"The Gathering"

From "The Gathering" by Anne Enright

“And what amazes me as I hit the motorway is not the fact that everyone loses someone, but that everyone loves someone. It seems like such a massive waste of energy – and we all do it, all the people beetling along between the white lines, merging, converging, overtaking. We each love someone, even though they will die. And we keep loving them, even when they are not there to love any more. And there is no logic or use to any of this, that I can see.”

“I look at the people queuing at the till [in Gatwick], and I wonder are they going home, or are they going far away from the people they love. There are no other journeys.”

Trofeo - Sevilla

The golden evening light spilling over the top of the ring and scattering across the golden dirt of the ring. The taunts, the crowd, the trumpets, the bells on the horses. Then it is all over, and the tightness pent up in the ring bursts slow motion out of the opened doors. The cars, life going on down the wide boulevard stir the air as you move out, drawn to gaze toward the river and down the tree-lined street. You drink in the open air, turn left, then are sucked back down the narrow streets, toward the heart of the city. You walk toward the promise of the night and the hope of the heartfelt flamenco of true gitans. At the end of the lane, before you disappear from the sight of the open boulevard and the river and the cleanness that comes with it, you stop. Cinco Jotas is in front of you, warm and inviting, but after seeing the manliness of the corrida, you turn to the right and enter the clean, spartan bar with the open doors and the zinc counter tops and order dos canas. You can taste a bit of the metal in the amber beer from the tap and the keg. The men in the bar smile and nod and do what has been done for years beyond memory. You look at the pictures covering the wall of the drama that has passed across the street. Maybe one more as the cloak of night begins to fall. You nod your goodnight to the bartender, step out, and stop on the busy corner. You look left once more, past the ring, across the open boulevard, and to the river. Then you swiftly pivot right, moving with purpose down the narrow alleys into the night.

Thank You Suburban

I just checked Suburban's Other Oman blog for the first time in a while to find that she has moved from Oman. It has been quite some time since I've lived there, but I think of the place a lot, especially lately. It is a beautiful land, great for families, and quite an adventure. One night a few months ago, I got a glimpse of it from over 20,000 feet above gliding by in the night. Maybe some day I'll go back to live there. But, I have many other places I want to see too. Since leaving Oman, I've done a bit of traveling, but not as much as I would have liked. The highlight was probably getting to Sevilla, Spain in May of this year. It was wonderful to smell the sun-warmed scent of dried grass in Spain, then to walk that historic city on a hot Sunday afternoon. Maybe I will try to update this blog a bit more frequently.

Oman-India Air Force Exercises at Thumrait

The Omani and Indian Air Forces are conducting a bilateral exercise out of the Omani base at Thumrait in the south of the country. The focus of the exercise is anti-piracy operations and will include Omani F-16s and Jaguars, Indian Jaguars and an Indian IL-78 tanker. An Indian officer stated that his pilots would be training in low flying. Having seen an Omani pilot do some of the lowest flying imaginable when he came in for the break maneuver at an airbase in the country at less than 5 feet, I'd say the Indians are in for some competition on the low flying bit. They should remember, though, that the record for lowest maneuver can only be tied, not exceeded.

Story here.

Oman Links to Terrorism in India

A news report from Indian Express claims that a Keralan based in Muscat since 2001 was recently arrested and extradited to Bangalore for his involvement in financing the July 25 bomb attacks in Bangalore. The report states that the 25-year-old Sarfaraz Nawaz is a member of a Lashkar-e-Toiba cell. Furthermore:

Apart from financing the Bangalore blasts to the tune of Rs 3.25 lakh, Nawaz is a part of a LeT module that was plotting attacks on key scientists in India, Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said. “In December 2008, Nawaz along with Jasim and Ali (both members of LeT) discussed some plan to attack some prominent scientists of India and some other important personalities,” he said.
Sources said Jasim and Ali, an Omani national, were together responsible for funding the the journey of 26/11 Mumbai attack accused Fahim Ansari to Pakistan for Terror training.

Talking Back to the Prince

The fallout from Oman's win over Saudi is still being talked about.

