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January 2010 Edition
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Dubai's Tower of Debt
By: Laura Flanders
New
year, new symbol? Dubai’s new tower fits. The $1.5 billion building unveiled
in downtown Dubai Monday is the world’s new tallest tower. More than half a
mile high, more than two Empire State buildings tall, the Dubai tower boasts
169 stories, the world’s highest swimming pool, the world’s highest place of
worship, and the world’s tallest mountain of denial.
History repeats. Like the Empire State building before it, the Dubai tower
was built in a global depression when cheap labor was plentiful, as were the
dreams of the ambitious and affluent.
The engineering marvel was constructed in the desert heat by low paid
immigrant workers, mostly Indians and Pakistanis, paid 5-20 dollar a day.
(It’s a state secret how many lost their lives in the process.) While the
state-owned construction operation suppressed worker demands and banned
unions from the site, it catered to consumer fantasy with equal
extravagance. The tower features 144 apartments and a hotel designed by
Giorgio Armani, the Italian designer. In the super scraper, the
super-affluent can live and vacation without leaving the brand, or the
building.
On Monday, Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed and his Chicago-based architects hailed
their building as a symbol of future good all things great. There’s just one
glitch. According to the Sunday Times, that future involves melting the
equivalent of 28 million pounds of ice a day for air conditioning, and the
consumption of billions of gallons of desalinated water in a city-state that
already has the world’s highest per-capita carbon footprint.
The climate actually changes as you ride the elevator. It’s way, way hotter
at the bottom. The engineers are doing everything in their power to counter
physics and so far so good. But rising heat of a far less metaphorical sense
already struck in the form of economics.
In last minute switch at its inauguration Monday night, the Burj Dubai
(“Dubai Tower”) was renamed the Burj Khalifa. It was a rather ignominious
concession to reality. Sheikh Khalifa, the head of Abu Dhabi, Dubai’s oil
rich neighbor, has repeatedly saved Dubai from financial collapse during the
construction of the tower most recently, just three weeks back when
devastating defaults beckoned.
It’s hardly a win for the hot people at the bottom, but it’s a big hit for
Dubai's would-be cool and competitive leaders. Theirs is a tower of debt.
How perfect. Welcome to the decade.
About the Author:
Is the host of GRITtv, which
broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. More...9415 Free
Speech TV) on cable, public television and online at GRITtv.org and
TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GritLaura on Twitter.com.
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