Ex-Expatriate who was living in Muscat, Oman, Middle East for too long, but still blogs about the place.
Biased and usually irreverent opinions on life and business goings on in The Sultanate of Oman, a quiet and beautiful country bordering the Indian Ocean.
An anonymous author on Oman Forum yesterday posted a report that the infamously stupid Ministry of Manpower (aka Ministry of Labour) raided several schools caring for special needs children and arrested several volunteers, confiscating their IDs and passports.
The cases are apparently going in front of the Public Prosecutor this week. Here's the report:
On Monday the 13th of December the Ministry of Labour came into our special education center in and took into custody all of our volunteers and seized both their passports and ID cards.(those that didn’t have the passports with them, were seized and taken to the ministry, they were not able to be released without someone from their family turning over their passports)
They are there as volunteers not workers (they are not taking any salary) and all proper paperwork was filled out; Volunteer forms, a letter from them stating that they would like to volunteer and they understood this means no salary, and copies of their passport, ID and CV. The Ministry is refusing to give back the ID cards and are threatening to deport the volunteers
Firstly, The Ministry of Social Development knows we have been running under Ministry of Commerce since 2007, the royal decree that came in to play about centers with handicapped children came in 2008 (the Royal Degree stated that all handicapped centers must be under Ministry of Social Development). The Ministry on Social development has allowed us to continue to operate until all of our paperwork is completed, which should be sometime within the next few weeks.
Secondly, all the ladies are VOLUNTEERS, they are not taking salaries and according to what our lawyer has said this is legal (there is no stated rule about volunteering in Oman). This was the third time they had come in, the first two times the inspectors had said we were on the legal side.
Furthermore, in seizing both the ID cards and passports of these ladies is wrong, now they have no documents.
We were not the only center targeted... two other special education centers were also targeted and their volunteers also taken. All three centers have been turned over to public prosecutor. Can anyone help these three centers?
All of these volunteers in all three centers are just helping children. They take time from there time to come and play and help the kids, they were doing nothing wrong or illegal.javascript:void(0)
There was an article on Nov 26th in the hi magazine, urging people to volunteer... but then the ministry of labour goes to special education center and arrests volunteers??
Yes, the Ministry of Manpower's thugs at work. According to my sources, the report is, unfortunately, quite true and accurate.
Not content with hounding powerless underpaid housemaids from India and elsewhere, they are now targeting expats who volunteer to help Oman's disadvantaged special needs children. You know, the kids who are so well regarded by most of Omani society that they are simply left to under-funded charities to take care of, or abandoned in orphanages.
I guess taking payments to clear illicit visa requests while ignoring the thousands of blatant violations of labour law visible on building sites all over Oman still leaves plenty of time for such bullying. After all, it's not as if these morons from the Ministry could actually get a real job anyhow.
Cowards.
I can only hope the judge will bawl them out for not only doing something so obviously counter-productive to Omani society, but for wasting his time too, as volunteering is not illegal, even if you are recompensed for expenses.
Reading Misadventures in HR's excellent new blog post on hiring a useless trainee reminded me of one reason why I think education, generally, is such a miserable failure in Oman, and the Middle East overall.
From Wikipedia: ...Cargo cult activity in the Pacific region increased significantly during and immediately after World War II, when the residents of these regions observed the Japanese and American combatants bringing in large amounts of material. When the war ended, the military bases closed and the flow of goods and materials ceased. In an attempt to attract further deliveries of goods, followers of the cults engaged in ritualistic practices such as building crude imitation landing strips, aircraft and radio equipment, and mimicking the behaviour that they had observed of the military personnel operating them.
... From time to time, the term "cargo cult" is invoked as an English language idiom to mean any group of people who imitate the superficial exterior of a process or system without having any understanding of the underlying substance. The error of logic made by the islanders consisted of mistaking a necessary condition for cargo to come flying in, i.e., building airstrips, control towers, etc., for a sufficient condition for cargo to come flying in, thereby reversing the causation. On a lower level, they repeated the same error by, for example, mistaking a necessary condition for building a control tower, i.e., build something that looks like a control tower, for the sufficient condition of building a genuine control tower. The inception of cargo cults often is defined as being based on a flawed model of causation, being the confusion between the logical concepts of necessary condition and sufficient condition when aiming to obtain a certain result. Based on this definition, the term "cargo cult" also is used in business and science to refer to a particular type of fallacy whereby ill-considered effort and ceremony take place but go unrewarded due to flawed models of causation as described above.
People see that someone has a good job, and want one too. How did they get this wonderful job, with an office, a desk, a free phone, and money every month? Ahh, they have a degree/diploma/qualification. Ergo, a plan of action forms: get said decree/diploma, and hey presto! The magic piece of paper will secure a life of privilege, wealth, material goods, even a spouse.
Therefore they obtain said paper, in some cases by simply buying one, or by attending a 'college' of dubious quality. Various sources will corroborate and reinforce this theory: unscrupulous college administrators or academics who just want paying students; Government functionaries rewarded for 'number of students enrolled'; parents who want the best for their children. Why even the newspaper regularly describes 'Jobs vacant' every day, with the very pieces of paper required clearly stated.
As it's only getting hold of the fancy piece of paper that counts (and they can look beautifully impressive, with colourful and embossed insignia, latin phrases and even wax seals):
it's therefore totally OK to cheat on exams, pay someone to write your papers for you, and complain if anything such as 'standards' or exam results gets in the way. (eg See this post by Reality in Oman.)
Reality in Oman, August 2009: ... Cheating is a common problem within the Omani educational system. It is common throughout the whole Gulf region. Students (mainly males) cheat their way through school and college – and they wonder why no one wants to hire them! - I mean, what a waste!
Students spend more time trying to find out ways to cheat than anything else. They cheat through phones, watches with tiny screens, tiny papers, writing on their knees..etc. I remember when I was in high school and attending my final exams. There were guys honking on their cars outside our classes… honk honk (question 2) *silence* honk honk honk (answer c)… honk honk honk (question 3) *silence* honk (answer a)…
And then, they either don't get a job, or do and loose it.
Or even worse, get a job and continue to screw things up while doing do sweet FCUK all all day. Often holding up a job that maybe someone could do, and the work gets done by expats or other Omani staff. If they are locals, sacking them for incompetence is usually impossible.
I've personally interviewed holders of Maths Masters degrees who can't use Excel; English Literature grads who can't speak English; and no-one, even competent young Omanis, knows how to write a half-decent CV. (or even how to spell Curriculum Vitae...)
Ah well.
So what can Oman do to combat this? One thing being done by the elite and Government Ministers is to have their kids educated overseas in a real University. But it really starts in the schools.
Oman's foreign high schools' exams are sent out of the country to be marked independently. There should be an independently invigilated set of standard exams for Omani scvhools perhaps, to try and purge the rampant plagiarism and cheating. Such exams (at least initially) will apparently need a level of security more commonly associated with printing and distributing currency.
But do the Government, or teachers, or parents, or students actually want to know the real status of their education? I doubt it.
Just a quick update on the problems facing buyers of the hyper-expensive villas and town houses at Zubair corperation's Bar Al Jissa development. I posted in detail last year here.