Crowne Plaza in Sohar

A glistening new Crowne Plaza hotel was opened in Sohar. It looks quite inviting and Sohar's beaches are relatively attractive, but I wonder if there will be enough tourist traffic through the area, especially with the current downturn, to keep the place open. It really isn't ideally positioned as a base for exploring the interior and if you're just going for the beach, isn't Salalah a better bet? It is a good stop off between Dubai and Muscat for people wanting to get away from either city. But will that keep the place running? If anyone knows what else they're doing to attract people to Sohar, please comment.

Oldest Animal Life Found in Oman

The Guardian reports on an upcoming article in the journal Nature:

The oldest chemical traces of animal life on Earth have been discovered in ancient rock formations in Oman.
Scientists found evidence for primitive sponges dating back at least 635m years, long before the sudden diversification of multicellular life in the Cambrian explosion around 530m years ago – which paved the way for all the major groups of animals 100m years later.

These were found in the South Oman Salt Basin by a researcher from the University of California Riverside.

فوز عمان في كأس بطولة الخليج

مبروك

American Consulate in Dubai Closed for Security Reasons

AFP reported that the American Consulate in Dubai was closed on 20 January due to security concerns based on information provided by the Dubai authorities.

This is certainly not good news for a city that is branding itself as a worldwide destination for tourism and business. They have built it, but if people get skittish about terrorism, they won't come. Add this bad news to the raft of other negative reporting about Dubai's general financial woes, and I think the brand may be in for some serious trouble.

Another Stunning PR Move From Saudi

In another brilliant work of public relations magic, Saudi Arabia's top mufti made the following statement regarding child marriage:

It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks quoted Wednesday in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her."
...
In December, Saudi judge Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib refused to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man. The judge rejected a petition from the girl's mother, whose lawyer said the marriage was arranged by her father to settle a debt with "a close friend." The judge required the girl's husband to sign a pledge that he would not have sex with her until she reaches puberty.

This isn't really about religion. It is about the pathetic men that say they speak for religion in Saudi Arabia. They are cavemen, stuck in the eighth century. More than that, I think that they are deliberately provocative in order to prove to themselves or whoever that "Islam" is independent from the pressures of the west and they basically can do whatever they want, damn the criticisms. This guy is a joke. He even looks like a joke right out of Tash ma Tash. The problem is that he and people like him are creating more jokes of men to take their place as the supposed voice of Islam in the Kingdom. Until their power can be broken, stupidity will continue to reign in Saudi.

Story and image from CNN.

Saudi Films

Washington Post reports today on Saudi filmmakers and their plight. The religious goons in the country have suceeded in having movies banned since the 1980s because they are "evil." I love the subject of the film that leads the story.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Aspiring Saudi filmmaker Mohammed al-Khalif is having a hard time finding a leading woman for his short film, "Garbage Bag." Partly, it is because Saudi Arabia does not allow unrelated men and women to mingle and has no movie theaters or film schools, and no culture of actors or acting.
And partly, it's the subject matter.
"Garbage Bag" is about a woman stuck in a public restroom because her abaya, the black cloak women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public, has been stolen. After an agonizing night in the restroom, she fashions an abaya out of a black garbage bag and walks out.

"It's almost impossible to find a woman to act in a movie and even harder to find someone willing to wear a garbage bag as an abaya," said Khalif, a 23-year-old graduate student who sports a goatee and white-rimmed glasses. "My intent is not to insult the abaya, but to use film to ask why it has become such a shackle for Saudi women."

Nakheel Tower in Dubai Put on Hold

Big news today that a planned skyscraper in Dubai to be built by Nakheel has been put on hold for 12 months. This tower, planned to be the world's tallest, is a new start. Emaar's Burj Dubai, which is currently the world's tallest building, is still under construction. Work there has not been halted. Financial woes and slipping credit ratings have been cited as the cause of the delay. Perhaps the economic crisis will make Dubai reconsider the serious overcapacity situation it is creating in its real estate sector.

Omanjima

Had to repost this from the Muscatis. Very interesting iconography.

