Volpone
Zombie Hunter
I mean, you got'cher Arab nations. And a lot of them are negative and bitchy, and they seem bent on pulling down anyone who has more than they do.
Then you got Dubai. (They're doing a thing on their manmade Palm island on the National Geographic Channel.) The nation is Muslim (I think), but it is a haven for tourists. And the nation's wealth is from oil. But the oil is slated to run out in, like, less than a decade.
So their Prince decided that when the money runs out, Dubai's economy will rely on tourism. Problem is the nation isn't big enough for the level of tourism it would need to maintain the economy. And there isn't enough coastline. So the fuckers decided to build a huge-ass island, with a resort city with a population of hundreds of thousands on it that would nearly double the amount of coastline for the nation.
It was a huge amount of risk and work. After committing to the project, 9/11 happened, torpedoing travel--particularly to the Middle East. And they had to make some big gambles during the build. Because of weather, they wound up having to build the island before planning was complete. They also had to work on the island and a protecting breakwater simultaneously. Because they wanted the thing to be shaped like a palm tree, getting the fill in the right place was fucking challenging. Fortunately, Dubai has a US caliber spy satellite over their nation. And while they decided to make the thing out of sand, and Dubai is MOSTLY sand, desert sand is too fine to use, so they had to dredge sand six miles out in the Persian Gulf.
Really interesting show about a really interesting nation. It goes to show you can have a Muslim/Arab nation that can be cool and prosperous and tolerant of non Muslims.
Oh, and they managed to build a freaking resort on a manmade island with no bedrock--stuff was build on fresh sand fill--in an earthquake area.
Then you got Dubai. (They're doing a thing on their manmade Palm island on the National Geographic Channel.) The nation is Muslim (I think), but it is a haven for tourists. And the nation's wealth is from oil. But the oil is slated to run out in, like, less than a decade.
So their Prince decided that when the money runs out, Dubai's economy will rely on tourism. Problem is the nation isn't big enough for the level of tourism it would need to maintain the economy. And there isn't enough coastline. So the fuckers decided to build a huge-ass island, with a resort city with a population of hundreds of thousands on it that would nearly double the amount of coastline for the nation.
It was a huge amount of risk and work. After committing to the project, 9/11 happened, torpedoing travel--particularly to the Middle East. And they had to make some big gambles during the build. Because of weather, they wound up having to build the island before planning was complete. They also had to work on the island and a protecting breakwater simultaneously. Because they wanted the thing to be shaped like a palm tree, getting the fill in the right place was fucking challenging. Fortunately, Dubai has a US caliber spy satellite over their nation. And while they decided to make the thing out of sand, and Dubai is MOSTLY sand, desert sand is too fine to use, so they had to dredge sand six miles out in the Persian Gulf.
Really interesting show about a really interesting nation. It goes to show you can have a Muslim/Arab nation that can be cool and prosperous and tolerant of non Muslims.
Oh, and they managed to build a freaking resort on a manmade island with no bedrock--stuff was build on fresh sand fill--in an earthquake area.
