Dead Blogs

what is happening to blogging? Oman Community Blog and the UAE Community Blog are dead or breathing their last one, is it out of fashion to blog now? is everyone twittering only? or have all the blogging expats left the Gulf?

'Brave New Media' seminar on May 4 at Grand Hyatt Hotel

MUSCAT - The territory once dominated by broadcast TV and print media is being swallowed up by subscription-based narrowcast digital television and the Internet, says Knowledge Oasis Muscat's (KOM) Knowledge Oasis Muscat's (KOM) Mulkie Al Hashmi and organizer of KOM's quarterly Digital Nation seminar program. The changing global media landscape will be the topic of discussion at KOM's 4 May Digital Nation seminar scheduled to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. (more)

Omani Society fo Writers & Literati Seminar Seminar on Freedom of Speech and Responsibility

يسر الجمعية العمانية للكتّاب والأدباء دعوتكم لحضور ندوة (الكلمة .. بين فضاءات الحُرِّية وحدود المُساءلة) ..


الزمان: السبت والأحد 18/19 ابريل 2009م.
المكان: النادي الثقافي.
الوقت: السابعة مساءً.



اليوم الأول: الكتابة.. مضامين وإشكاليات (السبت – 18 من ابريل 2009م)

يدير الجلسة: الأستاذ سالم بن محمد المحروقي (رئيس مجلس إدارة النادي الثقافي، كاتب، وعضو الجمعية العمانية للكتاب والأدباء)
وتتناول الأوراق المندرجة تحت هذا العنوان الكتابة بأشكالها ومضامينها المختلفة سواء على مستوى الطرح الفكري المتنوع والمثير لإشكالات الرضى والسخط، أو على مستوى الصحافة والإعلام بأنواعها المكتوبة والمرئية، انتهاءً بمناقشة القوانين المحددة لهذا الجانب بالسلطنة.


م ------------ المحاضر ------ ---------المهنة -------- --------------------- عنوان الورقة
1 - د.صادق جواد سليمان – سفير سابق للسلطنة بالولايات المتحدة الأمريكية و رئيس مركز الحوار العربي بواشنطن (الحرية والمسؤولية.. أيهما يأتي أولاً؟)
2 - د.أنور بن محمد الروَّاس - كاتب ورئيس قسم الإعلام بجامعة السلطان قابوس (القائم بالاتصال بين المهنية والمسؤولية)
3 - د.محمد بن مبارك العريمي - كاتب وصحفي (حرية الكلمة.. الواقع والطموح)
4 - الصحفي محمد بن علي البلوشي –كاتب و نائب مدير التحرير بجريدة الشبيبة (هامش الحريات المتوفرة في الصحافة العمانية المكتوبة.. تجربتي وأمثلة)
5 - المحامي خليفة بن سيف الهنائي– محامي وقاضي متقاعد (ثيمة الحرية في القوانين العمانية)
6 - المحامية بسمة بنت مبارك الكيومي – محامية (قراءة في كل من قانون المطبوعات والنشر والمادة 61 من قانون الاتصالات)
7 - حلقة نقاش


اليوم الثاني: الكتابة في الفضاء المعلوماتي وحريتها بين المحدودية واللامحدودية (الأحد 19 من ابريل 2009م).

يدير الجلسة: د. عبدالعزيز بن محمد الفارسي (طبيب، وعضو الجمعية العمانية للكتاب والأدباء)

وتتعلق بحرية الكتابة بالمواقع الإلكترونية مُتضمنةً أهمية وجود منتديات تناقش القضايا الاجتماعية والسياسية، وجدوى هذا النقاش في إثراء الواقع المعاش، والارتقاء بالشفافية بين المواطن والمسئول، مع طرح أمثلة على ما عانته وتعانيه هذه المنتديات مع المؤسسات الرسمية بالسلطنة من جانب، ومع الكاتب من جانب آخر.. ودورها كوسيط بينهما.
كذلك استعراض تجربة كتابة المدونات الإلكترونية، ليلي ذلك طرحا للرؤية القانونية حول النشر الإلكتروني بشكل عام.


م ------------ المحاضر ----- ----------المهنة ----- ------------ -------- عنوان الورقة

1 - الفاضل سعيد بن ناصر الراشدي – صاحب موقع سبلة العرب (تجربتي مع سبلة العرب)
2 - الفاضل موسى بن عبدالله الفرعي – مديرعام موقع سبلة عمان ..(سبلة عمان قبل المادة (61) وما بعدها)
3 - د.زكريا بن خليفة المحرمي – كاتب ومدوّن (محراب الفراشة.. وتجربتي مع التدوين الإلكتروني)
4 - المحامي يعقوب بن محمد الحارثي - باحث قانوني ومدوِّن (قراءة في النصوص القانونية الناظمة للنشر الصحفي الإلكتروني)
5 - د. محمد أبو عرّام – محامي (النشر الإلكتروني في عمان.. بين تطلعات المثقف وحدود القانون) -
حلقة نقاش

Seminar on Ali Mehdi's Poetry

A seminar will be held on the subject of Ali Mehdi's poetry. It will include a poetry recital and the launch of his posthumous book, In The Dimmest of Light.

