Cancelled - Dubai's Palm Islands

You know a recession is serious when the Dubai government says "Yeah, maybe we shouldn't build that".

Anybody who has ever built a sandcastle on the beach will understand where those projects will ultimately end.

Coming from a "3rd world country" a lot of my countrymen who wants to earn more would try their luck in Dubai. What's sad is most don't really make much, are severely abused, and some come home in a casket. It's a dismal place full of abuse and lacking in soul. No matter how hard things got for me, nothing will convince me to try my luck there.

Imagine a sci fi story where explorers find enormous mysterious ruins with no discernable purpose but it turns out they were just badly-thought-out, abandoned vanity projects by billionaire aliens

I've been to Dubai many times and I'm regularly in contact with construction contractors who've been involved in the development of the city from the beginning. I remember having a fascinating conversation with an outstanding local engineer who was approaching retirement. We were eating lunch and looking out across Dubai Marina when I asked him about his work on the Princess Tower. He told me everything was going smoothly after a slew of initial issues and then paused in deep thought. I was about to ask him if he was ok when he looked back to me and said - "You do realise everything here exists on the knife-edge of destruction? Turn off the power or the cheap labour and mother nature will swallow everything within a year and return this place to a desert".

The craziest part about these projects. Why would you do a reclamation, when the existing land is plentiful. They could have just cut the larger palm into the natural land with water channels, and you would still see it from space. Plus the infrastructure would have been much cheaper.

I lived in Dubai for 5 years. The best description I heard is, 'It's a city designed by a 12 year old on SimCity... or the 21st century version of the game!' The Palm Jumeriah, although a novelty and quite exciting to visit at the start, was soulless. They could have built what they built on land anywhere in the world. You don't get a sense of the design when on ground level, so what's the point. Go past the Atlantis Hotel at the top, and it's just hotels and building sites. You may get something from having your own private beach if you live on one of the Fronds, but the water is stagnant, very salty (therefore not very nice to swim in) and home to jellyfish. Not exactly paradise, and certainly not worth the millions people pay to live there.

After staying in Dubai for a while I can tell from my perspective the biggest problem I had was the awful climate hot, dry and dusty. It’s like living in a fan oven.

I went to Dubai in June 2021 on business. I found it very depressing and oppressive. All workers are from 'poor' countries and live in terrible conditions and stress. Not an enjoyable trip.

“Looks cool from above but from ground level it’s just not functional”. This statement describes the entire region. All shiny and glitzy from afar, but when examined closely it is a ecological and human rights disaster.

It's pretty insane that the started construction for all the projects nearly simultaneously.... If they had finished one, and analysed w what was needed, what worked, what the demand and return on investment were, they could have saved so much wastage.

I lived in Dubai, so was my family. Nakheel was renowned for building rubbish and abandoned it eventually, the place were I live, international city was own by Nakheel, and by just going through the main gate, you’ll see two ongoing constructions that was stopped due to pandemic until now. As my mom commented “these are the doorkeepers Nakheel sent to us”. 😂

We can't even imagine all the effects and devastation by those island projects on coastal & marine ecosystems and what was permanently lost under them.

The hubris behind this project is just so staggering. It's truly amazing how they didn't think it would be a good idea to try it out on a smaller scale before embarking on so many large projects all at once.

Digusting how much sea life and coral has been decimated only for the islands to be mostly abandoned

The world islands are my absolute favorite. It's just so cute. They look exactly like the kind of cockamamie idea I'd have as a kid. "What if like, everyone lived on their own little island, and we swam to our neighbors' house and took a boat to buy groceries"

I've lived in Dubai and can vouch for this video. The whole city is on a knife edge. If you visit as a tourist you'll first notice the abundance of luxury hotels with no-one in them. If you go there to work you'll notice that no-one sees themselves staying there, they make their money and go. If you live there you'll notice how arrogant the locals are and think everyone else is vermin..The place isn't real, it's a fake city that is bleached dry in the sun and heat. There's no natural water, nothing grows there, there's no industry and there's no oil money left,... I guarantee this city will fail and eventually will be a dead zone. It's only a matter of time.

Having lived in UAE, and seen the development on the islands, it is like an abandoned, half built mall. It's soulless, and charmless.

I lived there for 10 years from the early 00's so I've seen every major transformation project from start to finish. They levelled all of the beautiful old neighbourhoods and settled beach communities that lay between Al Mina and up through Jumeriah 1 and 2, Al Wasl, and up past Umm Suqeim and Al Sufouh, including my local Safa Park, to replace it with these high-rise concrete towers. There are still some mature neighbourhoods of old Dubai remaining, but not many. It's often the price of progress but I do think that moved a little too quickly with some areas marked for redevelopment, because now the charm of those old neighbourhoods has gone and the fantastic communities who lived there can never be replaced or recaptured.

Nice video. But I do feel they neglected to mention how the water around these islands quickly became near stagnant. Which means they aren’t good for suitable for swimming and are breeding ground for insect larvae.