Tiger Woods design deal with Dubai: Nothing unique about taking loads of money to look the other way

Was it just a few months ago that many in the U.S. were stunned to find out that a Dubai company was going to pay to run several prominent U.S. ports? Even now, during a time when the U.S. is willing to try and privatize everything from social security to interrogating Iraqis, it was a little much for many to swallow.

Critics came out of the woodwork then to fight the deal, pointing out that two of the Sept. 11 hijackers came from the U.A.E., and that the plot was in part financed by funds from bank accounts in Dubai. Even Bill Frist, who has expressed a willingness in the past to work with the Taliban, jumped to action, saying he’d fight the takeover.

At the time, pundits were quick to paint Dubai as the enemy, pointing to a 2002 Zogby International poll that showed 87 percent of the population in Dubai had an unfavorable opinion of America. The controversial deal over the ports was supposedly cancelled, though the company, DP World, has just joined a federal pilot program to test the methods used to screen U.S.-bound cargo for radiation.

Go ahead about six months, however, when clean-cut, all-American sports superhero Tiger Woods accepts truckloads of money to design a golf course in Dubai, and he’s just being a wise capitalist, according to writers like Chris Baldwin, who accuses those who would oppose the deal to be just typical “narrow-minded Americans.”

“Dubai happens to be a burgeoning resort spot with the tallest hotel in the world, skyscrapers galore and an airport in which all the shops are open 24 hours (not just the Pretzel stand). In fact, it might have the coolest airport in the world, full of gadgets and ultra high-end shops,” writes Baldwin.

Wow. The tallest hotel in the world, you say? That must truly look impressive. Especially to the thousands of children enslaved there to ride camels for the entertainment of the rich.

Dubai also has a solid reputation in the sex-slave industry, with an estimated 10,000 women from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, Iraq, Iran, and Morocco possibly victims of sex trafficking in the U.A.E. And then there are complaints of terrible mistreatment of migrant, visiting workers, generally in the construction industry.

It’s to be expected to see Chris Baldwin fawn over Dubai. After all, his brother spent some time there while in the Navy and was impressed by the hotels, and all. Slave trading? Terrorist ties? Who cares, there’s money to be made. It’s the conservative mindset.

“[T]o belly ache that he chose Dubai over some spot in the U.S. for his first design is ridiculously simple minded. And yes, the main reason is surely that Woods will be paid a Kevin Garnett $100 million contract easy, before this thing’s done,” wrote Baldwin.

But one would expect more from Tiger Woods. He who so often receives massive trophies for winning the Dubai Desert Classic. Trophies that are usually handed to him by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who as recently as September has been accused of abducting and trafficking children as young as 2 to compete in the camel races.

“Why Dubai? Because I am excited about the challenge of transforming a desert terrain into a world-class golf course,” said Woods. “I have a vision of creating something that is uniquely mine.”

What is unique about choosing Dubai is how such an intelligent and obviously caring athlete as Tiger Woods can so easily look the other way when enough money is placed in front of him.

What would be truly unique, however, would be if Woods addressed these issues head on, rather than looking the other way while treating himself and his name as a corporation, where profit is the only consideration, so often at the expense of humanity.

This is a picture of a slave child camel jockey taken in the UAE by the Ansar Burney Trust. Courtesy: http://www.ansarburney.org

–WKW