Local news roundup

A few nuggets of news today:

Number 1:
Omani inflation slowed to a four year low of 1.8 percent in July, the economy ministry said yesterday, without giving a breakdown of the consumer price index. The inflation rate fell from 2.9 percent in June, the ministry said on its Web site. Inflation in the Sultanate was last below 1.8 percent in August 2005, according to data compiled from the ministry. (Source)

It's odd how inflation is going down, yet somehow grocery costs are still going up here. Hmmmm.

Well at least rents are not getting any worse, and, as some readers of this blog may of read recently - my landlord decided not to increase my rent this year - phew!

And, item number 2:

Oman is renewing efforts to privatise its electricity sector, after the world financial crisis and lower oil prices delayed the programme and pushed the country’s budget into deficit. Muscat, which 15 years ago became the first Gulf Arab state to allow private investors to develop power plants, in 2006 set a target of selling off all government stakes in electricity projects by this year. But buyers did not step forward as quickly as expected. Now, facing an expected 15 per cent annual increase in its power requirements until 2020, the sultanate plans to increase its electrical generating capacity and strengthen its power grid with 3 billion rials (US$7.8bn) of new projects to be built over the next six years. It hopes private-sector investors will help it foot the bill. (Source)

So I guess all those GE turbines are going to be paid for by some non-Omani companies. Well, I should hazard a guess that unless it's the suppliers (GE in this case) or another Gulf Arab State company, I cant really see the financial benefit of anyone investing into this market. And at the same time it's a constantly rising bill that the Government has to foot each year, so no wonder they want to get shot of it!

The only real method for adequate power generation here in the desert is Nuclear. License it from the French, they're pretty handy with their nuclear power generation. The Americans might even go along with it too, although I'm sure our good friends accross the pond, Iran, might not be too pleased about such a development. Burning hydro-carbons to fuel the nations soaring power requirements is like shooting itself in the foot. Much better to convice Jean-Paul and his chums to come on down and build a nuclear power station or two, and of course operate it and so on and so forth. And Oman are currently in the early stages of building coal fired power stations, to come on stream in 2015. Where's the coal going to come from?

Number 3:

According to the Times of Oman, 9 people have now died as a result of H1N1 here in Oman. (Source) Funny, that. Fellow Omani blogger (with a slight obsession with cows) Dhofari Gucci has been mentioning here and there of poor people who have died down in Salalah. It seem evident that the official numbers do not seem to tally with the unofficial numbers. Hmmm.

Number 4:

Blue City. Well I guess I should share the news here with you all. Blue City's bonds were successfully purchased by Essdar Capital. It is unclear exactly how many of the bonds were purchased, but the news release does not say they purchased all the bonds, just those that were tendered prior to the Expiration Time. I guess time will tell if the money taps are turned back on, but from what I can tell, there is a lot of work under way on site, so good news - I think. More on that soon.

On a final note, the roads are now busier. School started. I think I can hear a collective sigh of relief from parents around town. Unfortunately it now means my 5 minute commute has become a rather unsavoury 8 minute commute. Life can be so hard sometimes ;)

le fin

Bootleg DVD Rentals & Oman Blood Test

Weekend one of Ramadan now completed, I feel like I need another break!

Wednesday evening consisted of a spot of physical exercise for a few hours, and then I went to a friends house for a social gathering. This friend of mine had decided to buy one of those huge inflatable water slides from Toys R Us and subsequently decided to throw a party for the kids, and parents. By the time the wife and I rocked up at 10pm the kids were a bit thin on the ground, but apparently the water slide was a big hit :)

On Thursday I saw a big car accident. Nothing new there. The 18th November St - Wizarat Road car crash count stands at 9 separate accidents that I've counted so far.

Thursday evening saw a nice bbq near the beach in Azaibah with some friends. A local fishermen sold us a Kingfish and it was fantastic :) It's a shame all the best catches go to Dubai. Doesn't anyone realise that there is no one left in Dubai?! Also we had some great beer-can chicken!

Beer can chicken is pretty much what it looks like: Get a chicken, stuff a half-full beer can into the hole and then whack it on the bbq for a few hours. I was of the opinion that the Diet Seven-up chicken was actually better than the beer ones, but diet-seven-up chicken just doesnt have quite the same ring to it, does it?

One night last week, the wife and I went to go and see a friend of ours and hang out, have dinner and watch a movie. Our friend had joined a DVD rental place next to the VKool store in Al Khuwair / MQ boundary. She paid RO 35 one time fee and could rent 25 movies before needing to re-charge her rental card. Not bad she said, until I saw the DVD - it was a fake! RO 35 (thats US$ 91) to rent 25 movies ($3.64/movie) is not too bad when comparing to Blockbuster or similar. But these movies are bootlegged, and skipped a bit towards the end. So, if you're going to rent movies, maybe give the Video Club near V Kool a miss - those movies they are renting out cost all of 100bz to produce, they're just raking the cash in.

In other news, it's that time for me, 2 years gone already, I had to go to give blood today at the Infectious Diseases Examination Section in Darsait. It's situated here and it looks like this:


So I turned up this morning at a little after 8:30 to be presented with the usual chaos that ensues when there's lots of people all trying to get the same thing done. The Omani ringmasters did a great job and I emerged 3 hours later clutching my stamped bit of paper and a bit of cotton wool stuck against my arm. I'll go for my labour card later this week I guess. To anyone interested to know what they test for, they test for: TB, VD and HIV. So all you naughty people who are fans of THC will be just fine.

le fin

The Ghubra Car windscreen smashing thing

So, a few months ago, a user on the Oman Forum started this thread. It was about a bunch of car's windscreens being smashed in and around Ghubra. It also happened in Ruwi as well, reportedly 27 cars there got smashed recently as well.

