Story of Sheikh Zayed and the UAE | A Calm Bedtime Story

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Good evening and welcome back to
Sleep Wise.

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Tonight we'd drift into the long
life of a man born among dunes

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and Falcons, who would go on to
build a country out of seven

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small Emirates along a quiet
stretch of coast.

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His name was Sheikh Zayed bin
Sultan Al Nahyan, and the world

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he was born into looked very
little like the world he would

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leave behind.
That may sound like a story of

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rapid change, of skylines rising
where there had been only sand,

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and it is, in part.
But it is also a slower story,

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the kind that asks for patience.
Tonight we will not rush across

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the decades.
We will move at the pace of the

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desert itself, where shadows
lengthen across the dunes and

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the wind carries small
adjustments rather than great

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alarms.
Before the oil, before the

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Federation, before the towers
and the highways and the

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sovereign wealth that now
stretches across continents,

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there was simply the coast, a
long, pale shoreline curving

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along the southern edge of the
Arabian Gulf, with purling boats

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slipping out at first light and
dows returning at dusk.

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Date palms stood heavy in the
inland Oasis and camels picked

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their way along caravan paths
older than memory into this

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world.
Around 1918, a child was born

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inside the walls of a low Fort
in Abu Dhabi called Qasr Al

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Hossen.
He was the youngest son of a

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ruling family, the AL Nahyan,
who led one of the great Bedouin

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confederations of the region.
No one watching that birth could

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have known what the child would
become.

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They could not have foreseen the
federation he would help create,

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or the institutions he would
build, or the long patience with

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which he would do it.
But a few of the materials of

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his future were already present
in the room.

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The Falcon, the Oasis, the
gathering of elders called the

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majlis, and the water drawn from
underground channels called

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falaj.
There was also the quiet

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authority of a leader who
listened far more than he spoke,

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and who took counsel before
decision.

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These habits would remain with
him through every later

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transformation.
Even at the end of his life, in

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a country of glass towers and
global investments, he kept the

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Falcon on his wrist.
If you have ever stood at the

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edge of a desert at twilight,
you may already know the mood

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his story belongs to.
The light softens, the horizon

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flattens, and the day's heat
releases into something gentler.

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There is no urgency in such a
place, only the long

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companionship of land and time
to night.

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We will follow a single life
across that landscape, from a

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Fort in Abu Dhabi to the Oasis
of Al Ain, from the discovery of

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oil to the founding of a nation,
from the greening of the sand to

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the careful succession of his
sons.

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There is much to tell, but there
is no need to hurry.

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Settle in.
Let the room grow soft around

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you.
The desert is patient, and so

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are we.
To understand the world Zaid was

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born into, we must first set
aside the modern image of glass

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towers and broad highways.
The coast he knew in childhood

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went by a different name.
In the wider world, it was

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called the Trucial Coast, after
a series of maritime truces

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signed with the British Empire
across the 19th century,

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agreements that ended the older
era of raiding at sea.

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These truces did not make the
coast a colony.

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They made it a quiet
protectorate in which seven

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small Shaktams continued to
govern themselves while Britain

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handled defence and foreign
affairs.

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Abu Dhabi was the largest area.
Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah,

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Ajman, um Al Khwain and Fujairah
completed the seven.

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For most of the people living
along their coast, however, the

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great empires of the world felt
very distant.

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Daily life turned on the rhythms
of sea and sand.

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In summer, the men of the coast
climbed aboard wooden dows and

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sailed out to the Pearl beds of
the Gulf, sometimes for months

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at a time.
The pearling industry had

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supported the region for
generations.

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A diver would slip into the
water with a stone tied to his

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foot, descend on a single breath
and gather what he could before

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being hauled back to the
surface.

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The puller waded above with the
rope.

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Together they were called Gawas
and Saib, and entire economies

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depended on what they brought up
from the sea bed.

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The AL Nahian family into which
Zayed was born, LED one of the

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largest tribal confederations in
the region, called the Baniyas.

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They had ruled at Abu Dhabi for
generations since well back into

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the 18th century.
A cousin branch, the AL Mak

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Tomb, had broken away in earlier
years to establish themselves at

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Dubai.
Both families would later sit

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together at the founding of a
nation, though that day was

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still distant.
But the world that shaped

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Zayed's earliest years would not
stay quiet for long.

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In the 1920s, two pressures
arrived almost together.

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Japanese inventors had perfected
the cultured Pearl, flooding the

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world's markets with cheap
alternatives.

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Then the Great Depression
collapsed the demand for luxury

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goods altogether.
The pearling economy never

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recovered.
Within a few short years, the

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foundation that had sustained
the coast for centuries simply

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fell away.
The 30s and early 40s became

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known as the Lean Years, a time
of hunger, hardship and quiet

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endurance.
Children of Zayed's generation

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grew up watching their parents
and elders adapt to scarcity.

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There was no oil yet, no
federation, no foreign

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investment of any kind.
There was only the desert, the

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sea, the family and faith.
It was, in many ways, the world

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from which his lifelong
instincts would be drawn, and it

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was the world he would, in time,
transform almost beyond

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recognition.
The Fort where Zayed had been

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born, Qassar Al Hossan, was not
large by the standards of

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palaces elsewhere.
It had begun in the 18th century

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as a simple watchtower of coral
and gypsum, built to guard the

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freshwater well that gave Abu
Dhabi Island its earliest reason

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for being.
Over the years it had grown, but

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it remained a working Fort
rather than a grand residence.

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When Zayed was still a small
child, his father, Sheikh Sultan

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bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was killed
in a family dispute.

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The rulership passed quickly
through other hands, and within

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a few years it had settled on
Zayed's elder brother, Sheikh

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Shahbut bin Sultan, who would go
on to rule Abu Dhabi for nearly

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four decades.
Zayed himself was not raised for

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the throne.
He grew up in the inland Oasis

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of Al Ain, far from the politics
of the coast.

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There, among date palms and
folage channels, his real

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education began.
Much of that education came from

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the desert itself.
Zayed travelled widely with the

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Bedouin tribes who lived between
the oases, learning the names of

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plants, the readings of dunes,
the locations of wells, and the

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histories of the families who
moved across the sands.

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He learned to ride camels for
long distances, to track game,

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and to read weather from the
color of the sky.

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Falconry was a particular
passion and 1 he would carry to

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the end of his life.
The training of a Falcon takes

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patience, gentleness and a kind
of mutual trust between bird and

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handler.
Zayed would later say that

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falconry had taught him as much
about leadership as any book.

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He also studied within the
Islamic tradition that shaped

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daily life across the region.
The Quran, the sayings of the

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Prophet, the ethics of the
desert and the marketplace all

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became part of his foundation
and he learned above all by

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sitting in the majlis, the open
gathering where elders,

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tradesmen and travellers brought
their disputes and ideas to be

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heard.
This was not formal schooling.

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There were no examinations, no
diplomas, no university halls.

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But it was a deep education in
human nature, in patience and in

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the careful weighing of
competing claims.

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When Zayed was a young man, not
yet 30, his brother Shockbot

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made him the ruler's
representative in Al Ain, the

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governor, in effect, of the
Eastern Region.

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It was an enormous
responsibility for someone so

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young, and the territory he was
given to oversee was not easy.

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There were tribal tensions to
manage, water shortages to

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address and disputes that had
simmered for generations.

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But Zayed brought to the work
the same qualities he had been

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gathering since childhood, the
patience of a Falconer, the

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listening of the majlis.
There was also the Bedouin

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understanding that survival in
such a landscape depended on Co

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operation more than command.
He would govern Al Ain for the

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next 20 years, and in those
quiet decades, the man who would

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one day build a nation began
very slowly to be seen.

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Al Ain sits inland from the
coast in a string of oases that

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have been inhabited for
thousands of years.

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The water there does not arrive
by rainfall in any reliable way.

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It is drawn instead through an
ancient system of underground

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channels called aflage, a
network of gently sloping

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tunnels that carry water from
the foothills down to the date

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palms and gardens of the towns.
The aflage are remarkable feats

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of engineering.
Many of them are centuries old,

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hand dug by generations of
workers who knew how to find a

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buried current and lead it where
it was needed.

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They functioned entirely by
gravity, without pumps or

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external power.
But by the time Zayed arrived as

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governor, many of the channels
had fallen into disrepair.

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Some were silted, some were
collapsing.

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The water that did flow was
unevenly distributed, and

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disputes over rights to it had
become a constant source of

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friction between families and
farmers.

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Zayed treated the Aflage as a
priority.

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He walked the channels himself,
inspected the collapsed sections

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and ordered the repairs to
begin.

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He also abolished the water
taxes that had grown up around

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the system, declaring that water
was a gift that should not be

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taxed by any ruler.
This decision was unusual for

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its time, and it earned him a
quiet loyalty among the farmers

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of Al Ain that would last for
the rest of his life.

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Word travels far in oases.
A ruler who restored the water

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and refused to tax it was a
ruler people remembered.

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The Bahraini region in which Al
Ain sat was also the subject of

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a larger and more delicate
dispute.

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Bahraini was a cluster of 6
Oasis, 3 controlled by Abu

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Dhabi, 3 by the Sultanate of
Omen.

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In the early 50s, Saudi Arabia,
backed in part by American oil

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interests through Aramco, sent a
force to occupy one of the Omani

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oases and claimed wider
territorial rights across the

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region.
What followed was a slow,

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careful confrontation that
lasted 3 years.

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There were negotiations,
arbitrations and quiet

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diplomatic maneuvers.
Eventually, the crucial Omen

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Scouts, a British officered
force, expelled the Saudi

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position without major
bloodshed.

