Help a local blogger, and Tim Hortons

Firstly, in an effort to help local blogger Olga of Happily Married to a Biker, please keep your eyes peeled for her husbands bike, which was half-inched a few days ago in the automotive crime hotspot of 18th November Street.

So please, let Olga know if you have seen her bike! Let's hope for a repeat of Other Oman's success last year in finding a stolen Xterra. The person who nicked that Xterra probably ditched it after realising it was crap ;)

Next up: Timmies!

Now those of you that know, know. There's simply no comparison when it comes to coffee and doughnuts: Tim Hortons has the rest of the competition licked. I was quite excited to read this morning that Tim Hortons have signed up with UAE based Apparel Group to open up to 120 outlets in the following countries: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman!

5 locations are to be opened this year, but it was not clear in the news coverage where these 5 locations would be opened. I'll update if I hear anything new!

More soon.

le fin.

The weekend.

Well it's certainly been a busy week hasnt it?

The Egypt situation seems to be settling down now that Mr Mubarak has announced he will step down in September. I'm not going to get further into that here!

Oman came out on Sunday the 30th Jan and announced that it had busted a UAE spy network. This quickly got picked up by regular news sources and has not really been followed up. Of course, local blogger Undercover Dragon blogged about this in November last year. I understand that both Omani's and Emiraties were arrested, and that they will all be put on trial. I also understand that the penalty for treason is death by hanging.

A member of the local forum (Karim), Oman Forum, recently posted this comment relating to this story:

The first time I heard about this was months ago, something like 6 months I think, as it was summer and very humid and I was having a drink at one of the security apparatus beach front recreation clubs at North Azaiba Beach, if you follow my drift.

I couldn’t believe it at the time, and the person who told was half drunk any way. But over time, this issues started to snow ball in the virtual world and blogosphere, and then came the Omani government official statement, as yes, Oman vaunted security apparatus was infiltrated by the security agencies of Abu Dhabi, and that this breach went quite high in a number of security, military, economic and government departments, a very comprehensive rap sheet.

What bugged me, and still does, is Why? Why would MBZ (Mohammed Bin Zayed) spy on Oman?

MBZ is the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and there is an interesting story about him and Oman. MBZ is the first born of late Sheikh Zayed from his favorite wife, Sheikha Fatima. MBZ and his full brothers make what is currently known as the fatmyds. These brothers are very powerful in Abu Dhabi, they literally control the Country. The then crown prince, and now president and ruler of Abu Dhabi, half brother to MBZ, is Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed, henceforth referred to as KBZ.

MBZ tried to overthrow his father Sheikh Zayed when he was in death bed. MBZ plan was to take over so that KBZ does not become ruler and president. Some in the know told me that it was Oman security agencies that uncovered the plot, and warned KBZ and some other elders in the Alnahyaan family about the plot. MBZ then fled the UAE, and was given shelter in Oman.

During MBZ exile, Oman worked out a solution that will allow for KBZ to become ruler, and MBZ crown prince. This seemed to have satisfied all parties.

As of late, MBZ seem to have come to know that Oman has played a pivotal role in delaying his path to the presidency, and wants to play the same trick on us, i.e., since Oman does not have a crown prince or heir apparent, who will be Sultan if god forbid His Majesty Sultan Qaboos passes away? And can MBZ influence or better still, pick the next Sultan?

MBZ plan goes way pas regime change, it goes as far as annexing Oman into an extended UAE, more than doubling its land, and quadrupling its people. MBZ is your typical megalomaniac, the sooner he is out of the picture, the better.

I think that's fairly interesting and worth sharing here. Perhaps this issue has been an ongoing one as opposed to one day of arrests. I say this because an un-named Omani official (quoted by Al Jazeera) said that this story refers to arrests made in November last year.

In other news, the ongoing Wikileaks issues states that 1 Emirati and 3 Qatari men are wanted by the US for their involvement in the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Hmmm.

As for local things - the Muscat Festival is ongoing and well worth a visit this weekend, I plan to go hunting for some nice pots!

