From "The Dark Reality Behind Saudi Arabia’s Utopian Dreams" by Robert F. Worth (NYT).
Here's my screen shot, showing "The Line":
January 31, 2021
"Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman... released a short film in January outlining his plans for the Line, a postmodern ecotopia to be built on the kingdom’s northwest coast."
"It will be a narrow urban strip 106 miles long with no roads, no cars and no pollution. M.B.S.... calls the Line a 'civilizational revolution' to be inhabited by one million people 'from all over the world.'... To watch the crown prince’s promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity. The film begins with a fast-moving montage of the 20th-century’s greatest scientific and technical breakthroughs, including an incongruous image of Saudi Arabia’s founding king — as if he’d been a Steve Jobs-style innovator rather than a camel-riding desert warrior.... As M.B.S. conjures this brave new world — no journey will take more than 20 minutes! zero carbon emissions! — you get the sense that his chutzpah is nothing short of metaphysical. He appears to believe that nature itself is at his command.... The film’s final words, spoken as a multicultural parade of faces flickers across the screen, are deliciously preposterous: 'A home to all of us — welcome to the Line.'"
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112 comments:
"It will be a narrow urban strip 106 miles long with no roads, no cars and no pollution."
But loaded, wall-to-wall, with Muslims.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Very racist of the author to call the King a "camel riding desert warrior". Nothing about how innovative the project will be. Nothing about climate change being important. (no, I do not drink the coolaid on climate change).
"It will be a narrow urban strip 106 miles long with no roads, no cars and no pollution."
And no water.
To watch the crown prince’s promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity.
How much more pie-in-the-sky is this than the scientistic hubris behind what the Democrats are attempting to foist on the entire US?
democraticals take notes.
"Very racist of the author to call the King a "camel riding desert warrior"..."
Yes, I had a similar thought: This is the kind of racism I thought the NYT was making a point to avoid and to decry in others.
"It will be a narrow urban strip 106 miles long with no roads, no cars and no pollution."
And no Curious George.
In prison, everything you need is within a 5 minute walk.
If it keeps them busy, then why not.
The Saudis don't do well with idle hands.
I am Laslo.
Somebody needs to retake 6th grade geography and learn the concepts of "coast" and "northwest"
I tried to watch the video didn't get very far.
B it if that green line is the location. It goes through the center not the "northwest coast" of Saudi Arabia.
Looks like it goes through "the empty quarter" which is empty for a reason.
John Henry
If they bent the line into a circle, you could take a shortcut.
We stay ahead (if we are still ahead) by exporting our bad or deluded or unrealistic ideas abroad and watching foreign potentates, satraps and nabobs worry about diversity or gender identity or carbon emissions or veganism rather than threaten us militarily or economically. I guess if one has to be a fanatic about something one could choose a worse cause, especially in the Middle East. The ridicule he encounters has to do with being a mirror in which Western environmental fanatics (some quite rich and powerful) can see an unflattering, unsettling image of themselves.
Doesn't a circle make more sense?
Sounds like Bill Gates' plan for his land in AZ. And equally arrogant.
Everything you need is within a five minute walk?
Not sure I want my wife and my girlfriend living that close to one another.
The NYT is always worth avoiding. They are incapable of objectivity.
I'm sorry. In the video they had not even figured out how to use a darker font across a white background (clothing). I'm not sure I have the confidence they can get this done. Especially if they won't allow Israeli's to help them.
Sheeit, I could do that if I wanted to.
What if the king decides you need a good caning or your head chopped off? Will those services be conveniently located as well?
So let's talk about just outside the line (the back alley, as it were) from where all the deliveries and infrastructure will be supplied.
For Saudi achievements in planned cities, see King Abdullah Economic City and whatever comes of the 15-year-old plan to build Prince Abdulaziz Bin Mousaed Economic City. MBS' primary skill is selling bullshit to credulous western audiences.
The Crown Prince is rather hot, though. Just sayin'.
Arabia's answer to Justin Trudeau.
"As M.B.S. conjures this brave new world — no journey will take more than 20 minutes! zero carbon emissions! — you get the sense that his chutzpah is nothing short of metaphysical.
----
Isn't this vision what we are always being sold by the NYT and others? Green energy, high-speed whatever, and all the rest?
no journey will take more than 20 minutes!