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Zayed throughout had represented
Abu Dhabi's interests in the

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dispute.
He travelled, met with tribal

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leaders, and held the line on
his family's historical claims.

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He learned in the process that
the work of a leader was not

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only about water and
agriculture.

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It was also about the long,
patient, defensive place against

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forces much larger than oneself.
In the years that followed, his

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reputation spread well beyond Al
Ain.

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The Marjlies he kept was known
across the crucial coast for its

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fairness.
People travelled days to bring

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their disputes before him,
trusting that they would be

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heard.
He was still only a governor,

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not a ruler.
But the qualities that would

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later define a nation were
already quietly taking shape

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across the same decades in which
Zayed was tending the aflag at

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Al Ain.
Something extraordinary was

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happening offshore.
The waters of the Arabian Gulf,

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long known for pearls, were also
concealing one of the great oil

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deposits of the world.
The first major discovery came

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in the late 50s at a field
called Umm Shaif, beneath the

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sea bed about 40 miles north of
Abu Dhabi Island.

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Onshore drilling soon followed
with a significant find at Bob.

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Within a few short years, the
first tankers of Abu Dhabi crude

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were being loaded for export.
For a place that had known

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scarcity for a generation, this
was a transformation almost

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beyond imagining.
The revenue began to arrive in

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modest amounts at first, then in
larger ones, then in flows that

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no one in the region had ever
before had to plan for.

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Sheikh Shak Boot, Zayed's elder
brother and the long serving

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ruler of Abu Dhabi, watched the
new wealth arrive with deep

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00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:03,920
caution.
He had lived through the lean

227
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:09,080
years of the pearling collapse,
and he did not entirely trust

228
00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:11,480
the world that oil money
promised.

229
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:15,160
He preferred to hold the revenue
carefully.

230
00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:20,760
Sometimes, it was said, in cash
kept under the bed.

231
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:26,440
His instincts were not foolish.
Shock Boot had seen too many

232
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:31,040
easy fortunes evaporate, and he
wanted to be sure that his

233
00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:35,240
people would still have
something when the boom passed.

234
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:40,120
But the cautious approach also
meant that schools were not

235
00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:46,120
being built, hospitals were not
being founded, roads were not

236
00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:50,880
being paved.
Within the family and within Abu

237
00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:56,320
Dhabi's broader leadership, a
quiet conversation began to

238
00:19:56,320 --> 00:20:00,840
form.
There was a brother at Al Ain

239
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,920
who had governed for two decades
with a different temperament.

240
00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:11,640
Who had spent on water, built
where he could, and drawn around

241
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:16,360
himself a reputation for using
whatever resources he had on

242
00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:22,960
behalf of the people he led.
In the summer of 1966, after

243
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,480
months of careful discussion
within the family and with the

244
00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:33,640
consent of the senior members of
the AL Nahian, the rulership of

245
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,400
Abu Dhabi was peacefully
transferred.

246
00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:41,560
Shahbut departed without
bloodshed, and Zayed became the

247
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:46,000
new ruler.
The transition was agreed upon

248
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:51,400
and almost entirely free of the
violence that often accompanied

249
00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:55,480
such moments in the region.
Zayed's first decisions

250
00:20:55,480 --> 00:20:59,760
reflected everything his years
that Al Ain had taught him.

251
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:06,720
He began to spend, not lavishly
but purposefully, on the things

252
00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,600
a country needed in order to
live.

253
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:15,640
Roads were planned, schools were
commissioned, hospitals and

254
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,400
clinics were drawn up across the
territory.

255
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:24,040
Housing was built for families
who had spent generations in

256
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:30,000
tents and palm frond shelters.
The oil revenue, he made clear,

257
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:35,080
was not a private fortune.
It belonged, in his

258
00:21:35,080 --> 00:21:41,040
understanding, to the people of
Abu Dhabi and through them, to

259
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:44,320
whatever shared future could now
be built.

260
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:49,120
That future was about to grow
much larger than Abu Dhabi

261
00:21:49,120 --> 00:21:52,440
alone.
An announcement from London,

262
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:57,600
soon to come, would change the
shape of the entire Trucial

263
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:01,320
Coast.
For more than a century, Britain

264
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,720
had occupied a particular role
along the Trucial Coast.

265
00:22:06,560 --> 00:22:11,640
It did not govern in the usual
sense and it did not raise taxes

266
00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,880
or settle disputes within the
Emirates.

267
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:21,480
But it handled defence, and it
managed the foreign affairs of

268
00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:25,480
the region in dealings with the
outside world.

269
00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:28,680
This arrangement had been
comfortable for everyone.

270
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,120
The British found it
inexpensive.

271
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:36,520
The rulers found that it kept
larger powers at Bay for

272
00:22:36,520 --> 00:22:40,000
generations.
The truce had simply held.

273
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:46,600
Then, in early 1968, an
announcement arrived from London

274
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:50,640
that changed everything.
The British government declared

275
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:55,080
that it would withdraw its
military presence east of Suez

276
00:22:55,440 --> 00:23:00,280
within three years.
The crucial coast, along with

277
00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:04,960
Bahrain and Qatar, would have to
find its own way.

278
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:10,800
The deadline was firm.
By the close of 1971, the

279
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:15,600
British forces and their treaty
obligations would be gone.

280
00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:21,160
Whatever came next would have to
be in place before that moment,

281
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:26,840
or the region would face the
future alone and unprepared.

282
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:31,280
The announcement was not made
out of hostility.

283
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:36,000
Britain was simply economizing
in the wake of its own

284
00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,640
difficulties.
But for the rulers along the

285
00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,080
Gulf, the implications were
enormous.

286
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:46,480
The seven Trucial Shaktams were
small.

287
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:51,080
Some were very small, with
populations numbered in the

288
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:54,120
thousands rather than the
1,000,000.

289
00:23:54,800 --> 00:24:00,160
Without British protection, they
would stand alone in a region

290
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:04,880
where larger neighbors had long
held interests of their own.

291
00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:11,760
Iran, just across the Gulf, had
claims it had never relinquished

292
00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:16,560
to Bahrain and to several small
islands near the Strait of

293
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:21,240
Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia held long standing

294
00:24:21,240 --> 00:24:26,040
territorial ambitions in the
South, including memories of the

295
00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:30,400
Bahraini dispute that had ended
only a dozen years earlier.

296
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,920
The Cold War shifted the
political ground in other

297
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:38,600
directions.
Still, into this uncertain

298
00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:42,880
moment, Zayed brought a
particular kind of clarity.

299
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,920
He understood, in a way that not
every ruler around him fully

300
00:24:47,920 --> 00:24:53,280
shared, that the smaller the
state, the more vulnerable it

301
00:24:53,280 --> 00:25:00,160
would be. 7 separate Shaktams
could each be picked apart,

302
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:06,720
courted or pressured, but seven
Shaktams together, bound into a

303
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,480
single federation, might hold
their ground.

304
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:15,120
They might also build something
larger than themselves, a

305
00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:20,280
country in the modern sense,
with the capacity to plan, to

306
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:24,120
invest, and to speak with a
single voice.

307
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,480
This idea was not obvious to
everyone.

308
00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:31,600
The rulers of the Trucial Coast
had governed independently for

309
00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:36,720
generations.
Each had his own family, his own

310
00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:41,520
history, his own relationships
with tribes, traders, and

311
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:46,640
faraway powers built up over the
course of a lifetime.

312
00:25:46,960 --> 00:25:51,200
Federation would mean giving up
some measure of that

313
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,760
independence.
Zayed knew the difficulty, but

314
00:25:55,760 --> 00:26:01,720
he also knew that the
alternative fragmentation would

315
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,920
leave his people exposed for
decades to come.

316
00:26:06,320 --> 00:26:10,640
From the announcement of British
withdrawal onward, he set out to

317
00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:13,680
do something patient and
difficult.

318
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,320
He set out to talk.
The 1st and most important

319
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:23,080
conversation took place in the
desert, just weeks after the

320
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:27,920
British announcement.
Zayed and Sheikh Rashid bin

321
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:36,240
Sayed Al Maktoum of Dubai met at
a place called Argoob al Sedira,

322
00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:40,160
a stretch of border land between
their two Emirates.

323
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:46,120
They met as cousins of long
acquaintance, but also as the

324
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:50,400
two rulers whose agreement would
determine whether anything

325
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:56,960
larger was possible.
Argoob Al Sedira was not a grand

326
00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:01,240
location.
It was simply a quiet patch of

327
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:07,840
sand where the territories met,
chosen for its symbolic

328
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,960
neutrality.
Neither ruler was visiting the

329
00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:17,840
other seat of power, and both
were equally at home in the open

330
00:27:17,920 --> 00:27:21,840
desert.
Abu Dhabi and Dubai were the two

331
00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:28,200
largest sheikhdoms on the coast.
They were also, in many ways,

332
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:32,800
very different.
Abu Dhabi held most of the oil

333
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:39,800
wealth and most of the land.
Dubai was smaller, but had built

334
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:44,280
its reputation through trade,
through the patient working of

335
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:49,560
its Creek, and through Rashid's
instinct for opening the city to

336
00:27:49,560 --> 00:27:52,000
merchants from across the
region.

337
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:57,680
If Zayed and Rashid could not
agree, no federation would form.

338
00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,280
If they could, the others might
be persuaded to follow.

339
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,560
The two men were not identical
in temperament.

340
00:28:07,520 --> 00:28:13,840
Zaid was the desert man, the
Falconer, the long listener.

341
00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:20,240
Rashid was the merchant Prince,
the builder of harbours, the

342
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,320
calculator of margins and
currents.

