Neom doesn’t exist yet and there is a real possibility that it never will. You see Neom is a high-tech futuristic city being planned in Saudi Arabia and is the brainchild of its ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
Stretching along the Red Sea coast it will be 170km long, home to smart technology, net zero eco bollocks and home to about 9 million people with two robots for every person performing everyday tasks, with the aim to reduce Saudi Arabia’s dependence on oil and to diversify its economy.
Neom New Link
Being described as like something out of Blade Runner it will have flying taxis, a ski resort, shops, restaurants, homes, offices, green spaces, airport and rail link to get from one end to the other in 20 minutes. It all sounds very fanciful but who will build all this?
We know the petrodollar billionaires of the Middle East don’t do hard labour so I guess it will be down to the desperate and poor of South Asia once again and the exploitation that comes with it as the Qatar World Cup stadia and glittering skylines of Dubai and Kuwait City will testify to.
Since robots will be doing all the day-to-day stuff who is going to live here? Tech entrepreneurs? Social media influencers? The sort of cunt who drinks a veni spice latte with two pumps of cinnamon dolce syrup and sleeps on a beanbag half the day and calls it work? Isn’t that Silicon Valley? Blair, Soros, the Obamas and the Swedish schoolgirl truant, I bet they all have their eyes on a penthouse. I assume the Saudis will still want a bloke wearing a tea towel and pyjamas to cut of heads and hands to retain the human touch and enforce law and order.
I suppose I should be objective over this. Its in Mankind’s nature to build the biggest, best, fastest and tallest, to keep inventing, innovating and evolving. The Great Wall of China or the Pyramids of Egypt would never have been built, no space travel, Titanic or Colosseum would have been realised.
I don’t know. It all seems a bit too elitist and sterile and I don’t think the world is ready for flying taxis and robots while billions still cannot feed themselves or access clean water. A bit like a futuristic Los Angeles from Demolition Man where you are fined for swearing and thought crimes, the police are useless and everyone is a woke pussy…I mean that could never happen…..oh hang on.
Did I mention this is going to cost $1Tn and the crown prince wants this completed by 2030! The name Neom comes from the Greek word neos meaning “new” and the Arabic mustaqbal meaning “future”. I wonder if they have a translation for white elephant?
“Encouraging a more sustainable living” and “seismic changes in the way people will live in the future”. Mmm. I quite like my little village in Lincolnshire thanks Mo.
Nominated by: Liberal Liquidator
(Will these glittering towers have their own artisan-made country cream gates? Day Admin)
Emily Crossing, a social worker from Oxford, who complained about an arcade game in Weston Super Mare