The owners are still furious with the poor state of construction and finishing on their apartments. In fact, one owner has just taken them to court in Oman for breach of contract, and the judge agreed to hear the case. At the second hearing on October 30th, he gave Zubair 6 months to prepare their defence and to get a report from a court appointed expert. It will be very interesting to see how this turns out.
Comments made by various owners:
"...the foolishness and arrogance of one misguided Omani family..."
"...BAJ nightmare."
"...we all expected that the good reputation of the Zubairs was worth something. How wrong we were."
"The growing list of serious construction problems besetting our small settlement is both astonishing and terrifying: terrifying for the level of seriousness and danger; astonishing for the amount of money we have all put forward for something that is completely devoid of construction quality. Lack of water, electrical problems, water pouring from rooftops through townhouses in a not very serious storm, sinkholes, cracking concrete are all serious problems and some are life-threatening."
"...It is obvious that the Zubairs have taken our property investment, spent around 10% of it on our properties, and pocketed the remaining 90%."
Photo: Chairman of Zubair Corp, Rashad M. Al Zubair, the man responsible for the mess at Barr Al Jissah Residences.
So what's the problem?
Well, these town house apartments were very expensive, selling for US$1.2-$1.5 million, and represented by Zubair as top of the range luxury buldings. In fact, to quote Barr Al Jissah residences OTT website blurb:
"Oman presents Barr Al Jissah Residences, the most exclusive and luxurious freehold property's in the Gulf.
Exceptionally designed villas and townhouses, built to the highest standards and specifications to give the most discerning and concientious purchaser, the best lifestyle imaginable."
"Developer: The Zubair Corporation. The Barr Al Jissah Residences is being undertaken by Barr Al Jissah Resort Company SAOC which is owned by The Zubair Corporation and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman, represented by the Ministry of Finance."
In reality, the buildings were constructed like any other such buildings in Oman - by cheap Indian labour via infamous Zubair contractors Bodge-it and Leggit Larsen & Toubro with, it appears, every effort made by Zubair and their contractors to use the cheapest materials and fittings available. Even so, completion of the buildings was delayed by almost a year.
Here's a recent incident by an unfortunate buyer shared by email to other owners (emphasis is mine):
...Two days ago the socket in the garage where the dryer is connected caught fire. The socket and the dryer plug burned and melted. Puzzlingly the corresponding trip switch on the electric switch board did not trip – which would have prevented the fire.
Today we replaced the dryer plug and used another socket in the garage. About 10 minutes later the same happened: the plug caught fire and both the plug and the socket melted.
This is a very serious issue because it is very obvious that there is a design and/or construction flaw as in a case like this the corresponding switch on the switchboard should trip preventing any fire to take place. Upon asking some of the neighbors they have told me that in several villas these sockets and parts of the electric wiring, switches were replaced due to being below specifications and quality requirement. I am baffled by the fact that if this problem is known, why are all the villas not being notified and why are the necessary repairs not being done in order to prevent a potentially more serious incident???
In another incident about two months ago the second floor main switch tripped without any of the individual switches tripping. At that time I told [xxxx] my non-professional, non-qualified opinion, that there must be a design problem (maybe the total electricity load capacity of the first floor switchboard in not in line with the actual amount of electricity going through that switchboard). Again, about two weeks after I called [xxxx], two Indians came and said that everything is okay…
So, bottom line is that an Omani Government sponsored development is promising 5 star and delivering 1 star. And despite the Zubair Corporation taking everyone's money (both for purchase and very expensive maintenance fees), they are failing to fix serious problems and ignoring the valid complaints of owners that what was promised has in no shape or form been delivered.
The owners are hoping that a direct appeal to HM will help.
Again, why is it that nothing gets done in this country by those actually tasked with doing their jobs? IE The Government officials responsible for standards, the giant companies who are being allowed to take people's money and rip them off? HM has better things to do!
The answer is that too many people in Oman are focused on short-term quick bucks for no effort, rather than thinking about the long term reputational issues or even simply respecting international standards and contracts. Too many Government officials are typically both professionally incompetent and inexperienced, and in fear of annoying some big shot with wasta (like the Zubair family).
And in this case, the Government are also directly involved, providing a veneer of official endorsement for these developers, and also provided the land for Zubair in the first place.
Note, the unanswered complaints, leaks, electrical faults, legal action and damage to Oman's tourism and investment reputation doesn't stop Zubair claiming the following on their corporate website:
The Zubair Corporation is a well-established leader in this sector, having initiated the first travel agency over thirty decades ago, recently establishing hotels throughout the region and building the first major resort in Oman. The Corporation is considered a flagship for private investment in tourism, and its commitment and success have set a precedent for further development, proving that investing in this sector is economically viable.
What a joke.
The new Chairman of Zubair Corp, Rashad M. Al Zubair, as "the next generation of the Zubair family to assume the mantle of leadership", should get off his father's laurels, get a grip on his company, and start placing a higher priority on the impact he is having on this country's international reputation. In his statement on the website he raves on and on about "fulfilling His Majesty’s vision".
His father HE Mohammad Al Zubair didn't build a great company through such underhanded and unprofessional business practices.
You may have caught this story in the press, about an Indian housemaid who lost her passport in Qatar, and was sent back to Muscat, a la Tom Hanks in The Terminal.
Local blogger English Girl in Oman covered it here last week, pointing out too the condescension oft meted out to working class Indians here in Oman (and throughout the Gulf).
Only in her case it was 'Terminal'. She died (reported to be due to a stress induced cardiac arrest) after being trapped in the airport for 4 days when the embassy couldn't get her emergency travel documents.
Too accurate Movie title for poor Beebi Lumada, who died from stress after being trapped for 4 (or more) days in Muscat airport.
Muscat Airport is not somewhere I'd want to be stuck for 4 hours, and that's in the so-called Business Class 'lounge'.
MUSCAT (AFP) – An Indian woman died after losing her passport and becoming stranded for about four days at Muscat airport, an Indian embassy official in the Omani capital said on Sunday.
The woman, a housemaid identified as Beebi Lumada, "died of some illness" when she was being taken to hospital, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that "she was suffering from bouts of hysteria."
She had been trying to fly home to Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, on Qatar Airways via Doha where officials turned her back to Muscat on Monday after she lost her passport. She was forced to stay in Muscat airport's transit area where she was provided with food, the official said, adding the embassy had been in contact with her but "couldn't get any documents."
"On Friday, her health deteriorated, so she was sent to the Ibn Sina Hospital," but she died en route there in an ambulance, the official said without elaborating on the possible cause of death. The woman's body was being sent back to India.
Of course, the core story was as told by "an Indian embassy official". They got the report out fast because people notice when a woman dies simply due to being trapped in an airport for 4 or 5 days. Amnesty International were calling for a full Omani investigation into the matter.
His Excellency, Mr Anil Wadhwa (left, wearing suit), Indian Ambassador to Oman, very busy cutting a ribbon opening the new Aster Hospital in Sohar, June 2010 (Photo AMEInfo]. Aster Hospital's slogan is 'Big on Care'. Pity HE The Ambassador didn't pick up a greater degree of care for the fate of his own citizen's while he was at it...
Muscat Confidential is reliably informed that many of our local journalists have tried to write about the story (often being Indian themselves) and get some details on this total incompetence 'procedural delay', but the stories are being actively suppressed by pressure from the Indian Embassy on the (again, mainly Indian) editors at our esteemed Fourth Estate.