In other words, you can't leave.
How wide? If it’s zero emissions simply because everything that creates emissions is underground, then why a line? Why a big “start over” redesign? Smart Northern cites already bury all the infrastructure they can. Plenty of places can’t do that, though more could than do.
Another name for line is queue: a line or sequence of people awaiting their turn to be attended to or to proceed
And wow, the NYT essentially called the former Saudi King a simple camel jockey? The man did more than the Mullahs in Iran to prepare his country for the 21st Century.
"Isn't this vision what we are always being sold by the NYT and others? Green energy, high-speed whatever, and all the rest?"
Yep. In the future, no one will have to schlep home the groceries.
n prison, everything you need is within a 5 minute walk.
You must've been in a smaller prison than what I'm used to.
Why is the NYT so dismissive of a project their ethics should lead them to laud? Racism/anti-theism, possibly. The prince's positive relationship with Trump taints everything, possibly. He's cooperative with Israel, possibly.
Shame. It sounds interesting, especially from afar.
Shorter MBS: Saudi Arabia doesn't have to be synonymous with shithole.
"It sounds interesting, especially from afar."
Well, afar is kind of depressing.
"no roads, no cars"
Makes it easier to keep the women at home.
"no roads, no cars"
Not a single luxury,
Like Robinson Crusoe,
It's primitive as can be.
This Line project is in the Gulf of Aqaba, I guess close to the territory that T.E. Lawrence crossed with the Saud tribesmen to attack the Turks from the rear. Which the Turks had not guarded; because no human could cross that burning hellish waste. Read “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” or watch “Lawrence of Arabia.”
So let me guess the climate has not improved since Lawrence’s day. But a 100-mile monorail —using power from solar arrays— will be simply awesome. No problem with drought or sandstorm or mechanical failures. If it does break, you can just walk out. Ask Lawrence for details.
worth has been recycling qatari propaganda at least since 2010, during the salafi spring, yes the fraudulence of kac is seen in hologram for the king,
have we not seen that done that in /The Truman Show/
the turks set up their post so they didn't mind, one fascinating thing about 'lawrence' is what happened to the howeitat and sheik auda, the whole film is obscured by ibn saud's conquest notably of the hejaz
mockturtle said...
The Crown Prince is rather hot, though. Just sayin'.
-----------==========
without his head gear >>>> he is totally bald. NTTAWWT
MSAGA. No longer just a camel-dung eating country.
Yes, the plan is ridiculous, but it isn't any more ridiculous than the zero-emitting plans of pretty much any other ecotopia the NYTimes would be praising.
The thousand prince government structure ought to be tried in Portland though.
One suspects the killing of Khashoggi is the actual motive for this article.
What sucks is there's zero chance I'll get picked to be the Master Inseminator.
What Portland needs is money and foreign laborers. Contracting out mineral rights is the logical start, followed by nationalization.
Another good structure is the warlord structure. Mexican drug cartel expertise could be tapped to run Portland.
Get Earl Butz to run any ectopia. He knows what people need.
So that chick talking at the end. Is she a Karen, or a Becky?
rhhardin,
Tight
Loose shoes
Warm place to take a $hot.
I was a teenager when I heard this and thought it was hilarious.
Camel riding is bad now? Clyde the Camel
Sounds like pr campaign by hated fossil fuel producer nation to virtue signal they have correct green beliefs.
As a way to counter Biden love affair with Iran.
I was surprised Biden immediately stopped arms sales to Saudis.
cf. Brasilia, or any other expertly preplanned scientific utopian communities "of the future."
Also, before I sign up, just wondering, since we are coming from all over the world, where will the Christian church be located? I dare not ask whether my friends will be able to find a synagogue. Pretty sure I'll be able to locate a mosque, though.
NEOM google maps location
call this IsrArab + ArabIsr much almost like CaliMex and MexiCali
"He appears to believe that nature itself is at his command.... "
Why not?
Obama stopped the seas from rising...
Science is a lot easier when it's just a matter of virtue.
I can think of dozen reasons why this concept is a failure before it even starts. Even if could overcome all the logistical nightmares, e.g. no ambulances or police to drive to a location, the cost structure of such a utopia would be astronomical. How do they supply water? Pump it from the fossil fuel burning de-salinization plant?
