Saud Bahwan Dies

Saud Bahwan, Chairman of Saud Bahwan Group which is the official dealer of Toyota; Ford; MAN; and much more in the gulf, has died today.

The cause of the death is yet to be revealed. All I know so far is that he went for treatment at Paris and died there. Since the news of his death is not yet published in the local newspapers, not much is known about it.
This news was obtained from a very reliable source and you can rest assure that it is true.

Here is a brief of Mr. Saud Bahwan's life taken from his official website. I will leave you to that.

Sheikh Saud Salim Bahwan, a unique personality, is the epitome of courage and determination. A self-made man who began his career at the age of nine, using a wooden Dhow to transport his trading goods to far-off places. Battling the oceans and surviving unimaginable hardships, he built up a reputation for himself as a man with an uncanny sense for trade.

He entered the Corporate world just over 30 years ago and it wasn't long before he dominated it with his dynamism and business acumen. His magic touch led to success stories over and over again in virtually every sphere of activity, making his group of companies one of the largest and the most successful in Oman.

Mr. Saud Bahwan as a young boy when
he had just begun his trading activities

With annual sales of over 3 Billion US Dollars and employing 9400 professionals, he has set new standards in Management excellence.

Behind this dynamic businessman is a philanthropist, who cares deeply for the less fortunate in society; and one who has made contributions to innumerable social causes and projects.

Nothing short of perfection will do for Sheikh Saud Salim Bahwan, who works 16 hours a day. He says, "Leadership can be attained only through a deep conviction and a passion for excellence."

He was a good man. May he rest in peace.

On This Blog & The Goverment Will Tell Us What To Wear

I know it has been a while since I last posted here. And that last post was about my new Blog - www.MuscatxDubai.com - and I also explained that I won't be posting much and that the type of posts will change.

Since I won't be in the country, I will have to rely on second hand news to write about the country. My source of news will vary, from other Omani Blogs to TV to news websites. I won't be covering events like I used to because it's physically impossible.
I will try to add more information about the country more often when I have time. That's something that I used to do when I first started this Blog but stopped. And that's pretty much it for now.

So, I will be putting all of this into practice right now and start with my first post since that announcement.

As I was surfing my list of Omani Blogs' RSS feeds, I came across a piece of news from Blue Chi's Blog that really seemed very ludicrous. Apparently, "The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has warned tailor shops not to tamper with specified design of the Omani traditional dishdasha" in Today's newspapers. No, I am not kidding. That's exactly what it says.
Ya, and "the ministry asked the tailor shops to abide by the specific designs of the Omani dishdasha, which is a part of the history and culture of the Sultanate.".

Just when you think that things can not get any worse and the government can not control the much more than they already do, something like this comes along.

Now, I don't understand this law exactly. Are they asking the tailor shops not advertise these "novel designed" dishdashas (not my words) or, are they asking them not to tailor to the costumers wishes? What if I have a design in mind and asked the tailor to create it for me, should s/he decline? Seriously?
And so the tailor breaks the law and, god forbids, creates this devilish dishdasha, what's going to happen? Can you imagine this poor Indian dude or whoever else who is trying so hard to make a living and even tries to be a little creative only to get fined my the authorities?

I don't care what the logic behind this law is. Whether it is to preserve "the history and culture of the Sultanate" like they say or whatever reasons they may think is for the interested of "Oman". They have no right telling us what to wear as long as we are not violating any public decency policies or whatever.

"Warning tailor shops not to tamper with specified design of the dishdahsa"... HA! What, you find someone wearing a dishdahsa that's a little different and ask them to get undressed or else they will be arrested? Please!

Attention!!

I have an important announcement to make. This announcement will affect the frequency of posts made on this Blog and maybe even the type of posts that will be posted from now onwards.

I am moving to the UAE very soon (if not already when you read this post) and since I won't be in Oman anymore, it doesn't exactly make sense to be posting on a Blog for Oman. And because of this, I have both great news and bad news.

