A visit to a place called Sohar

I visited yesterday a place in the Batina Region called Sohar.

(First of all, I would like to say that I will make posts on regions so, that you know where each region is in Oman).

Back to our topic. I had lots of fun. So much fun that I decided to make it into a video.

You will find in the video, pictures and videos taken from Sohar. I also put information about Sohar in the video so that you can learn more about it. Enjoy!

For you who are not lucky enough to have ADSL connection and can not watch the video, I can't help you much.

All I can do is show you a few pictures taken from there but you won't get information about it. You can only get that from the video. Sorry...

The Sohar Entrance

The Sohar Fort

Fishing Port

The Cornich

Like I said earlier, if you want to see more and know more, find a way to watch the video.

If you watched the video, then I hope you liked it :)

Wahiba sands

The Wahiba Sands are one of the many tourism spots in Oman. It is located in Sharqiya.
The Wahiba Sands lies in the eastern region of Oman. The sands stretch from north to south 180 kilometers, east to west 80 kilometers, with high dunes, extensive woodlands and an unspoiled coastline. Some of the sand dunes are 100 meters in height. Total land area is approximately 12,000 square kilometers with about 3,000 Bedu of varying tribal origins including Janabah, Mawalik, Hikman, Amr and Wahiba.
(Source: soukofoman.com)

A lot of resorts have been built to support tourism and income to the country. Resorts here come with a traditional night every night. The resorts also have traditional Arabian smoke (sheesha). The Resorts are powered by solar power and has a large water tank for water supply. Wild animals are usually seen outside the resort.

Birds are usually seen during immigration season in the winter.

The most common activity in Desert resorts is Sand boarding which is a free facility supported by the resorts. Other than that you can rent Track bikes or 4-wheel bikes. When you arrive in Sharqiya there is so much to see and so many places to visit that it will be difficult to know where to begin your explorations. You may hire a guide and driver who will take you around the resort which will give you unforgettable memories. The guide may take you to the top of the mountains to the dry bed creeks of the wadi. And experience almost 75 degree steep glide from the top of the mountain.

Since this location is far from city lights, I recommend you to bring a telescope. When the beautiful sun sets and the night fall, the skies are filled with stars and galaxies. I’ve also seen couple of falling stars myself. The best times I had in Wahiba sands was at night when it was totally dark. I could just stare at the stars for hours.

My experience in this place will never be forgotten.

Criticize "The Week"

I didn't have much time to read all of the paper so, I only found a couple of things that I thought were worth sharing. Share what you find with us.

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This first one is not much of a criticism but I wanted to mention it because it proves a point I made in a past post. I wrote a post on the health care in Oman. I said in that post that I think Oman has one of the best health care systems and that we should be lucky. Well, not everybody agreed with me. This article from "The Week" shows that I am right.

The Sultanate was ranked second best health care in Asia after Singapore according to The World Health Organization and the best in the middle east. Actually, Oman is the number one among all Arab countries.

And Oman has the eighth best health care in the WORLD. So, I proved my case that we are lucky for being in Oman. And for those who complain about it, be thankful for having what you have, there is only 7 other countries that is better :p



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This story is supposed to be serious but actually, it's pretty funny when you think about it.


So, basically what they are saying is that if one restaurant messes up, all the other restaurants have to suffer the consequences.
This reminds of my uncle and my cousins when we were kids. If one of us does something wrong, we all get grounded.

Imagine the situation... Imagine one barber cuts the president's hair wrong, then all the other barber shops will be banned from using scissors.

That's stupid, to be honest. Restaurants face problems like this all the time but you don't go on shutting down all the other restaurants because of what happened in one.

O well, at least we still have Shawarma here. Tough luck, Jordan!

Ask Tariq

I know that I have mentioned Tariq alot in these couple of days but that's only because I think he deserves some acknowledgment of what he does.

Anyways, Tariq has suggested to me to start a new post which you can ask him anything or suggest anything and he will talk about it on his radio show, CyberTalk.