Have a nice weekend everyone.

le fin.

Just a quickie: Partial solar eclipse today

Here in Oman, you should be able to experience the partial eclipse for 2 hours between 12:26 and 2:26pm. Remember to not stare directly into the sun!!

le fin.

Oman unveils a record budget for 2011: RO 8.13bn

With Royal Decree No 2/2011 ratifying the 2011 State General Budget, there are a few things to take from this...

Last year, 2010, the Budget was RO 7.434bn. This was based upon an average oil price of $58 a barrel. The actual oil price was around $70 a barrel for 2010, so Oman will have netted a surplus from all it's petrochemical revenues. Additionally, Oman's daily production of oil has increased by around 26,000 barrels a day to around 896,000 bpd of the black stuff. At current market prices of around $90, thats a nice $80,640,000 a day (RO 31,049,624.40). Anyway, enough with the boring numbers stuff. I do wonder if the budget is ever independently audited, or the reported production of oil for that matter?

Something to note however, is this: Oman is investing heavily in something called EOR (that means Enhanced Oil Recovery - it's many different techniques in getting oil out of the ground quicker, but here in Oman as far as I know the most widely used technique is steam injection, or Huff and Puff as people in the industry call it). EOR is typically used to get an oil field producing more oil than it would with traditional oil extraction methods. Yet Oman's historical annual production is fairly flat, because existing oilfields here in Oman are starting to mature and their production is declining.

So, this years budget is projecting oil revenues of about RO 7.230bn and is planing to spend RO 8.130, a deficit of RO 900 million rials. Ok some income will come from mineral and other exports as well, plus I figure oil will surpass the $100 per barrel price again this year (well thats what all the speculators seem to think). So Oman's pretty cashed up at the moment.

Oman's population is marching up, the 2010 Census' initial reports indicated an increase in the Omani population to 1,951,000, an increase of 9.48 per cent from the 1,782,000 count in 2003.

So, Oman is spending some big bucks to try and stimulate more jobs for Omanis, and quite rightly so. The key growth areas for spending this year are Health, Education and Transport. As far as I know there are no new major hospitals or universities planned, so I imagine the lions share of the budget proportioned to health and education will go to increasing services. As for transport... it's a big year coming up: The Airport, the new dualized road from Sur to Bid Bid being just two major projects ongoing throughout 2011. I wonder what will happen with the rail network this year?

Galfar's current share price is trading at RO 0.565 per share. Might be worth a punt for someone looking to invest.... or not :P

Thats all for today, more soon.

le fin.

Saturday smile.

The big news over the weekend, as covered by the Undercover Dragon over at Muscat Confidential, was the UN report finding that Oman is the most improved country in the last 40 years.

You can read more about it here.

Other than that, he's a picture a friend snapped while out and about. It made me smile :)



le fin.

More on the Oman Railway plan

Thanks to Alex Adams of Muscat Daily for the latest update on the Sultanates railway plan in today's Business section.

Pertinent facts of the railway line are:

• It will be 1000 KM long with sub-lines branching to feed various towns (eg Nizwa)
• It will be a dual line (one each way)
• Passenger trains will reach speeds of 200 KM/h
• Freight trains will reach speeds of 120 KM/h
• It will be a fully electrified line, allowing for upgrading in the future should it be required
• Expected passengers per day between Muscat and Batinah region to be 3000; between Muscat and Salalah, 1000 people per day.
• Expected freight to be exported to UAE each day around 11mn tonnes, and imported around 2.5mn tonnes.
• The tender for Construction is expected to be floated in Q4 of 2012 or Q1 of 2013, with completion slated for 2017

Additionally, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will be using Diesel trains on their rail networks, while Bahrain and Qatar will be joining Oman on the electrified route. I wonder how border crossings will work - in order to compete with air-travel, the immigration procedures will need to be streamlined. I also guess no direct trains will be available to the UAE - because of the different train technologies, a passenger will have to change trains at the border, a bit of an irritant.