Enter the ROP, and some investigative police-work.

It has come to my attention that an Omani PRO / driver for a large engineering consultancy firm has been fingered for the crime of smashing up all the cars in Ghubra. Rather more disturbingly, is the evidence rumoured to be cited by the ROP. I have had 2 independent confirmations on this, but as always, I'm sure there is another side to the story.

The unfortunate PRO / driver has been fingered because his finger prints were on a letter inside one of the cars. It has apparently escaped the ROP's attention that the reason why this chaps finger print is on that letter in that car is probably because he gave the driver of that car the letter after having picked it up from the company PO box. And the owner of that particular smashed up car being an employee of the same firm. Apparently that does not matter to the prosecuting authorities, and now the case is going to court.

One does wonder whether the ROP have found this persons finger prints somewhere else, but this has not been verified, only that his prints were on a letter that he handed to the owner of that particular car that day. Very strange.

But at least they are dusting for prints!

Obviously it was a bunch of kids that were bored and decided to break some windscreens. One wonders whether these are the same bunch of kids suspected of taking part in gang rapes in Azaibah as the Undercover Dragon reported on the Muscat Confidential blog.

le fin

Speshal parking & a nice mosque

So again, these shorter hours make blogging some what harder to do, what with the same amount of work needing to get done in less time. But here are two nuggets for you.

First up is a lovely example of what happens when you go too fast in a residential neighbourhood:


Spectacular job I must say. Well at least the car's parked in some shade!

On Friday, the wife and I took a trip down to Muttrah and to the souq in order to find a nice battery powered knock-off watch. Got a lovely thin one for 8 rials, very pleased with it - something nice and basic for every-day use. However, the souq was heaving, more so even for a normal Friday night. We ended up in some back streets a bit lost, but then happend upon this rather nice looking mosque:


It's almost oriental, right? Anyway, we thought it looked great so wanted to share it with you.

Ramadhan Kareem

It's been called, and Oman is in sync(!) with the rest of the Muslim world for once!

Three other news items of note:

1. Oman school term is to start on September 26th.

2. The Rembrandt art work display, the first of its kind in the Middle East, opened at the Grand Hyat's Afrah Ballroom last Wednesday. It's on until the 19th of September. 100 pieces of art are on display. Well worth a look, I'd say. NOTE: It is only Etchings works, no paintings, that are on display. Still, well worth a look.

3. H1N1 - The MoH reports two deaths in Oman as a result of the virus to date. There has been one death in Salalah and one in Muscat. Both were patients with other chronic diseases. One was 39 years old and had a weak heart. The other was 60 years and a diabetic with high blood pressure and chronic liver infection. This does not correllate with what Dohfari Gucci blogged about last Monday August 17th, where she reported at least one woman had died in Salalah from the Virus.

New speed cameras by the airport

OK so it seems the ROP are suffering from Gordon Brown's misplaced belief that Speed Cameras are the answer to slowing people down on the roads. They appear to be testing 3 new speed camera's at the moment, two completely new models, and one is the blue Dubai-style lollipop one. It is understood that all of these devices will still continue to capture from the rear, but the two new style camera's appear to have devices that measure your speed over a certain area, and will still flash if it decides you were going too fast. I'd like to see that one in practice, as evidence needs to be given - I'd imagine only image or video can suffice, yet the camera only points one way (so it cant record you coming).

I was out with a friend to try and capture images of these new cameras, but the new "bird house" one we were unable to get a picture of, thankfully the kind people at omania2.net were.

So here are the pics:

1. The original Style:


2. The Dubai Lollipop style:


3. The new floor-mounted style:


4. The new birdhouse style (credit to Omania2):



And then, as if to proove a point that these speed radar's are not the fool-proof solution that so many people think them to be, we saw this:


There's a foot-bridge going over the highway, and what is that, right there, under the foot bridge? Oh thats just someone too lazy to use the bridge, so decides to cross the highway by jay-walking. People like that need to be fined and arrested, because they cause a lot of accidents to.

So it looks like the ROP are taking a step in the right direction with these trials of new speed traps. I'd imagine the older ones will be re-allocated to other roads within the Sultanate. Perhaps the road from Nizwa to Thumrait? Or perhaps on a few roads here in town? 18th November could be a lucrative prospect for the ROP!

Ramadahn looks like it's going to be called this Friday or Saturday, and so the carnage will begin. I will be keeping a week-daily tally on the accidents I see on the stretch of road between Wizarat round about and the start of 18th November street. I'm predicting over 40 vehicles will be damaged in accidents in that one area alone.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

le fin

Just a few thoughts

Not a lot to talk about today, so a few thoughts to share:

1. Oman Air

So when do these new planes actually arrive? Currently the "new" planes being operated to Heathrow and back are on wet lease from Jet Airways (for reportedly about $2 million per plane per month). Apparently Jet Airways are in talks with Oman Air to make these "dry" lease deals, which should drop the monthly cost to about $1 million, but then Oman Air have to provide more stuff, like staff. Presumably.

There's been discussion of new destinations, and I believe that Oman Air will be flying to: Paris, Franfurt, Colombo and The Maldives. Nice, flying to Paris will mean it'll be much easier to get to the villa in the South for France.

2. The Wave

As no doubt other bloggers will discuss in the coming days, apparently there are some whole-sale changes underway at the management of The Wave. Officially, Nick Smith (former CEO) has "retired".

