HM's special representative passed away & Muscat airport workers go on strike

If you happen to have been watching any of the Omani TV channels today, you will have noticed that they are broadcasting the Quran non-stop. This is because HH Sayyid Thuwaini bin Shihab passed away this morning.

The most senior member of the ruling family, Sayyid Thuwaini was a "Special Representative" of the Sultan and was listed next to HM in official line-ups. When the Sultan is absent, he chairs meetings of the cabinet or the specialised councils. A former Wali (governor) of Muscat, he was a key member of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council.

The Omani Flags will be flying at half-mast for the next 3 days as the nation mourns the loss. This has been quite a long time coming, as HH Sayyid Thuwaini has been out of the public eye for over a decade due to illness.

HH Sayyid Fahad has been named as the successor, and I suspect the papers tomorrow will be running this as their lead story with lots more information on both of the men.

In other news, an impromptu strike happened at the Muscat International Airport on Friday night. It appears that the baggage chuckers handlers got the hump because of non-payment of salaries and bonuses. The showed their dis-gruntledness by refusing to do their jobs late on Friday evening. About 5 flights were affected, and many people went home without their luggage. The administration at Muscat International Airport deserve a slap for the simple reason of not telling the passengers what was going on. No mention of a strike was made, in fact, no notifications were made at all. Presumably the line of thought was that if they say nothing, a few hundred people will just naturally assume that all of their bags vanished and they'll just go away, eventually.

Also, rather amusingly, the only paper to carry the story was the Muscat Daily with a small section. None of the other (English language) papers carried the story. As usual then.

It's England V Germany tonight. Hopefully ze Germanz will be seen off and dealt with swiftly by the boys in red. We'll see.

A slight update on the Intercon sports tent. The Intercon just rented the land to a third party company that is running the World Cup sports village. A RO 2.000 for entry fee, it was a pretty great idea. That is, of course, until the foolish management of the Sports village decided that selling alcohol to kids was a good idea. They were busted, and subsequently had their license removed. The only thing it's got to do with The Intercon, is that it's on Intercon land.

le fin.