the world? The enclave's dictator, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, told critics simply: "Shut up."

....(snip)....

The moral is, don't believe public relations when it flies in the face of history. Don't believe those who say their credit is secure against nothing more solid than a villa bought off-plan by a few Hollywood celebrities. Above all, don't believe the financial press, which did more than anything to boost the self-delusion and architectural bombast of the Dubai authorities. They were fooling you as well as themselves. ..................

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/27/dubai-desert-lessons

[jimshoes]

1. Say , didn't they buy our sea ports

or loading docks or something along those lines?

[FarCenter]

3. They purchased the port management contracts owned by the British firm P&O

But due to opposition they sold them to AIG!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai_Ports_World_controversy

"Dubai Ports World eventually sold P&O's American operations to American International Group's asset management division, Global Investment Group for an undisclosed sum.<1>"

[Greyhound]

2. Just to reiterate, never, ever, ever, never believe the financial "press".

They exist for only one purpose, to advance the global Ponzi scheme and generate commissions, for without constant income flowing in at the bottom, the whole scam collapses and the players are exposed as the cons they are.