southeastaSEAn: Part 1: The Sky's the Limit

I've always had a childish fetish for tall buildings. To me they represent the feasible realization of ultra visionary ambition. They are the product of those who dare to do more than dream. True, they have little practical economical value at the present moment, except for boosting our tourism revenue and being a source of national pride. No one can deny the pride they feel when they see our majestic twin towers dominating the Asian skyline. Even the starving beggar feels proud to be here: Wow, I'm so lucky to be a beggar in Malaysia!

What more shall we non-welfare people feel when we stand at the base of the twin towers, and marvel at how high they really are, and we often tell ourselves, it is a wonder they were able to build this at all. Never mind that the money could have gone to better use and improved our healthcare, our infrastructure, education or some damned issue of need. Those buildings are just so damn high! They are the true epitomisation of the phrase Malaysian Boleh! We really boleh!

only the lucky few can beg beneath such majesty

But there's a reaon people say the sky's the limit. And no one understand this better than the Middle East. You've heard of Dubai. It is the place where the emirs play Allah. With their billions in petrodollars, they are in the process of making the most impressive sandbox the world has ever known, that is gonna make all the other kids in the park oh so jealous. As it is, the Burj Dubai remains incomplete, yet it already holds the record for being the tallest building in the world, (already at 600m plus and surppassing).

The temporary record our twin towers held over the sears towers was forever mired in controversy. The Sears towers had the highest point but it was considered irrelevant and therefore not counted as part of the building. The same happened with Taipei 101. It surpassed the twin towers but was still not as high as the antennae of the sears tower. yada yada chicken poop and so on...

Now the burj dubai has shut them all up. Not merely content to beat its rivals by mere tens of meters, it is on its way to beating them by hundreds. The final height is projected to be at around 800m. That's 300m taller than the 2nd place Taipei 101. That's nearly double. Can you imagine standing at the base of the twin towers, and imagine a building twice as high? TAK BOLEH. At least not in Malaysia for the mean time. We got a govt to oust and an ex-deputy minister/alleged anal fetish lover to reinstall on our plate at the moment.

Indeed, Burj Dubai will be the tallest of them all, despite the final height being kept secret. Sadly, it will only be a short lived glory. And in this ever smaller world we live in, the next reigning champion will be had in that very same sandbox itself.