Sunday, March 1, 2009

2008 Human Rights Report and Oman decides it needs expat

Yes, yes, I've been busy. So sue me for a refund.
(And the ever deepening global depression is just too depressing to comment on right now).

Stories today: US State Dept issues its latest report on global Human Rights, and the Ministry of Labour has un-banned new expat visas for several professions just a few months after banning them for expats in the first place. Surprises!

Here's Oman's 2008 Human Rights report card as written by Essa's favorite the US Dept. of State. I think it's pretty accurate, if a bit generic and overly generalised.

(There's a highly edited version of the reports interesting highlights at the end. The internet freedom part is left in full, FYI.)

Good news: (as far as the US State know, which is a lot), in 2008 there were:
- no reports that the [Omani] government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
- no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
- the law prohibits (Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), and there were no reports that government officials employed them.
- no reports of political prisoners or detainees.
- [although] the law does not require police to obtain search warrants before entering homes, the police often obtained warrants to do so anyhow.


Plus, it passed a comprehensive law to combat trafficking in persons.
and established an independent human rights commission with membership from both the public and private sectors. And is keeping a firm watch on the immams.

On the downside:
- The government monitored private communications, including mobile phones, e-mail, and Internet chat room exchanges. [UD: OH, MY, GOD!]
- The authorities tolerated a limited degree of criticism of policies, government officials, and agencies, particularly via the Internet; however, such criticism rarely appeared in traditional mass media. [UD: OH, MY, GOD, AGAIN!]




Perhaps that's the self censorship. But a striking thing is the extent to which self censorship is evident in many spheres, not just publishing. Sometimes for the good, undoubtedly, but the overall image the report portrays of intellectual sterility, at least in public, should be of worry (ie: no books published, academics forced by threat to keep quiet (thats one of the good ones, unfortunately), critical reporters not published, media censorship, etc. (Its a good job the overall quality of public debate is apparently not considered an affront to some sort of inalienable human need, or we would suffer somewhat, including some of my occasional comments' readers of late).


Meanwhile, its heartening to know the Omani Government can change its mind, and do it in public too. Reported today in the always insightful and hard-hitting Times of Oman, its now OK (again) to hire new expat mechanics to repair cars (which I can understand), and to sell retail clothes (which I can't).

Bizarre.

Ban on eight professions for expatriates lifted
Times News Service
Sunday, March 01, 2009

MUSCAT — The Ministry of Manpower has lifted the restrictions in place on a number of professions effective from this month. Sayyid Hamad bin Hilal Al Busaidi, undersecretary for labour affairs in the ministry, said the government, after intensive studies, had decided to grant permission for the recruitment of expatriates in eight professions out of the 15 banned last year.
...
The eight professions covered by the lifting of ban comprise car repair and affiliated works, hair-dressing and beautification, sale of carpets and furniture, sale of readymade garments and textiles, gents and ladies tailoring, carpentry workshops, smithy and aluminium works.

The ban will continue on the other seven professions, including import, export and commercial representation; cleaning works, barbershops, laundry, sale and repair of electronics and sale and repair of mobile phones, and health clubs,
said Sayyid Hamad, adding that the revision of earlier decision conforms to the actual needs of the community, particularly in the densely populated areas.
...



What??? But, but, what about all those 1000s of new Omani carpenters trained over the past few years, at great Government expense? And what's with a reversal on 'beautification or readymade garments'???

Ahhh, I know, all the Omani carpenters must all be off fixing mobile phones and working out in the gym as fitness instructors.


Photo: A newly re-designated critical skill in Oman: retail. Its a brutal world folks, and another 40000 female high school graduates have been saved from a life of occasional till ringing and mobile phone talking.


Here's the Human Rights report.
2008 Human Rights Report: Oman
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
February 25, 2009

The Sultanate of Oman is a hereditary monarchy with a population of approximately 3.3 million, including approximately 900,000 nonnationals, ruled by Sultan Qaboos Al Bu Sa'id since 1970. Only the sultan can amend the country's laws through royal decree. The 84-member Majlis as-Shura (Consultative Council) is a representative advisory institution that can review legislation. In October 2007 approximately 245,000 registered voters participated in generally free and fair elections for all of the council's seats. The civilian authorities generally maintained effective control of the security forces.