343
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:26,240
But they shared something
important.

344
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:32,840
Each had inherited A Shaktam too
small to stand alone, and each

345
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:37,800
understood that the time had
come for something larger.

346
00:28:38,720 --> 00:28:44,600
They also trusted each other in
a way that is sometimes possible

347
00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:48,800
only between cousins with shared
memory.

348
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:54,400
At Argub al Cedera, the two
rulers agreed on the principle.

349
00:28:55,040 --> 00:29:00,280
Their Emirates would join in a
federation and the other crucial

350
00:29:00,280 --> 00:29:05,280
states would be invited.
So would Bahrain and Qatar, the

351
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:10,520
larger neighbors to the West.
For a time, the proposal was for

352
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:15,200
a union of nine.
That ambition would not, in the

353
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:19,520
end, hold.
The talks that followed

354
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:22,600
stretched over more than three
years.

355
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:27,800
There were meetings in Dubai and
meetings in Abu Dhabi,

356
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:33,160
gatherings at Majlis and visits
to other capitals.

357
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:38,920
There were quiet dinners,
careful gifts and the patient

358
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,440
work of building trust among
rulers who had governed

359
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:47,560
independently for generations.
Zayed brought a particular tool

360
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:52,240
to those conversations.
He had begun even before the

361
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:57,120
federation existed, to share Abu
Dhabi's oil revenue with the

362
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:02,840
poorer Emirates, paying for
projects in Sharjah, in Ras Al

363
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:08,480
Qaimah and in the others without
asking for anything in return.

364
00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:14,120
It was an act of quiet
generosity that did much to

365
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:19,400
soften the path to union.
Bahrain and Qatar eventually

366
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:24,640
chose their own paths to
independence, both becoming

367
00:30:24,640 --> 00:30:29,920
separate states.
But the seven Trucial Shaktams

368
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:35,560
continued to talk, and at the
heart of those conversations

369
00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:40,640
were Zayed and Rashid.
Federation, in their

370
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:44,400
understanding, was not to be
imposed.

371
00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:49,840
It would be persuaded into being
one conversation at a time.

372
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,640
After more than three years of
conversations, the moment

373
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:58,960
finally came.
The British presence was due to

374
00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:06,040
lift at the end of 1971 and the
rulers of the Trucial Coast knew

375
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,680
they could not wait until the
last day to act.

376
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:14,840
On the 2nd of December that
year, in a building that would

377
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:20,040
come to be called Union House, 6
rulers gathered in Dubai.

378
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:28,240
They came from Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Qawain

379
00:31:28,760 --> 00:31:32,400
and Fujairah.
Each had governed his own

380
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:37,480
emirate, each had his own people
to consider and each had spent

381
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:40,240
years weighing this moment in
private.

382
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:46,520
The 7th Ras Al Qaimah was not
yet ready to join.

383
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:52,160
Its ruler had concerns about the
structure of the Union and the

384
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,680
share of representation his
emirate would receive.

385
00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:02,080
He chose to remain outside for
the moment, and the others

386
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:05,680
respected that choice.
The day was quiet by the

387
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:09,040
standards of national foundings
elsewhere in the world.

388
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:14,000
There were no great parades, no
foreign dignitaries packed into

389
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:19,080
the hall, no orchestras.
There were rulers, their

390
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:23,640
advisers, and the work that had
brought them to that table in

391
00:32:23,640 --> 00:32:27,240
the hall.
At Union House, the six rulers

392
00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,760
signed the provisional
constitution of a new state.

393
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,760
They declared the formation of
the United Arab Emirates.

394
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,880
Zayed was elected the 1st
President.

395
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:45,400
Rashid was named the 1st Vice
President and Prime Minister.

396
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:49,360
The flag of the new country was
raised that day.

397
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:55,840
It carried 4 colors, red along
the staff with horizontal bands

398
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,520
of green, white and black beside
it.

399
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:04,640
The colors drew on the long Arab
tradition of flags that combine

400
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:11,600
the same 4 hues, red for unity,
green for fertility, white for

401
00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:17,880
peace, and black for strength.
For Zaid, the moment was the

402
00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,320
culmination of everything the
years that Al Ain had taught him

403
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:26,960
about patient governance.
He had not seized this

404
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,920
federation by force, and he had
not bought it with oil money.

405
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:38,280
He had built it, conversation by
conversation, until enough of

406
00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:42,200
the rulers had agreed that union
was worth more than

407
00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:47,000
independence.
Ras Al Qaimah's hesitation did

408
00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:51,200
not last long.
Within a few months, its ruler

409
00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:56,000
reconsidered, drawn by both the
practical benefits of the union

410
00:33:56,480 --> 00:34:00,600
and the assurances the others
were able to give.

411
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:06,200
By the early part of the
following year, the 7th Emirate

412
00:34:06,200 --> 00:34:13,480
had joined and the federation
was complete. 7 Sheikhdams, once

413
00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:20,400
separate, were now one country.
The Trucial Coast, with its old

414
00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:25,320
name borrowed from 19th century
treaties, had given way to

415
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:30,040
something the rulers themselves
had chosen. the United Arab

416
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:34,239
Emirates existed.
The flag was up, the signatures

417
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,040
were dry.
What lay ahead was the harder

418
00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:41,480
part.
A flag and a constitution are

419
00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:46,040
not yet a state.
The institutions, the laws, the

420
00:34:46,040 --> 00:34:50,760
daily work of governing 7
Emirates has one country.

421
00:34:51,560 --> 00:34:57,240
All of it had to be built almost
from nothing in the years that

422
00:34:57,240 --> 00:35:00,840
followed.
But for one quiet day at Union

423
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:05,400
House, the country existed
simply because its rulers had

424
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:11,080
decided that it should.
A federation written on paper is

425
00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,320
not yet a federation in
practice.

426
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:20,520
In the weeks and months after
the founding, Zayed and the

427
00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:25,600
other rulers face the practical
work of turning a declaration

428
00:35:25,600 --> 00:35:29,520
into a country.
The provisional Constitution

429
00:35:29,840 --> 00:35:35,120
provided the architecture.
It assigned certain powers to

430
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:40,840
the federal government, defense,
foreign affairs, currency,

431
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,880
immigration, and major
infrastructure.

432
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:50,280
It left other matters, including
land, natural resources, and

433
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:54,800
many internal affairs to the
individual Emirates.

434
00:35:55,120 --> 00:36:01,480
This balance was important.
Each ruler retained meaningful

435
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:07,840
authority over his own emirate,
but the federation could speak,

436
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:14,680
plan and act as a single state
in matters that affected all of

437
00:36:14,680 --> 00:36:17,840
them.
Abu Dhabi became the capital.

438
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:23,440
Zayed, as president, formed the
first Council of Ministers,

439
00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:27,800
drawing its members from across
the seven Emirates.

440
00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:33,840
The early ministries were modest
by modern standards, small

441
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:39,160
offices with limited staff and
few presidents to draw on.

442
00:36:39,600 --> 00:36:44,280
A federal National Council was
established as a consultative

443
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:47,920
body.
Its members were appointed by

444
00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:52,560
the rulers of the Emirates, with
seats divided according to the

445
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,040
size and weight of each member
state.

446
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:02,040
The council reviewed
legislation, raised questions

447
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:08,960
and brought concerns from the
wider society into the federal

448
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:12,840
conversation.
A federal court system was

449
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,600
created to handle matters that
crossed emirate lines.

450
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:22,800
The country adopted a new
currency, the UAE Durham,

451
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:28,560
replacing the older Gulf rupees
and Bahraini dinars that had

452
00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:33,440
circulated in the region.
A central bank was eventually

453
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:36,960
established to manage that
currency and oversee the

454
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:39,720
country's emerging financial
system.

455
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:44,400
Each of these institutions began
small.

456
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:50,120
The federation had almost no
civil service to inherit.

457
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:55,760
Most of those who staffed the
new ministries had been trained

458
00:37:55,760 --> 00:38:02,760
abroad, often in Egypt, Kuwait
or the United Kingdom.

459
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:08,080
They brought with them a mixture
of expertise and uncertainty.

460
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:13,760
Zayed encouraged them.
He visited offices, met with

461
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,600
junior officials and listened to
their proposals.

462
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:23,600
He understood that institutions
like our flage channels needed

463
00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:28,240
careful tending in their early
years if they were to flow

464
00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:33,800
reliably later on.
The federation was also fragile

465
00:38:33,800 --> 00:38:37,880
in ways that would not always be
visible from the outside.

466
00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:42,040
There were disputes between
Emirates over budgets, over

467
00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:46,240
representation, over the
boundaries of federal authority.

468
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:53,120
There were moments when the
union seemed to strain, but

469
00:38:53,120 --> 00:38:57,760
Zayed held the center.
He did not punish disagreement.

470
00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:02,480
He did not seek to dominate the
other rulers, even though Abu

471
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:07,880
Dhabi held most of the wealth.
He understood that a federation

472
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:13,480
built by persuasion would only
endure if it continued year

473
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:16,880
after year to be governed by
persuasion.

474
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:23,160
The institutions grew slowly at
first, then more quickly.

475
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:28,520
By the end of the 70s, the
United Arab Emirates was

476
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,800
beginning to look like a country
in the fuller sense.

477
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:37,400
Zayed had a particular
conviction about wealth, formed

478
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:42,640
during the lean years of his
childhood and refined across the

479
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:49,120
decades at Al Ain.
He believed that oil revenue did

480
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:51,800
not belong to the ruler
personally.

481
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:59,080
It belonged to the people, and
the ruler was its trustee.

482
00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:02,760
This was not a theoretical
position.

