Word: arabian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hotel is the crown jewel of the Palm Jumeirah, a monumental feat of land reclamation. In the shape of an Arabian date palm, it is the first in a network of man-made islands that is altering Dubai's landscape, adding 1,200 miles (2,000 km) of additional beachfront property to a desert city-state whose natural coastline is a mere 37 miles (60 km). The $20 million extravaganza aims to nail down Dubai's reputation for luxurious excess - an ambition that seems almost anachronistic now that ill winds from Wall Street and the collapse in oil prices...
...though, there are few better displays of Dubai's open embrace of globalization than the partnership that Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (a pioneering figure in the conservative, Muslim Arabian Peninsula) has established with Kerzner - a famously hard-working, hard-partying casino mogul who is Jewish. Starting more than a decade ago, their affiliation has matured into a full-fledged business relationship that seeks opportunities far beyond Dubai. In 2006, Istithmar, another of the "Dubai Inc." companies owned by Sheikh Mohammed's government, took a major stake in Kerzner International, which owns and operates luxury hotels from...
...research is more threatening than invention. "There is so much contemporary scholarship about the origins of Islam," Rushdie said, pointing out that Mohammed lived well within the historical era. "If you insist that the text is the uncreated word of God, then the social and economic conditions of the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century are unimportant, because God works on a broader canvas than that. If, however, you are willing to look at the text as an event inside the history of the period, it illuminates the text. And I think it's a tragedy that...
...Dabbagh has no doubt that if he builds it, they will come. The governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) is one of the forces behind King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), a $27 billion development rising out of the desert 62 miles (100 km) north of Jeddah, and he can already envision the arrival of its first residents. "It won't be long before it starts taking shape," he says...
...critics, the plan smacks of oil-fueled excess, an attempt to one-up rivals on the mad dash across the Arabian Peninsula to build the tallest, biggest, glitziest structures. Their coffers bulging with surpluses, many Persian Gulf states are turning their desert into one giant construction site. There's the City of Silk project in Kuwait, Dubailand in Dubai and any number of ports, airports, universities and giant residential and industrial complexes abuilding in Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and elsewhere. KAEC "is not a vanity project, but there is definitely a statement being made," says a Riyadh businessman who asked...