Castles In The Sand

"...built a perfect house in perfect town

dreamt a perfect dream and it all fell down

oh, just tell me we're happy,

just building castles in the sand


Lyrics from The Philosopher Kings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD4ufkgzIxE









The Video I shot below was the opening of the Atlantis Hotel at the end of the Palm Jumeirah. I shot it from the beach and it does not do the show justice, since you had to be able to see the entire Palm Islands Development to see it all. Halfway through the show there was so much smoke it looked like Armageddon and you could not see very much of the second half of the show.




Here is another clip from YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyqNExbQ0xE


Maybe a fitting end to an incredible (think about the meaning of that word) run of hype and unbridled growth. Things are starting to unravel in the Kingdom of Dubai as development project after development project are canceled or put on hold. Hill is seeing major projects curtailed or slowed down, the most recent being an indoor theme park the size of SeaWorld cancelled. What is amazing is the speed in which it happened. Things were rosy here 3 months ago and in two months some property values have dropped 40%.

Work will still go on, but the locations will be in the Countries that have the huge sovereign wealth funds built up from the oil price spike, like Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Libya, and some others. They will use this time to catch up with the big head start that Dubai gained and that they were all envious of. Let’s face it, if the base assumption is true, that you can build a market in one of the most inhospitable climates in the world and people will flock to it, then this represents a once only opportunity for these Countries to build something to compete with Dubai. They also have the advantage of hindsight and not moving too fast and too far ahead of the market.

So, who is the market? For Dubai it was the newly rich from Russia, China, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and those building and selling these Castles in the Sand and all the things that one needed to go along with them, like Ferraris, furniture (oh you gotta see the couch I took a picture of below, perfect for Michael and Megan), good food, entertainment, and the list trickles down.






Today 5/12/08 (notice that I have had to adopt the international dating convention that my good friend Nelson used even in the U.S.), a Friday, is the beginning of my week end and is followed by a three day Holiday starting Sunday celebrating EID.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Adha)

I am going to check out Oman and Abu Dhabi by car, and hope to see some families selling fine rugs by the side of the road.

MAY THE GUIDANCE AND BLESSINGS OF ALLAH BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY

EID MUBARAK