In the summer of 2002
I was born in the United Arab Emirates. At the moment, the world was suffering from one of the UAE's major recessions. My father remembers the year as difficult. He was working on a contract that expired in 2001, at a time when finding another career was impossible, and he was forced to adequately fund and care for my mother and older siblings. The decision to hire me was motivated by the country's improved economic circumstances in 2002. My father had landed a job that allowed the family to maintain a respectable standard of living. The United Arab Emirate was performing well in 2002 that is was ranked 49th out 177 counties in terms of UNDP economic indicators (Bley and Kermit,17). The conditions were favorable for my father; the breadwinner to comfortably provide and sustain the family. The economic conditions continued to flourish in the country which is attributed to the growth of labor and capital in the country. Also, the country generated large amounts of revenues from hydrocarbon revenues that results in fiscal surpluses. Therefore, my father's income from his place of work was increased. My early childhhood life, as long as I can remember was one of the best. As a matter of fact, I had the privillige to study in a private school as my father was able to pay for me to learn in a private kindergarten from 2005 to 2007.
Primary school
Another major decision made in my life happened in 2008. When I talk to the mother about this period, she laments and she gets sad talking about it. She says that it all started in 2007 to 2009. I did not feel the effects in 2007 because I was in a good private school and everyone was catered for by parents normally. Problems occurred in 2008 where my parents talk me about taking me to a public primary school. All along, they had promised to take me to a private school, yet all over sudden, they changed their minds. Truthfully, the country economic performance was poor as seen from the level of Growth Domestic Product. UAE was not immune to the 2008 global financial crisis which led to slow growth and a declining efficiency in institutions like banks.
The recession caused by the global financial crisis
affected the payment of salaries and wages which directly affected my father who was responsible for my school fees. Additionally, devaluation affected value of dollars in the country such that only a few goods and services could be consumed with the same dollars that my dad had the previous years. According to (Frankel, Carlos, and Guillermo 42) in 2008-2009, the United Arab Emirates saw a combination of a fall in oil prices, a collapse in real estates markets and international financial and banking crisis led to toughest economic times in the. Evidently, he could not afford to pay for my school fees in a private primary school. For this reason, I had to settle for a public school. Knowing what I wanted in life, I worked really hard in my primary school that by the end of 2013 I had achieved excellent marks that earned me entry to a good high school.
Secondary school
In 2011, I joined a national secondary school. During this year, the country's economic performance was good and thus my parents did not have to consider taking me to a local secondary school for financial reasons. According to Worldbank figures, UAE was ranked 30th globally with a GDP of $360 billion which is equivalent to $403.22 billion dollars today (Shahbaz 635). Also, my father's income was above the per capita income in UAE in 2011. He earned about $67,000 per annum an amount equal to $75,000 per annum in present times. Evidently, he was able to cater for my school fees my secondary school.
Life is high school was very excited for the first two years
that is 2011 and 2012. I would get all school necessities I needed from my parents in these periods. Also, my school fee was paid before even school opened. Between 2013 and 2014, life seemed to be stagnant. Even though I did not have issues with payment of my school fees, I noticed my father paid it a little later. The situation can be explained by the slow economic growth in UAE in these years. Importantly, there was not a negative deviation, only that rapid growth did not occur. Due to the favorable environment, support from family and good economic conditions I was able to study smoothly and attained an excellent grade in my final year exam.
Moving to the United States
In 2015, I made the biggest decision that affected my life a great deal. I decided to go the United States to for my college studies. Unfortunately, United Arab Emirates was facing recession. There was a progressive slow growth from 2011 to 2014; however, there was a decline in 2015 where the country recorded a GDP of $370.3billion compared to 401.9 billion of 2014. In such economic times, consumption is always affected and thus my family was also affected. For this reason, my family strained a bit to fund for my miscellaneous needs necessaty to travel abroad. According to (Almonayirie and Suchi 201), the recession affected economic lives as seen from a reduction of GDP per capita from $394 in 2014to $362 in 2015. Likely, my excellent performance in high school earned me a full scholarship in to study in the United States.
Unlike UAE, the United State economic performance has been growing positively since 2009
In 2015, the GDP level had improved to $18569.1 billion from 18036.65 in 2014; ie it improved from 2.6% to 2.9%. Additionally, the unemployment rate reduced from 5.6% to 5.0% (Saez n.p). also, Saez terms the period between 2009 and 2015 as a period of recovery. As such, there was an economic expansion in the United States that made the dollar strong. The increase in the value of the dollar meant that the country's economic performace was good. Even though, the country is a good performer compared to UAE. It also meant to me that I had a better opportunity of becoming a better person learning in country whose economu is way stronger than my home country.
While in the United States
it appeared to me that the cost of living was a bit higher compared to when I was home. Fortunately, I did not take time to adjust to the kind of lifestyle in the country. Also, I was able to secure a part-time job which I did to help me sustain my life and thus helped me pursue my education comfortably. Another notable difference between the US and UAE is that the US has higher per capita income. My part-time job pays me well that I am seeing myself able to buy a car by the end of this year. In 2016, I found life a bit challenging as opposed to 2015. The United States saw sharp inflation that increased from 0.7% in 2015 to 2.1% in 2016. As such, the country's dollar had lost value in that I would only purchase fewer commodities with the same amount of dollars compared to the previous years.
Works Cited
Almonayirie, Waleed, and Suchi Dubey. “UAE Banks Financial Merit Diagnosis Using Dual-Classification Scheme.” CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS IRC-2014. 2014.
Bley, Jorg, and Kermit Kuehn. “Conventional versus Islamic finance: student knowledge and perception in the United Arab Emirates.” International Journal of Islamic Financial Services5.4 (2004): 17-30.
Frankel, Jeffrey A., Carlos A. Vegh, and Guillermo Vuletin. “On graduation from fiscal procyclicality.” Journal of Development Economics 100.1 (2013): 32-47.
Shahbaz, Muhammad, et al. “Economic growth, electricity consumption, urbanization and environmental degradation relationship in United Arab Emirates.” Ecological Indicators 45 (2014): 622-631.
Saez, Emmanuel. “Striking it richer: The evolution of top incomes in the United States (Updated with 2014 preliminary estimates).” Economics Department, UC Berkeley (2015).