It's simple, all you got to do is leave a comment with your question, suggestion, opinion or idea and he will talk about it on Oman english FM on Thursday between 4pm - 6pm.

Tariq will answer whatever questions related to career paths, problems you are facing with IT of any kind and even personal questions if you have any.

So, have fun and be nice :p

Microsoft Oman

In a move that emphasizes its commitment to the Sultanate of Oman and the wider Gulf region, Microsoft Oman has relocated to Knowledge Oasis Muscat, a development dedicated to supporting technology oriented business. His Excellency Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, inaugurated Microsoft Oman 's new offices at a ceremony today.

Since Microsoft opened its office in Oman in 2001, the company has expanded its presence in the country considerably. It works closely with the Government and businesses of Oman to empower individuals and businesses and help them reach their full potential through the use of technology.

"We are honored that His Excellency the Minister of Commerce and Industry could join us today." said Abdullah Lootah, Microsoft Oman , Country Manager. "We are committed to working with the Government to sustain training and education in the Sultanate and support areas of economic importance to the country. His Excellency's presence here today and our move to KOM is evidence of our dedication in these areas."

Over the last year Microsoft Oman has spearheaded a number of initiatives with the goal of contributing to the growth and development of potential in the Sultanate. The Oman Women's Association in Muscat (OWAM) is now equipped to train women across the country in IT skills and capabilities following collaboration with Microsoft Oman and in July 2007 Microsoft donated the latest Vista and Office 2007 software to the Environment Society of Oman.

KOM is as a technology park located 30 kilometers from Muscat and neighboring Rusayl Industrial Estate - the Sultanate's largest industrial park - and Sultan Qaboos University. The development, dedicated to supporting technology-oriented businesses, brings together a diversity of enterprises from industry niches as varied as M-commerce to international call centers.

Source: www.zawya.com

An answer from Tariq Al Barwani

For people who don't know Tariq, he is very well known in Oman in his IT field. This is his personal website: www.tariq.net

Let's get back to our topic. I have published a post earlier titled CyberTalk forum Canceled. I talked about how the forum created by Tariq was canceled. Some of you commented in that post asking me for farther details and I promised that I will contact Tariq and ask him about it. And so I did.

I first asked Tariq about him not being able to manage the forum and why he just let it go. This was his answer:

1) 1) I work 9 hours per day in a telecom company (Nawras). Apart from that, I work for other companies and do my personal consulting business.
2) I also am involved and working on future projects (some mentioned below as requested).
3) I'm currently doing my PHD which takes much of my time and effort.
4) I married and have a baby to play with when I'm back at home :)
5) I received alot of emails on a daily basis (on my personal, office and consulting email boxes). I just checked my personal emails and have noted 37+ emails within two days! So you can imagine what I need to go through.
6) I'm invited for presentations in schools, colleges and companies & sometime even abroad (like the up-coming presentation in Dubai on Security).
7) As you can see, I have little time to play with but I'm trying my best to manage.

And when I asked him why he made the forum in the first place, this was what he said:

1) The forum was an "additional" channel for the program only and not the "prime" source.
2) The intent of the management was to have a "blog" instead of "forum" where each episode of the program will be published online.
3) As a test period for the previous two episodes, "forum" was created under a subfolder of my personal website and not as a seperate domain. As you could have noticed, there was no promotion, advertisement, etc for the "forum" other than spreading it via the 3 mins on the air :)
4) It has been now removed and will be considered for a separate domain "blog" of which you will all be notified about it.

I think these are all pretty good reasons to why he was not able to participate much in the forum. But I had to ask him about what he has in store for the future. This was what he said:

1) Technology community

I'm on the process of creating a technology community in Oman where people could meet, share their experience, educate, learn and promote technology. The community will have forums, blogs, learning centers and stations for people to use and socialize. The aim and objective of the community is to educate and ensure every kid that completes school has basic understanding of computers & technology, every professional has a place to meet and discuss about information and communication technologies, and every person to have a place to socialize and learn what IT has in store for their personal and professional (at work or business) use. Of course I will invite you when I conduct the session sometime after Ramadhan inshallah:)

2) Young Talented Club

A plan to create 'Club' specifically for the talented to meet point & motivate the youth of Oman to learn, learn and learn in order to benefit the soceity. Currently, steps towards setting the foundation for a Young Achievers Club program is undergoing.