Oman's 2009 Budget

The Oman Daily Observer announced the specifics of Oman's 2009 budget. The country anticipates running a larger deficit this year due to an approximately 11% increase in expenditures on the previous year and anticipated lower oil revenues (planned at $45/barrel). Increases come in much needed areas, such as education, healthcare, and road infrastructure according to the Observer. Below are some details. RO x 2.6 = US dollars.

[T]he educational sector accounts for 36 per cent at RO 791 million, i.e. an increase of RO 81 million (or 11 per cent) over the approved budget for the year 2008. Similarly, the health sector accounts for 12 per cent or RO 271 million of the total civil ministries’ expenditure, showing an increase by RO 43 million (19 per cent) over the 2008 allocations. Allocations for the development budget stand at RO 800 million, showing an increase of 10 per cent over the 2008 budget. These allocations are set to cover the ongoing as well as new projects listed in the Seventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) under the different sectors. RO 18 million has been allocated to subsidise the interest on development and housing loans provided by the Development Bank, the commercial banks and Oman Housing Bank to the beneficiaries.

Where are My Mary Janes?

Para usted, mi amigo... No Zegna suit yet, but a pair of Canali trousers... and found a pair of Zegna trousers on sale a few days after Christmas. We're working our way there.

Jack glances at the Men’s Dept., sighs and gives Kate a nod. She takes off with the kids...and then he sees it...
...the Zegna section. He’s drawn to the neat rows of beautiful suits like a moth to the light... He approaches the rack, pulls out a dark green suit, gently touching the soft wool.
SALESMAN (O.S.) It’s perfect for your frame...
Jack turns and sees a SALESMAN standing behind him.
SALESMAN Would you like to try it on?

CUT TO: 63 INT. MACY’S MEN’S DEPT. - A LITTLE LATER
Jack, at a mirror wearing the Zegna suit. It is perfect for his frame. The color is spectacular, the line is dazzling. Jack looks in the mirror, shutting everything else out... it’s like he’s seeing his old self...
KATE (O.S.) You look amazing in that suit...
Jack snaps out of his trance. He sees Kate standing behind him, Annie and Josh happily playing a few feet away.
KATE I mean...wow...off the charts great.
JACK It’s an unbelievable thing. Wearing this suit actually makes me feel like a better person. (taking one final look) I’m gonna buy it...
Kate raises an eyebrow, then looks at the price tag.
KATE $2,400?! Are you out of your mind?
JACK (pointing to Annie’s new Mary Janes) She got those shoes... KATE Those shoes were twenty-five dollars. C’mon, take it off. We’ll go to the food court and get one of those funnel cakes you like.
Jack looks at her...it’s a moment of decision.
JACK No.
Kate looks at Jack, a little surprised.
KATE No?
JACK Do you have any idea what my life is like?
KATE Excuse me?
JACK I wake up in the morning covered in dog saliva...I drop the kids off, spend eight hours selling tires retail...retail, Kate.
Kate just stands here, aghast...
JACK (CONT’D) I pick up the kids, walk the dog, which by the way, carries the added bonus of carting away her monstrous crap...I play with the kids, take out the garbage, get six hours of sleep if I’m lucky, and then it starts all over again...and why is it that I always have to drive everyone everywhere? I spend practically my entire day in that slow as hell mini-van listening to Raffi tapes and trying to figure out how the cup holders work...I’m sick of it. KATE Really.
JACK What’s in it for me? Where are my Mary Janes?

I'm Glad They Picked This Family

I was saddened to hear that a Muslim family was taken off a flight from DC to Orlando for what sounds like some totally paranoid and overzealous complaints by passengers. I highly doubt that the family of a tax attorney, U.S. citizen, and his friend a Library of Congress attorney, who happen to be Muslim, were doing anything to warrant being pulled off the plane. The CNN account states that what freaked passengers out is that the family was discussing where the safest place is to sit on a plane. I've had this discussion myself with people before, on a U.S. carrier.

The reason why I say I'm glad they picked this family, though, is because instead of ranting and raving like lunatics about the issue, they spoke intelligently and reservedly. They should be an example, both for those who think all Muslims are psychos and for the Muslims who do their best to uphold the stereotype.

Irfan, a U.S. citizen and tax attorney, said he was "impressed with the professionalism" of the FBI agents who questioned him, but said he felt mistreated when the airline refused to book the family for a later flight.

