Donald wears the trousers.

300 million, not the entry fee, but the proposed investment. Donald Trump's world's greatest golf course' on the shores of Aberdeen has split opinion in a debate that asks one central question: What price progress?

The world's greatest golf course?

Overblown declarations of this sort are not unusual for a man that requires a building the size of the Trump tower to house his ego. The resort' is to include a 500 bedroom, Victorian style hotel and 250 individual luxury properties. The local planning committee while not wanting to sound negative about the project overall' are unsure of this aspect. As so they should be. Scotland's homeless continue to increase, house prices are preventing first time buyers from getting on the first rung of the property ladder and Donald Trump wants to fill Scottish land with holiday homes for the ridiculously rich.

Add to this the environmental impact of increased air traffic, transport links and the golf course itself. Though a golf course may look green, courses require more chemical and pesticide treatments than industrial farming. Past projects make Trump unlikely to be a man to seek an environmental method of progress the world is his hardware shop. He has already expressed distaste over the proposed construction of wind turbines by Aberdeen renewable energy on the grounds that they will hamper ocean views' from the hotel. Views that in all likelihood, he already sees as his own.

Many online opinion boards cite references to the greens' standing in the way of progress'. I would ask that we consider carefully who's progress we wish to facilitate? A global entrepreneur with personal fortune upwards of 3 billion? Selling vast areas of land in this way does not seem like progress, but a return to feudalism. Those lauding what this progress' will mean for Scotland are basing their argument on the same shaky neo-liberalist principles of Thatcherism. Wealth will not trickle down to the inhabitants of the Aberdeen area, nor to Scotland. Those raving about the money this will bring in for Scotland should stop and consider their sums. If Trump owns the course, accommodation, resort, airport transport all money goes to Trump. One does not amass his level of a personal fortune by sharing profits.

We have been duped for too long into thinking that what benefits the rich will, in turn, benefit us all. When, in reality, we are being removed from our own natural heritage to make way for the rich. The time for intelligent debate on the subject is now. For once Trump moves in, we will have no opportunity to change our minds.

Learn more about this author, L Loftus.
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