Be Heard: Lessons from traditions

Our country may have become wealthy because of the oil produced, but our leaders did not spend this money right away. They planned the process of modernisation to honour the values that the families of UAE have lived by.

Our values are based on a belief in reciprocity — what we give is returned. When we do good to someone today, we expect that if we are in need, we will be able to ask them for help and get it.

But of all values, caring for family is most important.

Every decision made is for the good of the family. Without a strong family, there cannot be a strong society. UAE families are usually the extended kind — in one home there may be children, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and even great-great-grandparents.

In my family, we have a large house with many people living together.

My grandfather lived in tents as a child. In those days, they used falconry to hunt and gathered food to survive. Most of the people lived by working at sea. The younger men would go away for months at a time.

Other men who were too old to go out to sea stayed home to take care of the women and children. The women are very strong in my culture, or the family would not have survived all those years before modernisation.

Now, my grandfather’s job is to babysit the children and teach them through his stories, how to live in the old way and the new.

We believe the people who are older than us have much to teach us, so we are extremely respectful.

Many people in the West think that all Arabs are wealthy, but what they do not understand is that the rich people are responsible for so many, that they often have less disposable income than others.

Money, however, is not important in our culture, but the wealth of the heart is. Generosity is necessary to our people and selfishness is unacceptable… selfishness in the desert is deadly. Everything we do must be for the good of the family.

The values that guide our country have led to our success in the past 38 years. All our rules are designed out of respect to protect and conserve our families so that they will remain strong. I will teach the same values to my children and grandchildren in the same home built by my family, long before I was born.

- The writer is an Abu Dhabi-based procurement engineer and Gulf News reader.