Shamu in the Desert
Posted by Adam Blickstein
No idea why I'm on such a Dubai kick of late. It is fascinating to watch a city grow so quickly, not only for the aesthetic and innovative urban planning aspects, but also because Dubai and the other rich, small Gulf States represent a real oasis of geopolitical and strategic importance in the region. Their economic and socio-political models, while not directly transferable to the larger and more complex nations in the Middle East, do contain integral harbingers of hope for the region writ large. And while Americans remain apprehensive when nation-states like Dubai invest in the U.S., the latest being curiosity over Dubai World's (of the Dubai Ports World controversy) $2.7 billion investment in MGM's CityCenter project in Las Vegas, there is plenty of the reverse, American investment in Dubai, as well.
The latest comes from Anheuser-Busch, not in form of a brewery in the tightly regulated liquor world of the Emirates, but rather in the exportation of an even better commodity: Killer Whales. The beer empire plans on building, along with a subsidiary of Dubai World, "Worlds of Discovery — a complex that will include SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove" located, where else, but on the second-largest man-made island shaped like a palm in the world! With tourism exploding in Dubai, with expectations of 15 million visitors per year when Shamu starts to do flips over the desert at SeaWorld Dubai in 2012, expect similar ventures from American companies in coming years.
You don't need to be Thomas Friedman to realize the tremendous upsides to all this cross-cultural, economically engineered integration. And as I've always said, America doesn't need more wars in the Middle East to help bring democracy, they just need more Orcas...
Sunday's opening night festivities were set to include the screening of Estevez' long- in- the- works project, which takes an unconventional look at the hours leading up to the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy at Los Angeles' legendary Ambassador Hotel. The "Bobby" showing was set to precede a 1,000 person party at the Madinat Jumeirah resort in Dubai, including opening night film stars Joshua Jackson and Laurence Fishburne and a live beachside concert performance by Mos Def.
Posted by: Dubai Investment | May 15, 2008 at 06:35 PM