3. H1N1

So it seems more and more people are getting this. Nadia @ Dhofari Gucci has blogged that there have been some deaths down in Salalah, and many more in intensive care. Scary business. Make sure you keep washing your hands through out your day! I do have to wonder about the seriousness of the situation in Saudi this year with people on Hajj.


Busy day again today... be sure to add any information via a comment to my Cost of Living post!

le fin

Cost of living in Muscat

Much like my Pork Shop post recently, I've decided to blog some information on the cost of living here in Muscat, Oman. It'd be really helpful if anyone can contribute their costs as well.

I live in a 3 bedroom penthouse apartment with a fairly sizeable terrace (great in the winter!). I own 2 cars and a land rover - the landy was bought for RO 925 cash, and one of the two cars is financed with HSBC loans which I chose to do over 12 months. I borrowed RO 4400 for a part-payment of the vehicle and my monthly repayments are RO 400 a month for that.

Now, to specifics:

• My rent is RO 600 a month.
• My Water bill each month (based on 2 people and lots of plant watering) is approximately RO 8 a month.
• Electricity is about RO 10 a month (including summer months with higher AC usage). Note that the Government heavily subsidises power here, and even more so in the Summer.
• I have an Omantel land-line (which I do not use to make any calls) and it costs me RO 4.900 a month.
• I have Omantel ADSL 512 Kbps connection and it costs me RO 12 a month + usage up to a maximum monthly amount of RO 42 a month.
• My loan payments total RO 700 a month (400 for one of the cars, 300 for a furniture loan).

We bought the following furniture: King size bed + mattress, end tables, coffee tables, TV table, 32" LCD, 42" Plasma, kettle, toaster, plates, knifes and forks and kitchen stuff, gas bottles, bbq, desk, chairs, 3+2+1 sofa set, rugs, artwork, dining room table, washing machine, Electric oven/ gas hob (try baking with a gas oven here... very difficult), 2 fridges and a chest freezer. All of this is serviced by the monthly loan we have (due to finish very soon...!). For those that are unsure of their length of stay here and want to factor in risk in purchasing furniture, there is an outfit in town that rents house-hold furniture, and even offers a rent to own mechanism too. Packages can start from about RO 128/month for a 3-bedroom house to be kitted out. The company is called Home Essentials.

We shop for groceries at a few different stores, but our average monthly spend is approximately RO 250 for the two of us. We're from the Western world and have what I'd imagine is a "Western" diet. We eat a lot of chicken and beef - but don't eat rice and daal very frequently. Fresh fruit and vegetables are high on our diet lists as well. We shop at the following stores: Carrefour, The Sultan Center, Al Fair (Unfair), LuLu's and Al Hamadi Fisheries (the fabulous pork place).

Car insurance is based upon (usually) 5% of the value of your car. For example, if your car is worth RO 10,000, your insurance premium will be approximately RO 500 a year - more or less. They do accept No-Claims bonus letters if you bring one from your home country - it will reduce your premiums.

For furniture here in Oman, you have a few options: There is The Home Center here which caters to the upper-market sector of people living here. A 3 piece sofa set can easily cost up to RO 700 and beyond. A 6 seater dining table easily around RO 400. And so on. We chose to drive to IKEA in Dubai and bought a bunch of stuff there (bed, tables, desk, chair, kitchen stuff) and drove it back. We bought a mattress here from Raha Oman and we're not overly happy with it, but it's been OK I guess. It only cost RO 70. There are other furniture places dotted around town that specialize in various types of furniture. A new comer to the furniture scene is Pan Furniture situated in Al Khuwair in the Zakher Mall. There is also ID Design, Fahmy Furniture, Khimjis Bait Al Ahlam amongst many others.

Satellite TV package costs RO 8-24 a month, depending on the provider and bouquet you choose. English speaking networks available are:

Orbit (Badr 25.5), Showtime (Nilesat), DSTV/Multichoice (Pan-am Sat) DSTV is not legally allowed to be received here. To get DSTV (Which has South African television - best sports coverage around) you will need a larger dish. Orbit and Showtime can be received with a simple small dish.

Cars in Oman.

There are basically four options: new, used, rented or taxi's.

New cars are, depending on the model, comparatively priced with the same brands accross the globe. Toyota's are king here, and tend to hold their value the best. You can buy a Toyota Yaris for approximately RO 4500 and sell it 3 years later for about RO 2500 - give or take. Buying used cars can be a difficult experience, and there's three main ways to go about it:

1 buy a used car from the dealer (eg MHD Landrover will have used Landy's for sale).

2 is to go to a used car dealer (best cars Oman is, in my opinion, a waste of time unless you want a used Toyota) - there are many used car dealers dotted around, but there's especially quite a few along the Sultan Qaboos highway in the Ghubra area. Be careful though, some of these dealers have a reputation for importing flood damaged cars from the USA and selling them for huge profits, buyer beware.

3 is the notice boards, Al Fair, The Sultan Center and a few other places have notice boards where people put up adverts of things to sell. Look at the ad, call the number, kick the tyres, strike a deal.

Cars can be rented here in Oman from approximately RO 150 a month. A reasonable price, for, say, a Mazda 6, is about RO 225 a month. If you want, you can even rent BMW's and Mercs, but obviously you will pay a lot for it!