Bad news is, I will not be able to post as much as I used to post on this Blog anymore. Since I am not in Oman, it would be difficult to make posts related to Oman. I might be posting on the Blog from time to time whenever I come over to Oman but it will be rare and maybe even different in style.

Great news, I've created a new Blog! The Blog is titled Muscat X Dubai which is read 'Muscat meets Dubai' or you may also call it MXD and you may visit it at www.muscatxdubai.com.
The idea for this Blog is to record my whole transition from Muscat to the big city - Dubai. I will be talking about the whole process of moving there and provide value to people who are thinking of moving there by providing facts from my own experience. Along with the record of the whole transition process, I will also Blog on general things about Dubai and I think I will be comparing many things in Dubai with what they are like in Muscat. I might even start talking about news related to Dubai or Muscat.

The beauty of this Blog is that it doesn't only focus on one country but two. Since I am an Omani, I will be talking about many Omani related things and since I am living in Dubai, I will also talk about Dubai a lot, obviously.

This is all great but it has a downside also. Since my new Blog allows me to talk about Oman, I won't need this Blog to talk about it anymore. I have a couple of ideas for this Blog by now but they will be shared later.
So don't forget, I am now at www.muscatxdubai.com. Visit the website and if you subscribed to this Blog's RSS feeds, make sure you subscribe to MXD's RSS feeds too in order to stay updated with what I am up to the big city.

See you there, people...

Bloggers' Meet

I remember the last time we had a Bloggers' meeting and we all announced it in our Blogs, set a date and everything. And two people from TheWeek came to cover the event only to find out that three Bloggers attended out of all who said that they will. It wasn't very good but we got a tiny piece in TheWeek and our names got mentioned, so that was good. But all in all, I had fun that day. Here is the article that I wrote about that event.

We are having another Bloggers' Meeting today but none of us have announced it on our Blogs until now. I don't know why nobody else did but I didn't because I didn't have the time to do so. Maybe we were subconsciously embarrassed to spread the word and have members of the press come only for the event to become a total bust when nobody attends. Another reason might be because we planned this a little late and it is only today that we have confirmed the time and location. Naaa, I like the first one better.

So far, Amjad, Blue Chi, Kishor Cariappa, a guest Qatari Blogger MMK080 and myself will be attending. That's 5 people in total. It should be very interesting meeting Oman's top Bloggers. This is going to be fun.

This Weekend: Ironic

This coming weekend is kinda ironic and I am a fan of irony. But this irony... I am not too sure about.

This weekend is going to hold two of the hottest parties in one night. Sawadi is going to have its very famous 'Rain Dance' this Thursday. Some of you might be familiar with it but if not, the idea is simple. The event will be held outside where there will be a live band and water will be falling from above like rain ("Rain" dance) and the amount of water that falls changes like real rain. Let me tell you, in our current weather conditions, Rain Dance can get very refreshing. I attended once last year and it was.
And Later that evening, Rock Bottom, which is a night club at the Ramee Guestline Hotel, is going to bring you "the original House Night". If you like House music, then that would be a night for you. K-Klass DJ Andy Williams will perform, if you care to know.
And if you are a guy like me who likes to party then you will go to both.

But wait, there is a twist! Conveniently, Thursday and Friday is a holiday for both government and private sectors. Great, right? Well, not really. Because the holiday is actually a "holly" day. The holidays (Wednesday to Saturday for the government sectors and Thursday to Saturday for the private) are because of a religious event, Isra and Mi'raj, which is a big day in the Muslim calender.

Hottest parties, big religious event. Ironic, right?

Back from Dubai, New Banner

Weird title? Well, not really. The idea is to talk about two different topics in one post. Makes sense now?

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I am back from Dubai after going there to complete my college registration (like mentioned in the previous post). I would like to say that everything is complete and I am officially a student of the University of Wollongong in Dubai. I am scheduled to start on September.

Yesterday was also my Birthday but I spent it on the road. Nothing special has been done but I couldn't complain because I got really amazing gifts the days before and was invited to a dinner the day before we left. All in all, it was good and at least I got to drive to Dubai for the first time. I always enjoy new experiences, no matter how tiring they are.

