The Benefits of Being an Oil-Rich Country
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| The Card Players |
As Alexandra Peers of
Vanity Fair recently reported,
the small, oil-rich nation of Qatar recently spent $250 million on Cézanne’s The Card Players. While the painting is highly regarded and is
thought to be instrumental to the Cubism and abstract movements, the price was
a shock to the art community.
The purchase of the
painting is part of Qatar’s push to become relevant in the tourism
industry. They are trying to create some
of the best art museums in the world. In
2010, Qatar also won the bid to host the 2022 FIFA
World Cup. Who did Qatar beat out in
the last round of voting to host the tournament? America. That’s right, a country the geographic size
of Connecticut
with a population the size of Memphis, beat America in a vote to host the most
important tournament in the world (you could argue for the Olympics, but
realistically the World Cup is more important).
Qatar’s recent push
on the international scene is indicative of what the oil-rich countries in the
Middle East have been doing for the past decade. Turn on a soccer match featuring Arsenal (one
of the world’s most popular
clubs) and you’ll see “Fly Emirates” plastered across the fronts of their
jerseys. If you saw Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, you were probably on the edge
of your seat during the scenes in the Burj Khalifa (the world’s
tallest building, in Dubai).
It’s pretty obvious
that there are some benefits to being an oil-rich country. You can build stadiums with artificial
clouds, the tallest building in the world, and huge indoor ski slopes. Here in America, we can’t even get an
extensive public transit system built in California or Los Angeles. When we’re trying to elect a job creator,
maybe we should be looking for someone more like Jed Clampett
and less like Mitt
Romney.
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| Jed Clampett |
I really enjoyed your funny remark at the end with Jed Clampett and Mitt Romney! I also noticed the oddity that Qatar can build such infrastructure and we have issues building adequate transportation for our population. I think it's really a question of priorities. Like you said, Qatar is trying to build their tourism industry and with their wealth they really have unlimited potential. I thought it was pretty embarrassing that they beat us out of the place for the World Cup, but I see what they're trying to do and I'm excited to see what sick new buildings and innovations they will be bringing.
ReplyDeleteOil does mean a lot. Oil does do a lot. ...but I think today we need to recognize that we need to move on. Oil is an extremely limited research and its continued use will only destroy our ecosystem. Slowly, but surely. So far technology has began to recognize that we need to move on to alternative sources of energy and today "going-green" is the new hip thing. America needs to recognize the things that are needed for this technological revolution and if we want to become a strong superpower once again, we need to local where we can get the resources to fund this technological revolution. Essentially, we want to become the Qatar of the new alternative energy resource. Maybe this is easier said than done, but I strongly believe that we should stop using oil and find an alternative energy source and be the kings of that.
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