It was announced Wednesday, April 23 that C3, a Los Angeles based company, was developing a $500 million amusement park overseas that was designed by the firm that developed Disneyland. International cities that instantly came to mind to play host to the new park would be Paris, London, Hong Kong or Madrid. All of those cities seem like logical choices, but the amusement park will be built in Baghdad. Wait ... what? Is there another Baghdad overseas that I'm thinking of? Well, no-amazingly this 50-acre park is scheduled to be built in a war-ravaged Iraqi city.
When I first read the article, I had to double check the date of the article, expecting to see April 1st. It had to be an April Fools joke and a pretty unbelievable one at that. But somehow it was not a joke-they were investing hundreds of millions of dollars in an amusement park in a city where terrorist attacks are nearly a part of everyday life. You didn't see theme parks built outside of unstable and devastated Berlin after World War II, did you?
They are planning on building the park over the Baghdad Zoo which hasn't exactly had the most success lately. Since the United States invasion, the zoo has lost 665 of its 700 animals and has been the occasional target of insurgent attacks. Sounds like a great place to take the family out and feel right at home.
I'm trying to think of a worse place to put this park and I just can't. I think we would be better off putting this park in North Korea or Iran. This park will shoot to the top of a prestigious list-the most likely terrorist target in the world. Hundred-foot-tall roller coasters, Splash Mountain and Dumbo rides built by the United States? I don't see how this could go wrong. They really might as well put neon signs around the park saying, "Please attack right here." One of my biggest questions is how are they going to keep this place safe? To stop this park from being attacked they are going to have to put more security around it than the Pentagon.
Llewellen Werner, the chairman of C3, told the London Times that this park would be "enormously profitable." I mean, unless he expects the U.S. government to pay for everyone's admissions, how is this park going to make a profit? A cheap amusement park charges 20 dollars for admission. Many Iraqi's are struggling to make enough money to get by, let along pay to go to a state-of-the-art amusement park. Do they expect to get tourists to fly in and visit the park? I'm sorry, but a vacation to Baghdad isn't at the top of my list-they'd have to pay me to go to this park and a lot of money at that.
Maybe Werner's main goal is to make people overseas hate us even more. That would make more sense than trying to bring Mickey Mouse into Iraq. Millions of people already think we are just in Iraq for money and building an amusement park and saying that you are there "mostly for the profit" is only going to make things look a lot worse. If democracy is struggling in Iraq, why would an amusement park work? If Disney Magic Kingdom is known as the most magical place on Earth, then a Disney in Baghdad could end up being the most treacherous place on Earth. Somewhere, Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave.
Ben Hietanenhietanbs@muohio.edu
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