Dubai wants to be "what London was to the 19th century and Manhattan to the 20th", except without that messy democracy thing. No political parties. No freedom of speech. Religious courts. Oppression of immigrants and women.

A benign dictatorship is still a dictatorship and is too stifling to reach those heights. A more reasonable aspiration is to be "the Singapore of the 21st century".

(via Kottke's remaindered links)

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