What does it mean to be Emirati?

So, Emiratis make up about 10-15.5% (got that .5%? One person made quite a point of that) of the population of the country. The other 80ish% of the population is referred to as "foreigners" or "ex-pats". English is the lingua franca even though all the signs are in English and Arabic. Often the Arabic is transliterated English, which is great practice to read for me. Thus, there is a feeling among Emiratis, also known as "nationals" that their culture is under threat. The ministry of education is requiring all schools to teach Arabic and Islamic studies, and there is Department of Social Development that is responsible to trying to preserve/define/cultivate (choose your term and your own implications for subtext) the local distinctive culture. The young, articulate Emirati lady, who got her masters degree at Indiana University in Bloomington, said that they were meeting with community leaders to discuss the issues of defining the components of Emirati culture. What were those components? They weren't sure yet, or they weren't saying. Probably not sure yet. The Secretary General, a distinguished gentleman, who did his advanced degree work in Colorado, said that the Emirates have been a cultural crossroads for thousands of years because they have been on international trade routes. They are used to have lots of cultures moving through, so there is a great tolerance for diversity. Only now, with technology and commerce flowing in like a tsunami of change, do they actually need to think about what it means to be Emirati.

Here is my attempt to help them out, with expertise of four days. In the last four days we have talked to government officials, school officials, cultural ambassadors, and the police. Today we were dragged through Dubai on a very touristy tour with Tour Dubai! Our tour guide was a gentleman from Kerala, and we visited the traditional tourist venues as well as a "modern souk" which was a mall in the ritzy area of Jumiera where the sales people tracked and pounced on potential customers like hawks on slow moving not-so-bright bunnies. We had to extract Brian from the rug selling place where he had been captured and made to sit on a throne-like bench while three salesmen snappily unrolled rugs in front of him. I put on my Big Mamma style and extracted him. The main salesman chided me, but I knew the game and apologized at the same rate and at the same time as he berated me. He gave Brian his card in the vain hope that Brian would come to his senses and return to buy many many rugs.

But back to my point about the contrast. The first three days we earnestly discussed the complex social and educational issues of the city with people intimately involved in them. Today we visited gift shops that sold the stereotype. With this contrast here is what I observe. Gulf culture is welcoming and unfailingly polite. This politeness is what Brown and Levinson (1974) define as "positive politeness", which is politeness that anticipates your needs and shows value of the Other by making that person comfortable from the start. It is an outward orientation to the needs of the Other. In every official place that we have visited, we have been gifted with a bag full of paper/brochures/booklets/pens that represent the venue. We have always had water/juice/coffee given to us. When we went to visit the police, we had three little plates along with the the juice and water that contained cake, sandwiches, and cookies, all delicately wrapped in plastic wrap. Often the water is offered with stemware for drinking. This tender care of the guest is accompanied with most attentive hosting by the people involved. They take us around, and when, as flakey academics, we linger too long, or we inquire too much, or we drift off towards shiny objects, they silently wait or solicitously follow. It is up to our group leader to herd us onwards since they are too polite to insist.

So there is the ritual traditions of positive politeness that is distinct here. In addition, there is a value of meeting and taking the time to talk things through until the topic has been sufficiently discussed. The art of elongated conversation is valued. We are sort of pillar-to-post here since we have a limited amount of time, so we do these conversational surgical strikes that could all be three hours longer. We are conversationalists ourselves, but we are also American academics with desperate personal agendas: we must ask our specific research questions quick while we can so sometimes we talk at cross purposes, or our ever so polite hosts are showered with a bewildering number of specific topics. They have all been very kind, and I hope our urgent focus on our topics does not offend. I think however, it does bewilder. We are intense and maybe a little pushy about what we want to know and when we want to know it (which would be right now, please). The Executive Council and the Education Consultant and the Police all discussed how the first approach to any problem is to meet to talk about it for awhile.

Positive politeness, value of discussion. Also, social relationships. Everyone has emphasized the value of the social group whether it is not going anywhere alone, not out of fear but out of a sense of conviviality, or not seeing anyone outside of a group. One person said, "Why would I want to be alone?" Good point. If the focus is on the value of social relationships, then it would be more comfortable to be in a group. In order to have the option of the group, one must cultivate those social relationships, and boy-howdy but the cell phone facilities that. Cell phone etiquette is that the cell phone trumps any face to face conversation, but the face to face conversation is always immediately returned to. In EVERY group we have been in, the presenter's cell phone has rung. The person turns away from the microphone, answers the phone, and turns back to the group. Many people in cars and on the street are on the phone. The cell phone is an extension of social relationships, so it stands to reason that if it rings (why would you turn it off? that would be rude), you should attend to that person who desires your attention.

Positive politeness, value of discussion, value of social relationships: education. OMG the emphasis on education is astonishing. Of course it is the Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum's vision for the advancement of Dubai, and his visionary Minister for Education, but everybody seems to share the idea that it is through education that Dubai will prosper. However, this one is a little shakier than the others. It seems that for girls, education is a big deal, but boys can get a good job with a high school diploma if they go into the police or the navy. Some comment on the fact that more girls have higher education than boys now, and this is causing a bit of friction on the marriage market. I haven't heard any body talk too deeply on this topic yet, even under earnest academic prompting.
As for the Tourist Vision of the culture (hilarious photos to come with a better internet connection), it is the flashy Bedouin who uses a compass, makes coffee, and uses Aladdin's lamp whilst sitting on a pretty rug. The tourist shops all had fairly weighty compasses (which I held for longer than I should have), fat ceramic beard men in dishtasha (long white robes), fat ceramic women in abayas (long black robes), cheaply bejeweled lamps, and metal coffee pots. The Dubai Museum even had pens in the shape of Emiratis in traditional dress where you pushed the head to get the pen to work. I was appalled by this one. Oh, and the camels. I forgot the camels. You name the style of stuffed camel, plush camel, bejeweled camel, they have it in these souvenir shops. In the Dubai Museum, they have dioramas with life-sized models. The two most popular mannikins with which to be photographed by the American, Hispanic, Chinese, and Indian tourists were the Emirati man reading a newspaper on a bench and a camel being lead by an erst-while member of the Mujahadeen. There is a sense of the Emiratis being unapproachable by foreigners, and here was a model of one sitting on a bench for a photo! He was very popular.

Coming in a close second was the camel. The mannikin leading him was in traditional dress with a rifle slung across his shoulder. Everybody posed with the camel, not the man. This Bedouin past of camels, campfires, tents, falcons, and hand crafts is a romantic past that contributes to a sense of idealized heritage. However, I think the values that have endured of what politeness looks like, how important social relationships are, and how you solve problems by talking about it (politely with a group of people who are cultivating social relationships) is something that stand out to me if I were asked to talk about the components of Emirati society. I'm not sure where the camels fit in, but I will inquire on the subject for you, gentle reader.