迪拜：一梦 5+

Topgear中对阿尔法罗密欧的评价是：“这是一个艺术品。”因为，这部车表现“并不好”。艺术品的一个特征就是-没有用，却有价值。

迪拜，曾经是一个艺术家的天堂，在这里用天赐的资金来构筑着价值连城的艺术品。传说，布拉德皮和安吉丽娜朱相中了迪拜地球村的埃塞俄比亚，理查德布兰挑了英格兰，摇滚花公鸡则打算入主苏格兰。八过，天有不测风起云涌。。。

麻烦

在成为世界上最昂贵的小区之前，这里成了最惹人厌烦的水域，富翁们买海岛自然不是让拥趸们潜水去偷窥的，告诉快艇和保安水塔林立，谁也别进来。麻烦接踵而至，大自然对这个青春痘非常照顾，没完没了的吹风拍水，让这里实在没有美丽家园的感觉。百公里外漫长的防波堤已经构筑完毕，可惜了圈内工程没有完工，停工了。一梦不要紧，梦遗了。

计划中300多个小岛组成的美丽新世界不小心变成了未来水世界，放眼过去不小心发现的沙丘伫立水中，倍感世态炎凉。据说，这“美丽新世界”的“主人们”并不都是明星们，更多的是些“钱多人傻速来”的哥们儿，他们预付了百分之七十。我觉得，开发商倒是没有黑什么钱，估计全扔进去了吧。

爱尔兰开发商约翰奥多蓝带领奥多蓝国际财团07年先买两千八百万欧元先拿下了祖国，接着吞并了英格兰，接着约翰奥多蓝在竞技风暴中功臣身退，在今年二月自行了断了声明。留下身后迪拜那恐永远无法收回的身外之物。“世界”停了，他们却无法抽身而出。

“世界：也许只是整个阿联酋的缩影，3亿美金的项目暂停。除了地产，现在连能源都出问题了，临近的甚至沙迦出现了大规模断电。

紧赶慢赶，还是没赶上。

在这再看一眼这艺术品吧。

Extravagant Dubai island project sinks under weight of the credit crunch

By James Mclean and Brian McDonald

Saturday September 12 2009

THE Galwayman who bought Ireland is dead, England is deserted, while Australia and New Zealand have merged.

They were designed to make Dubai the envy of the world: a series of paradise islands inhabited by celebrities and the super-rich reclaimed from the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a map of the Earth. It was called The World.

As millions of tonnes of rock were dumped into the sea for the foundations, timely leaks suggested that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were to buy Ethiopia, Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland.

Hazard

Instead it has become the world's most expensive shipping hazard, guarded by private security in fast boats and ringed by warning buoys to keep the curious away.

A development that was meant to send Dubai's star into the firmament of First World cities has been left to the mercy of the waves and the baking winds.

Mile after mile of breakwater built from boulders brought hundreds of miles by ship has been laid, but inside its man-made lagoon, work has completely stopped.

The expected map of the world of 300 islands is instead a disjointed and desolate collection of sandy blots -- a monumental folly just out of sight of Dubai's shore.

Those who bought into what was the world's most ambitious building project were not celebrities.

Many were more ordinary investors who put down 70pc deposits, some of them Anglo-Indians.

Galway auctioneer turned developer, John O'Dolan (51) fronted a consortium under his O'Dolan International banner and bought Ireland for e28m in 2007 and last year snapped up England from under the noses of several UK interests for e23.5m.

But the property crash brought tragedy in its wake as the Galwayman committed suicide in February of this year.

As well as his foreign investments, the popular family man had extensive business interests in Ireland. He owned a bar and a hostel in Galway as well as other properties in Dublin and Limerick.

A couple of weeks before his tragic death, a receiver was appointed to his Galway hostel and a property company. His body was discovered in a shed on his Barna Road property.

His fellow investors in the Dubai development now have little prospect of seeing a return. The World has stopped, but they can't get off.

"The World has been cancelled. It doesn't even look like the world. Basically there is one island that is maintained that is said to be owned by the Sheikh [Dubai's ruler] and the rest looks like a pile of muck," said one local property agent.

It is the starkest example of a financing crunch that faces the emirate but many other projects are also in jeopardy.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a part, about $300bn (e205bn) of building is on hold after prices began tumbling.

Abu Dhabi, Dubai's oil-rich neighbour, is helping to support it through the crisis, so far to the tune of about $10bn. Another $10bn is likely to follow soon, and more may follow.

Property is not the only dark spot in the UAE. In the nearby emirate of Sharjah the credit crunch caused massive power outages, leaving businesses and houses without electricity

Troubles

This week, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's ruler and the UAE's Prime Minister, vowed to steer the emirate through its troubles and pledged to further rein in extravagant developments.

Officially, however, not a single project has been cancelled -- just delayed.

"I don't blame anybody. Some papers try to write this but they are forgetting their problems [in their own countries] ... But people only throw stones when a tree has fruit," he said.

- James Mclean and Brian McDonald