Lots of local news!

Well it's Wednesday already - where did the week go?!

There's lots of little bits and pieces I wanted to blog, so I'm going to lump them all into this post because I think it'll be easier. Please do feel free to email me or tweet me bits of news if you would like me to share with everyone.

Crime in Muscat.

Rising crime in Muscat. You've all read the papers, the letters to the Editor in The Week, and so on. It seems that crime, specifically robberies, are on the rise here in Muscat. And the ROP appear to be struggling a little with this significant up-swing in break-ins. One person who contacted me informed me he had to wait 3 days to get a police report in order to file an insurance claim - surely these things should be issued on the spot by the attending officer? Just this morning, the ROP were called to the Etihad offices in Ruwi for a break-in. Apparently some bright spark thought he could nick himself an A380 or something!

So be sure you are vigilant. Ensure your doors and windows are locked, ensure your sliding doors are secured in a way that they can't be easily forced open from the outside, and ensure you do not leave anything of value in display inside your cars.

Eid.

Eid holidays have now been called: a nice cool 3 day haul for the Government, and 4 days for the Private sector. It will be a nice long weekend for sure! I read with interest the letter to the editor published in this weeks The Week about expatriate government employees being discriminated against due to their race. I fully agree with the author of the letter, but we all know nothing will change on that front.

Tom Millward.


Tomorrow, the 11th November, sees Tom Millward start his ride for charity around Oman. 3000 KM's starting at Qurum City Centre, at 11:11am. Tom is raising money to assist the Association of Early Intervention for Children with Disability in Oman. During his cycle he is also hoping to raise awareness of Oman as a destination for Cycling to the wider community. The cycle ride will take between 2 and 3 months to complete and will cover all sorts of terrain and areas including the difficult and unpredictable interior.

If you require further information or would like to donate towards this charity, please contact omanbycycle@hotmail.com or GSM 9761 3342.

Fancy coins.

There are two commemorative coins being minted to mark the 40th anniversary of Oman as we know it today. One is gold, and the other is silver, and will contain the Oman coat of arms and a special 40th anniversary logo - so keep your eyes out for them.

Bryan Adams.

It's long been rumoured, and has finally been officially announced: Bryan's coming to town on December the 18th. Tickets are RO 25 and are on sale now in all the usual outlets. Stay tuned for a free ticket give-away right here on Muscat Mutterings soon.


War of the Djz Final - Thursday night

In new nightclub Nuts & Bolts, on Thursday night there is the final of the 2010 War of the Djz competition.


It should be a laugh, so check it out, the finalists are really good at their craft and it will be a great night of musical entertainment!

Zouk.
Tonight, the ever-trendy Zouk bar are having their very own VJ (Video Jockey) play some fun videos with crowd interaction, and of course their signature House music pumping all night long. Remember - you pay RO 20 at the door and then you get RO 20 worth of food and drinks inside.

Muscat Rugby & Aussie Rules


This Friday afternoon, from 1:30pm sees an afternoon of fun on the Rugby ground. At 1:30 the Muscat Magpies play the Dubai Dingo's, then at 3pm the Muscat Rugby Club's U12 group have a demonstration game, and at 3:30pm we have Muscat RFC Men's Vs the Dubai Exiles. There will be a music system in the stands for spectators, as well as a bbq and drinks (non alcoholic ON the rugby pitch), then down in the clubhouse there are special offers on food and drinks available (including alcohol of course). It will be a fantastic day for everyone, please do come on down and show your support for our local expatriate community.

Royal Opera

There have been reports that the Royal Opera people have been over-selling events to ensure packed nights, with the slight problem that some people who paid for their tickets do not get to have a seat. Reportedly nearly 30 people were left standing at the Monday night performance. So if you're planning on going to the Opera - make sure you get there early to get a seat!

UAE & Canada

It seems that the on-going spat between the UAE and Canada has gone to the next level: The UAE have now announced that as of January 2nd 2011, all Canadian passport holders visiting the UAE will have to apply for a visa before-hand, and pay the Visa fee (presumably RO 20 a time). One does wonder what the end result of all this diplomatic arguing will be, but it's routed in the fact that the UAE want more than 6 landing slots at Canadian airports each week for it's two airlines (Etihad and Emirates currently have to share the 6 slots). Having personally been on many Etihad flights to Toronto, I can assure you those flights are always jammed full, and more flights would be a good thing. But Air Canada don't want the competition. It would seem that the sound business solution would be to sell more landing slots to the UAE - why is a private company (Air Canada) dictating the Government of Canada's policies on this?