3) Online School

During my free-time I used to conduct sessions and educate people on IT (Security, Programming, Database, Networking, Support issues, etc) - I was also teaching back when I was in Canada and Australia (whom a number of students till today send me emails :) I'm now on the verge of creating an online school where I could educate people about different aspects of computing & technology via the web, so people could attend my sessions wherever they are, at anytime, provided they have internet access.

4) Presentations & Seminars

I'm not sure if you're aware, but I conduct training sessions and seminars here in Oman (school, colleges, companies, etc) Laith (programming section of your blog) has attended one of them :) Anyways, I'm now planning to have regular sessions and schedules published for others to know the whereabouts of my sessions whenever I'm invited. All will be publised on my personal website at http://www.tariq.net


5) New stuff...

As you are aware, I have tied up with the Ministry of Information to setup a TV program called "Raqmyaat" so we could use to spread knowledge and promote technology awareness in Oman. When the program Raqmyaat was setup and doing well, I decided to also request the ministry to setup another FM programme called "CyberTalk" to educate & promote IT to the society.

Four months later, I decided to leave "Raqmyaat" as I had found no time to rest. However, I assisted the management & team to employ more Omanies to look after it and further develop the programme. I'm currently with "CyberTalk" and will sooner or later get other people to look after the programme where I could find more time to concentrate on developing other projects for the community here in Oman.

As you could see, the idea is I'm building projects and then giving/training other people to drive itm because I'm confident that we have many talented people in Oman who could do it even better. They only need that little "push" which I'm working on every project.

I must say, these are very impressive ideas. And for this reason, I am not going to make a blog in technology since Tariq has plans for it. I will definitely participate with Tariq and help in whatever needs helps.

And Tariq also told me to tell some of you people who tried to send emails but didn't get a reply, that he didn't receive those emails and he also tried looking in the junk mail.

please ask & inform your friends on your blog that I personally apologies and would like them to send me email about anything that would like to discuss about (anytime). It will be my pleasure to assist them, anytime & anywhere

said Tariq.

Smart ID Card

Upon a request by one of our international readers about the Smart ID card in Oman, I found some information regarding this matter.

(Before I start, I thought you would like to know that this is a long post)

The issuance of Royal Decree 66/99 has established the constitution of a new Civil Status Register and the creation of an Electronic ID card. The Royal Oman Police (ROP), which is the local Omani authority managing the project, made a decision to launch a smart card-based ID programme, not only to enhance the country's identification processes, but also to improve its IT infrastructure.

Main objectives of the programme were to:
Modernise the National Registry System
Simplify and speed up administrative processes
Provide better qualitative public services to Omani citizens and residents
Pave the way to e-Government services
Strengthen citizens' identification security
The ROP's objective was to build a state of the art solution and to offer best-of-breed services to the citizens and residents of Oman. After a strict and professional bid tender selection process managed by the ROP, in October of 2002, Gemplus was awarded the contract to deliver the first smart card-based identity solution ever to be deployed in the Middle East.
The contract appointed Gemplus to provide an integrated turnkey solution comprising of hardware, software and smart cards as well as training and skill transfer services to the ROP staff.

