Friday, October 17, 2008

Gambling to be legalised in the Gulf?

It looks like plans to introduce widespread gambling into the Gulf are already underway with massive investments being carried out on Palm Island. Purely speculating of course, it is no coincidence that Kerzner International now has a foot on the island with its new Atlantis resort. It's also no coincidence that the QE2 was sold off as a £50 million investment to Dubai, again as a 'hotel'. It doesn't take much imagination to see it sail in international waters off the coast and well stocked up with whiskey, prostitutes and lots and lots of gambling. There I was thinking they were going to sail it to Gaza to break the seige...

When I read more about these things, it just reminds me how much I don't like rich people. I mean the rich people you don't hear about because they are rarely in the news, the ones that really do bank in obscure principalities in central Europe, in the Carribean and other places. The ones that can pay half a billion pounds sterling in 500 foot yachts armed with missile defense systems and a built in submarine, coupled with 50 crew and an armed detachment of British mercenaries from the SAS - the mercenary factory of choice for those who want to overthrow central African republics (think Mark Thatcher) or unreasonable Gulf Sheikhs, such as what happened in Oman. Is it any coincidence that the capital of choice for so many of these people is London? Is it not fair to say that we all, those of us who choose to remain (greedy for our big break) in these cosmopolitan cities, stand guilty of shared theft? I think it is.

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