Page 411 - UAE Truncal States_Neat

Chapter Nina

Dubai decided in early 1979 to allow the ministry to lake over these
services, and Ra s al Khaimah followed suit in 1980, but integration
takes time.
The measure of actual permeation of the federal administration
through all aspects of public life and throughout the entire country is
varied and cannot be described in statistics alone. Probably the most
effective federal achievement, which in itself helped the nationwide
provision of various services and a more uniform economic develop­
ment, was the construction of the road network. When the federation
was founded, Abu Dhabi and Dubai were not yet connected by a
surfaced road, and the journeys from the east coast to Sharjah or
from the Lfwa to Abu Dhabi were best undertaken in four-wheel-
drive cars. In the 1980s only the smallest and most remote villages are
still not reached by a paved road, but even they usually have a graded
track for better access. The road connecting the UAE for overland
traffic via Saudi Arabia to Europe is also completed. The dramatic
expansion of air travel to foreign countries since 1972 encouraged
the construction of no less than four international airports (a fifth
near Abu Dhabi is nearing completion) by the governments of four
Emirates, thereby potentially increasing rivalry. Internal communi­
cation has also benefited immensely by the establishment of an STD
telephone system which instantly connects almost all subscribers in
the UAE with Europe and the USA.
This dramatic improvement in communications facilitates the task
of civil servants in the ministries’ headquarters of keeping in close
contact with the developments in the regional departments and of
monitoring the impact of their services on the recipient population in
even the remotest parts of the country. An important reason for the
slow implementation of plans to improve services to the population
in more remote areas was that the majority of the administrators
were not very familiar with conditions outside the main towns, and
were somewhat reluctant to travel in heat and discomfort.
One of the most important aspects of the improvements in people’s
daily life in the UAE was the transformation of the place where
they actually live: the family house. Even before 1971 most of the
windtower houses had been replaced by modern houses and multi­
storey office buildings; suburban villas were being built where
previously the people had lived in the traditional palm-frond houses.
The crooked alleys and open spaces between these quarters had
already been obliterated by straight dual carriageway roads slicing

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