483
00:40:03,160 --> 00:40:07,520
It became the operating
philosophy of the new

484
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:11,120
federation.
As the oil revenues grew through

485
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:16,640
the 70s, Zayed directed them
toward the things he believed

486
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:22,080
his country most needed free
education for every citizen.

487
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:27,440
Was among the first commitments.
Schools were built across the

488
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:32,880
Emirates, in coastal towns and
inland oases alike.

489
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,680
Children who would once have
learned only from family and

490
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:43,040
from the Koran could now attend
primary and secondary schools

491
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:47,320
without cost.
Health care followed the same

492
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,560
principle.
Hospitals and clinics were

493
00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:54,760
established throughout the
country, and citizens did not

494
00:40:54,760 --> 00:40:59,000
pay for their care.
The hospitals admitted both rich

495
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:03,920
and poor without distinction,
and the federation covered the

496
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:07,720
cost.
Housing was perhaps the most

497
00:41:07,720 --> 00:41:12,200
visible transformation.
Many families had spent

498
00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:17,400
generations in tents made of
woven palm fiber or in simple

499
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,840
coral stone houses.
Within a few years, the

500
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:25,800
government was building
permanent homes for citizens who

501
00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:32,040
needed them, modest at first,
then larger, then organized into

502
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:36,080
entire neighborhoods served by
power and water.

503
00:41:36,480 --> 00:41:39,920
Water and electricity were
extended into corners of the

504
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:41,800
country that had never known
either.

505
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:47,560
Desalina tion plants began to
turn the sea into drinking water

506
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:52,800
on an industrial scale.
Power lines crossed the desert

507
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:57,400
to reach villages that had
previously relied on oil lamps

508
00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:02,440
and small generators.
Roads connected Emirates that

509
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:05,240
had once been hours apart by
camel.

510
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,840
Bridges crossed creeks and
inlets.

511
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:15,240
Ports were built or expanded.
Mina Zayed in Abu Dhabi, Port

512
00:42:15,240 --> 00:42:21,000
Rashid in Dubai, to handle the
goods of a country newly open to

513
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,760
the wider world.
None of this happened evenly or

514
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:28,680
without difficulty.
There were debates about pace,

515
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:33,640
about priorities, about the
proper balance between federal

516
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:37,480
and Emirates spending, but the
direction was clear.

517
00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:42,080
The wealth was being used, not
hoarded, and it was being used

518
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:46,320
on behalf of the people.
Zayed himself remained

519
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:51,360
personally austere by the
standards of oil rich rulers

520
00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:55,320
elsewhere.
He kept his Falcons, kept his

521
00:42:55,320 --> 00:43:01,280
modulus, and spent on his
country rather than on himself.

522
00:43:01,640 --> 00:43:05,480
In other parts of the world,
sudden wealth from natural

523
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:10,880
resources had hollowed out
societies, breeding corruption

524
00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:16,320
and dependency.
In the Emirates, under Zayed's

525
00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:21,880
guidance, the transition was not
perfect, but it carried A

526
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:27,000
deliberate intention that many
resource booms have lacked.

527
00:43:27,480 --> 00:43:31,160
The wealth that arrived from
beneath the sand was being

528
00:43:31,160 --> 00:43:36,080
turned patiently into the
foundations of a country.

529
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:39,680
The greening of a desert is not
a metaphor.

530
00:43:39,680 --> 00:43:44,080
In the United Arab Emirates, it
was a deliberate project,

531
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:50,520
undertaken across decades that
turned vast stretches of arid

532
00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:56,880
land into orchards, parks,
plantations and forests.

533
00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:01,520
Zayed had begun this work even
before the federation was

534
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:06,000
founded.
From his years at Al Ain, he had

535
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:11,840
carried a particular conviction
that agriculture was not merely

536
00:44:11,840 --> 00:44:16,160
about food but about
civilization itself.

537
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:22,960
He was once heard to say that if
you gave him agriculture he

538
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,960
would give you civilization.
This was not a passing fancy.

539
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:33,320
The greening became one of the
great priorities of his rule,

540
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:38,280
and the resources of the
Federation were turned toward it

541
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:43,360
on an enormous scale.
Trees were the first ambition.

542
00:44:44,120 --> 00:44:49,040
The gaff tree, native to the
region, was already familiar

543
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:54,280
across the Arabian sands, a
Hardy desert tree whose roots

544
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:59,120
reach far below the surface and
whose shade has rested

545
00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,280
travellers and their camels for
centuries.

546
00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:08,200
Under Zayed's direction,
millions of Goff trees were

547
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:12,840
planted across the Emirates
alongside palms and other

548
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:17,800
species suited to the climate.
The date palm received

549
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:21,720
particular attention.
Date palms had grown in the

550
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:28,320
oases of Al Ain and Liwa for
centuries, sustaining families

551
00:45:28,640 --> 00:45:31,560
through the long pre oil
generations.

552
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:37,080
Under the new programs, the
country expanded its palm

553
00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:42,720
plantations until the Emirates
became one of the great date

554
00:45:42,720 --> 00:45:47,560
producers of the world.
Water was the central challenge

555
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:52,680
in a land where rainfall was
scarce and unreliable.

556
00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:59,080
Every tree required irrigation.
The government invested in vast

557
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:05,000
networks of desalina tion
plants, water pipelines and

558
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:10,840
treated wastewater systems, all
of which made the greening

559
00:46:10,840 --> 00:46:14,560
possible.
Forestry stations rose at the

560
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:19,000
edges of the desert, growing
seedlings by the millions to be

561
00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:25,000
planted along roads, in parks
and across previously empty

562
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:29,560
stretches of sand.
The work was slow and demanding.

563
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:34,600
Trees that survived their first
summer were celebrated quietly,

564
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:38,560
and those that did not were
replaced.

565
00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:44,960
Alain itself became known as the
Garden City of the Emirates.

566
00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:50,680
Its public parks, its leafy
streets, and its restored of

567
00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:55,840
flage channels offered visitors
a different impression of what

568
00:46:55,840 --> 00:47:01,720
an Arabian city could be.
Zayed visited often, walking

569
00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:04,840
among the plantings with the
same attentiveness he had once

570
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:07,320
shown to Falcons and water
channels.

571
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:14,480
Wildlife was not forgotten on
the island of Sir Banayas off

572
00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:18,680
the western coast.
Zayed established a private

573
00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:24,360
reserve that grew over the years
into a sanctuary for Arabian

574
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:29,880
oryx, gazelles and other species
that had nearly vanished from

575
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,760
the region.
He invited researchers, and the

576
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:39,320
populations slowly recovered.
The greening was sometimes

577
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,120
criticized on environmental
grounds.

578
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:48,640
Maintaining forests in a desert
requires energy and water.

579
00:47:49,520 --> 00:47:54,680
But for Zayed, the project was
never simply about appearance.

580
00:47:55,000 --> 00:48:01,280
It was about reclaiming land,
restoring habitats, and

581
00:48:01,280 --> 00:48:05,680
demonstrating that a country
built on patients could grow

582
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:10,560
what the desert had withheld.
Education was at the heart of

583
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:13,120
everything Zayed did with the
new wealth.

584
00:48:13,920 --> 00:48:18,560
He had been raised in a world
where formal schooling barely

585
00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:24,120
existed in the Trucial Coast,
and where most of his peers

586
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:29,120
learned what they knew from
family, from the desert and from

587
00:48:29,120 --> 00:48:33,440
the Koran.
He understood, even before the

588
00:48:33,440 --> 00:48:38,200
federation, that no country
could grow without educated

589
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,880
citizens.
The schools that the government

590
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:47,120
built in the 70s and 80s spread
across the entire country.

591
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:53,000
They reached the smallest inland
villages and the most distant

592
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:58,960
coastal towns.
Primary and secondary education

593
00:48:59,240 --> 00:49:05,080
were free for every citizen, and
overtime attendance approached

594
00:49:05,200 --> 00:49:09,520
the universal.
In the inland Oasis where Zayed

595
00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:14,880
had once governed, the country's
first university was founded.

596
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:22,640
UAE University in Alain opened
with a few 100 students and grew

597
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:26,800
over the following years into a
major institution.

598
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:33,080
It offered training in medicine,
engineering, the humanities and

599
00:49:33,080 --> 00:49:37,040
many other fields.
Other universities followed in

600
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:42,080
time, including a network of
technical colleges and a

601
00:49:42,080 --> 00:49:45,040
university bearing Zayed's own
name.

602
00:49:45,960 --> 00:49:50,600
Students who wished to study
abroad were often supported by

603
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:54,680
government scholarships,
traveling to universities in

604
00:49:54,680 --> 00:50:00,320
Egypt, the United Kingdom, the
United States, and elsewhere.

605
00:50:01,120 --> 00:50:04,840
Many returned to take up
positions in the federation's

606
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:09,680
growing institutions.
Perhaps the most significant

607
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:14,800
transformation occurred in the
education of girls and women.

608
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,520
In the pre oil generations,
formal schooling for girls had

609
00:50:20,520 --> 00:50:25,920
been rare in the region.
The new schools admitted both

610
00:50:25,920 --> 00:50:31,960
boys and girls and Zayed
encouraged families to enroll

611
00:50:31,960 --> 00:50:37,400
their daughters with the same
seriousness as their sons.

612
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:42,080
In this work Zayed had a
particular partner.

613
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:49,560
His wife, Shekha Fatima bint
Mubarak, became one of the most

614
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:54,400
influential figures in the
country's social development.

615
00:50:55,440 --> 00:50:59,880
She founded the General Women's
Union and became known with

616
00:50:59,880 --> 00:51:04,040
quiet affection as the Mother of
the Nation.

