Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS) is eager to associate his name with any project that is dubbed a “big, massive, and unique project in the world,” even if it has no beneficial intentions for the Kingdom’s economy or future as part of his attempts to whitewash his poor political and societal reputation.
According to the ArchDaily architecture website, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s treasury will have to pay billions of dollars for the construction of the world’s tallest tower, which is expected to be two times longer than the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. This is assuming that the tower will have offices, homes, and recreational areas as part of its announced plan. The tower is a part of the 2030 plan that the Saudi Crown Prince announced in 2017, costing the Saudi treasury billions of dollars with no economic return to the nation as the projects are not yet finished.
The report pointed to the harsh criticism faced by the project due to its lavish construction costs and environmental impact.
The report also stated that MBS’s strong desire to gain international recognition, from a psychological perspective, create symbols and heroics for Saudi Arabia—even if they are fictitious—is what drives the country’s fascination and deception with tall buildings.
The website’s criticisms were not related to the notion of announcing the construction of the world’s tallest tower; rather, they resulted from Bin Salman demolishing large swaths of Jeddah, changing the architectural and demographic landscape of the city, and trying to build towers in these areas without taking into account the circumstances and background of the people who were evicted at the beginning of 2022.
The losses associated with the MBS plan went beyond the demographic and social conditions of the populace; instead, they included the removal and destruction of social, religious, and cultural landmarks in these affected areas. The American media stated that MBS destroyed anything that endangered or negatively impacted the lives of residents in sixty Jeddah neighborhoods in order to construct opulent skyscrapers, hotels, gardens, an opera house, a stadium, an aquarium, and museums.
Human rights activists, for their part, expressed disapproval of the Saudi government’s handling of the neighborhood demolitions in Jeddah, citing the “Threaten Jeddah” campaign as a brutal approach consistent with MBS’s aggressive and authoritarian approach to advancing his projects at all costs.
Amnesty International has previously stated that the demolition of numerous neighborhoods in Jeddah violates human rights standards because of forced evictions and the lack of compensation for foreign residents.
The events in Jeddah shed light on the Al-Huwaitat tribe, whose members were forcibly relocated for NEOM, one of whom was killed, and whose men and women were imprisoned for defying their forced evacuation.
The delusions guiding MBS’s mindset, which propel him to construct the tallest tower without carefully considering the project’s objectives or trajectory, portend a dire future for the Kingdom ruled by the Crown Prince, who lacks life experience.