Citizens did not have the right to change their government. The government restricted freedoms of privacy, speech, press, assembly, association, and religion. Discrimination and domestic violence persisted for women. There was a lack of sufficient legal protection and enforcement to secure the rights of migrant workers. There were reports that expatriate laborers, particularly domestic workers, were placed in situations amounting to forced labor and that some suffered abuse.

On November 16, the government established an independent human rights commission with membership from both the public and private sectors. On November 24, it also passed a comprehensive law to combat trafficking in persons.


...
There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.
...
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances. The law prohibits (Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), and there were no reports that government officials employed them.
...
There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees.
...
The law does not require police to obtain search warrants before entering homes, although the police often obtained warrants from the public prosecutor's office. The government monitored private communications, including mobile phones, e-mail, and Internet chat room exchanges.
...
Various media companies reportedly refused to publish articles by journalists who previously criticized the government; however, unlike in 2007, there were no reports that the government maintained an alleged blacklist of journalists and writers whose work is not to be published in the country. The authorities tolerated a limited degree of criticism of policies, government officials, and agencies, particularly via the Internet; however, such criticism rarely appeared in traditional mass media.

The government continued to use libel laws and concerns for national security as grounds to suppress criticism of government figures and politically objectionable views.

There were no major publishing houses in the country and very little publication of books. The government restricted the importation, distribution, and publication of books as it restricted other media.

Internet Freedom
The law restricted free speech via the Internet, and the government enforced the restrictions. The government's national telecommunications company made Internet access available for a fee to citizens and foreign residents. Despite infrastructure increases, less than 5 percent of the population had subscription Internet access during the year; however, Internet access was widely available via Internet cafes in urban areas.

The government's telecommunications company restricted access to numerous Web sites considered pornographic, culturally or politically sensitive, or competitive with local telecommunications services. The criteria for blocking Internet sites were not transparent. The government placed warnings on other Web sites that criticism of the sultan or personal criticism of government officials would be censored and could lead to police questioning, which increased self-censorship. The government also monitored Internet communications and reportedly questioned some chat room contributors who were critical of government officials or policies, or whose postings precipitated criticism, after tracking the contributors through their Internet service provider addresses.

The country's former most popular chat room site, al-Sablah al-Omania, remained closed at year's end. In January 2007 police arrested the site's founder and 10 of his associates for publishing comments critical of government officials. After a four-month trial, a court of first instance acquitted the founder and three codefendants on charges of slander but fined the six other defendants and sentenced one defendant to one month in jail. Although several sites served as replacements for al-Sablah, all were rigorously cautious concerning content, and moderators reportedly quickly deleted potentially offensive material.


...

The government restricted academic freedom, particularly publishing or discussing controversial matters such as domestic politics, through the threat of dismissal. As a result, academics generally practiced self-censorship. There were no reported cases during the year in which the government dismissed an academic on these grounds.
...
The government restricted NGO activity. There were no registered domestic human rights NGOs or fully autonomous human rights groups in the country. On November 16, the government established a human rights commission to protect and report on human rights via the State Council to the sultan.
...
The government allowed several international organizations to work in the country without interference, including the UN Children's Fund, the World Health Organization, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).
...
According to a 2006 report by the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation (FGM) occurred in rural areas to a limited extent. There is no law prohibiting FGM, but the Ministry of Health prohibited doctors from performing the procedure in hospitals. The problem remained sensitive and was not discussed publicly. Planners at the Ministry of Health have not taken action to eliminate FGM.
...
There were no public reports of violence against children; however, FGM allegedly was performed on some girls ages one to nine.
...
There were no reports of discrimination against persons with HIV/AIDS.
...
Child labor did not exist in any formal industry.
...
The minimum wage for citizens of 140 rials (approximately $364) per month did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. ...There is no minimum wage for foreign workers. There were reports that migrant laborers in some firms and households worked more than 12-hour days for as little as 30 rials ($78) per month. The MOM effectively enforced the minimum wage for citizens.
...
The penal code criminalizes homosexuality, with a jail term of six months to three years; however, there were no reports of prosecutions for homosexual conduct during the year.

...


Observant readers will pleased to note that frequent commentator Mr T was apparently not successfully prosecuted last year...

This view on things seemed appropriate...

