Saudi Arabia (and Dubai) will die because rich idiots have all the power. And that’s for the better.
I hope sand quickly covers this shit that capitalism has excreted because if aliens land here and see it I will fucking die of embarrassment.
Love Adam Something. That said, I actually want NEOM to be a success. I highly doubt it will come to fruition, but I want it to.
I don’t think “flying electric boats” bodes very well for the success of this project.
Actually, the whole thing smells like a wealth transfer scheme - a way for the government to transfer money to other parties in exchange for favors, under the guise of doing some work on it. For a project this large there will be many books to cook.
Wealth transfer? This is their own money. They don’t give a shit about the general public. The thing is, the crown prince is actually thinking ahead. The oil in Saudi Arabia won’t last and they need new forms of revenue going forward. Even if they sink everything they have into establishing that, they’ll have a long-term future of doing it like the peons, i.e. tourism. But even then, they were planning to spend just enough to get everything off the ground and were hoping outside investment would drive the rest.
The problem is, people are smart. They understand that in such a kingdom, no matter what you invest, you’re still at the whims of the monarchy, so where they wanted 100 billion in investments, they’ve only got 17 billion.
Rightfully so, they’re scaling back and planning to deliver some things to show that what they’re doing isn’t just a pipe dream. Especially given that they have sports tournaments coming up.
What is shit is that this will be built with slave labour. So it mars even the fact that they’re building sustainable, walkable cities and desalination plants that will be the blueprint for the rest of the world; that’s being far too conservative. We don’t have time, so we need big and bold steps like this.
Regarding the Hydrofoil sand ships, I don’t even think there’s a miniature prototype. But if they can pull it off, it will be a step into the future. Doubt it will happen though.
Press X to doubt.
As with many projects in Saudi Arabia, these look both super cool and super impractical.
They’re impractical for sure and I’m far from the biggest fan of these capitalist countries, but I’m definitely rooting for their success with these ambitious projects. As more and more of this planet becomes uninhabitable due to climate change, we will need to think about how we house people.
If we let capitalism build homes and then overthrow capitalism and home the homeless, it’ll be win-win. But that’s a bunch of ifs. Way too many.