Anyway it's exciting stuff, if you're sad like me and like trains.

le fin.

Muscat International Airport MC3 awarded for RO 706 Million

Finally, after a Tender process of nearly 2 entire years, today the Tender board awarded the airport building contract (MC3) for RO 706 Million to the Contractor Bechtel. So here's a new logo to get used to seeing when driving past the airport:
What is strange about the award is that Bechtel were the most expensive of the three final Tenderers for the MC3 package, behind consortium's lead by CCC and J&P.

Now, I happen to currently be reading a book called "Confessions of an economic hitman" in which Bechtel are specifically being named as being a favoured Contractor with the US AID and similar aid organizations. Well worth a read if you have the time! Funnily enough, click here to see Bechtel's work in Iraq - the Client..... USAID!

Timing is a funny thing, sometimes. I wonder why Bechtel were awarded the job, when they were the highest of the three final tenderers? Technical expertise?

le fin.

Oman tourist visa price hiked from RO 6 to RO 20

Well it had to happen, and congratulations to Muscat Daily for covering it (coincidentally, when are they ever going to get around to making a website?) on their front page today.

Tourist Visit Visa's have been hiked from RO 6 to RO 20. A pretty sharp increase in the visa charge, but in line with the charges being levied by the UAE. Of course those carrying passports on the magic list don't have to pay the visa charges in the UAE, but will now have to pay RO 20 instead of previously RO 6 when coming to Oman now.

It'd be interesting to see the revenues generated from the visa fee. What do you lot think about the increase in fees?

le fin.

And it begins....

The moon was not sighted yesterday, which means that Ramadhan starts tomorrow, Thursday 12th August. If Ramadhan lasts 30 days, Eid will start on Saturday 11th September, which is nice, especially for me as I appear to have gambled and won on my Eid vacation!

While we're on the subject, I'd love to have the business card for the person that chairs the moon-sighting committee. Imagine that card?

Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed al Salmi, Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Chairman of the Ramadhan Moon-Sighting Committee.

Do you think the card is longer than normal, or in a smaller print?! It's a bit of a mouthful anyway!

The official announcement (in English) is here.

Also, read here for the official word on Ramadahn hours - essentially Muslim staff only need to work 6 hours a day (up to 36 a week), and non-muslim staff are at the sole discretion of the employer.

Do you have any Ramadan month tips? I'd say survival tips but that's not necessarily the case for all of the audience here. My top-tip is this, for non-muslims: Try to avoid having meetings before 10 and after 12 = before 10 it's highly likely some people won't make it, and after noon people have their eye fixed firmly on 2pm, and bed!

Enjoy the weekend everyone, and Ramadhan kareem!

le fin.

Oman's got cash, and Dubai doesn't! Oh, and Oman's 40th year of peaceful rule.

Headlines has never really been my forté, but there we are.

Two interesting news stories over the last few days:

1/ Dubai World fails to reach a deal to refinance its $23.5 bn debt with the core group of 7 investors. And this does not even represent 25% of the debt crises that is facing the boy's up the road - the emirate of Dubai is estimated to have $109 bn debt by the International Monetary Fund. On the bright side, the hotel rates and the sales in the mall's are fabulous at the moment! I found it incredible, that with such debt's on the Emirate's books, that they then decided to place an order for $9.1 bn worth of planes recently at the Farnborough Airshow. Unresponsible much?


2/ Oman recently posted a budget surplus of RO 421.2 mn for Q1 2010, when it was expected that there would be a RO 800 mn deficit for this year. This is presumably because oil prices have rebounded a lot quicker than was anticipated... good news for Oman so far.


Also, you will have probably noticed that Oman saw it's 40th year of rule under His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said. This is the definitive example of benevolent dictatorship and when you look at his score-card you may well be amazed at what he's done for this country, one of only two remaining Sultanates in the world.

