re: #765 Dustyvet

ZVIKA KRIEGER says Dubai’s demise would be a setback

Of all the victims of the global financial crisis, Dubai and its neighboring states are receiving little sympathy.

Altogether now… Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

The oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate, which until recently had been a glitzy boomtown attracting fortune-seekers from across the globe, is reported to be canceling 1,500 work visas every day. Its real-estate market has dropped 30% or more over the past few months.

Their indoor ski slopes have earned these sheikhdoms few friends. Los Angeles Times columnist Rosa Brooks shed no tears that “Dubai may be going down,” finding it “hard not to be revolted” by a state that “doesn’t really produce anything of value” but is a playground for “cold-eyed Russian oligarchs, coked-out London pop stars and the spoiled princelings of global finance.” News reports have been dripping with schadenfreude. Newsweek recently bid “Goodbye, Dubai” on its cover, while Time wondered if the Gulf collapse means “no more Palm Islands?” In response to Dubai’s decision to deny a visa to Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe’er, New York Times columnist Harvey Araton gloated, “Just like that, the glitter and promise of Dubai as an emerging international sports center evaporated into the cool desert night.”…