Be In Oman - a blog by oman, about oman

The T-Junction Show: Teachers Complain - 6/1/10

2010-01-06T19:54:00.000+04:00

I wonder if our community would support this. Do you?

The T-Junction Show: Bad Flight - 29/12/09

2009-12-31T05:49:00.001+04:00

"The T-Junction Show is a semi-weekly podcast from Oman. It's a satire approach to odd news items according to the show that is".

Please join the The T-Junction show facebook group and show some support :)

The T-Junction Show: Principal Stabbings - 28/12/09

2009-12-31T05:45:00.001+04:00

What Are Your New Year's Plans?

2009-12-31T05:22:00.002+04:00

I am headed for Cocomint NYE.

For More information, visit cocomint's facebook page.

PS, I am back for now!

Cocomint Is Back Again

2009-07-14T19:26:00.002+04:00

Cocomint - the hottest name in night entertainment in Oman - is at it again. The two halls (one hip-hop & RnB room and one House room) and DJs event will take place at the Qurum Beach Resort on the 16th of this month.

Here is a quick video on some of the performing DJs:

For more information, join the cocomint facebook group.

Sean Kingston In Muscat

2009-06-17T23:56:00.003+04:00

Sean Kingston - the RnB singer - is coming to Muscat on the 1st of July. Believe it or not, Oman is starting to become less lame in terms of entertainment. And all thanks goes out to HiFM, the sponsors of the event.

The tickets are priced at 15 R.O per head and the location of the event is yet to be disclosed. More information should be released on the 24th of this month. Be the first to get this information by staying connected to BeInOman.com or joining HiFm's facebook page.

And that's not all, yours truly will be there to cover every bit of the event. And that also includes an exclusive interview with Sean Kingston himself.

Where To Have A One-Nighter According To Times Of Oman

2009-06-16T08:16:00.008+04:00

Declaimer: This article may not be suitable for kids!

Looking to get "lucky" in Muscat but don't know where to go? Let the Times of Oman help you with that problem.

"For the man on the (constant) move, checking-in into ‘a home away from home’ is the usually most desired after a hard day’s work. Serviced apartments, not surprisingly, are usually their preferred choice. This trend, of late, has seen a soaring popularity in Oman".

This is part of an article published by the Times of Oman today titled 'Homely comfort away from home'. But what caught my attention was what the story was actually about and what angle they chose to take.
The article talked about the increase in demand of hotel and apartment rooms. And spoke more about hotel apartments. Even with this very detailed article, the angle that they chose to go with was 'homely comfort away from home' and started off with the previous paragraph. It didn't sound much like homely comfort, it sounded more like ho*ny comfort.

"While there are only three three-star hotel apartments Muscat is yet to have either a four or five-star hotel apartment property. Most of the properties are in the one-star and two-star range".

Proves my point further, doesn't it? Why would anyone wanna pay so much for a one-nighter?

"The Sultanate’s rapidly-growing corporate culture, big spurt in IT activities and boost in tourism is spawning many new lifestyle trends here. A short night-stay at a serviced apartment and then moving on the next morning on ‘business as usual’ is catching up the fancy of the corporate world here.

Ya right! Blame it on the "big spurt in IT activities". Like geeks can get that lucky! Psshhhh...

(The views expressed in this article are highly sarcastic and should not be taken too seriously)

The Oman Air Scare

2009-06-13T23:15:00.005+04:00

Here is a funny news piece that I read today in the Times Of Oman website which was published about a week ago.

Apparently a woman on an Oman Air flight to Chennai in India, was arrested by the Royal Oman Police (ROP) for sparking a scare on the flight. The woman had left a message in the water closet: "You will all die".

The attorney-general said that the woman confessed to these charges. What I did not understand, though, is how they came to a conclusion that this woman was not a threat. Based on the Times of Oman referring to the attorney-general: "While noting that this is a first-of-its-kind incident in the Sultanate, the attorney- general has ruled out the possibility of a terror link to the incident".
So, since this is a first-of-its-kind incident, there is no possibility of a terror link? Really? As far as I am aware, 9/11 was a "first-of-its-kind incident". I really hope they had more evidence than that.

Then the article ended by them saying: "In addition to the threatening message, ROP officials said they had also found a coin in plane’s water closet".
Somebody please explain what that means?

1001 Laughs Behind The Scenes

2009-06-12T01:43:00.004+04:00

Any comments? Ideas?

The Sultan Of Snow: The Idea

2009-06-10T03:05:00.005+04:00

This is part one of an interview conducted with Nabil Al Busaidi (Nabs) - the first Arab who ever walked to the magnetic North Pole.

Part two of this video will be posted in exactly one week from today. Ideas and comments are welcomed in the 'comments' section below.

Nabil Al Busaidi (Nabs) Interview Coming Soon...

2009-06-08T13:09:00.004+04:00

Nabs is the first Arab to ever go to the North magnetic Pole. And how great is it that this Arab is an Omani.

We, at BeInOman.com, believe that people like Nabs should be acknowledged and talked about. It's because of people like Nabs that other Arabs out there will be inspired to achieve greatness.

An Exclusive video interview with Nabs will be released soon. So stay connected!

Update!
Interview released.

1001 Laughs Behind The Scenes Trailer

2009-06-05T16:30:00.003+04:00

1001 Laughs on Hi FM Today!

2009-06-03T10:50:00.002+04:00

You heard about 1001 Laughs by now, haven't you. Click here to see my previous post on what that is. It will help if you read that post to understand this one.

Well, I went for the audition after all and I did not get chosen. Some of the guys out there performed like pros and I did not stand a chance. But, nonetheless, I had a blast. Being on stage was not as scary as I thought it would be.

What I wanted you all to know is that the comedians from 1001 Laughs will appear live on 95.9 Hi FM today at 1pm. You can even call them up and chit-chat with them. It should be interesting.

Cocomint

2009-05-26T04:29:00.002+04:00

A week before I started re-posting on this Blog, there was an event called cocomint. What is cocomint, you ask?

So yes, cocomint was a party event that happened. And arguably, one of the best parties in Oman up till now.

Here is a video of some of the DJs of that event:

And this last video shows the amount of work that went into cocomint and some of the people behind it. I gotta say, this video is pretty funny.

In case you haven't noticed so far, all of these videos were created by me. I am friends with the organizer - Fahmi Al Ma'Awali. And no, we are not related!

1001 Laughes: Standup Comedy Workshop/Audition

2009-05-24T07:28:00.005+04:00

One of the reasons why I was upset to leave the UAE was because the comedy scene over there was starting to catch up and the comedy scene here - in Oman - is almost dead. And when I heard about this Comedy gig that is coming in town on the 2nd of June, I got really excited.

Muscat Comedy Club and Hi FM Muscat are presenting 1001 Laughs in Muscat on the 2nd of June and the 3rd. The gig will feature comedians Dean Obeidallah from Axis of evil, Amer Zahr from ABC TV and Nemr Abou Nassar from Showtime Arabia's "Minority Rules" Comedy special. Tickets are sold at Oua retail outlet - MQ, Crown Plaza Hotel, CONNEXIONS Store Ruwi, BOSE Showroom Qurum City Centre and HI FM - Radio House for 15 Rials.

And not only that this is a comedy gig, they will also present a workshop to teach the basics of stand up comedy - joke writing, performing, how to break into the world of stand up comedy, etc. And after the workshop, you may audition to perform as the opening act for their shows in Muscat.
All this will only happen if enough people respond to it. You may do so by massaging Dean Obeidallah on Facebook or at Dean@deanofcomedy.com and expressing your interest about the workshop. It's important that you do so if you want the workshop to go on.

If you have ever been a comedy fan and always been stuck in this country, this is your chance. Do not miss out!

Swine Flu: The Threat Level In Oman

2009-05-20T16:38:00.006+04:00

We all heard of the newly discovered Swine Flu. I heard of it but never paid much attention to it. For some reason, I always felt that this would never catch up in Oman. I just might be wrong.

I got an SMS yesterday evening from the Ministry of Health (MOH) saying that the Sultanate is currently clear from the H1N1 influenza. And that MOH is following on the progress of this disease globally and are taking all of the precautions (written in Arabic).
I didn't know what H1N1 was and I was almost freaking out about this SMS. Of course, the first thing that came in mind was the swine flu. I later found out that I was right. But the SMS made me even more aware about this disease and put me in a bit of a panic. I mean, why would the MOH send us an SMS telling us that we are free of the H1N1 virus? Are they trying to hide something? Or has there been many who called them up to ask them about it that they decided to to simply mass SMS everyone? Or just for the sake of letting people know that they are aware of this problem?

I would love to get into detail on what the H1N1 virus actually is and how it has evolved over time and all but I won't (yes, that was, indeed, sarcasm). What I am going to do though is evaluate the threat level that the Sultanate is in.

First of all, you got to know how Swine Flu is transmitted. It works exactly like any other Flu. Through coughs, sneezes and all that. This is all a very bad thing because it makes it extremely easy to spread out very fast.
Now, to the story that will get you concerned. The National - an Emarati local news paper - has published a news piece yesterday about a 23-year-old Indian university student who was tested positive for swine flu on the 12th of May at the Hyderabad International Airport after traveling from New York to Dubai and then from Dubai to Hyderabad.

He is currently in isolation and receiving treatment at the Government General and Chest Hospital in Erragadda.

Yes, that's nice and all but what about the people that he might have infected at the Dubai airport? What about the people who were with him in the flight who remained in Dubai? It's not a hard possibility. Actually, it's highly likely that the disease has spread in the UAE.
The thing with Dubai catching this disease is that it won't be long before it starts to catch up in the Sultanate. With our easily accessible borders, I doubt anyone is being checked there. And if they are, I doubt the locals are going to be checked.

So far, all we have is that SMS from the MOH telling us that everything is alright. And a couple of press releases telling us that they have everything under control. But out of all that we have learned today, are we really at ease with what they've told us?

Be cautious and treat any flu symptoms that you might have immediately.

Guess Who's Back!

2009-05-20T15:40:00.003+04:00

That's right folks. It's me - Abdullah Al Maawali. I am back in Oman and I am ready to Blog.

As some of you might know, I've been living in the UAE for about a year now and I had to move my blog posts to a different Blog. And you might also know that I wasn't very active on that Blog either. But, fortunately, I am planning on changing that habit.

Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that I am back again and I am hoping to start posting soon (even though I have no idea where to start yet). Let the others know that I am here so this Blog could get as active with your comments as it used to be.

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Hello again, hello!

Largest Fire Alarm System in the Middle East

2008-08-21T18:27:00.003+04:00

Electroman LLC has recently been awarded the contracts for Design Supply and Installation of the largest Fire Detection System in the Middle East and second largest in the whole world with 82 networked nodes and 2 graphic command centers in Salalah, Sultanate of Oman and the Contract for Design Supply and Installation of the largest IT Data Centre Protection in Oman at Knowledge Oasis Muscat.

Electroman LLC also has the largest Fire Alarm maintenance contracts in Oman with the leading Telecom service provider for their sites all over Oman, another large maintenance contract with PDO for the complete MAF Fire Alarm infrastructure; Electroman LLC has also recently signed the Fire Protection maintenance contract with SHELL Oman.

