World's Most Expensive Christmas Tree In Abu Dhabi: $11million

The corruption and decadence of oil sheiks knows now bounds. I am glad to see that Dubai has been humbled: it is now shackled with debt, many offices and apartments are closed, and hundreds of projects have been cancelled. It was always foolish to just build and build with no apparent calculation of actual market demand.

Corrupt Arab dictators think they can avoid competent institution building and the necessary freedom to encourage a prosperous entrepreneurial class solely by using oil money to finance this or that high-profile and extravagant project. And what projects!

There is no class of people more subject to ridicule than Arab oil royals and deservedly so. They are pawns for Western merchants eager to sell them the most tasteless and hedonistic extravagances. Case in point: A Saudi prince spent $50,000 on a gold-laced penis pumper a few years back.

While a third of the Saudi population lives below the poverty line, Saudi royals spend nearly half of all oil proceeds on their material conquests.

What burst the bank in Dubai was the in-door ski park, the three palm-shaped islands, and other tacky projects. Never once did the royals there believe that what is truly needed for a society to prosper is not flash but, say, better investment in schools. Why not just one, only one?!, palm-shaped island and one world-class university? Just a thought.

I remember reading a story on Dubai during its golden days and one of the royal members, who is (or was) president of one of the major developers building all those headline projects, said that Dubai does not need democracy because democracy is merely a means to an end and if you can get to that end without democracy then why not? Dubai was charting its own course. How's that going?

Anyway, those vile corrupt leaders have an endless stream of stupid and tasteless oil-financed projects and this one was to rank near the top:

ob lj054 xmastr ev 20101215120545 yzcqP 19672

ABU DHABI–Money may not grow on trees, but in this oil-rich emirate, it’s at least hanging from the branches.

The Emirates Palace hotel–already the home of the world’s first gold ATM–has decked out a 43-foot-high Christmas tree with about $11-million worth of precious jewelry from a local jeweler.

Diamond necklace-and-earring sets, strings of pearls, and emerald and ruby bracelets–181 pieces in total–are strewn between the more mundane gold and silver balls and bows. The priciest piece is a diamond set costing 3.5 million dirhams, or just short of $1 million.

“It’s an artificial tree, but the jewelry—that’s not artificial,” the hotel’s general manager, Hans Olbertz, said at an opening event Wednesday.