United Arab Emirates

Name

Institution

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, commonly abbreviated as UAE is one of the Gulf countries located in the Middle East. The Gulf countries are inclusive of Kuwait, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, and Bahrain. The UAE is a country located between two gulfs, the Persian and that of Oman, which makes its border countries as Oman and Saudi Arabia. In terms of its region’s locality, it is found within the Middle East area, which is among the highest oil producers in the world. The country’s records show that it is expansive and boasts of an area of 83,600 km2 and a 115 in size position around the globe. Its population is approximately 5,473,972, in accordance to statistics recorded in mid-2013 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014).

Being a Middle East nation, the dominant religion there is Muslim, which is approximately 76%. The other 24% consists of Christianity and other religions with the latter taking up 9% (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). The UAE’ history reveals that Muslims dominantly occupied the country but with time, immigrants brought change to the country’s religion. The country’s constitution declares UAE as a Muslim state but allows occupancy by other religions, for example, Hinduism. The main force behind the diversity of religion in the country is the economic opportunities attracting immigrants of different religious background into the UAE.

UAE is also a multiethnic nation with the Arab group being the most dominant single ethnic among the country’s total population. Arabic ethnic classification covers about 48% on its own while the remaining 52% is divided among various groups such as Iranians, Europeans and Africans (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Again, the economic opportunities and the freedom experienced in the UAE act as the main attracting factors that have led to the increased ethnic groups in the country. As far as politics is concerned, UAE is non-democratic nation because it is imperialistic with the support of a monarchy system of ruling.

History from UAE’s archives reveals that the country was formed from a merge of various states that came together in the 1970s. It was during the year 1971 that six states, which included Ajman, Ash Shariqa, Umm al Qaywayn, Dubbay, Abu Dhabi and Al Fujayrah, came together to form a single nation (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). In turn, the term United Arab Emirates emerged from the merge coined from the six states. As aforementioned, the UAE is a country under the leadership of a kingdom system that is led by a prince who is located in Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi is the wealthiest Emirate among all the merged states that form the UAE; therefore, its political dominance among the rest is unquestionable. The United Arab Emirates is guided by a constitution that came into full power and application in 1996 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Furthermore, the country has different branches of government that work to rule the nation and provide various leadership roles. The Supreme Council of Rulers is the highest federal authority in the United Arab Emirates. The council’s main duties include electing a ruler of the whole UAE, his vice-president. Since the formation of the UAE, the two rulers have been from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively.

The country also has a consultative assembly, which is the Legislature and its main duty is to scrutinize and make the necessary changes of the proposed federal legislation. Members of the Legislature originate from each Emirate with majority coming from Abu Dhabi and Dubai. There is also a federal judiciary in UAE and it encompasses of both sharia and secular courts. The former of the two courts deals with bot criminal and domestic law matters while the latter focuses only on civil issues. In all these issues, the constitution is the ultimate reference of the law, court rulings and leadership’s roles.

UAE is among the oil rich regions around the globe, which makes its hydrocarbon ventures quite lucrative and increasing its total GDP. By 2012, the UAE was recorded to have a total of $358.9 billion in terms of its gross domestic production (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). The number resulted from the country’s exports surpassing its imports, which literally interprets to a high country’s income. The region’s lands are not viable for agricultural activities that can earn the country high returns; hence, it capitalizes on oil export among other hydrocarbons. As such, this has provided Abu Dhabi and Dubai Emirates adequate capital to make overseas investments that have also been among the country’s major sources of income.

Indeed, the UAE has established different economic and human developments, but it is not without challenges. In 2008, the country faced different economic challenges that saw it suffer. It was during this year that the global oil prices plummet followed by a crash in the real estate sector (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). These two crashes turned out to be difficult moments for the UAE since they are among the leading sources of income for the country. The Arab spring is yet another potential problem that almost spread into the UAE through the internet just like in Egypt and Libya, but a quick reaction by the government prevented it. The UAE leaders made quick pledges of providing infrastructures in the poor regions of the country. Sequentially, the people’s perception of the government was reverted from violence as the government promised to make changes for the livelihoods of the poor, which they did.

The UAE political system is not a flawless one, as noted by various prominent citizens that tried addressing the issues related with it in 2011. The system does not allow much of political freedom among its citizens as exhibited once the prominent citizens approached the leaders with an idea of changing various factors in the government. During this period, the citizens, including bloggers, were faced with death threats and some imprisoned for disrespecting the government and its leaders. Different social problems are exhibited in the Emirates where human rights are not executed with fairness among the citizens. It has been noted that the elite in the society receive favors and special treatments from different government institutions such as courts and in making different national decisions.

These problems can be dealt with if various steps are taken to mitigate their influences on the citizens of UAE. Recommendations to curtail the issues include treating everyone in the country with fairness despite their economic status. Furthermore, the government should allow democracy in the country by giving adequate room for people to voice out their concerns. People should not be threatened and mistreated because they seek justice and fairness in the country. It is also essential to make different developments in the country to cater for both the poor and wealthy in the UAE. Therefore, infrastructural development is a recommended step that should be maintained throughout the UAE to upgrade the livelihood of everyone in the country.

Reference

Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). Middle East: United Arab Emirates. Retrieved on 24 January 2014 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ae.html