Dubai World conglomerate in trouble

These two videos are about workers in Dubai.

I’ll do now what I do not do often on this blog.

I’ll quote the Wall Street Journal, aka the War Street Journal (if you do a Google search on War Street Journal, it brings you to the Wall Street Journal site), owned by arch warmonger Rupert Murdoch:

DUBAI — Dubai on Thursday started to untangle the $60 billion financial mess of its once prized Dubai World conglomerate by ring-fencing its profitable ports unit.

DP World will be excluded from the debt standstill and restructuring of Dubai World and its subsidiaries, the ports operator said in a statement posted on the Nasdaq Dubai Web site.

The decline of the capitalist “paradise” Dubai, noted earlier at this blog, continues.

Construction on Dubai’s world-shaped or palm-shaped islands, a Dubai World project, has stopped. Maybe they should become a nature reserve now?

Fears of double-dip recession grow as Dubai crashes. Debt crisis in millionaires’ playground could herald new phase in global financial meltdown: here. See also here.

From Media Matters for America (whole story with hyperlinks there):

The other right-wing media mogul you should worry about

November 25, 2009 7:09 pm ET

If you like what Rupert Murdoch, the right-wing billionaire behind Fox News and the New York Post, has done for the national discourse, you’ll love what Philip Anschutz is trying to do in your hometown.

Anschutz built his fortune — his $8 billion net worth is good for 36th place on the Forbes 400, ahead of better-known Murdoch and Steve Jobs — in the oil and gas industry, augmented with railroad and telecommunications holdings, as well as Regal Cinemas and the production company behind The Chronicles of Narnia films.

The far-right American Spectator describes Anschutz as “a committed conservative” who “gives lots of money to the Republican National Committee and to GOP candidates” and is “friendly with fellow oilman George W. Bush.”

In 2005, Media Matters detailed Anschutz’s history of conservative activism:

Anschutz has a history of supporting socially conservative causes. According to a recent Post article, Anschutz’s family foundation gave James Dobson, the founder of the conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family, an award for his “contributions to the American Family.” The Post noted that according to the foundation’s website, Focus on the Family works to “counter the media-saturating message that homosexuality is inborn and unchangeable” and that one of the group’s policy experts referred to abortion as an example of when “Satan temporarily succeeds in destroying God’s creation.” Further, as the Post mentioned, Anschutz contributed $10,000 in 1992 to Colorado Family Values in support of the group’s efforts to pass a state constitutional amendment to invalidate state and local laws that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation. (The referendum passed, but the United States Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional.) According to the Post, “Anschutz’s money helped pay for an ad campaign that said such anti-bias laws gave gays and lesbians ‘special rights.'”

In May 2003, the Orange County Weekly reported that other Anschutz Foundation beneficiaries include the Institute for American Values, which according to the Weekly “campaigns against single parenting,” and Enough is Enough, which “promotes Internet censorship.” The San Francisco Chronicle noted on February 20, 2004, that Anschutz also funds Morality in Media. As Media Matters previously noted, the Institute for American Values also receives funding from the conservative Bradley and Scaife foundations, as well as grants from the John M. Olin Foundation, another major financer of conservative organizations. Enough is Enough and Morality in Media have also received funding from the conservative Castle Rock Foundation.

In recent years, Anschutz has turned his attention to his media holdings, including his movie production company. And he is building a news-media empire, as well: he bought the San Francisco Examiner in 2004 and launched the Washington Examiner the next year, while trademarking the “Examiner” name in more than 60 cities. And earlier this year, Anschutz purchased The Weekly Standard from Murdoch.