There are many fact-files on HM to be found dotted around the internet, so I'm not going to re-create that here, but I did want to share this potted history of his early life with you all:

He was born at al-Husn Palace in Salalah, Dhofar, on the 18th November 1940 and was the only son of H.H. Sultan al-Wasik Billah al-Majid Sayyid Sa’id bin Taimur, Sultan of the Saidi State of Muscat and Oman and dependencies. He went to school in the Saidiyyah School in Salalah, Dhofar, and then Feltsham House in Bury St Edmunds, UK. After this, he attended the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was subsequently commissioned into the British Army as a 2nd Leftennant attached to the 1st Battalion of the Cameronians. He then went on to serve for 1 year in what was then West Germany in 1962-63, after completing this, he then served as a trainee in the Bury St. Edmunds Council (working in public administration and accounting) between 1963-64.

Now, thats a pretty good education I reckon, and it may help to explain the UK's special relationship with the Sultanate.

Thats all for today.

le fin.

The Asian Beach Games - an update

For all those who happen to have been wondering about the Beach games project, here's a little update. The construction of the marina is complete (thanks to Carillon) and the structures are coming along (thanks to Larsen & Touboro) as well.




The big question is this: Will they be ready for the December 8th start date? I hazard a guess that it'll be all right on the night, but it's going to be a hairy ride getting there. Completion is slated for October 2010, and with the photo's above, it's a bit hard to tell. The two main accommodation blocks do not appear to have the exterior render works complete yet, and there's no way to tell how far the interiors are progressing. Time will tell, it's not good news that Ramadan is fast approaching, either (by that I mean, traditionally productivity falls dramatically during the Holy month).

I did read with some amusement on the official Muscat 2010 website that Al-Musannah Sports City (city?!) is expecting to cater to 50,000 spectators over the course of the event. I hope they get those kind of numbers, I really do. I've got some questions though:

2000 athletes are expected to be participating in the games - where will they be staying? The two major structures do not look like they could adequately house all of the athletes, and I have not heard any news on the development of the "Athletes village". Has it been scrapped in favour of a tent city? I'm told that all of the hotel rooms and apartments in the two buildings have already been booked out for various people (not athletes though) - so it is an interesting situation.

How is the venue going to be powered? By the national grid? It's possible I guess, the heat will not be bad in December, meaning lower A/C usage. I wonder if there will be a Generator farm?

How are the games to be attended? I understand that this will be a free event with no cost for tickets per-se, but when will we see the schedule? I imagine the women's beach volleyball games will be well attended :) It's one thing for us here in Muscat to decide to nip up the road on the weekend to go and laugh at watch teams play Kabaddi, it's entirely something different for supporters from other countries who are attempting to arrange trips to come and support their teams.

Do you intend to visit the Games in December?

le fin.

Saturday 24th July is a holiday

It's been confirmed - Saturday the 24th July has been given as a public holiday for all private sector workers. See official link here.

Long weekend number 2 for July, nice.

Image ripped from Muscat Confidential blog

I plan to spend it at the Bustan Palace. What plans do you have?

There is a new night club opening at the Crowne Plaza hotel this weekend. It's called Zouk, read tomorrow for more information!

le fin.

Shanfari assimilated merge with Zubair, and other stuff.

So the big news today is that Shanfari Automotive merged with Zubair Automotive's Dodge, Jeep & Chrysler brands to form Dhofar Automotive. A 70% - 30% joint venture (in Zubairs favour, of course) will see a new flagship showroom built in Wattayah (where else?!) and the closure of the existing showrooms & service centres in Azaiba and Al Khuwair (or is that MQ, never really been sure what to call that area). A new service centre is also being planned in Seeb near the airport which may be converted into a showroom in the future.

So what's the news here then? Having nearly bought a Dodge Charger last year, I went to both Shanfari and Zubair for quotes. When I went to Shanfari first, I said "Oh but the guys at Zubair were willing to give me this price, and free servicing for x years, and a years free insurance". I said that having absolutely no idea whether they would actually offer all that, but the response from the Shanfari guys was: ok, well for you we can offer you this very special price, and match that offer. Now having a firm offer in hand, I went to Azaiba to see the Zubair people and showed them the offer and said that I'd rather buy from Zubair blah blah blah, and Zubair ended up offering me a price 900 rials below sticker price, with full options, 3 years servicing and some insurance deal too, all with a financing plan to boot.

