Forty years of UAE

Gulf News

Forty years of UAE. Emirati's reflect on forty years of growth as the United Arab Emirates celebrates National Day. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

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00:0040 years ago, we had a very limited number of schools, a very limited number of schools.

00:17That is the case in some Emirates, even just one school, which had boys and girls going

00:21to the same school in some instances.

00:24No post or higher education institutes whatsoever.

00:28I remember myself when I started my construction company, I was taking a $20,000 project, and

00:36then I made a project worth billions of dollars.

00:39I mean, the time has been changed a lot, and people educated, and people saw a lot of things.

00:46I remember I first realized that I wanted to become a film director, I was probably

00:50at the age of nine years old.

00:52And back then, I remember we just had a handful of cinemas.

00:57The tallest building was the World Trade Center, and Sheikh Zayed Road was just two lanes.

01:03Over 40 years, there's a very dramatic and significant growth in all fields, actually,

01:33including education, as such.

01:35An extraordinary achievement, because you've got seven completely different Emirates who

01:40had no tradition of working together, or being on top of each other, or underneath, or obeying

01:44each other, having to come together into one single state.

01:48Not an easy job.

01:49And you've got the rulers in charge who had to negotiate this.

01:54Sheikh Zayed of Abu Dhabi and Sheikh Rashid of Dubai were fundamental in bringing together

02:01this group into one coherent whole.

02:20To have a vision, to have created a place from absolutely nothing, to one of the major

02:28metropolises in the world, is genius.

02:31Sheikh Rashid, also the father of Dubai, you think like, wow, how this guy thought ahead,

02:39way ahead.

02:40And everybody knows that all this that you see right now in Dubai, or in the UAE, he

02:46predicted.

02:47His vision.

02:48It's not that he thought, oh, if he was here today, he would be overwhelmed.

02:51No, he knew and probably wanted more.

02:54There's no doubt, I mean, in the 40 years, the progress has been tremendous.

02:58In the economy, in education, in a lot of things.

03:02The growth has been so quick.

03:04I don't think even the people who planned it at the start there planned it that way.

03:09It became quicker than anything ever planned by anybody at all.

03:14It's too quick sometimes to the point that we have been missing things on the way because

03:20it was so fast.

03:21I'm 30 myself.

03:23And the fact is that, you know, the country is 10 years older than me.

03:28It's a surreal feeling, but it's a wonderful, wonderful feeling that we've managed to achieve

03:34so much in such a short amount of time.

03:3740 years on now, I think it's a good opportunity to probably stop for a while and reflect on

03:44the past experience.

03:46Dubai is the place that you gotta see.

03:48And number one, they keep it hot like a kettle bee.

03:50In Sharjah, keep reading the books.

03:52And Ajman got you hooked to the souks.

03:55Drag race through Q to Fujairah.

03:58My thoroughbreds hold it down in Ras Al Khaimah.

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