Leading International Solution Providers in Fire Protection like TYCO UK ,VESDA for Aspirating Smoke Detection, SCOTT for Gas Detection, KIDDE UK for Gaseous Suppression System, SILVANI Italy for water.

PS. This inf was sent to me via email from a member of the company.

Saud Bahwan Dies

2008-08-20T17:46:00.006+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2008-08-20T15:26:00.002+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Attention!!

2008-08-04T18:01:00.001+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

See you there, people...

Bloggers' Meet

2008-08-01T13:51:00.002+04:00

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

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

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

A Deadly Time to Drive

2008-07-28T17:09:00.003+04:00

I have no problem driving in whatever time. You know how some people won't drive after it is dark outside, I am not one of those people. But, there is a time that I usually get tense and get extra careful when driving. When the sun starts to set.

That is the worse time for a couple of reasons. When it starts to get dark outside, many will turn their headlights on which is a natural thing to do but the problem is, not everyone turns on their headlights at the same time. So keeping in mind that it is slightly dark outside and there are some headlights that are on, you sometimes miss the cars that don't.

I don't know if you ever face this same problem but I always do when driving at that time. And to make matters worse, we often face the problem of having the street lights turned on when it is already too dark. I don't know whether this is an attempt to save up power or simply a miscalculation but it gets pretty dark on the main roads before they turn on the lights.
(The picture that you see at your right is a picture that I took with my cellphone during my drive home yesterday).

At least at that time, I have my guards on and pay much attention to this detail and try to spot every car that passes by but what is worse is when you have 98% of the cars with their lights on and a couple of drivers who were driving since before sunset that have forgotten about the lights.

And now you combine the fact that not all cars turn their lights on at the same time and the street lights' delay and you are left with a lethal combination.

This Weekend: Ironic

2008-07-28T16:00:00.006+04:00

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

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

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

Hottest parties, big religious event. Ironic, right?

KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

2008-07-26T13:13:00.002+04:00

Back from Dubai, New Banner

2008-07-24T18:59:00.002+04:00

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

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

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

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

Thank you Talal for the thoughtful gift.

Renaissance Day

2008-07-23T11:35:00.004+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

2008-07-19T09:41:00.002+04:00

"KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes" is a weekly series that will be published every Saturday on this Blog.
Since I am an active member of the KnowledgeOman.com (KO) executive team and a contributor of KO's Home Page Articles and since KO updates its Home Page every Saturday, I will be giving you the latest scoops on the work that goes into creating KO's content and some other related materials on this Blog every Saturday so you can look into how KO really works.

Before I start with each segment, I wanted to talk about something that a couple of people asked about last week's 'behind the scenes' series. I had people ask me whether it is a good idea or not to raise the problems that we are facing at KO. And my answer to that is, yes!
KO is a community of people from every field helping out each other and solving problems. We want our administration to be a transparent one, one that everybody could be a part in shaping and building to the better. If all our problems were internal and within our selves, nothing would ever be done differently and creatively and no real improvements will ever be made. And so, I say it again, yes! I do think it is a good idea to share some of the problem that we are facing at KO.
And for your information, the post timing problem which I talked about last week... it has been solved. Now, instead of having everyone post in one place (one forum) and having them post in a certain order to keep the Home Page articles in the order that we want, we have each person's segment posted in a different place (different forums) and the modules in the Home Page are organized according to our preference. So, we don't really have to worry about who posts first and who comes next since the modules are organized in our preferred order.
This is just an example of how problems could be mended by sharing them.

I will start from the bottom of the Home Page this week. Tomy, also known as Kubu, has published his product review a little after midnight today. After talking to him before midnight, I found out that he was still at work and that he got some information related to his review a little late in the week.
A person asked me about the discipline of people who don't deliver before deadline in the comment section last week. And like I told him, the people who work for KO are doing it out of good will and are not being payed. And besides, we only choose the best to work for our Home Page and Kubu is, without doubt, one of the best.
Him being a little off deadline doesn't really harm us much as long as he delivers soon after that, which he always does.

Next we have 'Knowledge Lebre' by Qusai, also known as Aquafox. This is his third series in the topic of 'copyleft' and in this week's series, he tackles copyleft in the video and animation industry.
I also spoke to Qusai prior to deadline and he didn't have any trouble writing the article. He was very much comfortable about getting it done and therefor, making me very comfortable.
I urge you all to go read his articles, it is very interesting. You would be surprised on the difference between copyright and copylef.

Now with 'CityTalks', the segment I am in charge in. In the beginning of the week, my article was supposed to be about Edutex which was a Higher Education related exhibition. I had it all figured out and wanted to make a huge coverage. But after I attended and saw how small it was, I was not impressed and thought it didn't deserve much attention.
Earlier last week, I also attended the first 'Show Your Potential' workshop (visit KO to learn more about it) and I took a few recordings of the people who attended.
And I also got my high school scores last week which I am sure you already know about.
So what I did in my segment is, instead of writing one full article on a certain topic, I made several mini articles of different topics and put them as one. And so, I wrote about the three things above.
I talked about the workshop and presented the audio file which didn't take much time to edit, upload and publish. I then talked about how the high school scores were released and the difference in the way it used to be released in the past. And finally, I talked about Edutex but tried not to put much emphasis in it because it wasn't worth it.

This is pretty much it for this week. It wasn't much of a hard week (comparing to others). Come back for more next Saturday and don't forget to visit knowledgeoman.com.

Thanawiyya Amma Results: Update

2008-07-17T00:26:00.003+04:00

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

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

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

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

Congratulations fellow Thanawiyya Amma-ns!

Thanawiyya Amma Results?

2008-07-16T14:50:00.002+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

You Care: Creative Learning Center

2008-07-15T19:16:00.003+04:00

This is a re-post of what has already been posted by me on KnowledgeOman's Home Page for good reason. I want to spread the word as much as I can because this is very important. So, if you read the post already then please bear with me.

This was a story that was published earlier last month in a very popular newspaper but the response that it got as described by Kawthar Al Hathrami; Managing Director of Creative Learning Center (CLC), "We only got two donations and some other people have called and asked us for our bank account number but we didn't receive anything".

It is a very sad situation. It is sad how we stopped caring for the needy and stopped thinking about their dreams and their future. It is sad how people with mental diseases are no longer considered human beings and worthy of our time and money. It is sad how people with special needs are not active members of our society. But why?

Some might even argue that people with mental illnesses and retardation are better off, not knowing what is going on around them and nothing to worry about. But are they really? Don't they have dreams, aspirations and goals?
What about the parents? Parents who have to bare all the hardships of seeing their kids grow against their imagination and behaving in ways that they don't understand and can not deal with. Don't the parents deserve the the joy of seeing their kids' achievements in life? Don't the parents deserve some time for themselves? It is true that they love their kids but we all deserve a break.
These are question that could all be answered by watching the video and by us holding hands and making this happen one way or another.

I paid a visit to CLC and had a long hard talk with Mrs. Kawthar about this topic and how her center is dieing is debts and hopelessness. We spoke about the issue and the ways that we could all fix them. And it is only with your help that this could ever be done.

Be part of the solution. It really doesn't take much.
Here is all that you need to start helping out:

To Sponsor a child:

Download and fill this PDF form then send the form in person or to this address:
PO Box 1364
Al-Athabia, Post Code 130
Sultanate of Oman

To send your donations:

Number:
(968)24475055 - (968)95307344

Address:
PO Box 1364
Al-Athabia, Post Code 130
Sultanate of Oman

Bank Information:
Bank: Bank Muscat
Account name: Creative Learning Center
Account number: 142-402680081012
Branch: Al-Khuwair 33
Swift Code: BMVSOMRX.

For more information, visit CLC's website at www.clc-om.com.

KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes

2008-07-12T11:40:00.002+04:00

"KnowledgeOman.com's behind the scenes" is a weekly series that will be published every Saturday on this Blog.
Since I am an active member of the KnowledgeOman.com (KO) executive team and a contributor of KO's Home Page Articles and since KO updates its Home Page every Saturday, I will be giving you the latest scoops on the work that goes into creating KO's content and some other related materials on this Blog every Saturday so you can look into how KO really works.

In this week's behind the scenes we are going to start with the first column that you see when you first enter the Home Page which is about the 'Show Your Potential' initiative by Microsoft (MS). For you who don't know, KO and MS have joined hand to come up with a program to help people pass Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) exams all for free. Read the article in KO to know more about it.
Anyway, we finally are starting the workshops and if have already joined the program, you should have already received an email by today.
A lot of work went into organizing this workshop and a lot have things had to be agreed on in order to get the newsletter out. Unfortunately, I can not reveal anything more than that. Just make sure you attend the workshop on the date specified.

My segment on KO, which is 'CityTalks', is for a good cause this week. I talk about a learning center for children with mental diseases and retardation. I interviewed the Directing Manager, Mr. Kawthar Al Hathrami, of the center and it is all caught on video.
I personally really felt for the woman who is doing this all for a good cause and she is getting no support from the government just because she is a "private" institution and the public is not much helpful even.
I paid her a visit at the center last Tuesday at Al Khuwair (Creative Learning Center) and she kindly gave me a tour of the place after the end of the interview. I was not able, however, to get an interview with any of the parents or the children partly because the center is during its holidays at the moment and also because the parents tend to get a little Private about things like this which is understandable.
All went well until I was able to get a hold of a woman who was willing to have an interview with me and we agreed on meeting up on Friday. Keep in mind that the video has to be ready on Friday in order for us to publish at midnight. It didn't matter because the woman canceled at the last moment and I quickly started editing the video.
It usually takes me a couple of days to edit a video but yesterday, I had less than half a day to do it, not to mention how hard it is to upload a video with our Internet speeds.
Luckily, I was able to finish the video, upload it and write a short article on the topic all before the deadline.

The 'Knowledge Lebre' which is managed by Qusai Al Shidi was done on time and was created perfectly. Actually, the article was ready since Wednesday which was great. We should all follow this guy's lead because this is how things should be done.

The 'Product Review' segment which is managed by Tommy Bosco, AKA KUBU, was pretty much the opposite if the 'Knowledge Lebre' segment. It was already 11pm and nobody was bale to get in touch with him. He was no where to be found. Until about 12am and that's when we were finally able to find him. He started writing his article at the time and took him about 20 minutes to do so.
I had a look at his article and it looks great. I don't believe it only took this guy 20 minutes to create it all. I am sure he had his reasons for not being on time but things like these always happen. I am just glad that the article turned out to be great.

You see, how we publish our content is first, we post it in a test forum which nobody other than us have access to then, when we are all ready, the moderator just pushes the publish bottom and adds them all to the front page.
Now, there is a problem with this system. I like the whole idea but, we want whoever to publish an article, to publish it under their own names which means, I couldn't publish an article for KUBU because it is going to be published under my name. So, everyone publishes their article under their own name. Another thing is, we want the Home Page segment to be in a certain order.
So where is the problem? Well, with VBullitine (the software that we are using for KO) when you publish an article in a forum, the latest article will be on top and the earlier ones will be under and there is no way to manipulate that. We can organize things on our own and we can only work the way the system wants us. So we have to make KUBU publish first, Qusai second then me and finally Mohammed. And so, if KUBU is not around, we all can't publish.
We are still trying to figure out a better way to fix this problem. If you have any suggestions, please go ahead.