Everything is 20 minutes away? How so? Does it include walking time from the carbon-free transport system to my office? What if I want to change jobs? I have to move out or move away and vice versa?
Top down city planning tends not to be very effective as it never accurately predicts the supply and demand of anything.
"Top down city planning tends not to be very effective as it never accurately predicts the supply and demand of anything."
Actually, why is the NYT dogging this? Seems to be right up their alley.
sharm al sheikh is just across the red sea, and it's a major resort center,
don't know if worth included this bit,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-52375343
Jen Psaki wouldn't like it there. Too hard to circle back.
including an incongruous image of Saudi Arabia’s founding king — as if he’d been a Steve Jobs-style innovator
This would be the place, for the Crack Emcee to say something like:
Islam is a - oh, forget it.
"Postmodern ecotopia...arrogance,...religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity,...Steve Jobs,...brave new world,...chutzpah,...metaphysical,...nature,...preposterous,...welcome to the Line.'"
Whoo-NO.
apparently king salman isn't bloodthirsty enough for worth.
https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2011/10/31/worthless-history-nyts-robert-worth-arab-revolt-lacks-standard
narciso @ 10:52: Good to know. Let me add “hostile natives” to the list of risks and costs. That will spice things up because the disgruntled former occupants, unlike random failures from climate or storm etc, will be able to sabotage the infrastructure at times and places of their choosing; in order to maximally discredit the people who have chased them off their land.
In effect the entire project will become a hostage to this group, or anyone, who wants to make an example of it.
Narayanan observes: without his head gear >>>> he is totally bald. NTTAWWT
I happen to find bald men attractive. YMMV.
I couldn't figure out exactly what "the line" is or what it does. Maybe it will turn out to be a bicycle path.....The high line park in Manhattan goes on for 1.43 miles. It's a pleasant enough walk and only cost several billion dollars to build and maintain.
If he came to the US, he wouldn't need to wear a dress to use the Ladies'.
It seems more convenient and efficient to bend the line back and forth to make a square or rectangle of little stacked lines. ... D'oh!
William @ 11:15: Yes, I guess it will resemble the NYC “High Line.” Aqaba averages over 90 degrees F for 6 months of the year. That’s an *average.*. Which includes the (relatively) cooler nights. My guess is that daytime highs would often hit 110 F and as you go inland they might get even higher.
It's impossible to be racist when criticizing privileged white men like the Sauds.
"Ralph L said...
If he came to the US, he wouldn't need to wear a dress to use the Ladies'."
Seriously? You don't need to wear a dress in the US....you can even have a cock.
"Bob Boyd said...
Jen Psaki wouldn't like it there. Too hard to circle back."
Ha!
All the waiters, cooks, cleaners, toilet uncloggers, air conditioner repairmen and other deplorables will live way down at the end of The Line.
So don't worry about that.
Blogger narciso said...
sharm al sheikh is just across the red sea, and it's a major resort center
Pop quiz!!! Who on the blog besides me has been to Saudi Arabia AND Sharm al Sheikh????
Singapore writ large.
I like Singapore. Concrete and palm trees. Very clean. Beautiful subway system. Great food, although a little expensive. And, if you don't cross the line and stay productive, you can do what you want.
What you don't have in Singapore is true democracy. There is window-dressing democracy that nods to British tradition, but no opposition party ever gets traction in its rigged system.
Saudi's The Line project has the potential to be more efficient than Singapore because they don't have to present even the pretense of representative government. It will be the biggest test yet of whether people can trade freedom for security and still be happy.
I think it will fail spectacularly.
Back when Obama's train was still a real dream, there was some kind of idea of making the Madison to Milwaukee line into a built-up high-tech urban corridor. Wasn't there?
"Back when Obama's train was still a real dream..."
The only Obama train I remember is the Peace Train...ride on.
OK — so what would you do if tasked with running the K of SA in a way that kept the young-uns from going all Jihadi and built something that didn’t depend on oil?
Good lord.
A clown with a crown. Won't be the first or last time a quasi-Westernized ruler in Bassakwardstan wastes the national wealth on high-tech fantasy.
Narr
A high-tech shithole is still a shithole
Who would be making it so?
