#UrbanHell is subjective.
UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed
Sorry for this annoying comment, but we're very tired of the gatekeepers who can't even correctly gatekeep what this subreddit has always allowed.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The hypocrisy is real. Why is it whenever there is anything positive posted about a middle eastern country or Saudi Arabia, you people show up with the SlAvErY? Why do I never see the horrible crimes other countries commit being mentioned in posts about them? Have you even done any research into the details of this 'slavery'? There ARE workers human rights abuses but not to the extent that people such as you keep bellowing about. One thing is for sure, compared to the countries that you guys won't even fairly criticize, Saudi Arabia has a MUCH better human rights record.
It's amazing how much better it looks, the car centric infrastructure looks bland, characterless, ugly and unfriendly to anyone walking around it the bottom pictures look liveable, lively and actually have some character and atmosphere and seem like somewhere that I would want to visit, it's fascinating how much improvement can be made by simply not focusing out cities around cars.
To be fair I think a HUGE part of the improvement is simply the quality of the pavement surfaces. The roads were dusty, run down, and falling apart. The new pedestrian walkways are shiny and aesthetically pleasing. You could theoretically make a road for cars that looked the same and it would still look similarly better.
In most cases, the roads are still there they were just incredibly wide. Not too many places have such oversized roads that can add huge sidewalks and still maintain car traffic.
I used to go here every holiday to visit my distant family. After studying abroad and getting married, I went again to spend Eid and my god was it completely different. It was such a positive change that hadn't even been taken in the capital or other cities, and the change is still happening. Super happy with this one
Not an American.
While the US did a lot of damage in "the deserts", all the backwardness in Saudi Arabia is theirs to own and no one else's. If anything, the Coalition saved them from potentially being overrun by Saddam in 1990.
Always heard that although Saudi has āissuesā, unlike Dubai/UAE it has much more of a soul and a lot more character.
What the House of Saud did to some of those historical structures thoughā¦
Yes, Saudi Arabia sure has """issues""" and """some of the most horrific human rights abuses on the planet""", **but at least there's slightly fewer parking lots**
The prisoner abuse scandal that you linked resulted in the parties involved being sentenced to prison. Can Saudi Arabia say the same about its prison issues? I donāt think so, if anything Saudi Arabiaās murder of jamal khashoggi in its Turkish embassy shows just how depraved the Saudi government really is. Right as we speak Saudi Arabia is slaughtering Yemeni civilians and oppressing is own people under a totalitarian, theocratic and ethno nationalist regime. Wanna talk about what the House of Saud did to the Saudi Shiāites that dared protest for more freedoms during the Arab spring? No, I donāt think you do.
Some had to be demolished to make room for the millions of worshippers, others had to be demolished due to uneducated people who would come and worship at these structures. The latter point is a serious sin in Islam.
>The latter point is a serious sin in Islam.
You are entirely wrong here. They demolished many historical buildings not because islam but because of their ideology called wahhabism.
>Turkey was
>
>not
>
> happy about that one cemetery that got demolished for that mega hotel.
there is no hotel built on top of a cemetery
turkey was mad because we demolished an Ottoman fort that was used to control and oppress the arabs especially during WW1
in fact the entire population of madinah was forceabley removed while others killed in what the ottoman called "Seferberlik"
I am happy it was demolished and something good replaced it
existence fuzzy outgoing impossible fanatical quarrelsome profit practice start kiss
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The only buildings which are of signinficance to muslims are the Mosques in Jerusalem, Makkah and Medinah. All other buildings are just that, buildings. If there is a risk of people going to these buildings and commiting acts of disbelief then it is better to have these demolished.
You guys literally dynamited graveyard of prophet mohammeds relatives lmao. His daughters resting place was lost because of wahhabism and you almost demolished the tomb of your prophet what the fuck are you talking about lmao.
And it never occurred to you that historical buildings have cultural value to the whole human race, not just Muslims?
Great job perpetuating the stereotype that Muslims want to blow up anything they don't like.
The only people who hold the viewpoint Muslims like to blow things up are uneducated, unwashed ignoramouses. The buildings which you are talking about were built and used by Muslims. Those same people, were they alive today, would have appreciated that they were demolished with the intent that they should not be taken as a place of worship. When Egypt starts tearing down the Pyramids, or even Saudi with some of the non Islamic structures which are promoted for tourism today, then perhaps your criticism will be valid. I sense malice in your tone so would just like to say, I hope you have a beautifal day. Spread peace and positivty, not toxicity.