That's it for this week. Please come back for more in next week's issue.

Blog Review: Driver's License In Oman

2008-07-07T11:35:00.005+04:00

I don't do much of these reviews but I only do so when the Blog is related to Oman and different. What I mean by different is, that it is a blog on a specific aspect of the country that is not discussed much on other Blog. The correct terminology to that is "niche".

One of my past review was on the Omani Cuisine Blog which you may read by clicking here. And as the name suggests, it is a Blog that is specifically made to cover the restaurant atmosphere in Oman with visits and reviews.

In today's review of mine, I am going to talk about a Blog that covers a topic very dear to my heart. A topic that, I think, deserves more attention from the government and something that needs to be worked on. This Blog covers the topic of the driver's license in Oman.
One thing before I continue, the Blog is in Arabic so, if you can read Arabic then you are at luck but if not, then try using a good translation program because the Blog is worth reading and following.

Now back to the review, this topic has been making a lot of noise in the media lately and I've spoken about it in a number of occasions. The rules regarding them are very vague and unclear and so, it is being handled very unfairly.

So this Blog comes in the picture and talks about the unfairness and the latest updates happening in that department. And since the pose between each test and the other is always changing, this Blog will help you stay up to date on that.

The Blog's name is (رخصة القيادة في عمان) which means: Driver's license in Oman and the author of the Blog is Abdullah Bader who currently works in real estate.
Abdullah was inspired to start his Blog by the unfairness that he have seen his family and friends go through.
The situation is very bad and thinking of it, i said more exposure will lead to awareness that eventually will change it to the better. I hope; said Abdullah.

Abdullah also explains that the source of his information is through friends and relatives who have been in the situation, the website of R.O.P, Blogs, some forums and the local media. And he plans to maintain his Blog by being in contact with some trainers and trainees that he knows.

In my opinion, this is great. I like to see more specified Blogs that are related to Oman. It really helps fix current problems and raise the name of our country.
All in all, his Blog is great and I hope he continues doing what he does. I will definitely be supporting him in any way possible until this license situation is, one day, fixed.

KnowledgeOman.com's Behind The Scenes

2008-07-05T11:14:00.005+04:00

Last weekend was very hectic, I was working, alongside the other columnists and executives of KnowledgeOman.com (KO), on the Homepage Update and also working on the Articles that I am supposed to publish. Thursday and Friday was spent on nothing but that and that's why I didn't post anything here in the last couple of days (not that I am using it as an excuse).

In the past, I used to write about the posts that I was personally involved in publishing on KO's Home Page but I thought I would start a new thing here in BeInOman.com. Every Saturday, I am going to share with you some of KO's Home Page articles and the effort that went behind it, behind the scenes, if you will.

This week was a bit different than others because this week, Tariq left for vacation and he is no longer responsible of making sure that all of the Home Page updates are ready to be published and all. Instead, this week, Mohammed Al Tamami who is the content strategist for KnowledgeOman.com was fully in charge. Tamami had the content team, which includes me, to come over his place in order to brainstorm and sort things out. We did that on Thursday at about 3pm and I went back home at about 12:30am. During that time, we've discussed the content for the coming weeks and we also came up with this new concept on the Home Page.

If you haven't noticed yet, the Home Page now has more columnists and is divided by segments. Each segment has it's own banner with a picture of the person in charge of that segment. These segments are 'Hot News' which will cover some of the latest IT news covered by the media and Tamami himself will be in charge of it, 'City Talks' which will be covering all of the latest events in town and will have interviews with people who are making a difference in the Sultanate and I will be in charge of that, 'Knowledge Lebre' which will talk about some of the IT related concepts that many of us is not too familiar about and Qusai Al Shidi will be in charge of that and last but not least, 'Product Review' which by the name of it suggests that we will be talking about some of the hottest gadgets and reviewing it and Tommy Bosco is in charge of that.

Luckily, most of the content was ready by that time but we didn't have the banners ready yet and so we spent lots of time on it still didn't get the results that we wanted. This might mean that the banners will be changing next week.
Another problem was that we had a KO gathering the day before and I was supposed to be the one who creates the video and guess what, it wasn't created. I thought I would come back home and start working on it but it was too late and I was too tired so I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning at about 10am and started working on it until about 7pm, that's when I finished it, but after trying to upload it, I started facing some trouble. I spent the next 4 hours trying to upload it until about 11:30 and that's when I was officially ready to publish.
All of the publishing took place at 12am, Saturday. And we are set to go.

I must admit, the Home Page looks much better than it did before. It is much more colorful, filled with content and has some really interesting topics. I can only say that, we all put in some serious effort and we should all be proud.

For your pleasure, here is the video created from the gathering:

Oman Blogosphere: June, 2008

2008-07-01T16:34:00.006+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pepsi Street Skillz 08

2008-06-29T15:55:00.004+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friendi Press Conference

2008-06-28T17:44:00.004+04:00

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

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

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

The Omani Who Hits The Indian

2008-06-28T17:06:00.002+04:00

Here is another odd story that has happened to me. One night while chatting with my cousin over IM, he sent this video of an Omani guy hitting this Indian shop keeper. Watch the video below then I will continue with the rest of the story.

I was shocked when I watched this video and even though I knew that the shop keeper might have been scamming them and might have been wrong, the Omani guy had no right hitting him.

Anyway, my cousin sent this video at about 9pm and after that, a friend of mine called and we went out clubbing. After coming out of the club at about 2am, there was a guy standing there in a distance with some other guy. My friend told me, "we are gonna go shake hands with these two guys and I want you to have a good look at the big guy's face". I didn't know why but I did.
After we left those two guys, I asked my friend about it, so he pulled out his phone from his pocket and played a video on it. And guess what, it was the very same video that my cousin showed me earlier. And he pointed at the Omani guy who hit the shop keeper and said, "that was him".

I stood there and thought about the odds of that happening. Then I went on to explain to friend what had just happened.
Things like these keep on happening to me always or is it just that Oman is way too small?

The Woman Who Picked Me Up: Part Two

2008-06-27T21:00:00.000+04:00

This is a continuation of the first part which you could find by clicking here. Trust me, you don't want to read this until you read part one or it will ruin everything for you.

In the last post I stopped at when the woman shuts the door behind me so here is how it continues: The woman shuts the door behind me and I was a bit intimidated to be honest but before I know it, this woman brings me some papers and asks me if I could help her. I looked at the papers and it turned out to be a question sheet, the same exam which I've just came out from.
I asked her to clarify and she asked if I knew how to answer these questions, I said "yes, I do". So she started going question by question asking me for the correct answers to them and for every question that I've answered she goes to that man and give him the answers when he was also giving those answers to someone on the phone.
I asked that woman, "Is that your daughter on the phone that he is helping?". I knew that if they were helping someone, it would be have most probably been a girl since they could easily cover up while guys can't because of our clothing. The woman seemed embarrassed and said, "yes, it is. Don't embarrass me" with shame all over her face.
I later found out the the woman and the man were both the mother and father of the daughter who they were helping cheat the exam and in my part, I was giving them all the answers even those long article answers. I don't know if I was in some kind of a shock but I felt very obligated to give all of the correct answers and felt like it was a challenge. After giving them all of it, they thanked me and the woman drove me back to school.

It isn't over yet. In our way back to school, the woman asks me, "are you good at the other subject?" and I told her that I am OK. Then she took my number and told me that she might be calling me for the other tests and again, I said, "OK" like an idiot.
The test was the day after and at the very same day at about 12am, the woman calls me again and asks me if I am ready for the exam. I told her that I kinda am but not totally ready though. She said, "no problem, if I get the answers, I will send them to you via SMS but after you come out of the hall, call me so that I can come pick you up again so that you could help me".
That's when I thought to myself, what the hell did I get myself into?! Luckily, the exam was way too easy that the woman got the answers from somebody else so she didn't bother me on that day.

And as the days passed by when we had no exams for some time, I thought that the woman forgot about me but I was wrong. One day before an exam, she calls again and asks me if I am ready for it. And guess what! I said I am.
After the exam was done, she started calling me but I ignored her calls but she still kept on calling so I thought I would just send her some of the answers via SMS and luckily, that stopped her from calling.
I talked to her the day after and told her that I am not very good in all of the other upcoming exams and told her not to count on me. I thought that it was the best way to get her off my back.

It worked, she didn't call me to ask for any help but something even worse happened. At one night, about 11pm, the woman called me and just asked me how are my exams going. I said it was OK and all. I thought she was going to ask me for a favor or something but she didn't! that freaked me out. All she did was talk to me. And we talked and talked for about 45 minutes. Well, she did all the talking and I did all the agreeing just waiting for her to hang up. She started talking to me about her children, about how she was when she was younger and some other stuff I can't remember.
After she hanged up, I kinda felt bad for her. Maybe her husband and children don't listen to her because based on what I saw the other day, her husband was shutting her up pretty often and he tended to yell. So, I did feel bad for her but don't get me wrong, I didn't wanna talk to her again. I mean, first of all, it is so wrong in many levels and second of all, she was so boring.

But guess what, she calls again the very next day just to chitchat again. It went on and on until I told her that I need to go to bed. Then I added, "I will be traveling tomorrow with my family to Dubai so you won't be able to get me. Bubye!" and hanged up.
She didn't call since and I am happy that she didn't. I mean come on, the only decent thing that she could have done was at least introduce me to her daughter whom I helped, right?

Anyway, that was my weird story. There are a couple of thing that I learned from it myself:
1) Cheating is a very common thing here in high school exams especially with female students since they are all covered up and could easily wear an ear piece without getting caught.
2) Many parents here don't bother about the values that they teach their kids as long as they graduate and pass their tests. I am saying this not only based on this incident, I heard about things like this happening a lot before but never had it happen to me until now.
3) This is a bad indicator of what's to come in the near future. We need people who are qualified academically and with good values. If cheating is the way to success then can you imagine how things would get in a work place?
4) Never get in a car with woman who looks 40-ish!!

Combating the Summer Heat

2008-06-27T13:38:00.008+04:00

Here is something cool to show you how hot it is getting here. This is an image of a candle that was in a room that no one is currently using and this is what happened to it.

It has melted in a very violent looking way and I just thought to myself, "I have to to take a picture of this!".

This candle was at the same hight as that pot but look at the difference now. This is heat in its finest, people. This is Oman the way we always knew it in the past.

After Googling a little, I found out that the melting point of an average candle wax is 55 degrees C at the minimum depending on the type. 55 was the smallest number in the list and all the others ranged between 60 to 65 degrees C.
Could you imagine that? 60 degrees C in that room? Oh god, what could have we done without today's air conditioners?

I would like to offer tips and tricks on how to combat the summer heat but the truth of the matter is, I really don't know much about. But I will share the little that I know and I hope that you could share whatever knowledge you've got. You gotta drink a lot of water, nothing less than 8 glasses a day to avoid dehydration and possible faint. The best way to do so is to make sure that you always have a bottle of water available when you go out or just hanging around the house. Become more aware of how much water you have drank so far and drink as much as you can even when you are not exactly feeling thirsty.
Another thing is to put on some sun screen when leaving the house. I don't do that myself but don't do as I do, do as I say (what my father always tells me). Make sure that your sun screen protects you against UV rays which may damage your skin and cause skin cancer in some cases.

