Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I The Heritage
- Part II The Transformation
- Part III The Union
- Part IV The Legacy
- Chapter 11 The Building of Cities
- Chapter 12 The Moral Purpose of Wealth
- Chapter 13 Preserving the Natural World
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Chapter 13 - Preserving the Natural World
from Part IV - The Legacy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Note on Transliteration
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part I The Heritage
- Part II The Transformation
- Part III The Union
- Part IV The Legacy
- Chapter 11 The Building of Cities
- Chapter 12 The Moral Purpose of Wealth
- Chapter 13 Preserving the Natural World
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Select Bibliography
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
Perhaps H.H. Shaikh Zayid's greatest gift to future generations stemmed from something that he had learned as a child and a young man. Although he believed in the value and importance of building a great city in Abu Dhabi, he was most deeply a man of the open air, who loved riding, walking, or watching the forces of nature around him. There is no single word that fully describes those qualities. Perhaps, although it sounds sentimental, the closest we can come in English is to refer to is a penchant for the “joy” of nature. Yet if the natural world was to survive the pressures of civilization, it had to be protected and nurtured; he once said:
I set out on a hunting expedition in open country. My game was a large herd of gazelles spread over a wide area. I followed them and began shooting. Three hours later, I stopped to count my bag and found I had shot fourteen gazelle. I pondered over this for a long time. I realized that hunting with a gun was no more than an outright attack on animals and a cause of their rapid extinction. I changed my mind and decided to restrict myself to falconry only.
Shaikh Zayid saw ‘nature’ in very broad terms; it embraced the societies of both animals and human beings, and at its heart was the world of plants. He could see that nature parks and reserves could be useful, but that they were not sufficient in a world of growing and intrusive pollution. He saw human expression as a part of nature in his holistic approach. In particular, he regarded the writing and recitation of poetry as a central focus of traditional Arab culture that had to be kept alive and active.
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- Information
- With United StrengthHH Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan: The Leader and the Nation, pp. 291 - 302Publisher: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and ResearchPrint publication year: 2013