That is the benefit of a competitive market. Shanfari and Zubair have obviously decided that they can make more profits by monopolising the only un-monopolised brands in the Oman automotive market and mark my words: Pricing will increase. And lets not even start talking about the pricing of the spare parts. One only has to look at the plight of local Omani businessman Tariq al Kiyumi and his battle with Bahwan for Toyota parts.

Shanfari had a fairly good reputation for it's service department (even winning a coveted Other Oman Automotive Award for best Sports car mechanic and best spare parts dealership) which offered usually cheaper parts and usually better service than Zubair did. Hopefully Shanfari's service team will get to call the shots in the newly formed Dhofar Automotive. I doubt it though.

In other news, Oman have been busy cranking up their commodities exports. the Ministry of National Economy recently issued the monthly statistical bulletin for May 2010 (yes OK things are a bit slow, its the summer). Contained within that bulletin, is the Foreign Trade report which amongst other things shows a significant jump in Chemical products (125.9%), Plastics & rubbers (125.3%) and Minerals (88.6%) exports. Should any of you be savy investors, you might want to take a punt on some listed companies in those market sectors before they post their results. Could be a nice little earner. Also, notably, Transport Equipment imports (aka cars!) have dropped 35% in the last 12 months from Jan '09 - Jan '10. Now doesn't that tell a story?!

And in a follow up to the Oman Rail network (I like trains) some more information has emerged on the planned network. The Sohar-Muscat section (260 km) will have eight passenger stations and an unknown number of cargo stops; the Muscat-Duqm section (526 km) will have nine passenger stations and two cargo stops; the Sohar-Buraimi section (140 km) will have four passenger stations and two cargo stops; and Sohar-Khatmat Melaha section (58 km) will have four passenger stations and one cargo stop. I should imagine Oman Air and local bus companies / cabbies will not be too pleased with the number of planned passenger stops. Especially because the real benefit of rail is in the movement of goods, not passengers. As evidenced by the rail networks of North America (almost entirely goods these days).

Approval has been given for the construction of two lines for the railway track which will be operated at a speed of 200 km/h for passenger trains, and 80 km-120 km for cargo trains. The specification of the tracks is for speeds up to 350 km/h - potentially an upgrade there then!

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all though, is that the trains will be operated by electricity. I would have thought that Diesel would have been a much better option. Perhaps the people in charge haven't noticed the considerable demands on the electricity network here in Oman?

And lastly, what on earth happened with England last night? And am I right in assuming that the linesman didn't award the goal because he was too slow to actually get to a place to do his job? I guess it's Brazil's for the taking now then!

le fin.

Tour de Oman

This Sunday sees the first leg of the first ever Tour of Oman. On the official website (which is actually surprisingly good for a local website), you can learn the routes, dates, and who will be riding their bikes. There's going to a surprisingly large amount of them - 128 competitors, albeit in teams.

Interestingly, 16 of the 20 teams entered into the Tour de France are competing here in Oman. Perhaps a spot of pre-season training? Or is it mid-season? Is there even a season required for competitive bike racing?

I can think of things I'd prefer to be doing on Valentines day (Sunday the 14th February), but if watching people riding bikes is romantic for you, be sure to check out the Muttrah Cornich on Sunday at 6pm. The cynical side of me wonders how many spectators will gather just to hope to see a crash? :)

Here is a summary, with maps(!) of the 6 legs of the tour of Oman:

Day 1, Stage 1: Sunday, 14 February 2010 - 1800hrs start
Distance: 60.8 km in 16 turns around the circuit from Riyam Roundabout to the Fish Roundabout


Day 2, Stage 2: Monday, 15 February 2010 – 1300hrs start
Distance: 148.5 km from Nizwa to Izki, Samail, Bidbid, and back to Samail