Taxis come in 3 flavours: Blue and Red metered taxis (but they're only interested in taking you from your hotel to the airport or vice versa) and they are very expensive. You can flag down an orange and white taxi pretty much anywhere in Oman. I've often joked that if I were lost and stuck in the middle of the desert, I'd pretty much expect to find a taxi before long. They are literally everywhere. However, taxi's are not metered here, and prices are generally agreed upon before you start. At the risk of sounding racist here, if you look "Western" then you're going to pay significantly more than if you were of another racial group. Finally there are the Baiza buses which charge up and down Sultan Qaboos highway and have a general fee of 100bz per round about.

Alcohol in Oman.

When you come here and apply for your Resident Card, one thing you must mention is your religion. If you are a Muslim, you will not be eligible for the liquor license. Alcohol can be purchased in licensed bars by anyone - regardless of religion. The cost of a pint of beer ranges from 800bz at the PDO recreation club to RO 3.000 at most of the 5* hotels. A glass of wine can cost up to RO 3.000 for house brands and (a lot) more for others.

You can purchase, from the ROP, a blue liquor license booklet. You will pay an up-front fee for a license that lasts 24 months, and you may purchase alcohol from one of the alcohol supply shops dotted around. A case of beer ranges from RO 9 for a case of Castle, RO 12 for a case of Heineken and RO 15 for a case of Corona. A bottle of Smirnoff Red Vodka is about RO 6, and bottles of wine start at RO 3 and the price goes up from there. One thing to note is that the license you purchase will have a monthly spending limit, restricting you to only be able to purchase alcohol up to a maximum value in any given month (in the take-home shops). The higher your license value you can go is based on your salary. The one-time up-front fee is based on the value of your license. I'd suggest that if you like a few drinks, to get a higher license than you think you need - its purely up to you.

As a final point, I will note that in order to lead a comfortable life here as a "Western" expatriate where you are required to provide your own housing and transportation, a total monthly package should not be less than RO 2,500 a month. I am not a recruitment specialist and so can't advise you on what salary you should expect to get working here, so please don't ask me.

Hope this helps!

le fin

Not a lot going on.

It's summer, and yesterday I was particularly busy in the office so the blog had to take a back seat.

And there's really not much going on anyway.

There is, apparently, a rather large debate going on in the Arabic Omani bloggersphere concerning education scholarships. The topic is being discussed in English here on the Oman Forum. I'll let you read it there if you're interested - I especially found it amusing that Mr Abdullah Abbas (the previous head of Muscat Municipality, and rumoured to of been "creative" with his building permits) had a full scholarship awarded to his son "at his behest". I liked that, no beating about the bush - his kid gets a full scholarship because he asked for one. hahaha. Lovely.

In other news, over on Kishor Cariappa's (now neglected) blog, he witnessed an accident outside the Sheraton, where someone who presumably suffers from traffic-light colour blindness felt the need to run a red and subsequently get T-boned, taking out a traffic light in the process. Nice to see that our journalist is actually blogging again. Stupid Twitter.

The Three Amigo's night at the Rugby Club was a blinder, over 200 people came through the doors and the band were entertaining (it might of had something to do with the bottle of vodka each of them had drunk with a straw!). I was delighted to find out that they were also mostly Canadian. I suggested they come down and play at the Canadian Stampede, because the last Canadian Stampede here at the PDO rec centre was a thinly-disguised excuse for a bunch of non-Canadians to get together and have a party. Which is great and all, but reportedly actual Cannucks were a tad thin on the ground (report by Angry In Oman). And apparently very little Canadian music was played either, even by the imported DJ. Seemed a bit pointless if you ask me.

Did anyone see any of the metorites? I'm told that there were a few to see.

Essdar Capital have succeeded in buying some of the bonds on Blue City, but it is not clear how many. More on that as it happens. Maybe.

le fin

Wednesday, and the weekend.

Well, after posting yesterday about more traffic deaths, I then got into my car and drove through Ruwi. The first truck I pulled up next to at a traffic light, had bald tyres. Because it was in my mind about the number of accidents lately, I snapped a picture:


Then, at the next set of lights, I pull up behind a different truck, and wow, that one too, had bald tyres. I didn't get a chance to take a picture because the lights turned and traffic started moving, but I think this is a key problem here - unsafe vehicles are on the roads. But I'm going to put the traffic reporting torch down for a bit now, I think it's been flogged enough for the time being. Just don't drive into me!

So the weekend is almost upon us. Tonight, as the Undercover Dragon blogged about recently, you may get a free show if you cast your eyes upwards and look for shooting stars / bits of meteorites burning up in our atmosphere. Alternatively, if you cast your eyes to the rugby club then you will enjoy the delight of the Three Amigo's playing rock music, and various drunk people believing whole-heartedly that they are good at singing and dancing. It promises to be a fun night, and I'm told there are approximately 30 tickets left, and that the reservation list will be closed at 9pm tonight.

Tomorrow promises a trip to the Souq for me. The hunt is on: I'm looking for a new knock-off watch and wont pay over RO 20 for one. Anyone got any tips and suggestions? Perhaps a spot of brunch at the fabulous Blue Marlin restaurant in the Marina afterwards too.

But now back to something rather more serious. Over the last 8 months, on the Oman Forum, I've been following the incredible story of the end-user "Tommaso". The cliff-notes of this story are as follows (please note that this information has come from a single source, and as such this information may be flawed, but in my opinion it makes for an interesting read):

• He is European of Arab origin and had been working in Oman since 2007.
• He was (in his belief) unfairly dismissed.
• Because he believed strongly that he had been unfairly dismissed, he filed a complaint in the labour courts.
  
