Sultanate of Oman to embrace the Idol franchise

In few months time Radio Sultanate of Oman and Al Sawadi Beach Resort will lunch its first singing talent show ‘Oman Idol’ as part of Idol franchise such as American Idol and Super Star, for residence of Sultanate of Oman only. The Shabiba wrote an article about it.

Damn, now what am I going to do with that Free Tibet banner?

I was interested to read in yesterday's Times of Oman about the plans for today's Olympic torch relay. The media and the various ministries seem quite excited about it all, though I am slightly disappointed by the lack of enthusiasm shown by most of my friends and associates.

That's not what this post is about though. I laughed out loud when I read the following :

Oman announced yesterday that the nation is all geared up to host the most peaceful leg of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay tomorrow. The claim came from Oman Olympic Committee vice-chairman Habib bin Abdulnabi Macki, who addressed a large press gathering at the Crowne Plaza yesterday.

“Our security is tight and anyone trying to put a hurdle will be severely dealt with,” said Habib Macki. “The Royal Oman Police is ready to handle any such situations.”

Did you catch the pun? Hurdle! get it? Hurdle?

After I stopped laughing, I spent another twenty or thirty minutes marveling at his poor choice of words regarding how protesters will be treated. I can't believe that nobody prepped him for the question, or if they did that that was the quote he was supposed to give. That is textbook bad Public and Press Relations.

With the eyes of the world on us today, the OOC would have been well advised to trot out a someone more seasoned to deal with the media, or to have prepared statements that didn't quite present the plan for crowd control so bluntly.

That said, I think it's a real mark of distinction that Oman was chosen to host a leg of the relay. For those of you who want to attend, the relay starts off from the Dhow at the Al Bustan R/A at about 17:00 and continue along the coast through old muttrah, and up through the darsait heights area, then Past the refinery I think and down into Qurum. The relay is scheduled to finish amongst great fanfare and fireworks at around 20:30 tonight, in the floating theatre in Qurum park.

Be there or be square Hip Cats.

A slightly more Caustic version of this is Cross posted on my Blog, Other Oman

PEIE OMG Seminar on Value Stream Mapping

PEIE will hold the last of its Oman Manufacturing Group seminars next week on Sunday the 16th of December at 7.30pm at the Crowne Plaza. The seminar will discuss value stream mapping and lean manufacturing processes, two techniques used to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks and increase organizational efficiency. Attendance is open to all and dinner will be served.

Dinner Party Suggestions

I am playing the role of party planner at work to organise a dinner in celebration of a PHD graduate, several officials and a minister will be attending the event. This is not an official event. Expected attendees are about 75, we will have the dinner after Eid, probably in January.

I would like to gather ideas and suggestions on where and what I could do for this dinner party. I am not interested in Shangri La - it is way too far.

Hotels, restaurants, and celebration halls suggestions are welcome.

Seminar: Best Practices for Securing Your Network

Follow this link to register:

http://www.global-dubai.com/secure_computing/registration-form/index.htm