Tiger Woods, Dubai-Saudi Arabia and Golf Eco-terrorism
I just read that Tiger Woods is going to design a golf course in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, a coastal city on the Red Sea that hosts a golf tournament every year. Here is what the internet news media reported (Italics are mine):
Dec. 3 (www.bloomberg.com)-- \"Tiger Woods plans to design a golf course in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the first by his Tiger Woods Design Company set up last month.
The 7,700-yard ``Al Ruwaya\'\' course will open in 2009 and be par 72, Woods said in a PRNewswire statement today. Tatweer, an investment group owned by the Dubai government, is a partner in the project.
``Why Dubai? Because I am excited about the challenge of transforming a desert terrain into a world-class golf course,\'\' Woods said in the statement. (Using what? How?)
The course in Dubai is part of the 25.3 million square-foot ``The Tiger Woods -- Dubai\'\' development that will also include a clubhouse, golf academy, hotel, villas and mansions.
The complex will be in Dubailand, a $7.5 billion attraction that will be twice the size of Walt Disney World in Florida. It will include an indoor ski slope, car-racing track, dinosaur theme park and rain forest.\" (In the desert???)
Khaleej Times Online (www.khaleejtimes.com)-- \"The new development will include a 7,700-yard, par-72 championship course, golf academy, clubhouse, 80-suite hotel for VIP guests, 300 luxury villas, 20 mansions and a community retail area.
The complex will be designed by Tiger Woods Design and developed by Tatweer, a member of Dubai Holding. It is scheduled for completion in late 2009 over an area of 25 million square feet at Dubailand, the region’s largest tourism and leisure project.
Mohammed Al Gergawi, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and executive chairman of Dubai Holding, said: “This initiative reinforces the great development pace Dubai has achieved within diverse domains to become one of the most recognised cities in the world.”
Tiger Woods Design says its aims are to elevate the standards of golf course design and create enjoyable, challenging layouts worldwide.
Woods, 30, won this year’s Dubai Desert Classic, beating Ernie Els in a playoff, and is due to return to defend his title in February. According to the terms of his agreement with the tournament promoters, the American will play in the event at least three times in the next four years.\"
Dubai may be on the sea coast, but it is still next to the desert. The heat is intense in the summer, limiting what can grow naturally in this area. Water resources are limited to desalinated water from the Red Sea.
What kind of “world class” course could Tiger Woods design without a local source of fresh water, grass and plants? Who\'s going to play this course?
According to the CIA (www.cia.gov) factbook, current environmental issues in Saudi Arabia include: “desertification; depletion of underground water resources; the lack of perennial rivers or permanent water bodies has prompted the development of extensive seawater desalination facilities; coastal pollution from oil spills.”
About a fifth of the country’s population lives in or near Dubai, and estimates range from 13% to 25% of Saudi males between 16 and 50 are unemployed. (It looks like foreign non-nationals do most of the work in that country).
How will Dubailand change this picture?
A environmental internet journal, PROGRESSIVE REVIEW ECOLOGY REPORT (www.prorev.com) features a daily update on environmental issues all over the world. In November, the report published the Anti-Golf Manifesto, which was presented by the Global Anti-Golf Movement (www.antigolf.org). Here is part of the report:
\"At the heart of the golf industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry involving transnational corporations, including agribusiness, construction firms, consultancies, golf equipment manufacturers, airlines, hotel chains, real estate companies, advertising and public relations firms as well as financial institutions.
The bulk of the foreign exchange earned from golf courses and golf tourism does not stay in the local economy. The benefits which do remain are reaped by a few business people and their patrons.
Golf courses are in fact another form of monoculture, where exotic soil and grass, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and weedicides, as well as machinery, are all imported to substitute for natural ecosystems.
The environmental impacts include water depletion and toxic contamination of the soil, underground water, surface water and the air. This in turn leads to health problems for local communities, populations downstream and even golfers.
In addition to environmental damage, golf course and resort development often creates skewed land use, displacing local communities or depriving them of water and other resources. In a number of countries, the victims of such projects are subject to police or military intimidation when they protest against the destruction caused by golf courses.\"
In light of the rise of terrorism, the increasing militancy of Muslims all over the Middle East, the anti-Western backlash that has made a shambles of Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan, as well as the growing certainty over the fall of the House of Saud, how will spending $7.5 billion on a golf resort with this kind of environmental impact be interpreted?
What is Tiger Woods thinking about? How should we respond?