I would like to hear about your experience with the heat and I am also depending on you guys to share more of your tips and tricks on how to combat the summer heat. What do you do and what do you advice? Please share.

The Woman who Picked Me Up

2008-06-26T16:00:00.002+04:00

I've faced this weird situation once and I've been meaning to tell this story for some time now. I am glad that I could finally do so. And hopefully this story might teach you a lessons or two or maybe even give you some perspective on where Oman's future generation is headed.

So it went like this: I had just came out from the exam hall a bit earlier than usual because the exam was easy and so did a few of my friends. We stood in the end of the school wall outside to wait for our other friends to come out. After about 10 minutes of waiting, a car pulled over next to us and a woman pulled down her window. The woman greets us and then asks "which one of you guys is the smartest?" (in Arabic of course). We all stood there not saying a word and looking at each other. She asks again but then she stopped because she had an incoming call on her cell. She answers her phone then stops for a second and says to us "who ever is the smartest, get in the car" and proceeds talking on her cell.
Me, being the closest to the car... and being as nice as I am... I looked at the guys, walked to the back door of the car and said "See ya guys!" and winked at them.
So now, I am in the car and this woman is still talking on her cell and I wasn't sure exactly what she wanted. She started driving the car, she went around the school to the other side, continued driving for a distance and before I know it, we get into a house.
This woman is still talking on her phone so I still didn't know what was going on. And as we arrived at the house, she also finished talking on her cell and I asked her "what do you need exactly?" and she was like "come in, come in, I will tell you".
So I go into this two floor house and as I enter, I see this amazing stair case coming down from the second floor with place all lit up like I was in some ball room or something. The woman asks me to wait for a moment then proceeds to go upstairs. So there I was waiting for what might have been 5 minutes which felt like ages thinking of all the possibilities and what this woman wanted exactly. Then I hear people talking and coming closer to the staircase and now I hear people coming down the staircase but I wasn't able to see who yet. And in those few seconds, time was passing in slow motion.
Suddenly, I see this man who comes running down the stairs towards me. He was fairly dark, over weight and with a weird looking mustache. The guy was on his cell looking as if he is in hurry. He quickly says Hi to me and walks in a room that was beside me.
I waited there for a second and then the woman also comes down the stairs, walks in the room and asks me to come in. And as I entered, what seemed to be a living room, the woman shuts the door behind me!

The story is not over yet, obviously, but I have a couple of things that I need to do at the moment so, I will continue with the rest of the story tomorrow.
Make sure you don't miss it, it might surprise you.

Update: (Part Two)

The death of an Outstanding Blogger

2008-06-26T10:28:00.003+04:00

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

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

No More High School

2008-06-25T16:18:00.005+04:00

I will give you a brief on how the exams generally went but as to how I feel about it, I think the video says it all.

We had 8 exams in a course of about 3 weeks. The exams were divided into two different groups.
(Group 1) had Islamic Studies, Social Studies, History and Geography all out in one week. Since Islamic Studies and Social Studies are mandatory, those are the only subject which I had to deal with in that group.
The two exams were very easy, even easier than last semester so I am hoping to get over a 90 in Social Studies and top 80s in Islam Studies because my teacher controls 40 % of the score and he doesn't like me very much (don't ask).
(Group 2) had English, Elective English, Biology, Mathematics, Arabic, Chemistry and Physics at the same order. English and Arabic are mandatory and I chose all the other subjects other than Biology which I absolutely hate.
The two English were, as usual, easy. A bit too easy. Too easy that I found that I had very silly mistakes that I over looked. Then came the serious stuff... The first Blow came from Maths which really destroyed my happiness about the previous exams and it continued with Chemistry and Arabic. I am not a hundred percent sure if I passed those exams but I am hoping for the best. The last exam, which was today, was Physics which came surprisingly easier than first semester but not easy enough for me to say that I did great. At least I know that I will have no trouble passing it.

There it is, a brief on my exams. Now, here is the video. I know I will regret publishing this video in a couple of days and think to myself "what an idiot" but it feels right now so enjoy!

I Am Back!

2008-06-25T01:00:00.001+04:00

And finally! Oh, I miss Blogging so much. It's true what they say: "You don't know what you have until you loose it" or something like that... OK, so maybe that doesn't fit the situation here exactly but I felt like saying something wise.

Anyway, I am back and I am back strong. My exams are finally over so, I have all the time in the world for you guys. Well... maybe not all the time in the world, I mean, my exams ARE over so I will be celebrating for some time now until it's out of my system but I guess you can also consider my Blog posts a celebration. At least I would like to think so. OK, so you see, this is what happens when you feed on nothing but caffeine during the three weeks of your exams; you start talking shit.

Fwuu.. Now that I kinda got the urge of writing like a maniac a little out of my system (I wrote the previous paragraph in less than 20 seconds), I will start getting a little bit more serious.
Since it is the 25th and I haven't made any posts this month, I will try to make up for it by writing at least two articles per day for the coming five days which will make a total of ten posts before the end of the month. And I am not only making all of these posts just for the sake of making my archive look good and not have a month that looks dead (although that's partly the reason) but because I have a lot that happened that I want to share with you guys. From my exams to a story involving a woman picking me up to Omanis hitting people to a story about a woman offering to give me a massage! I have a lot that I want to share and I will start right away.

Please keep your comments coming, I would love to hear from you guys again. I really miss you'll and I am happy to be back on the scene.

My Apologies

2008-05-31T16:19:00.003+04:00

It's that time of the year again. The time when I have to stop Blogging for a while in order to put all my focus on my studies. Yes, I am afraid I won't be able to post anymore until the 25th of June starting tomorrow. This will also mean that I won't be replying to any comments. I will be completely inactive in the online world (hopefully).

If you are a regular reader, please know that I will be back on the 25th and this is only a temporary situation and I am sure you understand why, based on my Vlogs.
If you are a new comer, I will tell you this: This Blog is usually active but this is only temporary. I will be back with more on the 25th but for now, here are a list of the most recent links from this Blog that you might be interested in.

Cool Articles:
Driver's License (Part 1)
Driver's License (Part 2)

Most Popular:
A KnowledgeOman Video
"TheWeek" features KnowledgeOman

Event Coverage:
OriginOman 150KM Meal

Created Videos:
Link To Category

And of course there are much much more. Feel free to go through the archive to check them all out.
It's true that I won't be able to comment for the next 25 days but don't let that stop you from expressing your self in any post.

For now, I have to go and do what needs to be done. I won't be available for the coming 25 days but I will definitely come back stronger than ever since this is my final year in high school.
I will surely miss you all and I ask you to wish me all the best because this is considered a defining time in my life.

And now I will leave you all with this video and go continue studying. See you all at the 25th of June... bye!

'The Times' Talks Murder

2008-05-31T14:58:00.004+04:00

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

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

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

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

But look at this piece for instance:

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

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

A Tariq Al Barwani Special: Cute Kid

2008-05-31T12:32:00.003+04:00

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

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

A Tariq Al Barwani Special: Hot Ride

2008-05-31T12:21:00.004+04:00

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

So? What do you think?

Origin Oman 150 Kilometer Meal

2008-05-30T14:49:00.005+04:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vlog - Study Problem - Follow Up 27/05

2008-05-27T18:02:00.002+04:00

The idea is simple. If you've ever came across a Blog which communicates with its audience through videos, that's called a Vlog which is short for Video-Blog and this is what it is.

Better quality, right? Please help me on this guys, I would really appreciate it.

Text Message from Muscat Municipality

2008-05-27T14:14:00.003+04:00

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

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

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

May somebody please help me understand why?

Driver's License 2008 (Part Two)

2008-05-26T14:11:00.003+04:00

In Part One I talked about me finally passing the test and how difficult it is to get your license these days. I talked about the difference in the system today from what it was a few months back and the disadvantages of it. I also talked about the sponsors that were put on the ticket which I later found out that they were not actually sponsors but only Bank Muscat's logo because the Royal Oman Police (ROP) deals with them financially.

I promised to talk more about this in terms of the media coverage and the difference between the Arabic and English coverage.
I don't have much documentations and images to prove what I am saying but many who live here in Oman will confirm that what I am saying is true. So, you'll have to take my word for it.

In the past few months we've noticed that this issue has become more and more out to the open. More people are aware about it and talking about it. The media has played a major role in this and to be fair, the Arabic media played a bigger role.
One media source which really caught my attention and really brought this issue out to the open were the Arabic radio stations. One station in particular which gives people the chance to call and report a problem that they are facing with the country's official sectors is Shabab FM.
Every Morning (on week days I think) people call with problems that they are facing and give their complaints. Their complaints are recorded and kept for an official from that sector to call back on a later time live on the radio to answer these problems and take action.
I've encountered people calling many times to complain about the license situation but the officials almost always deny the problem and say that they give the license to who deserves it which is pretty much what they told me when I called last year.

At least the Arabic media is talking about this problem. The English media, on the other hand, never talks about it. You can never call the English radio stations with serious problems like these and their newspapers always tries to avoid the problem.
Last year in September 2007, there was an article written in TheWeek weekly newspaper about this problem. It was a front-page story and I was really excited to read what they had to say about it.
After reading it, I was really disappointed. I thought they were finally raising awareness on this hornets' nest but no, instead they put all the blame on the instructor. Now, I won't sit here and say that the instructor has nothing to do with this and that all blame goes to the ROP but they haven't mentioned the ROP not even once.
Here is a direct download link to the PDF file of the article.

I don't know why this is the case with the English media. If the Arabic media is aloud to talk about it, why can't the English media do the same? What is the difference? If it's illegal here, shouldn't it be illegal there too?

Vlog - Study Problem - The Introduction

2008-05-25T17:19:00.006+04:00

The idea is simple. If you've ever came across a Blog which communicates with its audience through videos, that's called a Vlog which is short for Video-Blog and this is what it is.

I am going to attempt to communicate with you - my audience - via video on my finale-year-in-high-school study problem. If you like the idea and think that you may actually be interested in coming every other day or so to check up on it, please let me know in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

In todays video, I talk about the problem and ask you for help on it. I know that the quality is not too good but that's the fastest way of getting the video online as I don't want to add on to my already existing problem. You will get it all after watching the video. Enjoy...

Now that you watched the video and know my problem, I would really like to hear what advice you have in store for me.
Please comment if you have anything to say about this and if you don't have anything to say but know someone who does, please bring them here and let them help me. You will not only be helping me, but helping every other high school student who is facing the very same problem by referring this post to them after all help of your advice are added.

Thanks

Arabic Section of KnowledgeOman Launched

2008-05-25T11:27:00.002+04:00

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

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

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

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

"Y" Magazine's slip-up

2008-05-24T13:18:00.002+04:00

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

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

So what's the problem?

