Sunday, August 10, 2008

Will Oman move to a Friday Saturday weekend?

More scuttlebutt in the press today about how the Government is 'studying a move to a Friday Saturday weekend'.

The banks have already effectively moved. HE The Minister of Oil and Gas sent a letter to all operators and Oil and Gas service companies in the middle of last year telling them that the Oil and Gas industry would be moving to a F/S weekend as of 1st January this year, but nothing happened.

Rumor has it the Cabinet and leading industry figures are keen to align with UAE and Qatar, and to switch to the F/S. However, His Majesty is apparently not convinced that it would go down well with the general population, and has resisted the recommendation.

There are also grumbles in the boon docks of Nizwa that Saturday is a Jewish holyday, so the change in weekend is being represented by these agitators - somehow - as part of some Zionist-Imperialist conspiracy. Surprising that that viewpoint hasn't (yet?) been captured as an opinion in the Times of Oman yet!

10 comments:

  1. Oh, just wait. I'm sure ol' Issa will show us a doozie before the dust settles on this one...

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  2. He must be feeling most conflicted - which way should his opinion be? With the rich and powerful in business and cabinet, or in line with His Majesty and the common man??

    I wouldn't expect any opinion from the Times until a decision has actually been made, and then we'll find out how he was always in support of it all along (whichever way it goes, naturally). LOL

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  3. Personally, I prefer the Thur/Fri simply because I lived years with these 2 days as weekends. Might feel very strange if it changes to Fri/Sat for me.

    Otherwise, as long as it is 2 days. Who cares :P

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  4. It makes sense for Banks and Financial institutions to align with international community for weekend holiday. However for others it will perhaps a good idea to have thu/fri weekend so that the mad rush in cbd/ruwi/darsait roads reduced. Even the rush at Hypermarkets will get regulated by following different weekend.

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  5. Ahh, the Zionist-Imperialist conspiracy. I love how that answers the mail on so many fronts. If there was a news source in Oman, I bet some bright young journalist could scare up some statistics on the improvement in revenue and business efficiency that could be gained by working another day when the rest of the world works. I'd imagine that some ministry or think-tank out there somewhere has done the math.

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  6. Welcome back by the way Dragon...

    Personally I think a fri-sat weekend will be a good move, it's frustrating to have to wait till half way through the current week to deal with the outside world (outside the gulf that is). But I must respect the people of Oman's wishes, and this is their weekend and who am I or anyone else to say they should change?

    My view is that the only fair way to do this is to put it to a vote by Omani citizens.

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  7. When the change over happened in the UAE, we worked from Saturday to Thursday. Most unfair ! If it happens here, I vote for the change happening over a three day weekend.

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  8. My vote is for a permanent 3 day weekend...

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  9. sawi the row from mtc he became won a pop star Artist Tracker in
    u.s.a and he and he mack a big track he mack all tha Artist in tha world mack music on heam and kno won kno or he sitl i live or did coz same won say that sawi the row been killed ,and same of tham say that he is in dubi.

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