gold – ThursdayAgain

In a move that shames the Weight Watcher’s weekly incentive scheme of a printed plastic biro, Dubai’s government announced last week that it will pay a bounty to residents, in gold, for losing weight as part of a government campaign to fight obesity.

The 30-day weight-loss challenge was launched on Friday, coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful refrain from eating & drinking between sunrise & sunset. During the festival people often eat too much after breaking the fast, enjoying super-sized portions of traditional dishes loaded with fat & sugar that push their daily calorie intake to well above levels seen during the rest of the year.

For every kilo dropped by 16th August, contestants can walk away with a gramme of gold, currently worth over $40, Dubai’s Health Minister announced as part of the “Your Weight in Gold” initiative.

The top three dieters will win special gold coins worth $5,400 & each contestant has to lose a minimum 2 kilos to qualify for the gold payout.

“Participant must reduce weight but stay away from unhealthy methods, they should be present on the final day to measure their weight loss,” the Dubai government said in a press release.

In Dubai, & the other emirates, oil wealth & high incomes have led to overeating, high-sugar diets & a heavy reliance on cars for even the shortest journeys, leading to a drastic increase in diabetes & other obesity-related illnesses.

Dubai has a history of larger-than-life offers. It has previously given away luxury cars & yachts in lucky draws & is home to the largest gold market in the region. It even has gold vending machines in its shopping malls.

Anybody remember Aristotle’s story about Midas?

"He ain't heavy, he's my Banker......" — “He ain’t heavy, he’s my Banker……”

It’s “Black Friday” & for those who are starting the long shopping-fest to Christmas this year, a jewelry store in downtown Tokyo has the perfect spending opportunity: a pure gold revolving “Christmas tree” covered in Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Tinkerbell & Cinderella.

The tree is made of 40 kg of 24kt gold, standing about 2,5 metres high & just over 1,25 meters in diameter. It is decorated with pure gold-sheet silhouette cutouts of 50 popular Disney characters & draped with ribbons made of gold leaf. So a certain “sameness” in coloring, but perfect if you need to match a room filled with golden furniture & yellow walls……. & it’s a snip at around $4.000.000 (excluding sales taxes).

Not only a wonderful Christmas treat, the tree is actually a great investment, said the store’s marketing department. “Right now gold is over 4,400 yen per gram. We used pure gold & had an expert craftsman form each Disney character by hand,” she a spokeswoman, which took 10 craftsmen two months to complete.

The combination of gold & Disney characters had passers-by outside the store “mesmerized” (or “glazed-over with horror”, it depends on how you feel about spending $4.000.000 on an artificial tree).

“It is very vivid & the gold is very pretty,” said Takashi Miura, one of the jewelers who worked on this “masterpiece of good taste”. “The characters on it are also really cute & it really looks like a Christmas tree.” (So the money on making it wasn’t wasted then “It really looks like a gold Christmas tree covered in cute gold ornament”s – glad that’s cleared-up.)

Acknowledging the wave of austerity sweeping the world, the store offers a scaled-down version that features only 20 Disney characters & stands a mere 25 cm high for $243,000. (Don’t you hate it when you see crass commercialization of Christmas cheapened like this, either “big-up & pay the rate” or go home & cower in shame in your gold & yellow studio.)

While nobody has yet made a down payment on the larger tree, the miniature has already found buyers, the store reported.