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If you haven't noticed yet, BeInOman.com has a new banner. If you can't see it then, press on (ctrl+F5) to insure that you are looking at the latest update on the page.
This banner has been sent to me by email from a member of KnowledgeOman.com (Arabic Section), named Talal Al-Farsi, as a gift. I don't know why exactly but I am very thankful to that. I really liked the banner, it really fits with the whole BeInOman.com theme, doesn't it? What do you guys say?

Thank you Talal for the thoughtful gift.

Renaissance Day

Renaissance day has always held a special meaning to me. And not only because it's the day when his majesty ruled the Sultanate of Oman, although that is a major reason, but also because it happens to be my birthday!

I was born at about 12:10am on this day, which means, 10 minutes earlier and I would not have been a part of this tremendous day which I am very proud of indeed. And on that note, I would like to congratulate all of Oman and his majesty the Sultan Qaboos who has done an amazing job in bringing Oman to where it is today from where it was before.

I am sorry but, I won't be talking about the whole history behind this because I am not qualified although, I attempted to do that last year. If you need more information on it, do what everybody else does, Google it.

So, for the people who know me or even care about what I will be doing today, well... I have just got my letter of acceptance from the University that I applied for in Dubai last night and so, I am headed to Dubai in about an hour to complete everything. It is pretty exciting and I really don't mind not having to spend time with my friends and family today. I do that a lot anyway but I never got accepted to college before.
It sounds bad doesn't it? The fact that it is Renaissance day and my birthday and what do I do about it...? I go to a different country. O well...

So I would like to say it one more time. Congratulations everyone on this glorious and huge day, the 23rd of July, my birthday! Oops, I mean Renaissance day... ahhum..

Thanawiyya Amma Results: Update

You know how I said in my last post that there are rumors that the results are being released tomorrow (which is technically today since it is after 12am)? Well, I was almost right because the result were released a couple of hours after I made that post!

Text messages were sent to us and told us to send our seat number to 90200 and we will receive our results. I did as instructed and waited for about 15 minutes, which felt like a life time, until I finally got my results. I quickly went to the subjects that I felt that I failed in and I was please to find out that I passed them.

I happy to announce that I have done much better than what I did in my first semester and that all my fears were for no reason. I would like to thank the people who helped and supported me during the whole ordeal and that includes the people who commented on my Vlog in which I asked for help. I couldn't have done it without you.

Now, I won't reveal my grades because that is kinda personal and plus, my grades suck even though they are higher than the first semester and enough to get me to collage.
This is one faze of my life that has just ended and it was no easy one. I am looking forward for what's in store for me in the very near future.

Congratulations fellow Thanawiyya Amma-ns!

Thanawiyya Amma Results?

Thanawiyya Amma is the name of our high school system here in Oman and many other GCC countries.

We finished our final exam on the 25th of June and until today, we have no idea when our results are coming out. For you who have went through this system in Oman, you know what I am talking about. It is "the time". The time after your exams when nobody knows when the results are coming out but you know it is some time around these days. So you end up living in stress for about two weeks with rumors of the results being released flying around everyday.

I was happy that my exams were over and never really thought about my results much until now. I am in that faze, when I get nightmares every night of failing the exams and getting the worse marks ever. I know a couple of guys who are literally tripping over the results and almost became anti-social because of it.

It is indeed a very hard and stressful time for all of us and all we can do about it is wait and rely on the rumors to tell us when the scores are out because the ministry is not good in giving out dates and times.

The latest rumor is that the score will be out tomorrow (Thursday). I heard this from a very reliable source from inside the ministry so, there is a high chance that this may be true.

Oman Blogosphere: June, 2008

Since it is the beginning of a new month, here is a quick sum up of last month's Oman Blogsphere activities. From the hottest to the newest, I cover it all.

