His Highness Sheikh Zayed and UAE - Essay Example

?Running Head: His Highness Sheikh Zayed & UAE His Highness Sheikh Zayed & UAE [Institute’s His Highness Sheikh Zayed & UAE With the emerging innovated technologies, the globe today is experiencing a significant revolution, has developed, and urbanized many countries of the world. To settle down the ever-growing population, cities are going through the phase of development, growth, and expansion due to which new towns are coming under constructions. With the wide variety of advancement in technologies and rapid increase in the population, the old areas or cities are rising, and new development is happening, providing different opportunities to the people. While the cities are growing at a rapid pace, the economies are also boosting, resulting in employment and social prospects for the people. Amongst the developed nations of today’s world, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of it. United Arab Emirates is a legitimate alliance that came into formulation in the last quarter of 1971, consists of seven emirates that are “Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah, and Fujairah” (Miller, pp. 35-79, 2004). UAE is located in Southwest Asia and its border connects with Qatar to its west side, Oman lies to its north and east and Saudi Arabia is at its south and west part. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iran connect the sea boundary with UAE (Miller, pp. 35-79, 2004). Abu Dhabi is considerably the biggest city of the federation amongst all the other emirates and is the capital of United Arab Emirates, which is the focal point of political and industrial functioning. Ajman is the smallest emirate of UAE and subsumes the nominal area of the whole. A mixture of topography is present in UAE. More than half of the entire area of it is a barren region and desert, nevertheless, this country comes under the category of one of the most urbanized, developed and beautiful places in the world. Distinct and divergent sceneries, overwhelming sandbanks, rich oases, sheer and steep rock-strewn mountains and fruitful prairie are all geographical factors that highlight the beauty of UAE (Miller, pp. 35-79, 2004). UAE is a state, which has made the use of the modern technologies to its fullest and has included its name in one of the world’s fastest growing states. UAE not only worked on expansion of the emirate but it paid scores of attention in developing its tourism due to its classy infrastructure, thus, putting efforts on building numerous shopping malls, high-class hotels and restaurants and holiday resorts. With its widespread and beautiful sandy beaches, diverse sceneries, deserts, diverse sports activities, shopping, resorts and captivating customary traditional culture makes UAE a perfect and an ideal place for a holiday. Since bygone eras, geological location is of utmost importance as it makes UAE easily accessible to different parts of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Indian Ocean has a brawny weight on the climatic conditions of UAE due to the reason that it touches the borders of Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, therefore, the atmospheric conditions of UAE comes under the dry, scorched, and parched tropical zone. Due to this reason, UAE experiences intense warmth and heat that comes with humidity in the summer seasons particularly in the coastal areas. The temperature deviations between the coastal regions, deserts, and hilly areas observe a clear and visible pattern. The nights of UAE to some extent are chilly than that of the daytime weather (Rashid & Nel, pp. 25-55, 2001). Despite of the fact that UAE is a country that has a president and has come into formation, it encompasses neither a lawful kingdom or absolute monarchy, nor a democracy. It comprises of seven separate kingdoms, which comes under governance by seven different authorities, each having its own supremacy and domination. Though the rulers of all the federations select a president, the ultimate power remains in the hands of these monarchs called emirs/sheikhs. A constitution of UAE do not guide the emirs as to how they are suppose to run the government, it only advise to maintain the unity amongst the seven states to sustain the federation (Rashid & Nel, pp. 25-55, 2001). Before the official formation of UAE, two dominant cultures came under observation. Those natives who practiced oasis farming in the desert region in the internal parts formed the nomadic culture, whereas, those who were involved in sea related activities such as pearling and trading outlined coastal culture. Few subordinate cultures also existed, that had no social, economic, or political dependency on other cultures. All the cultures of UAE have a significant influence of the Arab civilization (Darraj & Puller, pp.76-90, 2009). UAE comprise of a diverse population as the people belong to different cultural