We Built This City
On Blood and Bones
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the King, his Royal Highness of the desert and oilfields, is worth eighteen billion dollars. Just to put some perspective on this, he is not even close to one of the top 10 richest people in the world. Although, that is personal wealth, his Kingdom of Saud is worth in excess of 1.5 trillion dollars.
Let’s just say they have some deep pockets over there in their portion of the Arabian Peninsula. They also have a big bunch of desert to play with.
But let us keep this in mind that even though it has a very low poverty rate, it still has some serious human rights concerns that are part of their society. Women’s rights have improved somewhat, unfortunately the male guardianship laws controls most of a females life if they reside in this nation. Without going into deep detail, they are still second-class citizens when compared to their male counterparts.
So when I was watching You Tube yesterday and I saw the end of an advertisement for something called “The New Murabba” I had no idea what this was. I did not know what the old Murabba was. My initial thought was that this must be some science fiction programme.
This project was launched to investors in 2018, but the disappearance and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi caused many investors to back away from the regime and their plans. I guess when a government burnt Khashoggi’s body in the oven in the yard of the consulate their concern for truth in reporting is somewhat jaded.
When I first did a google, for the word murabba, I came up with a sweet fruit preserve that is popular in the Middle East and many other areas. This did not seem to match the end of the video I saw. So, I went in look for a video and this is what I found:
Take a break and talk amongst yourselves.
Ok, time has passed, and let me share my initial reaction.
THE WORLD HAS GONE FUCKING NUTS!
After awhile I calmed down and had this reaction:
THE WORLD HAS GONE FUCKING NUTS!
OK, I already knew that.
The New Murabba is another mega/giga project in Saudi Arabia. The Giant Cubed Skyscraper can enclose 20 Empire State Buildings inside. So if you have a spare Empire State Building, you know where you can store it.
Just, please, go to this link and have a look.
https://newmurabba.com/#the-mukaab
In short they are building an immersive, AI, high tech retail and entertainment complex for the well-heeled. Simply, this is going to be a tourist destination for people who want to live in an X-Box.
Or be part of some multi-media cube fiasco.
Eat with the whales, fly through space, bet on the extra-terrestrial light being races! You want it, we can invent it in virtual reality for you.
According to the above clip, NEOM, is going to change the way we live on this planet.
It is a futuristic city and you can find out all you need to know about it at the link below:
So, now you know a little bit about how Saudi Arabia is going to shift their main source of income from fossil fuels to tourism.
Will this work? Or are they just digging holes in the sand?
When you dig a bit deeper into the sand, you find that the Saudi’s are constantly rolling out these phantasmagorical architectural projects with very few of them coming to fruition. Although The Line (you saw in the video above) may be detailed with mirrors on the outside, most of this investment and planning is all about financial smoke and mirrors. Investors from around the world are being asked to commit, along with whatever backing the Saudi government will inject, and this does not look good on paper. Got a spare billion, Bill Gates? Anybody? Come on, we will not kill anymore people if they disagree with us. Promise!
Well, we will not kill them in our consulates around the world and burn their bodies. We learned from that mistake.
Saudi Arabia and human rights degradation go hand and hand. Huwaitat tribal members have been evicted for the development of The Line and one activist Abdul Rahim al-Huawaiti was killed hours after he criticised the planned eviction of his tribe from nearby lands.
Richard Branson even pulled out of investment in some of these projects when the assassination was pinned on the Saudi regime.
I am not sure if this is the way of the future. It certainly seems very similar to the ways of most colonising powers that came before. They claim they will be preserving the environment outside the huge complex and making it into a beautiful community.
And you may think, WOW, I would love to go to a giant cube that could take me anywhere and give me all sorts of amazing retail experiences that I can’t get at home!
But if you are, come on, are you really going to get on a jet and go to Saudi Arabia? How much money will you spend to go to a city in the desert that is a virtual reality dreamscape? Is this the future of tourism? How much blood will you allow spilled for you to enjoy this jaunt to the Arabian Desert?
“For the Huwaitat tribe, Neom is being built on our blood, on our bones,” says Alia Hayel Aboutiyah al-Huwaiti, an outspoken activist and member of the tribe living in London. “It’s not for the people already living there! It’s for tourists, people with money. But not for the original people living there.”
Same as it ever was.
Note: You may wonder why I am writing about Saudi Arabia. Sometimes it is vital to see what happens in other civilisations around the world to understand our own world.