What seemed to have dominated the most discussion in the Oman Blogosphere from last month was the story about Oman still being Tier 3. The Discussion started out from Undercover Dragon's Blog, muscatconfidential.blogspot.com but it really started heating up when it continued to Blue-Chi's Blog blue-chi.blogspot.com and when he started expressing how much he disagrees with Undercover Dragon. Many comments were made and more posts were created by the authors expressing them selves and after reading almost all of it, it seems like the argument was divided into expats versus Omanis with the expats agreeing on the Tier 3 and the Omanis not. But to be fair, there were a couple of Omanis who were with the expats in this.

The Blog that has produced the most posts is Andy's Blog, andyinoman.blogspot.com with a number of 47 posts. Andy is or used to be an English professor at Ibri College. Andy shared his experience working and living in Oman in his Blog and he currently is on vacation and will come back to Oman at the mid of August based on his last post. I think the reason why Andy has the most posts is not because he had the most content it's because he divided one topic into many posts rather than putting them in at once which I personally found very annoying. I like reading his posts but only wish that he could have put more effort in making them more comfortable to read.

Surprisingly, the Blog with the least posts last month was the Oman Community Blog. This Blog used to be the hottest Blog in the Blogosphere but suddenly, all of the authors stopped posting in it and rather, started posting more in their own Blog. Is it because the Blogs have the same topic that it wouldn't make sense to be posting in both places? When I was first asked to join the community last year, that was exactly why I didn't want to join because it didn't make sense. Anyway, it is a shame to see only see 2 posts since last month and I hope to see more this month.

A few new Blogs have come to the scene that I think are worth mentioning.
First is Leo Americanus with his Blog, leoamericanus.blogspot.com. Leo is an American Traveler who currently lives in Oman. His Blog mostly discusses news. Not all of his discussions are on Oman, they vary but most are from the GCC.
Second is Bobby Bollozou's Blog, bobbybollo.blogspot.com which is also titled Muscat Insomniacs. Bobby is an expatriate who lives in Muscat at Wadi Kabir. His Blog is mostly about sharing his thoughts on random topics and he even writes some poetry from time to time.
And last but not least, we have Omanymous with his Blog anonoman.wordpress.com. Omanymous' Blog is very recent and he started his Blog because he was inspired by some of the topics covered by other Blogs. My guess, he was mostly inspired by the Tier 3 Blogs (correct me if I am wrong). So far, his Blog covers general topics related to Oman. It still seems like he is not yet comfortable with the whole Blogging scene but based on his posts, he is keen to get there.

Mom Blogs are also making an impact in the Blogosphere. First mom Blog is Suburban's Blog, otheroman.blogspot.com. I really enjoy reading Suburbans posts. They are very humorous, witty and I always laugh out laud after reading anything (if it's meant to be funny of course).
Another Mom Blog is L_Oman's blog, shockedculturally.blogspot.com. I only started following this Blog recently and so far, I think it is pretty interesting. The situations that this woman goes through just cranks you up.
What I hope from the two Blogs above is more posts. Since I've been following Suburban's Blog for a while, I know how much content she often produces and last moth was very little. Keep up the good job ladies, I hope more moms are inspired to start their own Blogs soon.

Something to look forward to. A Blogger who I absolutely love, Amjad who is the author of his Blog amjad248.blogspot.com, is coming back from the USA for a couple of months very soon which means, his Blog is going to start to be about Oman again. He should be on the plane back right now as I write. I hope you arrive safely, man.

One of the Blogosphere's biggest loses is the death of an amazing Blogger who was known as Sleepless in Muscat. You can read more about it by clicking here.

This is it for this month, I hope I've presented valuable information about last month's Oman Blogosphere. If there is anything that you would like to add, please do so in the comment section.

Pepsi Street Skillz 08

The "Pepsi Street Skillz 08" event has been held in four different countries in the GCC; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman at the same order. The objective of this event is to show off you street football skills in front of a panel of judges for a maximum of two minutes and the judges will score based on your performance.

The winners of this competition could get the chance to become a member of Pepsi Street Skillz 08, travel to Europe and spend time with Pepsi super stars and get free branded outfits.