Details:

Date: April 15th, 2009
Time: 1pm
Place: Majan College, Muscat Hall 1st floor Block B

Please try to make it, and spread the word among Ali's friends.

Update

There's another event taking place earlier organized by Jama3at Al Tarjama at the Culture Club in Arabic. Details:

Date: April 4th, 2009
Time: 7pm
Place: The Culture Club

Moody’s foresees stable economic future for Oman

According to an article published in Times of Oman recently, Oman is in a stable condition economically, and placed 36 out of the 180 or so countries in the list by IMF.

According to the article, the GDP (Purchase Power Parity) of Oman (per capita) is now almost USD 22,000. And Oman gets the A2 rating for economic stability because of transparency of the government in declaring assets and the track record of paying back liabilities on time.

Click HERE or on the title of the blog post to get to the original article.

Source: Times of Oman.

First paintball field in Oman

Xtreme Sports is soon bringing the first professional paintball field in Oman. It will be located at the Shatti Al-Qurum area next to Oman Women Association, according to the Xtreme Sports website [Link].

I think this is exciting news for many.

Oman Wins 19th Gulf Cup - Live Pics

YES WE WON! 

Watch Finals Penalty Goals highlights here! 

Photographs & Video by Aswath Sridhar

Winning final goal by Mohammed Rabeea

Lucky miss - Penalty by Saudi Arabia

Nail biting finish with penalty goals!!! 

Gulf Cup Oman Vs Iraq -4-0 Hot Photos from the street

HEARD the news?   Oman Beats Iraq 4-0. 

Yalla oman....GO Get the CUP!

     Photo Courtesy:  Aswath Sridhar. Watch his video tribute here.

Gulf Cup 19 : Oman 0-0 Kuwait

We should be thankful we were not thrashed by a super-hatrik by Ahmed Ajab, he clearly missed 4 clear chances right infront of the goal. We should be thankful we have Ali Al-Habsi guarding our goal.

Yes, we missed two wonderful unmissable chances as well, yes, if Imad Al-Hosani did not dive and tried to control his balance at the begining of the match, we would have won. If our players tried to play as a team instead of individual skills we might have won. But these if's won't help.

We controlled the game with an average of 65% ball possession, but the opposing team were the most dangerous when it came to attacks. We were not sharp, we were not deciesive and our midfielders couldn't deliver the ball to our strikers.

I would like to compliment the Kuwaiti defense for their outstanding performance and sticking around with each other, not only that but the defenders had complete understanding with their goalkeeper, unlike our defenders who were humiliated and made our penalty box look like an empty street for Kuwaiti strikers to cruise around without any pressure.

The Kuwaiti team went there without having a heavy load on their shoulders, they were just told to go out there and get a satisfying result, draw, win or even lose without a huge difference, we don't want you to compete, we don't want you to bring the cup back home, just a satisfying performance. Which is why they went there and played calmly without being nervous or anything. They just gave it their best without any nerves. They played like the professionals they are. They had nothing to lose.

However, the opposite goes to our national team who know we expect a lot from them, they know they have to be winners of the cup and that they should do whatever it takes so when they stepped out to the pitch and started playing, that pressure affected them a lot, it's something psychological. They were nervous and did not know what to do, they did not know how to react to that pressure and instead of sucking it up, they let it control them. This goes for the whole team except the one and only Ali Al-Habsi.

Our midfield was too crowded, though the match was all about a battle in the midfield between both teams. Our defense was beyond messed up. They can never mark any of the Kuwaiti strikers. Our strikers just couldn't get the ball. I think Bader Al-Maimani should've stepped on the pitch way before the 80th minute, at the start of the second half would have made a difference I guess.

Fawzi Basheer was pushed back a lot, I don't recall seeing him attacking for some reason. Ahmed Hadid just came back from an injury I guess and started the game. That shouldn't happen.

Ismael Al-Ajmi was way out of his usual performance, the same goes to Hassan Muthafar and the rest.

This match was mostly based on the mental preparation of our national team. Mentally, I do not think they are ready. But this match may have made them ready. A draw could help them for the next match so they'd go with hunger and an appetite to score and win.

