The Sheiks of UAE have proved that a little planning and selfless deeds can turn a desert into a garden
DURING the later half of the last century, a number of politico-economic novelties have emerged in the world. UAE is one and a unique one at that.
The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates. Despite complete internal independence, the federating emirates enjoying different local legislative arrangements, yet there is complete harmony and smooth articulation in the functioning of the federation. A sovereign Emir heads each emirate, yet democratic order finds expression in complete freedom to all the federating emirates to adopt laws, ritual and conviviality in the respective emirates, without reference to the central authority.
For instance liquor is prohibited in Sharjah, while only a few kilometres away in Dubai it is permissible. Similarly social environments of Abu Dhabi, the biggest state of the federation, having 80 per cent area and same percentage of oil revenues are rather conservative in comparison to Dubai.
There are more natural tourist attractions in Fujaira, Ras ul Khema and Al-Ain. But there exist more social liberties in Dubai, due to which the state of Dubai clinches away lion’s share of tourist revenues.
Oil revenues of Abu Dhabi far exceed the combined oil revenues of rest of the emirates put together. But Dubai makes up through roaring trade and industry, including tourism. Dubai, owing to its status as a free port, has in fact developed into the commercial hub of Asia.
The yearly spring shopping festival alone fetches billions of dollars to the Emirate. Fujaira and Um al-Qaiwain, despite enjoying far greater diversity in geography and natural scenery, remains dependent and receives substantial subsidies from the central government. This dependence results due to absence of oil from their economies. Ajman is another state, which heavily leans on federal subsidies.
The age-old faulty impression about UAE, that it is merely a desolate desert where agriculture, dairy or wild life have no business, should be cleared. That is not the case. There are barren places in UAE, as there are around the world. But the process of desertification has largely been arrested in the UAE. A visitor is now confronted by forests, fields of grass and wheat where once there were only shifting sand dunes and ferocious winds.
UAE has a thriving agriculture and is self-sufficient in vegetables, poultry and dairy products. It also exports some of these things to a few European countries. The agricultural production stands at over two billion dirhams per year, which is not a modest figure for a small country of UAE’s size situated in the Arabian Peninsula. Most of the land in UAE is fit for cultivation. It is only the scarcity of water that inhibited the cultivation for centuries.
With the abundance of petro-dollars the UAE government has embarked on extensive programme of provisioning of water through all possible sources. There have been extensive programmes to drill water wells. Desalinated water as well as recycled and purified sewage effluent is also extensively used.
To preserve the rainwater, tens of millions of gallons of rainwater are being retained by the dams already built throughout the Emirate. In the long run, however, it is realized that desalinated water will provide the bulk of water required to perk up agriculture in the country. The country of course possesses adequate financial resources to offset the handicap of water scarcity by setting up required volume of desalination plants. A hectic programme is already underway to acquire the optimum volume of water through this expensive source.
The presence of trees and gardens in the UAE is always noticed and commented upon by visitors. Over 11 million trees of different varieties have been planted in addition to more than 19 million palm trees, which have been planted under a phased programme. All cities and towns have beautification plans with the creation of parks and gardens. Respective municipalities provide plants and saplings for plantation, during the plantation seasons, free of charge, to all citizens.
Apart from population centres, massive programmes of plantation have been undertaken in the desert. Flying over the desert one can see great patches of green where formerly there was only sand. Once I observed a reddish stretch of land between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I was told that they were tomato fields.
The beauty about the marketing of agricultural products is that the producer stands assured of the optimum price of his produce by the government. This thoughtful measure of the government has gone a long way in boosting the incentive in agriculture. In most of the provisioning stores of UAE, one finds the indigenous agricultural products alongside similar imported items. But the prices of the local items are markedly lower than the imported stuff. This is achieved through government subsidy, which saves the local producer from the cutthroat competition. Not only that, the local vegetables and fruits are more tasty and delicious than most of the foreign contenders.