36 comments:

  1. Here's a bit from the report on the UK which I particularly like:
    c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

    The law prohibits such practices and authorities did not usually engage in them; however there continued to be allegations that members of the military services were at least complicit, if not participants, in the torture of detainees overseas.


    Note that there's no mention of which country was actually doing the torturing. Big hint - initials are USA

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  2. UD about time you came out of your closet, we were worried man.

    On the downside:
    - The government monitored private communications, including mobile phones, e-mail, and Internet chat room exchanges. [UD: OH, MY, GOD!]

    So who is not monitoring??? Home land security act allowed such monitoring. Oman must be doing it to protect its citizens from "Terrorist".

    I think all countries are equally guilty today of torture & punishment, but of course some "people" call it the "war on Terror".

    It's funny (sad) when criminals issue such reports about minor violations in other parts of the world, and leave their own crimes out.

    Anyways, biased eyes will now start answering with personal attacks on me with no facts or numbers brought forward.

    Please check out how many did the "terrorist" kill in the past five years and compare that to the "Real Terrorist" killings in the past year alone.


    The other subject is not worth commenting on, the government reserved its policies regarding employment of expats. Thats that.

    Mr. T "Simplifying Life" T.A.I

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  3. UD- Welcome back. Too bad we have to work for a living and cannot spend all day on the Internet. I would sue you for a refund, but would probably be as successful as Mr. T's prosecution last year.

    DISCLAIMER- Any reference to the anonymous person "Mr. T" is made only in a humorous manner. No personal insult, affront, or any other negative meaning is intended or implied.

    BTW, Mr T, in your post above, you said the "other subject is not worth commenting on", then you commented on it. Before you 'blast me back' please see above disclaimer. Abd

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  4. While the US report might be interesting it would of course have more moral impact (if needed) were they to actually navel gaze at themselves. There isn’t a country whose officials don’t monitor interpersonal electronic communication – and as for self censorship – wish there was more self-censorship (moral and ‘need not know junk’ elsewhere - though keeping up the relentless flow of information)

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  5. While the US report might be interesting it would of course have more moral impact (if needed) were they to actually navel gaze at themselves. There isn’t a country whose officials don’t monitor interpersonal electronic communication – and as for self censorship – wish there was more self-censorship (moral and ‘need not know junk’ elsewhere - though keeping up the relentless flow of information)

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  6. All countries monitor communications and the UK (my country) has more cameras per sqare mile than anywhere else in the world. It's a young country with a turbulent past and an uncertain future so I can understand the need for such security measures. Howver, the hypocrisy still rears it's ugly head. Homosexuality is against the law! Well well, if anyone was prosecutes the jails would be fully Omanised!
    FGM, sensitive subject but practised by backward people and accepted providing a blind eye is turned. As for the workers rights, we all know Maids are treated like shit and paid crap. This is the 'slavery' attitude...not to mention the frequent sexual assaults. The Filipinne Embassy gets about 20 to 30 runaways per month sheltering in the Embassy mainly for sexual abuse and rapes.

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  7. Devils Advocat:

    I really respect your points and style of commenting (you might generalize sometimes, but still)

    The Embassy really has lots of runaway maids, speak to them and they will tell you it's between 60-80 maids cramped in that little villa in shati al qurum.

    Strict legal actions should be taken against all offenders (by the way, not all the offenders are Omanies, just go there n' ask). We are talking about people who came to serve and they have rights that need to be protected.

    "Howver, the hypocrisy still rears it's ugly head"

    I think your comment applies the most to this report, when a bunch of criminals issue reports accusing others of "minor" violations and call their criminals "freedom fighters", (makes me laugh every time)


    Abdullah:

    I take your comment with an open heart and mind, hope you do the same ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Can't disagree with most of that Mr. T.

    And...."fighting for peace is like f*cking for virginity"...John Lennon.

    There is corruption and abuse in all societies, sex traffiking has become a big problem in the UK with Eastern European women conned into a better life. But, at least we acknowledge it and discuss it openly which is after all the main point of discussion here!

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  9. Devils Advocat:

    Discussing it openly will hopefully be a reality some day. I believe when you discuss a matter openly, you create an atmosphere of constructive discussion, helping society reach a better judgment of the issues it needs to tackle.

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  10. True Mr. T and the day Mr. T, Abdullah and Co can write this in the Times will be the day we've arrived!