Over the next five years ROP will issue approximately 1.5m Gemplus smart identification cards to Oman?s citizens and expatriates above the age of 15.
In order to achieve its ID programme objectives, Oman chose to capitalise on the security and convenience advantages enabled by smart chip card technology. Smart cards provide the ideal means to store and manage identity credentials:
Highest level of security with unrivalled storage capabilities
Interactive technology with ability to update, delete, add and compute data
Enables on-line/off-line authentication and digital signatures
Bridges physical and digital worlds as the same card can be used for identification in both on- and offline mode
Convenient form-factor capable of handling visual security printed features
High durability of ID card
Multi-application and post-issuance capabilities
Oman is using the relevant components of the Gemplus ResIDent ID Solution. They have been carefully customised and integrated to meet the specific requirements and needs of the ROP:

PET Card body
Card body security features
Smart card modules, OS and applets design
Smart card readers (PC)
Biometrics (fingerprint recognition) delivered by third party technology partner
Enrolment solution (enable to capture demographics, picture, fingerprints etc.)
Personalisation services
Consulting, Software Development, Integration, Training and Maintenance services
Fully Arabic and English Software User Interface
One of the biggest challenges in the project was to build a National Registry System (NRS). NRS is the central population database that allows the country to build a record with data collected from different databases where data is stored per category, e.g. pictures, fingerprints, demographics etc.

Previously Oman did not have such a population registry service in place.
Through the new National Registration System (NRS) authorities can now register details for each Omani and foreign resident (i.e. births, marriages, divorces and deaths), in a single centralised system. Data is collected in real-time in regional offices (12 initially) where each citizen can receive his/her ID card within just half an hour.

The creation of NRS is an integral part of Oman?s ID programme, and will act as the pillar of the country?s future e-government initiatives.
Based on the NRS, the country?s regional enrolment & issuance centres possess the components to operate:

Registration/Enrolment operations
Civil Events Certificate Issuance (e.g. births, marriages etc.)
Smart Card Personalisation & Issuance
The multi-purpose cards are fitted with a biometrics-based ID system for enhanced security and contain all the holder's particulars: name, address, fingerprints etc.
Cardholders are able to use their smart ID card in order to visually and electronically identify themselves at various authorities all over the country and through mobile terminals carried by the members of the ROP.
The ID card supports the following applications:
Driving License
Passport
Work permit
Over time the very same ID card will be able to host additional applications, such as:

PKI authentication & Digital signatures
E-Purse
Healthcare Card
Electronic Voting
Getting the electronic ID card is quick and easy. The main steps involve verification, registration and issuance, and takes place at the regional enrolment and issuance centres.
First, the authenticity of an individual?s identity documents is verified. When validated the data is entered into the NRS. After reviewing the entered information, the applicant signs the registration documents.
Next the applicant?s picture and fingerprints are captured and stored on the card. The card is finally issued and given to the citizen/expatriate.
In full compliance with the current worldwide trend, the Sultanate of Oman selected chip technology based on Java Card. By using Open Platform technology, the ID cards become more versatile in terms of functionality, as it allows several applications to reside on the very same card.
Applications can easily be upgraded, removed or added onto the card over time, so called ?post-issuance?, giving the ID document a longer lifespan as it eliminates the need to issue a new card every time a citizen?s personal information changes.
Both the Omani government and its population can benefit from the establishment of its secure nationwide ID programme:

Improved Security
Clean population database
Streamlined administration
Enhanced services to citizens
Reduced identity fraud
Enabler of e-Government applications
Strengthen IT infrastructure
Durable and versatile identification documents
The ROP pursued an aggressive time plan that aimed for issuance of the first smart ID card beginning of 2004, with nationwide roll-out in the summer. According to schedule, the first card was issued to His Majesty the Sultan Qaboos bin Said himself on the 3rd January 2004.
When implementing any nationwide ID programme, there are multiple factors that need to be taken into consideration in order to achieve successful deployment that matches the customer?s expectations. In the case of Oman, some of the key success factors were:

Local presence
Strong project Management & Organisation
Coordination of team & sub contractors
Control customer requests within project scope
Cross team efforts with the customer
Skills transfer
Full control of end-to-end Solution

source: http://www.vnunet.com/

Seminar on managing demand for water

Oman is doing it again. The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources will organise an international seminar on managing the demand for water in the country areas and how it's affects on tourism development. They will also discuss the need of water in the Crowne Plaza tomorrow.