To that end, there are strict instructions from the agriculture department against the use of artificial fertilizer in the agriculture of UAE. Only the animal dung manure is used which is provided in abundance by the scores of diary farms of the UAE. Most of the agricultural land is new which remained fallow for centuries and is therefore highly fertile and requires least artificial fertility.
Many variety of regional plants, both local and imported, have been planted and as they grow to maturity, their roots reach down to the natural water supply after which no water is to be provided through artificial means.
The face of the land and the environment too has been changed. Twenty years of dedicated commitment have made the point that the process of desertification is reversible and that is what is happening and will continue to happen indefinitely.
Some of the pertinent characteristics of the country that lend uniqueness to UAE are interesting to note. Less than 50 per cent of UAE’s inhabitants are Arabs. The reason obviously is the oil boom that came abruptly without any warning to the local people to get ready for the new lifestyle. The Arabs leading a quarantined life of antiquity were not prepared to adapt themselves to the values of modem life. They therefore lured the services of those foreigners who helped them during the transition from antiquity to modem living. In this process the superior technical consultancy came from Europe and America and the remaining skilled and non-skilled labour from Asian countries, notably, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Philippines etc.
That upset the demographic equilibrium and the local populace turned into a minority. It is, however, heartening to find the local youth pursuing higher education in scientific disciplines at home and in western universities, who are rapidly replacing the foreigners from the white collared jobs.
Owing to the demographic upheaval, the other unique aspect of the society is the diversity of cultural entities. It is therefore not possible to identify a cultural homogeneity in the federation. The Arabs do have a distinct dress and language, to which most of them are still sticking. But other legendary identification marks have diluted.
For instance the camel breeding has almost totally been taken over by the Baloch from Pakistan. The nomadic concept of life has altogether disappeared. Instead the locals have taken up agriculture, trade and industry as the main occupations. Unlike some of the conservative societies the women of UAE never simply stayed at home even during the pre-oil society. Women played active and vital roles in agriculture, fishing and pearling and also tended children and household. The mother of the President, Sheikha Salamah for example, was to a large extent responsible for articulating the work of her sons to bring up the Emirate of Abu Dhabi through the trying times of the world economic depression and the Second World War, into the beginnings of the oil era.
The women of UAE are quite enterprising and do not lag behind their men in the field of modem education. They are rapidly acquiring professional skills to carve out the modern way of life. Another striking feature of UAE is that its entire citizenry is concentrated in the towns and cities, and village life as such is almost non-existent. The main factor responsible for this development is affluence. Government provides interest free loans to the locals, which are returned to the government only if the business generates the required revenues. In case of liquidation of the business the party taking the loan is not amenable to anyone. The other important feature is that no foreigner can own property or even a business without the overriding partnership of a local. This factor facilitates the development of the businesses as the expatriates provide the required expertise in various business projects and the locals are there to enjoy the fruits of foreign skills.
Unlike the developed world, the layout and provisioning of the urban infrastructure is almost flawless because it was taken up after abundant financial resources became available, whereas in the developed world the urban societies were evolved over a protracted period of time, through trial and error and as the finances became available from time to time. Although in the given circumstances the urban architectural scheme could have been far better and quasi-dream settlements could have been raised. But the high-rise building syndrome of the western engineers and architects took the toll and deferred the dream happenings for tomorrow of history. The utility services and civic arrangements, however, are of highest possible standards, far exceeding the developed world.
The system of governance is outright autocratic. No “let hundred flowers bloom” concept is tolerated. Dissent and criticism is ruthlessly curbed. There is no semblance of democratic working at any tier of government or society except, that the federating states are free to frame their own laws without reference to the central authority. But the state of law and order is nearly perfect and there do not seem to be any clandestine undercurrents of dissent shaping up in the society. The obvious rationale of this ‘all well’ stems from the general affluence brought about by petro dollars. The political evolution of oil rich states should therefore must not be studied like we view the evolutionary processes of ordinary civilizations elsewhere. Other things remaining the same, as long as the oil lasts, the UAE will remain a set piece affluent society where ordinary laws of political science will have no relevance.
The Sheiks of UAE have proved that a little planning and selfless deeds can turn a desert into a garden 