    It will not change by the likes of me making comments but only those educated Omani's who and there are plenty of them, who travel abroad and come back to Oman and feel restricted.

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  11. I want to hear more about these run away maids. I know a few that need to run far, far away.

    Do they just hang out there and not work? I can see how that might be appealing to some who are not being abused.

    Are there some organizations here who can help them?

    I know, I know. I am asking questions that really shouldn't be asked while under the watchful eye of the government...and they really can't be answered, but I can't help it...I have to ask!

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  12. Try it for a day and see. A day being about 26 hours, low pay, verbal, physical and sexual abuse. I think most women would find motivation and enthuusiasm to work challenging under those condidtions.

    On that subject, my mother brought up 4 kids, I can name others even with large families who brought up successful families. So, why do Omai's need maids anyway? The culture of slavery, laziness or just the culture!

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  13. DA, was that last comment directed at me? If so, I should rephrase my question.

    I KNOW about the mistreatment of maids....errr...slaves in this area. I want to know how these maids got out, what they are currently doing, are they waiting for their visa to go home? Are they all, every one of them cleaning the embassy? Should be a really clean place. Are they waiting for a different working situation? What happens with their contracts? Who is interceding in their behalf? Working out the logistics? THAT is what I want to know more about. I have witnessed some horrible things to maids and am curious of how these other's got help...or they are really getting any help or just hiding out for a while.

    As for trying out a day in their life...I don't choose to do so. But if I did, I would be our maid. She has the nice life. She never get's yelled at or abused in any way. She has great pay. Much more than any other maid I am aware of. She gets British, American and Omani Holidays (which needs to change to be honest) as well as our big family holidays which are 6 times a year for 10-12 days at a time. In addition she only works 8 hours. She has top of the line cleaning instruments. If she needs some time off to take care of business...I don't question it - I give it to her. I have had much harder jobs than she is currently working.... no lie...for worse pay...as an educated american. And I worked it happily. I have seen quite a bit of resentment in the workers in Oman and in certain situations (like mine) there is no reason for it. We are ALL here working, plugging away at life during uncertain times. I wonder how many of those 60 someodd maids at the phillipine embassy are REALLY abused. I would bet a great deal, but I would also bet there are some that feel like they were owed more and just left under the claim of abuse. Perhaps that is why they are still there so that an investigation can occur? I'd really like to know.

    As far as why does an Omani need a maid? Well, I am not Omani. BUT in America, we only had 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms and an office. That was much easier to keep clean with 3 children. Here we have 6 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and lots of other rooms and lots of dust and dirt from just being in Oman. There is no way I could possibly keep up with all of that cleaning here. Besides, I figure we have enough money, why not give someone else a job and help the economy out? I don't feel bad about it at all or like I am less of a mother because of it. In fact, rather than scrubbing toilets I can now sit down and play with playdough and make dinosaurs and teach my children more songs and play and dance with them. And we do dance! LOTS!

    I balance things out by making my kids put away dishes, make their bed and other age appropriate chores. I still do ALL of the cooking and shopping. I wish I could do less cooking though. Sometimes I look at my friends who have maids that can just whip up a meal as part of their day and knowing that I actually pay more get a little bit jealous. BUT, I know she is honest most of the time. And that counts for something.

    Anyway, this Schpieel was just in case DA was actually addressing me, but if not, ignore it.

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  14. Amber, you comment came accross as either naive or sarcastic. having read your last I take that back. I'm not aware of any mistreatment of maids by ex-pats (Europeans or US) but I'm sure this will motivate our locals to dig one out!

    The Filipinas are waiting in the Embassy to be shifted out and whilst waiting they are happy to carry out menial tasks. Indonisians are another matter, some are in the country underage...in my last job I had one of my staff actually aske me to give him money to get a pregnant 15 year old out of the country!

    Compnaies are no different..name and shame...Muscat Holiday (used to be called Hilday Inn until they got so bad they lost the franchise) employ Thai Massuers on a visit visa because some complained of long hours, unpaid overtime and no national holidays as well as no protection against pervs and drunks! They, like many hotels and resturants are running what is no more or less than slavery, employing people with no rights and intimidation. They put up with it becasue of the economic climate. In the hotels and resturants it's not the Omani's but the Indians who are bazturds to work for because thats how they were treated!

