Jurassic World (Colin Trevorrow, 2015)
It all starts so small that it would seem churlish to say anything negative. A Hungarian man discovers a way to make a ballpoint pen work well enough to write letters with, before that they were just awful, and would have given you a blot-filled scrawl that wouldn't have looked good in a letter to a friend. He then settles on a business model that takes something you use every day and turns that item into something disposable. Prior to that you would have kept your pen for a long time, possibly a lifetime, but the Hungarian has other ideas. Instead of buying one thing one time he wants you to buy that one thing many times, and throw it away when you need to throw it away. I am, of course, talking about the ballpoint pen and Laszlo Biro. Everyone laughed at Laszlo because his pen was so terrible. Then it took over the world, and his business model becomes a mantra for contemporary capitalism, and it all happened so quickly and from something so small and insignificant that it seems strange to consider that there was once a time when we kept things.
You can get really paranoid about this kind of thing, about money and stuff. This way of thinking will do that to you. But sometimes there's more to it than paranoia. Here's one example: In June 1972, American Historian Professor Alfred McCoy found himself pretending to be a Harper's Correspondent, sitting opposite General Rattikone in Laos. McCoy came out with an *outrageous* line that he thought wasn't going to go anywhere. He asked Rattikone whether he had stolen money while managing Laos's heroin production in the 1960s. Much to McCoy's surprise, Rattikone produced documentation to show how he had worked with the Laos government, the CIA, and the Pepsi Cola Corporation to the required level of administration: producing heroin refineries in Laos, all hiding under the guise of being Pepsi bottling plants, which produced heroin with 96% purity (which I guess means it's good), which was then flown to the US in CIA planes. His point being he hadn't stolen a dime. This isn't some made up conspiracy theory. This is a thing that happened. Although some people say it never happened.
And it continues.
Halliburton is an Oil Field Service Company. Their CEO used to be a man called Dick Cheney. He also did some kind of business with the US Government. Small world! It just so happens that one of their former subsidiaries, KBR, manufactures things that the army uses. Armies who are fighting with a backdrop of oil fields. A cynic might look at the vested interests of an Oil Field Service Company manufacturing goods for an army fighting wars over oil fields started by one of their former CEOs and draw some negative conclusions. Not me though.
I don't draw negative conclusions because what good would it do? It started too small to say anything and it's now too big to do anything about. Instead I prefer to spend my time in a shopping mall, probably Westfield. Westfield was built by Brookfield Multiplex, they specialise in shopping and business centres, but the architectural philosophy seems to be based on something as old as the hills. It used to be that Churches and the like were built with a certain monumentality in mind that would bring the awe of God to bear on the individual standing in the structure. Simple concepts like high ceilings, grand ornamentation, and towering spires were all the rage back then, and very effective at making you feel small and insignificant, but securely cradled in the lap of something much bigger than you. These days you can find that sense of consolation in a building devoted to commerce. And that's the intention. You can browse these places all day, buying things if you like, or simply hanging out in a climate controlled environment that is 100% safe while you chat to friends over a coffee or tea bought from an establishment of your choice. Well, it has to be an establishment *in* the mall. That goes without saying. But the mall is a necessary thing because I don't buy *anything* to last anymore. I buy pretty much everything with the understanding that I'll eventually need to throw it away once it breaks.
It's hard work maintaining all the items you need, and if you and your friends get hungry while you're in the mall you can buy food from any corner of the world you like. You can even buy foods which are strange hybrids of food from any corner of the world you like, such as pizza that has a hotdog stuffed crust. Some of the people who sell you hotdog stuffed crust pizzas get their food from KBR, that former subsidiary of Halliburton.
Incidentally, did you know that the Halliburton Dubai office is in a shopping mall? It's true. It's in Wafi City. Modelled on the ancient Egyptian structures of yore, you know, the Pyramids. Wafi City is a strange hybrid creature, much like the hotdog stuffed crust pizza. It has shopping malls, businesses, and even residences. It also contains the Cleopatra Spa. Residents are entitled to a full membership to the spa, which can be found in the pyramids.