tagged: environment, George Papandreou, Greece, Hellinikon area, investment, Khalifa al Thani, Qatar, Qatar Investment Agency

Qatar’s Greece Investment: Mediterranean Dubai or Balkan Las Vegas?

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy, environment

A Memorandum of  Understand, targeting Economic Cooperation and Investment, was signed last night in New York between the Greek and the Qatar governments. Billionaire Emir of Qatar, H.H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, God bless him, will invest 5 billion euros in Greece in real estate, infrastructure and tourism.

Even thought details of the Memorandum have not been announced, Greek media report of a huge development project in the 1,500 – acre  site, the former airport area of  Hellinikon on the south-east coast of Athens. An urban site of high qualities, sea view and close to Athens down town.  Apparently the Qatari investors, God blessed them, have already had a sight-seeing tour , inspected the site and took marvellous pictures of the area to invest from a helicopter.

 Balkan Las Vegas or Mediterranean Dubai?

This is indeed a huge project that will provide unemployed Greeks with jobs, will bring wealthy tourists and most probably gamblers. Then newspaper TA NEA reveals the investing plans of the Arab petro-dollars, God bless them. Apparently the Qatar Investment Agency has already prepared a model of its investment.

The project includes a six (!) star hotel, cosy high-classresidence complexes, a sailing club turned into a marina for luxury yachts, an artificial river with seawater…                  

… a private airport, a congress center and even a floating casino!

Two kilometers of the coastal highway in front of the site will go underground, so the noises of the indigenous’s and respectless people’s  cars will not puff the  bubbles where our esteem rich foreigners will live in. 

Hey! Where is my Mall?  I don’t see a Shopping Mall!

How cute and lavish! Will Athens turn into a Balkan Las Vegas? Into a Mediterranean Dubai, maybe? Will the “sustainable green development” vision of Papandreou will turn into a “Concrete Coastal Forest”?  Why not to re-develop the abandonded ”Olympic real estates”, built by millions euros payed by taxpayers and left to fall apart?

By the way this project that reminds me very much of the bankrupt Dubai projects and the lyrics of an old Greek song warning: “It’s bad to build palaces in the sand, the North wind will break them into rubbles, into pieces.” (see the video below)

Am I against development and investment?

Am I a shabby in pocket, wretch at heart and miserable in soul?

                                                   Misery!

Am I jealous because I will be left out of this project? Am I against development and investment aiming to fill up the state  cash boxes and bring prosperity to my fellow kinsmen?

                                                  Misery?

No, I am not. Unless the development and investment will damage and curb my Lebensraum: The air that I breathe as a resident of Athens, the sea view while driving on the coastal road, the sea itself,  the skyline and my sailing club.

I can recall very well (and with me many some million Greeks) that the Hellinikon area was promoted to me, resident of Athens, as a top priority of the Papandreou government for “sustainable green development“. Last February, only five months in power, Prime Minister Papandreou, Environment Minister Tina Birbili and some other proudly smiling officials visited the area of the former airport, and announced that the site will be developed into a parkland with sports and recreational facilities and lots of trees to improve the environment for the four millions Athens -residents.

Does anyone believe that the good Emir of Qatar, God bless him, will invest in water-slides, bicycle paths and CO2-emissions absorbing trees?

Strong reactions by no reply  from Environment Minister

So far, all the left wing parties have raised objections to the investment project, the mayor of Hellinikon, the Ecologists’ party.

Tina Birbili   Environment Minister.

Last June, a month after the first contacts of Greeks and Qataris, she stated that she opposes turning  1,000 acres into built-land with houses and hotels . She proposed the creation of an innovative aquarium and park as means to generate revenues. She hasn’t reacted so far to the Greece-Qatar Memorandum.

HURRAY! We found an investor!

 H.H. Khalifa Al Thani

Last May Qatar and Greece singed a similar Memorandum of Understanding concerning the development of Astakos port in Western Greece. The project will include the construction of a a Liquid Gas storage facility, a 1,000-megawatt generating plant that will export electricity to Italy and an algae farm to produce biofuel and animal feed.

Video – Greek Music: Babis Tsetinis “What starts nice….”

What starts nice, ends in pain
Embittered hearts will only know

It is bad in the sand to build palaces
The north wind will make them rubble, pieces

In life we start with thousand dreams
They are wrecked by pain, poverty and jealousy….