- The newly minted president of the United States of America Donald Trump is unambiguous while declaring what he intends to do on certain matters considered extremely crucial for the local supporters. His Make America Great Again (MAGA) exhortations found huge resonance across the length and breadth of the country reflecting spectacular triumph during the presidential elections. That he could win in some of the critical swing states demonstrated how Trump’s campaign succeeded in impressing the hitherto considered traditional Democratic supporters too. One of the most heard-about promises made by Trump during the electioneering is to deport the illegal immigrants soon after assuming the office. He has set about ensuring the same now.
PC:Pew Research Center
- The global community was always wary of what Trump’s elevation to the most powerful office in the world would entail. The world is on the edge is an understatement not knowing how an extremely unpredictable Trump goes about his business in the days ahead. Things have started rolling can be gauged by the proposal to put up concrete structures to stop illegal immigrants from crossing the border into the USA. Of course, it’s so Trump. In the middle of the world’s most intractable conflict, he sniffed out real estate possibilities in Gaza. After all, the ceasefire deal was partly brokered by his property developer buddy. Remember that Trump’s son-in-law Kushner had talked up the possibilities of Gaza’s waterfront. But why single out the Trump family alone?
PC:NPR
- Come to think of it, this real estate view of the world is widely shared by many policymakers and some super-rich. Fragile beaches or mountains or islands or even planets like Mars, there’s no piece of land they can’t make over into a property listing. That’s why, for instance, the Great Nicobar Islands are being prospected for mega-development. Even the high Himalayas are newly disaster-prone, because of rampant overbuilding sharpening the risk of avalanches and floods. Now, what does a developer care about the resilience of the environment or the long-term chances of living there? They simply raze and build, and social and environmental costs don’t figure. Their responsibility ends at the point of sale.
PC:Millennium Post
- Mind you, the risks are all on buyers whether they stem from bitter, dispossessed locals or ecological vulnerabilities. Malibu or Nicobar, they’ll set us the pretty brochures and leave us to figure out the fine print. Agreed, there has been some belated acknowledgment of the real estate sector’s obligation to decarbonize, the need for a circular economy, retrofitting old buildings for new uses, rather than demolishing and starting from scratch. But the bad old ways die hard as long as the planet is seen as property to be sold for a quick buck, rather than a commonwealth an ark, a home to be cherished because our lives depend on it, we’ll keep paving our paradises and putting up parking lots there. Brace up for more extraordinary proposals and execution.
