Dubai Atlantis Opening! - The Exclusive Party!! - Where is your gas money going? Hahahaha!!!!

[SamuelB]

Run time: 06:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0zXpxNjlm4   Posted on YouTube: November 22, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 22, 2008 By DU Member: SamuelB Views on DU: 1821

 
Thank you USA for for all the oil money you have send to Dubai. We like your money. Please send us some more!
yours sincerely
Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai

[RobertSeattle]

1. For Reservations...

http://www.atlantisthepalm.com/

Sounds like they spent somewhere around $20 million on the opening - but the whole thing cost 1.5 Billion.

Lets hope they used some US Engineering firms so we got some of it back!

[Cronus Protagonist]

2. I hope they were able to afford Dennis Miller for the entertainment

:)

[quidam56]

3. Come see the prosperity in Wise County, Virginia.

THE COAL INDUSTRY and Presidebt Bush has left in their wake. Appalachia and Pound should look more like Dubai than Darfur. We are third world America. http://www.wisecountyissues.com there are lots of photos on my Website

[Sanctified]

4. Pretty offensive post if you ask me. n/t

[davidthegnome]

5. Can't get the video to play

For some reason I have a hard time getting any of these videos to play. I know it's not my connection or software - other videos run fine. Is it the traffic? The number of people watching this one here and at youtube and perhaps in other places?

[Divine Discontent]

6. I would normally say this smacks of anti-Muslim intolerance

and it's much like the anti-Christian intolerance I face sometimes on here (personal attacks aplenty when I say attack the belief on meritorious points, not the person) - but when I realize this isn't an American Muslim company or location and I think about how torturous they are to Gay people in Dubai (because the Quran told them to be and we should "just accept" that's the law as a Muslim man told me from there), I think

HOPE IT BURNS TO THE GROUND FROM THE LEFTOVER ASHES!

[psychopomp]

7. Oil revenue accounts for less than ten percent of Dubai's GNP

It gets most of its cash from real estate, construction, financial services and trade. It was built on oil wealth in the 1960's but has long since moved away from a solely oil-based economy.

[dothemath]

8. Why? .............................

What does the Koran say about this kind of excess? Are there any 'strict constructionists' out there who are willing to talk about a phenomenon that did not exist in the minds of muslims of old? By strict constructionists in this sense, I am talking about perhaps one mullah, imam, whatever, with practically unlimited power over his nation and a few others that would be willing to talk about what the rest of the world sees are excesses to the nth degree. Maybe a little WWAD*.

A handful of muslims - for example, a few Saudis wind up in the top .0000000001%
of the richest - and are royalty of a 'special class' - will remain rich (until the oil runs out and nobody needs it any more) and they meld back into the sand and it will be like it was, oh, say, 5000 years ago.

Or, maybe they are not muslims. Are Arabs muslims? So much to ponder, so little time. Why did I even bring this up?

Just wondering ....................

*WWAD = what would Abraham do?

[JohnyCanuck]

9. How Dubai's fantasy skyline tumbled to earth (Guardian article)

How Dubai's fantasy skyline tumbled to earth

By Steve Ross

The fireworks have fizzled out, 4,000 lobster shells are being scraped into the bins, and Lily Allen's probably reaching for the paracetamol – but, she won't be the only person in Dubai with a hangover today. Yesterday saw the opening of the Atlantis Palm Jumeirah Beach, yet another flash new architectural marvel in Dubai, augmented by yet another onslaught of superlatives, celebrities, and headlines across the world.

Come this morning, it's not just the champagne that's gone flat. It has finally happened: the Dubai bubble has burst. Architecture-spotters like myself have looked on in amazement, or rather incredulity, at the way the tiny emirate has continued to unveil ever grander construction projects – taller skyscrapers, huger hotels, vaster artificial islands – in apparent defiance of the global credit crunch.

Now, that crunch has hit home. This week's Architect's Journal reports that "architects and developers in Dubai are freezing recruitment and making redundancies as the emirate's real-estate market begins to crumble." Large developers in Dubai are laying off staff, including Emaar the company behind the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest structure, the magazine reports. Other headline-grabbing projects like the Palm Deira, the next artificial island planned off the coast, are on hold indefinitely, and foreign architects and construction specialists out there, such as RMJM and Ramboll Whitbyird, are making staff cuts or freezing recruitment as a result, says the AJ.

According to one British architect I spoke to, who was in Dubai just 10 days ago, the situation is even worse than that. "Projects are being pulled left right and centre," he said. "Unless they've been funded by a sovereign wealth fund, they're being pulled. A lot of things have to be redesigned more cheaply, to sell at lower prices. Where people have made first down payments on projects, they're not making the second one. And a lot of what has been completed will be standing empty."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/21/dubai-atlantis-palm

[specialed]

10. That was awesome!

I've seen larger displays but that was awesome.

[Crowman1979]

11. I have nothing against muslims.

Just the Saudi and gulf state royalty class, they are as bad as Pahlavis were to Iran. I hope those skyscrapers over there have weak foundations.

[otohara]

12. Gag

for a hotel opening???

[jillan]

13. Something tells me that leaders of Dubai were not happy to see Obama win the election.

Altho Cheney will be hanging out there, spending his Haliburton millions.