Normally I associate that phrase with the ruins of Detroit and unoccupied Chinese cities. This is the opposite: hyper-development in Brazil – but appalling in its own astonishing way.
Proclaiming the gambling mecca Las Vegas as his ideal city, the tycoon, Luciano Hang, has been opening department stores this year at a pace of one every 15 days, from southern Brazil to the Amazon in the northwest. Each cavernous new structure is an homage to American capitalism, with columns intended to evoke the White House and giant replicas of the Statue of Liberty, some more than 100 feet high, stationed at its entrance.
.
Unfortunately, they won’t even make good ruins.
I feel ill, terribly ill.