imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
A BIT ABOUT DUBAI
Yesterday, Rush mentioned his trip to Dubai a year ago.
What I Saw in Dubai
[W]hen I went to Afghanistan in February of last year, I had to stop in Dubai.
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I was expecting some little desert outpost. I admittedly had not been hard working on informing myself of what this place was, but I'm telling you, I was stunned. I flew over some of the most desolate desert I've ever seen. It makes United States desert look like an oasis. But then out of nowhere, amidst the dust and the sand of the desert rises this futuristic, giant city, with skyscrapers and buildings that would make Las Vegas look like, you know, a suburb of a town of 30,000 people, and there is construction going on left and right, all over the place, and all the signage is in English ...
The UAE is enjoying huge economic growth.
UAE's private wealth set to grow by 12.5pc
The UAE, which is home to nearly 53,000 dollar millionaires — accounting for a stronger density of high networth individuals than the world's richest nation USA — is poised to record a major surge in private wealth over the next three years on the back of a vibrant economy driven by record oil revenues and all-round growth, leading private bankers said.
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With a per capita income of $28,138, one of the highest in the world, the UAE, which boasts the fourth largest gas reserve and third largest oil reserves in the world, has reinforced its position as the second largest economy in the GCC after Saudi Arabia. However, 67.4 per cent of the country's fiscal revenue is derived from non-oil sectors, underscoring the buoyancy of the services, property and manufacturing industries.
Which reminded me of this amazing piece I stumbled upon last year, which I knew I'd eventually have a reason to post. (Forget that it's the Aljazeera.)
Dubai desert gives way to ski resort
Tuesday 26 April 2005, 14:47 Makka Time, 11:47 GMT
Ski Dubai is a formidable engineering feat, an incongruous 25-storey structure rising from the Gulf emirate's sands as some 1000 labourers work round the clock building the Middle East's only indoor ski resort and the world's third largest.
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Ski Dubai, covering an area of 22,500 square metres, or the equivalent of three football fields, will use 6000 tons of real snow settling 50 centimetres thick. It will have a capacity of 1500 people at any one time while the objective is to try and attract 500,000 visitors a year, Taylor said.
Thirty tons of fresh snow will be made every night to replenish the slope when the indoor temperature will be reduced from minus one Celsius throughout the day to about minus seven.
I'm posting these things because of their interest, especially now. I have not come to any conclusions about the port deal.
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