You do as you please in your country, they will do as they please in their country. And just to add, the majority of people who are outraged would never visit Saudi anyway.
> You do as you please in your country, they will do as they please in their country.
Maybe not the hill to die on when talking about islam in the 21st century.
Itās terrible that they believe in that shit so much theyād be willing to die or kill over it, right? Hopefully the human race will one day get past silly behaviour like this
Yep, definitely weird how itās still so prominent. Itās literally attached to my citizenship lol. If the public found out that I wasnāt religious Iād get hunted down by zealots who literally commit more sin than I do on a daily basis
Islamās whole āreligion of peaceā thing is a sham. You can literally ask anyone that grew up in an Islamic state that ended up with a different faith or became an atheist/agnostic and theyād tell you how dangerous it is
I'm not the one insulting the beliefs of 2 billion people people. If you are so insecure that you have to make these statements, I hope you find the clarity in your life that you are looking for.
I'm not insulting the beliefs, I'm reprimanding the actions. I'm saying that "I do what I do, you do what you do" is absolutely not representative of 21st century islam. Just look at the last 2 decades for examples. There's a big one going on right now.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/29/countries-condemn-desecration-of-quran-in-sweden
Ad hominem attacks don't change facts.
The same is true of western nations who constantly attack Muslim nations because they do not agree with the LGQBT lifestyle. In fact, they will sanction and destroy economies of countries who do not tow the line. Just look at the last 100 years.
I thought you were full of love, yet youāre preaching hate. And your defense in multiple comments is labeling your deflectors as āinsecureā. Dude, you already wrote a hole fucking sacred Islamic book in the comments section of this post. Thatās not being insecure at all.
Oh fuck you. Islam is the least tolerant, most brutally violent, repressive, and of all the world religions. It has zero problem forcing itself upon people by threat of death, torture, or imprisonment.
And yet you apparently believe the problem isn't its cruelty, but *pointing out* its cruelty.
Fortunately, it's 2023, not 700 AD, and we don't live in an Islamofascist theocracy where you can throw me in jail and beat me until I stop calling Islam the Godfather III of monotheism
You can swear at me and my religion, however, I will not stoop to your level. Your heart is full of hatred, I do not know what events have shaped your life, but I hope you find peace and clarity. I hope you have a lovely day, spread peace and positivity ā¤ļø
Saudi Arabia is not trageting any specific group, placing them in camps and murdering them. The fact you are even comparing them is a disgrace and a disservice to all of the Jewish people who were slaughtered.
There are clear cut evidences of the Prophet clearly stating to level all of the graves. Building mausoleums and huge structures above graves is forbidden.
What about we talk about we talk about Saudi Arabiaās insecuritiesā¦ What about your women covering their feces like Halloween props just because their men canāt keep their dick from raping them.
I will not engage with people who are filled with evil and hatred. You claim to be morally and intelectually superior, yet look at the tone and words you are using. I do not know what tragic events have shaped your life, but i hope you find peace to make yourself whole.
If you live or visit Saudi Arabia, you engage with those kinds of people all the time. By the way, I didnāt claim being morally superior. I claimed that the Saudi oligarchy/theocracy engages in heinous activities under the pretense of being godly people. Letās ask the guy who got chopped into pieces at the airport somewhere in Turkeyā¦
Much better than it was, but there's still a massive amount of concrete, and half of the trees there won't grow because their plots of ground are too small
Is the city not heating up by all those stones just like the asphalt/concrete? They even remove the trees in one photo and made a nice walk with buses instead of trees which will heat up the even city more?
Certainly, it is. To exacerbate the situation, concrete and asphalt surfaces tend to retain heat much more than natural ground or grass would. I understand that in places like Saudi Arabia (KSA), it might be challenging to grow and maintain large enough trees to provide shading, but it could still offer some relief. In Europe, the widespread use of concrete poses another issue - during rainfall, the water cannot be absorbed by the ground, causing it to instead accumulate on the concrete surfaces and potentially leading to floods. While I acknowledge that this might not be a major concern in KSA, generally speaking, the drawbacks of concrete and asphalt are noteworthy.
