Updates: 123Orion charity, Muscat Rugby club fundraiser and last chance for free tickets to Hi FM Comedy night!

A few weeks ago, local Expat band 123 Orion did a gig at the Royal Flight to raise funds for local good cause previously featured on the blog, the Creative Learning Centre. The gig was a sell-out and a great success, raising 400 rials [over US$1000] and providing great fun and entertainment for the folks. Well done 123 Orion and special thanks to Jon G.

Photo: Members of band 123 Orion presenting their cheque for 400 rials to the Manager of the Creative Learning Center. Great Job!


Meanwhile, the 'A ruckin' good time' comedy show at Muscat Rugby Club on May 13th was also a hit, and raised loads of cash (over 900 rials!) for the local rugby team. Well done to Mr. & Mrs. Sythe who organised the event. Mr Sythe is a local blogger and author of Muscat Mutterings. Muscat Confidential reader Delirious in the Desert won 2 free tickets to the event and sent this review:

Local comedy show fundraiser big hit at Muscat Rugby Club
All in all it was a great event and fun was had by all - it was well coordinated and sounds like the Rugby boys will get almost a full strip for next season :)
My hubby and I missed the first 3 comedians (we had friends who arrived in town that night from Abu Dhabi and their plane was delayed, so our dinner plans were pushed back).

We did hear that 2 of the first 3 people were awesome, but Mr Sythe would be better versed to speak on their performances...

However, the first comedian after the break was FANTASTIC - an Omani/British guy from Qantab who rocked the house with his jokes about his flight attendant days, as well as growing up in a fishing village /multi-cultural household / and the challenges of explaining traditions like Christmas & The Tooth Fairy to his Omani friends. He had the audience in hysterics and was sent off stage with a round of applause!

The next guy was a Kenyan with a strong American accent, and bless him - he struggled through his performance due to a lack of audience reaction, but nevertheless he finished his set and held his head high. All credit to him though, he approached people after the show and requested feedback - although I wasn't game enough to be honest with him since I immediately thought of the old Jack Nicholson quote "You can't handle the truth" from that Tom Cruise movie!

The final comedian was hilarious and had a huge presence on stage, quite literally. He was an big Omani guy dressed in a rusty coloured dishdasha and matching kumar, joking about sports, sex and cars...quite the line-up. He was a real character and had everyone laughing and cringing at the same time!!!

Overall it was a good night had by all, judging from my sore cheeks and head the next day. Our friends from Abu Dhabi had a good time too and commented that it was the best amateur comedy night they had been too in ages.

Cheers for the tickets!!!
DITD.

More free stuff! HiFM Comedy
There's more comedy on its way, and you still can enter the draw for one of 2 pairs of free tickets to comedian Amer Zahr, playing on Wednesday, 2nd June at the Crown Plaza.



Either place a comment on this post (with a means of contact and remember it's public) or email undercover(dot)dragon(at)gmail(dot)com, and you are in to win. The draw will be held at midnight, Wednesday 26th May. Enter now!!!

You can also buy tickets by calling the HiFM booking line on (+968) 955-55699

Amer, already a feature on ABC network's "Politically Incorrect" show, is so funny he's just been given his own sitcom vehicle on US TV this season. So for 15 rials a ticket it's a bargain.


And lastly,
Omani Legal Eagle BlueChi, currently on a work experience programme in the US Congress, had the bad luck to get assigned to Congressman Mark Souder for the Legislative Fellowship Program he's on.

Mr Souder, a right-wing 'Family values' Christian Republican, was forced to resign last week after admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a staff member!! See BlueChi's blog here. I'm told BlueChi was live tweeting the event as it happened.

The most unusual thing about the event that it was a female member of his staff... Blue Chi is definitely getting a real tour of US politics!

And the lucky winner is.... Plus more on Blue City

Sorry for the lack of posts this week dear Reader, I've been a busy Dragon; lots of knights to slay, maidens to ravish, treasure to hoard, you know how it is. Work work work.

First, the draw for the winner of 2 free tickets to the Muscat Rugby club fund raiser, a comedy night featuring up to a dozen comedians on Thursday May 13th and held at the Muscat rugby club near the ABA school in Al Khuwair.



The draw was held under the usual supervision of Ms Dragon and a very senior member of the Internal Security Service on Monday evening. And the winner was...

"Delirious in the Desert"

Congrats DITD! Enjoy. I've been promised a review and pics. The rest of you, there are still tickets available.


Blue City
Well connected fan Ibrahim made a great comment on the last Blue City story, and I'm reposting here, because this information is accurate and hard to find.

