Where our money is going

I have just returned from a vacation in the Middle East. I spent the first five days in the United Arab Emirates, attending a conference on Sustainable Development, sponsored by the Urban Land Institute. My wife, Katherine Perez, was a speaker and I accompanied her with our kids.

Of course there is very little that is "sustainable" about the oil-fueled frenzy of development going on along the western side of the Persian Gulf in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain. The world's tallest building is under construction in Dubai, along with the world's largest shopping mall -- but there are just symbols of the frenetic pace of building. One out of every five construction cranes in the world is deployed on Dubai's 2,000 construction sites. Nakheel Properties signature development, The Palm Jumeirah, contains 4,000 of the most luxurious villas and residential units on the planet along with 32 new five star hotels, including the 2000 room Atlantis hotel and the 48 story Trump Hotel and Tower.

If you can picture California's recent housing boom, magnified about a zillion times, you might have some sense of the sudden emergence of Dubai as the world capital of wretched excess. But beyond the hype of iconic new projects is the reality that like Athens, Venice, Amsterdam, London and New York before it, Dubai is parlaying its strategic position and wealth into a play to become a world center -- not just the premier business center of the Middle East, but the linchpin between old money Europe and new money "Chindia" -- the emerging mega-economies of Asia.

The way they are going about it, however, is giving even them concern. Just fifty years ago, Dubai was little more than a dusty colonial entrepot with a total population the size of Santa Paula. Today, 25,000 new residents arrive each month from all over the world, hoping to cash in on the goldrush atmosphere.

At the conference, speakers explored the daunting threats and exciting opportunities for rethinking the future of this oil rich region. Not surprisingly, the pattern of development now underway has made the Gulf states the biggest wasters of energy on the planet -- at least on a per capita basis. But precisely because Dubai is developing at such a breakneck, spendthrift pace, the potential for refocusing their model is an urgent priority.

The conference keynote speaker, Chandran Nair of the Global Institute for Tomorrow in Hong Kong, noted, "A sustainable development agenda can't be approached without taking into account the complexities of our world" starting with the stark contrasts in equity. The top 20% of the world's population commands 80% of the world's income. While globalization has helped lift 130 million people out of poverty in recent years, 2.5 billion people still live on less than $2 a day. Given the explosive hunger that share of the planet's population has for a better life, the responsibility rests with wealthier nations to set a far better example of living sustainably.

This has implications here in Ventura, of course. It is, metaphorically speaking, our money that being pumped into building highrise towers in the Dubai desert. The way we get around and the way we build our city directly contributes to making a handful of sheikhs into the richest moguls on the planet. Even more damaging, it puts us in a poor position to preach to anyone else about wasting resources. Most damaging of all, it improverishes our children and grandchildren, who will be paying for the debts we are running up for our current lifestyle, not to mention the sacrifices of our young people on the battlefronts abroad.

Of course, thinking globally and acting locally is not always easy. One of my favorite jokes concerns a poll of Americans that showed that 98% of the public supports public transit -- for the other 2% to ride. But seeing how our money is being spent half a world away has been sobering for me. Let's hope they change -- but let's make sure we do!