• Upon dismissal and hearing of his filing, his previous employer then sent staff to his accommodation to persuade him to withdraw his complaint, offering him a total of 3 months salary to do so.
• He chose not to, because it was not about the money, but to draw attention to the actions of this company (brave guy!).
• His employer had his passport and steadfastly refused to return it to him.
• He petitioned the courts to have his employer release his passport. The court refused. (How can a court refuse to give someone back their passport?)
  
• His labour case was postponed, and then passed up to a higher court, where it was then postponed again.
• He then appealed the ruling on his passport return, which was also refused by the courts.
• He then applied to have his residence permit extended as he was unable to leave the country because the court refused to give him back his passport, and this application was also refused. (This may be explained because he had an active case in the courts, and the courts need time to issue it's verdict, the law has to take its course).
  
• He got his embassy to contact the Oman Embassy of Foreign Affairs (OMOFA), and after multiple attempts and a strongly worded letter finally got a reply that they are still looking into it.
• The following conversation is said to have occurred during a court appeal to have the passport released to the plaintiff:

Judge: (before even talking about any details) Case is postponed to (date)
The Co’s lawyer: Can I present a memo ?
Judge: Of course, please do.
My lawyer: I also have a memo that I would like to present, I would like to highlight some points though.
Judge: No need to submit a memo. I already have the opponent’s memo. That’s more than enough for me.!!!!
My lawyer: Excuse me your honour? Can you repeat that again?
Judge: I said clearly I won’t take your memo, I’ll go through the opponent’s memo which is enough to explain all the facts!!!
My lawyer: OH!!!!! If that is the case your honour, then there is no need for courts, we can then solve matter either amicably or nastily or forcefully!!!! I reserve my right to present the memo. I have different points of views that I would like to explain.
Judge: I said what I have in hand is enough, your opponent’s memo is more than enough for me.
My lawyer: I am claiming my absolute and indisputable right.

• Finally, a member from the Oman Ministry of Manpower is said to have gotten involved and successfully negotiated the recovery of this person's passport.

Points to take from this forum thread are:

1. It could be a total fantasy story, there is just no way to check
2. Why would a HE go to so much effort over a trifling labour case?
3. If this case is proven to be true, it is exceedingly alarming that a court has ruled that a Plaintiff (he brought the case against his employers, not the other way round) is not allowed his passport back. This is the single most alarming thing of the whole story, and it's really the only reason I'm blogging it.
4. I wish the guy all the best of luck in his labour case, but that's not really of as much interest to us.
5. Again if the story is true, it is a shining example of the efforts that the Government are going to to stamp out human trafficking and corruption. It has certainly taken time, but the point here is that this was resolved by the Omani Government.

Now to add to this, I wish to state the following comments:

I do not know the company involved, nor do I wish to.
I do not know the true identity of the original poster, nor do I wish to.
I do not know the HE involved, nor do I wish to.
I do not know the names of the judges involved, nor do I wish to.
I've blogged this story purely for consumption. It may be fiction, there is no way for me to confirm this.

And finally, I wish to stress that no defamation of the Sultanate of Oman is intended by this post, as this is clearly a case between a European citizen and a company in Oman.

le fin

More traffic deaths and statistics.

Rather alarmingly, 26 people died and 143 were injured in the week between 18th and 24th of July. Of these, 59 collisions were between vehicles, 34 involved collisions with fixed objects and 21 were run-overs. The accidents also saw 23 vehicles roll off the road. The highest number of deaths recorded was in the interior with ten deaths. The worst accident was near Jebel Akhdar. A vehicle collided with a fixed object and resulted in the deaths of eight people and injury to two people. The vehicle was badly damaged in the incident.

....... In one week.

Ramadan starts at the end of next week.... I'm more than a little worried. Take care out there, especially if you're driving in the interior. As usual, the mad dash for the Khareef seems to have resulted in more people getting into accidents going from, or to Salalah.

On a more entertaining note, Dhofari Gucci has blogged again. About cows, again. hahaha :P

Her blog is a great read and I suggest you take the time to stop by her blog if you have some time.

Additionally, I highly recommend this 15-picture gallery on The Daily Telegraph - Amusing pictures of animals that got stuck in stuff (they all got out ok). I especially found the cow picture amusing :)

le fin

Local news roundup

A few nuggets of news today:

1. Oman to Issue RO50 Million Bonds.

MUSCAT -- The Central Bank of Oman, or CBO has announced a new issue of government development bonds worth RO50 million. The bonds will have a maturity period of three years and will carry a coupon rate of 4 per cent a year.

The issue will be open for subscription from August 16 to 26 and the auction will be held on August 30. The issue/settlement date will be September 6 and maturity date September 6, 2012.

Investors can apply for the bonds through either the competitive or non-competitive bidding process via licensed banks operating in Oman. Those applying for more than RO1 worth of bonds can also submit their bids directly to CBO after getting them endorsed by their banks.

Not such a bad savings scheme for people with a bit of cash to spare. Knock it in now, and then when the kids are done school here in 3 years time there's a nice little chunk of change to send them off to university with. Or something. 4% isn't great, but it isn't bad either.

2. School's in Oman ready to tackle H1N1, "Swine Flu".

This is not exactly new news, as there were signals from the Indian School in Ghubra a week or more ago saying that the start of term was delayed due to fears over the flu. The article's main points are: Almost all schools are now equipped with isolated wards for dealing with pupils who may have the H1N1 virus; A temperature of 100.4 Fahrenheit and sudden cough are typical symptoms of the virus; a lot of meaningless fluff from the Indian School in Ghubra's Principal; the Sri Lankan school is starting it's term on August 27th; TAISM is starting on the 22nd August and in fact many schools in Muscat will be opening in the last week of August.

