I gave some brief coverage of Dubai's gradual decline, but Charlie Norton's "Dubai: If You're Not Loaded and Decadent, You Can't Come In" is a pre-GFC view of this incredibly opulent oasis. It concludes with the typically arrogant voice of a decadent culture:
So what’s the limit to this souped-up Vegas? Will all the sand have to be turned into gold? Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the country’s ruler, says that they must not wait for the future to come to Dubai, they must make history.
Another sheikh is more explicit. "Soon," he says, "every Count of Monte Cristo will be in Dubai. In 10 years, only rich and famous people will live here." Really? Even the thousands of people working to service Dubai’s rich – the chauffeurs and waiters and manicurists and gofers? He is not unduly worried at the prospect. "I would hope robots or clones will do all that by then."
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