April 29, 2008
In Search Of Real Bedouins In The Emirates
      I've been to the U.A.E. many times, but - like most visitors to this part of the world - I've largely stayed in city centers like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I was curious: what - if anything - is left of traditional Bedouin culture in the Emirates? The glitzy glam sky-scrapers, the flashy cars, the oil money and the lure of the big city; has all that obliterated old-style Bedouin living? Fifty years ago, the few hundred thousand residents of this slice of desert either lived in tents or traded gold and fished for pearls along the coast. Travel was by camel or horse or foot. The lightning speed explosive growth of the last few decades, with the essential foreign labor from the sub-continent, means most Emiratis have completely abandoned their old lifestyles. On our journey through the desert, we found a few examples of what is left of the old days: older men who prefer to spend their last years in the houses that the government built for nomadic Bedouins a few decades ago, or wealthy locals who've made small fortunes breeding camels for races and beauty contests. Today, Bedouins don't criss-cross the desert in search of water for their herds. They don't walk days from the coast inland looking for a place to pitch a tent. All that is gone. The little bits and pieces left, peppered here and there, are on their way out too. There are already cranes and cement trucks preparing the Bedouin area of Liwa for hotels and tall buildings. In a few years, what we saw yesterday will most probably have disappeared too. --Posted by Hala Gorani 6 Comments
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Over times, there were cultures that ended because of their inability to react over change, others because they were forced to change, and others end because change seems to be the best option. In this times of progress and globalization, what will remain of the existing cultures?
Maybe the Senegalese poet, Baba Dioum, has a point when he says: "In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught."
Nice Pic, But what a shame that when it comes to muslim world CNN only shows camels, desert and veils,and doesn't report the kind of development, art , and construction of these countrie. Middle East is contributing billions to save USA banks and economy.Middleeast/Dubai has the highest and best construction highrises,most cranes, 22 theme parks,luxsury islands,tallest building in world, 7 wonders being built,mueseums, all seasons islands..USA media just promotes Isreal and deface and attack muslims , is it free media?? is it doing service to USA citizens ?or poluting their mind, with shameful , incorrect/incomplete info?? its not fair? we pay you tell us the truth ,its fraud.
Anonymous, have you even looked at the rest of this blog or watched the show? The latest entry on Haifa Wehbe also has a picture, and it looks like anything but a camel to me.
I found this an interesting report about a place that has changed so emphatically and about an old culture that has been wiped away with only the older generation having any sense of the past now.
Only a small area like the Emirates which is so massively rich could have changed in it's entirety in two generations. What have they lost in the rush to modernize and to secure a comfortable future ? Hala - I enjoyed seeing your desert picnic, camels milk is one delicacy I hadn't heard of before and it looked unusual judging from your reactions . Thanks for giving a view of something I hadn't seen before and may not again and i thought it was well worth going there.
Thanks for the show, But I smoehow feel like that you are missing a lot of other horizons of the Middle east. I think you need to make the program more lively, Camels and birds alone dont represent the Mid east, And thanks to Hala that she uttered the name of the Bangladesh and showed its workers who are at the peak and most effective workforce in UAE.
Hala, it is actually intersting aspect of real life to look modern Arabic culture from conpletely another 'window'.
I do not believe that Dubai is a very Arabic city, it is absolutely another model of post-modern city. And, I am not sure what the future will dictate for old cultures!!! Indeed, ther is completely new cultures - but they are so artificial as this city... |
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