The seminar is two days long and a number of experts, consultants and academicians, will attend.

The population is increasing and the standard of living is higher, therefor, the demand of water increases too. This is why the seminar is taking place. This is the best way to discuss what action should be taking place and what to do about all of the issues we are facing regarding water supplies and such.

We will follow up on the results from the seminar in a couple of days when it's over.

CyberTalk forum canceled

As many of you expected, me not being one of you, the forum created by Tariq Al-Barwani host of the radio show CyberTalk has been canceled.

The forum has been very dead after a couple of days from it's opening. I tried posting stuff to talk about but I didn't get any replies. Some posts were directed to Tariq but he didn't bother to answer them.

If the admin him self doesn't bother answering the posts then I don't think others will be very much interested in posting either.

Nice try though and I still think that our country need an online community dedicated to technology. I have recently started a blog in programming specifically for those of you who are interested.

I am planing in starting a blog in technology generally under this blog's name.

I will start it if I get enough people willing to participate in it and become contributes.

If you are ready to become a contributor in a technology blog dedicated to Omanis specifically and to everybody generally, please contact me at: admin@beinoman.com

Lets do this together!!

Oman finally becomes number one at something

From all things, we have won the first place at the International Bagpipes music competition, MUSIC COMPETITION! held in Scotland, SCOTLAND!

Yes, laddies and gentlemen, this is what we are good at. The Royale Army of Oman puts us in the first place of something since a very long time.

And at the individual level, Corporal Saif bin Nasir Al Sulaimi won the first place in the parade demonstration contest. Way to go, Sulaimi!

Thank you Royale Army of Oman in winning a music competition for us... We are looking forword for more wins (yes, I was being sarcasting).

Criticise "The Week"

Since "The Week" free weekly news papper is very populer around town, I have decided to make a weekly post titled (Criticize "The Week"). The post will talk about all of the mistakes that "The Week" makes and all of the sarcastic and Ironic Stories that it has.

I would love it if you all share what you have to say about "The Week" every Thursday, since the paper is being published every Wednesday.

I mean to post this in a positive way. I am not trying to put down "The Week" in any means or form. As a matter of fact, I actually like it.

So let's do it!!

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Come On! I know that what they intended to say here is that kids shouldn't own snakes but that's the worst formality I've ever heard.

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I don't believe that since the last post about this subject untill now, they havn't captured the gator yet. So, I think I'll have to put a real warning now. PEOPLE! beware of the GATOR!

They also put up a list of ways to capture the gator. Maybe next time you should think about things like this before owning one!


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Ow man! This is so stupid that I had to post it. I want you'll to look at the title first than look at what's writen under...

I dont know who came up with this. I dont know if they thought that it would be funny replacing the word "broadway" with "boardway". Since broadway has nothing to do with this and boardway means nothing. Oh god... I dont know what more to say!

New section open in [Be In Oman]

We now have a new section open in [Be In Oman]. For anybody who has ever been interested in programming, this is a perfect time for you. My colleague and I decided that we should spread some more computer based knowledge among Omani's and who ever else who wants to learn.

I know that this has nothing to do with Oman and my blog has always been about Oman. But lets face it! Us Omani's are really back when it comes to computers. We have only recently started putting a computer subject in our schools.

The world runs on computers and what better way to be involved with computers than learning how it's programs work.

Laith Juwaidah will be conducting the lessons. And let me tell you'll, he is very worthy of this job and he knows what he's doing. Visit his personal website and read he's resume and see what I am talking about: www.ljuwaidah.com.

Blog Currently Under Construction

We are having some technical problams with the domain. We will be back within the next 24 - 48 hours. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Health care in Oman

I have just came from watching the movie "Sicko" by Michael Moore. This movie talks about health care in the US. And he compared the health care there with some other counties such as Britain, France and even Cuba.

I have noticed that the system in the US all depends on how much money you have. All of the insurance companies only care about their profits. And if you don't have an insurance company to cover your ass, you get thrown out the hospital. Getting insurance is not easy at all. Only the people with practically no flaws at all could get them.

