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Sinister Paradise
Does the
Road to the Future End at Dubai?
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First Published on Thursday, July 14, 2005 by TomDispatch.com
by Mike Davis |
The narration begins: As your jet starts its
descent, you are glued to your window. The scene
below is astonishing: a 24-square-mile archipelago
of coral-colored islands in the shape of an almost
finished puzzle of the world. In the shallow green
waters between continents, the sunken shapes of the
Pyramids of Giza and the Roman Coliseum are clearly
visible.
In the distance are three other
large island groups configured as palms within
crescents and planted with high-rise resorts,
amusement parks, and a thousand mansions built on
stilts over the water. The "Palms" are connected by
causeways to a Miami-like beachfront chock-a-block
full of mega-hotels, apartment high-rises and yacht
marinas.
As the plane slowly banks toward
the desert mainland, you gasp at the even more
improbable vision ahead. Out of a chrome forest of
skyscrapers (nearly a dozen taller than 1000 feet)
soars a new Tower of Babel. It is an impossible
one-half-mile high: the equivalent of the Empire
State Building stacked on top of itself.
You are still rubbing your eyes
with wonderment and disbelief when the plane lands
and you are welcomed into an airport emporium where
hundreds of shops seduce you with Gucci bags,
Cartier watches, and one-kilogram bars of solid
gold. You make a mental note to pick up some
duty-free gold on your way out.
The hotel driver is waiting for
you in a Rolls Royce Silver Seraph. Friends have
recommended the Armani Hotel in the 160-story tower
or the seven-star hotel with an atrium so huge that
the Statue of Liberty would fit inside, but instead
you have opted to fulfill a childhood fantasy. You
always have wanted to be Captain Nemo in Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
Your jellyfish-shaped hotel is,
in fact, exactly 66 feet below the sea surface. Each
of its 220 luxury suites has clear Plexiglas walls
that provide spectacular views of passing mermaids
as well as the hotel's famed "underwater fireworks:"
a hallucinatory exhibition of "water bubbles,
swirled sand, and carefully deployed lighting." Any
initial anxiety about the safety of your sea-bottom
resort is dispelled by the smiling concierge. The
structure has a multi-level failsafe security
system, he reassures you, that includes protection
against terrorist submarines as well as missiles and
aircraft.
Although you have an important
business meeting at the Internet City free-trade
zone with clients from Hyderabad and Taipei, you
have arrived a day early to treat yourself to one of
the famed adventures at the Restless Planet dinosaur
theme park. Indeed, after a soothing night's sleep
under the sea, you are aboard a monorail headed for
a Jurassic jungle. Your expedition encounters some
peacefully grazing Apatosaurs, but you are soon
attacked by a nasty gang of velociraptors. The
animatronic beasts are so flawlessly lifelike -- in
fact, they have been designed by experts from the
British Museum of Natural History -- that you shriek
in fear and delight.
With your adrenaline pumped-up by
this close call, you polish off the afternoon with
some thrilling snowboarding on the local black
diamond run. Next door is the Mall of Arabia, the
world's largest mall -- the altar of the city's
famed Shopping Festival that attracts 5 million
frenetic consumers each January -- but you postpone
the temptation.
Instead, you indulge in some
expensive Thai fusion cuisine at a restaurant near
Elite Towers that was recommended by your hotel
driver. The gorgeous Russian blond at the bar keeps
staring at you with almost vampire-like hunger, and
you wonder whether the local sin scene is as
extravagant as the shopping…..
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