The New Mecca

Just finished reading "The New Mecca," by George Saunders. It was first published in GQ magazine in November 2005 and is part of his recent book of essays, The Braindead Megaphone (review) and is also reproduced in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, which I have been reading on-and-off the last few weeks.

The "New Mecca" is Dubai. What a bizarre unreal place!* One should read the GQ essay in its entirety to get an idea but.....I have to admit my ever-dependable Google has failed me - I could not find it online, even though I even found the Nov 2005 issue online. GQ probably publishes only select articles from an issue online and maybe there is no other source that put the article online.

However, you can listen to the author read an excerpt here or here. Also, maybe this interview has some snippets as it says he talks about "Dubai, Nepal’s Buddha Boy and what he learned about travel from a mob of rock-hauling, 70-year-old women in Singapore.

Earlier this year I read his short novella, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, in which the author has a "Animal Farm"ish satirical take on society these days, especially with respect to the role of media these days. Vacuous inane statements pass as news and then there is the blind regurgitation of the party-feed when it comes to politics... (more about the book and links to a few interviews with the author at my earlier post, if you be so inclined.)

Actually, in trying to find the link to the 'New Mecca' article, I also found a few other interviews with Saunders. If you really have time, do read. He is a very "insightful and slightly twisted author", who writes sarcastic and humorous but always creative essays about pop culture and its effects, usually negative, on society at large.

In my mind, Saunders is a modern day Vonnegut, which may mean nothing to you if you have not read Vonnegut, who I think was a genius. With Vonnegut’s passing, we sure do need a witty writer to take us through these times!

* From what I have heard Dubai is nothing but amazing -- and not only because of the almost ready but forever continuing to build building: the Burj, which is not only now the tallest building in the world but also the tallest free-standing structure, surpassing Toronto's CN Tower^..

… but Dubai is a “heaven” built on the sweat and blood of slave labor. Looks like some of this labor, mostly from India, Bangladesh, Phillipines, and other Asian countries, have finally united and are revolting... and a strike now threatens the building boom in Dubai. Also, a year or so ago, Dubai's ruling family was sued for enslaving children as camel jockeys. A family representative argued that the suit was spurious, since Dubai has replaced child camel-jockeys with....you didn't guess it...... robots!

^ Note: the wikipedia puts the Burj at #2, behind a KVLY-TV mast in Fargo, North Dakota. Should look into the source of that edit! :) Must be their way of trying to get Fargo on the world map. Thought the movie (a very good one too!) did that but maybe they have major phallic envy ! :))