Saudis to build $500B utopia

[Shiraz]

Saudi Arabia is planning to build a brand new economic region on the Red Sea with a spare $500 billion they had lying around.

The idea is startling, being based on a greenfield site and with everything brand new and clean. No more oil - the whole thing is to be powered by renewables and it seems to be aimed at the rich from other countries who might want to escape the squalor of real cities - sort of like a city-level gated community.

I doubt that too many ordinary Australian will be able to afford to buy in. Worth a look though, even if only for the stunning intro video on the primary website and for a glimpse at how one part of humanity may be living in the future.

http://discoverneom.com/
http://discoverneom.com/content/pdfs/NEOM_BROCHURE_ENGLISH.pdf

[el_draco]

They'll need a dome based on temperature projections... :screwy: Maybe they should just build Elysium :question:

[Wavytone]

Preparing a fortress for when the oil runs out - which also means the end of the river of western cash pouring in.

They’re going to have a huge problem as the population isn’t sustainable without the oil to generate cash.

[simmo]

This for sure.

With maybe only a few decades of oil and gas left they have to turn elsewhere.

[MortonH]

A grand idea if everyone that goes there is altruistic. But wait, it's in Saudi Arabia so that's a fail before you start.

[doppler]

No good for me the Saudi's flog you for consuming alcohol :sadeyes:, though it will be interesting to see what kind of laws they impose there.

[JA]

Look on the bright side. We don't need $500 Billion to build anything. We're already there ......... AUSTRALIA

Best
JA

[FlashDrive]

:rofl:

[AussieTrooper]

As long as you aren't female, gay or non-muslim, yeah, paradise.

[Peter Ward]

The West’s turning a blind eye to the Suadi rights abuses are the height of hypocrisy. Their treatment of women is cruel and barbaric. For example under Shariah a 23-year-old woman was sentenced to a year in prison and 100 lashes in 2009 for adultery after being raped by five men. Sound like Utopia?

[Wavytone]

One country can’t impose its morality on another - without a war. What the Saudis do is their business.

Effectively the haves have decided to lock themselves in a lavish prison with the aim of keeping the have-nots out.

It implies the have-nots will be forced to go elsewhere which spells trouble for the west.

[xelasnave]

That does it I am not buying any more products that come from oil.
Alex

[Visionary]

Utopia costs only x10 NBN's, count me in!

[AussieTrooper]

And just what do you expect our government to do about Saudi Arabia? It is up to their own people, not us, to change the situation there.
Part of Indonesia has now started to drag suspected homosexuals out of their homes, and cane them in public.
Every time we go to try and 'fix' a country whose people won't do it themselves, the results are disastrous.
Learning this lesson is a sign of intelligence, not hypocrisy.

[AussieTrooper]

Where's the piazza???

[Wavytone]

But when zealots are in charge - religious or otherwise - the means for change are none. Be glad they've decided to lock themselves up in a gilded prison in which they can live whatever fantasy they choose. Never mind the reality that lies outside.

And this is the dream peddled by most religions - to live in a fantasy world of make-believe. We’ve seen where this leads before, with Stalinist Russia, the Nazis and east Germany.

What is sad is that in this century it remains possible for such morons to control a whole country.

[skysurfer]

What about Kim Jong Un's North Korea ?
Saudi Arabia is not much better than North Korea in the sense of human rights.

[skysurfer]

What about Kim Jong Un's North Korea ?
Saudi Arabia is not much better than North Korea in the sense of human rights.

Btw might be to the interest of Donald Trump for his real estate enterprise.

[AussieTrooper]

Yep. The difference being, that when Korea one day does unify, it won't take long for most northerners to realise pretty quickly what has been going on. The standard of living in East Germany rose pretty quickly after reunification.
With Saudi Arabia, good luck ever getting millions of intolerant, homophobic, sexist islamic zealots to change their tune.
Maybe if that Saudi 'utopia' was for men only, they'd slowly die out...

[Shiraz]

Looks to me like Saudi Arabia is trying to unshackle itself a bit from the zealotry - the video is painfully obvious in it's intent, showing mainly white westeners, with just a hint of the Arabic culture.

I still find a lot that is reported to be horrifyingly barbaric, but it looks like some chinks of western norms are appearing in the zealotry (eg women will be able to drive!!). Maybe the NEOM concept is just one part of a larger process of dealing with a future without a vast oil revenue to smooth over the problems in society.

[LostInSp_ce]

Perhaps a safe haven for the ultra rich when things begin to go south with their economy.

[Shiraz]

by coincidence, this recently appeared - maybe another indicator of a battle going on in an attempt to outflank the zealots, change the society and bring in foreign investors?
- I dunno, but this seems pretty weird.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/10/30/saudi-arabia-slammed-granting-citizenship-robot

by the way, I have no interest in Saudi Arabia - just happened to see this stuff by accident and it looked interesting.