The movie was talking about how the counties mentioned all have free health care and very cheap medication if not free also.

All of this got me thinking of my country, of how lucky I am. I never really thought about how simple things are here, how we just get into a hospital and pay only a couple of hundred baizes (about 50 cents) and we get medical care and medication all for that amount only.

I think that's the price they pay for there, so called, freedom. They are in a country where you build your self and the government will let you and they are a country where you will sink down a hole and the government will let you. So, what this means is that the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.

Our country has allot more that it could do (subjects I will cover in future posts) but for all I know, it sure cares about it's citizens. We follow their rules and they take care of us. I am thankful of being an Omani when it comes to this aspect.

Supporting the sport sector

I have been playing in a Oman Club's basketball team for over 5 years now. During all the time that me and my team mates are playing there, none of us ever got more than a pair of shoes per year. We are not allowed to take our team uniforms home after the games and we have been using the same uniform since the last 5 years or maybe even before I was there.

The team management doesn't give a time of day to our team. Our beasketball court has movable baskets so that we can share the court with footballers. There were many times when the management wanted to cancel the team but we kept it going on.

The funny thing is that when we loose, they complain about us never winning. And who is fault is that?!

This goes with almost all the other Omani clubs. They only pay attention to the football (soccer) team. They put all there money into it and don't care about the other teams. Well, except if there is a team that keeps on winning without their support, then they will start supporting it. This rarly happens but there always have to be a number one among all the other teams.

The government doesn't do anything to support the other sports. We have a ministry dedicated to sports in Oman but it seems as though they are there to support the football team and no other. In order for the other sports to grow, they need to be supported. You might not see immediate affect when you start supporting these teams but some hope in growing is better than no hope at all.

I will talk for the Omani Basketball teams in Oman and say: Right now, we have no hope in ever growing into a higher standerd and winning team nationally and especially internationally.

Our ministry is hopeless and it wont change untill they start changing the higher ends of it. We should be choosing ministers that are right for the job and not mommy's and daddy's boys. And maybe, just maybe, we might have some hope in becoming a well known international team in all of the sports.

We have moved!

Great news! We have moved to a new domain. www.beinoman.com

We try our best to offer you the best quality posts that we can. We are open for any suggestions you have to improve our blog. What you want is what we offer!

Grand Theft Auto

You remember the old days when you can just leave the keys in your car and the car turned on so that the AC could still be turned on while you get into a shop and buy things and come back to your car to find that it's cool inside and ready to go back home? Well, those days are long gone!

A recent article in "The Week" tells a story about a woman who left the keys in her car while she went to a restaurent to get something to eat. She was in the restaurent for only three minutes and she was checking on her car every once and a while but when she was ready to leave and came out of the restaurent, she didn't find her car there. For a moment there she thought that she was imagening but it was true.

Leaving the keys in the car has always been a normal thing to do here but appearently not any more.

After reading that story, I have been much more conscious when leaving my car unattended. Now, I never leave the keys in the car and always make sure that the doors are locked.

Read the article in "The Week" to know more about this woman's story and what she has to say about it.

Correction on "Rain Dance"

I need to make a correction on a previews post I made. In the post "Rain Dance" I published it on the 6th of August saying that its taking place on that same day.

I miss read the Ads, the Rain Dance is taking place on the 6th of September. Good thing I posted that too late that people didn't have time to attend after reading the post or they would have went till Sawadi to find out that nothing is going on. I am very sorry.

All the other information given in the previws post of the Rain Dance is correct. So, if you want to know more, go ahead and read it.

Tickets cost 10RO including dinner and 5RO without dinner. You can get your ticket from there but it might be fully booked so you can also get your ticket in Al Sawadi Airport counter, Flavors Restaurent at Ghala and at premium food industries at Sohar.

If you want to reserve, call: 26795545 or GSM: 99358772

I dont know how good this year will be since last year there was a live american band but this year there is this old indian woman whom I never heard of called "Ushar Uthup".