After all, she was just some poor Indian housemaid, so why should the Embassy get in trouble? This is why the reports from the embassy, including quotes from ace Ambassador Anil Wadhwa, repeatedly stress that Lumada, "suffered from seizures and hysteria". Yeah, right.
Afterall, she'd only been trying to leave Oman, and was left in no-mans land with no contact from the poor helpless Embassy, 'as there was no access for embassy staff to the stranded passenger at the airport.' Oh, and it was, like, a weekend, and the Embassy was too busy attending parties. [note to Ambassador Wadhwa, Hysteria has not been an official psychiatric condition for the past 30 years.]
According to The Indian Express, even the Indian External Affairs Minister can smell a rat, so maybe someone at the Indian Embassy will get some just desserts for such incompetence, as they really did send someone out to investigate.
New Delhi, 12 Oct The External Affairs Ministry is sending a senior official to Muscat to investigate the case of a woman, who died after being stranded at the airport there for five days after she lost her passport.
"We are sending a senior official of the Ministry to Muscat to conduct an enquiry and report back to me," External Affairs Minister S M Krishna told reporters here.
This move comes in the backdrop of reports that embassy officials did not help 40-year-old Keralite Beebi Lumada, a housemaid who was travelling from Muscat to Chennai via Doha by a Qatar Airways flight last week, who lost her passport while in transit at the Doha airport. ...
There is also a very good follow-up on the story by Sunil K. Vaidya in the Gulf News, quoting the Omani Sponsor as saying he had had the housemaid examined before she left at a Government Hospital who found she had "no health issues"; to news of such official good health the outstanding Indian Ambassador reportedly had no comment, despite it being in direct contradiction to his very own statements made earlier.
Yes, it seems no-one really helped her. As a poor Indian in the Gulf, that's perhaps not surprising, unfortunately.
But does the Embassy's inaction mean they have blood on their hands? Their rapid action to use behind the scenes influence to spike the stories many Oman-based journalists have written suggests the Embassy, at least, don't want anyone asking the obvious questions.
Yes, the big news here and in the region is the incredibly stupid decision of Israel to attack the Turkish based Gaza Aid Flotilla in international waters, in the process killing a significant number (reportedly 16) of essentially unarmed civilians, mostly Turks.
Here is a good analysis by STRATFOR that puts the decision in context, and draws a nice historic analogue to the post war 'Exodus' story that the Zionists used to play the same trick on Britain that the Palestinians have just successfully played on Israel.
I can't wait to see Essa's editorial next week... I wonder what it will be about?
Flotillas and the Wars of Public OpinionBy George Friedman May 31st 2010
On Sunday, Israeli naval forces intercepted the ships of a Turkish nongovernmental organization (NGO) delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza. Israel had demanded that the vessels not go directly to Gaza but instead dock in Israeli ports, where the supplies would be offloaded and delivered to Gaza. The Turkish NGO refused, insisting on going directly to Gaza. Gunfire ensued when Israeli naval personnel boarded one of the vessels, and a significant number of the passengers and crew on the ship were killed or wounded.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon charged that the mission was simply an attempt to provoke the Israelis. That was certainly the case. The mission was designed to demonstrate that the Israelis were unreasonable and brutal. The hope was that Israel would be provoked to extreme action, further alienating Israel from the global community and possibly driving a wedge between Israel and the United States. The operation’s planners also hoped this would trigger a political crisis in Israel.
A logical Israeli response would have been avoiding falling into the provocation trap and suffering the political repercussions the Turkish NGO was trying to trigger. Instead, the Israelis decided to make a show of force. The Israelis appear to have reasoned that backing down would demonstrate weakness and encourage further flotillas to Gaza, unraveling the Israeli position vis-à-vis Hamas. In this thinking, a violent interception was a superior strategy to accommodation regardless of political consequences. Thus, the Israelis accepted the bait and were provoked.
The ‘Exodus’ Scenario In the 1950s, an author named Leon Uris published a book called “Exodus.” Later made into a major motion picture, Exodus told the story of a Zionist provocation against the British. In the wake of World War II, the British — who controlled Palestine, as it was then known — maintained limits on Jewish immigration there. Would-be immigrants captured trying to run the blockade were detained in camps in Cyprus. In the book and movie, Zionists planned a propaganda exercise involving a breakout of Jews — mostly children — from the camp, who would then board a ship renamed the Exodus. When the Royal Navy intercepted the ship, the passengers would mount a hunger strike. The goal was to portray the British as brutes finishing the work of the Nazis. The image of children potentially dying of hunger would force the British to permit the ship to go to Palestine, to reconsider British policy on immigration, and ultimately to decide to abandon Palestine and turn the matter over to the United Nations.
There was in fact a ship called Exodus, but the affair did not play out precisely as portrayed by Uris, who used an amalgam of incidents to display the propaganda war waged by the Jews. Those carrying out this war had two goals. The first was to create sympathy in Britain and throughout the world for Jews who, just a couple of years after German concentration camps, were now being held in British camps. Second, they sought to portray their struggle as being against the British. The British were portrayed as continuing Nazi policies toward the Jews in order to maintain their empire. The Jews were portrayed as anti-imperialists, fighting the British much as the Americans had.
It was a brilliant strategy. By focusing on Jewish victimhood and on the British, the Zionists defined the battle as being against the British, with the Arabs playing the role of people trying to create the second phase of the Holocaust. The British were portrayed as pro-Arab for economic and imperial reasons, indifferent at best to the survivors of the Holocaust. Rather than restraining the Arabs, the British were arming them. The goal was not to vilify the Arabs but to villify the British, and to position the Jews with other nationalist groups whether in India or Egypt rising against the British.
The precise truth or falsehood of this portrayal didn’t particularly matter. For most of the world, the Palestine issue was poorly understood and not a matter of immediate concern. The Zionists intended to shape the perceptions of a global public with limited interest in or understanding of the issues, filling in the blanks with their own narrative. And they succeeded.
The success was rooted in a political reality. Where knowledge is limited, and the desire to learn the complex reality doesn’t exist, public opinion can be shaped by whoever generates the most powerful symbols. And on a matter of only tangential interest, governments tend to follow their publics’ wishes, however they originate. There is little to be gained for governments in resisting public opinion and much to be gained by giving in. By shaping the battlefield of public perception, it is thus possible to get governments to change positions.
In this way, the Zionists’ ability to shape global public perceptions of what was happening in Palestine — to demonize the British and turn the question of Palestine into a Jewish-British issue — shaped the political decisions of a range of governments. It was not the truth or falsehood of the narrative that mattered. What mattered was the ability to identify the victim and victimizer such that global opinion caused both London and governments not directly involved in the issue to adopt political stances advantageous to the Zionists. It is in this context that we need to view the Turkish flotilla.
The Turkish Flotilla to Gaza The Palestinians have long argued that they are the victims of Israel, an invention of British and American imperialism. Since 1967, they have focused not so much on the existence of the state of Israel (at least in messages geared toward the West) as on the oppression of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Since the split between Hamas and Fatah and the Gaza War, the focus has been on the plight of the citizens of Gaza, who have been portrayed as the dispossessed victims of Israeli violence.
