Page 359 - UAE Truncal States_Neat
P. 359

Chap I cr Eight

                  who asked the Americans running the Dutch Reformed Church’s
                  Hospital in Matrah, in Oman, to establish medical facilities in al ’Ain.
                  In so small a population every person is needed. Thus, the lives which
                  were saved by Mr and Mrs Kennedy, Surgeon and Gynaecologist
                  respectively, and by their staff, since the Oasis Hospital opened in
                  1960, count in the local society of today. In al 'Ain and other  areas
                  where this mission built up by medical facilities, before  any
                  government could do so, most local families had no other contact
                  with the world outside, and the success or failure of western
                  medicine, as well as the personalities of those who administered it,
                  became the yardstick for many people’s expectations of Europe and
                  the New World. The establishment of the Development Office in 1965
                  almost coincided with the change of rule and policy in Abu Dhabi,
                  because after 1966 the new Ruler, Shaikh Zayid bin Sultan, pushed
                  ahead with a multitude of development projects and social services,
                  for which he could easily pay from his ever-increasing oil income.
                  While there was a great deal of co-operation between most officials,
                  advisers, consultants, specialists and political bodies concerned
                  with the development of Dubai on the one hand and the northern
                  Trucial States on the other, there was usually a certain amount of
                  rivalry between these people and those working in Abu Dhabi. The
                  former were justifiably proud of their achievements with limited
                  financial resources, and criticised Abu Dhabi for pushing ahead
                  rapidly with many costly projects simultaneously. In Abu Dhabi,
                  both expatriates and nationals alike were exhilarated by the long-
                  awaited opportunity to “do things’’, and were prepared to accept
                  some costly flaws in the detail.
                    It was primarily due to the activities of the London based PD (TC),
                  “The Company”, and later ADMA and to the efforts of the British
                  Government that the population of the Trucial Stales experienced
                  really dramatic changes in their lives during the 1950s and early
                  1960s. Much conscientious planning and hard physical work was
                  done during these two decades by scores of oil company employees,
                  development officers, and British Government officials. Perhaps the
                  very intensity of the good will generated and the personal engage­
                  ment at all levels meant that they sought satisfaction in immediate
                  results which could be seen in the particular field which concerned
                  them. By the late 1960s life on the Trucial Coast looked a great deal
                  less grim than it was at the end of the Second World War. There was
                  employment for many with the oil companies. Commerce was

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