Amid excesses that would make an American corporate exec blush, Dubai, the very symbol of the global economy's "success," is--surprise, surprise--Not a Very Nice Place to Live unless you're one of the lucky few. (And what else is new? All the modern "innovations" of laissez-faire capitalism end up looking like the darkest days of the feudal past.)

It's the city built by people with a lot of money and no taste--or sense of human ethics. Read Johann Hari's incisive glimpse into the city that represented a tax-free heaven on Earth to multinationalist pigs.