Why Dubai's Man-Made Islands Are Still Empty

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Video description:
In 2003, the construction of the multi-billion dollar investment project “The World” was announced. The man-made archipelago shaped like a map of the earth was planned to feature luxurious houses and tourist-resorts located all within just a short boat ride from Dubai. But today, more than 10 years after the completion of these islands, there is hardly anything built on them. What happened here?

Further Information at the end of the video.
Some music tracks are ones we made ourselves so if you are looking for a specific track but it isn't one listed at the end of the video then that's the reason.

Keywords:
Dubai, UAE, tourism, economy, islands, the world, investment, project, map, explained, why, how, where, how come. understanding, explainer, land reclamation

[raphael]

A city should never be built to look good from the sky. It should be built to look good from the perspective of the people walking through its streets.

[sanamun]

Dubai kind of feels like an experiment in what happens when you give people too much money.

[Predator]

The first problem was the fact they made things that look nice from above, it shows that they are more interested in things looking pretty instead of functional

[tanmeysaraiya]

There’s just a thing about Dubai that makes it feel so robotic and dead. The city feels soulless

[thenebbishroute]

What's stupid is that it would only take a handful of marine and shoreline scientists to explain why this project wouldn't work out.

[KatGlos]

Living in Dubai as a child, the shells I collected on Jumeirah beach were all covered with tar while I saw the dredges at work out at The World. These projects are so damaging to the environment, and it was all in vain.

[CCABPSacsach]

“I live on the Netherlands”
“Which city?”
“Dubai”

[SwayTree]

Few years ago my company was doing a project for a client in Dubai. I spend a lot of time there and also learned a lot about the place. The people there are greedy, extremely greedy. And they seem not to plan too much in advance. The city itself is quite old because it was a port city. The most cosmopolitan in that part of the world. They used to have pearls there but they were so agressive in getting them that oysters went extinct in that area. They had oil. Exploited it so much that they have none now. They have no respect for the nature. They use it, use it and use it. They have this mindset that everything and everyone should serve them if they consider them inferior. There is no gratidute towards anything. People or environment. Everything is disposable. A building was on fire? Let's leave it and build a new one. Everything must look expensive but when you take a closer look it is very tacky. There is a huge waste of space (inside the buildngs, outside areas). They serve no purpose they are just meant to look "rich". But it is all the surface, everything is empty inside. Even if you go on top of Burj Kalifa you quickly realize that it isn't worth it because you won't see anything interesting (and it was around $50 at that time). The whole city is just a golden empty shell. No soul, no value.

[jfloresmac]

- " I have a trillion dollars and dont know what to do with them"
- " Do you wanna pour sand from the desert into the ocean?"
- "Sounds good"

[jaxager]

I can't believe that someone didn't realize that adding those breakwater islands would make the inner water stagnant. I grew up around the Mississippi gulf coast and the beaches there suck. It's because of the barrier islands a couple of miles off the coastline. Go beyond those barrier islands and the water is beautiful, clear, has surf, and is blue. Along the coastline there are no waves and the water is brown. I certainly wouldn't want to spend millions of dollars on a house located on brown, stagnant, still water.

[AlexisDouFlo]

Mother Earth was like "I'm not into tattoos, thank youuu!"

[michaeldoit]

The sewer of the world's tallest building isn't even hooked up to city sewer. It has to be trucked off every day in tanker trucks.

[lw]

Can you imagine what would happen if this money was spent on improving the planet and people's lives?

[FreshnessOfThBeer]

When you start building a huge project in your Minecraft world but lose motivation and are too lazy to take it down.

[КонстантинГеоргиев-иф]

Fun fact - a coral reef was buried underneath the sand in order for this abomination to be built.

[tylerhutchinson]

Dubai is a perfect example of why consolidating wealth in the hands of a few can be devastating. Especially when those individuals are rich largely by virtue of what family they are born into.

God damn we suck as a species sometimes.

[donedisco]

The sheer amount of environmental and ethical issues this raises is completely mind blowing, this is a perfect example of how you can't bend all the rules of nature, it will bite back eventually.

[berandal]

Indonesia has more than 17000 natural islands and most of them are empty. Perfect tropical weather, cheap currency, delicious foods, friendly people, famous tourist destinations, strategic geographical hub. And these investors choose to put their money on artificial islands next to a desert.

[OnyxSilas]

Imagine having a private island like five feet from somebody else’s “private” island lol

[christya]

I'm reminded of a line from a movie I once saw. It's something like "Land is a good investment because it's the one thing they're not making anymore." You can't really create sustainable land. Mother nature will always have her way.