617
00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,880
Sheikh of Fatima worked to
expand women's literacy

618
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:13,600
programs, to support working
mothers, and to open new fields

619
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:19,560
to women across the federation.
Within a generation, women were

620
00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:23,360
attending universities in
greater numbers than men.

621
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:28,240
In some programs, they were
entering medicine, law,

622
00:51:28,400 --> 00:51:31,360
engineering, and government
service.

623
00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:35,160
The traditional teachings were
not abandoned.

624
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:40,880
Quranic education, religious
studies and the customs of

625
00:51:40,880 --> 00:51:46,320
family and marchless remained
central, but they were now

626
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:51,440
placed alongside modern
curricula in classrooms where

627
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:57,040
the daughters and sons of Pearl
divers, Bedouin tribesmen and

628
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:03,840
Oasis farmers learned together.
For Zaid, this transformation

629
00:52:03,840 --> 00:52:07,000
was not separate from the
building of the country.

630
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:10,120
It was the building of the
country.

631
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:15,520
A nation of schools, in his
understanding, would last far

632
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:18,400
longer than a nation of roads
alone.

633
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:25,120
The institutions that he and
Sheikha Fatima nurtured would

634
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:29,880
carry the country forward long
after their own generation had

635
00:52:29,880 --> 00:52:33,320
passed.
Among Zaid's quieter and more

636
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:38,520
consequential decisions was the
one that turned to the future.

637
00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:43,720
He understood, even as the oil
revenues were transforming his

638
00:52:43,720 --> 00:52:48,760
country, that the wealth would
not last forever.

639
00:52:49,720 --> 00:52:55,440
Oil reserves are finite, prices
fluctuate, and the world's

640
00:52:55,440 --> 00:52:59,600
energy markets can shift with
little warning.

641
00:53:00,000 --> 00:53:04,400
A nation that lived only on the
wealth of its present moment, he

642
00:53:04,400 --> 00:53:09,120
believed, would one day find
itself diminished.

643
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:15,120
A nation that thought further
ahead, by contrast, could

644
00:53:15,120 --> 00:53:20,360
preserve some part of its
prosperity for the generations

645
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:24,200
to come.
In the mid 70s, this principle

646
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:29,520
took institutional form.
The Abu Dhabi Investment

647
00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:33,920
Authority was founded as a means
of investing the Emirates

648
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:38,920
surplus oil revenue across the
wider world.

649
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:45,320
It was given a simple mandate to
preserve and grow the long term

650
00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:50,160
wealth of Abu Dhabi for the
benefit of future generations.

651
00:53:50,560 --> 00:53:54,040
The structure was deliberately
patient.

652
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:59,720
The authority invested in
equities, in bonds, in real

653
00:53:59,720 --> 00:54:04,920
estate and in infrastructure
projects across many countries,

654
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:10,200
building a portfolio that was
global and diversified.

655
00:54:11,000 --> 00:54:15,200
It did not seek the quick
returns that sometimes drew

656
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:20,320
other investors into trouble.
It sought instead the steady and

657
00:54:20,320 --> 00:54:24,200
disciplined accumulation of
value over decades.

658
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:29,480
The early years were modest.
The world's financial markets

659
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:34,400
did not always Co operate, and
the authority worked carefully

660
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:38,200
through its first investments
before scaling up.

661
00:54:38,680 --> 00:54:43,760
But the discipline held.
Over the years, the authority

662
00:54:43,760 --> 00:54:48,040
grew into one of the largest
investment institutions of any

663
00:54:48,040 --> 00:54:53,200
kind in the world.
Its precise assets were not

664
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:59,120
publicly disclosed, but
estimates placed them in time in

665
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,040
the hundreds of billions of
dollars.

666
00:55:02,480 --> 00:55:07,680
The wealth it managed was not
for Zaid, nor for any single

667
00:55:07,680 --> 00:55:11,880
family, nor for the present
generation alone.

668
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,960
It was held in trust for the
children and grandchildren of

669
00:55:17,360 --> 00:55:20,800
Emiratis who had not yet been
born.

670
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:26,440
This was an unusual idea in
resource rich states.

671
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:32,600
Many oil producing countries had
struggled with what economists

672
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:38,160
later called the resource curse,
sudden wealth, corrupting

673
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:42,760
institutions and leaving little
durable behind.

674
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:48,000
Zayed's approach attempted to
plant the wealth in soil that

675
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:52,560
would still hold value.
When the wells eventually ran

676
00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:57,800
dry, the trees of the greening
programme would grow above

677
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:01,760
ground.
The investments of the authority

678
00:56:01,760 --> 00:56:06,600
would grow elsewhere in markets
far from the desert, building a

679
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:11,560
kind of second harvest that the
country could draw upon for a

680
00:56:11,560 --> 00:56:16,400
long time to come.
Other funds would later join it.

681
00:56:17,240 --> 00:56:21,920
Mubadala established year.
A country that wishes to endure

682
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:24,760
must also be able to defend
itself.

683
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:30,600
Zayed understood this from the
earliest days of the Federation,

684
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:35,800
and the building of armed forces
became one of the steadier

685
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:41,520
projects of his rule.
The starting point was small.

686
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:46,160
In the years before
independence, the British

687
00:56:46,240 --> 00:56:51,760
officer Truchel Omen Scouts had
handled most security matters on

688
00:56:51,760 --> 00:56:54,880
the coast.
When the Federation was

689
00:56:54,880 --> 00:57:00,960
declared, this force became the
basis of what was first called

690
00:57:01,120 --> 00:57:05,920
the Union Defence Force.
It was a modest beginning.

691
00:57:06,800 --> 00:57:11,440
The Union Defence Force had
limited equipment, a small

692
00:57:11,440 --> 00:57:16,360
officer corps, and many of its
commanders had been trained by

693
00:57:16,360 --> 00:57:20,640
the British.
Its purpose in the early years

694
00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:26,160
was internal security and basic
defense against potential

695
00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:30,640
threats from neighbors.
Within a few years, the

696
00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:34,960
Federation moved toward a more
unified structure.

697
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:40,200
The various emirate level
military units that had

698
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:45,240
developed alongside the federal
force were brought together, and

699
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:50,360
the Federal Armed Forces of the
United Arab Emirates were

700
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:55,120
formerly established.
Equipment was acquired, training

701
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:59,680
programs were expanded, and
partnerships were developed with

702
00:57:59,760 --> 00:58:03,960
allied countries.
The approach Zayed favored was

703
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:08,800
distinctive.
He did not seek a military that

704
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:14,120
was disproportionately large for
the country size, nor one that

705
00:58:14,120 --> 00:58:19,880
would invite confrontation.
He sought instead a capable

706
00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:23,840
force that could defend the
country's interests without

707
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:28,400
seeking conflict.
This balance was tested by the

708
00:58:28,400 --> 00:58:33,680
conditions of the wider Gulf.
The Iran Iraq war of the 80s

709
00:58:34,160 --> 00:58:37,360
cast a long shadow across the
region.

710
00:58:38,240 --> 00:58:44,640
The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in
1990 brought the threat closer

711
00:58:44,640 --> 00:58:50,080
still, and the federation
contributed forces to the

712
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:55,520
international coalition that
restored Kuwait's sovereignty in

713
00:58:55,520 --> 00:59:00,800
the months that followed.
Throughout these periods, Zayed

714
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:06,000
kept a steady hand.
He maintained quiet diplomatic

715
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:09,960
relations, even with countries
the Federation disagreed with.

716
00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:15,280
He did not allow the country to
be drawn into adventures that

717
00:59:15,280 --> 00:59:19,720
were not its own.
He also placed deep trust in

718
00:59:19,720 --> 00:59:23,440
members of his own family in
matters of defence.

719
00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:30,120
His son, Mohammed bin Zayed, who
would later become an important

720
00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:34,280
figure in his own right, was
given increasing

721
00:59:34,280 --> 00:59:38,000
responsibilities in the armed
forces.

722
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:44,000
Other sons and senior officials
shared in the broader work of

723
00:59:44,040 --> 00:59:48,720
national security.
The federation built strategic

724
00:59:48,720 --> 00:59:53,920
partnerships with the United
States, the United Kingdom and

725
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:58,960
France, among others.
These partnerships brought

726
00:59:59,200 --> 01:00:03,800
modern equipment.
Training programs and

727
01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:08,600
intelligence cooperation.
They also placed the country

728
01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:13,320
within a wider framework of
regional and international

729
01:00:13,320 --> 01:00:16,720
relationships.
But the deeper principle

730
01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:23,520
remained Zayed's own A country
built by persuasion at home

731
01:00:23,840 --> 01:00:31,000
would also, where possible, be
defended by patients abroad.

732
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:38,280
Force, when needed, would be
used, but it would not be the

733
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:42,240
first resort.
And, in keeping with everything

734
01:00:42,240 --> 01:00:47,680
else he had built, it would be
balanced, prepared and held in

735
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:52,480
trust for future generations.
Foreign policy in the United

736
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:57,520
Arab Emirates was, from the
beginning, an extension of

737
01:00:57,520 --> 01:01:03,320
Zayed's temperament.
He preferred to act quietly, to

738
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:08,640
build relationships, and to use
the federation's resources for

739
01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:13,800
help rather than influence.
The country's voice in the wider

740
01:01:13,800 --> 01:01:20,240
world began modestly.
The Emirates joined the Arab

741
01:01:20,240 --> 01:01:24,040
League and the United Nations
after the founding.

742
01:01:24,760 --> 01:01:30,840
It established embassies in many
countries, and it took its place

743
01:01:31,040 --> 01:01:36,240
alongside other small states on
the international stage.

