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[Sheikh N Bake]

An excerpt from an article on Dubai:

[Dubai is] a modern-day Casablanca on steroids, a soon-to-be over-the-top, oversized, outlandish version of Las Vegas that even without the casinos will make Vegas look like a quiet hamlet in Vermont where the biggest excitement came in 1952 when Mad Dog Madden chopped down Mortimer Pumblechook�s maple tree in a fit of syrup-producer envy. Forthcoming developments in Dubai are supposed to include replicas of the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, giant ships in the middle of the desert and, according to one account, �a huge snow dome that looks like Superman�s home planet.�

Until then, Dubai�s got pubs, nightclubs (yes, alcohol flows freely), really big malls (Emirates Mall has an indoor ski slope), tropically landscaped beaches and the world�s highest concentration of hotels.

�Ah,� says my mythical cigarette-smoking fat man in the hotel caf�, �And how long do you staaayyy in Casablanca?--I mean, Dubai?�

�Who can tell, sir--who can tell?� I reply, patting my inside pocket to feel the letters of transit that are signed by General De Gaulle and cannot be rescinded or even questioned. �I live in Dubai. Perhaps I will die in Dubai.�

By 2008 this smog-encrusted jewel by the sea will supposedly have a quarter-million British residents installed in their newly owned condos (built by Pakistani laborers laboring under slave-like conditions and wages). The Brits have apparently eschewed the old Spanish Costas for the more cosmopolitan trappings of Dubai. But do they know the temperature in Dubai soars to 120 degrees F. with 90% humidity? Thank goodness for air-conditioned malls with indoor ski slopes. Who knows--fake London-style drizzles and fog may be just around the corner from that Burberry shop.

Well...an update from The Guardian lists the British population as 100,000, and I seriously doubt that most of them are living in condos that they bought. Also, apparently a new tower is in the planning stages; it will be 3200 feet high and have 40 other towers around it. They will have the world's largest airport too. This is all supposed to take ten years to build.

And then what?? My money is on a replica of Mt. Everest, only it has to be 33,000 feet high.

[007]

Well, may God bless Shaikh Muhammed bin Rashid al-Maktum for his innovation, generosity, and efforts to modernise the tribes of UAE and put them in the correct place amongst world nations, and for creating more jobs for the needy people like the EFL/ESLers and the tribes of Mickey Mouse!

[Sui Generis]

[veiledsentiments]

Actually... I remember AD did have fog some mornings.

VS

[Sheikh N Bake]

If you build it, they will come.

That is the thinking in Dubai ruling circles.

I might add, "If you pay CNN and others millions of dollars to portray it as paradise on earth, with fake news features 20 times a day, they will come. "