Governments in the USA are absolutely the worst in creating viable commercial developments. They open their "enterprise zones" or "tech corridors" or "planned communities;" and besides their politically-connected anchor tenants, nobody wants to set up shop there. I can't think of a successful one, anyway.
And what group of really poor people from around the middle east will build all of this, all the while be treated like slaves by the Saudis? The Saudis don't do scut work, so some vast group of indentured peoples from the surrounding area will build all of this while being treated like krap, housed and fed in very rough conditions and treated like non-entities.
I wonder how much US tax money the asterisk admin will donate to the cause?
If he'd planned to put this in orbit around the earth, Matt Damon could invade it in the movie about it.
Where will the slums housing the servants be located?
Oso Negro wants to know if we've been to SA or Sharm.
Not me; there are plenty of historic places that I'd like to see (SA and Sharm not really on the list) that are now Muslim, but quite honestly you couldn't pay me enough to go to a place subject to the Mohammed cult.
Narr
Narrowing the field
Shorter MBS: Saudi Arabia doesn't have to be synonymous with shithole.
This is not a new idea. Reducing its dependence on oil revenue and modernizing its economy have been stated goals of the Kingdom since at least the 1970s. There are major systemic obstacles to Saudi's modernization, particularly the entangled relationship between its religious conservatism and political authoritarianism.
The social and economic reforms necessary for modernization are already a tall order, but MBS is also attempting to consolidate power domestically and pursuing a much more aggressively interventionist foreign policy. Unfortunately, MBS has proven himself to be reckless, impulsive, impetuous, and intolerant of any dissent or criticism. As a result, MBS has careened from one fuckup after another.
There are major systemic obstacles to Saudi's modernization, particularly the entangled relationship between its religious conservatism and political authoritarianism.
Plus it's really hot and sandy.
I’ve been thinking for a while that in the United States we need to build new cities and we have a lot of land in the west. I think it’s a great idea to start building a city with the concept of sustainability.
I’ve also been noticing that at the very same time the Biden administration is working hard to restrict domestic oil production we are also suddenly deciding to insult Saudi Arabia and the crown prince. It’s almost like we’re trying intentionally to humiliate him and antagonize the Saudi‘s, first with the Khashoggi story and now calling him a camel jockey. Is the plan to drive up oil prices to encourage electric vehicles even though very few people can afford them?
He is hot. I would do him.
Blogger Rosalyn C. said...
I’ve been thinking for a while that in the United States we need to build new cities and we have a lot of land in the west. I think it’s a great idea to start building a city with the concept of sustainability.
I think "City of the Homeless" would be an excellent idea. More like a reservation or game preserve, really. Think of all the social workers who could be productively employed!
This puzzles me. Am I supposed to hate saudi arabia now? Am I supposed to hate the royal family? why?
The whole thing sounds cool to me.
Saudi Arabia knows the oil will run out. They are looking to the future - and the welfare of their country. Good for them. Too bad, our rulers don't do the same.
Seriously though, why a line? That seems incredibly inefficient. A fifty billion dollar train set.
Oso Negro. There is a housing shortage and homes are too expensive for the average young person to buy. New cities would be for them.
"I’ve also been noticing that at the very same time the Biden administration is working hard to restrict domestic oil production we are also suddenly deciding to insult Saudi Arabia and the crown prince."
No problem, Iran has oil. (wish I were kidding)
The 2016 movie, "A Hologram for the King" is set in a fictional city based on the King Abdullah Economic City. Shot in Morocco, the movie includes scenes which must be from this project. A weird movie, which I guess is just a reflection of the weird Saudi culture.
But it does highlight the Saudi's do think big, since this project doesn't appear to be connected to this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Abdullah_Economic_City
Probably the same people who swooned over the high-speed train in California. Just tell me which way to point, and I'm off!
Dark as in labor and environmental arbitrage? Dark as in out-of-sight and out-of-mind policies? Dark as in semantic games, conceptual corruption, and conflation of logical domains? The tell-tale hearts beat ever louder.
"Seriously though, why a line? That seems incredibly inefficient. A fifty billion dollar train set." We have no experience with a place like Saudi Arabia. We can't imagine it. There is literally nothing there. Not one river in the whole country.