The bid to shape global perceptions by portraying the Palestinians as victims of Israel was the first prong of a longtime two-part campaign. The second part of this campaign involved armed resistance against the Israelis. The way this resistance was carried out, from airplane hijackings to stone-throwing children to suicide bombers, interfered with the first part of the campaign, however. The Israelis could point to suicide bombings or the use of children against soldiers as symbols of Palestinian inhumanity. This in turn was used to justify conditions in Gaza. While the Palestinians had made significant inroads in placing Israel on the defensive in global public opinion, they thus consistently gave the Israelis the opportunity to turn the tables. And this is where the flotilla comes in.
The Turkish flotilla aimed to replicate the Exodus story or, more precisely, to define the global image of Israel in the same way the Zionists defined the image that they wanted to project. As with the Zionist portrayal of the situation in 1947, the Gaza situation is far more complicated than as portrayed by the Palestinians. The moral question is also far more ambiguous. But as in 1947, when the Zionist portrayal was not intended to be a scholarly analysis of the situation but a political weapon designed to define perceptions, the Turkish flotilla was not designed to carry out a moral inquest.
Instead, the flotilla was designed to achieve two ends. The first is to divide Israel and Western governments by shifting public opinion against Israel. The second is to create a political crisis inside Israel between those who feel that Israel’s increasing isolation over the Gaza issue is dangerous versus those who think any weakening of resolve is dangerous.
The Geopolitical Fallout for Israel It is vital that the Israelis succeed in portraying the flotilla as an extremist plot. Whether extremist or not, the plot has generated an image of Israel quite damaging to Israeli political interests. Israel is increasingly isolated internationally, with heavy pressure on its relationship with Europe and the United States.
In all of these countries, politicians are extremely sensitive to public opinion. It is difficult to imagine circumstances under which public opinion will see Israel as the victim. The general response in the Western public is likely to be that the Israelis probably should have allowed the ships to go to Gaza and offload rather than to precipitate bloodshed. Israel’s enemies will fan these flames by arguing that the Israelis prefer bloodshed to reasonable accommodation. And as Western public opinion shifts against Israel, Western political leaders will track with this shift.
The incident also wrecks Israeli relations with Turkey, historically an Israeli ally in the Muslim world with longstanding military cooperation with Israel. The Turkish government undoubtedly has wanted to move away from this relationship, but it faced resistance within the Turkish military and among secularists. The new Israeli action makes a break with Israel easy, and indeed almost necessary for Ankara.
With roughly the population of Houston, Texas, Israel is just not large enough to withstand extended isolation, meaning this event has profound geopolitical implications.
Public opinion matters where issues are not of fundamental interest to a nation. Israel is not a fundamental interest to other nations. The ability to generate public antipathy to Israel can therefore reshape Israeli relations with countries critical to Israel. For example, a redefinition of U.S.-Israeli relations will have much less effect on the United States than on Israel. The Obama administration, already irritated by the Israelis, might now see a shift in U.S. public opinion that will open the way to a new U.S.-Israeli relationship disadvantageous to Israel.
The Israelis will argue that this is all unfair, as they were provoked. Like the British, they seem to think that the issue is whose logic is correct. But the issue actually is, whose logic will be heard? As with a tank battle or an airstrike, this sort of warfare has nothing to do with fairness. It has to do with controlling public perception and using that public perception to shape foreign policy around the world. In this case, the issue will be whether the deaths were necessary. The Israeli argument of provocation will have limited traction.
Internationally, there is little doubt that the incident will generate a firestorm. Certainly, Turkey will break cooperation with Israel. Opinion in Europe will likely harden. And public opinion in the United States — by far the most important in the equation — might shift to a “plague-on-both-your-houses” position.
While the international reaction is predictable, the interesting question is whether this evolution will cause a political crisis in Israel. Those in Israel who feel that international isolation is preferable to accommodation with the Palestinians are in control now. Many in the opposition see Israel’s isolation as a strategic threat. Economically and militarily, they argue, Israel cannot survive in isolation. The current regime will respond that there will be no isolation. The flotilla aimed to generate what the government has said would not happen.
The tougher Israel is, the more the flotilla’s narrative takes hold. As the Zionists knew in 1947 and the Palestinians are learning, controlling public opinion requires subtlety, a selective narrative and cynicism. As they also knew, losing the battle can be catastrophic. It cost Britain the Mandate and allowed Israel to survive. Israel’s enemies are now turning the tables. This maneuver was far more effective than suicide bombings or the Intifada in challenging Israel’s public perception and therefore its geopolitical position (though if the Palestinians return to some of their more distasteful tactics like suicide bombing, the Turkish strategy of portraying Israel as the instigator of violence will be undermined).
Israel is now in uncharted waters. It does not know how to respond. It is not clear that the Palestinians know how to take full advantage of the situation, either. But even so, this places the battle on a new field, far more fluid and uncontrollable than what went before. The next steps will involve calls for sanctions against Israel. The Israeli threats against Iran will be seen in a different context, and Israeli portrayal of Iran will hold less sway over the world.
And this will cause a political crisis in Israel. If this government survives, then Israel is locked into a course that gives it freedom of action but international isolation. If the government falls, then Israel enters a period of domestic uncertainty. In either case, the flotilla achieved its strategic mission. It got Israel to take violent action against it. In doing so, Israel ran into its own fist.
This report is republished with permission of STRATFOR
Yes, while the sole hope for Oman's economy keeping up with the ballooning population and getting away from hydrocarbons is obviously SMEs (small to medium size enterprises), the increasingly incompetent Ministry of Tourism appear to have missed the memo.
Photo: The Marina Bandar Al Rowdha, Muscat. Great facility. Its management decided to kill off what few struggling Omani Tourist Operators there are.
The Marina Bandar Al Rowdha, the only decent wet marina in Oman right now and mainly owned by the Ministry of Tourism (plus the omni-present mega-conglomerate Zawawi Trading) have just decided to double the rents charged for large commercial tourist & charter boat operations based out of MBR.
A large dhow operation is now being charged 10,000 rials for a berth [USD$26,000], up from an already not inconsiderable 5,000 rials. Indeed, other tourist ports in Oman like Sur, Khasab and Sohar, charge nothing from similar outfits, and many of their staff are not even Omani, while in Muscat a vast majority are Omani locals. A similar place in Europe would be 50% of this, and this is hardly the Adriatic or Med.
Nice one team! What with the booming crippled tourism industry hit by the global recession and the relatively high prices compared to our tourist competitors, you'd have thought a subsidy would be more appropriate.
But no. One can only assume that with the Management of Marina Bandar Al Rowdha struggling to make a profit (despite being pretty full), and the collapse of the cunning plan to force the next-door Capital Area Yacht Club members to move there (oh, and requisition their land too), the commercial boats were a soft target as they can't go anywhere else.
For now. There is hope that they could move to Bar Al Jissa or The Wave later, but that could be a long time coming and the Marina Bandar Al Rowdha will probably set the bar.
Mr Saleem Q. Al Zawawi, Chairman of Marina Bandar Al Rowdha, and with vast experience successfully running an international standard Marina business, clearly is not a supporter of the plucky and predominantly Omani water-based tourist businesses operating from his establishment. These businesses are all pretty new, have very high Omanisation numbers, and were already struggling. His short-sighted decision could only have been made with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, who one might think actually knew something about the tourism industry and were tasked with supporting it. LMAOFOFL.
