Bookshelf

🎨 Impressions

I’ve long been fascinated by Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. The Western World is full of prejudices against all Middle Eastern countries and in terms of how to properly organize a state and society we Europeans have developed such an arrogance that we just dismiss everything we hear from them. It’s just an oil-rich dictatorship that builds glass skyscrapers into the desert without regard for the environmental consequences, right? It’s easy for us to just put the the Arab countries into a container in our brains.

I visited Dubai for a short while with my family a few years back and was fascinated. Lately, inspired by Derek Sivers, who posted a wonderful article titled “I Hated Dubai Until I Learned About It”, I started making plans to visit the place again to get to know it better. I’m a curious person and I love to explore the world, especially so if there are preconceived notions standing in the way at first – that’s what Derek Sivers and I have in common. He recommended reading two particular books about the country UAE and the city Dubai to get a better feel for the area, and his recommendations have worked for me in the past so I started with this shorter one.

The book is sort of like a long travel guide with an additional focus on history and customs. It tells you everything you need to know in a concise way in order for you to not be completely lost on arrival. I think the focus group of people it is written for is those who are planning on migrating to the country. For a travel guide, it’s long, but that still makes it a rather short book. You could get through it in one or two afternoon sittings I think. I’m a slow reader, I needed about a week.

To me, it was eye-opening and highly interesting. The UAE are a very special country with a wild and short history. There are lots of surprises, like for example the stability of the government: It has been ruled by the same royal family for over 170 years. I wouldn’t have guessed that – I thought that lots of wars and coups must have led to changes in leadership, but that didn’t happen. It’s super peaceful over there, crime is low, and the country the Sheikhs have built since they found oil in the 70s is one that makes being an Emirati very pleasant, from the sounds of it. Lots of the income is distributed in different ways to the citizens. Interestingly, most of the oil is in the Abu Dhabi region, and Dubai only has around 4% of the total, so they have had to focus on other things to become the world-class metropolis that they are now. The main thing was to make Dubai as open as possible and an all-around great place to do business for everyone regardless of heritage or religion. This is unusual for an Islamic country in the middle of a very Islamic region, but it clearly has worked for them.

The book made me change my mind in many regards, again proving that prejudices are dumb. It serves as a great introduction and made me want to dive deeper into it, which is why I have immediately continued by reading the other, longer book that Sivers recommended. That one is on Dubai and focuses on the city’s history specifically, while here we got the overview of the whole country with Dubai just being one of the focus points.

This book is not something I can recommend to anyone, but anyone who is interested in the Middle East or the UAE specifically could definitely learn a thing or two. If you’re planning a trip there, for example. And if you think that the UAE are a corrupt and horrible place, you should probably read it and remind yourself of how everything seems super simple and one-dimensional as long as you don’t know anything about it.

📔 Highlights

Chapter 1: Land and People

Despite acute scarcity it has one of the highest per capita water usages globally. The UAE is keenly experimenting with cloud seeding technology, which appears to have significantly boosted its annual rainfall in recent years.

Rain in the UAE tends to carry sand particles in it, which mean there are inevitably long queues at car washing stations when it stops.

As a leader, Sheikh Zayed was characterized by his peaceful tolerance of other nationalities and his willing to learn from them, and also by his desire to bring the fruits of development to all the inhabitants of his country; including women. He is often quoted as saying: “The woman is half of society; any country which pursues development should not leave her in poverty or illiteracy.” His point of view was ahead of his time in the Gulf region.

Since 2015, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been fighting a proxy war against Iran by deploying troops to fight in Yemen against the Houthis, and since June 2017, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have broken off diplomatic ties with their neighbors Qatar, who they accuse of harboring extremists.

According to a 2017 report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the UAE spends more on foreign aid—most notably to Africa and Yemen—than any other nation on earth compared to its wealth.

As a result of government efforts to diversify the economy, non-oil sectors now account for 70 percent of the UAE’s GDP. It is not known exactly how many years worth of oil the UAE has left: accounts vary from between 40 and 140 years.

Chapter 2: Values and Attitudes

Life in the desert often meant intense competition for the scarce resources. It shaped characters that were strong-willed and fearlessly resilient. The separation of family units and tribal groupings from other communities by difficult terrain has inspired the creation of elaborate and vital rules for hospitality, and a protocol for negotiation.

Visitors should be aware that, based on their ethnicity, there will be some expectations of what kind of person they are, the type of work they do, and, consequently, their social status.

Muslims are expected to give 2.5 percent of their income away to charity every year, after paying for basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing, in private donations known as zakat.

Islamic thought considers the paying of interest on money lent to be a sin, which has given rise to Islamic banks offering a variety of schemes to avoid paying interest.

Islamic law in the UAE allows polygamy, with men permitted to marry up to four wives, as long as each is treated equally. However, in reality, a man must be quite wealthy to be able to afford to maintain more than one wife, and the norm is to have one wife at a time.

