Hamza Al Araimi is an admissions officer at NYU Abu Dhabi. In an interview with The Gazelle, Al Araimi reflects upon the UAE and his experience of living here amidst rapid change.

These are things that His Highness Sheikh Zayed, may his soul rest in peace, provided. There's a recording where a journalist asked him a question: why provide them with free housing, free education, free medication and not use the free market tools? And he said, your own children — would you leave them to fend for themselves or would you provide them with everything they need to have a better life so they can be more productive in the future? Well all these nationals, they are my children.

I'll be very honest. Some people say, oh [they provide because] they're afraid of an uprising and all that stuff, and I'll say, no, it's not [true]. It's always been like that. It's the way we were brought up — to know that things are not as easy as before, it's much more competitive, but generally, they provide you with all the basic necessities. Which is awesome, when you think of it. It's very unique. And all you need to do is work, be productive, get yourself a good education, and follow in the path of providing for the next generations.

Over the years, they've been providing more and more opportunities to students so that they don't have to go abroad to get an education. Going abroad had its benefits, where people would need to be self-dependent, learn from people from nationalities, different backgrounds.

But then there's also the downside to it, which is being abroad, being away from your family.

Over the years, there was a tendency [to think], ok, I'm going to go abroad. You might ask a UAE national who's in grade 10 or 11, [and they'd say], everybody's going abroad, I want to go abroad, to see what it's like.

Now they don't have to think that way. And although there was skepticism of NYU from the beginning, over the past years you might see there's an influx of UAE nationals because they hear and they see that all they can get abroad is now in town. They don't have to go and be away from their families.

A typical day, lets say weekend [would be]: wake up in the morning have a family breakfast, do homework, have lunch and then maybe around two, three o'clock in the afternoon, [go to] certain clubs...that had swimpools, football pitches, billiards, all activities cultural, physical or educational.

Families would come in. We'd go in the afternoon, we'd spend a full day up until 8, 9 o'clock and play football. It was a very active lifestyle. Before the Emirates palace [was constructed], there was a wonderful beach. We'd go out camping there, swimming. There was a lot more of an impactful lifestyle.

Now what I see is, I see my nephews, they come back from school and they've got their iPods, cartoons and movies. Sometimes I force them to play educational games. People spend more time indoors — the lifestyle has changed, but more towards education in the way that they're spending time.

The new generation has lost touch, to a certain extent, with their identity, with their culture, with who they are. Blindly copying other cultures, for example, like Americanized forms or styles of being a teenager. I'm not saying that you have to dress up as a local to have a cultural identity... But they've lost touch with their culture, their background. It's surprising that sometimes, basic things that we used to know, such as certain customs, they no longer know anymore.

Over the past two years I've noticed that the government, they've got a feel of what's going on. So they've started to reintroduce, bringing in the old generation, [saying] this is what it used to be like, these are the cultural aspects.

I'm not against bringing in Western influence. There's a lot for us to learn from countries that have been around for hundreds of years. It's a unique opportunity, being a new country, that you can look at other places, look at other systems and take the best of it and learn from it, but also [you shouldn't] lose the identity of who you are.

Previously in the old days, if I were in the madras with my grandfather, [I] would not talk unless talked to, for example. Nowadays, parents are much more open, more outgoing, let me put it that way.

So I think you're talking about three different generations. The first generation in the UAE, some of them would be very much open and willing to have a dialogue with the third generation, but usually it's the second generation that lived with the first and are present with the third, they are the best people to have that dialogue because they have the vision of both sides.

The newest generation, some of them are open to listening to what the older ones have. It depends on the age. Sometimes you reach an age where you believe, I know everything, my parents don't need to tell me.... But you'll find out once you get older, there's a reason why [they're] saying this and advising you.

I think it's extremely important. There is a reason for everything.... Part of it comes from religion as well, where [there's] respect for the elders, kindness for the young, and things such as opening the door for someone who's older, opening the door for a woman.

These are little touches that I think people value.

For example, greeting parents. Something that some westerners, when they visit me, would say, oh that's strange, [is when] I would go and kiss my father's hand and his forehead.... I'm showing him appreciation that he raised me and provided for me and gave me schooling. He did all the things that a father should do. Although, it's a duty as a parent, for me it's a sign of respect [to still] thank [him] for giving me that.