Ring Back Tones

Oman Mobile Finally launches the ring back tones service named Sama'ni. In the bouquet of services offered by Oman mobile you can select a single tone for all the callers wherein the callers will listen to the same tone every time they call you.You can also choose different tones for different callers.You can even create your own groups and select a personalized tone for them.

You have to try it out, it's so cool. I already did mine and its BOMBASTIC! lol

What are your thoughts and comments about it?

Great news to Omanis interested in Technology

To who is familiur with the radio show which airs every thursday on Oman English radio 90.4 called CyberTalk, the host of that show -Tariq Al Barwani- has started a forum under that name. The forum is basically everything you need to know about computers and computers in Oman.

This is great because I finally found a place where I can ask questions about computer that has to do with Oman, if you know what I'm saying. It's nice to get response about these things from Omanis for a change. And you can also discuss any issue that concerns you and it doesn't have to be about computers.

This forum is very recent and not many threads were posted yet. I got an email from Tariq today telling me about the forum. But I prodict that it's going to be very populer among Omanis interested in technology very soon, since Tariq has a very good reputation.

This is a link to the forum: CybeTalk

Muscat City Centre

Muscat City Centre has made lots of progress since it first started. When it started, it was like a test to see how the Omani's responed to a shopping mall as big as city centre. The response was great! People started visiting this mall more than they ever did before. The atmosphere was great and people would go there just to have a cup of coffee or so.

As soon as you know it, the parkings seemed to be getting smaller and smaller and it was getting more crouded everyday no matter what day of the week you go there. And that's when The second phase started.

We've just witnessed the opening of the bridge to the new parking lots about a week ago. And the opening of new stores inside.

Oman Community Blog posted some of the new stores that are going to be opened next month. And I must say, it's a very impressive collection. Some of the highest brands in fashion. This is a link to their post to see what these new stores are:
(Muscat City Centre's new shops)

I think what Oman needs now very desperately is a good movie theatre. Their were rumors a while back that city centre will open new movie theatres but we didn't see any signs of it. But if that happens, it will really be great since all City Centre's movie theatres in the UAE are high in stranderd.

So far, I say that they are doing a good job and hopefully we will see more in the coming days.

The radar death trap

People say speed kills... well; I say it's the Radars that kill people...

The government made a big change as to how people drive in Oman by putting a lot of speed radars in the main roads. When I drive through the main road I notice that people don't drive in a constant speed, they tend to speed but when they arrive at the radar beam they reduce there speed to the radar limit very quickly...

Increase of radars is directly proportional to death, if we look at the statistics, it's clear that it's not a coincidence... in Denmark when they increased the radars by 9%, deaths increased by 9%, USA, Nashvill increased the radar by 9%, death increased by 21%. Whilst in Abbey Road in London reduced radars by 6%, death reduced by 4%.It does make sense because with too many radars, people are too busy trying to avoid them rather than concentrating on the roads and other cars.

Results from the seminar (continue)

It was said in the seminar that the rising prices of food and non-food items inflated to 4.7% in June this year.

The rise came due to the increase in prices of food, non-food, manufactured items, rent and water. External factors also had a role in the inflation this include the weakening of the US dollar against other currencies like euro and some Asian currencies.

The import from Europe and Asian countries to Oman has become very exensive. As the cost of import from Europe has increase by 15% to 20% and the increas of import from India by it self has increased by over 12%.

Here is a list of the increas of prices in some of the imported items to Oman:

- Rices and Egss 22.6%
- Meat and Poultry 16.4%
- Fruits 11.9%
- Vegitables 13.9%
- Cereals and Creal products 7.2%
- Milk and Milk products 3.1%
- Oil and Fats 5.9%
- Nuts 5.3%
- Sugar and Sugar products 4.3%
- Tea and Coffee 4.7%
The Ministry of National Economy says that the prices data is based on 8,101 items of goods and services from 1,571 selected sources.


