Fun and games on the Arab Riviera

Fun and games on the Arab Riviera
By Pepe Escobar
Jul 21, 2007


CANNES and ST TROPEZ, France - The next time wacky US neo-conservatives start looking for an Iraq-al-Qaeda connection, they had better start looking in the French (Arab) Riviera. One of Osama bin Laden's brothers owns a stunning villa in Cannes, at the corniche of the Paradis Terrestre - only a few meters away from Saddam Hussein's own villa (speculation is rife on who's going to inherit this one; Saddam's daughters?).

The buck does not stop there. The 3,000-square-meter Villa Bagatelle is owned by a Saudi prince. Another Arab royal owns the Villa al-Ryan, which used to be in the possession of the emir of Qatar. Their neighbors include the prime minister of Jordan and the eldest son of King Fahd, who bought the Palais des Horizons and the Chateau Robert for an "incalculable" amount, according to locals.

The Arab Riviera is an ultra-deluxe gated-community gulag over the hills in - where else? - "California", the top Cannes neighborhood. There are more (security) cameras than in a Steven Spielberg set. Walking is not allowed. Golf-carting transportation is encouraged. These lucky few Arabs living - literally - in heaven contrast with the hordes of (mostly legal) second-generation immigrants selling vegetables or Chinese knockoffs "down there" in the Frejus "Arab" market or younger ones servicing the thousands of restaurants along the Cote d'Azur.

There are no fewer than 300 real-estate developers' offices in the Cannes region alone. In St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the price for a square meter can easily reach US$50,000. Democratically, anyone may admire the lush photos of villas or palaces with stunning views - but prices are never on show. A proper, "grand" villa in California - at least 1,000 square meters of living quarters, with garden and pool - can easily go beyond $40 million. A "small" house sells for a cool $5 million - and its value may double in only six months.

Which major, jaded Arab monarch/politician in his right mind would want to dwell in the searing heat and the desert winds of the Middle East summer? They'd rather be sipping martinis by their infinite view pool. Away from the turning and turning of the geopolitical gyre, the French Riviera remains the Arab as well as Russian and Chinese billionaires' favorite playground.

So George W Bush should take a cue from the Cannes Film Festival and hold his Middle East-solution summits at the Carlton Hotel - complete with G-stringed starlets, lobster dinners washed with Cristal, free Lamborghini Diablo rides and hordes of paparazzi in heat. The effect would be devastating. Bye bye intifada, bye bye Sunni Arab muqawama: let's go surfing the decadent, Western capitalist way. Even Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri might be tempted to drop the cave talk and join the fun.


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