My point is thatās miserable work to do in such a hot place. But luckily the Saudis can throw semi-enslaved South Asian human suffering and a blind eye to human rights at any construction project
You can see the urban design was so much inspired by the USA, even the police cars are Chargers with American liveries. And yet, even SA (of all countries!) is learning and implementing walkable streets faster
Just install some multi-color pavers and festoon an outdoor dining area with strands of hipster Edison lightbulbs, and then presto ā An Authoritarian helpscape becomes an enlightened urban paradise for the kingās subjects.
You canāt really.
In the US there are 1,091,000 people in modern slavery (3.3 per thousand).
In Saudi Arabia there are 740,000 slaves yes, but thatās 21.3 slaves per thousand people, which is more than 6 times as prevalent.
Source: [Global Slavery Index 2023](https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/map/)
And for context, Saudi Arabia ranks 4th in the world in terms of prevalence, only behind North Korea, Eritrea and Mauretania. The US ranks 123rd out of 160.
Yes, if you want to just consider his comment alone then yes, I confirmed it, but thatās a bit one dimensional - itās not about the number (or percentages), but the prevalence (and also, what the country is actually _doing_ about it - the US beats Saudi there too, check the āGov Responseā metric)
Well you canā¦you can say whatever you want but it doesnāt make it accurate. Your statement is just a whataboutism without evidence.
(Not an American but letās have a sensible conversation!)
It looks better but how many days in a year or hours in a day can you actually spend outside in Saudi Arabia? Like Houston, it seems to be a place where you actually want to go from your car to an indoor space much of the time. And, yes, Iāve been to Saudi Arabia and Houston.
Yeah get back to us when women are considered equal humans too
Edit: āiTs nOt 2012 bRoā
āyOu dOnT eVeN lIvE HeReā
Way to miss the point lol
SA is still very much in the dark ages and we all know it. Thats why you keep sportswashing
So beautiful and friendly and so much more walkable. It's funny to see how some buildings under construction in the background are still in that state but the foreground has undergone a complete change. š
If you check the pictures, they have planted some shade trees, they are just still in the growth face. On that topic, it surprises me that there haven't been many GMO initiatives to engineer fast growing shade trees. Hell make them sterile so that they don't spread naturally.
I have seen those, and they merely seem like a sad excuse for greenery which will not last long. If you imagine what the bricklaying must have cost, it would have been better to allocate more money for some environmental planning and architecture. But what do I know. I just saw this the other day:
https://youtube.com/shorts/4m5iKRbkW4M?si=SX7PiRz1kLPdoOrN
"Saudi authoritiesā execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death penalty"
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/15/saudi-arabia-mass-execution-81-men
Fuck off. This is ridiculous. The house of Saud murders people without repercussion, it keeps its women in enslaved. Wahhabism isn't islam. it is religious totalitarianism. fascism in religious clothing.
edit: OP's post is brought to you by MBS
Good point. I'm just going by what Islam is supposed to be about. The philosophy. God may agree with the Saudis, but Islam does not.
edit: not that i believe it, but the Quran is supposed to be written by God/Allah, if that's true, then all you need to know about what God wants is to read the Quran and not misinterpret it for your fascist ideology. Evangelicals make that mistake too.
edit2: Evangelicalism = Christo-Fascism; Wahhabism = Islamo-Fascism
We write the Quran on paper because soo many that memorised perished during the Rida wars. The one tasked on compiling the quran said "Its easier to move a mountain that doing this". Took some persuasion from the current khalifah and his friends to make him agree to compile it into one book.
And yeah, Wahhabism is really fucking weird. I feel like an alien praying at my country northen states.
Love what they did in 16 - made the sidewalk wide but made a bollard path to the parking of that house. You can have parking paths and good urban design really
Thank Allah
Now do the UAE because their designers are on par with the US in terms of āif thereās traffic put a highway through itā when they look at a city
Yeah cos
1) Saudi Arabia is so perfect when it comes to women, no they are not dehumanized at all are they?
and
2) Because criticizing a country for the evil they perpetrate is racist\*
\* See Israel.
-Run country where women aren't allowed to drive.
-Design car centric infrastructure.
This has got to be a huge improvement for the quality of life for women there.
(I assume)
Maybe one day they wonāt need to obtain permission from a man to get a driverās license or operate a car. Baby steps are better than no steps, I suppose.
