Final Assignment
The interview I conducted was with Khalfan Al Hameli, my
father (53 years old). The purpose of this interview is to get a perspective of
how sports and leisure were in the past generations and how it has changed
since then. The first question I asked my Khalfan is if he was a fan of sports,
he replied that he has never bothered with sports as a competitive scene but he
does agree that sports are one of the best past times or hobbies one can have.
I asked Khalfan what activities did he do as a kid for fun football, tennis or
any type of sport, he answered that he didn’t really have a football growing
and for fun they played more traditional games like hide and see and so on. I
asked him how did that change since then, he said “kids these days do not want
to go outside and play, you have to convince them to leave the house, back then
you had to convince me to stay home”. I asked him if he knew anything about
camel racing, he said he can recollect when he was a kid he witnessed a few and
also a couple of auctions but he was never interested in it. I asked him if he
knows how camel racing has changed through the years. He assured that he knows
that there are no more jockeys for camels, and the enormous prices of these
camels even though he does not keep up with the sport. I asked him what sports
does he do or keep up to date with today, he answered that he does not keep up
with sports and leagues such as football which is very common in the UAE, as
for sports his favorite sport is swimming. I asked him why it was his favorite
sport, he told me that it is very relaxing and that you can get a workout
without intense pressure and stress, and that it can be an individual sport
where you don’t need to depend on anyone but yourself. I asked him when he
started swimming he said it was when they opened the swimming pool in the Officers
Club long ago and ever since then he has been in love with the sport,
he mentioned that there were no swimming pools when he was a kid so it was a
very new experience for him. He also mentioned that he still exercises every
morning and that he considers it a healthy lifestyle and discipline. In
conclusion after interviewing my Khalfan Al Hameli I concluded that yes the UAE
has changed a lot in 50 years in terms of sports and leisure some were
positive, more sports being offered in the UAE such as swimming and so on
others were negative, like kids being more into video games rather than sports.
In my opinion I think the positive outweigh the negative, because the UAE is
doing the right changes and taking the right step forward in terms of modernization
it is the individuals he need change.