The performance was way below expected. We'll bounce back.

We love, because we believe, the team will never let us down.

Gulf Cup 19 - Muscat

Less than 12 hours separate us from the opening match of the Arabian Gulf Cup 19. We Omanis have waited for that moment ever since Ismail Matar scored the winning goal against us in the Gulf Cup final back in 2006, in Abu Dhabi.

To the people in Oman, the gulf cup has started a few days or a week earlier. The preparations people have made from decorating their cars with Omani flags, slogans and pictures to decorating their houses and streets with the Omani flag and so on.

I really do hope we win this, we have it all this time. We have a great coach, we have the supporters, the crowd, the people, the land. This time we are playing at home. We gotta win this. We all should pray for the team to win this. We all know for a fact that everyone of us is expecting our national team to win this, we are all expecting to be in the final. That won't happen if we do not support the team and pray for them. Even if they don't, we should still be behind, supporting and thanking them.

To all of us, from Yemen to Iraq, Saudi Arabia to Oman, Bahrain to Qatar, Emirates to Kuwait. This Gulf Cup has a great value to us. To us, it counts as a World Cup. To us, it's the World Cup. This is the most valuable sporting event for us citizens of the Arabian Gulf.

I hope this Gulf Cup brings a lot of success, not only for the Omani national team, but it would be wonderful to have the most successful Arabian Gulf Cup to be achieved in Oman. I hope it is all positive no matter who the winner is, as long as the whole thing is a success.

To us Omanis, this is the time to grab the cup. We are hungry, ever since Doha 2004. We want this trophy and this time we have it all. Nothing can stop us but our own arrogance, the players should not get on the pitch thinking they've already won the match. Nor should they fear their opponents.

I wish you all a wonderful time at this Gulf Cup. Enjoy it while you're in Oman. All of us who are studying abroad want you to have a piece of it for us. Make it up for us. Sure it is hard to not be in Oman at this time, to most of us I think it would be once in a lifetime experience and have missed it.

Let's keep praying for Oman, let's keep cheering for Oman and finally..Let's paint the whole world RED, Green and White!

عمان نبض واحد

Discounts...Oh Really?!?

While my shopping continues, I come across one after another shocker from the retailers in Muscat...this time it's the BHS outlet (Oh yes, the graphic details will not be withheld this time!)...

First they use a conversion factor of 0.9-0.95 for the Sterling to the Omani Rial (by converting GBP 50 to OMR 45 and GBP 40 to OMR 38)...and this time they've just gone too far, even if for a single product...

I went to BHS a couple of weeks ago...and saw jackets over there...there was a grey moleskin jacket for OMR 45.000....no surprises except that it was converted from GBP 50...

Now they put up a sale with good discounts on quite a few jackets...except that the only sizes you see on the racks are S,M, and then 2XL...there was no trace of L or XL in all designs except one...looks like they take away the nice ones when the discounts go up....not surprising to say the least...

And to top it up, the grey moleskin jacket is now tagged as...any guesses? here goes:

Was 90.000
Now 45.000

surprise surprise...the jacket was NEVER ever at OMR 90...in fact 45.000 is the price it was actually selling for without any discounts.

Have ethics and morals disappeared from these idiots? If they dont want to discount it, they can just stuff it with the other non-discounted stuff and say "Not included in sale"...but the deception to lure in the customer with "discount" that is not at all there is nothing but deceit and cheating. Simple as that.

I think the Ministry of Commerce should look into such dishonest practices...the retailers need to get Ministry approval before putting a sale...they should also submit price lists to the ministry and specify the discounts etc...

Other than that, there's little way out other than consumer awareness...perhaps some of the media houses should highlight such practices?

Ruwi Cinema Closes Down

"Ruwi Cinema, one of Oman’s oldest cinema houses, closed down yesterday as part of Family Shopping Centre’s expansion plans. The management of Ruwi Cinema said they were undecided on an alternative location or a temporary theatre that could show movies.

“We have not yet decided on an alternative location or on a temporary venue,” Hussain M.V., manager of Ruwi Cinema, told Times of Oman. He said the owners of the building had given a notice asking them to move out by December 31, 2008.

He, however, requested movie enthusiasts to be patient till the management comes up with a new location in a few months. “We have all options at our hand either to rent a building or construct one. But it will take several months for a new theatre to come up,” he said.

Hussain said if they get sufficient space, they might even consider building a cinema hall with more screens and also increase the seating capacity. “But you know the rent these days is very high and so we have to think seriously before committing on that option,” he said. Whatever be the reasons behind the closure of one of the popular theatres in the city that has been showing movies for 11 years, there is no doubt that the fans will be the worst hit." [link]