Dubai exporting glamor
Haroon points out Dubai’s exporting of its glam hotels and hot spots as well as Sudan’s booming new economy. Unlike Haroon, it is my hope that perhaps this will “raise all the boats” and improve the overall economic condition in these places.
Certainly not everyone will be billionaires, but these projects can indirectly create many jobs - even aside from the gambling and alcohol related ones - and improve the quality of life overall.
Newsweek: Dubai remakes the world
The ambition is undeniable, but is there demand for such extravagant developments? “Cynicism about the ‘Dubai model’—that it was a bubble—is dead,” says Andrew Jeffreys, CEO of the Oxford Business Group, a regional consultancy. Jordan, Algeria and Syria face a severe shortage of luxury apartments and office spaces for rich locals, expat oil tycoons, Gulf millionaires wanting second homes or large businesses. In Syria, rents in small business towers are now as high as downtown Los Angeles. “It’s not ‘build and they will come,’ ” says Jeffreys, “It’s ‘build and they’re already here.’ “[MORE...]
As for Sudan, Haroon also points out that while the economic boom is going on in Khartoum, there is conflict in Darfur - and he makes some good points - but at the end of the day, if the economy is to continue to expand the conflict will have to come to an end. Right now the Sudanese government is resisting pressure to bring the conflict to an end, but in the long run, I don’t think that will last because war is not good for business. They will be pressured to end the conflict at some point by the business elite. Too much money involved.
NYT: War in Sudan? Not where the Oil Wealth flows
While one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises continues some 600 miles away in Darfur, across Khartoum bridges are being built, office towers are popping up, supermarkets are opening and flatbed trucks hauling plasma TV’s fight their way through thickening traffic.
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Link: How Dubai is ruining (what little is left of) the Muslim World
Filed under: Changing World
[...] Tariq Nelson has an alternative take on Haroon’s analysis of Dubai’s negative impact of exporting its brand of globalization to the rest of the Muslim world. Tariq states that this may create more jobs and make things better for everyone rather than just a few. It remains to be seen whether Tariq or Haroon is right. We can alsways hope for the best even in our postmodern condition, this is itself an irony of this condition. [...]
asalamu aleykum
i read on one blog that that salafis are against acadmics
i just thought to pass by and tell you am Salafi and what you say is not true!
and the moon is made of green cheese. Come by a salafi masjid in the US and tell them they are not against academics. I basically threw away the best years of my life with that mirage and now Im trying to put it back together from scratch. Im being sarcastic because I am angry
“asalamu aleykum
i read on one blog that that salafis are against acadmics
i just thought to pass by and tell you am Salafi and what you say is not true! ”
What does this post have to do with salafis Q8tiblogger?
On UAE, I would add that if the elite think they can run that place like a family corporation forever, they are dreaming. Twenty or thirty years down the road, all those foreigners that now make up the majority will make up ninety-five percent of the population and there will be some pretty wealthy members of that population, a large group of technocrats ready to take over in the blink of an eye. Change, when it comes, may resemble a corporate take-over more than anything else, but it will still be a coup.