Bear in mind, there is a cold that is doing the rounds in Muscat at the moment. It starts with a sore throat, then clogged sinus' and a lot of sneezing, then a lot of mucus and blowing noses, and it finishes off with a cough. Some people get over it in 3-4 days, for others it's lasted over a week. Hand sanitizer and wash your hands before every meal is the order of the day (not that it isnt ever an order of the day, but when you sit down to lunch or dinner today... wash your hands before hand). Also when you go shopping, make sure you sanitize your hands when you're done with the cart and back in your car. It does make a difference.

Also note: The Ministry of Health “H1N1 hotline” numbers are: 92466642 and 92466422

3. Get Going - Official guide and atlas to Oman is published.

The Times of Oman have carried a story about the launch of this new book which details attractions all over the Sultanate and also has lots of information on the country as well. It seems to be a pretty useful book, but I've not been able to find any reference to it online yet, and haven't been to a book shop to browse it yet. I wonder if it's any good? It's a 308 page book detailing 985 destinations and 101 maps, so it's gotta be pretty decent, right?

4. Omans oil price for delivery in September is a rather strong $72.69

5. Oman bagged Gold and Bronze at Arab beach volleyball competition in Lebanon.

Oman beach volleyballers lived upto the reputation of being the best in the region by winning the top honours as well as bronze medal in the Arab Beach Volleyball Champion-ship in Lebanon yesterday. While the Oman ‘A’ team comprising Badr al Shubhi and Khalifa al Jabri clinched the gold, the ‘B’ team of Haitham al Shuraiki and Ahmed al Hosni bagged the bronze after competing with the best beach spikers of the Arab region.

After spectacular performances in the league stages, the two Omani teams, came with even better performanes in the semifinals played in yesterday’s first sessession. The teams, however, experienced contrasting results. The the ‘B’ team went down to a Bahraini pair after a closely contested match. The Omanis lost 2-1. In the other semifinal, the ‘A’ squad brushed aside the Lebanese challenge for a 2-0 victory.

Later in the day, Oman ‘B’ team’s Haitham and Ahmed overcame the disappointment of losig the semifinal and came up with a spirited display to defeat Lebanon 2-1 in the third-place match to clinch the bronze medal. The summit clash turned out to be an even more dramatic affair with Badr and Khalifa suffering the reverse in the first set which the Bahrainis won 21-18. But in the next two sets, Badr and Khalifa turned the heat on their rivals to win 21-14 and 15-4 to seal the gold.

Well done lads :)

That's all for today!

le fin

Oman & The Americas Cup

A quick brief for those that don't know what the Americas Cup is. It's essentially the Formula 1 of the boat racing without going into too much detail. It attracts a lot of well monied people to the event.

The winner of the Americas Cup gets to say where they will hold the next race. In 2003 the team SNG Alinghi, from Switzerland challenged the then-cup holders (New Zealand) and won. They then successfully defended their title in 2007 in Valencia, Spain. So the obvious problem being that SNG Alinghi, being based in Switzerland, can not really stage the prestigious event in their own country - no suitable areas.

So again the search was on for a location to hold this prestigious race, and Oman was seriously considered. Sources tell me that negotiations and planing was ongoing as late as June this year to hold the event at The Wave in early 2010. The Government of Oman would of been required to front up about RO 2,500,000 for core services, and the teams would have invested the rest of the money required for their requirements for the race.

Even more confusingly, SNG Alinghi have rather notoriously won a court case allowing them to race a multi-hulled boat (it was all single-hull stuff before). This incensed a lot of the contenders, but the main Challenger still wants to race, and this event is very, very prestigious. Hotels get filled from an event like this. There is also the rather handy tie-in with Oman Sail, which is being bank-rolled by the Government to go out and compete in international events, and when the chance to hold a very big event right here in Oman comes along, they said no. It doesn't quite compute.


So Oman had the chance to host a sailing event, which was double hulled, of which they sponsor their own team to compete in various races around the world, all for "only" RO 2,500,000 - and they said no.

Oh well, our neighbours, Ras Al Khaimah have now successfully won the bid and are to be the host nation of the 33rd America's Cup between Feb 8th and 12th next year.

It would seem that Oman have just missed a trick. Significant advertisement for the country, filled hotels, increased tourist spending, near-free development of a Marina and the opportunity to promote it's own sailing team.

le fin

Blue City update, Social events for the week

The big news on Blue City is that there is no news. The deadline for the bid has been extended by another two weeks. Apparently negotiations are on-going between Essdar and the Bond holders but there are obviously some differences as indicated by no agreement being made (indicated by no press release from Essdar Capital).

On the social scene this week:

JUST BEAT IT! A night of the best Michael Jackson songs at the Grand Hyatt's Copacabana.

Rock With You, Billie Jean, Thriller … this is just a small selection of the songs by the King of Pop that will be played at Copacabana on Monday August 10. The doors of Copacabana open at 10:00pm for a night filled with the best of Michael Jackson tunes. Put on your dancing shoes and dance the night away. There will be fantastic prizes for the best Moonwalk and the best Michael Outfit. Admission is free. Nightclub policies apply; minimum age is 21.

10pm on a school night.... ;)

And, on Wednesday is the Muscat Rugby Club's The Three Amigo's night, with Hi-FM's Andy Pyzer filling in as DJ in between the sets. It starts at 8pm at the Rugby Club. There are 200 tickets available, and they are RO 8.000 if you are not a member. It promises to be a great night and there will be special discounts on drinks in the club.