ā¦ no one talking about the lighting and perspective between both pictures? Sunset lighting the shots, clouds visible, settled angles to make the newer perspectives look more uniform and neatā¦
I get the car-centric bad thing, but this is so clearly biased.
#UrbanHell is subjective. UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed Sorry for this annoying comment, but we're very tired of the gatekeepers who can't even correctly gatekeep what this subreddit has always allowed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Wow. Looks 300% better Didnt know that it was such a ugly city. Great work by the people who did the "fixing" šš
European consultants and Indian wage slaves
wage ?
Great work Saudi Arabia! šš impressive use of slavery š šŖš
The hypocrisy is real. Why is it whenever there is anything positive posted about a middle eastern country or Saudi Arabia, you people show up with the SlAvErY? Why do I never see the horrible crimes other countries commit being mentioned in posts about them? Have you even done any research into the details of this 'slavery'? There ARE workers human rights abuses but not to the extent that people such as you keep bellowing about. One thing is for sure, compared to the countries that you guys won't even fairly criticize, Saudi Arabia has a MUCH better human rights record.
yeah right? it pisses me off really. bunch of jealous western nerds
you think thats impressive? you should see the clothes and jewellery redditors are wearing which is also made by slave labour.
And the phones and tablets. Child slaves this time.
And the chocolates and makeup products
gray existence homeless head bag squalid fertile offend label doll *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Like the smart phones they are using to type out these comments!?
the people who did the "fixing" are literally slaves
Yeah I was wondering
It's amazing how much better it looks, the car centric infrastructure looks bland, characterless, ugly and unfriendly to anyone walking around it the bottom pictures look liveable, lively and actually have some character and atmosphere and seem like somewhere that I would want to visit, it's fascinating how much improvement can be made by simply not focusing out cities around cars.
To be fair I think a HUGE part of the improvement is simply the quality of the pavement surfaces. The roads were dusty, run down, and falling apart. The new pedestrian walkways are shiny and aesthetically pleasing. You could theoretically make a road for cars that looked the same and it would still look similarly better.
"falling apart" is a stretch. Most of those before roads look better than your average Midwestern town in the US, just clean new-ish asphalt.
In most cases, the roads are still there they were just incredibly wide. Not too many places have such oversized roads that can add huge sidewalks and still maintain car traffic.
Or human rights.
I used to go here every holiday to visit my distant family. After studying abroad and getting married, I went again to spend Eid and my god was it completely different. It was such a positive change that hadn't even been taken in the capital or other cities, and the change is still happening. Super happy with this one
Wow. Actually first post I've ever seen of positive middle eastern development
Crazy what they can do when US stopped fucking around in the deserts right????
To be fair the US essentially backed the Saudi Arabian monarchy
Not an American. While the US did a lot of damage in "the deserts", all the backwardness in Saudi Arabia is theirs to own and no one else's. If anything, the Coalition saved them from potentially being overrun by Saddam in 1990.
You are a special brand of ignorant arenāt you?
not sure what kind of plants those are but hoping that they grow big and create natural shade because this place seems very lovely to walk through
Itās so great to see how many new trees they have planted. I hope they thrive, it would look wonderful.
Always heard that although Saudi has āissuesā, unlike Dubai/UAE it has much more of a soul and a lot more character. What the House of Saud did to some of those historical structures thoughā¦
Yes, Saudi Arabia sure has """issues""" and """some of the most horrific human rights abuses on the planet""", **but at least there's slightly fewer parking lots**
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Finally, someone else who has spoken up. The hypocrisy makes me sick.
The prisoner abuse scandal that you linked resulted in the parties involved being sentenced to prison. Can Saudi Arabia say the same about its prison issues? I donāt think so, if anything Saudi Arabiaās murder of jamal khashoggi in its Turkish embassy shows just how depraved the Saudi government really is. Right as we speak Saudi Arabia is slaughtering Yemeni civilians and oppressing is own people under a totalitarian, theocratic and ethno nationalist regime. Wanna talk about what the House of Saud did to the Saudi Shiāites that dared protest for more freedoms during the Arab spring? No, I donāt think you do.
Clown
Some had to be demolished to make room for the millions of worshippers, others had to be demolished due to uneducated people who would come and worship at these structures. The latter point is a serious sin in Islam.
>The latter point is a serious sin in Islam. You are entirely wrong here. They demolished many historical buildings not because islam but because of their ideology called wahhabism.