Dear UD,

Your blog is hugely popular. Your accurate and authentic information is sincerely appreciated. Let me add some more data on the blue city project. Hopefully those maroons who messed should wake up. Its about time His Majesty Qaboos asks Anees to shut up and get out of the project. Enough of wasta boss.

Issuer = Blue City Investment 1 Limited (Commercial Registration No. WK163178) incorporated in Cayman Islands for the purpose of issuing Class A, B, C & D Notes worth US$ 925 Million. Borrower = Blue City Company 1 SAOC (Commercial Registration No. 1/83627/7) incorporated in Oman.

On 7th November 2006 Blue City 1 SAOC signed Intercompany Loan Agreement and received US$ 921,400,960 as follows: Class A1/Class A2/Class A3/Class A4 – 658,982,625; Class B – 142,200,630; Class C – 50,217,705 and Class D – 70,000,000.

There were many PARTIES to the transaction. Namely, (1) The Bank of New York as Offshore Security Trustee (2) Bank Muscat SAOG as Onshore Security Trustee (3) Bear Stearns Bank Plc as Class A guarantor (4) The Bank of New York as Offshore Account bank (5) Bank Muscat SAOG as Onshore Account bank. Bear, Stearns International Limited were the arranger and Oppenheimer (Samuel Grossmann) as the brokers.

Clifford Chance drafted all agreements and Iain Morpeth is the man in-charge. The Intercompany Loan agreement contains a number of representations, covenants and events of default which are subject to a Material Adverse Effect qualification. Project documents specified are: Development agreement, Construction contract, construction security, construction contract guarantee, land transfer agreements, Works agreement, Balance of Work agreement, Additional Works Agreement, etc.

Government of Oman represented by its ministers (Tourism, National Economy and Commerce & Industry) have signed & ratified agreements, why are these ministries keeping silent?

If the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission of the USA) can take on Goldman Sachs for fraud, why spare Blue City? US$ 50 Million was held in the Blue City 1 SAOC’s Bank Muscat account as escrow, where is that money?

US$ 20 Million was escrowed for the purchase of Al Sawadi Beach Resort Hotel and of the associated usufruct, where is that money?

Blocked escrowed for the company was US$ 105,417,358, where is this money?

US$ 440,588,374 was the total initial mandatory deposit that was made with the issuer (Blue City Investment 1 Limited, Cayman Island). Where is the audited financials for Blue City 1 SAOC and Blue City Investment 1 Limited???

Can somebody from Blue City 1 SAOC answer?

Here, here Ibrahim. And not even a press release in the Times of Oman explaining the total normality of the bankruptcy, global crisis, just look at Dubai, etc etc etc. How peculiar!

As for those bonds, you might be interested to know the latest market prices*, as advised by a trusted source in a GCC National Bank treasury outfit. Pricing of a $100 Blue City Bond as of the 27/4/2010 was:

Secured tranch Class(A1) $35.55
Secured tranch Class(A2) $30.50
Subordinate tranch Class (B1) $25.35
Subordinate tranch Class (C) $20.35
Subordinate tranch Class (D) $10.40

Bare in mind that the tranch A1 was priced at closure at $98.50 and reached once upon a time to the whereabouts of $120!

Wow. Way to destroy value ASIT team!

The secured A1 & A2 bonds seem to have a very small spread against the absolute D class junk, given they are supposedly fully secured on billions of dollars worth of 25km2 of Al Sawadi land. This can only reflect the way the market is currently pricing the competency and trustworthiness of the people behind Blue City, or they'd instead, IMHO, be up around 70-80 cents (just compare with unsecured Dubai Holdings bonds recently).

*This is just for information and is not a recommendation for people to act upon or invest. Muscat Confidential does not provide investment advice. Readers are strongly advised to always obtain advice from their own legal and financial advisors before making any financial commitments that would require them to pour good money after bad.

HH Sayyid Taimur calls out the Ministry of Manpower, and another awesome Muscat Confidential Promo

First, news.

A big Muscat Confidential thumbs up to HH Sayyid Tariq bin Shabib bin Taimur, Chairman of the National Hospitality Institute (a private training outfit for the hospitality industry in Oman), who was in the business section of today's Muscat Daily (they don't have a website, so I can't give you a link) pointing out how useless the Ministry of Manpower are. Despite having loads of training places available, lots of potential Omani trainees, and hundreds of potential jobs, the MoM just couldn't be arsed to assign the trainees or even pay their outstanding bills with NHI.

He even lists the things he's about the get action on via "... other Ministries concerned and authorities in Government" [read: Ministry of National Economy, MoF, and HM]. He is quoted as saying:

" NHI is...requesting the following solutions:

- pay NHI all outstanding debt immediately, for all work successfully completed;
- remove the conflict of interest [MoM run Oman Tourism College, a competitor];
- change the chronic processes for trainee allocation and payment; and
- quantify and confirm the scale of the [training] opportunity."