If you are interested in supporting the rugby club, then please contact one of the people marked on the flyer above to reserve tickets at the door to avoid disappointment.

le fin

Just a quickie: 18th November St - NOW FINISHED

Driving to work this morning, I thought to myself that the final traffic light installation was practically done. It looked like this this morning:


And then this afternoon about 2pm, I drove through the area again, and lo and behold:


So hopefully the morning commute will not be so bad along 18th November Street now.

le fin

The Asian Beach Games - 2010

As I'm sure most of you know, Oman will be hosting the Asian Beach Games in Wudam Al Sahil near Mussanah (yet, rather strangely, the games are being advertised as Muscat 2010). The site is about an hour and a half drive away from Qurum, so it really is a bit of a stretch to say the games are being held in Muscat. However, after seeing the progress at the construction site, one has the question: Will this even be ready by June next year? I say June, because the official website from the Ministry of Tourism states that the athletes village will be completed by June 2010. Well, judging from the picture below, I'd say that the incumbent Contractor (L&T) had better accelerate it's work, or there very well maybe egg on some peoples faces.


From the picture, you can see that the breakwater has been completed (Carillion Alawi are to thank for that). The rather alarming lack of Command Centre (the Press area), Marina Hotel and Marina Residences building, coupled with the fact that it is August 2009, does suggest that the intended completion date of June 2010 might be hard to achieve. But not impossible. Maybe.


This other smaller picture is an elevation of what the site is intended to look like. I think either the Marina Hotel or Marina Residences building has commenced, because in the first picture you can see a little suggestion of work in the bottom left hand corner.

Well let's hope that L&T wake up and get their finger out and start to actually get this project built. I remain positive that something will be ready, just perhaps not what was originally envisaged.

The other point of note is that the games are scheduled to be held in December 2010 (source) and I'm sure that with those extra months, a lot of finishing touches will be completed.

Speaking of sporting events, has everyone got their F1 tickets for the Abu Dhabu grand prix on November 1st?

The Khasab Ferry, and HM goes to Iran

Two items to blog today, the first being that HM has indeed gone to Iran, as it's been splashed all over the papers today (the slightly better article in Oman Observer is here). Well I guess you read it here first, 4 days ago ;)

I wonder if they're going to talk about Gas?

Now to the main item for today: The Khasab Ferry - National Ferries Company.


Here's a picture of the ferry, looking like it's a millionaires toy with that helicopter... with the running costs of it, I'd suggest it was a billionaires toy!

Yesterday, I read with some amusement on the Khimji Ramdas blog that the Shina's ferry has completed it's first year of service. I wonder how much money the Government has had to pump into this business to keep it afloat? I also wonder if it'd be cheaper to paint the boats in military colours and mount some guns on them, and use them as fast Israeli-funded Somalian Pirate catchers? I guess in their current format, they can at least make some money and keep some people employed. The question one might ask is, could more people be employed serving in the Navy?

Looking at the NFC website, the fares have been published here. A return trip in cattle-class is RO 44 (or RO 22 if you're a resident of Khasab). Now that is not too bad, when you compare it to an Oman Air flight at RO 46. Ok so the flight takes an hour and ten minutes, whereas the ferry takes 6 hours. But with the ferry you get to see the coastline as you go up.

Interestingly there is still no mention on the Jetty, and whether you can take your car with you or not, on the NFC website. Rather alarming that 12 months on, still no jetty is in place - or is it? I have no idea, not having been on the ferry service. However, at that price, I think I might fly one way, and ferry back - and handily enough, the good people at Oman Air have smelt an opportunity and offer just that. For RO 99 per person, you can fly one way, stay two nights at the Golden Tulip in Khasab, and then take the ferry back the other way - I think you can choose to fly or ferry up, and fly or ferry back. I think I'd prefer to ferry up and fly back myself. The deal includes breakfast on both mornings, and it's actually a very good deal indeed when you factor in two nights at the Golden Tulip. Co-incidentally, the Golden Tulip franchise here in Oman is owned by the Ministry of Tourism. I wonder if all of this subsidizing is actually costing the Government even more money? There are no economies of scale with that ferry, are there?

That's all for today. I guess the big news is waiting on Thursday, when we will, hopefully, find out that bid for Blue City's bonds has been accepted by the bond holders.

le fin

Just a quickie: Irish Night

Busy with work today, but Muscat Confidential has blogged, so you can get his latest piece of juicy news today!

There is an Irish Night planned at the Dolphin Village on Thursday night, if anyone is interested. It appears that there is no cover charge, and there is a special on beer - buy two get one free. So it's the pre-Ramadan piss-up season then.

Below is the blurb:

IRISH NIGHT
Dance to the tune of the Latest & ‘Oldies’ Irish music on Thursday 6th August 2009!!!!
Special offer on Bottle Beer
Buy 2 get 1 free!!!!
& Special prices on Ciders
10% discount on all alcoholic beverages!!!!
Mouthwatering finger bites will be served in the bar area after 9pm

le fin

Seen a fatal car crash lately?

Chances are you have. Automotive-related accidents are on the rise. Significantly.

This website was recently launched to detail the number of car crashes, recording the fatalities and the injuries, and has current data until the last week of June. Then, unfortunately, it appears the author decided to go on holiday, and no new information has been posted for over a month. One hopes that the author continues with the website, as it is very useful.

The statistics, are quite frankly shocking. Below is a table pulled from The Week which shows the rise in deaths and injuries on Oman's roads up until 2008. Unfortunately I do not have access to the monthly data (if anyone knows where to get that from please let me know).