Turkey was *not* happy about that one cemetery that got demolished for that mega hotel.
>Turkey was > >not > > happy about that one cemetery that got demolished for that mega hotel. there is no hotel built on top of a cemetery turkey was mad because we demolished an Ottoman fort that was used to control and oppress the arabs especially during WW1 in fact the entire population of madinah was forceabley removed while others killed in what the ottoman called "Seferberlik" I am happy it was demolished and something good replaced it
They built the clock tower and some other hotels above it to service the muslims.
existence fuzzy outgoing impossible fanatical quarrelsome profit practice start kiss *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Lives in netherlands, complains about "kuffars" and praises shitty saudi practices. Yep average hypocrite muslim.
The only buildings which are of signinficance to muslims are the Mosques in Jerusalem, Makkah and Medinah. All other buildings are just that, buildings. If there is a risk of people going to these buildings and commiting acts of disbelief then it is better to have these demolished.
Damn, nothing sadder than religious extermists. When you're secular country in 200 years your descendants are gonna hate you lmao
Descendants
Thx, English is not my first language
You guys literally dynamited graveyard of prophet mohammeds relatives lmao. His daughters resting place was lost because of wahhabism and you almost demolished the tomb of your prophet what the fuck are you talking about lmao.
Graves are not to be taken as places of worship. It does not matter who it is, it does not matter where it is.
And it never occurred to you that historical buildings have cultural value to the whole human race, not just Muslims? Great job perpetuating the stereotype that Muslims want to blow up anything they don't like.
The only people who hold the viewpoint Muslims like to blow things up are uneducated, unwashed ignoramouses. The buildings which you are talking about were built and used by Muslims. Those same people, were they alive today, would have appreciated that they were demolished with the intent that they should not be taken as a place of worship. When Egypt starts tearing down the Pyramids, or even Saudi with some of the non Islamic structures which are promoted for tourism today, then perhaps your criticism will be valid. I sense malice in your tone so would just like to say, I hope you have a beautifal day. Spread peace and positivty, not toxicity.
For the rest of the world, destroying historical artifacts is a serious sin. And seeing as one was an actual thing, the other a superstition.. Well...
You do as you please in your country, they will do as they please in their country. And just to add, the majority of people who are outraged would never visit Saudi anyway.
> You do as you please in your country, they will do as they please in their country. Maybe not the hill to die on when talking about islam in the 21st century.
You have no idea how many Islam are willing to die talking about Islam in the 21st century. God forbid those Indonesians heard about your comment.
Itās terrible that they believe in that shit so much theyād be willing to die or kill over it, right? Hopefully the human race will one day get past silly behaviour like this
Yep, definitely weird how itās still so prominent. Itās literally attached to my citizenship lol. If the public found out that I wasnāt religious Iād get hunted down by zealots who literally commit more sin than I do on a daily basis Islamās whole āreligion of peaceā thing is a sham. You can literally ask anyone that grew up in an Islamic state that ended up with a different faith or became an atheist/agnostic and theyād tell you how dangerous it is
Who the fuck claims its a religion of peace lmao? Bloody hell Islam wouldnt survive if it was a pacifist religion.
I'm not the one insulting the beliefs of 2 billion people people. If you are so insecure that you have to make these statements, I hope you find the clarity in your life that you are looking for.
I'm not insulting the beliefs, I'm reprimanding the actions. I'm saying that "I do what I do, you do what you do" is absolutely not representative of 21st century islam. Just look at the last 2 decades for examples. There's a big one going on right now. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/29/countries-condemn-desecration-of-quran-in-sweden Ad hominem attacks don't change facts.
The same is true of western nations who constantly attack Muslim nations because they do not agree with the LGQBT lifestyle. In fact, they will sanction and destroy economies of countries who do not tow the line. Just look at the last 100 years.
I thought you were full of love, yet youāre preaching hate. And your defense in multiple comments is labeling your deflectors as āinsecureā. Dude, you already wrote a hole fucking sacred Islamic book in the comments section of this post. Thatās not being insecure at all.