Day 3, Stage 3: Tuesday, 16 February 2010 – 1300hrs start
Distance: 125 km Sifat Ak Sheikh to Quriyat


Day 4, Stage 4: Wednesday, 17 February 2010 – 1150hrs start
Distance: 187 km from Ibri to A’Rustaq , Al Awabi, and Nakhal


Day 5, Stage 5: Thursday, 18 February 2010 – 1315hrs start
Distance: 148 km from Wattayah to Shatti Al Qurum, A’Seeb, Barka, Al Khoudh, Ghala, and Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex


Day 6, Stage 6: Friday, 19 February 2010 - 1400hrs start
Distance: 18.5 km from Barr Al Jissa to the to the Fish Roundabout through the Marine Road


Now that you are aware of where the routes will take the racers.... be sure to not get stuck in the inevitable traffic jams that will arise as a result :)

Recently I received an email with a bunch of motivational posters, your usual email nonsense, but this one did produce a smile from me, and I felt the need to share it with you all:


Lets hope nothing like that happens next week....

le fin.

AFC action - Oman to face down Kuwait on March 3rd

In the Asian Cup, Oman must now face Kuwait at home (in the Sultan Qaboos sports complex) on March 3rd at 7:30pm.

The last time the two teams battled each other, Oman gave the Kuwaitis a slap on their own turf and secured victory. This time Oman's playing them at home, so things should be even better for the local lads, right?

A few snaps of their last encounter

Well, maybe not.

The Oman Football Association has decided to start charging for the tickets to see the game. The price? A rather digestible RO 1.000 per ticket (which will be available at the gate). Except, apparently, there is a lot of outcry in the local Arabic papers about this proposed charge.

Furthermore, the Kuwaitis have said that they don't care if the tickets are RO 200 each, they're sending hoards and hoards of supporters to the game. And in the last game, I'm told that some Kuwaiti fans are suspected of having thrown rocks at the Omani players. Given the little spat (someone threw a firecracker) that happened in the SQ complex when Oman was playing Australia in the AFC qualifying game last year, it should make for some pretty entertaining action post-game between the supporting fans. I'm sure the ROP are just super pleased!

The winner of this match qualifies for the Asian cup in Qatar 2011, and what is an asian cup without the gulf cup champs?

So, the first obvious head-scratcher is - why wont the locals pay RO 1.000 for a football game, but are pretty happy to smoke heavily, buy cinema tickets for RO 3.00 and chat away on their cell phones? It is RO 1.00, not RO 10.000. If you cant afford that to go to a football game, then you've got bigger things to worry about.

The second head-scratcher is this: why on earth were the tickets for free in the first place? Oman is a big country, with a smallish population (yet big in GCC terms), with a pretty fixed income (ok it goes up and down) heavily based on hydrocarbons. Are the people here so blinded by the renaissance that they think there will be a free meal ticket for life? What is going to happen when Oman introduces the VAT (rumoured to be 5%)? Or, income tax, which is an absolute necessity as the countries running costs continue to increase, and oil/gas income declines.

And lets not forget the team's motto during the Gulf Cup.... One Oman, One Pulse. So lets make sure there's lots of support for Oman there.

So anyway. March 3rd, 7:30pm at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex - Oman will take on Kuwait, and hopefully give em a good shoeing. And then hopefully the Kuwaiti supporters will quietly bugger off back where they came from. Hopefully.

le fin.

Australia 2 - Oman 1

Commiserations to the Oman team.

However, to play on the world stage, I believe that accurate feedback is the only way to improve. I've already seen and heard people saying, oh, it was a great effort, only lost by a goal.

Except that doesn't really quite paint the whole story, does it?

To say that Oman had a 1 man advantage for 75 minutes of the game, yet failed to capitalize on that advantage speaks volumes. The only goal Oman scored was a result of that 15th minute penalty which netted them the advantage and a goal from a penalty kick.