backgrounds. When the economy became oil based, it generated multiple employments that provided opportunities to local as well as international people and welcomed immigrants as labors. As a result, the population surged ahead at an unprecedented rate. Oil business generated huge revenues for the government who invested a big amount in reforming the lifestyle of its population and provided innumerable facilities to all. Nowadays, majority of the population includes the immigrants from Asian countries that include India, Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and many more. As an outcome of it, many foreign languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, and other come under use as a mode of communication. However, Arabic is its national language and business community use English as its language (Augustin, pp. 45-95, 2002). The establishment of United Arab Emirates comes under writing with golden words in the past records of the Arab territory. A popular and important figure, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan played a pivotal role in the formation of UAE. Before laying the foundation stone of UAE, in the latter half of 1960s Sheikh Zayed and his family ruled over Abu Dhabi (Darraj & Puller, pp.76-90, 2009). The seven sheikhdoms were under the British forces. They had initiated some of the development projects with an aim of creating productive prospects for the region. However, when the oil reserves came under exploration in Abu Dhabi, the sheikhs did not feel the need for British projects anymore and thought that it can prove to be a tremendous opportunity for the advancement of their economy. US companies started investing in the oil projects in Abu Dhabi that resulted in loss to British in their investments. The sheikhs of all the states felt that they would earn benefits if they work in coordination for which they formed a ruling body that can discuss the economic affairs and plans, and took the charge of the British development projects (Augustin, pp. 45-95, 2002). British soon realized that they are losing their power and control; therefore, they decided and declared their permanent departure from the Gulf. After that, the sheikhdoms wondered about the strategies they would adopt for the domestic and international concerns and thought for the formulation of the alliance between all the states. In the year 1971, UAE emerged as an independent federation with seven emirates or states governed by separate rulers under the administration of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. British agreed upon the friendship terms with UAE before their departure. The ruling body came under abolishment at the time of the formation of UAE (Al Abed & Hellyer, pp. 202-249, 2001). The rulers of the emirates had the rights to vote in the Supreme Council of Rulers and had a position in national assembly. A constitution came under designing after few years of the formation. The rulers chose Sheikh Zayed as their first President through the voting system (Al Abed & Hellyer, pp. 202-249, 2001). The provision of education, maintenance of peace even at the time of crises & conflicts, building-up friendly relationships with Arab countries in all aspects and enthusiastically taking part in international activities were the key motives and visions behind the formation of UAE (Rugh, pp.129-172, 2010). Sheikh Zayed gave a high regard to his citizens and the seven rulers were under the command to work in order to serve their people socially, politically and economically. There were a number of diseases prevailing in the UAE. To eradicate the diseases, Sheikh Zayed ensured the access of health facilities such as well-equipped hospitals, free treatments, and skillful paramedics to all his denizens. As an outcome, elimination of many infectious diseases came under witness. Sheikh Zayed realized that oil is a non-renewable resource and its reserves will come under exhaustion one day. Therefore, he worked towards the development of manufacturing facet for which he constructed companies and corporations that can look after its activities. He also paid attention to the growth of media to keep the people updated and aware of the happenings in the seven emirates as well as the news from all over the world. Development of infrastructure was also one of the principal focuses for Sheikh Zayed to make UAE urbanize, hence, he played a vital role in the construction of roads, highways, bridges, airports and sea ports so that transportation between the states can become easier (Al-Abed, Vine, & Hellyer, pp.175-250, 2005). Sheikh Zayed formed allies with not only Arab countries but also other nations. He was not in favor of establishment of any foreign agency or base in UAE. His aim was to protect his territory from foreign invasions; therefore, he turned down the permission to allow the foreign grounds to enter whenever the proposal came into