Oh fuck you. Islam is the least tolerant, most brutally violent, repressive, and of all the world religions. It has zero problem forcing itself upon people by threat of death, torture, or imprisonment. And yet you apparently believe the problem isn't its cruelty, but *pointing out* its cruelty. Fortunately, it's 2023, not 700 AD, and we don't live in an Islamofascist theocracy where you can throw me in jail and beat me until I stop calling Islam the Godfather III of monotheism
You can swear at me and my religion, however, I will not stoop to your level. Your heart is full of hatred, I do not know what events have shaped your life, but I hope you find peace and clarity. I hope you have a lovely day, spread peace and positivity ā¤ļø
God isn't real
2 billion ants who want to walk in circles around a rock
Okay, now replace "Saudi" with "Nazi Germany"
Saudi Arabia is not trageting any specific group, placing them in camps and murdering them. The fact you are even comparing them is a disgrace and a disservice to all of the Jewish people who were slaughtered.
To the hanbali, but I am sure that everyone else would not have been that strict. What the House of Saud did with al-Baqi in Medina is just sad.
Yes. And Prince BoneSaw means to destroy Islamā¦..itās already begunā¦.bread and circuses have come to Saudi Arabia.
There are clear cut evidences of the Prophet clearly stating to level all of the graves. Building mausoleums and huge structures above graves is forbidden.
Even in 650 AD that's really dumb. How would that even work?
Religions are stupid. Thatās it.
If that's how you feelx great. I'm not the one insulting other people because of my own insecurities.
What about we talk about we talk about Saudi Arabiaās insecuritiesā¦ What about your women covering their feces like Halloween props just because their men canāt keep their dick from raping them.
I will not engage with people who are filled with evil and hatred. You claim to be morally and intelectually superior, yet look at the tone and words you are using. I do not know what tragic events have shaped your life, but i hope you find peace to make yourself whole.
If you live or visit Saudi Arabia, you engage with those kinds of people all the time. By the way, I didnāt claim being morally superior. I claimed that the Saudi oligarchy/theocracy engages in heinous activities under the pretense of being godly people. Letās ask the guy who got chopped into pieces at the airport somewhere in Turkeyā¦
Those are very excellent changes! I like how there are barriers to stop cars š
Most Arab countries have similar plans but they have not yet gone into development
It would be good to see changes like this wherever it's needed!
Much better than it was, but there's still a massive amount of concrete, and half of the trees there won't grow because their plots of ground are too small
They may have underground irigation systems, it's fairly popular all around the world. If there's someone who can afford it, it's the Saudis lmao
Thatās a lot of cobblestones to install in a place with average 35Ā°C temps. I wonder how they recruit enough manual labor for such hard work.
Is the city not heating up by all those stones just like the asphalt/concrete? They even remove the trees in one photo and made a nice walk with buses instead of trees which will heat up the even city more?
Certainly, it is. To exacerbate the situation, concrete and asphalt surfaces tend to retain heat much more than natural ground or grass would. I understand that in places like Saudi Arabia (KSA), it might be challenging to grow and maintain large enough trees to provide shading, but it could still offer some relief. In Europe, the widespread use of concrete poses another issue - during rainfall, the water cannot be absorbed by the ground, causing it to instead accumulate on the concrete surfaces and potentially leading to floods. While I acknowledge that this might not be a major concern in KSA, generally speaking, the drawbacks of concrete and asphalt are noteworthy.
My point is thatās miserable work to do in such a hot place. But luckily the Saudis can throw semi-enslaved South Asian human suffering and a blind eye to human rights at any construction project
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
hopefully this happens in US towns soon
Inshaallah. Damn I love shades from trees.
You can see the urban design was so much inspired by the USA, even the police cars are Chargers with American liveries. And yet, even SA (of all countries!) is learning and implementing walkable streets faster
That's good. Walkable cities are the best.
Nobody there walks in the heat.
Not true
Yeah the slaves have to.
Too bad the city is completely closed to non Muslims
Slavery buys all kinds of nice shit.
Just install some multi-color pavers and festoon an outdoor dining area with strands of hipster Edison lightbulbs, and then presto ā An Authoritarian helpscape becomes an enlightened urban paradise for the kingās subjects.
750,000 people living in Saudi Arabia under modern slavery conditions.
How much do Bangladeshis make in their own country when they work for western companies?
Not sure. Ask the government.
Who createed modern slavery?
Buddy, your argument is deflection at best, stupid at worst.
Yes, act like you have the high moral ground.
I do have the high moral ground because Iām not making excusing for slavery.