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

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

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

Driver's License 2008 (Part One)

2008-05-20T12:58:00.004+04:00

I've spoken about this earlier last year and I've even called the police department in charge of this matter because of the constant failing of students who may have done very well in their test. Here is a link back to that post (link).
I am going to speak about this matter again because this matter has become very clear to the public and much more known amongst people from the older generation when getting a license was a fairly normal thing.

I've made it my new year's resolution to get my license this year. I've been trying to get my license since July of 2007. And finally, after 9 tries and over RO 300, I got my license yesterday on the 19th of May, 2008.
Sure, I am insanely happy and achieved what I thought many times to be impossible but, I've noticed some changes since last year when I first started and I can strongly say that things are still as bad, if not worse, than what they used to be.

Last year, the tests were a week apart but now, it varies. If you are lucky, you may get tested a month later but the most common time gap is 45 days. And if you think this setup increases your chances of passing, you are wrong.
Something which really caught my attention was the receipts that I receive after paying for my tests since the last few months.
If you noticed the pictures of the receipt on the right, you'll see that there are actual sponsors on them, sponsors which weren't there before.
Bank Muscat, Master Card, American express and many more.
I am not sure why they were put there and why is it that they are only bank related companies but if I had to guess I would say that they see the profit in this business and decided to have a piece of it. And if that's true, that would also mean that they don't see any improvements for the future in the testing system.
And again, these are only my personal theories and they may not be true but I would like to get deeper in to this issue and would welcome anybody else's inputs on it by commenting.

After passing the test, IF you pass the test, you go to a certain department where you fill out a form and pay RO 20 to get your license. What I've come to find out is that you can only pay the RO 20 using a card and not cash. Now again, I don't know why this is but I suspect that it has to do with the whole receipt thing and all the sponsors.

I will come with more about this issue in terms of the media coverages and the difference in how it is covered between the Arabic and English media in part two. For now, feel free to share you experiences with the system and even your thoughts and ideas about it.

UPDATE: (Part Two)

School Art Gallery

2008-05-17T20:38:00.004+04:00

I've initially created this video as my arts project because my art teacher is such a tight-ass in giving out grades.
Before watching the video, I think you should know that I study in a government school and it's an all boys school from grade 10 to 12. Another thing you should know is that because this video was my school project, it is in Arabic.

And as to the teacher's opinion about this video, they loved it and I got a full grade. And I also got very good reviews from my principle who also let my parents know about it which is very rarely done.

I would like to hear your opinion about the video, that is, if you were capable of understanding a thing.

A KnowledgeOman Video

2008-05-16T22:53:00.004+04:00

This is a video which KnowledgeOman.com has created to show the variety of its users.

What do you think?

Ask Microsoft Oman

2008-05-10T21:32:00.002+04:00

Ever had questions related to Microsoft and always wanted to ask the people who are directly in charge of it, in the Sultanate at least? Wouldn't it just be great if you could get quick and accurate answers from the source? Now, this is possible.

KnowledgeOman.com has started a new forum that is titled "Ask Microsoft Oman" where anybody can go and ask Microsoft related questions and get answers from the people from Microsoft themselves. That's right, you can finally go there and ask them those questions which you always wanted to ask like what were they thinking by coming up with Vista and what are they thinking with not supporting XP anymore. You can also more specific questions.
The point is, you may finally get answers which only people who work for Microsoft can provide.

It is easy, all you got to do is become a member of KnowledgeOman.com, go to the forums and find the "Ask Microsoft Oman" forum. Create a new thread with your question and you should get your answer soon. Here is the direct link to the Microsoft forum.

KnowledgeOman always tries to insure that they connect the people to the major industries in Oman. If you have any suggestion or any ideas that you would like to offer to KnowledgeOman, join , go to the "Suggestion Box" forum and create a new thread with your ideas and suggestions.

Best ICT Professional Award

2008-05-07T22:14:00.002+04:00

Tariq Al Barwani was honored with the best ICT Professional Award at COMEX.

Look at the news clip below for more information about the award.

KnowledgeOman featured in "Al Usbo'a"

2008-05-04T16:25:00.005+04:00

They did it again! KnowledgeOman (kO!) is in this week's edition of the Arabic edition of "The Week" newspaper (Al Usbo'a). The article naturally talked about kO! and its president, Tariq Al Barwani.

Although I was happy for the fact that they were, yet again, talked about in a popular weekly newspaper, the article had some mistakes and failed to mention a really important information.

First, it's true that Tariq is our president and sure, he will be mentioned the most, other than the fact that he is a local celebrity of course but the person who mostly spoke to the reporter was Maryam Al-Tamami who her name was only mentioned once at the end of the article along with everybody else's names from our team.
I think that it's not fair to her and that she deserves but I spoke to her and she was really happy about the article.

Secondly, they wrote one of the member's name wrong. Instead of writing Muddasir, they wrote Nasar. Man, that's not even close!

And last but not least, the biggest of them all, the whole purpose of publishing the article in the first place... they forgot to write the URL to kO! Yes, you read that right, they forgot!

I understand that even newspapers make mistakes but isn't this the kind of thing that you look into thoroughly?

(Article has been updated. Please look in comments for more detail)

We Are Mobile!

2008-05-01T17:51:00.005+04:00

Congratulations everyone, you can now access BeInOman.com via your mobile phone through this address: m.beinoman.com.

There are many Blogs which I always wanted to read when I am bored at school, waiting for someone in a coffee shop, waiting for the ushers to let me in the movie theater or lots of other situations but never knew how to do so. I thought to myself: "if only I could read that Blog now using my GSM..." but I also knew that it wasn't possible because no Blog which I know of support mobile browsing.
That's when I came with the idea of starting this myself. I started researching the possibilities and found that it was very possible. And so, it was created.

The idea of the mobile version is very simple. All it does is take RSS Feeds from this Blog and puts them there. The 'Blog" page on the mobile version will show only headlines of the posts which will enable you to choose the posts that you are interested in without having to pay more for viewing the full content. Clicking on the post title will give you the full content.

I chose "m" as the sub-domain because the "m" stands for mobile and it's easier to type on your mobile phone than the whole word. Plus, "m" is used by many other mobile Websites and it is becoming more and more common therefor, the chances of somebody guessing that the mobile version of beinoman.com is m.beinoman.com are higher.

So, do you think that this is a good idea? Will you be using this service? Please visit the mobile version of beinoman.com through m.beinoman.com and give me your feedback on it.

Picture from www.esafebusiness.co.uk

Update: Summer Heat

2008-05-01T14:03:00.004+04:00

I would like to update you on yesterday's post, "Summer Heat" with today's numbers and what is being said about the heat.

Hot water! Yep, it has started already. Now we have no more cold water to have a shower with or to even wash our hands. The heat has gotten so bad the blue tap should be also made red.
Today's temperature show 45C in the BBC website. I don't know how much the temperature outside really is but 45C is not hard to believe. Although the temperature today is higher than what it was yesterday, the humidity today is less which makes it much more comfortable.

I read this articled from a website called Gulfnews that also talks about the heat. And funny enough, that article was also published yesterday, the same day I published my "Summer Heat" article. The article in Gulfnews talks about heat that we are witnessing, the temperatures in the past compared to today and they also ask a few people about the weather and all.
I came to hear about this website from Blogger Kishor Cariappa (just thought I should mention).

Yes people, be prepared, Summer is here and it's showing strong presence. What are you going to do about it?

Picture from http://www.smartpower.org

Summer Heat

2008-04-30T15:32:00.005+04:00

I have to note this day! 30th of April, 2008, the real beginning of summer.

The weather today was unbelievably hot. I arrived from school today and sweat was dripping off my forehead. I know it sounds nasty but that's how hot it was today.

I checked the weather forecast for today from the BBC website and found that the maximum temperature is 43 C. My grandfather's car showed 40 C. And the humidity is about 71%. The forescast also shows an increase of the temperature and humidity in the coming five days. This is something to worry about.

I heard rumors in the beginning of this year about a heatwave which will hit the Sultanate. I heard that the temperature may reach up to 50 C. I don't know how true that is but, I would appreciate any information you have regarding this.

Picture from http://www.smartpower.org

More publicity for KnowledgeOman

2008-04-29T14:49:00.004+04:00

This time, again in the Khaleej Times. The article was put in a mini magazine inside the news paper. The magazine seemed like it was made especially for Oman and to promote COMEX.

Here is an image of that article. Please Click on the image for a better view.

Times of Oman makes it different

2008-04-27T22:51:00.003+04:00

I know that this will seem like a weird post but you should know that about me by now, right?

Anyways, I follow the Times of Oman news feeds on, about, a daily bases. It costs less than buying the actual newspaper everyday and I don't have to drive to a store to get updated with the latest happening in the country.
If you follow their feeds, I don't know if you even noticed this but, their stories usually have no pictures. And naturally, the style of writing is very formal and very newspaper-like. I mention this because I've encountered a post which didn't follow the usual criteria.

What first came to my attention was the catchy title "An oasis of peace and tranquility" which seemed unusual for a website like the Times. Then I saw the writer's name which was Cariappa which made think that a fellow Blogger, Kishor Cariappa, was the one who wrote the post (was it you?).

I clicked on the link to read the full article and when I was directed to the website, an image was put there. For the first time, I see an image in the Times' website. I continued reading the article and was amazed by the way it was written. Very informal but in a good way. It's the kind of style that you would find in Blogs (is it you, Kishor?). There were two other pictures in the bottom of the article which looked good also.

Is it some kind of a policy not to put images on an official website like the Times of Oman? I mean, why don't they ever put images on their articles even if they surely have them? And if it's so, how come Cariappa was able to do so?

Omantel: The fastest in the region

2008-04-27T15:08:00.003+04:00

I am sure most of you had already heard all the buzz about the new ADSL packages that Omantel had introduced to the press yesterday. Everybody has been talking about it and many came up with theories about how it works and how much it may cost.

Lots of website and Blogs talked about this service like this one, this on, this one and even this one by the Times of Oman but none gave out real information about the service. None until I encountered this website which has published an article about this today that I think you should all visit to get real information. Click HERE to go directly to the article.

I know I could have taken information from the website and make it sound like I got the info all on my own but, man! These guys deserve all the credit.

I would also like to point put that Omantel's website is now featuring the new service as opposed to yesterday when people were asking about it. One thing though, if all this information is now being publicized, why is it when I called the Omantel's Internet service to ask about this service and the costs, the operator told me that all of the information will be revealed on the 1st of May? Wasn't he told?

One of the things Omantel promised to do is increase the current ADSL speeds from 384 Kpbs to the new speed of 512 Kpbs. And let me tell you guys, it has happened!
My previous download speed was about 45 - 50 kb/s and now, its at an amazing sped of 75 - 80 kb/s.

This is really exciting for me and for many, I presume. I never expected Oman to be the country that leads the Internet game but I guess I was wrong. Well, lets give this some time and see where it goes. Hopefully all goes well and we stay on the lead.

PS. To all you Nawras users who rubbed that 3G modems on my face... ahhum.

"The Week" Features KnowledgeOman

2008-04-22T22:14:00.003+04:00

Yep, in this weeks edition you'll find a big picture of KnowledgeOman's (kO!) full team along with a description of what kO! is all about. You will also find many quotes from Tariq Al Barwani himself, the founder and president of kO!.

