World's Tallest Building (Azerbaijan)

        Many of the projects that we’ve profiled have a real purpose for advancing society, or at least meeting the needs of a growing world economy. Then there’s Azerbaijan’s ridiculous Khazar Islands, a project that - despite all the progress in the world - is the perfect example of everything that’s still wrong with its power structure, but more on that in a moment. The creatively named Azerbaijan Tower will be the world’s tallest building, about 800 feet taller than the current leader, the Burj Khalifa, and, insanely, twice as tall as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, New York’s One World Trade Center. The Freudian showpiece of the $100 billion project, Azerbaijan Tower will rise above the capital city, Baku, and will be surrounded by 55 artificial islands built in the Caspian Sea with land gathered by completely destroying a nearby mountain. There will also be at least eight hotels, a Formula One racetrack, a yacht club, and an airport. So basically, we’re talking about Donald Trump’s fantasy. Now, it’s one thing to build an over-the-top city like Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which is one of the most-developed places in the world, and a completely different thing for it to rise in Azerbaijan, which has a per capita GDP that’s not even ⅕ as much as the UAE. This madness is the brainchild of the billionaire developer Ibrahim Ibrahimov, who has extremely cozy ties with the corrupt government of the newly oil rich nation of Azerbaijan. Just how corrupt is Azerbaijan? In a 2012 report by watchdog group Transparency International that declared 2/3rds of the world’s countries “highly corrupt,” Azerbaijan’s Prez Ilham Aliyev stood out from the pack as the report’s infamous, “person of the year,” with untold amounts of money stashed in various locations around the world. But back to President Aliyev’s good buddy, Ibrahimov, who lazily came up with the tacky idea for the megaproject that’s basically a copy of Dubai’s island development and mega-tower while on a flight home from, you guessed it, Dubai. He argues that Khazer Islands will be home to 800,000 people, but doesn’t explain how those people will afford its expensive apartments. Instead of investing in the future by maybe funding a network of world class universities - which Azerbaijan isn’t even close to having - in a country that borders no ocean and produces no product that the rest of the world wants, besides oil, the government thinks its a good idea to build this. I doubt many of the nine million people of Azerbaijan think it’s a very good idea. In fact, in a possible sign of things to come, last year, Azerbaijanis in a city across the country, got so fed up with the corrupt regime, they rioted for two entire days. But look, the capital is doing some things right, Baku made Lonely Planet’s top ten ranking of the best nightlife spots in the world. I just wonder how much they paid to get on the list.