Dubai: Glitz and Horror

[Atheist-Lite]

Yes, it's all so very straight forward. Where's Captain Stars and Stripes to sort it out, I ask you?

When the Republicans get back in they'll sort it out.

[charlou]

Yes, it's all so very straight forward. Where's Captain Stars and Stripes to sort it out, I ask you?

When the Republicans get back in they'll sort it out.

Only when their big shiny black transportation is threatened. And I mean that literally and metaphorically.

[Robert_S]

Yes, it's all so very straight forward. Where's Captain Stars and Stripes to sort it out, I ask you?

When the Republicans get back in they'll sort it out.

By hiring a Dubai company to control of our ports.

[Atheist-Lite]

Yes, it's all so very straight forward. Where's Captain Stars and Stripes to sort it out, I ask you?

When the Republicans get back in they'll sort it out.

Only when their big shiny black transportation is threatened. And I mean that literally and metaphorically.

I've got the Republican manifesto on Dubai here. Just got to wait for their election victory their coffin carriers opening up;

http://christwire.org/2010/01/should-am ... urj-dubai/

[Bella Fortuna]

Yes, it's all so very straight forward. Where's Captain Stars and Stripes to sort it out, I ask you?

Right....






























HERE!



He may say we're number one, but I think he looks more like number two.

[JimC]

I saw the article in the Age myself...

Very well written, very thought provoking, worthy of much more insights than the mostly trite and polarised crap that has ensued in the thread so far...

Thanks for the OP, Bella...

[charlou]

Very well written, very thought provoking, worthy of much more insights

So out with it, then. Kick off the worthy, insightful discussion. I'll be in that.

[Atheist-Lite]

Some kinds of malignant socal configurations must be stopped by their destruction. I doubt there was a peaceful way to stop the nazis and I doubt there is a peaceful way to stop hyper-captilaism/corporatism/neo-fascism or whatever it is called next. Without, at this time, a organised and motivated opposition with the credibility to stop this worldwide phenomana the next best thing to do is fight fire with fire. That is why I shall be voting Republican in the coming elections.

[charlou]

Some kinds of malignant socal configurations must be stopped by their destruction. I doubt there was a peaceful way to stop the nazis and I doubt there is a peaceful way to stop hyper-captilaism/corporatism/neo-fascism or whatever it is called next. Without, at this time, a organised and motivated opposition with the credibility to stop this worldwide phenomana the next best thing to do is fight fire with fire. That is why I shall be voting Republican in the coming elections.

[JimC]

Very well written, very thought provoking, worthy of much more insights

So out with it, then. Kick off the worthy, insightful discussion. I'll be in that.

Well, to start with, it was the contrasts; the uber-consumerist/tourist paradise, with the hovering islamic/autoritarian reality, ignored by most of the hedonistic western tourists indulging in their dearly-bought dream...

Then the hypocrisy; the nominally islamic state, quite brutal in its treatment of its guest workers, winking at the decadent westerners drinking martinis in their bikinis beside the pool...

I just thought it captured a certain cognitive dissonance very effectively...

[Atheist-Lite]

Very well written, very thought provoking, worthy of much more insights

So out with it, then. Kick off the worthy, insightful discussion. I'll be in that.

Well, to start with, it was the contrasts; the uber-consumerist/tourist paradise, with the hovering islamic/autoritarian reality, ignored by most of the hedonistic western tourists indulging in their dearly-bought dream...

Then the hypocrisy; the nominally islamic state, quite brutal in its treatment of its guest workers, winking at the decadent westerners drinking martinis in their bikinis beside the pool...

I just thought it captured a certain cognitive dissonance very effectively...

That's descriptive not prescriptive. Do you have any medicine for the disease, or just humming a tune there?

[JimC]

Very well written, very thought provoking, worthy of much more insights

So out with it, then. Kick off the worthy, insightful discussion. I'll be in that.

Well, to start with, it was the contrasts; the uber-consumerist/tourist paradise, with the hovering islamic/autoritarian reality, ignored by most of the hedonistic western tourists indulging in their dearly-bought dream...

Then the hypocrisy; the nominally islamic state, quite brutal in its treatment of its guest workers, winking at the decadent westerners drinking martinis in their bikinis beside the pool...

I just thought it captured a certain cognitive dissonance very effectively...

That's descriptive not prescriptive. Do you have any medicine for the disease, or just humming a tune there?

The only cure will involve rivers of blood...

Hopefully other people's...

[Robert_S]

Alternative fuels and fuel conservation for the West, especially the US.

It's the only way to disentangle the worst of both cultures without major ecological disaster.

[JimC]

Alternative fuels and fuel conservation for the West, especially the US.

It's the only way to disentangle the worst of both cultures without major ecological disaster.

Fair point...

But also (sorry if I seem to be channeling Gawd...) an end to the US habit of allying themselves with whichever repressive dictatorsdhip seems to offer a narrow addvantage in the current game of international Realpolitik... It never ends well...

[Atheist-Lite]

Some social blights you can afford to wait out. Waiting out stalinist Russia was a smart move. Others because of their drain on either natural or human rosurces must be confronted in a timely manner. No one could have waited for Hitler to consolidate his position, the system and it was a system, of National Socialism would have enslaved the entire planet in enduring misery. Now we have this new 'system' which is being called various things in various places, shock capatalism, neo-feudalism this and that. What we need to realise is that this is going to cause irrevocable damage to the biosphere and mankinds longterm prospects of survival. It needs to be stopped, and sooner rather than later, regardless of the cost since the cost of letting it continue will be universal oblivion by a 8 degree or more temperature rise across the globe over just a few decades...which in so short a space of time could cascade unknown factors into unstoppable runaway atmospheric changes making this planet like venus, incapable of supporting multi-cellular life...at all.