Sound & Video Contractor: The ongoing war involving the United States, Israel, and Iran have raised questions about the feasibility of Disney working on development of its upcoming park in Abu Dhabi. However, there are indications that the project on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island is not being shelved, despite the current Middle East conflict.
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I think its insane that while people are being brutally bombed, displaced from their homes, starved, killed, and kidnapped, corporations are spending billions of dollars that could easily provide humanitarian aid to build theme parks right next to an active war zone instead. I also think its insane that while war, destruction, and genocide rages we are more focused on whether or not a resort and theme park is still on track to open. I think a lot of the time we see violence, war, poverty exisiting in such close physical proximity to wealth and luxury, and we don’t realize how much wealth determines how a global conflict effects you. The thought of being a person living in an active war zone where my survival is put into question every single day, and I find out that meanwhile, a multi-national corporation is not concerned with helping me but with building a theme park right next to me, would make me insanely upset but sadly not surprise me.
When Disney announced this park last year, I was quite skeptical of the entire project, and assumed it was dead on arrival. I really was quite surprised to learn that they were actually moving forward and that construction was set to begin. When war broke out, I had assumed that they had canned the project, but evidently not. I just can’t fathom why Disney would invest so much in the Middle East when the region continues to be extremely volatile. To be fair, Disney is not leading the charge in the capital investment, Miral is. It is still such a waste of creative talent on the park, when it could be reallocated somewhere else, either in the United States or in the existing locations around the world, or at another resort destination in a more stable part of the world. Disney had at one point planned locations in both Australia and Singapore.
Since this article was written in June, I wonder if there have been any more updates and if production is still continuing with the escalation of the war/conflict. Disney is a company that I have to remind myself is a business because as much as I love most of their movies and they are starting to get more and more "progressive" with their productions, they also have funded a lot of not so great people and tend to think of profit over people. I hate that Disney is so innovative, artistic, and creative without the humanity behind it. They like to pretend that they are in it for the art, but again, they are a business so really it is all about the money. Disney has done a lot for the animatronic/theme park world in terms of their inventions and creativity. I will give them that, but I will also hold them accountable for the harm they have done/perpetuated.
Since this article was written last year in June, hopefully Disney has reconsidered their actions. But the fact they even still planned to continue their theme park during a war at all is just crazy to think about. Not only is that pretty selfish and greedy, but they’ll be putting their workers in danger. Especially with the fact Disney is extremely rich, why in the world do they need to build another theme park in a place where it could possibly be destroyed anyways. Another thing, why does it have to be built at this moment? Why can’t they just wait till conditions are safer for their workers or just find a better location? It makes no sense as to why people running a multi-billion dollar company can’t see the danger and the stupidity behind starting another theme-park in such a dangerous area. They have only placed their parks in 4 countries, what makes the Middle East so special?
Let them eat cake I guess? This is insane. As if the contrast between our way of life and those experiencing humanitarian crises, scared for their lives currently in west asia is not a strong enough contrast, let's rub it in a little more with a theme park. (This is not the most recent article... but recent enough for this logic to apply.) We are funding the war and building theme parks in the same places. Oh yeah, let’s just make it indoors so nobody has to think about all of the violence happening to the people around them while they relish in their wealth by going to a disney theme park. I believe all art is political, whether intentional or not, and this tells a clear story- one of privilege, one of carelessness, and one of indifference. This is the kind of thing, why I don’t ever have a desire to work for disney. This is a prime example of our elitist capitalistic world's extensively obvious class divide is becoming more and more clear by the day.
can we consider the fact that right here, right now these countries are being bombed and are actively at war? I don’t think that funding a theme park is the right thing to do right now. I think that first of all it’s incredibly dangerous to have people constructing building designing testing wall, they could be hit with an aerial missle at the moment. I also think that their government has way bigger fish to fry than building a Disney theme park. Also, knowing about the questionable labor laws in these countries I think that Disney should have that conversation within its areas of the company that are dealing with Disney Abu Dhabi about labor laws, and employment at their theme park because wages are very low in these countries because there’s no real minimum wage laws like they have in America and Disney doesn’t need more dirt on its back in terms of both questionable labor practices and active war zones in their parks.
It’s hard to ignore how uncomfortable this situation is. Building a massive theme park while there is ongoing violence and instability in the region feels really out of touch. I understand that companies like The Walt Disney Company are businesses and are always trying to expand, but the timing and location make the project feel questionable. It brings up a bigger issue about priorities and where money is being spent. When there are real humanitarian crises happening, investing billions into entertainment just feels disconnected from reality. It also doesn’t really match the image Disney tries to present. Disney is supposed to be about happiness, escapism, and creating something magical, and this just doesn’t align with that. The contrast between that image and this project feels off. Even if places like Yas Island are built for tourism, the situation around it makes it hard to ignore that disconnect.
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