United Arab Emirates Essay Example for Free

United Arab Emirates Essay United Arab Emirates represent a federation of seven Emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm-al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah, al-Fujairah. It was in the year 1971 the federal set up of these individual emirates was established which was the ninth year after oil was successfully exported from this Middle Eastern region. Until then the emirates remained tiny independent nations with no boundaries or basic necessities of newspapers, telephones, and even electricity (Tomkinson, 1975; Taryam, 1987; Codrai, 1990). Within a short span of time the export of oil has made the United Arab Emirates an extremely rich nation in that the country was ranking the wealthiest nation in the world at one point of time, on the basis of per capita income. The Gross National Product (GNP) of the nation at that point was US $ 28,000 – approximately close to US $ 100,000 considering the UAE nationals alone (Abdullah, 1985). The revenue from the oil exports accounted for almost 88 percent of the total income of the nation during the period 1975 – 1985 (Faris, 1996). With the help of ‘Oil’ UAE could break regional, and even international records in respect of the pace of urban development and the rate of economic growth. Despite the economic superiority the socio-economic scenario of the country poses a striking contradiction. It is a surprising fact that still 80 to 90 percent of the advance urban population coexists with some of the traditional systems of social interaction, gender-segregation, and tribalism. The socio-institutional format of the present day UAE is characterized by the mixed presence of tribalism, Islamism, urbanism, modernism, consumerism, and the welfare state which represent the vitally important components of the economy.