Oman's strikers clearly need some practice, they must of had a dozen shots at goal, mostly in the second half, yet failed to score - mind you, goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer pulled off some incredible saves. Whereas Australia, with 1 man down, not only replied to Oman's opening goal, but clinched it with a goal in the 82nd minute.


There was also the incident with some local supporter who clearly threw (thanks anon!) his toys out of the pram and resorted to throwing a firework onto the pitch in a presumed attempt to wound/injure some of the Australian players. The question must be asked - how, exactly, did the firework get into the stadium? Seeing as the stadium security will not even let you bring cigarettes (and quite rightly so) or even water (wtf?). Not only do they not allow you to bring water in, they also do not have water for sale in the stadium. Immensely stupid, especially given the heat here. I remember at the Gulf Cup hearing of people collapsing from dehydration in the stands.

All in all, a bit of an embaressment for Oman really - the strikers should all be reprimanded for their terrible accuracy. I wonder how the local press is going to spin this? :)

Well done Australia!

Local news roundup

A few nuggets of news for you all today:

1. Eid holidays have been announced. They are Saturday - Wednesday for the Government sector, and Sunday - Thursday for the Private sector. Both groups of workers returning to work on Saturday 26th September.

2. Mains water will be turned off on the 3rd and 4th days of Eid. If Eid is called on Sunday, then I guess the water will be turned off Tuesday and Wednesday, or maybe Wednesday and Thursday. the effected areas are: Muscat, Muttrah, Al Ameraat, Al Khyuwair, Madinat Qaboos, Al Shatti, Baushar from 9am on the 3rd day of Eid to 9pm on the 4th day of Eid. The reason given was to fix a pump at the Al Gubra station.

3. Oman public schools have delayed the start of school AGAIN. Here is the official notice (in Arabic) from the Ministry of Education. Perhaps they should be renamed the Ministry of not Educating. The new dates are now as follows:

Class 1-4 open date 7/11
Class 5-7 31/10
Class 8-10 17/10
Class 11-12 open date 3/10

The reason? H1N1.

4. The plans for the new Al-Amerat - Wadi Adai road have been floating around the Internet for a few days. The new road looks like it'll be a lot better. Also, the back road from Al Amerat to Al Khuwair is progressing as well. Expect land values in Al Amerat to increase once the two roads are open.



5. Oman Air took delivery of their first A330-200 recently, and it landed in Seeb yesterday. The plane is setup for Business Class and Economy Class,with a total passenger capacity of 216 (20 Business class, 196 cattle class).

6. 2 more people died in Oman from H1N1 - bringing the official toll to 18. No guessing what the unofficial toll is, but compared to the infection rate, its really nothing to get too worried about. The massive over-reaction from the Government to cancel Muscat Festival, and continue delaying the start of School is a bit heavy-handed in my opinion. In the same vein - they should cancel all football matches, gatherings at large mosques, close down all the malls. Where do you draw the line? I'm sorry but this is just nonsense.

7. Oman have joined the International Atomic Energy Agency with a view to obtaining Nuclear Power Generation technology for the Sultanate. The No. 2 chap from the Foreign Ministry, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidy was in Vienna yesterday to give a speech to the IAEA's 53rd general conference session.

8. In a final nod towards the Ramadan driving bonanza - I counted 24 seperate accidents that occured between the ministries road and the 18th November St in the last few weeks. On top of that, there have been 7 major accidents that I've counted on the SQ highway between Azaiba and Al Khuwair. It'll be interesting to see The Week's reported figures on traffic accidents in the sultanate during Ramadan.

Thats all for today. Have a great week off everyone :)

le fin

Oman gearing up for a Census, Oman Air on growth and some H1N1 vaccines.

Oman's gearing up for a census in 2010. Apparently some people will have test questions being asked in the next few days.

MUSCAT -- Field works for the 2010 Census of Population, Residences and Establishments are under way. The week-long stage, which conclude on September 10, is significant for the census and it aims at crafting a comprehensive list of all residential and other buildings and to locate them precisely on a comprehensive map, besides enumerating the families that live in the residences.

