Time never
stays as it is. This is my conclusion after my interview with Mr. Abdullah Al-Marzooqi,
who originally was a fisherman and later an employee in Abu Dhabi's
municipality.
Mr. Abdullah
is an old man in early 70's who agreed to tell me about the differences between
our days, and his. According to Mr. Abdullah, our generation’s life-style is
very luxurious when compared to the old days. When he was raised there were no
ACs and water had either to be dug or collected from rains. There was no room
to be lazy or ignorant; if you want to stay alive you had to work for it.
Despite the harsh life, people used to support each other more than these days.
No one was hungry; everyone nearly on a daily basis used to give
"maoon" (food) to their neighbors. He remembers when he was a kid,
his mother used to send him often to deliver "raqaq" (a type of
Arabian bread) to his cousins, and as they had many chickens they gave him eggs
to take back home.
Later on,
Mr. Abdullah, mentioned how he had to work as a fisherman in order to support
his family. Then he found his place in the municipality, and he described this
event was when he realized that people and life in the UAE was getting changed
forever; modern streets are established, and old houses are replaced with new
ones, and a new generation born. In this era, people kept meeting and family
members are contained in the same house.
I went
forward with Mr. Abdullah Al-Marzooqi and asked him to tell me more about the
early 90's era. He told me about the weekend's vacation, which used to be on
Thursday and Friday, unlike now in which Friday and the Saturday are our
weekend's vacation. The primary shopping
in the 90's were cooperation stores like Abu Dhabi CO-OP, and Souq Alqadim (old
market in Almarkazia). Stores used to close early, and there were no stores
that used to open 24/7. The traffic, and people were less as you didn't have to
wait too long in hospitals. Everything according to him
was done on paper, and no one used computers.
After that,
I asked if Mr. Abdullah is still going for fishing trips. He told me yes, he
does with his sons and grandsons on some weekends. Admitting they do it as a
part of a family trip and for leisure and not for living, it is still the
primary activity he is doing at his age. In the past he used to stay for a week
at sea, in order to catch fishes, and nowadays the maximum time he spends at sea
is 2 days. When he returns home, he tells his grandsons to give some of the
fishes to their neighbors, in order to teach them about sharing.
Finally,
after I finished my interview with Mr. Abdullah Al-Marzooqi, I realized that
time never stays as it is. Mr. Abdullah witnessed 3 periods of changes in the UAE,
and experienced a lot of events in only 70 years of his life. We don't know what the future is holding for us, yet I am certain knowing our past is a mandatory for dealing with the future, and overcoming any obstacles that could face us.