Not much was said about the other members of the kO! Team but I guess it's great to see such progress in kO!'s publicity in the Omani press along with some publicity in the international press.

And because I work with the kO! Team, you'll find my picture on that image too. For you who don't know how I look like, I am the second from the top right.

COMEX with kO!

2008-04-21T16:43:00.004+04:00

President of Knowledge Oman (kO!), Tariq Al Barwani, is playing a role in this years COMEX exhibition.

COMEX the largest annual IT, Telecom & Technology show in the Sultanate of Oman, has gained the reputation of a leading platform showcasing the latest in technology and services to match the rising needs for telecommunication & information technology solutions in the region. COMEX carries great value for the country's fast growing industrial, corporate and consumer markets that are in continuous search of modern technology.

Here is an Image of today's Times of Oman news paper.

(Click Image to Read)

Times of Oman and Al Shabiba mPaper Edition

2008-04-19T17:07:00.007+04:00

Times of Oman and Al Shabiba news papers has done an amazing thing, something that has never been done before in the Sultanate and hardly ever been done in many of the other GCC countries. They have launched website that is accessible through all WAP (wireless application protocol) enabled cell phones.

The Times of Oman's mobile website is all in English and the WAP address is wap.timeofoman.com and Al Shabiba's website is all in Arabic and the WAP address is wap.shabiba.com.

I tried out these websites and they are very easy to use and very useful. They have everything from the latest news to movie timings to prayer timings.

This is a short video that I took of myself navigating through the Times of Oman mPaper.

During this navigation, I spent about 35 bz, that is with the pictures enabled and naturally, it gets cheaper when you disable all pictures but then, it looks dull.

This is very useful for a person like me who is always around places looking for a story and still be able to check what's going on in newspapers without having to go buy one or go home to check my RSS feeds in my PC.

The world is developing towards mobile devices and we should see more such services.

BankDhofar's New Strategy

2008-04-19T16:32:00.003+04:00

Bank Dohfar has come up with a new strategy that should help improve their staff's performance hence, improve their services towards their customers.
This strategy involves the bank’s stakeholders which will start with it's own employees.

I never heard of this strategy being implemented in any other company in Oman (let me know in the "comments" section), but a friend of mine once suggested this idea and told me that he might start it in his own company.
I thought that it was a great idea to start from your own employees as it gives them that feeling of responsibility towards the business because they know that they own part of it (theoretically speaking).

“The plan can only be successful if it is properly understood by all staff, and if they feel involved in it at a personal level. Authority and responsibility for every colleague in achieving their personal, departmental and organisation-level goals, is critical for the successful implementation of the Strategic Plan. It is vital that we ensure everyone knows how they fit and interact with the rest of the team, they understand and believe in their own objectives, and have the skills needed to fulfil them. That is what this national programme of workshops is all about.” said the acting CEO; Kris Babicci.

This proves what my friend and I were thinking and I personally think it's a great idea and a great initiative from Bank Dhofar.

For more information, visit the "Times of Oman" website.

OmanMobile Thinks We Are Stupid

2008-04-15T16:15:00.003+04:00

To begin this post, I want you'll to listen to this. It is an audio file of an OmanMobile advertisement which is aired all over the radio channels here in Oman.

Now is it me or does this sound really wrong? I know that this is supposed to show how cheap OmanMobile calls are but the whole Indian desperate house wives thing... I don't think so!

OK, so I am sure you'll might be swearing at me for wasting 30 seconds of your life in listening to this ad and probably asking yourselves why OmanMobile thinks we are stupid, right? Well, let's go back to the audio file for a second and listen one more time...
I want you'll to shift your focus on the Hayyak offer. Sounds good, doesn't it? 19.5 bz for every 30 seconds after the first minute, not too bad, or is it?

This is the Ad which you may find in practically every newspaper in Oman. I am sure you've seen it before even though you haven't payed much attention to it, right? So based on all of that publicity, you might think that they have something really big and genuine going on, wouldn't you?

I want you to have a closer look at the table on the bottom right of the page which has the offer on it. Look at this image closely, why doesn't it feel right?

I hope you like Maths because we are going to do some right now.
In the first column which is "OFF PEAK HOURS (BZ)", you pay 39 bz in your first minute and after your first minute, you ONLY pay 19.5 bz for every 30 seconds. And in the second column which is "PEAK HOURS (BZ)" you pay 55 bz for your first minute and ONLY pay 27.5 for every 3o seconds.

For you who may not know this, and obviously OmanMobile thinks we don't, you have 60 seconds in a minute. Why do I say this? Well, 19.5 + 19.5 = 39 and 27.5 + 27.5 = 55. Is there any more that needs to be said?

QUICK! Offer is only valid until 13th, May. "OmanMobile - connected with you"

Khaleej Times features KnowledgeOman

2008-04-13T23:04:00.006+04:00

Here is some good news for the website KnowledgeOman.com. An article about them was featured in the Khaleej Times newspaper.

(click on image for better view)

These are the first signs of KnowlwdgeOman (kO!) going international which is a great thing for everyone to benefit from, a great thing for Oman to be able to put its name on the world's IT map and especially great for me because I am part of kO!. Besides, I was the one who took that picture of Tariq Al Barwani (sorry Tariq).

Let's all be part of this great revaluation. It's not about who is best, it's about how we can make a difference. In short, Join kO!

GHEDEX at OIEC

2008-04-08T06:02:00.004+04:00

The Gulf Higher Education Show is being held at the moment at the Oman Internationa Exhibition Centre (OIEC). The 9th of its series, GHEDEX is the first exhibition in Oman to be awarded the accolade of an approved event of international stature by UFI (The Global Association for the Exhibition Industry).

This annual event is where all the major universities and colleges of the gulf come to exhibit their courses and offers for students to have a broad variety and choices in choosing their higher educations.

The event will last only three days and today is the second. I know I've announced this a little too late but you still have the chance to visit. To check for timings and making any other inquiries, call the OIEC on 968 24512100.

eGames Conference

2008-04-07T19:01:00.003+04:00

I've attended yet another event where I interviewed people and asked them about it. This time, it's the eGames Conference which was held at KOM. Although, I didn't attend the actual event which was held in the morning but I attended the dinner which was held at Crown Plaza

I got a quick recap from the speakers themselves through my MP3 player so, it's pretty much like I didn't miss anything.

Oh yes, I interviewed them for KnoeledgeOman.com so you'll have to go there to actually listen to the interview, sorry.

Here is the direct link... Enjoy!

Let's Go Back for a Second...

2008-04-01T17:48:00.003+04:00

In this post, I would just like to go back and talk about some of the previous posts and announcements that I've made.

I would like to start with the welcoming post for Isra' Al Lawati.
Ever since I've made that post and welcomed her to the team, I never heard from her one bit! I sent her lots of emails but with no use. Now, I don't know what happened to her because she sounded very exited and had much to say but she better be really badly injured or dead because what she did is, otherwise, inexcusable!

Moving on...

I came up with the idea of having pod casts on this Blog and the idea was a hit based on the 2 comments which I got and the 7 votes on the pole. I know that the numbers sound pathetic but I take these people's suggestions very seriously.
So, as you can see, the idea is not implemented yet on this Blog. That probably has to with the project that I am working on at KnowledgeOman.com. I will be interviewing many people there which should be equivalent, if not even better, than a pod casts. So make sure you listen to it there.

I made this post just to show you all that what I say here is taken seriously and not just for the sake of posting. I am sorry to disappoint you in some of the plans that I had coming but I will make sure to be more careful next time.

Knowledge Oman: My Post

2008-04-01T16:00:00.004+04:00

I will be sharing with you from time to time parts of the posts which I contribute on the Knowledge Oman Home Page.

Here is a part this week's post:

"I had a chance, on behalf of the kO! team, to talk to students from the Sultan School. These students were featured in a few newspapers for the fact that they are behind running a business. The idea of having students behind a business, sounds new, different, fresh and it sells. That probably explains why they are sponsored by a few businesses like MB Patrolium, Al Khamis Trading and a few more..." (More...)

To listen to the actual interview and to read the rest of my comments on the interview, please visit KnowledgeOman.com.
I know this looks like dirty advertising, well, it is!

More posts like this will be made on a weekly bases so that you can stay updated. Another thing you can do is to just visit Knowledge Oman. It's all up to you, really.

KnowledgeOman!

2008-03-31T17:18:00.004+04:00

I know that I haven't posted for a very long time now but it was for good reason. And to make it up to you, here is an exclusive news!

A new website has been launched today by Tariq Al Barwani and his team of dedicated experts which is called Knowledge Oman (kO!).
So what is kO!?
"KnowledgeOman (kO!) is an online platform specifically engineered to create a knowledge based economy with a focus on developing the Information and Communication Technology Sector in Oman. kO! is managed by a team of dedicated professionals from various industries working together to share, exchange and promote knowledge across the Sultanate"

So, basically, kO! is where you can go to share the knowledge that you have on any IT related topic as well as going there to get feedback and answers to whatever you need in that field.

kO! also has many different competitions which you can participate in and win cash vouchers. There are three different competitions at the moment, "Master Mind", "Arts Commpetition" and "Most valuable Contributer" for more detail on these competitions, click here.

At the moment, the website is still in its early ages and still has much more to offer but it is very active and alive. So make sure to visit this amazing, first of its kind in the Sultanate, website to share and gain knowledge.

I will also keep you updated of the latest outcomes of the website...

PS, I am within Tariq's dedicated team.

Origin Oman Portal Launched

2008-03-21T18:32:00.000+04:00

The portal was launched on the 18th of March at the Inter-Continental Muscat by Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb, undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for commerce.

The Portal's address is: originoman.om

So what is Origin Oman?

Origin Oman is ran by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estate (PEIE). This program was especially designed to promote Oman made products and services. The principal objective of Origin Oman is to encourage consumers, institutional buyers and companies to choose Omani Made products and to prove to them that products which are made in Oman are as good, if not better, than many other products made out of Oman.

In Short, Origin Oman offers every Omani-based resident an opportunity to help promote the Sultanate's products and services and by doing so, help create employment opportunities, stimulate the national economy and reduce carbon emission by shipping less products from out of the country.

This is exactly what the Sultanate needs in order to grow and become more independent. It's good that we finally see the value of digitalizing our aims and goals on the internet for everybody to have access and help contribute to the change.

Oman Mobile Advertising At School

2008-03-16T22:05:00.005+04:00

This is an advertisement which was given to us at school. It's a service that OmanMobile offers to parents to monitor their kids' performance at school.

(Click on the Image for a better view)

I guess this is the new way of advertising, giving it out at school in order to get as many people in one place. What these idiots didn't think about is the fact that giving this AD to our parents will only work against us (students). Why would I want my parents to have even more control over me?!

I think that the idea is great but you don't go on giving the enemy your war strategies, do you?

Your Opinion

2008-03-12T22:28:00.002+04:00

Listen to this audio file and give me your opinion. Note that this is a test post and my decision will be completely based on your comments.

Digital Nation: Brindging The Digital Devide (Follow Up)

2008-03-12T16:00:00.004+04:00

This is a follow up of a previous post where I announced this event.

