Days when money didn't matter

40 years of the UAE: Elderly residents remember a time when Dubai was on a much smaller scale, when the Emirati accent was more commonly spoken, and when child messengers were used instead of mobile phones.

Bakheet bin Mohammed Al Falasi, centre, relives the old times at a majlis. Delores Johnson / The National

DUBAI // In decades past, when the fisherman Bakheet bin Mohammed Al Falasi did not have the right amount of change to return to a customer, he would just throw in something else from his catch to make up the balance.

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"It didn't matter if someone was paying in Indian rupees, riyals or dirhams, money didn't matter then like it does now," Mr Al Falasi says.

Paper money would get wet and coins would get lost. But that did not matter as much as having a "good reputation", he says - and friends who trusted you.

Dubai citizens who remember life before the UAE was founded on December 2, 1971 say it was a simpler time.

Donkeys were the preferred method of travel, women tended to their homes without maids, the Emirati accent was predominant and babies were born at home rather than in hospitals.

Many people did not know exactly how old they were, as their births were never officially documented.

"What we know is that we are almost extinct," says Mr Al Falasi, who believes he is at least 80 years old. "There is just a handful of us that remember how it was before."

Some of these people like to gather at a secluded majlis near the sea in Jumeirah, if they have not already gone out in their boats.

The Burj Al Arab hotel can be seen not far away, across from a beach spot still commonly referred to as Chicago beach after Dubai's first resort hotel, the Chicago Beach Hotel, which was demolished in 1997. In its place today stands the Jumeirah Beach Hotel.

Rather than visiting the glitzy hotels, these 10 or so elders prefer to sit at this majlis drinking tea and coffee, reminiscing over the storms and stories from the old, "simpler" days.

"We complain and joke about everything, but put out one rule among us - to avoid politics as it just gives us all a headache," says Mr Al Falasi.

Another elder, Mohammed Al Tayer, recalls that whenever he wanted to raise funds in the old days, he would go out in a boat to the remote islands of Abu Dhabi, capture a wild falcon and bring it home.

"You became rich like a king. You would get Dh20,000 for a falcon," Mr Al Tayer says.

The elders say just about everything has changed, including the Emirati accent.

As expatriate workers flowed in with the construction boom that started in the late 1980s, and mixed with other nationalities as well as the local population, a more generic form of Arabic evolved.

"The younger generations half the time don't understand what I am saying," says Ali bin Thani bin Kadra, who witnessed the rapid development and the creation of artificial islands.

"The sea has changed, there are less fish and too much pollution and noise everywhere. They keep building something artificial here and there, confusing us."

The greatest changes to the UAE have been for women, says Mira Rashid Al Hameli, who - speaking from a separate majlis - says she also does not know her age but believes she is about 80.

"We used to give birth at home, no help, with salt placed on our wounds to disinfect," says Mrs Al Hameli, a mother of four girls and two boys.

She has noticed how life is easier on her daughters and how they can receive help for any projects they may have in mind.

"We didn't have maids or help, we did everything ourselves," Mrs Al Hameli says.

She has been given several mobile phones but still prefers the days when she could send word to her neighbours by using the youngest in the household as a messenger, after making sure they had accurately memorised what she wanted to say.

"It is the social life we miss the most," she says, echoing sentiments expressed by other elders.

Like many of her contemporaries, she has fond memories of her donkeys.

"The poor donkey, it was always carrying our things and our children," she says.

"It was sweeter and more reliable than any car."