Muslim Emirati men are free to marry non-Muslim women, if they are “people of the book”—Christians or Jews, who are part of the same Abrahamic religious tradition. A wife in these circumstances will convert to Islam if she wishes to live in the UAE.

Emiratis are passionately patriotic, and while some are willing to openly criticize the pace of development that has been embraced in the UAE, or the westernization of their youth, they would never put the blame for any social problems onto their much-respected leaders.

These youngsters are often painfully aware of the negative way in which Gulf Arabs are often portrayed in the Western media (as radical preachers or flashy billionaires) and are keen to present an alternative narrative of their culture.

Chapter 3: Customs and Traditions

Small children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and those with medical conditions such as diabetes may waive the obligation to fast.

Many Emiratis particularly in rural areas still believe in the existence of djinn, which are folklore spirits that can be either good or bad, and can take the form of people we know.

The late Sheikh Zayed observed that a country that did not know its past had neither a present nor future.

Chapter 4: Making Friends

Friendship in the Emirati community is almost wholly regulated along gender lines, and there are few circumstances in which a man and a woman can be friends without provoking a scandal.

Occasionally it might appear that people are competing with each other to demonstrate their virtue by offering ever more lavish refreshments. If enjoying the generosity of one person, it is nearly always a bad idea to comment on hospitality received elsewhere, especially if the current hospitality appears to be inferior in some way.

On the other hand, be sensitive to a dropping off of conversation after a meal is finished as a signal that it is time to go. In the past, guests would belch to demonstrate they are replete, but this custom appears to have died out and is certainly not recommended!

In both Arabic and Islamic custom, it is common for the left-hand side of the body to be considered impure and belonging to the devil.

Emirati children are required to write with their right hands irrespective of their natural proclivity, as is the case in many Asian countries, and this sometimes hampers them in their studies.

Anything to do with the feet is likely to be considered unclean, and care should be taken not to point the feet at anyone or to expose the soles of the feet carelessly.

Chapter 5: The Emiratis at Home

Outdoor garden space isn’t highly prized, as Emiratis prefer to spend time in the shade or indoors, often with the blinds drawn. For this reason, the UAE has one of the highest rates of vitamin D deficiency in the world (over 85 percent, according to a 2016 study).

Also popular in perfume blends is frankincense, the resin extracted from the boswellia tree that is grown in neighboring Oman.

Chapter 6: Time Out

For made-in-the-UAE products, try Al Foah organic dates (from Al Ain), camel milk soap (from Dubai’s camel soap factory) or Al Nassma camel chocolate (made in Abu Dhabi); these are available at most souvenir stores.

The museums take a modern approach to science that is somewhat at odds with the worldview of the more conservative religious thinkers, which makes an interesting contrast. Most cultural attractions designate a day for women and children only, charge low entrance fees, and open reduced hours on Friday.

Subsequently, more than a thousand young people formerly in the camel-racing world have been repatriated, mostly to South Asia. They have been replaced by robo-jockeys: mechanical devices perched on the backs of the camels that communicate between the camel owner and robo-jockeys by radio.

Chapter 7: Travel, Health, and Safety

Some local people feel it is their right to cut in line, whether in supermarket queues or on the highways, reflecting the ever-present hierarchical nature of the society. It is never wise to try to confront such people in an angry manner.

Young Emirati males are particularly fond of smoking dokha, a combination of leaves, bark, and herbs, from a medwakh pipe. It’s a heady blend that makes users immediately lightheaded and bleary-eyed, and is believed to be very damaging to the health, although its exact contents are unknown.

The fear of being caught and the severe punishment that follows keeps acts of theft and violence at a comparatively low rate, as does the fact that no foreigners are permitted to live in the country if they do not have steady, gainful employment.

Chapter 8: Business Briefing

By law, businesses in the UAE (aside from those set up in designated Freezones) are required to be owned or operated in partnership with an Emirati businessperson.

During the country’s last economic downturn, expatriate entrepreneurs who got into debt were summarily jailed for bankruptcy when checks bounced. In response to what many considered a disproportionately harsh practice, new bankruptcy laws were drafted in 2016 to remove the criminal offense of bankruptcy by default.

Oral communication still carries more weight than the written word in the UAE. In traditional Emirati culture, a contract would not be necessary, since it is the underlying relationship between the people involved that provides the guarantee of compliance.

Although expatriate workers are valued for their expertise, the government is keen to replace them with UAE nationals whenever it is possible to do so, under a process known as emiratization.

Chapter 9: Communicating

According to a 2017 survey by the Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, 96 percent of Emiratis use WhatsApp, 78 percent use Instagram, and 62 percent are on Snapchat. Facebook is more popular with expatriate residents.

Media laws forbid the press to report on anything that could damage the UAE’s economy, meaning the perspective is inevitably rose-tinted in its outlook.

The Emirati culture of the UAE is intangible, remaining invisible to the vast majority of its visitors and expatriate community alike. To find it, you must be willing to look beyond the tourist enclaves, and try to form connections with the local people.