No superlative – no story?
A story covering the Gulf-States without any superlative? unthinkable, unplaceable, doesn’t earn any money! A cliché? Not at all. “At full throttle through the desert” that’s the promising title of a one-hour TV documentary, broadcasted last sunday (August 15th, 2010) on “Kabel Eins”. Not fancy enough? Not really, especially as the circuit has been built close to the habour and we are not talking about legendary “Paris-Dakar”. So be it, headline are not written to be intelectuall but to bring money.
The documentary shows us the last six months of the two year’s construction phase in Abu Dhabi prior to “Yas Marina Circuit’s” first race on November 1st, 2009, finished just on time, what else?
Well, what is supposed to impress us this time? The fact that 47.000 workers (predominantly from India and Pakistan – what a surprise!) are working night and day to get things done? That the temperature reaches 46 degrees celsius already at eight o’clock in may? And it’s not the stereotype sentences like: “It is about superlatives, it is about exploitation of workers, it is about the inhumane agenda of the sheikhs.” We already know that – PLEASE, give us some news, one wants to heckle desperately.
Surprinsingly the crucial sentences are stemming from Australia and Germany – on this note, from the two construction supervisors, one from Australia, the other one from Germany. Both struggling with time, the heat and the requirements of the reigning family, respectively the ‘Shams-Tower’. You can listen to sentences like: “Yes, we have to drive the workers as much as we can”, or “One has to simply drive them, it is hard work, everybody knows that.” These sentences are positively taken out of the contract because no ‘civilized’ supervisior would say such a sentence voluntarily.
Needless to mention that everything got finished on time. Needless to say that the construction supervisor earned ‘good money’. Needless to say that he did that job voluntarily. Needless to say that the supervisors also don’t care much about the workers from India, Pakistan or whatever. Still, the sun always shines on TV – still, political correctness does sell on TV also.
Further readings (partly in German):
- Spiegel Online: “Abu Dhabi baut schnellste Achterbahn der Welt”
- Facebook: “Abu Dhabi bei Facebook”
- Formula 1: “Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Circuit”
- Earth TV: “Yas Marina Circuit”