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  15. I thought it would be obvious that I wasn't naive when I stated I knew some maids who needed to run away as well as asking if there are organizations to help.

    I know a girl from the phillipines who is getting paid only 60 rials a month. sometimes. She gets up at 5 and works until 10. She cooks, cleans, watches the children. She claims she is not being abused, and her owners did allow us to visit her, but they monitored the entire visit. She only gets 2 days off a month. That is it! 2! So, when I say that I know some, and I ask if there are organizations to help with this it is with a sincere desire to know and learn more so that I can help. I don't like to just sit around and watch things like this happen. Until this article it had never occured to me that I could smuggle her to her embassy. So, on that count I suppose that I am naive. Now in my mind I realize that I might have some abilities to help the situation I cited as well as a few more that I am aware of. However, I do like to be educated on all matters. I want to know what is really going on in that embassy. Will these maids incur any kind of maltreatment or fines? Legally, where do they stand? Who can I talk to about these particular things?

    I have bristled over your remarks, especially since, as a mother whose husband is almost always gone, I am anything but naive of the hardships of working around the clock...I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I was also abused.

    I'll be over the hurt in about 2.4 minutes :) don't think you wounded me too too much.

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  16. Amber,

    I'm told by our Philipina maid that SOME of those who have run away to the embassy are not victims of abuse at all, but just young girls who have discovered to their horror that they are expected to work, when in reality they'd rather spend their days chatting on the phone than working.

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  17. We all think Oman is a fantastic place to live. Fantastic but not perfect. We all want to make it better, so we try to expose some of the 'only whispered about' problems and get the correct people to address them. There is no need to attack each other. Abd

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  18. to be spoken about and it's worse in other Arabic countries. Indeed, The Filipine Embassy banned mainds from Jordan and Syria for a while as well as having high level meetings in Saudi where the suicide of maids is high.

    Yes it is a beautiful country but it will only mature when you Omani's are less sensitive to critisism. I have the utmost respect for Filipna and Thais, they (both sexes) word incredibly hard for low pay and still manage that famous smile. Haven met a lazy one yet and I've been to 34 countries to include 10 Arabic countries. Just a little respect for what they do because Omani's won't do it! If they all pulled out this country would be f*cked.

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  19. And why not pay these domestic workers a decent salary? Often their employers live in huge houses, drive around in expensive cars, their children have all the toys and expensive gadgets you can think of, but paying the maid OMR 100 per month is too much...?!

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  20. about money! A few years ago I was in the UK Embassy when I witnessed a lot of shouting and tantrums by a senior Omani gentleman. It was sorted quite quickly. When I returned next day I enquired to my friends there who informed me this Oman was quite senior in the Government. He was going to UK for a 2 year post, amongst other things. He was taking his 3 maids (he has 7 children). When it was explained to him about their rights; the minimum wage, dependant upon age,their maximum 8 hour day, overtime rates, their passports could not be held by him and the Foreign Office as well as Ministry of Labour and others would make periodic checks for security and welfare. He really didn't like having to fork out sevcral thousand pounds copared and contrasted to the previous several hundred! Now, he was getting expenses for this and it would be paid by the Government. It was just the principle that he could not have the same control!

    Welcome to the civilised world where all human beings are respected whatever their creed, colour, race or religion!

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  21. Devils Advocat:

    Welcome to the civilised world where all human beings are respected whatever their creed, colour, race or religion!

    Where is that??? It's not Europe, and definitely not the UK or the USA. Once you find that civilized world please call me, I would like to join you there. Thanks

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  22. Oman is one of the most civilised and polite countries I've been too...until they get into a car1 Indeed, the Omani's are more British than the British! We can learn a lot from Oman such as not giving residency to undesirables, we let any dogs in.

    No country has full freedom of speech and when I hear about the USA bleating on a bout freedom well, why have 49 States banned Al Jazeera? Why can't I vote Socialist? Why was there apartied until the 1970's...Mohammed Ali won a Olympic Gold medal but when he came 'home' he couldn't get on the same bus or sit at the same resturant as a white man! J Edgar Hoover was the biggest hypocrite in mankind let alone USA. As for the Kennedy's, made their money through the prohibition, murdered their way to the top and wrote the book of corruption but they are seen as heroes in US!