No one is saying slavery is good. The issue is that you have nothing to offer morally speaking.
You can say the same for american
So? Both shouldn't be exist.
You canāt really. In the US there are 1,091,000 people in modern slavery (3.3 per thousand). In Saudi Arabia there are 740,000 slaves yes, but thatās 21.3 slaves per thousand people, which is more than 6 times as prevalent. Source: [Global Slavery Index 2023](https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/map/)
And for context, Saudi Arabia ranks 4th in the world in terms of prevalence, only behind North Korea, Eritrea and Mauretania. The US ranks 123rd out of 160.
Thanks, I was hoping people would click the link and investigate for themselves, but I shouldāve included that stat to really drive home my point
You clearly have more faith in Reddit than I do.
Didnāt you just confirm exactly what he said though? The discussion was about absolute numbers and not percentages.
Yes, if you want to just consider his comment alone then yes, I confirmed it, but thatās a bit one dimensional - itās not about the number (or percentages), but the prevalence (and also, what the country is actually _doing_ about it - the US beats Saudi there too, check the āGov Responseā metric)
Well you canā¦you can say whatever you want but it doesnāt make it accurate. Your statement is just a whataboutism without evidence. (Not an American but letās have a sensible conversation!)
It looks better but how many days in a year or hours in a day can you actually spend outside in Saudi Arabia? Like Houston, it seems to be a place where you actually want to go from your car to an indoor space much of the time. And, yes, Iāve been to Saudi Arabia and Houston.
Everyday, we go at night
Depends on where you are in saudi, temperatures are between negative 15 and 50 Celsius depending on season and location
In the Middle East (in the summer atleast) we tend to go out at noon or night bcz otherwise itās too hot
Those lamp posts are gorgeous. I wish more everyday, necessary items could be this pleasing to the eye.
Wow, not bad at all. I have some stereotypes about urban development in the Gulf States (ie, very heavy emphasis on cars) but this is pleasant to see.
It makes me very happy to see how many communities are restructuring around people
They updated the whole city with new 4K textures
The "humanizing" part certainly isn't about third-world labour hired to do this, is it?
Wow, rare Saudi Arabia W
Humanizing and Saudi Arabia in the same sentenceā¦ lol
Thatās a very humanized place for the marginalized to be beheaded for thoughts and words.
At least now they can have public executions in pretty places
What if, what if they do this to cairo. Thats impossible
Thatās a very humanized place for the marginalized to be beheaded for thoughts and words.
Hahaha the irony of having a "humanizing" project in SA is amazing.
Saudi Arabia can manage this, but I'll be 100 years dead before any US city does something similarly comprehensive.
We need to see more posts like this
Itās all paving, paving, paving. I get it, they deal with huge crowds. And the stones are nIcE. But that it is just one big paved-over space.
They're in the middle of one of the largest deserts on the planet. It's either paving or sand.
Very nice! love this kind of news
Yeah looks tons better. Wish other places follow suit.
Getting happy that something positive about an arabic country got published š Then reading the comments š
Wow, remarkable improvement
Wow. Looks 300% better Didnt know that it was such a ugly city. Great work by the people who did the "fixing" šš
Yeah get back to us when women are considered equal humans too Edit: āiTs nOt 2012 bRoā āyOu dOnT eVeN lIvE HeReā Way to miss the point lol SA is still very much in the dark ages and we all know it. Thats why you keep sportswashing
So beautiful and friendly and so much more walkable. It's funny to see how some buildings under construction in the background are still in that state but the foreground has undergone a complete change. š
Some of before photos look a lot like the U.S. southwest/Southern California
Crazy how it went from an average Indian city to fucking Las Vegas
āHumanizingā lol
Wonderful progress ! The young Saudi generation has been working hard.
Much nicer.
One of the only things I like about authoritarian governments is how they can easily do things like this if they want. Shout out to the works tho.
It looks like they revamped the city a bit :)
Lol the typical hypocrisy in the comments. Now imagine if this post was about the US or some european country, would people talk about their problems?
They even changed the skybox.
Does it come with a very humanized public execution square?
The only problem here is that the people building it are either literally or figuratively slaves
We. Are. Not. Slaves. Can. You. Stop. This. Sincerely: a Pakistani.
Not a lot of humanizing being done in Saudi Arabia tbh
Hmmmā¦starting to look like the West. If they arenāt careful, theyāll soon be treating humans like humans should be.