Perhaps you might be interested in a recent report I received over a beer from a good contact in the US Military, who is sometimes passing through here. His news was confirmed with a nod and a wink by my contact in the relevant Ministry, so I thought I'd share. It's also doing the rounds of the regular aircrews by now too.
In early October, Oman's entire Air Traffic Control system, covering the whole damn country, went down for several hours, due to human error and sloppy procedures when operating the underlying IT system. The back-up system failed too. All the poor controllers had left were radio communications with the planes and basic radar, which just gives blips on the screen and no data like call sign, aircraft type or even airspeed - vital data for the way aircraft are controlled in our airspace.
In fact, it seems that for a while it's likely that Oman's air traffic controllers were basically 'flying blind', without even the basic radar.
Oops.
Photo: Oman Air Traffic controllers have apparently had several near-misses this year, aka 'airprox events'
The event is being followed up by the appropriate authorities, of course, but because no aircraft actually crashed, and this being Oman, it's being hushed up somewhat. Afterall, it was all OK in the end. Yani!! Mafi mushkala!! (or perhaps Hakuna Mattata?)
International airlines have responded to the incident by unofficially suspending the ban on in-flight smoking while in Oman airspace. An unofficial spokeman for one airline, who declined to be named, said:
"We figured, what the hell. After all, it could be our last chance for a bloody cigarette, so everyone can now just go for it. The crew won't say anything until we're safely outside Omani airspace."
Now, joking aside, air traffic controllers - even ours - do train for such situations. And the planes themselves also have a basic Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System or TCAS (thank's to the International Civil Aviation Organization, after a few mid-air collisions in the 70s and 80s).
And I have every confidence things will improve after lessons have been learnt...
sigh...
I also see that there wasn't a report (yet) made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (a voluntary international confidential near miss reporting website run by NASA) either. Tsk tsk.
One for the Muscat Daily to follow-up on? I'd love to read an official version of what happened...
A couple of funny stories from the crazy wacky world of Saudi Arabia might amuse you.
First, young Saudi men are getting hooked on Viagra, to the extent that they can no longer get it up without it.
I love the way the default defense is that the problem is caused by the internet spam ads...Classic.
Young Saudi men go wild over notorious blue pill By Abdul Rahman Shaheen, Correspondent Published: April 30, 2009, 22:57
Riyadh: The kingdom has been gripped with a craze for erectile-dysfunction medications by young men - an occurrence which has many worried.
A large number of married Saudi youths are flocking to pharmacies to take hold of Viagra - "the little blue pill" - or any other stimulants that will give them more satisfaction. The catchy words and obscene images that appear on online advertisements of these medications are another factor luring youth into buying packets of these stimulants.
According to Saudi doctors, this phenomenon reflects the spread of a negative sexual culture among the younger generation in the Kingdom.
"[The] lack of an effective mechanism to monitor and curb these adverts was instrumental in spreading this mania among the youths," they said. However, agents of the pharmaceutical companies deny responsibility for this. The firms called for strict vigilance by authorities to stop the sale of counterfeit medications.
Several young men said that they started taking stimulants soon after marriage. Some of these youths dared to disclose their identity while others requested anonymity.
They agreed that the pills were instrumental in keeping them virile during love making. They also felt that their masculinity was directly linked to their potency.
Mohammad Nassir Al Qah'tani, said: "I started taking stimulant during the very first week after my marriage at the instance of one of my friends. This was an impressive experience for me and my wife."
He added that he stopped using the stimulants at the advice of a doctor but added that his sudden stoppage resulted in some mental disturbance.
Another young man, called M.A., said that he became addicted to the stimulant and could not make love to his wife without using the pill. He said he was now considering seeking psychiatric help.
Dr Duraid Yazji, a consultant urologist, said that the erectile-dysfunction medications were meant for aged men in their 50s and 60s with some degree of dysfunction due to reduced hormonal production.
Perhaps its because they are married to wives they have no attraction for? Because meanwhile, a Reuters report in the Gulf News that the Saudi authorities are closing woman-only gyms. Apparently there is no way for the businesses to get a license (unlike men-only gyms).
And, of course, everyone knows that such vigorous exercising might make girls loose their virginity. Nice point Shaikh Abdullah. Clearly you've been giving the idea of vigourously exercising young women a lot of thought.
Saudi women question government clampdown Reuters Published: May 01, 2009, 22:51 ... Unhappy at the growing number of unlicensed female gyms, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs recently closed two in the Red Sea city of Jeddah and one in the city of Dammam on the Gulf Arab coast for not having a licence. ... While male gyms get licences from a government sports body, female gyms have no official authority overseeing them. ... "Football and basketball are sports that require a lot of movement and jumping," Shaikh Abdullah Al Maneea, member of the official Supreme Council of Religious Scholars, said in a religious opinion published in Okaz newspaper on Thursday.
He said such excessive movement may harm girls who are still virgins, possibly causing them to lose their virginity. ...
You've gotta love the comedy that the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars manages to pump out. This classic one was reported after an 8 year old girl finally got her divorce from a 50 yr old letch who had bought her from her father for $13,000.
Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim clergy have opposed the drive to end child marriages. In January, the kingdom's most senior cleric said it was permissible for 10-year-old girls to marry and those who believe they are too young are doing the girls an injustice.
Well, it had to happen. Being busier than promised this week I've been a bit of an absentee landlord here at Muscat Confidential, and meanwhile the comments section on the previous post wandered tangentially into some pretty pathetic name calling idiocy. Further than usual.
The sort of intellectual debate seen most often in schools for small children.
The question is: Given I am a strong supporter - within the law - of free speech, but at the same time can't stand listening to/reading such patently stupid crap, should I allow such behaviour on what is, after all, my blog?
Yes and no. So: - I've turned off 'lazy' anonymous commenting, - I continue to reserve the right to delete comments I think are against the law (see Muscati's recent blog)
Readers should try to think a bit before posting. The children should stop turning almost every issue into some mindless, boring 'expat vs Omani' argument centered on insults, stereotypes, non sequiturs, purposely offensive statements that don't relate to the argument at hand, and downright incorrect horseshit.
Some of the commentators seem to think Oman would be better served if the only expats here were totally obsequious, and that the so-called Omani culture (as defined by them by inference ad hoc ) is 'by definition' correct.
Economic and cultural luddites. Such xenophobic nationalistic nonsense would turn Oman rapidly into a cultural and economic North Korea of the middle east, IMHO. Oman would be wholly dependent on limited oil and gas, and obeying more powerful neighboring states. While it's state of education and business would wither, replaced by imported cheap managers from the subcontinent.
And the rest of you could try to resist baiting them.
The argument is seldom some black and white cartoon version of Expat vs Omani. It is customers and suppliers, Government and residents, business and stakeholders. Comparing the actions and achievements of the powerful against their stated objectives (or even just vs common sense).
As for free speech, I'm a big fan of the US on this one. The benefit of the doubt must always go to free speech and the right to express ideas. (Plus see earlier posts.)
I think the 'West' has got it a bit wrong in their attempts to promulgate democracy. The idea of democracy seems to have been dumbed down to the simple idea that it involves a vote and the 'winners'(by simple majority) get to do what they want.
Er, no.
To me, democracy rests not on the concept of a majority, but on how it defends the intrinsic rights of the minority, the opposition. The majority operates in a straight jacket in the Western Democracies - sewn from the constitution and the rule of law.
A free press and a right to voice and debate ideas in a public forum enables the common man or woman to influence things. A vote without information is useless. I highly recommend wiki for those who want to learn about free speech from a whole load of really smart people who have thought about it and debated it for centuries.
Freedom of speech and truth First page of the 1644 edition of Areopagitica
One of the earliest Western defences of freedom of expression is Areopagitica (1644) by the English poet and political writer John Milton. Milton wrote in reaction to an attempt by the English republican parliament to prevent "seditious, unreliable, unreasonable and unlicensed pamphlets". Milton advanced a number of arguments in defence of freedom of speech: a nation's unity is created through blending individual differences rather than imposing homogeneity from above; that the ability to explore the fullest range of ideas on a given issue was essential to any learning process and truth cannot be arrived upon unless all points of view are first considered; and that by considering free thought, censorship acts to the detriment of material progress.
Milton also argued that if the facts are laid bare, truth will defeat falsehood in open competition, but this cannot be left for a single individual to determine. According to Milton, it is up to each individual to uncover their own truth; no one is wise enough to act as a censor for all individuals.[8]
Noam Chomsky states that: "If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise."[9] An often cited quote that describes the principle of freedom of speech comes from Evelyn Beatrice Hall (often mis-attributed to Voltaire) "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it," as an illustration of Voltaire's beliefs.[10] Professor Lee Bollinger argues that "the free speech principle involves a special act of carving out one area of social interaction for extraordinary self-restraint, the purpose of which is to develop and demonstrate a social capacity to control feelings evoked by a host of social encounters." The free speech principle is left with the concern of nothing less than helping to shape "the intellectual character of the society". According to Bollinger tolerance is a desirable, if not essential, value and protecting unpopular speech is itself an act of tolerance. Such tolerance serves as a model that encourages more tolerance throughout society. However, critics argue that society need not be tolerant of the intolerance of others, such as those who advocate great harm, such as genocide. Preventing such harms is claimed to be much more important than being tolerant of those who argue for them.[11]
There are other important rights too. A judiciary as independent as possible from the short-term influence of the Politicians, for example.
Free speech is a precious thing. But by it's nature this means a lot of bad ideas get voiced. Incorrect ideas. They must be found out and dragged into the daylight of reason and dealt with. Sometimes someone finds an idea offensive. I say tough luck, because otherwise no-one can say anything, as there will always be someone offended by anything. Hell, 46% of voting Americans still voted for Sarah Palin. And in some countries you have to be careful what you name stuffed toys.
To those who criticise the West, and especially the US, because of its foreign policy, or for melting down the whole global economy, or a multitude of other fucks ups (especially in the last 8 years), I say this: when I want to read and hear a critical intellectual analysis of what the US is doing wrong, I can usually get a damn good analysis from ... an American, via the free global media system they created.
When your country allows leaders, comedians and the media to freely criticise your Government like the West do theirs, you can start bitching. Yes, criticise the Americans, or anyone else, but treasure having the power and freedom to do so, and do stop whining. And start addressing and fixing your own problems like grown-ups perhaps.
Think too about what the world would be like if American was run by someone like Kim Il Yung, Ahmadinejad, Chavez, or Mugabe.
I do find a lot of ungrateful selfish ignorant whining offensive. But if some idiot wants to speak out and thereby demonstrate his or her idiocy, its dangerous to stop it. I'd rather we know such people and ideas are out there and perhaps we can better address them.
People, please be extra careful pulling away from traffic lights in Muscat.
Today I swore I was about to see, at a distance of a few metres, a HUGE accident at the lights between Al Khuwair flyover and Ministries road, when a big Nissan Patrol, after the lights had been red for at least 2 whole seconds, instead of breaking just planted boot and roared through the intersection at what must have been over 80km an hour. Scary stuff. And I see it at least twice a day. Count it out. It's a long time. And Omani lights go green the other way as soon as the other side goes red.
Luckily, the other traffic stream were micro-seconds slower than usual tearing away, and he got away with it.
Wanker.
If I'd been a cop, I'd have pulled you over, dragged you out of the car, and pistol whipped you before shooting you in the knees, planting a knife in your hand, and seeing to it you did a long time in prison.
I hope you die a horrible, slow, burning death in a single car accident, really soon, and before you kill someone. I sincerely hope this
is how you and your SUV will end up, with your dishdasha coating the front windscreen and steering wheel of a car you are incapable of being allowed to be responsible for, after crashing into some huge inanimate object at extremely high speed.
In a flurry of self promotion and in the spirit of 'any excuse for a free dinner', there are apparently going to be awards for best journalist, best newspapers, etc etc.
Yawn.
The winners will undoubtably get a plaque, and will crow about being the best in Oman. I guess it might increase competition between the papers. But picking the 'best in Oman' is not exactly setting the bar very high...
Quote of the article for me was this one:
“The awards will give recognition to the commendable efforts of reporters in informing people and create awareness among the public on different topics.
As everyone in Oman knows the papers here take about 3 mins to read cover to cover, as they are so generally lacking in content and consisting mainly of copy paste from the wire services, repeating anything issued by the Goernment News Agency, & reprinted press releases.
So, readers are encouraged to send me your nominations for Muscat Confidential's Alternative Media Awards, in the following catagories: - worse article written by a local journalist - most sycophantic article - most full of hyperbole press release, printed verbatim - best non-event to get on the front page - most obscure connection blaming something bad on the American/Israeli conspiracy
Email your nominations to undercover.dragon (at) gmail.com, and please attach links!
Media gets its due: CPP to announce first media awards Swati Dasgupta Sunday, November 02, 2008
MUSCAT — To acknowledge the role of media and appreciate the contributions made by those associated with it, the first media awards in Oman for the year 2008 were announced yesterday.
At the press conference held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Saleh Al Shaibany, managing director, Creative Press and Publishing, said addressing the gathering that media has always played a very important role in Oman.
“Several Arabic and English newspapers have been launched since the time of Renaissance. Hence it’s essential to recognise the outstanding achievements of individuals and organisations,” he said.
This media award is a brainchild of Creative Press & Publishing (CPP), publisher of City Business magazine, and is the first annual media award in Oman to honour reporters, publications and advertising agencies. Emphasising on the role of English language newspapers in Oman, Saleh Al Shaibany said that since there are very few locals writing for English dailies, it had become all the more necessary to appreciate their efforts and awards like this was a step in that direction. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to National Bank of Oman (NBO) for supporting the event.
The awards have been divided into seven categories. They include the best English journalist of the year, best Arabic journalist of the year, best English daily newspaper of the year, best Arabic daily newspaper of the year, best English publication of the year, best Arabic publication of the year and best advertising campaign of the year. ...
Yes folks, you haven’t been able to comment on the posts recently, at least if you live in Oman. And in theory I haven’t been able to post either, because Omantel have also blocked access to blogger sign on. Muppets. But access to the blog is not blocked, fear not.
(Of course, the real reason for the lack of posts on my part recently has just been that I’m a bit flooded by work dealing with the international economic crisis, and well, to be frank, they get a priority call on my time, after the family. Because you neither pay me shit loads of money nor give me lots of cuddles and kisses. But I’m sure you’re OK with that anyhow.)
The Oman bloggers have been frothing about it, including Kishor and most hilariously as usual, Suburban, in her fantastically titled post Suck this Omantel. Now there's a mental image indeed...
So, I guess you’re now glad of the recent post on getting around the filter! Well, unless that post of mine is the reason Omantel are now trying to block Google images, translator, etc… Oops. Sorry folks.
I have no actual hard data yet on why Omantel have done this. (Does anyone else out there have a relative in Omantel?) Inadvertent & incompetent, or Nefariously deliberate? I presume incompetence, not just because its my default expectation setting for everything and especially applicable to OmanHell, but also because the browser just hangs, rather than getting the nice ‘Omantel says No’ screen.
I expect they should sort it soon. Its probably side-swipe from more fevered attempts to block the various VOIP providers. Meanwhile, if you’re desperate you can email me important comments and I’ll post them if you like.
I'm struggling here... with what to say about the website www.smartoman.com. I guess I should be encouraging such clear and shameless entrepreneurial spirit: the enthusiasm, the many many informative (and free) articles, the whole net thing man, like, advertising, you know? And I'd certainly like whoever's financing the venture (?daddy?) to come to the aid of some of MY business ideas with wads of cash... but this is just way too amateur hour. Really. It is.
I can't even figure out how I got here... or even here but, there you go, the power of the internet I guess. I did, and I'm... well... *&%(*%(*^%(*^%
where do I start?
Ok. Free advice? Albert: 1/ If you want to do your thing - whatever it is - in English, get an employee who actually speaks English as an (almost) native language! Real English, I mean, like, not something else transliterated (like say Arabic or Hindi) 2/ Try not to have every page (and even the press release, see below) come across like a google translated page (oh, see point 1). 3/ You're obviously trying to do something, I just wish I knew what it was. I mean for your customers, obviously. I know what YOU are trying to do, which is make a quick buck on the internet, or at least convince who ever is paying the bills that there is a quick buck. Wake up - this is no longer 1998. 4/ Drop the whole 'by-line' thing on the articles. It doesn't add anything. Really. 'By Bhaskar Bhattacharjee' or 'By Albert Fahil' or 'By Aysha Mariyam' or 'By V.Sukumaran'.. like we care? OK, if your friends write articles and want a by line to do it for free, or for class credit, just put it at the bottom, OK? 5/ Yes, we all can agree Rozalin Al-Bulushi looks cute. I'm just not sure the whole 'she's female so let's concentrate on her beauty' thing is what she wants to stress with regard to her business model. 6/ Spell check, spell check. IE Fassion (main heading, home page, smart Oman)- you mean Fashion.
Oh, fuck it. Just read the press release for a laugh, and visit the web site smart oman. I've had more understandable English on the instructions from a Chinese product safety warning. Albert has another one called www.smartarabs.com. Same html code, and the same articles basically. Probably a www.smartqatar.com too, hey Why not? But I couldn't be arsed to even check.
Albert - was that an on-line MBA? And please introduce me to your dad. Press Release
SmartOman.com The Business Machine Aug 18 2008 -
For the first time in Oman, a highly comprehensive and professional website is on the cyberspace with the idea of promoting every business in the city. This aims to create common business platform and approach different class of business community at their ease.
The website, www.smartoman.com is with lot of potential to make a mark on online media and establish as strong international media brand.
This is the time for investing in Oman, the time that most high profile organizations, institutions, keep their eyes on Oman.
That creates for existing local companies more challenging environment.
That is where the www.smartoman.com is perfectly fit with the scene. Since most businesses in the prevailing world depend on the 24/7 online media, there is no exception to Oman. It is the easiest, most cost effective way to communicate to date.
An article on a international website such as www.smartoman.com can make a world of difference to a product or to a business no matter small or large.
Browsing through www.smartoman.com is easy, informative and pleasant. Whether it is tourism, education, real estate, health, law, management, or fashion the www.smartoman.com has a place, a place to promote, to advertise, to sell, to contact, to invest, or just to gain knowledge.
The city guide is the place where a tourist can gain complete information on where he has finally come and to where he has to follow on to go to the right place. In the same way, it is where businessmen of tourism industry can gain full coverage to their ventures effectively and attract more and more customers easily.
The articles with videos to emphasize the ideas and articles with slide shows to give variety of tastes on what you are reading are major features of the website while City Brief, short business news give fullest idea in the live business news in the city.
City Offers is one of the most attractive link in the www.smartoman.com while the sections such as Features, Smart Forum, Public Voice, Property Videos, and Notice Board cover all most all of the areas of Oman's business world and social world as well.
The www.smartoman.com is the online work station surely the business community can depend on while the portal to do the talking. The site is exclusive and does exclusive promotional activities online.
So take a minute and visit the site www.smartoman.com, the first of its kind, and contact the site voice@smartoman.com
www.SmartOman.com, the business portal.
Not convinced you want your business on smart Oman? Oh come on! The rates are really reasonable! Give old Albert a break. Here's the ad rates for the site...
Rates on home page. ( per month ) 1. Horizontal banners ( upper main ) US$ 2000 2. Horizontal banners ( main ) US$ 2500 3. Horizontal middle page US$ 2000 4. Skyscraper first US$ 2500 5. Skyscraper second US$ 2000 SmartOman.com smartoman Home page visibility max plan any two ad positions US$ 3500 All other news pages ( per month ) run on network 1. Horizontal banners ( upper main ) US$ 1000 2. Horizontal banners ( main ) US$ 1500 3. Horizontal middle page US$ 1000 4. Skyscraper first US$ 1500 5. Skyscraper second US$ 1000 Business pages visibility max plan any two ad positions plus mid article ad for US$ 2500 All pages product and real estate property video/ animation listings. US$ 1000 per video ( one minute ) On interactive pages , Smart Forum, Message board, PublicVoice will be same as City Guide rates. CityGuide ad rates. Dubai City Guide ( Per month run on network ) 1 Horizontal banners ( upper main ) US$ 1000 2 Horizontal banners ( main ) US$ 1500 3 Horizontal middle page US$ 1000 4 Skyscraper first US$ 1500 5. Skyscraper second US$ 1000 City guide visibility max plan any two ad positions US$ 2000 Sponsored listings on CityGuide US$ 150 per year. ( example , ‘ABC taxies’ at Dubai city > services > taxies listings. ) If you want us to design your Ad, design fee will be 150 US$. For direct advertising please contact voice@smartoman.com Ad partner discount will be 10% from list rate for the 2nd and onwards when advertising gap is less than 90 days.
I wish I was getting 5 % for every hit this link is giving old Albert, I'll tell ya...
One thing that sort of pisses me off is hypocrisy. Especially when it's served with a side order of 'holier than thou'.
Last week the reliably flaky - but always as muslim as you can be and usually a bit more - Balqis posted on the English Omani sabla about how invasive and totally out of line with the sensibilities of Omani society the Dragon had been posting about His Majesty's yacht here.
What she neglected to point out while bitching about how much of an affront this post was, she that was herself busy giving a day by day, blow by blow of HM's entire (and personal, not State) trip to Italy including pictures of HM and even more comments about, and pictures of, his yacht. LOL. What a total muppet. Enjoy!