Yesterday, the first Digital Nation seminar of the year 2008 was held at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel. In the panel was Zawan Al Sabti from ITA, Yaqoob Al Balushi from ITA, Raed Dawood from Nawras, Dr. Firas Al Abduwani from Hussam Technology, Dhenanshay from GBM and Graham Porter from Cisco (the moderator).

If you read the previous post, you will understand what the topic revolves around. They spoke a lot about the role of the internet in our daily lives. They also spoke about people who don't have access to this sort of technology and what to do to change that. The title says it all.

The discussion was very interesting but not as much as I would have wanted it to be. I mean, we are talking about internet in the country so, the only "right" thing to do is to bring the only internet provider in Oman to be part of the panel (aside from Nawaras since it gets its internet from Omantel). I guess Omantel was too scared of all the beating they would be getting (you'll know why in future posts).

Lots of future plans were talked about and they seemed very promising. They even mentioned the possibility of having a second international internet provider coming soon.

All in all, it was a very fruitful seminar and I am looking forward to the others to come.
Visit KOM's website for more information.

Welcome Our Newest Member

2008-03-06T20:06:00.005+04:00

It's about time we add some veriety into this Blog. A different kind of Omani point of view. Please welcome our newest member, Isra' Al Lawati.

Hello Isra',

Can you tell us a little about your self?
Yes, my name is Isra' Al Lawati, I am 17 years old, I am in the 12th grade and I study in Al Sahwa School.

Tell us a little more about your studies.
Well, I study 8 subjects at school. Arabic, Islamic, English, English Skills, Pure Maths, Chemistry, Physics and Social Studies. My least favorite subject is Social Studies and my favorites are Maths and English.

Do you have any hobbies?
Yes. I usually draw or write poems in my free time. Sometimes, I read books about Herpetology.

What did you think of this Blog before joining?
It's an interesting blog with various topics about Oman and the local events that take place here. I read this blog everytime I use the internet.

What topics interest you the most that you are most likely to write about?
Animals usually interest me. Since Oman is one of the few countries that has great species of snakes and reptiles in general, I'd very much love to write about it.

Is that all you will be writing about?
No, I'll also be writing about topics that include Omani Citizens. Such as, students' reactions towards Thanawiya Amma (General Education) Exams and so.

What do you think you can offer to this Blog?
I believe I could offer more excitement and enthusiasim about our country. Also, I would definately offer interesting subjects that'll attract people to read this blog even more.

Anything you want to say to the readers before starting to post Blogs?
I'd like to say that I hope I'll be a great addition to the group and I'm excited because you'll read my topics.
lol, does that make sense? Cause I dont know what to say.

It's nice to have you on the Blog and I am very sure that you will have lots of exciting things to offer our readers.
Thank you

Omantel's Filters Off

2008-03-06T16:08:00.004+04:00

I don't know if anybody knows this yet but all Omantel filters are currently off. Any website is accessible and no filters to block them for you.
I've also noticed that the internet is much faster now and that probably has something to do with the filters.

I called Omantel a few minutes ago to ask them about this. They told me that they know nothing about this and that I am the first one to inform them about it. Then the guy said it might be with their cache and they might have turned off the filters during maintenance.

I just want to say, if they turned the filters back on because of me, please know that I only called them to give you more accurate information and not to tip them off and ruin your free web surfing.

Digital Nation Seminar: Bridging the Digital Divide

2008-03-01T16:22:00.005+04:00

Knowledge Oasis Muscat’s (KOM) new season of Digital Nation seminars which are scheduled to start 7:30pm Tuesday 11 March at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel with a session on Bridging the Digital Divide, KOM’s Director General, Mohammed Al Maskari warned of the danger of excluding people from the information revolution: "Across the globe, people lack jobs, food, health care and drinkable water. However, today, being cut off from basic telecommunications services is a hardship almost as acute as these other deprivations, and may indeed reduce the chances of finding remedies to them," he said.

Several solutions to the digital divide have been proposed including local training centers, cyber-cafes, telecottages and digital 'champions' to develop ICT projects in Oman’s rural areas. “The 11 March panel will discuss these issues as well as matters related to telecommunication infrastructure and competition and the urgent need to develop local web content,” says Al Maskari.

The Seminar is free for charge and will be held at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel at 7:30pm. Visit KOM's website for more information.

Muscat International Book Fair

2008-02-29T13:24:00.003+04:00

The concept of having an international book fair in Oman first started in the 30th of October, 1992. A number of publications from 19 different countries participated in it. It was a success and so, they've had another book fair the year after from the 20th to the 29th of October, 1993 with 20 countries participating.

And then, the book fair stopped for while to put up expectations for the coming stage and to figure out what needs to be done to better it.

And in 1997, the Muscat International Book Fair re-opened after formating a government committee consisting of:
- The Ministry of Information.
- The Ministry of Heritage and Culture.
- Sultan Qaboos University.
This committee is responsible of making the book fair grow and become a success.

The third round of the book fair began in 1997 with (176) participants, (100) participants across Agencies and 18 countries participated. The success continued all the way. And in 2007, 316 participants from 20 countries contributed in making it a mega hit.

In this year's book fair, from the 27th of February to the 7th of March, 548 publishing houses from 31 different countries are participating with Turkey being among that list for the very first time. There are so many participations this year that they had to add two extra halls to fit them all. One hall is entirely dedicated to English and foreign publications. The total space of the halls combined is about 6354 square meter.

More statistics on this year's book fair to be published after the end of it.

2007/2008 General Certificate Success Rates

2008-02-29T09:53:00.004+04:00

HE Yahya Bin Saud, minister of education has announced the success rates of the general certificate of the students in the Sultanate and was published in Al Watan newspaper today.

The success rates for this year are as follows:

- General Certificate of General Education (83.70%).

- General Certificate of General Education and Islamic sciences (95.28%)

- General Certificate of the bilingual Technical College of the Royal Omani guard (93.55%)

- General Certificate of General Education for bilingual private schools (86.96%)

- General Certificate of General Education for private education systems (100.00%)

- General Certificate of General Education for adults (82.80%).

MOE Website Crashed

2008-02-28T19:11:00.003+04:00

This is a video of the Ministry of Education's website today when all the scores are supposed to come out.

I got my scores and I am not too happy. It could have been better but it could have also been worse.

What's your experience?

The System Of Minor Accident Procedures

2008-02-28T08:52:00.001+04:00

In the old system, people had to call the ROP (Royal Oman Police) whenever any accident occurs no matter how small it is. This causes lots of traffic conjunctions and much inconvenience for both drivers involved in the accident.

This is where the new system comes in. The new system was first tried out "The First Stage" in June, 2007. And based on the success, they are now implementing it all over Oman.

The Royal Omann Police in cooperation with the capital market authority and insurance companies will start implementing the system of minor accident procedures in all regions of the Sultanate from Saturday the 1st of March.

Now, with the new system, you don't have to call the ROP whenever you are involved in a minor accident. Both, you and the other driver can deal with it on your own however you think is appropriate.

As we have all seen here in Muscat, the traffic has gotten so bad and even worse when accident occur, we need this system to make the process faster and more convenient. Let all the dirty work for the insurance companies and we just go on with our lives.

Origin Oman 2008

2008-02-25T17:11:00.007+04:00

Origin Oman is ran by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estate (PEIE). This program was especially designed to promote Oman made products and services. The principal objective of Origin Oman is to encourage consumers, institutional buyers and companies to choose Omani Made products and to prove to them that products which are made in Oman are as good, if not better, than many other products made out of Oman.

In Short, Origin Oman offers every Omani-based resident an opportunity to help promote the Sultanate's products and services and by doing so, help create employment opportunities, stimulate the national economy and reduce carbon emission by shipping less products from out of the country.

So, what to expect from Origin Oman?

Well, Origin Oman is committed to a sustained growth with an emphasis on public education. They will organize and promote multiple public education and promotional events that highlight the enormous contribution local businesses provide to Omani communities.

If you want to help and make their goal a success, this is what you have to do:

First and foremost, we want you to buy Oman made products and services. Whether you are a business owner, in institutional buyer or a private individual, recognize and value the way your buying decisions can influence the shape of Oman's economy.

they said.

Origin Oman will be organizing a bunch of exciting and great events to promote their vision. The events vary and there's always something for someone.

Here is the 2008 event calender:

- Winning Public Sector Business:

Event Date : 25 Feb, 2008 - 04 Mar, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Workshop Program: 8.45 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.: Registration and refreshments
9.00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Introduction, what opportunities are there, where to find them and what are the prerequisites?
10.00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.: Private sector case studies, hot tips, how to avoid non-compliance, meeting pre-qualification requirements, tender responses and presentations.
10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Networking Break.
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.: Delivering the Pitch: How to Deliver Wining Presentations.
11:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Final Questions.
12:00 p.m.: Close.

Description given from Origin Oman: "As part of Origin Oman's 2008 campaign we are organizing two free-of-charge workshops on Winning Public Sector Business. The workshops will be held 8:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. on Monday 25 February (English) and repeated 8:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. on Tuesday 4 March (Arabic) at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel.

Although many companies do tender for public sector contracts, many reduce their chances of being successful by poor presentation, inappropriate information or just fail to meet the specific requirements demanded of them."

The only investment asked for is your time - the two workshops are offered to you at no cost, yet it could open up tremendous opportunities for the success and development of your business. You will have access to private and public sector experts who will pass on knowledge to improve your relationship with the public sector. .

PEIE is working in partnership with the Tender Board to provide these two workshops to local businesses, free-of-charge, as part of the Origin Oman campaign – helping local businesses increase their commercial reach.

Things you should know: The two workshop are aimed at owners and managers of local businesses who wish to grow their operations through winning public sector contracts. Places are limited to 75 people.

Contact: For more info please contact Hamida Al Balushi, Origin Oman Co-ordinator on: 2415 5114 or via e-mail on: hamida.albalushi@peie.om

- Origin Oman Week Reception:

Event Date: 18 Mar, 2008 - 18 Mar, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Description given by Origin Oman: "Buy local, use local, eat local - that's the message of this Origin Oman Reception. And we want you to play your part in a campaign that's not only healthy for Oman's economy - but healthy for you."

The aim of the Origin Oman Reception is to encourage not only more shops to stock more produce and goods made in the sultanate, but to urge more local businesses, institutional buyers, contractors and hotels to use local products and persuade more people to buy what's made and grown on their doorstep.

- Face - 2 - Face:

Event Date: 25 Mar, 2008 - 25 Mar, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Description given by Origin Oman: "A unique event which offers manufacturers and service providers the opportunity to meet and sell to, buyers from the Public Sector and large organisations. Face-2-Face is designed to welcome commercial and institutional buyers, investors and supply chain partners to meet Oman's commercial producers of goods and services. In brief, to get firms in front of buyers who need their products or services, so that they can sell to them. The buyers are listed with an indication of the kinds of products or services they need, so appointments can be booked with potential customers. Prior to the event Origin Oman will hold a briefing session which will help attendees understand more about how the event works and how procurement systems operate. This pre-event briefing will also be the time for firms to make their appointments for the day."

