Pearls on Antarctica?

Could you even imagine a pearl retail center on Antarctica? Who the hell lives on Antarctica, right? When I heard this news I was ready to call bullshit one more time assuming our old Indian friend Ajai Kumar Sonkar was behind the rumor. But it actually has nothing to do with that pearling fake. It is the SS pearl-king himself behind this story - Nicholas Paspaley Jr!

Well it is true. Paspaley is behind the pearl cultural, heritage and retail center to be built on Antarctica - a man-made island in the United Arab Emirates! Construction should be finished in 2010. This is one more part of the Pearl of Arabia project of the UAE in an attempt to regain their earlier prominence in the now-extinct local industry of pearl collection.

I wonder if the Japanese are on board with this. First the Tahitians take over their own distribution channels, the Chinese start selling akoya and freshwater pearls direct, and Australia now rules the South Sea pearl industry AND is experimenting with akoya. Now they want to move the world pearl-capitol from Japan to the desert! If I were Mikimoto I would be pissed! but then again, if I were William Sawville-Kent I would be mad as hell!