744
01:01:36,560 --> 01:01:41,440
But Zayed's particular
contribution was something else.

745
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:46,840
He directed an enormous share of
the federation's wealth toward

746
01:01:46,840 --> 01:01:52,400
humanitarian aid, both within
the Arab world and far beyond

747
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:55,840
it.
Hospitals were funded in Sudan,

748
01:01:56,240 --> 01:02:01,800
schools in Bosnia, and mosques
and clinics in dozens of

749
01:02:01,800 --> 01:02:05,960
countries.
Far from the resources Zayed had

750
01:02:05,960 --> 01:02:10,360
been entrusted with, the
Palestinian cause held a

751
01:02:10,360 --> 01:02:12,920
particular place in his
commitments.

752
01:02:13,680 --> 01:02:18,000
From the earliest years of the
federation, he supported

753
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:23,680
Palestinian refugees through
education programs, housing

754
01:02:23,680 --> 01:02:27,280
assistance, and political
solidarity.

755
01:02:28,120 --> 01:02:31,920
He believed that the
dispossession of Palestinians

756
01:02:32,200 --> 01:02:37,280
was a wound that had not been
allowed to heal, and he gave

757
01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:42,520
both quiet and public support to
efforts toward a just

758
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:46,800
resolution.
Within the Gulf, Zayed worked to

759
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,920
build Co operation among the
smaller states.

760
01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:55,680
The Gulf Co Operation Council,
founded in the early 80s,

761
01:02:56,280 --> 01:03:05,560
brought together Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Omen and

762
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:10,760
the Emirates, and Zayed was one
of its founding figures.

763
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:15,640
He understood that just as seven
Emirates had been stronger

764
01:03:15,640 --> 01:03:19,920
together than apart, 6
neighboring states could speak

765
01:03:19,920 --> 01:03:24,600
with greater weight as a group
than as individuals.

766
01:03:25,800 --> 01:03:30,280
The Council never became a
federation in the deeper sense,

767
01:03:30,640 --> 01:03:36,120
but it provided a steady
framework for cooperation across

768
01:03:36,120 --> 01:03:40,560
the Arabian Gulf.
The federation also became a

769
01:03:40,560 --> 01:03:45,960
destination of last resort for
many people who had nowhere else

770
01:03:45,960 --> 01:03:50,760
to go.
Refugees from conflicts across

771
01:03:50,760 --> 01:03:56,080
the wider region, from Lebanon,
from Somalia, from the former

772
01:03:56,080 --> 01:04:02,600
Yugoslavia, from Iraq, were
quietly admitted, often without

773
01:04:02,600 --> 01:04:05,960
the public attention that
surrounded such matters

774
01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:10,560
elsewhere.
Zayed had not forgotten the lean

775
01:04:10,560 --> 01:04:15,240
years of his own childhood.
He remembered what it meant to

776
01:04:15,240 --> 01:04:19,920
belong to a small place that the
wider world might overlook.

777
01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:26,600
The Emirates, under his
guidance, made it a point not to

778
01:04:26,600 --> 01:04:31,240
overlook others in a region
often defined by conflict.

779
01:04:31,800 --> 01:04:35,800
The Federation became known for
something else.

780
01:04:36,520 --> 01:04:41,200
It was known for the quiet
check, the unannounced hospital,

781
01:04:41,760 --> 01:04:47,520
the school that opened without
ceremony in a place that needed

782
01:04:47,520 --> 01:04:50,600
one.
This was not naivety.

783
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:56,600
Zayed understood power, and he
could be a careful and shrewd

784
01:04:56,600 --> 01:04:59,760
defender of his country's
interests.

785
01:05:00,320 --> 01:05:03,920
But he also understood that
influence built through

786
01:05:03,920 --> 01:05:09,720
generosity tended to last longer
than influence built through

787
01:05:09,720 --> 01:05:13,000
pressure.
A federation that had been

788
01:05:13,000 --> 01:05:19,560
persuaded into existence was in
its foreign affairs also a

789
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:24,080
federation that preferred
persuasion to the alternatives.

790
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:29,440
Even as the federation grew
larger and more modern, Zayed

791
01:05:29,440 --> 01:05:35,920
remained in many quiet ways the
same man he had been at Al Ain.

792
01:05:36,840 --> 01:05:41,920
The threads of his early life
ran unbroken through the years

793
01:05:41,920 --> 01:05:46,160
of his presidency.
Falconry stayed with him until

794
01:05:46,160 --> 01:05:50,200
the end.
He kept his birds throughout his

795
01:05:50,200 --> 01:05:56,000
rule, and he understood them as
well as any traditional Falconer

796
01:05:56,240 --> 01:06:00,920
in the region.
Even in his later years, when

797
01:06:00,920 --> 01:06:05,520
matters of state filled most of
his days, he found time to

798
01:06:05,520 --> 01:06:11,480
handle his Falcons and to take
them out into the desert as he

799
01:06:11,480 --> 01:06:16,800
had done since boyhood.
The Lewa Oasis, deep in the

800
01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:20,720
southern desert, held a
particular place in his life.

801
01:06:21,760 --> 01:06:27,760
It was the ancestral home of the
Bani Yas, the long ago starting

802
01:06:27,760 --> 01:06:31,720
point from which his family had
moved N to the coast.

803
01:06:32,720 --> 01:06:37,400
Zayed returned to Liwa often,
sometimes for several days at a

804
01:06:37,400 --> 01:06:42,160
time, sleeping in tents and
travelling among the people of

805
01:06:42,160 --> 01:06:46,080
the dunes.
These were not vacations in any

806
01:06:46,080 --> 01:06:49,760
modern sense.
They were continuities.

807
01:06:50,400 --> 01:06:54,320
They reconnected him to the
desert that had taught him his

808
01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:58,560
earliest lessons in governance.
The majlis remained his

809
01:06:58,560 --> 01:07:03,200
preferred form of governance.
Each day when he was in Abu

810
01:07:03,200 --> 01:07:08,760
Dhabi, his majlis was open.
Citizens could come with

811
01:07:08,760 --> 01:07:14,560
concerns, complaints, requests
for help or simply to be heard.

812
01:07:14,920 --> 01:07:19,960
He listened, often without
interrupting, in the manner of

813
01:07:19,960 --> 01:07:22,680
the elders he had once watched
as a boy.

814
01:07:23,440 --> 01:07:28,400
He dressed plainly in the
traditional kandura that any

815
01:07:28,400 --> 01:07:33,400
Emirati man might wear.
He moved among his people in

816
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:38,280
their gatherings and in his own,
with a courtesy that struck many

817
01:07:38,280 --> 01:07:42,240
visitors as remarkable for head
of state.

818
01:07:42,560 --> 01:07:47,480
One of his most ambitious
personal projects was a mosque.

819
01:07:48,200 --> 01:07:53,240
The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque,
designed to stand at the heart

820
01:07:53,240 --> 01:07:59,480
of Abu Dhabi, was commissioned
during his lifetime and ground

821
01:07:59,480 --> 01:08:05,160
was broken in the mid 90s.
He wanted a place of worship

822
01:08:05,600 --> 01:08:10,160
that would honor the Islamic
tradition while welcoming people

823
01:08:10,160 --> 01:08:14,880
of all backgrounds to consider
its beauty.

824
01:08:15,240 --> 01:08:19,399
The mosque took more than a
decade to complete.

825
01:08:20,040 --> 01:08:26,920
Its scale was vast white marble
from Macedonia, carpets woven by

826
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:31,160
Iranian Craftsman, chandeliers
from Germany.

827
01:08:31,800 --> 01:08:37,240
The materials came from many
countries, and the artistry drew

828
01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:41,359
on Islamic traditions across the
entire region.

829
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:46,760
Zaid would not live to see the
mosque finished, but its

830
01:08:46,760 --> 01:08:51,399
foundations were laid in his
time, and the building rose

831
01:08:51,399 --> 01:08:56,640
slowly, year by year.
In the city he had done so much

832
01:08:56,640 --> 01:09:00,200
to shape.
It would eventually become one

833
01:09:00,200 --> 01:09:03,160
of the most visited places in
the country.

834
01:09:03,560 --> 01:09:07,560
The man who had begun his life
in a small Fort of coral and

835
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:12,920
gypsum had ended it, preparing a
marble mosque large enough to

836
01:09:12,920 --> 01:09:15,760
hold 10s of thousands of
worshippers.

837
01:09:16,640 --> 01:09:21,279
The arc of his outward life had
stretched enormously from a

838
01:09:21,279 --> 01:09:26,880
coral Fort to a marble mosque.
But the inner threads, the

839
01:09:26,880 --> 01:09:33,840
Falcon, the majlis, the liwa,
the morning prayer had remained.

840
01:09:34,240 --> 01:09:40,120
In the autumn of 2004, after a
long life and many years of

841
01:09:40,279 --> 01:09:46,080
declining health, Sheikh Zayed
bin Sultan Al Nahyan passed

842
01:09:46,080 --> 01:09:50,720
away.
He was by then somewhere in his

843
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:55,080
80's.
The exact year of his birth had

844
01:09:55,080 --> 01:09:59,240
never been formally recorded,
and like many men of his

845
01:09:59,240 --> 01:10:05,320
generation, he had measured his
life by seasons rather than

846
01:10:05,320 --> 01:10:08,760
calendars.
The news reached the country in

847
01:10:08,760 --> 01:10:12,600
the early hours and a period of
mourning began.

848
01:10:12,600 --> 01:10:18,360
Across the Emirates, 40 days of
state mourning were declared,

849
01:10:18,760 --> 01:10:22,880
with flags lowered to half staff
on government buildings.