- Origin Oman Week Exhibition:

Event Date: 13 Apr, 2008 - 18 Apr, 2008

Place: Lulu Hypermarket Car Park, Al Khuwair

Description given by Origin Oman: "The exhibition will offer consumers as well as institutional buyers free samples/demonstrations of Origin Oman products and services. The exhibition will consist of 5 pavilions:

1 Omani Manufacturers
The manufacturers' zone will showcase the finest products made in Oman, with its main objectives being to increase both institutional buyer and consumer awareness of the quality, variety and availability of locally manufactured goods and services.

2 The Omani Department Store
Fashion accessories, crafts, textiles, jewelery, confectionery, perfumes, soaps and lotions.

3 Touring Oman
Tour operators, hotels, airlines, visitor attractions and activity operators.

4 Omani Innovation
Information communication technology companies.

5 Live, Work & Study in Oman
Universities, colleges, training providers, public bodies and real estate developers."

- The 150 Kilometre Meal:

Event Date: 13 Apr, 2008 - 18 Apr, 2008

Place: The Grand Hyatt; Muscat Inter-Continental; Shangri-La; & The Crowne Plaza [Muscat & Salalah]

Description given by Origin Oman: "The concept of food kilometres helps show how far many foods and drinks are transported through global trade and the costs of this transport - in economic, social and environmental terms. The more food kilometres that attach to a given food, the less sustainable and the less environmentally desirable that food is. Indeed, in recent years, the distance food is transported from producer to plate has increased by around 50%, and even a simple roast dinner could have travelled over 38,000 kilometres before being eaten. With the global political and economic focus turned firmly towards the environment, the Origin Oman team, in partnership with Oman's major hotels, will host the 150 kilometre meal - an initiative that is intended to reduce food miles by sourcing produce locally to produce a sumptuous and exciting local menu and encourage consumers and institutional buyers to buy what is being grown on their doorstep."

- Students On Buy Local:

Event Date: 15 Apr, 2008 - 15 Apr, 2008

Place: Sultan Qaboos University

Description given by Origin Oman: "To celebrate Origin Oman Week, Sultan Qaboos University, the Middle East College of Information Technology, Caledonian College, Nizwa University, Sohar University and the Waljat Colleges of Applied Sciences will hold an evening debate on the importance of promoting and buying Oman made products and services and the contribution each student can make to the future success of Oman through the implementation of learned skills where it matters most - in the workplace."

- Buylocal Day:

Event Date: 04 May, 2008 - 04 May, 2008

Place: Al Fair, Spinneys, Lulu, Carrefour, Al Jadeeda, Safeer

Description given by Origin Oman: "The Origin Oman Buy Local Day is about celebrating food that is fresh and local, knowing where food comes from and forging relationships across the web of food systems. Demonstrations in: Al Fair, Spinneys, Lulu, Carrefour, Al Jadeeda, Safeer and Sultan Centre. The Buy Local Day is a celebration of the very best Oman has to offer in food and drink. The Buy Local Day campaign will also promote locally grown produce and healthy eating."

- Taste Of Oman:

Event Date: 18 May, 2008 - 18 May, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Description give by Origin Oman: "The Muscat Inter-Continental will host the Young Chef Competition, which will pit teams of young Omani chefs in a cook-off competition. The young competitors will have to contend with the pressure of producing top-notch local food in a limited time in front of a live audience."

- The Origin Oman Road Show:

Event Date: 01 Jul, 2008 - 17 Oct, 2008

Place: Salalah, Al Buraimi, Sohar, Nizwa

Dates & Venues:
Salalah (July for 1 week)
Sohar 5 - 7 October
Al Buraimi 9 - 11 October
Nizwa 15 - 17 October

Description given by Origin Oman: "The Origin Oman Roadshow will showcase Oman-made made products and will celebrate and promote Omani innovation, entrepreneurship and manufacturing successes. The Roadshow will call in at Sohar, Nizwa, Al Buraimi and Salalah and is part of a wider government program to celebrate and promote Oman made products and manufacturing success.The roadshow aims to increase consumer recognition of branding that identifies products as Oman made and promote voluntary branding and labelling for that purpose.

Residents of Oman will have the opportunity to view and sample a raft of Omani products on the Roadshow and Omani chefs will be on hand to prepare delicious meals and snacks incorporating the eclectic flavours and styles that make up Omani cooking. It's a great Omani culinary adventure."

- Product Design Workshops & Competition:

Event Date: 19 Oct, 2008 - 11 Nov, 2008

Place: SQU, MECIT; Sohar University; Nizwa University

Description given by Origin Oman: The Origin Oman Student Product Design Workshops will give an overview of the importance of gaining a deep understanding of customers' underlying beliefs, desires and values and integrating this insight with a product design process for product success. The Workshops will also give case studies along with tools and techniques for translating customer insight into product designs.

If you would like to register for any of the three Workshops please contact Mulkie Al Hashmi via email at mulkie@kom.om Entries to the Origin Oman Student Product Design Competition are not restricted by theme or product group. Designs submitted should focus on the total product - it must solve a problem, work well, and provide a real advantage over existing offering.

The Origin Oman Student Product Design Competition is intended to foster business and public understanding of the impact of industrial design excellence on the quality of life and the economy. Winners will enjoy broad exposure through multiple media channels."

- Origin Oman Originals Photo Exhibition:

Event Date: 08 Dec, 2008 - 11 Dec, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Description given by Origin Oman: "PEIE will host Origin Oman Originals - a photographic journal that tells the story of the Origin Oman campaign 2008. Images that recount stories of businesses as well as people involved in promoting locally made goods and services."

- Origin Oman Influencer's Dinner:

Event Date: 08 Dec, 2008 - 08 Dec, 2008

Place: Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel

Description given by Origin Oman: "The Origin Oman Influencer's Dinner will include updates on the progress of the initiative and showcase success stories from the year-long campaign. The evening will also be a fantastic networking opportunity for local businesses genuinely interested in developing their involvement in the Origin Oman campaign."

Most of these events are just fun to attended as well as it being very informative. We are contributing to our country's economy by following Origin Oman's goal and so, I fully support what they are trying to do and I will definitely try to attend as much of these events as I can.

I will keep you updated with any changes that might happen to these programs and events. I will also post a review of every event which I attend.

Muscat Festival 2008 - Qurum Park

2008-02-17T20:07:00.002+04:00

Second Semester

2008-02-13T20:23:00.002+04:00

After a brutal three and a half month semester, a month of exams and two weeks of break to end with the ending of the festival, it's already time to go back to school to meet the second half of the brutality.

It has been one tough semester and the scores of the exams are still not out. You can see the suspense in the 12th grade (final year) students' faces. There is this desire to go to school and over come the anxiety but in the other hand, that feeling that they didn't do well and don't want to meet their unpleasant fate.

There has been a text message going around lately amongst 12th graders telling them not to attend the first week of this semester and that many will start attending on the 23rd. This also happened to last year's 12th graders and many of them didn't attend.
I personally think that these, whom started the chain message, are lazy and have nothing better to do. And all who follow are the same.

I think two weeks are more than enough. Think of it this way; the sooner we start, the sooner we finish.

Muscat Festival 2008 - Nancy Ajram

2008-02-09T13:18:00.001+04:00

The famous Lebanese singer, Nancy Ajram performed in A'Seeb Beach, one of the festival's venues, yesterday.
She was scheduled to arrive at 3:00pm but arrived at 4:00pm. The performance lasted for about an hour and it was broadcast live on Oman TV.

For that reason, I thought I would focus more on the crowed and traffic that the event caused.

Here is the video I shot from attending the event:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Oman vs Bahrain: The Audience's Point Of View

2008-02-07T13:25:00.001+04:00

The game's score is 1 to 0 in Bahrain's favor. This is not what I am going to talk about in this post.
I don't want to talk much about the game itself because I am pretty sure you know enough about it. But if you want to know more, follow the link to this fellow Blog "Oman Community Blog". One of their members has posted a detailed description of the game.

This post is the other side of the game. In this post, I will be showing you the audiences who attended the game's point of view. What is it like to be there live? How does it feel to be there live?

I will help answer these questions by the video that I've created for you. It should give you a pretty good idea of what's it like.

Tariq Al Barwani's 90.4 FM Interview

2008-02-05T22:57:00.000+04:00

Tariq Al Barwani was recently interview by 90.4 FM's Lakshmi Kothaneth. This interview was part of the career planing show where Lakshmi has professionals from different fields and occupations come and talk about their careers to give students and job seekers a better idea of what the job is like.

Tariq also talks about how he got to where he is today and how you can too. He explains how failure in the beginning doesn't mean the end.

Here is the interview:

Part 1:

part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

I, personally, enjoyed it and learned a lot out of it and I hope you did too.

English Sabla

2008-02-05T14:23:00.000+04:00

I don't usually promote other websites but this website I had to talk about.
English Sabla is an Omani english forum that discusses just about anything. They are very active and very helpful.

I usually hate forums, to be honest, but when I first visited this one and saw how many posts come in per minute, I thought "WOW"!
So I joined in and now I am completly addicted to it. I should have took with their slogan's advice which is "simply addictive...".

If you are an Omani, a person who lives in Oman or a person interested in Oman and looking for a good forum, that is deffinatly the forum for you!

Forum address: www.englishsabla.com

Tariq To Participate In Secur Middle East Congress 2008

2008-02-02T11:37:00.000+04:00

Tariq bin Hilal Al Barwani, the celebrity Omani IT expert has been invited to speak in the Secur Middle East congress in Dubai which is a two day event that will be held on the 18th and 19th of February in Dubai.

Tariq explains in detail:

Not Suitable for children

2008-02-02T10:30:00.001+04:00

I've came across this video whilst surfing in a local Omani forum.
This video shows cartoon characters that participated in the festival doing things which were unsuitable for children in front of the children on a stage.

The show was meant for kids and it was a family thing but apparently they got a little too excited and did something that, I think, they should be sued for.

Watch the whole video to see what I am talking about.

I just wanted to add that this is against everything that we, Omanis, believe in. This was an outrageous act and the people in charge should be punished for it.

Muscat Festival 2008 - A'Seeb Beach

2008-02-01T16:34:00.001+04:00

I always thought that this beach venue was the best of all others. There is always much to do and the fact that it's on the beach, makes it even better.

The A'Seeb Beach venue is known for hosting great arab music artists every Friday or/and Thursday.

Entry is free and there are many activities for children and the whole family. It's the shows that make it as great as it is.

I made this video of the place to give an over view of what it's all about. Hopefully if you havn't gone yet, you will go next week because of the video.

So? Am I right or what?

Muscat Festival 2008 - Festival Plaza

2008-01-31T13:36:00.001+04:00

I paid a visit yesterday, to one of the venues of the festival. The festival plaza in Al Athaiba is a place to see.

There is a lot to do and it feels so alive. If you are a single person going there just to check it out, I don't really think that you should. I mean, unless you are going to play the games that they have, it's not much fun if you are not with somebody or a group of people.

This venue is definitely the best for women who want to shop. With international markets all over, you can feel the verity where ever you go.

This is a video that I've made of the festival. It's a quick 7 minute video of what goes on at that venue before dusk and before all the shows start. And even though that's the case, there was still much to do.

This is only part 1 of the visit there. Part 2 is about what happens after dusk. It's coming soon...