    So, no country has it all. But a country that tries to treat all fairly like UK has to be supported. No one knows this more than His Majesty. He has made this a country that is resepected in the West and admired by many Arabic countries. He's getting there and were helping!......;-)

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  23. Civilisation is not black and white, whereby an individual, a people or a country is either completely civilised or not civilised at all. Civilisation comes in staged progression. In a country, the level of civilisation can often be appreciated by determining the actual value of a (human?) life. Look for example at the number of traffic-deaths and the effort a country invests in prevention of accidents. This often quickly provides a good insight as to what level of civilisation has been reached in a country.

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  24. RTA's are certainly a barometer in that aspect. This is portray's Oman as a backward country, the unnaceptably and avoidable high accident rates. Nothing has been or will be done about the children not wearing seatbelts. A case of culture coming before a civilised approach to humanity!

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  25. Objective:

    I like what you mentioned, but would like to add that, a civilized nation must appreciate human life (that should be all humans of the world, not just it's own citizens). That's why I still say, there are no civilized nations yet, you need to care about all humans and not sacrifice other humans just to reach political, financial or social gains.

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  26. YES WE DO NEED OTHER NATIONALS TO WORK AND LIVE IN OMAN AND WE ALL WORK TOGETHER TO MAKE OMAN A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY IN THE REGION.

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  27. I agree with your first point, Mr. T. But fact is that some countries can be considered to be more civilized than others. Doesn't mean that these countries are 100% civilized (not even sure what that would be like), or that the others are not civilized at all. They are just in different stages of the civilization-process. And indeed, the value of (a) life, whether of the own nation or another, is a good indicator of the level of civilization achieved.

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  28. Mr. T seems to be referring to the US again. Maybe countries can also go backwards in that civilisation process. Maybe the US was once well on its way to become a real civilised country, but it went back a few steps in recent years? Isn't this exactly what Obama seems to try to reverse by closing Guantanamo, revisiting foreign policies, etc.?

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  29. Abdul MT:

    I refer to the US because it's the only remaining superpower and has certain obligations on its shoulders to lead the world. I agree with you that Obama seems to be a person with a good sense of direction when it comes to leading the USA and eventually the world from the slump that Bush put us all in.

    Thanks

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  30. I will probably be the last person in the world to defend the USA, but blaming the USA for all that's gone wrong in the world is not correct and is counter-productive. Especially the Middle East is a region where people should first look at their own shortcomings, in stead of always trying to find others to blame. Several countries in the region are a real mess, with our without input from the USA. This could and should best be addressed by the people of the Middle East itself. That would really be civilized...

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  31. No country is perfect but at least Oman is trying! What is not understood or accepted is both the UK & USA give millions in aid to the likes of Pakistan, Bangladesh etc and all we get is critisism! It's worth noting that if the aid was withdrwn we'd have 3rd (or even 4th) world country, deep in poverty with no infrastructure and very littl;e hope for the futurebut....has nukes though!

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  32. The USA gave millions in aid to Iraq under Sadam as well. And to Afghanistan before the Taliban. They have given, and are still giving, billions of aid to Israel too. They have also given millions of aid to cruel dictatorships in Central- and South America. On the other hand, they are trying to starve people in for example Palestine and Cuba. Doesn't sound like civilisation to me!

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  33. true, they have given aid to Palistinians. You general points are correct though they give and have given money to some dodgy people. But as for Israel etc, we Brits (not me personally) messed that up.

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  34. A sort of racist joke (against racism) just to lighten it a bit here...

    A Chinese man and a Jew are sharing seats on a plane. After it took off it was obvious they were not comfortable with each other...The Jew said...I don't like u Chinese. Why said the Chinaman, what have we done? You bombed Pearl Harbour. That wasn't us that weas the Japanese..Japanes, Chinese, Tiawanese all the bl00dy same. The Chinaman said I don't like Jews. What have we done he said. You sand the Titanic. That wasn't us said the Jew...that was a bl00dy Iceberg...Iceberg, Goldberg, Hindleberg...all the bl00dy same to me.

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  35. Censorship and 'intellectual sterility' in Oman are indeed of worry as they tend to undermine further development of civilisations.

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  36. I guess the conclusion is:

    We are all to blame for all the mess that humanity is facing, some of us are more than others, but we are all to blame.

    The minute we stop pointing fingers and start putting hands together, we would be able to move forward. That is a dream that might one day become a reality.

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