Like Saigon, Phnom Penh is booming, and the Cambodian nouveau riche — as nouveaux riches are wont to do — is busily casting about for new ways to flaunt its wealth. To service this new demographic, an old government hospital at the intersection of Sihanouk and Norodom Boulevards has recently been flattened to make way for a new 42-story gold skyscraper, branded ‘Gold Tower 42′ and imbued with all-but-supernatural powers by its Korean developers. Advertising published in The Cambodia Daily features a shining 24-carat plinth dripping fairy dust over the city, alongside claims that Gold Tower 42 will be a ‘new conceptual residential tower where every activity of hospital, bank, shopping mall, fitness centre, driving range to indoor swimming pool, and more are all achieved in one house’. More than that, the building is also hoped, somehow, to ‘improve the living standard of the world’ — a skyscraping aim if ever there was one.
As part of my research for a real estate story last week, I was able to visit the Gold Tower showroom, where a sales manager lavished me with a — what else? — gold tome of promotional material and waxed lyrical about the tower, which began construction on March 14. Yon Woo Cambodia Ltd. (‘Korea’s global symbolic developer’) claims that 72% of the apartments and commercial spaces have already been snapped up, going for anything from $460,000 to $1.6 million, indicating a level of local interest in inverse proportion to the dry cynicism of Phnom Penh’s expat community. I just hope Yon Woo has more luck than did the Australian developer who erected a ‘gold’ apartment building in Melbourne, only to be sued by the hundreds of Chinese who invested in the ‘lucky’ building and were outraged when it turned out a rather lustreless bronze.
Today I spent the morning in, sipping lychee cordial while watching Geelong’s 99-point cakewalk against the Bombers at Telstra Dome, and my sporting optimism knows no bounds. After thrashing Essendon — who I counted as a key challenger in ’08 — is there any team that seriously stands a chance against a full-strength Cats side? The plusses continue to mount: debutantes Ryan Gamble and Harry Taylor have made seamless transitions to the big league; Mathew Stokes is making the transition from punk draftee to elite midfielder; the young Tom Hawkins is crashing packs and dragging in marks like Tony Lockett; and Joel Selwood, Geelong’s next captain, is sashaying his way into Brownlow country — and all this on top of a nearly flawless 2007. We play lowly Melbourne at home next week, when several key players are set to return. I must remember to buy popcorn and soda pop.
4 comments
Jessica Anne Friedmann says:
Mar 31, 2008
Dude, “flaunt”. One flouts the rules of grammar, one flaunts one’s wealth. Didn’t that sternly-worded yet ultimately approving letter teach you anything?
For the sake of propriety, I’m restraining myself from cracking some pretty poor-taste jokes about the image a giant, golden tower showering a city with ‘fairy dust’ evokes. Or making Austin Powers references. Or generally pointing out that an enormous glowing phallus is amusing in any way, shape, or form. In any case, you wouldn’t be here to explain such jokes for the sake of ancilliary funniness, so there’s not really much of a point.
Seriously. We miss you and your joke-explaining ways. Enough of this gadding about, Sebastapol! Get back here!
Sebastian Strangio says:
Apr 1, 2008
Ha! Just like you, Friedheimer, to flaunt the English language and its devilish rules so brazenly.
The rumours of my joke explaining, by the way, have been much exaggerated. When I’m around such wits as yourselves, the jokes run so thick that it’s hard to keep track of what’s intended and what’s simply nature taking its course. You guys drop gold like trees drop leaves — only all year round.
캄보디아 says:
Apr 22, 2008
the latest news from Cambodia on : http://www.netvibes.com/cambodia
Marcell Zoldesy says:
May 26, 2010
Interesting article. I can’t understand why North Korea is always acting so belligerent. Kim Jung Il must simply be a nutter. Because nothing good could ever result from the way he’s behaving.