How Vision 2030 and the GCC will help the world
Sometimes people look the the construction in the GCC fail to understand the true scale and ambition of the region's thinkers.
The GCC countries have a relatively small population, but an increasingly large affect on the outside world. For comparison, just Egypt has a population of nearly 110 million people, which is more than all the GCC countries combined[1].
One example of the region's ambition is in Kuwait's Al Mutlaa City.
Kuwait is planning a city with the capacity for 10% of their population. This is part of a greater initiative called New Kuwait, where nearly a dozen new cities are planned for Kuwait’s population.
Failing Paradigms
Anyone who has lived in a major city has undoubtedly spent time dealing with traffic, rapidly rising costs, inadequate infrastructure, and more urban growing pains. It is far easier to plan for capacity than to continuously retrofit for it. Istanbul's population has grown nearly twentyfold in the last 60 years, and while it may be a beautiful city in many ways, it is often a time-consuming headache to navigate.
Many cities in the United States were built around cars. However, many people desire to live in walkable areas without worrying continuously about parking. Millennials and Generation Z are far less enthusiastic about cars than previous generations. The famous historical cities that people travel around the world to see and explore were mostly not made for cars, and thoughtful urban planners are increasingly looking at people-first designs.
Constantly updating cities is expensive and disruptive.
So why don't we build things properly in the first place?
We are increasingly seeing these efforts in the GCC. These countries have bold, young leadership and the space, ambition, and funding to make this happen.
I am particularly interested in how we they are looking at land use and food production to optimize for healthier lives of the residents, especially in NEOM, the boldest of all the GCC experiments.
Political and Climate Refugees
These new cities and ways of living are necessary in a world with political and climactic instability.
Lebanon is a tragic example where a collision of factors has resulted in continuous instability, even with a population that is clearly incredibly capable in different environments[2].
There are many other countries that are facing tremendous livability crises that will be exacerbated as climates change.
Other countries are facing livability crises from leadership that is stuck in short-term thinking or otherwise corrupt. Millennials and Generation Z across the world are less likely to accept a Boomer monopoly on decision making, and there is an increased desire to migrate from even historically stable places like Southeast Asia.
So what will happen to these people? Should the young people of today accept having their dreams limited by the decisions of the people who came before them? Will the leadership of some countries be forced to address these issues or face brain drain from their smartest and most ambitious citizens[3]?
I think the GCC is creating the most interesting and bold experiments to address that.
About 20% of Kuwait's population current population is actually from Egypt. ↩︎
Lebanon's diaspora population is greater than the population inside the country. Their people have proven to be incredibly successful in every continent of the world. ↩︎
Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post about working with and raising the IQ of places, in (hopefully) a dignified way that respects the important parts of our humanity. ↩︎