Seriously though, why a line? That seems incredibly inefficient.
I live in Houston. People always say rail will work here, but it doesn’t. People can spread out in any direction, and it is easy to get miles away from a major thoroughfare. Now in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, you can run a single rail line and be within a mile of much of the population. So walking and biking to a thoroughfare makes sense. Somewhat the same for the Island of Manhattan.
London shows you can do rail in a wide city, but then, London has rail all over both above and below ground. It also takes an hour or more to get across town even after you board the train. That is, when the operators aren’t on strike.
LYNNDH said...
Very racist of the author to call the King a "camel riding desert warrior".
Democrats have never stopped being racists.
Freeman Hunt said...
Seriously though, why a line? That seems incredibly inefficient. A fifty billion dollar train set.
If the track had no turns at all you could make a train much lighter and have much less friction with travel.
It would also make Magnetic Levitation much much easier to implement and friction costs would go way way down.
You could also design a system with much higher maximum speeds. Your limits would be acceleration/deceleration forces which would be vehicle weight dependent and limited by how much energy you are willing to expend on that acceleration.
The holes are much easier to dig and support.
This list is as long as your knowledge of the mechanisms of tracked transportation systems. I haven't worked on it myself but these just come off the top of my head as I type.
All he needs to do to make this work is create a Singapore like free trade zone with limited government regulation, minimal taxation, and explicit guarantees of private ownership and control of capital.
That's funny Titus. He looks like he could be on Boston Grindr.
"He looks like he could be on Boston Grindr."
Could be?
Seems like a lying ,dog-faced, camel jockey desert warrior.
Wait a sec--Lawrence of Arabia?
"Very racist of the author to call the King a "camel riding desert warrior"..."
This is the highest of compliments among the hundreds or perhaps thousands of Arab princes.
Is anyone sure this isn't a sequel to Snowpiercer in the making? Dunepiercer, maybe?
Can't work. Won't work. Not in a place where Islamic law must prevail.
It wasn't even a very good infomercial!
Narr
MBS: King of Cameljockeydom
FRIENDS:
"Word is..." is one of the easiest ways to introduce innuendo into a conversation with complete insoucsiance to citation or reality.
"To watch the crown prince’s promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity."
Hey, he's a crown prince and, unlike Charles, he gets to strut about like Pelosi; but, I think his idea is rather forward thinking. As has been noted above, the Line touches the Red Sea and moves inland. An international port across the "bay" from Israel on one end and lots of space for industrial development along The Strip. Basic urban planning.
And just from where will the technical know how to construct such a project?
The true arrogance is this Schegatz political NYT writer. Royalty by definition do not suffer from Chutzpah. They are Kings and Princes and there are separate BRACHOT for them--not for hacks. It is the writer who has chutzpah with all of his Islamophobic rhetoric and HIS misplaced arrogance. I would much rather watch the Crown Prince regally state his vision for reclaiming the desert than read the drecht of a worthless antisemite.
Besides, as the history of this region teaches us from over 5000 years, Kings have a penchant of creating cities from sand and importing the best and the brightest. So, if the Crown Prince wants to build such a living forward looking monument, BAHTZLACHAH.
As Bumbling Biden begins to wreck havoc on the Middle East, it is hard not to see the changes that are beginning to happen from the Maghreb to the Gulf. I live in rural Morocco, in the south, far from the expat enclaves. I am a retired rabbi and visual ethnographer. I have no problems with my neighbors; on the first night Chanukhah they all danced with me in the street when the King recognized Israel. They were all saddened that Trump lost and are very worried about Bumbling Biden.
It is worth noting that the intellectual classes regard ANY believer in the same light as the peoples of the Meghreb--I truly can no longer distinguish between their views of the Deplorables and Camel Jockeys.
"This list is as long as your knowledge of the mechanisms of tracked transportation systems. I haven't worked on it myself but these just come off the top of my head as I type."
I can see the greater efficiency for the train, but what of all the other utilities and services required for a city?
No roads? So, no trucks, either. Sorry; garbage collection trains are going to REEK, especially in Saudi heat.
The line. 4,000 years, men have stood on the line. Everyone knew what the line meant.
Mockturtle-The Crown Prince is rather hot, though. Just sayin'.
That's what the line meant.
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