"We are proud Americans," Sahin [his sister-in-law] said. "You know we decided to have our children and raise them here. We can very easily go anywhere we want in the world, but you know we love it here and we're not going to go away, no matter what."

كل سنة وانتم بخير

Happy New Year to everyone. Arab political cartoons are always good for cheer when the new year rolls around, so I've included a few below.

From Asharq al-Awsat (The man's jacket says "Middle East")

From Annahar (Lebanon): "The year of national mending."

Another from Annahar: "The Newborn." The bubbles over the zeros say something to the literal effect of "By God, let them live." There's some grammatical complexity in the way the verb is written and it may be an idiomatic phrase that carries some other specific meaning. (Arabic readers please comment).

Al-Quds (Jerusalem): Both of the next two are from this paper.

Al-Watan: Muscat, Oman. The man's jacket says "Palestine"

Random Christmas Scene

The clock reads, “11:17.” Kate is already in bed as Jack walks in.

KATE (looking up from her book) Hey...

Jack approaches her, sitting on the bed...

JACK These last weeks, Kate, I know that I’ve done some...some unusual things. Kate nods.

KATE It’s been interesting, that’s for sure.

JACK But I’ve done some good things too, haven’t I?

KATE You’ve been Jack Campbell. And that’s always a good thing... She kisses him on the cheek. He takes her arms in his hands and looks her in the eyes.

JACK I need you to remember me, Kate. How I am right now, right this very moment. I need you to put that image in your heart and keep it with you, no matter what happens.

KATE Are you okay, Jack?

JACK Please, just promise me you’ll do that. You have to promise, Kate. Because if you don’t, then it’s like it never happened and I don’t think I could live with that.

She’s a bit confused but she couldn’t be more in love with him.

KATE I promise, Jack...

JACK Promise me again...

KATE I promise. Come to bed, honey.

Jack stands up, heading toward the door.

JACK Soon...

Arab Flight Attendants

Monday's New York Times ran an article about Etihad's trailblazing female Arab flight attendants.

The article gushes about how states like Abu Dhabi offering "freedoms and opportunities nearly unimaginable elsewhere in the Middle East," but the catch is that the Emirates are offering these opportunities for other Arabs' daughters, not their own. All of the flight attendants mentioned in the article are from other, poorer places like Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. The Emirates are the cradle of sociological change for other Arab expats, but Emirati families remain staunchly conservative in most cases. They can be because they have the money to be. One wonders if the Emirates are fostering positive change that will eventually come around to their own country or simply causing problems for other societies.

Some highlights:

Flight attendants have become the public face of the new mobility for some young Arab women, just as they were the face of new freedoms for women in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.

...
In the midst of an Islamic revival across the Arab world that is largely being led by young people, gulf states like Abu Dhabi — which offer freedoms and opportunities nearly unimaginable elsewhere in the Middle East — have become an unlikely place of refuge for some young Arab women. And many say that the experience of living independently and working hard for high salaries has forever changed their ambitions and their beliefs about themselves, though it can also lead to a painful sense of alienation from their home countries and their families.
...

Despite the increasing numbers of women moving to the gulf countries, the labor migration patterns of the last 20 years have left the Emirates with a male-female ratio that is more skewed than anywhere else in the world; in the 15-to-64 age group, there are more than 2.7 men for every woman.
...
For many families, allowing a daughter to work, much less to travel overseas unaccompanied, may call her virtue into question and threaten her marriage prospects. Yet this culture is changing, said Musa Shteiwi, a sociologist at Jordan University in Amman. “We’re noticing more and more single women going to the gulf these days,” he said. “It’s still not exactly common, but over the last four or five years it’s become quite an observable phenomenon.”
...
Young women whose work in the gulf supports an extended family often find, to their surprise and chagrin, that work has made them unsuitable for life within that family.
“A very good Syrian friend of mine decided to resign from the airline and go back home,” the Egyptian flight attendant said. “But she can’t tolerate living in a family house anymore. Her parents love her brother and put him first, and she’s never allowed out alone, even if it’s just to go and have a coffee.”
“It becomes very difficult to go home again,” she said.