Wait, what? A project does not have to meet its economic goals to meet its cultural goals -- to have an impact on cultural and social norms. When hundreds of millions of dollars of effort gets poured into an area, it's going to have an impact, whether or not "nobody likes it."
Timesonline reports that Llewellyn Werner, chairman of C3, a Los Angeles-based holding company for private equity firms, is dumping $500 million into The Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience – an American-style amusement park featuring a skatepark, rides, a concert theatre, and a museum.
The park is being designed by the same firm that developed Disneyland.
Werner will retain exclusive rights to the development project. He told the Timesonline:
“I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t making money,” he said. “I also have this wonderful sense that we’re doing the right thing – we’re going to employ thousands of Iraqis. But mostly everything here is for profit.”
Petraeus is a “big supporter” of the park, according to the Timesonline.
Does a Disneyland-style amusement park in a volatile, war-torn country reek of cultural hegemony and yet another excuse to privatize more of Iraq’s resources for US profit? It does to me.
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