The United Arab Emirates have been my "home country" for four years during the nineties. Being a relatively young state, it was founded in the beginning of the seventies, it has seen an incredible development since then from the former so called Pirate Coast to a modern state. The UAE are built up by a federation of seven emirates which are Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain and Ajman. The basic means for the development has been in the beginning the oil revenues, nowadays the UAE are eager to achieve a diversification of national income. Trade has ever since played a dominant role in that region, but the eighties and nineties saw an increase of business to an unbelievable extent. Nearly all the emirates have modern port facilities and at least one international airport supplying the surrounding countries and regions (from the Middle East and the CIS to the Indian Subcontinent and East Africa) with all kinds of products. Tourism only in the recent decade became another major pillar of the economy. Guests and visitors have the choice of which 5 star accommodation to select. You name the famous hotel chains, all are represented in the UAE, sometimes in several emirates. What made this country so attractive to me is first of all its people, the infrastructure with all the state of the art facilities, and last but not least culture and heritage of the region. Recently the rulers of the country have realized which national treasures are at stake. They undertook immense efforts to preserve the UAE heritage, may it be old buildings and markets, or traditions and old crafts. This mixture, and old market or souq beside a modern skyscraper, reflects the interesting identity of this country, the existence of old and new in one surrounding. Approximately 85 percent of the inhabitants are foreigners, mostly from Asia like other Arabic countries, India, Pakistan, Iran or the Far East. Europeans and Americans joined in mostly during the past two decades. Even though the sojourn in the Emirates is only a temporary one (people over 60 years of age are not granted a residence permit in most of the cases), the majority of the inhabitants live content and satisfied, since mutual respect and appreciation of other peoples' peculiarities is one of the main features of daily live in the UAE.

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           Copyright © 2000-2001 Matthias Toedt Photography                                                               Last update: November 15, 2001