October 19th, 2013
Water parks aplenty in frontier markets. Who says emerging markets can’t have any fun…
First, via Reuters, a report on a new water park in Kabul:
After the armed guards and body search at the door, it is almost easy to forget the fun is happening in ultra-conservative Afghanistan, except that all of the people leaping down the colorful slides and splashing in the water are men.Inside a non-descript building in central Kabul, residents of the battle-hardened capital have a new and unusual form of escape – a state-of-the-art water park.
“They have really built a very good pool. I can’t believe it,” said one visitor, Fahim Maeel, a company manager.
The creators of the novel $5 million endeavor are among the few in Kabul not wringing their hands over Afghanistan’s future after 2014 when foreign combat troops are due to leave.
“When we decided to build this place, we knew that 2014 was to come,” said Mahmod Najafi, one of Kabul Water Park’s managers and shareholders. “For us 2014 doesn’t mean anything.”
Just over a year ago, Najafi and three partners pooled their cash to build the venue on a 2,300-square-metre (24,760-square-foot) plot near the parliament building.
In addition to towering slides, there is a huge wave pool eliciting noisy delight from adult swimmers that one might expect from children visiting the beach for the first time. The men wear swim shorts but no slingshot-style suits were in sight.
In a city where the average wage is about $50 a week, a thriving middle class can afford the admission price of 500 Afghanis ($9).
“I am really proud when I see such developments,” said Fahim Khan, a 26-year-old university student.
The popular facility, which can handle up to 1,000 customers at a time, also has a restaurant, whirlpool, sauna and lavish play area for young children, including girls who are allowed to mix with the opposite sex until the age of about 10.
Women have made progress in education, health and work in a conservative Muslim society but most still wear the head-to-toe burqa enforced by the Taliban when the fundamentalist movement ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Segregation of the sexes and limits on the public activities of women remain the norm.
With Afghanistan heavily dependent on foreign aid, ventures like the Kabul Water Park are a rare but reassuring sign that the economy may be able to sustain itself as donations shrink.
“We have provided jobs for 70 people and we have provided a good environment for our young generation,” Najafi said.
“My message to other Afghan businessmen is that if we don’t invest because of concerns about 2014, we will remain backward. Every Afghan has to work individually to promote this country.”
Voters are due to elect a new president in April in what many hope will mark Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power. But the cast of former warlords as candidates and unusual alliances have provoked concern among human rights groups.
President Hamid Karzai, in power since U.S.-led coalition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, is barred by the constitution from running for a third term but his older brother Qayum has registered as a candidate.
Second, via Time, a report on North Korea’s new water park:
Spectators watch people use The Munsu Water Park in Pyongyang in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency on October 16, 2013.
There are few countries in the world stranger to look at than North Korea. The pariah state is known for its brand of militarist totalitarianism, the creepiness of the cult of Kim and the misery of a starving, oppressed population. But, with its borders closed and its people kept much in the dark, the North Korea the outside world sees is framed — with the exception of a handful of foreign photographers — entirely through the propaganda that the state broadcasts. These undated pictures are from the new Munsu water park opened in Pyongyang recently. The country’s youthful despot Kim Jong Un has a penchant for such diversions and here are scenes of his latest bequest to his people. Who knows—they could use the fun.
Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.