Although the increas is mostly import-oriented, official sources say that the increase also comes due to the increased purchasing power of government employees and increase in minimum wages of nationals working in the private sectors. And also the increase of salaries of the government employees early this year.

Maintaining a low level of inflation has been one of the basic objectives of the Sultanate's economic policy.

The prices are inflating but the salaries are hardly changing in the government sectors which drivs many Omanis to work in the Private sector. At present more than 123,000 Omanis are working in the private sector after an increase from 114,000 in December 2006.

Consumer's Rights

We have noticed after Cyclone Gonu hit Oman, that some of the prices increased in shops, things like water and food. And then we heard after that somthing we never heard before, somthing called consumers rights. So, if any shop or whatever orgenization takes advantage of this situation, you can report it to the police.

What we dont know is that there are a bunch of other rules with we are not aware of. Rules that could perhaps one day be in our benefit.

Therefor, there is a seminar on "The rising prices of consumer commodities, services and the scope of cooperation between consumers, traders and distributors". This seminar will be organised on Monday at the Sohar branch of the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry by the Omani Association for Consumer Protection.

The aim of the seminar is exactly what I said earlier. To know what your rights are and to be able to protect them

The more you know the less chance you get cought in the trader's or distributor's net.

Announcement

I am now taking your requests of becoming a contrebuter in this blog. I would appreciate this from people who want to share their experiences of Oman or whatever topics related to Oman.

All you have to do is send me an email at almaawali90@gmail.com with your gmail account and a link to your personal blog. I will add you soon after I get your email.

Thank you

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Rain Dance

There is a great party going on tonight in Sawadi Beach Resort. It's called teh Rain Dance. The reason to that is that the whole thee of the party is around water and rain. There will be a live band playing there so will there be a DJ. Water will be "raining" all over the dance floor and everything will be cool and wet. We especially need this now because of the heat.

I should have posted this earlier for you to make prior plans for it but it completely split my mind. And besides, I am not going this time anyways because I was invited to another party.

I did attend the "Rain Dance" last year and it was a time to remember. You have to remember to put on casual cloths and dont take any electronic appliances in with you (take it from experience).

I hope this post has been in any help for you. If you have a car and you read this post before 8 pm today, then you still have a chance to reach there. Entry is 10RO with dinner and 5RO without.

Please tell me how stupid this is

If you got The Week paper today you will find that the front page story is about a Gator that escaped from a zoo. I wanted to know more so I continued reading the story inside the paper. And as I was coming to the end of the story, I found that they had put a list of all of the availible animals in the zoo.

This is the list:



Come on! What kind of a zoo is this?! It almost sounds like a menu of a cheap indian restaurent downtown. Seriously, did they put that list there as a joke or somthing? Whatever their intention was, I sure as hell had a good laugh.

I am in "The Week"

Last week I had a late night dinner after a movie with two of my friends at Flavors. And if you read the post which is titled "no answer at all" you will read about my encounter with a journalist from The Week Paper and the photographs that they took of us.

Like I said in that post, I might find my picture in next week's The Week paper. And guess what… I did find my picture in the paper.

I am much exited because I never found my self in a well known public news paper or any other paper. And this is a very clear and large picture of me although I was caught in a not very attractive moment.

Oman participating in the issues of Water

The Sultanate took part in the meeting of a special committee entrusted with reviewing the auditing criteria for the establishment of an Arab Academy for Water yesterday.

This three day meeting will discuss topics related to reviewing the terms of the academy. Oman's participation in the meeting comes within the context of the government's approval to join the governors of the Arab Council for Water.

Saif bin Rashid Al Shaqsi represented the Sultanate in the meeting who is the Director-General of water management at the ministry of regional municipalities, environment and water resources.

It's great to see the Sultanate participating in something very important. Water is life and we need more water resources. Because, as most of us may know, we are facing problems finding more water resources and we may come to a day when we wont have water at all.

We see many people suffering in the third-world countries because of the lack of water. And it's best if we do something now before it's too late.