I'm surprised not to see the article mention the previous report[1] about the three men who were sentenced to death, the killing of one, and the decades long prison sentences for others over their opposition to this project.<p>Karmic justice requires this project to be crushed by the sand that these arrogant dictators tried to impose their steel dick over.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/03/un-rights-experts-denounce-planned-saudi-executions" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/03/un-rights-expe...</a>
No great surprise, they have form here.<p>The Saudis announced six megaprojects in 2005. King Abdullah Economic City was the only one that went anywhere. I believe it was supposed to have 2 million people and reached about 7 thousand.<p>They've kicked people out of the area, killed at least one person, trashed the area with initial construction efforts (I've driven past) and now the inevitable seems to be coming to pass already.<p>They still have time but they need to do <i>something</i> to diversify from oil in the way Dubai has eventually. Building a new Dubai, with a different legal framework (only rumoured for Neom AFAIK), doesn't seem like the worst idea to me, but starting with an overly ambitious design probably isn't the way to get traction. The Middle East do love a pissing contest though so starting small isn't what they're into.
I think these projects mostly exist to funnel away / launder money, no one really thinks they will become reality. A multi-decade mega project is just a great way to divert large amounts of money without raising too much suspicion as there’s very little oversight of what’s really happening there.
I want to see someone seriously analyze what would happen if there was a power loss to the Line. Hundreds of thousands of people in a glass box in 50C weather with no AC sounds like a recipe for a record breaking mass casualty event.
I recommend these YouTube essays on it:<p>- Adam Something: NEOM Is The Parody Of The Future [1]<p>- Thunderf00t: NEOM, The Line: BUSTED!! [2]<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB_X5ZUcZlE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB_X5ZUcZlE</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyWaax07_ks" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyWaax07_ks</a>
How's the Saudi ski resort coming?[1] That's part of the same project.
That's supposed to be ready for the 2026 Winter Games.
Google Earth shows roads, a perimeter fence, a water tower, and some buildings as of August 2023, so work is going on.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.neom.com/en-us/regions/trojena" rel="nofollow">https://www.neom.com/en-us/regions/trojena</a>
The only thing the Gulf states have going for them is oil money and a good hub location on the Europe–Southeast Asia airline routes.<p>Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Bahrain, Qatar, they all remind me of that quote from King of the Hill—they are monuments to man's arrogance. Desert cities hitting 50+ °C air temperature at midday which means air conditioning everywhere; vapid luxury in the form of expensive garish cars, shopping malls, and weird buildings and monuments, all while local chiefs who oppose stupid and unrealistic white elephant vanity projects are executed in the back alley.<p>This is one reason why I would like more nuclear power: it'll take some of the money away from the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia has this weird affinity for these completely ridiculous sci-fi projects that are proposed as actual non-fantasy developments. See the Mukaab for another example.
I'm surprised there isn't a bigger movement to intentionally boycott buying fuel from countries like this<p>A lot of people in western countries indirectly pay for this
The problem with The Line was not that it was a line, it was the scale. It's so ridiculously large it is akin to Altman's request for 20% (?) of the world's GDP. Not only it wasn't happening, it literally <i>can't</i> happen.<p>If you go to Google Earth (the app), it lets you see historical imagery from the site and for the past three or so years you can see continuous progress on digging out The Line; that alone is quite impressive on its own! But then again, digging it is only like 1% of it, and the easiest part. It's an impossible project.
Are there any forums like HN but for architecture, and not prone to devolving into sociopolitical criticism, and instead focusing on the structures themselves? I find experimental architecture fascinating and would rather discuss the merits and flaws of the design itself.<p>Neom reminds me of Łódź, a city in Poland that is built around a single 5km long street. It’s quite cool and the simple geometry is aesthetically appealing in a way I’ve yet to find elsewhere.
Economics explained YouTube channel has a good coverage on the rationale behind the crazy projects like this. In short, while the project itself might not make much sense, the infrastructure created to build it will stay and it makes it more accommodating to build other, more rational projects.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/pnrAxfzHElo?si=ceaS6MIs7qrP9ohL" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/pnrAxfzHElo?si=ceaS6MIs7qrP9ohL</a>
There are two types of such big projects out there.<p>There are those grandiose mega projects purely for the rich, purely for vanity and showing off wealth and meant attract outside attention... like "The Line" for example...<p>...but there also are more sensible projects, that are actually meant to help the local populace, improve conditions, and fight poverty... like "The Al Baydha Project" just for one example.<p>It's totally possible to do something ambitious and impressive, and with historic significance without becoming completely detached from reality.
Pity that the constructors cannot extract more money for this vanity project. Maybe they should pivot, reduce the length of the line a bit, to the length of an average penis.
Oh the bias, quiet unfortunate. So many comments against ME countries with so many false pretenses, you can easily tell many haven't set a foot on ME soil let alone actually lived there - holiday doesn't count. Having lived in ME for a long, long time I've had many liberals and atheists friends jump on the first ship to ME on a 'good' salary - slavery you say. I'm an Englishman, not a middle eastern.
The likely reason they want to do NEOM, besides basic hubris, is to jump start a modern economy. All the insane projects bring in foreign engineers, manufacturers, etc. At first your local industry feeds materials and labor into them, but in time you work your way up the value chain and replace them.<p>It's a time tested strategy. The main problem is SA is doing it in the most useless and bloody way possible.
That comes unexpected. I really would like to see how this works out. It's a possible way of living in the future. If the earth becomes more fiendly, such cities would offer autonomous compounds for the people. Now i would like to know if somebody is building the ARCs ...
The sheer arrogance of Westerners is one of the reasons I'm so biased against them and letting them enter any of the Muslim countries, like come on are we supposed to be taking lessons from people who gave us the Holocaust, the World wars, the Iraq war, the forceful displacement of Palestinians so they can create their own country. Are you people really that blind that you think whatever you think or values you have are the right ones? If that's true why do your governments still have a presence in defense contracts with these countries, if you're such upholders of these values why do you sell weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel etc which have proven that they cannot uphold human life. I have worked with the Westerners and someone who's born and raised here, I can tell you this much, there is good and bad in every nation but your bad is the worst every time and the arrogance you have has blinded you to accept your faults.<p>We might have our faults but our people are working towards progress, it takes time but we don't go bashing Western people and how they are the worst examples of humanity, even knowing their history and countless examples of genocides conducted by them and then denying it. Shame on you people and those who think they are the best examples. Next time when you're offered a job in a Middle East country, don't accept it simple as that instead of coming here, bashing and then saying money talks. Greed is all you guys know.