Super Trump Towers

THE report should leave us salivating: “Paris-based architect Vincent Callebaut wants his buildings to be more than your average tower block.  His vision is ambitious: create an energy-saving, carbon-absorbing civilisation to fight global warming. “I want to give hope for a better tomorrow,” he says. One of his eco-friendly ideas is taking root right now in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city.  When Tao Zhu Yin Yuan – meaning “The Retreat of Tao Zhu” – is completed in September 2017, the residential complex will be covered in 23,000 trees and shrubs. While Callebaut likens the building to an urban forest, its appearance is actually modelled after a strand of DNA – a double helix twisting 90-degrees from base to top. If all goes to plan, Callebaut says the plants will absorb 130 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year – the equivalent of around 27 cars. Taiwan as a whole produced more than 250 million tons of CO2 in 2014, according to the International Energy Agency.  Callebaut admits it is a small step, but insists it’s “a big leap (against) global warming.”

As if determined to guarantee its place as the tenth wonder of the world, the J.K. Randle Super Trump Towers will also feature the latest offering by an architectural genius.  In order to pre-empt JulienAssange and Edward Snowden, CNN’s Dong Criss has whetted our appetite with his brilliant documentary on: “The world’s first rotating skyscraper.”  It’s the brainchild of architect David Fisher of Dynamic Architecture.   Fisher first pitched his idea back in 2008, but it never got off the ground.  Now Dynamic Architecture hopes the skyscraper – dubbed the Dynamic Tower – will be gracing Dubai’s skyline by 2020.

It’s unclear what the price tag is for this massive project, but Dynamic Architecture says the price for an individual apartment unit could range from $4 million to $40 million. Fisher hopes his tower is the beginning of a change in the way architects think about their jobs.

“An architect should design buildings that adjust to life,” he said.  “They should adapt to our space, our functionalities and our needs that change continuously – and even to our sense of beauty, itself in continuous motion.”

Donald Trump has thrown his hat into the ring in order to ensure that the J.K. Randle Super Trump Towers secures its rightful place as one of the wonders of the world.  He has come up with the spectacular replication of what The Telegraph newspaper front page headline captured as: “Incredible Train “Disappears” Through Block Of Flats In China’s Mountain City. Architects and planners in a Chinese city have designed a novel way to make space for an essential train route – by building it through the centre of a block of flats. The unusual train track passes directly through the 19-storey residential building in the “emerging mega-city” of Chongqing, located in the south-west corner of the East Asian nation.Our city is very heavily built upon and that can make finding room for roads and railway lines a real challenge,” a city transport spokesperson said.  The monorail station opened in 2004 in the area known as ‘Mountain City’, due to the area’s extremely hilly terrain.”

Last year, an airline launched fares starting from just £7 to attract British travellers to the city.  Meanwhile, could this be the future of travel? Donald Trump is clearly not having things entirely his own way.  The knives are out.

Here are a few samples of the knife cuts: (i)“New York Daily News” front page: “Donald Trump should be immediately removed from office – before we hit rock  bottom” – Shaun King. “Before Donald Trump was ever elected, we knew he was a truly gross man — a liar and a cheater, a misogynist and a bigot, willing to play on the worst tendencies of this country for applause or votes. It was one thing when we knew of him that way as a reality TV star. It was another when we saw him double down on his character flaws as a presidential candidate, but here we are, with him as the President of the United States — and his character is not only failing him, it’s failing our nation. I’ve been obsessed with politics for about 30 years now. Born in 1979, I missed Richard Nixon by a few years, but over these past three decades, I’ve never seen what I saw Monday….To make sure his statement on the matter was abundantly clear, FBI Director Comey said he had the full permission of the Justice Department to speak on their behalf that they also found absolutely no evidence that Donald Trump was wiretapped by Obama, or anyone else for that matter.”

Sadly, I don’t think we’ve hit rock bottom. Trump and his team have already proven that they will burn it all down before they leave with integrity. It was a bombshell.  In front of the entire world, under oath, two leaders of our intelligence community testified that our current President repeatedly told flagrant lies on our previous President. I already knew Donald Trump was a liar.  Most of the country believes that, but to see these two men testify to it was about as damning of a political moment as I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of following politics.  Dan Rather, now 85 years old, said of Monday’s developments:  “If you are a praying person, today is a day to pray for the future of your country.  I have seen a lot in my decades in the press, but I have never seen a day like this.  This is a stress test for our democratic institutions and one can only hope that the system of checks and balances we hold so dear, can indeed hold.”  I agree with Dan.  We’ve reached a dangerous precipice where we can definitely say that the President of the United States is a gross, unethical liar who cannot and should not be trusted. They did not speak or testify with hesitancy, but said emphatically, over and over again, that Trump was lying when he said Democrats made this whole thing up.’’

Donald J. Trump remains unperturbed.  He is a champion of multi-tasking and believes that he can run both his vast business empire and the U.S. government simultaneously.  Indeed, he insists that his signature Super Trump Towers will carry the warning: “This Tower has been wire-tapped by Barack Obama.” (Concluded).

• Bashorun Randle is a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region.