The Oman "Pepsi Street Skillz 08" event was held on 27, June at City Center's parking lot. The participants had to register at 5pm and the event started at about 6:30pm. The event also featured the very popular freestyle group called SNK that usually performs in public events like these.

Although the event served the purpose and did what it said it would do, it felt very slow and not as exciting as I thought it would be. Not as many people attended as I hoped and I am sure the organizers felt the same way. And although the idea of having an event where you could show off your street football skill sounds fun, it really wasn't all that competitive and exciting.
How it worked was, there were three panels judging three different players at once and every player did there own thing. And every player was put at some distance from the other which means, you only get to follow one player at a time. And lucky for us, about 85%, if not more, of all the players couldn't do as much as kick the ball in the air without dropping it and that's pretty much it.

The only part which I actually found entertaining was when the hosts asked the audience if they had any talent that they wanted to share. They kept on asking for about 10 minutes with no response until these two guys came out of the blue and started rapping. I found that the rap was good and it had great beat (thanks to the DJ) but the accent was so funny that I kept on laughing the whole time. Even so, I admire the courage that it took those guys to come out and entertain us so I thank them.

I was hoping for more and I thought that the idea was great but I wasn't, personally, very much entertained and I eventually left early. Let's hope for more entertainment in next year's event so keep it Axem, don't let my words discourage you.

Here is a slide show of some of the picture that I took from there. Please give it a few moments to load.

Friendi Press Conference

I was invited to attend today's Friendi press conference on behalf of KnowledgeOman.com. The Conference took place at the Grand Hayatt Muscat at about 11 am.

Most of the questions were answered by Antti Arponen, CEO of Friendi mobile Oman. This is as much as I can tell you guys for now. I will be doing a full report on this in next week's KnowledgeOman.com front page update which will be on a Saturday.

For more information about the company, here are a couple of Blog posts by some fellow Bloggers who wrote about it (Link and Link). And here is a link to the official Friendi website.

The death of an Outstanding Blogger

I would like to pay my respects to one of Oman's best Blogger, Sleepless In Muscat and also known as Ali Al-Mehdi, who has passed on a few days back. and was only 29 years old.
Sleepless In Muscat was the owner of his Blog, sleeplessinmuscat.blogspot.com. Personally, I didn't know the guy and never met him. I used to read his posts on OmanCommunityBlog from time to time and that was the farthest I've ever known him. But he has been on the Omani Blogging scene for some time and based on the little posts which I read of his, he seemed like an amazing and intelligent person.
Indeed this is a lose to Oman and to the Blogging world. I wish him the highest of mercy from god and wish his family all the best.

Here are a few Blogs that spoke about Sleepless In Muscat's death. You may get a better idea of the kind of person that he was by going through them. Link, Link, Link and Link.

'The Times' Talks Murder

I've just read an amazing news piece in the Times of Oman's website today. A story about an Indian woman who killed both of her kids and tried to commit suicide all here in Muscat!

In one of the rarest cases reported among the expatriate community here, a middle-aged Indian woman strangulated her two children to death and made a futile attempt to kill herself.

It is such a horrific event and it's definitely something that you might not hear about much here in the Sultanate.
I sympathize with the family involved and all but this is not the reason why I am writing about it.

I wanted to point out the story itself and say, that a story like this is very rarely put in newspapers and especially english newspapers. Not because things like these never happen but because of all the censorship that we are facing in the English media. The news that we read in our newspapers here are mostly ready-made news which are usually provided by the companies, industries, ministries or whatever story they are writing about. Most of the stories that papers write about here are not considered real journalism.

But look at this piece for instance:

The ‘Times’ did come across some missing links at the time of its enquiries, but eyewitnesses, including the caretakers of the buildings, pointed out that Priya had been taken into police custody between 8 and 8:30am, though the police had reached the spot approximately after 5am. Her dress was stained with blood while bruises were visible on the bodies of the children.

This gives me hope that maybe things could finally be changing in the local journalism aspect of the country. But I can't help it think: would they have reported this story if it had happened to an Omani family?