Nice one.

I do have a suggestion, Your Majesty**. How about appointing HH Sayyid as Minister of Manpower? He seems to have his shit together and the ability to apply common sense proposals based on a sensible appoach to achieve desired results, a fundamental ability we have all noted seems curiously missing from the skillset of the MoM incumbent...

HH is totally correct: there are a mountain of jobs in the local hospitality industry the new generation of Omanis could excel at, and that should pay a lot more than 300 rials a month too. The Ministry of Manpower instead of training Omanis for actual jobs we need and paying their bills, seem to want to focus on arresting and deporting poor down trodden part-time housemaids, construction labourers and gardeners, presumably to reinforce the natural monopolies of the industrial manpower giants like BEC and OHI. I wonder why?

HH also, demonstrably, has huge balls. I don't recall a member of the Royal Family taking on a Ministry before in a public press conference.

More please HH. So far, you've certainly made a fan of Undercover Dragon.



Promotion!!!
And in another exclusive promotion for our lucky readers, friend of Muscat Confidential and promising local blogger Mr Sythe of Muscat Mutterings has returned the favour* by offering a pair of free tickets to the upcoming comedy night on Thursday May 13th ("a ruckin good time" - getit?) in aid of the rugby players at Muscat Rugby Club.

Free tickets to Muscat Rugby Club's Comedy bash next Thursday night, 13th May!


It sounds like a totally fun bash. Muscat needs as much comedy as it can get (and not the Ministry of Manpower kind).

The Muscat Rugby Team could also do with a few corporate sponsors too, btw, as the management of the rugby club don't seem to be financially able*** to fully support, er, the people who actually play rugby. Interested? Contact Mr Sythe at mrsythe(at)gmail(dot)com

Usual deal: Put your entry in the comments section or email me at undercover(dot)dragon(at)gmail(dot)com, along with a way to contact you. The draw will be held this Monday evening (that's 2 days away folks), so get in quick!


An update on the Jefferson Starship-esque 123 Orion band's Charity gig, held at Royal Flight over the weekend in aid of the Creative learning Center tomorrow, BTW... I heard it was pretty good.



* He won 2 free tickets to Tom Jones from here a while ago.


** I do fantasize about HM being a reader, must admit... if only...


*** post-posting edit/clarification at the request of Mr Sythe.

Infamous Muscat Rugby Club to re-open this weekend

Muscat Rugby Club is a famous boozing joint, where occasional rugby is played too, out in Al Khuwair near the ABA school. It used to be a regular place for expats to go watch sport and get smashed on cheap drinks.

But, last year when a drunken crew of visiting Kuwait-based expat rugby boys abused the ROP for trying to interrupt their bacchanalian revels, after their post-match party had spilled into the street outside (with stories of a few of the players being in drag for some reason), the ROP came back with their own version of ‘fcuk you too’ and simply closed the whole place down, withdrawing their license.

Which seems fair enough.

But I’ve been told this info obviously hadn’t reached the big boss. When an Englishman, who was known by the Diwan to be a rugby fan, was meeting with a senior aide to His Majesty a few months ago on an unrelated matter, he was apparently asked how the Muscat rugby club was doing. On being told that it had been closed down by the ROP for ages, the aide looked a bit ill and scurried to HM, returning to say that the club had been a gift from HM to the British people of Muscat and that the situation would be sorted asap. Clearly no-one had bothered to think the club’s closure was something HM needed to know.

And so, it’s officially open for business again chaps. With a bit of a tightening of the rules naturally, and I especially like the revised guidelines on "how not to piss off the good officers of His Majesties Royal Oman Police after imbibing 12 pints of Stella while wearing a skirt". Membership is a quite reasonable 60 rials a year, entitling you to enjoy subsidized alcohol in the company of extremely inebriated British and Ex-Colonial rugby lads, who generally enjoy a bit of full contact ball-playing with their pals. If that’s what you’re into, there is no finer establishment in the Sultanate.

What most expats don’t seem to know that almost all the pubs and drinking holes in Oman have a regular watcher from Internal Security keeping an eye on things. Ever noticed the quiet middle aged Omani guy, usually in the corner at the bar on his own, quietly nursing a pint of beer and looking bored out of his skull? That’s him. It’s mainly to keep an eye on the younger Omani lads and to call the ROP riot squad in a timely fashion if things get out of hand, or to know if one of the less constrained HHs [His Highnesses] from the extended Royal Family is getting a bit wayward. Have a friendly chat with him next time, and you may make a very useful acquaintance.

Perhaps I'll see you at the MRC...