Horrors Stats

Year	Total Deaths	Injured
2000	492	9,323
2001	499	9,625
2002	580	7,907
2003	578	6,375
2004	637	6,636
2005	689	6,658
2006	681	7,548
2007	798	8,531
2008	961	10,558

The trend is pretty clear, and all recent news reports point to it getting worse. In just the first 44 days of this year, Over 140 people were killed on Oman’s roads, a rise of 16 per cent on the 2008 statistics. And that information is just the first 44 days of the year.

And June 2009, was even worse. Again, The Week published data on automotive accidents in this article. 67 people lost their lives, and 817 people injured in a total of 644 car accidents just for June 2009. 77, seventy seven, of these were for run overs. RUN OVERS. What is it going to take to stop people leisurely crossing the highways here? Regularly I see people walking across the highway, UNDERNEATH a pedestrian bridge. Why are these people not being fined for jay-walking?

10,566 new vehicles were registered in June 2009; and 5076 new driving licenses were issued in the same period. We are all aware of Oman's impending huge population boom, Muscat Confidential covered this recently here. New license issues are only going to rise in the future, and the standard of Oman's driving instruction "schools" is appallingly low. The only requirements one apparently needs to be a driving instructor here in the Sultanate are: To be Omani, to have driven for at least 5 years, and to have a car with burgundy red stripes on it. There is no testing body in place to adequately assess the driving capabilities of these instructors. And it's a tough subject to broach too, because, obviously, if an instructor is deemed not up to scratch, then they will effectively loose their method of income until they get up to scratch. And that obviously presents problems in itself. But perhaps something can be done? Perhaps a phased plan to implement minimum testing requirements on driving instructors? Additionally, 135,137 traffic-related offences were recorded for the month. That's a lot of fines, yet interestingly no data was published on licenses revoked for dangerous driving. It is worth noting that the Royal Oman Police document on Traffic Law does have a clear-cut traffic policing outline, it's just not being enforced.

So what is being done about this? Not a lot. A few press releases have been printed in the last few months of ROP initiatives and the Oman Road Safety Association have been busy making statements, but nothing seems to be happening yet. Well, I've seen an increase in those portable speed traps being positiond along some roads, which apparently doesnt do anything for the ROP except raise more cash for them, because they are not counting points - as their own document suggests that they do.

The number of bald tyres on trucks that I've seen while waiting at red lights; the number of times I've seen people fail to stop at a Stop Sign; fail to yield at a yield (give-way) sign; under-take on a highway; over-take on a solid line; excessively over-speed (read: 15Km/h over the limit); drive at 70 Km/h in the middle lane in a 120 KM/h zone; run red lights; driving with their Niqāb or Burqa on (read the law - this is illegal); driving with black sheets draped across their windscreens and windows. The number of times I see this stuff every week is enough for me to know that the ROP can do more. Why are they not doing more?

One significant problem appears to be the issue of Wasta. An ROP officer is less-inclined to hand someone a ticket when they know that person is a local, presumably because their cousin/uncle/brother/etc is in the ROP, or knows someone in the ROP, and they will just have the fine reversed later on. This problem needs to be addressed, at the highest levels of Government, if we're going to be serious about tackling this problem.

As Ramadan approaches, everyone please take extra-care on the roads. Statistically more of us are going to die in August and September than in any other month this year. Try to remember that the next time you feel the need for speed, mmmkay? Lead by example, that's the best way.

le fin

Q2 profits for Oman's banks down & Oman spending money on.... boats.

Well, it was of little surprise to see that Oman's biggest banks have reported a particularly tough second quarter of '09. Bank Muscat's exposure to two Saudi firms (Saad Group and Al-Gosaibi) were valued at approximately $171 million, National Bank of Oman's exposure is significantly less, reportedly $17 million.

Bank Muscat's profit fell from RO 31.29 million to RO 12 million, but at least it's turning a profit. However, it's share price is dropping, presumably on the back of news of the latest quarterly report. It's share price closed at RO 0.729 last week. It's 52 week high was RO 1.830 - that's quite a drop indeed.

So what does all this mean for people like you and me? Probably not very much. Bank Muscat continues to out-perform all of the other top 5 Oman banks, and has the largest network of ATM's and ABM's - which is handy for us.

Surprisingly, no news on HSBC's performance in Oman was mentioned in the news. I like to think that's because HSBC are so terrible here in Oman that they are not actually officially recognised as a bank. One can dream.

So, onto the other piece of news for today. Oman seems to be spending money on it's Navy and merchant fleet. Two significant deals have come to my attention in weeks of late:

1. Oman signed a deal with the UK-based company BVT Surface Fleet on the 15th January 2007. And now they've announced that they've finished building the Royal Navy of Oman Vessel (RNOV) Al Shamikh and it's presumably on it's way to patrol the waters off of the coast of Sur to protect us from those fiendish Israeli funded Somalian pirates. Expect 2 more Corvette class vessels in the future, all part of the original agreement signed back in 2007.


2. Oman, have just recently signed a deal with the Chinese. This deal is for the state-owned Oman Shipping Company. The Chinese shipbuilder Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Co, won a $484 million deal to build four ships for them. These ships will be ready by the end of 2011 or early 2012 and will be leased to Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (Vale) for their mineral exports from the new Iron Ore facility being built in Sohar Port.

Additionally, the state-owned Oman Shipping Company has stated that it wants to continue to expand it's fleet of vessels and plans to spend $4 billion expanding it's fleet. That's a lot of boats!