A Tariq Al Barwani Special: Cute Kid

Here is a cute video of a kid. Can anyone guess who this is? And if you think what I think you are thinking, then could this kid be the next big thing to hit the Sultanate?

The million dollar question: So, what do you think?

A Tariq Al Barwani Special: Hot Ride

Hey, ever wondered what car Tariq Al Barwani drives? Well guess what, he has created a video of it.

So? What do you think?

Origin Oman 150 Kilometer Meal

Origin Oman 's goal is to raise awareness on locally made goods. I've written about it in the past at this link. To learn more about it, visit their website at: originoman.om which I also have written about at this link.

The dinner was an invite-only and luckily, I got invited. The 150KM meal was held in the 26th and 27th of May at the tourism College at A'Seeb, near Golden Tulip Hotel, and the whole staff were students who are majored in that field. It was nice to see Omanis waitering for a change.

So, the 150KM meal is one of Origin Oman's many ways of promoting locally made goods. I've been hearing about this event for a while now and the dates have been changed a few times. The idea of this event is to have a dinner with ingredients sold in a radius of 150 kilometers around Muscat.

The menu was pretty interesting. You had to choose between two different menus that will serve as your starter, main course and dessert. Many of the guests and myself included went with the first menu which had Smoked Nizwani goat sausages for the main course. This isn't a traditional Omani meal by any means, it was the chef's creation and it was very good, most have enjoyed it.

The whole thing felt very classy and the people whom attended were mostly from the PEIE since they played a major role in it.The room was half full and it seemed like many had to cancel at the last moment since all the chairs were named.

Here are two slide shows of the event:
Note: The slide show may take a few moments to load

Text Message from Muscat Municipality

I once parked in a metered parking lot but was not able to pay for the ticket. Whenever I put a coin into the meter, the coin comes back out. I've noticed others facing the same problem. I assumed that it was free for the day for, maybe, some kind of an occasion. Luckily, I got back to my car without getting a fine, which I have noticed on other's windshields.

I have just recieved this text message a few minutes back from Muscat Municipality.

Parking meters do not accept the new coins of 50Bz issued in 2008. Muscat Municipality

May somebody please help me understand why?

Arabic Section of KnowledgeOman Launched

KnowledgeOman.com (KO), the first online portal focused on developing the ICT sector in Oman, has finally launched it's Arabic section which could be accessed through this web address: www.knowledgeoman.com/arabic.


"We have a new dedicated team specifically created for the Arabic KO" said the president of KO, Tariq bin Hilal Al Barwani. The team is being managed by Maryam Al Tamami, being the project manager of the Arabic KO. "Maryam and I have been working closely for the past month to bring the website up and running. Now it is full under her turf, with close supervision from my side" added Tariq.

The Arabic KO is considered an extension of the English one but they are under two different managements, the Arabic managed by Maryam and English by Muddasir, with reports directly to the President.

What do you think of this initiative from KO's side? Will the Arabic section come to be as successful and as big as the English section is? And most importantly, how could they make it easier for the users to know that there are two different sections available in KO when they enter their website on www.knowledgeoman.com? Anything else you want to add on this subject?

"Y" Magazine's slip-up

I originally read this story on one of the threads of KnowledgeOman.com and wanted to add my scoop on it.

"Y" Magazine has published an article in its Vol.1 Issue 21 Tuesday May 20 about the the launch of ITS's new website during COMEX 2008. The whole article talked about the process of the launch and what the website aims on doing.

So what's the problem?

Look at the image of the article below which was provided by Dr Alban from knowledgeOman and tell me for yourself.

If you read the whole article you will find that the it hasn't spoken about Tariq Al Barwani, president of KnowledgeOman, who his picture was added in the article. Shouldn't the Head and CEO of ITA's picture be there?

How can they make a mistake like this? I mean, it's not like they mis-wrote something, they added a picture which had nothing to do with the topic at all. I would like to know what you guys think on how a mistake like this could be made.