As Towers of Babylon go, they don’t get much bigger. But will the reality of now having the tallest tower in the world (opened officially today) come to haunt the rulers of Dubai as they confront a multitude of problems in the former Gulf fishing village.
Such edifices undoubtedly become symbols of the socities they represent, and its highly likely that such a highly visible and attractive target to Islmaic terrorists may well prove irrestible. After all, who needs to worry about the hassles of boarding a jetliner bound for the US when there is a plethora of death champions in the immediate vicinity.
That’s the ultimate doomsday scenario. The more likely economic one would see the complex operating at well below its intended capacity, taking years to fulfil its feted promise of accomodation, retail, shopping, and nightlife behemoth (you can apparently live and do everything within this vertical city without even leaving below the 50th floor). Empire State, Sears, Tapei 101 and the Petronas all were opened in similar times and all took quite some time before they became the accepted landmarks they are now.
The final is the ultimate in one-up manship the building represents, in no small part a direct challenge to the West directly. Dubai’s dreams of crafting itself as a true cradle of modernity in the medieveal Middle East risks being instead overblown into a cololuss of bling, whose insatiable need for unending electricity to power poorly patronised indoor snow parks seem strangely at odds with the needs of a post Copenhagen world.
After all, it’s only going to take another foolhardy endeavour to build a taller, sleeker Babylon in Abu Dabai and the Burj is toast. Or should I say Turkish?
Postscript – in the christening ceremony, the name ‘Burj’ has been cast aside in favour of the harder to prononce (and remember) – Khalifa. Burj just means tower in Arabic so Dubai Tower just wasn’t going to cut it amongst the global bling brigade!