That's all for this week - have a fabulous weekend everyone.

le fin.

Robberies in Azaiba, and Salam Yiti.

Yesterday the news finally broke officially that Omran will be taking on a larger role in the development of the stalled Salam Yiti project. This has been an inevitable development ever since Sama Dubai shelved the project two years ago. The original Contractor on the project, Douglas OHI, will presumably have to re-tender in a competitive bid process along with everyone else who chooses to tender on the project.

It'll be good to see the waste-land that Yiti currently is developed into something not so ugly - construction on site is tipped to start again in Q1 2011.

I've recently been informed that there are thieves operating in the Azaiba area (again). Car stereos, ipods, bags, anything in cars seems to be the target this time. Even the face plate off of a car stereo was taken in one case. Be sure to lock up, and hide anything of value from view.

More tomorrow.

le fin.

Some local news and a few observations

A couple of local news items today:

First: Muscat Daily recently ran an announcement that they have purchased their own new printing press, and now today the business section is missing! I wonder if it has anything to do with their new printing press? Anyway, I'm sure they'll sort the problem out before tomorrow :)

Keeping with Muscat Daily for a moment, the cover story today is all about Earth Hour. On March 27th at 8:30pm (local time) all of us should turn off our lights and electrical appliances for one hour. Every little helps, so if you remember, please join in.

In the improving local paper, Times of Oman, local journalist Fahad Al Ghadani published a story on Thursday about the problem of rising car crime here in the Capital area. The story details that 15 cars were nicked in one night from a compound in Ruwi. Now, to have a car stolen over night is a problem that effects people the world over - to have 15 robbed in one go from quiet little Muscat marks a significant shift in the way criminals are operating here now. 15 cars, in one night? That means it was, presumably, at least 15 people (all driving one car each). This is a pretty big step-up from your average petty car thief. Nicking 15 cars in one shot represents a few things: 1. Organization, 2. A distribution network capable of handling parts from 15 cars in one go, and 3, a safe-harbour within which the cars can be (presumably) stripped.

Add to this the news that reportedly 20+ cars were stolen in Al Khoud in recent weeks as well, and the increasing reports coming out of Ruwi of people having their flats broken into and it shapes up into an ugly problem. Rising population here, going pretty much unchecked, and the creation of the "youth nation" is leading to increased crime. If you cant get a job, then what other options do you have, really? It's a symptom of the greater problem - a local population that cannot be supported by the local economy.


Even in the Muscat Daily today, in the 'Your Say' section of the paper (pg 4) the topic is divorce. Of course divorce rates are going up - there's more married Omani's now than ever before! It's not rocket science (is it?) to note that more people are getting divorced - more people are getting married too! Thats not to say that the % of married couples getting divorced is not also on the rise, it probably is, but hopefully you can see my point.

And the bad news is, this is only going to get worse. House break-ins are now becoming more and more frequent - look at Suburban's recent post about crime in Qurum in which she asked people to comment with news of crime in their neighbourhoods.

So how do we combat these rising crime rates? Well, I guess the ROP will need to step up their game, which is going to require a large budget increase to them, and a lot more police officers, specifically walking a beat, to help control this. I remember as a kid I worked for a summer in a police station, and they had a policy of sending a letter to the registered owners of vehicles that they found (police) on their routes that were either: unlocked, keys in the ignition, wallet on display, something of value on display or something similar. It worked - car crime in the city I was living in dropped during that summer. The other thing I remember about working in that police station was that they had their own bar, in the station. Funny times.

The ROP are facing a considerable challenge, and unfortunately for them, the "old" way of doing things just is not going to cut it any more. More training, more patrols, more recruiting and new methods of policing will need to be employed here. Car crime is just going to increase here, as will house break-ins, shop-lifting, shop robberies, mugging and all the rest of the unsavoury facts of life.

A multi-pronged approach needs to be taken on how to challenge this rising crime-wave, but I'm not a specialist on the matter. However, it would seem obvious that just beefing up policing is not the only solution. The stigma of working manual labour jobs needs to be removed: Why are there no (or very very few) Omani cleaners? Gardeners? Electricians, plumbers etc. Job creation is key, but with the rising number of marriages, and, presumably children, the problem is going to get larger and larger. Smaller families needs to become the new trend, from a purely economic standpoint.

Well, that's it for today. Hope you all had a good weekend - back to work now!

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