Page 432 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Conclusion
novel experience of seeing one’s children through the many years of
formal education at home and abroad, and of entrusting one's sick to
the care or doctors in distant countries. Such radical changes in the
physical and social environment cannot but deeply affect the
structure and function of society as a whole and of its constituent
groups and families. Yet careful investigation reveals that however
drastic the visible and material changes may be, the old patterns of
behaviour have remained remarkably unchanged. A man’s word
remains the basis on which business is conducted just as camel’s
milk remains a favourite with young and old in the family.
The local families in the towns who live in close proximity to the
overwhelming number of immigrants, with their different traditions
and languages and their alien habits, become increasingly aware of
their own traditional values and tend to live more consciously by
them, assisted by the discipline required of a good Muslim. The
family structure and the conventions which form part of domestic
life, such as marriage patterns and the reservation of an area for the
women, are being deliberately maintained. This is the world one
treasures; this is where the roots are, the strength and integrity of
which enable people to respond to the radically changing life without
losing their identity.
It may be an added advantage that the environmental and material
changes came in such a short period of time. Families in the Trucial
States have recently experienced frugality in life. They can make
comparisons and thereby evaluate the choice before them when they
are confronted with new concepts.
Compared with some other societies which have experienced
almost as rapid a transformation of their environment through
wealth from oil, the society in the UAE has certain advantages which
pertain to the geography of the country. The hinterland of desert,
oases, wadis and mountains and the sea, its coast and remote
islands, all provide opportunities for the city dwellers to recapture
physically the old way of life. There they can re-establish contact
with members of their family or tribe whose lives remain relatively
unchanged, almost as if they were still relying on the traditional
economic resources.

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