Collated picture by Sigit Mursidi from: die Zeit, der SPIEGEL and various other sources.

Financing the Superlatives

December 16, 2009

That finally Dubai’s sand castle came crumbling down is not a surprise to me, that it became such shocking news and that finally Abu Dhabi bailed it out is. But, isn’t it so obvious that it is coming?  Aren’t we all craving for the sensational news to jack-up our adrenalin, lest life will be too bland?   A good, hardworking, and responsible worker who brought an-honest-to-goodness salary home is no news; a certified crook that run a seven-layer Ponzi scheme and living on his harem yacht somewhere in the Pacific is. 

This past three years we have been reaping what we sow in the past decade: starting with the hikes in commodity and oil prices, the sub-prime, the Madoff fiasco and its Lebanese version, the hotel that flies at a cost of over 330 million US a pop; and lately, the “Oasis of the Seas” that costs 1.4 billion of 2006 US Dollars.  There is no shortage of supplies.  “You didn’t give me any alternative!” my Aunt said.  Some even invested in building tunnels.   You got it right, tunnel.  The question is where to dig it. 

I found it hard to reconcile the fact that the world would still finance those superlative business plans while at the same time workers in Nairobi or Jakarta has to work four (4) times longer than average 40 minutes to afford a Big Mac, even when, according to March 2009 figures, the burger served in Jakarta (at $2.05) is undervalued by 49% from the actual dollar price in the US($3.57).