The End of the World
The World, the artificial islands being constructed off the coast of Dubai in the shape of a global map, has been officially canceled.
One of the ambitious and extravagant developments planned for the region had attracted international attention and celebrity buyers. But as the economic recession set in, the prospect of the development drifted farther and farther from reality.
"[I]t has become the world’s most expensive shipping hazard, guarded by private security in fast boats and ringed by warning buoys to keep the curious away. A development that was meant to send Dubai’s star into the firmament of First World cities has been left to the mercy of the waves and the baking winds.
Mile after mile of breakwater built from boulders brought hundreds of miles by ship has been laid, but inside its man-made lagoon, work has completely stopped. The expected map of the world of 300 islands is instead a disjointed and desolate collection of sandy blots — a monumental folly just out of sight of Dubai’s shore."
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Glad to see it wash away...
"One of the ambitious and extravagant developments planned for the region had attracted international attention and celebrity buyers."
This project (The World) had always attracted more international attention than it did local attention. It was conceived by and built for rich outsiders (the David Beckhams and Brad Pitts of the world). Given the press' penchant for playing up the extravagant and bizarre, along with its obsession with celebrities, The World was given a disproportionate amount of attention by the international media. This project had little or nothing to do with Dubai; it could just as well have been in the middle of the South Pacific. The majority of locals here in Dubai rarely ever heard much about this silly and unsustainable project and cared even less. Glad to see it slowly wash away (too bad it's become a navigation hazard though).
chrisinsobe