The Disneyfication of Baghdad

[madmusic]

An L.A. Speculator Plans a Disney-Style Park in Baghdad

What a blast
By DAVID FERRELL
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - 6:19 pm

Only five years after U.S. warplanesrained down “shock and awe” on Iraq, decimating towns and families, a few rich Californians have figured out how to counter the mortar attacks, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism that continue to ravage the capital city, Baghdad.

Build an amusement park.

Not enough excitement in machine-gun fire and cars blowing up? Soon, thanks to some Los Angeles–area venture capitalists, Iraqis may have what every adrenaline junkie really craves — thrill rides. They may also get a museum and concert theater. There is talk of a water park. Plans are in motion to reopen the zoo, so people can look at tigers, monkeys and snakes. It is all part of a $500 million project set for development near Baghdad’s notorious Green Zone, where fears of violence are so great that fortresslike walls shield streets and buildings.

They even expect to give the “Baghdad Zoo and Entertainment Experience,” as the 50-acre complex will be known, a bit of a Los Angeles touch. If the initial phase opens later this year, it will include a feature every young Iraqi boy secretly longs for — a skateboard park, enhanced with 2,000 free skateboards for local children.

http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/an-la-speculator-plans-a-disney-style-park-in-baghdad/19035/

Related news: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/oct/24/comment.iraq">The Disneyfication of war allows us to ignore its real savagery

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JQP/is_308/ai_30188293">Reader's guide to `disneyfication'

[yella_dawg]

1. Good on `em.

Pump some much needed money into the economy during the construction, then maybe the Iraqis can find some use for the facilities when people wake up again.

[madmusic]

2. Well,

since the http://harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html">"neocon utopia" was the goal all along, was war really necessary to draw up the contracts?

[omega minimo]

3. K/R this BS

:banghead: