Red light runners - beware of quick jumps at green traffic lights!!

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.

You worthless, selfish piece of trash.

No real news - everyone on holiday. Oman's Luvvies celebrate drama initiative

Took a few days off during Eid, hence no posts. But what a wonderful time off. Nothing but beach, pool, food and, finally being able to hit the bars again (as they were closed to all but 5 star hotel guests during Ramadan).

I hope you all enjoyed the end of Ramadan too. And, of course, back to work tomorrow (unless you're in the private sector and already back at work).

How to maximise your chances of dying in a car crash - don't wear a seatbelt...
First, some local Indian workers and their visiting relatives and friends ended up rolling down a ravine in a rented Land Cruiser over the weekend, in a tragic accident coming down from Jebel Akhdar.

Five Indians dead, 6 injured in Jabal Al Akhdar accident

Times News Service
Friday, October 03, 2008 11:10:25 PM Oman Time
MUSCAT — Five people were killed and six others injured when the vehicle they were travelling fell into a ravine in the niyabat of Jabal Al Akhdar in the Wilayat of Nizwa.

The ill-fated 4WD vehicle carrying a number of Indian expatriates fell into the ravine yesterday while the occupants were returning from a trip to Jabal Al Akhdar, killing five of them on the spot.

The Royal Omani Police (ROP) promptly rushed to the spot and took the injured to the Nizwa Referral Hospital for treatment. A reliable source confirmed that the wounded persons were in stable condition.
...
The picnic that turned a nightmare
Times News Service
Sunday, October 05, 2008 12:01:05 AM Oman Time
MUSCAT — The ill-fated Land Cruiser that slipped into a ravine near Jabal Al Akhdar on Friday, apparently fell prey to a sudden brake failure that resulted in five people dying on the spot and six being injured including two children.
...

What's really sad is that brake failure is being blamed. When perhaps more could be made of the fact that there were 11 people in the damned car. Thank goodness the poor kids seem only to have been injured.

More from the Times of Oman department of shameless self promotion
Last week also saw the publishing of another banal "Viewpoint" on the front page of that awesome organ of the 4th Estate here that is, The Times of Oman. (Is there any other so-called leading newspaper that outs editorial on the front page above the fold?) This one was gushing about His Majesty's recent instruction for Ministers to develop theatre and drama in the Sultanate, presumeably to ensure some decent local content can take up the opportunity presented by the new Opera House being built in Shatti. But it's interesting that Essa Al Zedjali is clearly a big theatre buff, even expressing a preference for 'method acting', a specific form of acting technique developed by American Lee Strasberg, based on the famous work of turn of the century Russian actor and Director Constantin Stanislavski, and popular with some of Hollywood's greats like Al Pacino. Must admit, I didn't pick out Essa as a luvvie, but there you go. The squeals of joy from FODs across the Sultanate on hearing of the drama initiative must have been legion. I look forward to seeing an Omani Laurence Olivier one day, but perhaps a local Marlon Brando is where we'd best start.

Perhaps the first order of business for the high powered committee will be to try and make ordinary Omanis see the theatre as a place for anyone to have a respectable career. I think the majority of Oman's common culture in general still sees the acting occupation to be in line with prostitution and loose morals, somewhat similar to western society of the late 1800s - 1930s...

...
In fact, all sincere efforts extended during the past years in the field of drama and theatre for establishing an Omani theatre movement, in the full sense of the word, and for production of distinct local drama, were not extended within methodological frameworks and plans, and were without regulatory measures, leading to a state that was less than what was desirable.

It is hence important here to point out the requirements for the success of any theatre movement, particularly in the Sultanate. The most significant requirement would be a change from the concept of ‘amateurism’ to a state of ‘professionalism’ through establishing an institute that specialises in method acting, production and other related works. This is in addition to the necessity of the vital role the private sector needs to play here. Another important requirement would be the reconsideration of the wages of actors/actresses and all who work in the field of drama and theatre. Initiating a mechanism for promoting and marketing local drama abroad would enable the Omani theatre to make its presence felt in the Gulf, Arab and international arena.

The field of drama and theatre also requires induction of ‘new blood’, every year. This can be made possible by setting up a specialised academic institute that would shoulder the objectives of the theatre in the Sultanate. An association of theatre artistes and performers, similar to the associations of journalists and writers, could also be formed. Such an association will care for the affairs of the artistes and those working in the field of theatre and TV drama for further advancement of the march of theatre in the Sultanate in coordination with the government and private sector institutions concerned. Such a step would also lead to introduction of objective local drama that deals with the present and future issues of the society in the light of the deep-rooted Omani heritage.

And from the 'No common sense please we're Bahraini' dept
In other news, the Bahraini Foreign Ministry and Bahraini foreign minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa have been taking some flack from
local Islamo-nutters in Bahrain for daring to suggest a formal forum for regional dialogue with Israel and other non-Arab countries might be a useful step to get some positive change in the Israeli-Palistinian problem. See Gulf News. The right wing types don't even want to acknowledge the validity of any Jewish state in the area. Intersting how in line this group are with the right wing in the States who similarly want to set impossible preconditions on Iran before talking to them either.

...
However, the Bahrain Society for Anti-Normalisation with the Zionist Enemy, a prominent non-government organisation (NGO) rejected the call.

"The formation of a regional organisation that includes the Zionist entity is in fact an implementation of the US plans to support Israel in the Arab world and is part of the so-called Greater Middle East which seeks to integrate the Zionists in the region," the society said in a statement.
...

ROP skews road fatality statistics – what are your real chances?

How many people are killed on the roads in Oman every year? Care to guess?

Officially, according to the ROP statistics (more on that later in this post), last year Oman saw a total of 798 road accident fatalities, plus 8530 injuries. Already by end August this year, you’ll probably not be too shocked to learn we’d beaten that record with more than 800 dead, so we’re heading for a total of more than 1000 dead this year. Given the population of Oman – including expats - is around 2.5mln, that’s a rate of 40 per 100,000. On paper that looks like about 3 times the rate in the developed world. (Note, back in 1996, when Oman was already the worst in the Middle East, it was only 24 per 100,000. MENA stats). You can see crashes here.

The problem with this official number is that it’s, er, not true.

Really.

Something you won’t be told is that the official ROP number of road fatalities in Oman is only for adults who die at the scene of the accident. It does not include people who die from their injuries in hospital later, and most shockingly it does not include deaths of children. But at least that keeps the public numbers down, huh?

So, your guess is probably as good as mine as to what the real number of fatalities is. But it’s got to be a lot higher than 800 so far.

In trying to calculate what this actual number may be, it’s hard to link the ROP stats with the more accurate but hard to decipher Ministry of Health numbers, but it looks like:
1/ deaths of children under 16 total about 15% of adult road related fatalities
2/ the number of deaths of adults from road accidents who later die in hospital is around the same as the ROP figure for those by the road side (for 2006).

Combining these guestimates, I figure this year approx. 2,300 people will die in this country from car accidents. Put another way, thats about 2 in every 1000 adults in Oman.

Shocking. And thank goodness most Omanis don’t even drink alcohol, or just imagine what the numbers would be like...

And is there anything in the media about this? Not really. The ROP try, but they don’t have the budget or the skills for effective attempts at real PR campaigns. There are no Government campaigns getting people to wear seat belts, slow down, use child seats, or to stop overtaking on blind corners. It’s a national carnage that’s getting worse every year, and nothing is really being done to stop it. Too few ROP officers, and most of the time of the few we have must be spent cutting dead and dying bodies out of cars, rather than being able to even try to enforce the few road laws.

The ROP figure for injuries (probably more accurate than fatalities) is going to be over 10,000 this year. That means, dear reader, if you live in Oman you probably have a 0.5% chance of being injured or killed by a car next year.

So, take care people. Its certainly not a piece of advice you're going to get from the Government.

And perhaps those with a predeliction for giving religious based sermons could spend more time on this part of Omani behaviour, and make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of people right now...