The Salton Sea
in California, in the desert outside San Diego. And all towns (read trailer trash parks) around it's shores.

The story of the Salton Sea goes like this:

Many moons ago, it was decided to build a dam across the Colorado river and flood a vast (20 miles across) area of the Mohave desert. This flooded area would then be stocked with fish, watersports would flourish and it would be a paradise, an oasis in the desert. The land around it was sold off at extortionate prices to the wealthy Californians/property developers.

The dam was built, the desert was flooded, the Salton Sea was stocked with fish. People built their new luxurious homes and revelled in their magnificence.

Only someone had cocked up. Nobody thought to analyse the mineral content of the bedrock below the desert floor. It was in fact a dried up salt lake.

All of the (freshwater) fish that has been released died. The same happened to the plants and trees. The Salton Sea lost it's appeal, land values plummeted, leaving thousands bankrupt. The dead fish washed up, and all of the beaches along the shoreline are made up not from sand, but from crushed fish bones. The stench of rotting fish hangs in the air for 30 or so miles around the lake. These days, the only remaining souls there are the once wealthy families who have now been relegated to trailer trash.

My brother and I were taken there by my parents and their best friends. My parent's friends live in San Diego, and the husband, John, is a senior director of a global pharmaceutical company, as such they have a rather lavish lifestyle in the rather lavish San Diego. So they all thought it right to show us youngsters the true meaning of poverty.

The experience has stuck in my mind vividly. I found it hard to understand that in the USA, especially California, there could be such a wealth divide. The USA truly is a polarized place of the haves and have nots. If you have no money, you are outcasts, the arsehole of America, swept out of public view.

I have seen slums and helped starving children build their school in Africa. They were poor, but at least they were recieving some international aid to help them. The people who live around the Salton Sea are living in the most vile, unhealthy place I have ever been to, in absolute squalour and poverty, with nothing from other countries or their own government.

Less than 3hrs drive from one of the wealthiest cities on the planet.
(Sir General ***WoW***, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 19:41, 4 replies)

Great
Fucking film tho.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Sat 31 Oct 2009, 20:52, closed)

It was all a mistake.
The Salton Sea was formed by accident when a badly built dam burst. It's all a mistake!
(uncle_bud is not the jelly roll king., Sat 31 Oct 2009, 21:16, closed)

Really?
I thought it was all a big fuck up. Still is I suppose.
(Sir General ***WoW***, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 17:50, closed)

America F**k yeah
I have always maintained that the USofA is a 3rd world country with a lick of paint. Very ritzy very grand but if you scrape a little below the surface a very different story.

Now Gary!!!!!
(wobbler, Sun 1 Nov 2009, 14:43, closed)