I think there has always been a presence of expats in the UAE. I've met some expats who've been here for forty years, fifty years, in this region — not necessarily the UAE. They've been part of building the country. They consider this as home now.

But more the tourism, maybe, I would say started in the early 80's.

Many of the expats I know, they've made this their home. They've living here, their kids are here, and their grandchildren are here. I think it's going to be an ongoing collaboration.

I don't like calling them expats, the word in Arabic I use is basically, residents that don't have UAE passports. Residents in the UAE. Not expats. I don't think it's a friendly word to use because this is their home. And I think, like I said, it's going to be an ongoing collaboration between us and them and continuing the journey their parents and their grandparents set forth.

Brands — I remember... more British brands. But the international brands started coming in I think mid-80's, and going on. We had shopping centers, not malls, where you'd have two stories, three stories maybe, of shops. Not brands, just regular shops... The closest thing to a mall was in 1995, I think, which was a shopping complex opposite Abu Dhabi mall. That was what I would have called, for us, a mall in those days. And then I think, Marina Mall and Abu Dhabi Mall came, and then suddenly you got all these malls springing up around the country.

The largest change in the influx of Western lifestyle, I think I would say started in the early 90's. Like I said, before then our weekends were always active, because we didn't have malls to go to, we didn't have all these electronic gamers. There was, on Hamdan street, a one-story, small building, that I think was twice the size of the Welcome Center, and it had electronic games. And you're talking about old Nintendo games, street-fighter games.... We would go and play a little bit, but we wouldn't want our parents to know.

We did a lot of walking... I remember we used to live behind al-Wahda club, and my best friend used to live on the Corniche. I would walk all the way there, we'd meet and walk around Abu Dhabi. We wouldn't depend on taxis, or on our own cars, or all these things that people depend on today.

My dad, for example, was like daughters don't get married until they get a university degree, until they're more educated. In religion and culture, the mother or the women is the pillar of the community. They say, educate a woman, you educate the whole community. So that's always been a part of it.

Generally, a woman is an integral part of the community. But of course, she needs to find that balance between being there for the family and her career.

It's happened with some UAE nationals, for example, where some females because they're so focused on their career, by the time they think, I want to start a family, they're like in their thirties or early forties. One of them was a good friend of mine, she actually told me, I feel I made a mistake, I messed up, I should have found more balance. It has a lot to do with culture as well. But at the end of the day, a woman has been vital from day one to the building of this country. Even in those days, she was introduced to education, schools for women.

I know a lady who runs her own business, she's top management in one of the multi-national companies, and at the same time she is a housewife, she has kids and it is amazing to see women do all that. I sometimes believe I don't know if a man can balance all of that.

Remember when they used to [call DTC] the Old Fish Market? So I used to come here, my father would send me as a kid — go and buy some fish for the house. I'd come here. First floor was fish, second was fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Corniche has been extended [outward] three times at least, the waterfront used to be where some of these buildings are here now. There weren't so many parks on the Corniche, all of our parks were more in-town. Now it's both sides. There's a lot more high-rise buildings, a lot more restaurants.

Like the old market, that was where the new Central Market is. My personal opinion is, it was an amazing, amazing place. ...[If you] wanted sports clothes, equipment, silk. You wanted to buy kitchenware, electronics — anything you can imagine was there. And you'd go and you'd haggle for the price. It was a different experience, there was a different taste to it. You'd have small shops with people spreading things on the floor, a shop could be as small as this table, the area where my desk is. People from different nationalities selling different things. You'd find people, they would have a little gas cylinder, a little box set-up and a frying pan, and they'd have fried peanuts. They'd put it in magazine pieces of paper... I think it was half a dirham for a cone of nuts. Simple things that would have been lovely. For all the kids that I know in my generation, the Central Market as a work of architecture is wonderful. But we believe it has lost its touch. Build it in this new way, okay. But bring in all those original old shops rather than these new high-end shops.... But other than that, Abu Dhabi hasn't changed much except that, the roads are wider, more buildings, more shops, more restaurants.

Certain places in Abu Dhabi, they still have this [small experience]. There is a place — it's an Iranian cafeteria, it's been here since the early 1980's. And it's owned by I think, eight brothers... [They serve what we] call, land-to-air missiles sandwiches, because they're huge sandwiches. It has Lebanese bread, and you put fried vegetables in it, falafel, sausages. It's just a huge mess.