850
01:10:23,800 --> 01:10:28,280
The federation he had built, and
many places far beyond it,

851
01:10:28,920 --> 01:10:34,240
paused in remembrance.
What happened next was, in its

852
01:10:34,240 --> 01:10:40,240
own quiet way, a tribute to
everything he had done.

853
01:10:41,000 --> 01:10:46,160
The federation did not falter.
The Federal Supreme Council,

854
01:10:46,480 --> 01:10:50,680
composed of the rulers of the
seven Emirates, met to elect a

855
01:10:50,680 --> 01:10:55,280
new president.
Their choice was Sheikh Khalifa

856
01:10:55,600 --> 01:11:00,480
bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Zayed's
eldest son.

857
01:11:01,520 --> 01:11:05,640
Khalifa had been the Crown
Prince of Abu Dhabi for many

858
01:11:05,640 --> 01:11:10,640
years, and he had served as
deputy ruler under his father

859
01:11:10,640 --> 01:11:14,200
across most of the federation's
early decades.

860
01:11:14,640 --> 01:11:19,120
The succession was orderly.
It was peaceful.

861
01:11:19,800 --> 01:11:24,440
It carried none of the turmoil
that has sometimes accompanied

862
01:11:24,840 --> 01:11:28,960
transitions of power in the
wider region.

863
01:11:29,240 --> 01:11:34,080
In many countries, the death of
a founding leader has been

864
01:11:34,080 --> 01:11:40,000
followed by uncertainty,
factional struggle or worse.

865
01:11:40,720 --> 01:11:45,040
The Emirates passed through
their first such moment with the

866
01:11:45,040 --> 01:11:51,000
steadiness that owed everything
to the institutions Zayed had

867
01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:55,600
patiently built.
The Federal Supreme Council, the

868
01:11:55,600 --> 01:12:01,880
Council of Ministers, the
constitutional procedures all

869
01:12:01,880 --> 01:12:05,080
held.
The army he had built remained

870
01:12:05,080 --> 01:12:07,680
loyal.
The Investment authority

871
01:12:07,680 --> 01:12:11,920
continued its work.
The schools opened the next day

872
01:12:12,160 --> 01:12:16,520
as they always had.
The ports continued to receive

873
01:12:16,520 --> 01:12:21,640
ships, and the desalina tion
plants continued to push water

874
01:12:22,040 --> 01:12:24,640
through the long pipes of the
country.

875
01:12:25,640 --> 01:12:31,560
This was perhaps the deepest
proof that the Federation was

876
01:12:31,560 --> 01:12:34,680
real.
A country that depends entirely

877
01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:38,520
on a single man cannot survive
his death.

878
01:12:39,360 --> 01:12:45,280
The Emirates survived Zayed's,
and they survived it without

879
01:12:45,280 --> 01:12:50,280
missing a step.
That was perhaps his deepest

880
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:56,880
gift to the people he had LED.
Khalifa was not his father.

881
01:12:57,400 --> 01:13:02,440
He had a different temperament,
more reserved, more inclined to

882
01:13:02,440 --> 01:13:05,920
delegation.
But he was a son of the

883
01:13:05,920 --> 01:13:12,520
Federation in the deepest sense,
and he understood his task to be

884
01:13:12,520 --> 01:13:16,760
the careful stewardship of what
had been built.

885
01:13:17,320 --> 01:13:21,400
The man who had spent decades
persuading other rulers,

886
01:13:21,760 --> 01:13:26,640
planting trees, founding
institutions and quietly

887
01:13:26,640 --> 01:13:30,240
investing for the future had
finished his work.

888
01:13:31,160 --> 01:13:36,920
The country he had built now
belonged to its citizens and to

889
01:13:36,920 --> 01:13:39,000
the rulers who would come after
him.

890
01:13:39,440 --> 01:13:44,080
His funeral was attended by
leaders from across the Arab

891
01:13:44,080 --> 01:13:49,280
world and beyond.
He was buried near the rising

892
01:13:49,280 --> 01:13:52,920
walls of the Grand Mosque that
bore his name.

893
01:13:53,280 --> 01:13:59,280
Sheikh Khalifa would serve as
president for nearly 18 years.

894
01:13:59,960 --> 01:14:05,720
His task, as he understood it,
was not to remake the country

895
01:14:06,400 --> 01:14:12,280
but to maintain its direction.
The institutions his father had

896
01:14:12,280 --> 01:14:17,720
built were sound, and he saw his
role as their steady

897
01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:20,920
continuation.
The early years of his

898
01:14:20,920 --> 01:14:24,920
presidency continued the
patterns Zayed had established.

899
01:14:25,600 --> 01:14:30,400
Federal spending on schools,
hospitals and infrastructure

900
01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:35,720
kept growing, and the sovereign
wealth funds continued their

901
01:14:35,720 --> 01:14:42,040
long horizon investments.
The armed forces continued their

902
01:14:42,040 --> 01:14:46,560
professional development.
Dubai's transformation

903
01:14:46,880 --> 01:14:52,680
accelerated during these years.
The neighboring emirate, under

904
01:14:52,680 --> 01:14:56,960
the leadership of Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,

905
01:14:57,560 --> 01:15:03,120
had become a global hub for
trade, tourism and finance.

906
01:15:03,960 --> 01:15:08,440
New towers rose along its
skyline, including what would

907
01:15:08,440 --> 01:15:11,880
eventually become the tallest
building in the world.

908
01:15:12,240 --> 01:15:19,600
Then came the test in the global
financial crisis of 2008, the

909
01:15:19,600 --> 01:15:24,800
rapid growth of the region met a
sudden international reversal.

910
01:15:25,600 --> 01:15:31,320
Many over leveraged projects
across the Gulf were exposed and

911
01:15:31,320 --> 01:15:35,240
Dubai, which had borrowed
extensively to fund its

912
01:15:35,240 --> 01:15:39,360
expansion, found itself unable
to meet its debts.

913
01:15:39,640 --> 01:15:46,360
Abu Dhabi stepped in.
Khalifa authorized A substantial

914
01:15:46,360 --> 01:15:53,200
financial package to support
Dubai through the crisis, in the

915
01:15:53,200 --> 01:15:57,200
spirit of the federation his
father had built.

916
01:15:58,480 --> 01:16:03,720
It was the kind of moment that
tested whether the union was

917
01:16:03,720 --> 01:16:10,400
real or merely formal.
The federation passed the test.

918
01:16:11,320 --> 01:16:16,440
The two Emirates that had begun
the union together had now stood

919
01:16:16,440 --> 01:16:21,360
beside each other through one of
the great financial storms of

920
01:16:21,360 --> 01:16:25,240
the modern era.
In recognition of the

921
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:29,720
assistance, the world's tallest
building, then nearing

922
01:16:29,720 --> 01:16:35,040
completion in Dubai, was renamed
the Burj Khalifa.

923
01:16:35,360 --> 01:16:39,480
Health concerns marked the later
years of his presidency.

924
01:16:40,240 --> 01:16:45,920
Khalifa suffered a stroke that
limited his public role, and

925
01:16:45,920 --> 01:16:50,480
from that point forward much of
the daily governance of Abu

926
01:16:50,480 --> 01:16:56,040
Dhabi and the federation passed
to his half brother, Sheikh

927
01:16:56,040 --> 01:17:01,160
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
the Crown Prince.

928
01:17:01,560 --> 01:17:05,400
This was not unusual in the
Federation's tradition.

929
01:17:06,360 --> 01:17:12,040
Rulers had long delegated to
trusted family members, and the

930
01:17:12,040 --> 01:17:19,120
AL Nahyan understood succession
as a gradual matter rather than

931
01:17:19,120 --> 01:17:23,400
a sudden 1.
The institutions continued to

932
01:17:23,400 --> 01:17:27,560
function smoothly.
Khalifa passed away in the

933
01:17:27,560 --> 01:17:33,480
spring of 2022.
His presidency had spanned

934
01:17:33,560 --> 01:17:38,640
nearly 2 decades, during which
the country had moved through

935
01:17:38,640 --> 01:17:44,440
global financial shocks,
regional conflicts, A pandemic,

936
01:17:44,960 --> 01:17:52,040
and a steady continuation of the
modernization Zayed had begun.

937
01:17:52,560 --> 01:17:58,360
He left behind a country that
was, in many ways, exactly what

938
01:17:58,360 --> 01:18:00,880
his father had hoped it would
become.

939
01:18:01,640 --> 01:18:07,960
It was stable, wealthy,
connected to the wider world and

940
01:18:07,960 --> 01:18:11,480
quietly confident in its own
future.

941
01:18:11,840 --> 01:18:14,520
The man who had carried the
weight of his father's

942
01:18:14,520 --> 01:18:20,400
expectations for so many decades
had now in turn, completed his

943
01:18:20,400 --> 01:18:24,240
own chapter.
When Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed

944
01:18:24,280 --> 01:18:28,920
Al Nahyan became the 3rd
President of the United Arab

945
01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:34,880
Emirates, he had already been in
practice one of its principal

946
01:18:34,880 --> 01:18:40,840
leaders for many years.
The transition in the spring of

947
01:18:40,840 --> 01:18:46,120
2022 was like the one before it,
smooth and orderly.

948
01:18:46,440 --> 01:18:51,520
The Federal Supreme Council met
and the choice was unanimous.