Following on from the Tier 3 knee-jerk reaction, this beauty from yesterday's papers (in this case the Tribune version) on those pesky runaway expats. I was shocked myself that there are apparently over 64,000 expats that are effectively missing. Gee, I wonder why, seeing as things are so great here for all expats, why 64,000 would abscond? I mean, the number seems to indicate about 50 expats per day go missing, or 'runaway'.
Or at least, I hope they absconded, and aren't just buried in the desert somewhere. Do you think the ROP would actually investigate any of these cases?
And the response is not to wonder why they runaway and perhaps think about what that means, but to enforce 'strict penalties'. Go Oman! The expat labourer's paradise...
Majlis A’Shura focuses on runaway expatriates Muscat Majlis A’Shura held its 10th regular session of the first annual term under the chairmanship of HE Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al Isa’ee on Sunday.
Omar Bin Ali Al Hosoni, deputy chairman, read out the legal committee report and pointed out that the study of the legal committee to the proposed amendments on the labour law has been delegated by Majlis A’Shura and was limited only to the articles to which the amendments will be introduced.
“The first part of the report addresses the issue of runaway expatriates by applying strict penalties, which the ministry believes, will provide a radical and decisive solution to the problem which has a negative impact on job market,” he added.
Majlis A’Shura appr-oved the report of the legal committee on the proposed amendments to the labour law. The report included the recommendations of the committee and the proposed amendments on some of the labour law provisions, especially those related to the runaway expatriates.
The number of run-away expatriates, as at the end of 2007, stood at 64,487, a 33.97 per cent growth compared to the last two years, he said. ...
A really funny story hit the streets today, in both English and Arabic papers: There is no cooking gas in the country. Why? Well, that’s a great question, one the mostly harmless Oman Tribune at least had the balls to ask.
MUSCAT Local markets have been hit by severe gas shortage. The shortage is telling upon the domestic as well as commercial consumers.
Many residents could not get an LPG cylinder when they needed one and had to depend on food from restaurants.
The situation became worse at some restaurants which incurred losses as they could not get LPG cylinder for cooking food.
Wow! That IS a problem. So, why I say, why?
(The actual answer, by the way, is that huge quantities of cooking gas are being smuggled across the border to the UAE, where it's around 8 rials a cylinder, as compared to here where it's just 3 rials (a standard economic effect of subsidy in one country, and demand in another). How one manages to slip 1000s of large steel pressurized cylinders full of highly combustible gas past Oman’s finest customs agents is a question The Tribune couldn’t be bothered to ask, naturally. But read ON!
The authorities said that there was no shortage of cooking gas in the local markets, adding that gas cylinders were available in abundance.
Interestingly, the officials at gas companies admitted to shortage of cooking gas, saying that large quantities of cooking gas were being exported to other countries at higher prices and this had resulted in domestic shortage.
So, there are lots of cylinders, according to the Authorities (empty ones, perhaps?). But wait, one underling from the MOG (not that that was very clear in the report), dared to tell it how it really is. One Mr. Saif Al Salmani, was reported as seeming to think it was, in fact, because Oman's 2 largest gas fields Yibal [mistranslated as Al Jebal] and Saih Rawl [mistranslated as Saih Roul] have run dry. LMAOFOFL. Oh my God!!!! The story continued.
On the other hand, Saif Al Salmani, general manager of petroleum industries, said that cooking gas was available in large quantities and assured the consumers that the shortage was due to Al Jabel Oil Field in Saih Roul turning dry, but the shortage was compensated by the gas produced from the refinery, he added.
Lets face it folks, if those 2 fields have run dry, Oman has got waaaaaay bigger problems than having to use charcoal for a while. That would have been a great scoop for the reporter, if he actually had a few brain cells.
‘Why, really Mr Al Salmani, the 2 largest gas fields in Oman are turning dry! What do the electricity companies who use Yibal gas to power the whole Muscat coast say? When is my air-conditioning going to stop? Oh, and what about the LNG plants that rely on the mighty Saih Rawl? And the export dollars? And the Sohar industries? What will the Majalis ask of the Minister????'
Unfortunately, its not true. The fields are full of gas, in fact, they have (and I’ll use a technical terms here I heard from one of my sources close to the operator) "shit-loads of the stuff". But what do I or they know, compared to an official from the MOG and the great journalistic talent of the Trib (come on down and collect your accolades, reporter of the year …. Mr. Said Al Nabhani)?
I’m still laughing, the report was sooooo funny. I know, its sad that unscrupulous people are flogging all our cooking gas to the UAE to make a buck, but the real stories are so obvious, and yet totally uncommented upon.: 1/ how are gas cylinders getting smuggled out? 2/ why are domestic gas supplies being subsidized? 3/ Are our 2 largest strategic gas fields really running out? 4/ What is the Government proposing to actually do about points 1-3 above?
Hey guys and gals, sorry for the lapse, but even Dragon's got to party...
So many things I want to blog about in todays riveting Oman Times its hard to know where to begin... I'll just have to pick two.
First, the strange ad actually apologising for not making enough water lately by the Public Authority for Electricity and Water. Emergency halts - whatever that means - meant they weren't making water at the Barka AND Ghubra desalinisation plants at the same time. My question is: Why? [don't know yet, give me a few days and I'll chase the real story]. But like, isn't that their job? To make water? Preferably all the time? Best bit was how they added the statement 'The Public Authority for Electricity and Water advises all customers to install additional water tanks to store sufficient quantities of water that can meet their water need [sic] for two days at least, in case of emergencies.' And, a mini lecture that YOU should save water all the time, not just when they can't get their shit together enough to make water. So that it's like YOUR fault there isn;t enough water. Muppets.
And many other stories. But the best?
The Saudis apparently [pg 16, Oman Tribune] don't want Mr Sarkozy, President of France, to visit with his girlfriend because they're not married. And totally hot. LOL. So, naturally, they're also encouraging Bahrain Hotels to deny rooms to Saudi men who want to just fuck prostitutes. While drinking a bottle of whiskey. Luckily they are also making sure Saudi men don't go on sex holidays to Thailand. And of course, the Royal Family of Saudi would not visit France with more than 1 wife, given polygamy is illegal in Europe. It is really hard to put on type how much shit I think the Saudi rulers are full of...
And the Egyptians now also(apparently) are now noticing that they didn't like it that Sarkozy was visiting them and 'sharing a room' with a woman who wasn't his wife.
What total hypocritical arseholes.
Anyhow. I hope Sarkozy gives them a big French Finger. Or says she's just a cousin staying in the next room. heh heh heh.
Thank God I'm in Oman. A country surrounded by shit holes.
I used to be an Expatriate working for the Government in Oman as a consultant. Other than that I can't be too specific! But even though I've left, I love the country, its people and many aspects of its culture. I have the deepest respect and admiration for the Sultan of Oman and his clear vision for his country. Email contact: undercover(dot)dragon(at)gmail(dot)com There is also a Muscat Confidential Facebook Fan page - Join now!!
It is the absolute intent and undeflectable aim of this blog to at all times be in total compliance with the laws of the Sultanate of Oman. Any perception that this is not the case is due to an incorrect and inaccurate interpretation of the contents of this blog. It is intended for Adults with a sense of humour and intelligence - if you do not meet this criteria, go and read something else.