presentation. However, he did not shut his doors to the foreign help or assistance (East & Thomas, pp. 545-547, 2003). From the time the UAE came into formulation, there was a border dispute with Oman, which after few decades came under solution by the vigorous trials of Sheikh Zayed. As he believed in bringing peace, tranquility, and brother-hood in the entire world, therefore, UAE became a part of the peacemaking mission, which came under commencement by UN to bring harmony and safety in Kosovo. UAE and Sheikh Zayed also supported Palestinians and were against the persecutions of the Israelis (Rashid & Nel, pp. 35-89, 2001). Sheikh Zayed was the ruler with the largest term period, ruled for more than 30 years. He worked extensively for the development and progress of his county, his people as well as his allies, environment and wildlife. He reinvested majority of the earnings on his people specifically young generation, as they were the future of the country. He did not restricted his vision of development only to his county but also thought about other Arab, Islamic and developing countries, hence, contributed a proportion of the total income of UAE to the progress of the above mentioned regions. Sheikh Zayed not only gave equal rights and opportunities to the women, but also permitted the women to enter into the political and economic sector. Women not came under appointment to repetitive menial jobs but assigned high-level positions. He always encouraged the youngsters to work towards their goal with focus and determination and take up responsibilities to build their personality. He greatly emphasized on learning and understanding history and legacy so that the culture remains unforgettable. He believed that the secret of success lies in remembering the past customs, traditions and learning. In this context, Sheikh Zayed backed up the lessons of archeology so that nothing from the past remains hidden from the people and they get a true picture of their culture and history. Sheikh Zayed did not impose his beliefs and decisions on his people, whereas, he was in practice of consulting the sheikhs of the seven states and the tribal leaders to discuss the matters and take opinions before making any decision (LaBonte, pp.12-50, 2010). To preserve the environment and wildlife was one of the foremost duties of the government. One of the remarkable moves taken by Sheikh Zayed to protect the species that is on the verge of extinction was the setting up of wild life reserve in Abu Dhabi. Another measure to conserve the wildlife was the captive breeding of the endangered species to increase the number of their population. As UAE is a warm place, Sheikh Zayed gave prime importance to the planting of trees all over the region in order to have a pleasing, pollution free atmosphere. For overcoming the adverse effects of deforestation, he focused on afforestation (Ibrahim, pp. 202-265, 2003). United Arab Emirates is one of the newly emerged nations on the face of the globe, yet it has made itself recognized in every corner of the world. The present UAE is a real picture of the dreams, visions, and aspirations of its founders. In just few years since its formation, UAE has achieved immense success and identification through the developments in every facet and emerged into an alluring, splendid, flourishing, and prosperous place that is incomparable. The credit goes to Sheikh Zayed, who worked tremendously, with strong determination and focused aim/goal in the establishment, growth, and advancement of UAE. Sheikh Zayed was a man of principles and abhorred the people who support and spread enmity, biasness and narrow-mindedness. He was also against the terrorist activities and strongly emphasized on wiping out terrorists from the face of the globe. He believed in maintaining peace by negotiation rather than using a sword for this purpose. With his broad vision and beliefs, he made UAE one of the leading, modern, and industrialized countries of the world. References Al-Abed, Ibrahim. 2003. United Arab Emirates yearbook. 2003. Trident Press. Al Abed, Ibrahim, Hellyer, Peter. 2001. United Arab Emirates: a new perspective. British Library Cataloguing in Publishing Data. Al-Abed, Ibrahim, Vine, Paula, Hellyer, Peter. 2005. United Arab Emirates yearbook 2005. Trident Press Ltd. Augustin, Byron. 2002. United Arab Emirates. Scholastic Library Pub. Darraj, Susan Muaddi, Puller, Meredyth. 2009. United Arab Emirates. InfoBase Publishing. East, Roger, Thomas, Richard. 2003. Profiles of people in power: the world's government leaders. Europa Publications Limited. LaBonte, Frances. 2010. Sheikh Zayed. Jerboa Books. Miller, Debra A. 2004. United Arab Emirates. Gale. Rashid, Noor Ali, Nel, Jackie. 2001. Sheikh Zayed, life and times: through the lens of Noor Ali Rashid. Motivate Publishing. Rugh, Andrea B. 2010. The Political Culture of Leadership in the United Arab Emirates. Palgrave Macmillan. Read More