Page 294 - UAE Truncal States

A City Stole - Example Dubai
increasingly mixed society. Although under the command of a British
major until 1975,04 the policy was to avoid recruiting mercenaries,
and only citizens of the Trucial States and the Sultanate of Oman
were recruited. The force started with some 80 men and expanded to
over one and a half thousand by the lime command changed hands in
1975. Initially recruiting presented no problems, as the regular salary
was a strong incentive for young men; also the prospect of useful
training often rated high on the list of reasons why young men
wanted to join the Dubai police. In later years both these points lost
their attraction because of better pay in alternative employment and
other educational opportunities; the attraction of the police force for
certain young men then became rather the pride of working in a
growing, well-organised institution providing scope for promotion
and for learning specialised skills, and giving a challenge to men who
were prepared to take on responsibilities.

5 Analysis of the achievements

To record the City State's achievements in the field of social services
merely in figures does not necessarily indicate the real impact they
had on the community in Dubai. However impressive the number of
hospital beds, schools, fire brigades or police cars may be, the
outstanding characteristic of Dubai from about 1955 onwards has
been the way that the entire community has coped with the enormous
growth of population. Not only during the 1970s, when the rate of
growth accelerated beyond all expectation, but throughout this
period, many a planned development, once executed, already fell
short of the requirement. The magnitude of this problem of planning
adequate social services is indicated by the fact that the population
of Dubai doubled between 1968 (census: 59,000) and 1974 (estimated
120,000). Planning for such an immense increase is difficult enough in
an ethnically, culturally, and economically homogeneous com­
munity; but in Dubai the increase, apart from a normal annual rise of
3 per cent in the birth rate, was caused by immigration, and thus was
always unbalanced in its composition and its structure. Many of the
immigrants, particularly those from nearby countries, came initially
to Dubai without their families, and they were not expected to reside
permanently in Dubai. Yet, over the years, many of them have stayed
and have been joined by their families, coming from Arab and

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