The Census Administration at the Ministry of National Economy hereby requests all Omani and expatriate families to co-operate with the enumerators who will visit the families in their residences. The families are required to give accurate data in reply to questions to be asked by the enumerators, who will take only a few minutes to note down the data.

Oman Air, who have been enjoying some pretty significant expansion lately, have been busy again in the last few weeks.

First up, Oman Air have signed on SITA to create and manage their voice and data networks between their offices world wide. This will help streamline things at the airline behind closed doors, for us customers, it shouldn't really make much of a difference, but its a sound business move. Oman Air then cleverly decided to target the German market by hiring a German PR firm, C.O.M.B.O. Starting in this month, 4 flights a week will run between Frankfurt and Muscat, then in October, 3 flights a week will run between Munich and Muscat. Ze Germanz do love to come to Oman, its a wonder direct flights were never done before. Or do Lufthansa fly direct? I know they fly cargo planes direct from Frankfurt to here, but not sure on passenger flights. Additionally in October, Oman Air will be operating 4 flights a week between Paris (CDG) and Musat, and also 4 times a week between Muscat and the Maldives. And if thats not enough new destinations for 2 months, they will also be launching a daily service to Colombo. I predict a long weekend in Colombo looking at elephants and stuff in the near future...

Oman Air's fleet should be 7 A330s and 15 737s over the next 15 months. Thats a lot of wonga to be spending on planes, good job they're starting to actually fly to places I want to go to! Can we have a direct service to Hong Kong? Cape Town? LA? Cork? Ibiza? Athens? Manilla?

The best bit about Oman Air to blog about today is this: they announced that in July 2009, fourteen young Omani Pilot Trainees successfully completed the 15 month comprehensive and intensive Pilot Training Program with RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia). These Omani Trainees now possess an approved Commercial Pilot License - Multi Engine and Instrument Rating category as their initial qualification.
Thats pretty good going, obviously the Jet Driver is doing his job well :)

And finally, H1N1.

Novartis have pledged 100,000 doses of its H1N1 vaccine, and GSK have pledged 20,000 doses of it's equivalent vaccine. Which I guess is a pretty good start. There are still rumours of distortion of actual fatality figures and published figures, but in the general scheme of things, it's pretty low. I'm sure more people die every day from IDS (thats Idiot Driver Syndrome) here in Oman.

Saturday again, and fresh gossip on The Wave

Well what another great Ramadan weekend. It's a shame the bars are closed, but the house parties can be fun too :)

Now, at one of these house parties I head the following latest twist on the Nick Smith - Ex-CEO of The Wave rumour. I'm positive it's a rumour, but its fun anyway so here we go:

There was a senior Omani employed by The Wave (no names, of course!) who was pushed out by the board. This ex-employee has a court case against The Wave for unfair dismissal. Now that Nick Smith has resigned, people have speculated that this ex-employee of The Wave had some "dirt" on Nick Smith and threatened to expose him unless he resigned. And so Mr Smith resigned.

Classic Muscat Muttering, that one, I think :)

No clue if it's true, but a pretty big bomb-shell if it was, cos it would mean that Mr Nick Smith was bent and doing who-knows-what on the side.

In other news, Apex Publishing - the people behind The Week, are launching a new Daily newspaper. In October apparently, it'll certainly be an interesting read, with what is rumoured to be 10 pages every day devoted to local news. Certainly sounds interesting, and if they deliver on this rumour, it'll blow every other local rag out of the water.

A final note: Angry in Oman, Dhofari Gucci, and myself were the test guinea pigs for OmanForum's latest venture - publishing local bloggers work to the forum. A good idea, but tainted. Angry In Oman certainly didnt like this one bit, with a somewhat fiery blog on the subject in her blog today. Nadia @ Dhofari Gucci hasnt made any comments on this yet, so perhaps she didnt know. The latest development to this (quite frankly pretty decent idea in it's rawest form) is that the forum head-honcho Neo has closed it down for further discussion. So any other fellow bloggers out there, watch out!

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