Page 24 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Foreword

Despilc these advantages the birth was not an easy one, and the
Federation's first steps were unco-ordinated and erratic. Its critics
saw the impending fulfilment of their prophecies of doom, and its
friends wondered whether it would stay on course. Here again, Dr
Heard-Bey has hit the mark. “The Federation”, she writes, “would
have had less chance to survive the first ten years if even the present
stage of constitutional evolution had been imposed in 1971." In
counselling caution, we used to put the same thing less elegantly—
you can’t destroy unity where there is not much unity to destroy. I
have the impression that many people, both foreigners and citizens,
blame us for pusillanimity and are disappointed that the progress
towards greater unification during the first ten years of the
Federation has been so slow. Their irriatation is understandable, for
it is not easy to conduct business in a society where power is
dispersed and authority hard to identify. But I hope they will forgive
me for reminding them—at any rate the foreigners—that ten years
ago they were more prone to expect disintegration than coalescence.
It is to these people—and I include myself with them—that the
value of Dr Heard-Bey’s book will be most evident. She has not simply
written a political and constitutional history of the United Arab
Emirates. She has examined the social structures of its constituent
stales, explained the differences between village, town and tribal life,
and set forth in detail the various functions and occupations of the
inhabitants of the Trucial Coast before oil transformed their lives.
The tribal bedu, small traders, date farmers, camel-drivers and pearl-
fishers whose lives she describes are still alive and comparatively
young: many of them are now very wealthy, hold positions of state,
and have sons who were educated in the universities of the West and
speak English as well as I do. Their history, their origins and their
traditions are important to them and to any westerner who wishes to
understand them.
From a distance the cities and the people of the United Arab
Emirates may look alike; but the most superficial observer who
resides there and travels between Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the
Northern Emirates soon discovers startling differences in ethos. Dr
Heard-Bey shows us why this is so. Her approach is encyclopaedic.
Every westerner who sets out to do business in the Emirates should
read this book and retain a copy for regular consultation. To those
who live in the Emirates it will bring new insights. Even those who
know the area well will find in it much that they did not know and
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