Final Project
The UAE before 42 years ago were almost a dessert and they
don’t any kind of entertainment that we have in these days like sport clubs,
shopping malls and traveling to far countries like Europe. But when anyone sit
with their grandfathers he always listen to them and he can feel they had fun
also more excited than us, so I planned to make an interview with one of my
grandfather to have a lot of information about their childhood and how were
enjoy their times on their days.
I planned to have the interview with my grandfather on Thursday
and was very excited because one of his grandsons was interested on his golden memories,
and most of the interview he was talking about the camel racing.
Camel race is
considered one of the most traditional and popular sport in Arabian Peninsula
in old and modern times. It has been a part of Arabs culture as camels have been
proven as reliable vehicles that can endure the harshness and aridity of
deserts.
Camels are known for
their abilities of withstanding dry, hot climate. Camels’ physiology help them
to sustain their humidity by elevating their bodies away from the ground by
means of four, dry yet strong legs. Bedouins have seized the opportunity of taming
camels and train them based on their needs. Camels have been used mainly for
transporting people and goods, however, due to their abilities, Bedouins have also
used them for different purposes such as wars and entertainment.
Camels Race in
particular, is considered the most popular form of entertainment besides the
Camels beauty show. In Arabic it is called, سباق الهجن,
“Sibaq Al hijin”, and it is require a special procedure to make the camel light
and fast enough to compete in such races. Race camels start preparation at age
of 4 years old and it takes a period of two months to one year to make them
able to compete in races. The process starts by isolating the camel for a
varying period and control its diet to tame it controllable, then it goes into
the second stage by teaching it commands and how to response to them
accordingly. The third stage is when the bridle is enforced and the camel
starts to follow the tamer commands. The final stage is when the camel is
equipped with a saddle and prepare it to be mountable, hence, concluding the
process of taming it and starting to make it practice different forms of
walking, trotting and running.
The camel can compete in
a race for a period of two years to ten years based on lineages. The camel
speed in a race usually starts at 65 km/hr for the first kilometers however it
starts to drop drastically to hover around 40 to 30 km/hr. To ensure maximum
performance, the camel is mounted by a rider who whip and chant on it to keep
the camel focused on giving it fullest. As for the race lap distance it varies
based on the camels age and capacity, it can go from 4 Km up to long tracks
which could go up to 10-15 Km. The winning camel usually get praised and
inaugurated to be a desired asset that worth millions of dirhams.
Camel race is
considered a stable tradition that has been practiced for more than a thousand year
and it never showed any deviation or deterioration in practice, however, due to
the recent incidents of malpractices such as hormones injections, harmful
additives that enhance performance yet shorten camels life cycles and riders malnutrition
regimes to decrease weight on camels thus it becomes faster, UAE government has
enforced a law banning any doping to camels and substituting camels riders with
a robot that can be installed on a saddle. The robot is equipped with an
actuator whip that can be controlled to rotate remotely and a speaker that
transmit the owner chanting to the camel thus make the robot a suitable rider
that can do the job.
Camels race has been,
still be and will be a defining sport that shows the values of desert dwellers ,
it shows dedication, patience and tenacity as well as defiance to the difficult
nature of desert. Camel race echoes that despite the hard reality of living in
a desert, entertainment and joy is still cherished and coveted and it will be
always the way to live.
