[LadyRuby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', 'D')ubai will end up like the ancient city of Shibam. Six hundred years ago it was the most advanced city in the world but have since become a joke carried on the winds of history. Shibam the pre-modern city that build sky-scrapers 500 years before Chicago is desolate and abandoned.

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[mrflora]

No elevators! (No a/c, either).

Regards,
M.R.F.

[mrflora]

Actually, you can see streetlights in the first photo. Wikipedia says the town has 7,000 inhabitants today, so it is not strictly speaking a lost or abandoned city. Most likely wars or changes in trade routes led to its decline, something that has happened to many cities throughout history.

Regards,
M.R.F.

[lotrfan55345]

A lot of people still live in that city... I think it is one of Yemen's main cities? /(or whatever country)

it's obvious from all the sattelite and TV masts on top of the buildings

[0mar]

Dubai doesn't have too many fossil resources compared to the other Middle Eastern companies. Also, diversifying economies is not a bad thing at all. Saudi Arabia suffered a great deal when oil prices collapsed in the late 90s because of their economy's dependency on crude oil.

[lotrfan55345]

Dubai is in a prime position for delopment! They have easy access to cheap labour from all over the relatively poor Islamic countries surrounding it. There are a few hundred new skyscrapers and developments being developed in Dubai in the moment, and that will probably secure it's position as the prime city of the ME and surrounding region for quite some time. They also have a quite educated (native) workforce and would have no trouble importing them from Pakistan and other places.

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[ohanian]

LOTRFAN55345,

I like to quote some of your own words back to you.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', '[')size=200]thos fucking muslims are the cause of the world fucking problems those fuckers should fucking die i say we fucking make 'em out fucking slaves those small dicked fuckers should be working our fucking fields feading us god those people are fucking up the seed of the white by living in our fucking land just fucking turn the sand into fucking glass over there those fuckers deserve it and tsara bomb they got some nerve building that fuckin dubai those pissy fuckers!

[/size]

[untothislast]

Would somebody please ask the Director of Tourism, how people are going to get to Dubai in 2016; and what sort of disposable incomes they're likely to have should they manage to arrive?

[gg3]

And, what plans are they making for energy supply? If there's anywhere in the world where photovoltaics would be as cost-effective as nuclear and wind, the Middle Eastern desert is it. And if Dubai is so hot on international legitimacy, it seems they could start a civilian nuclear program with full international inspection, and pull it off.

Question: what flavor of Islam is dominant in Dubai? Shia, Sunni, or something else? I doubt they're Wahhabi, that (heretical puritanical sect) seems particular to Saudi.

Re. the ancient city full of ancient skyscrapers: what I'd like to know is how they handled water supply, sewage disposal, and refuse disposal. There might be some useful lessons to be learned.

[grabby]

Traveling to a moslem country would be my first choice to think about for a vacation. No stress there especially since I am amrican.

[jaws]

Dubai is shaping up to be the second Hong Kong, a world-class city built on nothing but imported capital.

It's freedom at work.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')raveling to a moslem country would be my first choice to think about for a vacation. No stress there especially since I am amrican.

[Zardoz]

It's no dusty backwater, that's for sure:

Dubai pics

[TITAN]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ohanian', 'L')OTRFAN55345,

I like to quote some of your own words back to you.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', '[')size=200]thos fucking muslims are the cause of the world fucking problems those fuckers should fucking die i say we fucking make 'em out fucking slaves those small dicked fuckers should be working our fucking fields feading us god those people are fucking up the seed of the white by living in our fucking land just fucking turn the sand into fucking glass over there those fuckers deserve it and tsara bomb they got some nerve building that fuckin dubai those pissy fuckers!

[/size]

[Chaparral]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TITAN', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ohanian', 'L')OTRFAN55345,

I like to quote some of your own words back to you.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', '[')size=200]blah blah blah, obscenity, blah, Muslim, blah.
[/size]

[ohanian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TITAN', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ohanian', 'L')OTRFAN55345,

I like to quote some of your own words back to you.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lotrfan55345', '[')size=200]thos fucking muslims are the
fuck fuck blah blah blah
[/size]

[FishAreBest]

According to the tour guide on my last trip to Dubai, they always knew that they only had a (relatively) small amount of oil, but decided that they would invest it in their infrastructure, rather than fritter it away. Hence the huge free port, numerous industrial parks, financial centre, transport network, etc. etc.

[MattSavinar]

LATOC There you have it.

[Tanada]

Compared to India Dubai is totsally insignificant, India's population went up by about 500,000,000 preople over the same time frame. It isn't so much the rate of increase as the size of the starting base that matters.

[shortonoil]

Matt, that is what we call progress, which is the epitome of modern civilization. Of course, you are suggesting that it is a disaster in the making; you are trying to apply foresight. Why would you assume that an animal, one which has spent the last two million years trying to figure out how to reach a piece of fruit in the top of a tree, would naturally develop such a characteristic. Until now, there has been no evolutionary pressure to do so.

You could argue that we are Homo sapiens, “thinking man”. But, if you take a close look at history, it doesn’t appear that we have really done that much thinking. Almost all humans mate, raise offspring, dig out a cave or build a McMansion - fight over territory; in other words, like all other animals, we are driven by instincts. Technology is just a cute little trick, derived from an instinct, which we have picked up along the way. The problem is that this instinct, being an aberration , has now overwhelmed our others.

From: "Mind of a Predator, Transition"