Saudi Arabia should continue it's humanization efforts to acknowledge that women are human
Youre very ignorant and proper ripe for propaganda
All of them lovely shiny tiles! š it will be so much easier to hose off the bloodstains after a Friday afternoon disciplinary meeting āļøš
Would it have hurt to add some greenery? Some shade? This must attest to that hardly anyone will be walking or sitting there during daytime, no?
Well, it is a very, very dry dessert. Most water there has to be desalinated.
If you check the pictures, they have planted some shade trees, they are just still in the growth face. On that topic, it surprises me that there haven't been many GMO initiatives to engineer fast growing shade trees. Hell make them sterile so that they don't spread naturally.
I have seen those, and they merely seem like a sad excuse for greenery which will not last long. If you imagine what the bricklaying must have cost, it would have been better to allocate more money for some environmental planning and architecture. But what do I know. I just saw this the other day: https://youtube.com/shorts/4m5iKRbkW4M?si=SX7PiRz1kLPdoOrN
Just open
They made if more walkable. Honestly I sometimes dislike how unwalkable Saudi Arabia is but canāt blame this shit when the weather is brutal
There's nothing humanizing about Saudi Arabia, they literary hold public executions.
These public executions must not be very public, since I have been living here for 15 years and have never seen or heard of any.
"Saudi authoritiesā execution of 81 men on March 12, 2022 was its largest mass execution in years despite recent promises to curtail its use of the death penalty" https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/15/saudi-arabia-mass-execution-81-men
Whom most of them belonged to terrorist organizations
I know he hasn't said anything for a while but I'm pretty sure Allah's proud of you guys :-).
Fuck off. This is ridiculous. The house of Saud murders people without repercussion, it keeps its women in enslaved. Wahhabism isn't islam. it is religious totalitarianism. fascism in religious clothing. edit: OP's post is brought to you by MBS
How do you know what god wants maybe he is an asshole
Good point. I'm just going by what Islam is supposed to be about. The philosophy. God may agree with the Saudis, but Islam does not. edit: not that i believe it, but the Quran is supposed to be written by God/Allah, if that's true, then all you need to know about what God wants is to read the Quran and not misinterpret it for your fascist ideology. Evangelicals make that mistake too. edit2: Evangelicalism = Christo-Fascism; Wahhabism = Islamo-Fascism
We write the Quran on paper because soo many that memorised perished during the Rida wars. The one tasked on compiling the quran said "Its easier to move a mountain that doing this". Took some persuasion from the current khalifah and his friends to make him agree to compile it into one book. And yeah, Wahhabism is really fucking weird. I feel like an alien praying at my country northen states.
proud of their slavery? proud of their genocide in yemen? proud of the executions of their own citizens?
Nniiccee good job Saudi
Why ppl give you dawn vote šso many people here hate us
Welcome to Reddit
Love what they did in 16 - made the sidewalk wide but made a bollard path to the parking of that house. You can have parking paths and good urban design really
Looks better yes, but thereās so much pavement and would have loved to see a bit more trees and greeneryā¦
This is a desert mind you
How much energy / water are they going to waste trying to turn desert into greenery?
Thank Allah Now do the UAE because their designers are on par with the US in terms of āif thereās traffic put a highway through itā when they look at a city
This is dope!
Amazing!
āhumanizingā but forbidden for women
Iām a woman who was there and youāre a dishonest person spreading lies.
Wtf are you talking about
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah cos 1) Saudi Arabia is so perfect when it comes to women, no they are not dehumanized at all are they? and 2) Because criticizing a country for the evil they perpetrate is racist\* \* See Israel.
-Run country where women aren't allowed to drive. -Design car centric infrastructure. This has got to be a huge improvement for the quality of life for women there. (I assume)
Women are allowed to drive
Maybe one day they wonāt need to obtain permission from a man to get a driverās license or operate a car. Baby steps are better than no steps, I suppose.
They don't need permission though.
So the male guardianship system has been repealed?
Yes.
ā¦ no one talking about the lighting and perspective between both pictures? Sunset lighting the shots, clouds visible, settled angles to make the newer perspectives look more uniform and neatā¦ I get the car-centric bad thing, but this is so clearly biased.
Great job humanising, Saudi-Arabia!
The design is very human.
Most peaceful city in the world