David Heard—author of From Pearls to Oil and a British historian who lived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the 1960s—believes that decades of pearl diving provided the Emirati people with valuable experience at sea, aiding foreign oil companies in locating offshore oil fields.
However, this is not the only—or even the most important—link between the pearl and oil eras. The lessons drawn from the rise and fall of the pearl industry—and from the poverty, deprivation, and hardship that followed—were strongly present when new oil wealth emerged and investment decisions had to be made. As will become clear in the course of this book, the most important lesson was the danger of relying on a single source of income, no matter how significant it might be to the local and global economy, and the necessity of investing that resource to achieve sustainable development for future generations and to ensure that the region’s people would not revert to the suffering they had previously endured. Thus, work proceeded on two parallel tracks: the optimal investment of oil revenues to achieve a major cultural renaissance at all levels, while simultaneously promoting economic diversification and building a sustainable modern economy.
The people of the region were not prepared for the post-pearl era; indeed, they likely never imagined that such a time would come. The shock was therefore great, and the consequences extremely negative, when they found themselves confronting a new and harsh reality without pearls. This early developmental lesson, which became ingrained in the collective consciousness and was passed down through generations of decision-makers in the UAE, emerged strongly during the oil era. The wise leadership absorbed the lesson and has been preparing for decades for the post-oil era, knowing that this moment is inevitable. It does not view it as a cause for concern or panic but rather as a cause for celebration—provided there is sound preparation and wise investment of oil wealth. This is what His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, may God protect him, expressed in his historic speech at the World Government Summit in 2015, when he said: “The question is, fifty years from now after we have loaded this last barrel of oil, are we going to feel sad? If our investment today is right, I think - dear brothers and sisters - we will celebrate that moment.”
