Thursday, June 24, 2010

Corsodyl Side Effects

Part 2: The father of the gazelle





A small group of hunters of the tribe of Bani Yas Liwa Oasis chased a gazelle to the beaches of the Gulf, pushing up through the channels on the coastal islands and low on one of them discovered a spring ' fresh water. That island was called Abu Dhabi , the Father of the Gazelle, hunters settled there and founded a small village. That little village is now the capital city of the area's largest and of the whole federation.

For five thousand years the inhabitants of the lower Gulf survived by fishing, hunting, collection of dates and goat rearing in a peninsula almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. To the south of the lands prohibited Rub Al Khali, the desert than the desert of the earth in the mountains east Hajar, a spine of rocks roasted by the sun to the north and east of the pirate-infested waters of the Strait of Hormutz . The only activities were beyond the threshold of subsistence fishing for pearls and work in the copper mines. Under these conditions, barely managed to develop a small number of communities are often fiercely independent and adverse.

But the coast of this small area of \u200b\u200bthe world are strategically placed in the middle of trade routes between Europe and the Indian subcontinent and trade has always been one of its key resources. The Dubai Creek is one of the few safe anchorages on the southern shores of the Gulf, a precious refuge for fleets that went up the blue waters of Arabian Sea laden with cardamom, cinnamon, sandalwood, spices and rare woods. the Dubai Creek has that special charm that belongs to all the great waterways of the world and has been quiet witness to the history of the city for centuries. Here there was a real port but the deep creek was a natural point of departure and arrival of shipments of pearl fishing until the Great Depression that world of the 30's were the only real source of wealth for the people of the Gulf . In May thousands small boats left the dock repaired the creek to return until mid-September, after a long summer anchored off the shoals of oysters on a hot relentless, field behind a frugal dates, fish, rice and coffee at the rate of fifty dives per day.

"The sun was setting and it was time to return to the field. As we were raising was meeting an old man. Mumbled a greeting to answer. He was standing in front of me and watched me squinting. He wore only a dirty rag in life and in his hand he held a stick. It was obviously too poor to own a sword. His white beard was dirty, the face was thin and emaciated. When he spoke the only tooth in the mouth remained to rocking.

He stared at me for a long time in silence, then she whispered "I came to see the Christ."
Sultan said, "It 'a Shahara.
And as I watched I wondered what they were seeing me in those liquid eyes of an old man whose ancestors were probably written in the book of Genesis.
Perhaps the old man was feebly see me in their end.
Shortly thereafter, as we descended the hill, I asked my mates who was that old. One of them told me "a fool" and began to tease him mumbling "I came to see the cristianooo. Everyone laughed, but I was wondering if that old man had not seen much better than them, if only he had made the threat of my presence there in the desert. If only that old man had experienced a vision of the end of his civilization, everything which for centuries had believed. Of all the things whose end, even my fault, it was getting rapidly closer. (Wilfred Thesiger - Arabian Sands)



In fact, in the space of one generation that existence is hard and difficult it is completely transformed. Emirates Today the legacy of old is virtually unrecognizable. The petro-dollars have created veritable garden city in the desert where sports cars whizzing by modern highways to six lanes, between canyons of skyscrapers, luxury hotels, five star restaurants and clubs.
But some of older people still remember when this glittering metropolis was not much of a strong white coral, surrounded by a cluster of huts made of palm leaves.

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