949
01:18:51,880 --> 01:18:56,400
Mohammed was a son of Sheikh
Zayed and a half brother of

950
01:18:56,400 --> 01:19:00,000
Khalifa.
Separated by years and

951
01:19:00,000 --> 01:19:05,880
temperament, he had been
educated at military academies,

952
01:19:06,480 --> 01:19:10,600
including the Royal Military
Academy at Sandhurst in the

953
01:19:10,600 --> 01:19:14,480
United Kingdom.
He had served in the armed

954
01:19:14,480 --> 01:19:20,080
forces and risen through their
ranks before becoming deputy

955
01:19:20,080 --> 01:19:25,280
supreme commander.
As Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, he

956
01:19:25,280 --> 01:19:28,360
had spent decades preparing for
leadership.

957
01:19:28,880 --> 01:19:31,800
He had overseen the
modernization of the armed

958
01:19:31,800 --> 01:19:37,360
forces and the development of
new economic sectors beyond oil.

959
01:19:37,800 --> 01:19:41,520
His approach was more direct
than that of his father.

960
01:19:42,640 --> 01:19:48,080
Sheikh Zayed had been a man of
patient persuasion, of long

961
01:19:48,080 --> 01:19:51,120
modulus sessions and slow
consensus.

962
01:19:51,960 --> 01:19:57,280
Mohammed, while respecting those
traditions, was more often a

963
01:19:57,280 --> 01:20:02,640
planner and a strategist.
He set ambitious targets for the

964
01:20:02,640 --> 01:20:05,880
country.
He pushed for economic

965
01:20:05,880 --> 01:20:11,720
diversification away from oil,
for advances in technology, for

966
01:20:11,720 --> 01:20:16,840
the development of nuclear power
and renewable energy, and for

967
01:20:16,840 --> 01:20:20,320
the strengthening of the
country's diplomatic position

968
01:20:20,600 --> 01:20:25,160
across the wider region.
The country took on a more

969
01:20:25,160 --> 01:20:29,000
visible role in regional affairs
during these years.

970
01:20:29,720 --> 01:20:35,320
The Emirates participated in
interventions in Yemen, brokered

971
01:20:35,320 --> 01:20:39,680
the Abraham Accords with Israel,
and developed deeper

972
01:20:39,680 --> 01:20:44,480
partnerships with the United
States and with neighboring

973
01:20:44,480 --> 01:20:47,840
states.
Some of these positions drew

974
01:20:47,840 --> 01:20:50,640
criticism and others were
praised.

975
01:20:51,040 --> 01:20:57,160
Muhammad himself, often known by
his initials, became a figure

976
01:20:57,400 --> 01:21:01,920
who attracted both admiration
and disagreement abroad.

977
01:21:02,880 --> 01:21:06,680
This was a different kind of
presidency from his father's.

978
01:21:07,360 --> 01:21:11,840
The Emirates was now a
significant regional power, and

979
01:21:11,840 --> 01:21:16,680
the choices its leaders made
carried weight beyond its

980
01:21:16,680 --> 01:21:20,040
borders.
But certain continuities

981
01:21:20,160 --> 01:21:24,640
remained.
The wealth was still treated as

982
01:21:24,640 --> 01:21:28,560
a trust.
The sovereign wealth funds

983
01:21:28,560 --> 01:21:33,600
continued their long horizon
work, and the institution's

984
01:21:33,600 --> 01:21:40,160
Sheikh Zayed had built remained
in place even as new ones were

985
01:21:40,160 --> 01:21:44,440
added beside them.
The Mars mission, which placed

986
01:21:44,680 --> 01:21:49,880
an Emirati probe in orbit around
the Red Planet, was emblematic

987
01:21:50,400 --> 01:21:55,280
of the new ambition.
So was the Baraka nuclear plant,

988
01:21:55,840 --> 01:22:01,040
the first peaceful nuclear power
facility in the Arab world.

989
01:22:01,880 --> 01:22:08,640
So was Expo 2020 in Dubai, which
welcomed millions of visitors

990
01:22:08,640 --> 01:22:12,360
from across the globe.
The 3rd chapter of the

991
01:22:12,360 --> 01:22:17,320
Federation had begun.
It was being written by a leader

992
01:22:17,600 --> 01:22:23,120
who had grown up alongside the
country itself, who had watched

993
01:22:23,120 --> 01:22:28,600
the trees take root, who had
seen the institution strengthen,

994
01:22:29,320 --> 01:22:34,000
and who now held the
responsibility for what came

995
01:22:34,000 --> 01:22:38,080
next.
The seven sheikhdums that had

996
01:22:38,080 --> 01:22:44,000
once met in the desert had
become, by his presidency, a

997
01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:48,040
small but consequential modern
state.

998
01:22:48,400 --> 01:22:51,480
So now the journey can grow
quiet.

999
01:22:51,960 --> 01:22:57,880
We began with a child born in a
low coral Fort on a coast that

1000
01:22:57,880 --> 01:23:03,240
the wider world barely noticed.
We followed him through the lean

1001
01:23:03,240 --> 01:23:07,560
years of the purling collapse,
through the falconry of his

1002
01:23:07,600 --> 01:23:11,920
Bedouin education, through the
patient work of governing an

1003
01:23:11,920 --> 01:23:16,720
Oasis at Al Ain.
We watched him become a ruler

1004
01:23:17,240 --> 01:23:21,640
and then a founder.
He persuaded 6 other rulers to

1005
01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:25,440
join with him in something
larger than themselves.

1006
01:23:26,000 --> 01:23:29,240
He directed the wealth of the
desert towards schools,

1007
01:23:29,400 --> 01:23:33,960
hospitals and homes.
He planted forests where the

1008
01:23:33,960 --> 01:23:39,400
maps had shown only sand.
He prepared for the future

1009
01:23:39,400 --> 01:23:43,600
through institutions designed to
outlast him.

1010
01:23:44,640 --> 01:23:49,360
He built a careful defence
without seeking confrontation.

1011
01:23:50,280 --> 01:23:55,760
He gave generously to people far
beyond his borders. 2 of his

1012
01:23:55,760 --> 01:24:01,360
sons followed him in turn, each
adding his own chapter to the

1013
01:24:01,360 --> 01:24:07,280
Federation he had imagined.
The work continues, as work in

1014
01:24:07,320 --> 01:24:13,480
any country must, with successes
and difficulties woven together.

1015
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:19,320
And yet the strangest part is
how gentle the long arc of this

1016
01:24:19,320 --> 01:24:23,080
story feels when approached
slowly.

1017
01:24:24,040 --> 01:24:30,000
Building a country is often
presented as a tale of conquest

1018
01:24:30,280 --> 01:24:34,920
or ambition.
Zayeds was something else.

1019
01:24:35,240 --> 01:24:40,880
It was a tale of listening, of
trust extended carefully and

1020
01:24:40,880 --> 01:24:46,400
patience held through long
seasons, of treating water as a

1021
01:24:46,400 --> 01:24:54,080
gift, wealth as a trust, and
power as a responsibility one

1022
01:24:54,080 --> 01:25:00,560
tries not to abuse.
Tonight, perhaps, that is the

1023
01:25:00,560 --> 01:25:05,320
feeling to keep.
Not the details, not every name

1024
01:25:05,320 --> 01:25:11,040
and place, not the exact order
of treaties and oil fields and

1025
01:25:11,040 --> 01:25:14,520
councils.
Only the mood of it.

1026
01:25:14,960 --> 01:25:20,760
The sense that countries can be
built by persuasion, that

1027
01:25:20,760 --> 01:25:26,400
desserts can be made green, that
a falconer's patience can shape

1028
01:25:26,400 --> 01:25:31,280
institutions strong enough to
outlive their maker.

1029
01:25:31,640 --> 01:25:36,240
Outside the room, the earth
turns through the long night.

1030
01:25:37,000 --> 01:25:41,800
The Arabian Gulf lapse quietly
at coasts that once knew nothing

1031
01:25:42,160 --> 01:25:47,160
but daows and Pearl beds.
Somewhere in the dunes near

1032
01:25:47,160 --> 01:25:51,200
Liwa, the Goff trees stand at
their patient watch.

1033
01:25:51,920 --> 01:25:57,160
Somewhere in Abu Dhabi, the
marble of the Grand Mosque

1034
01:25:57,600 --> 01:26:02,000
catches the moonlight.
Somewhere in the desert, a

1035
01:26:02,000 --> 01:26:05,880
Falcon sleeps on its perch,
waiting for morning.

1036
01:26:06,840 --> 01:26:11,520
Somewhere along the coast, the
lights of seven cities glow

1037
01:26:11,520 --> 01:26:16,520
softly against the dark.
This is one of the quiet gifts

1038
01:26:16,520 --> 01:26:20,360
of history.
It enlarges the world without

1039
01:26:20,360 --> 01:26:25,680
making home feels smaller, and
it tells us that places we may

1040
01:26:25,680 --> 01:26:32,280
never visit have been built
slowly by people who took their

1041
01:26:32,280 --> 01:26:35,760
time.
So let the clocks continue their

1042
01:26:35,760 --> 01:26:39,400
little ticking.
Let the Falcons rest.

1043
01:26:40,080 --> 01:26:43,480
Let the desert keep its long
patience.

1044
01:26:43,840 --> 01:26:46,920
You do not need to build a
country to night.

1045
01:26:47,440 --> 01:26:52,080
You only need to drift within
one that someone, somewhere

1046
01:26:52,640 --> 01:26:57,360
built for the love of his
people, with the desert at his

1047
01:26:57,360 --> 01:27:00,640
back and the future in his
thoughts.

1048
01:27:01,280 --> 01:27:08,360
The work continues as it must,
but to night is not your part of

1049
01:27:08,360 --> 01:27:12,880
it.
The world slows, and so do we.

1050
01:27:13,160 --> 01:27:13,960
Good night.