ReBlog : On Publication & Media

At a very desperate attempt to reignite attention to the sad misanthropic episodes that my blog posts are, I am reblogging a post I wrote entitled "Under A Rock" which briefly discusses themes relevant to Publication in Oman, and New Media.

I haven't posted it here, only because it starts off being slightly personal.

For the faintly interested of you. The post can be found here. I will take comments both here and there.

Thanks.

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.

Tier three, again

For the second year running, Oman has earned a place amongst the fabulous glitterati of Tier three on the US Dept of State Human Trafficking report. The only entities surprised by this are the ministry in charge of fixing it, and perhaps the courts. The media coverage and press release from the Ministry of Foreign affairs was so shocking, that if I were in charge I would haul up the Minister and departmental heads of the ROP and Courts and demand an explanation.

You can read the report here. One can and should question if the US is a good country to be evaluating the human rights of other nations (Git-mo Abu Gharib, etc...) but the observations in the report are a totally accurate analysis of the current Human rights situation in Oman.

I, personally, am ashamed and embarrassed, because I thought Oman was actually going to DO SOMETHING about human trafficking, instead of throwing a few conferences, issuing a decree which was never enforced and distributing a printed leaflet to illiterate labourers. How hard would it be to actually run an aggressive sting programme to bust companies and individuals who deny their employees their basic human rights? Follow that up with some aggressive prosecutions, some crippling fines, and jail time for the CEO's and sponsors convicted of sexual trafficking, Physical abuse, Non payment of Wages, and withholding Passports. Then publish their pictures in the paper. Front page. Next, set up a small shelter for Victims of human rights violations, as well as local victims of marital violence.

Congratulations one and all. This is certainly a proud moment for our glorious nation.

HM's Royal Directives

MUSCAT — His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has issued royal orders to make available basic food commodities all over the Sultanate urgently, reduce the price of one tonne of flour by RO25, give the recommendations of the ministerial committee in charge of handling property rents hike at the nearest possible time, raise the salaries of employees of the state administrative apparatus units and social security families with effect from this month. The statement issued by the Diwan of Royal Court yesterday reads as follows:

Having reviewed the study prepared by the ministerial committee set up to alleviate the impact of price hike, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has ordered the following:

- Make available basic food commodities all over the Sultanate urgently. The respective departments should devise a sound mechanism to ensure that retail traders do not raise the prices of these commodities, enhance market monitoring and combat monopoly.

- Reduce the price of one tonne of flour by RO25.

- The ministerial committee in charge of devising a mechanism to solve the issue of property rents hike should give its recommendations at the nearest possible time.

- The consumer protection department shall report directly to the minister of commerce and industry.

- Increase the salaries of the state administrative apparatus units of the ministries, government departments, organizations, public authorities, public establishments and other juristic personalities with effect from this month as follows:

A. The salary of employees on financial Grades 8, 9, 10 and its equivalent to be raised by 7 per cent of the basic.

B. The salary of employees on financial Grade 11 and its equivalent to be raised by 8 per cent of the basic.

C. The salary of employees on financial Grade 12 and its equivalent to be raised by 12 per cent of the basic.

D. The salary of employees on financial Grade 13 and its equivalent to be raised by 21 per cent of the basic.

E. The salary of employees on financial Grade 14 and its equivalent to be raised by 43 per cent of the basic.

F. The rest of the employees of the state administrative apparatus units from the ministries, governmental units, military and security units, organizations, public organizations, public authorities and other juristic personalities by 5 per cent of the basic salary.

G. Raise the social security families salaries by 10 per cent.

His Majesty the Sultan also ordered the respective authorities to conduct the actuary studies to improve the financial allocations for employees retired from the governmental sector also.

Source: Times of Oman
Pic Source: ONA

New and Improved Penalties for Driving Like an Ass.

Arabic readers will see in the above photos the latest and greatest driving improvment measures from our beloved ROP.

Following, for the benefit of the non arabic readers, is an appalingly translated summary courtesy of me. Please, if someone could provide a more detailed translation I would be so, so, so, thrilled.

The one on the right is the official report / circular issued by attourney general, from back in November. It kind of highlights some undesirable driving behaviors. Red light runing, cutting in / overtaking on the yellow lane, Drifting or stunts ??? It pretty much says that these offenses are serious, dangerous, and waaaay impolite, reccomending much stronger penalties for offenders.

The one on the left is the follow up decision taken by the Attourney general, (I am pleased to not that it's the first decision of the year!!!) that states that due to the problems and accidents caused buy people driving in an impolite way on the yellow lines and running red lights and Drifting? Racing? Cruising (help?) ? that offenders who are caught doing these things will be put in jail for up to 48 hours and thier car will be taken away until the case comes to prosecution. If the car is borrowed the owner can petition for the release of the car, and the driver has to give his lisence up. I don't see a maditory fine specified anywhere.

Azzam daily carried the article today, you can read it here.

I am especially excited to see that overtaking in the yellow lane is among the offenses. ROP, if you are reading this, you could take away 75% of the vehicles belonging to Ministry employees if you set up a shakedown on ministry street around 14:15 each afternoon.

I hope the ROP agresssively enforces this, with stings, speed traps, and checkpoints. If they can do this with speeding and reckless driving I think it would have an impact on next year's road accident fatalities.

* Updated, thanks to Amjad for the PDF and the link. *

UAE launches electronic immigration link with Oman

In order to ease immigration process between UAE & Oman, on 26 of December 2007. UAE has launched electronic immigration link with Oman IN Order to reduce process delay and ease commute as Thousands of passengers cross the border between the two countries daily.

The electronic immigration link is now on trial base in border checkpoints between Ras Al Khaimah and Oman and after a while it will be lunched in the other border checkpoints between UAE & Oman.

ITA Journey Across the Sultanate

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 1:23:29 AM Oman Time

MUSCAT — The noted IT expert, Tariq Hilal Al Barwani, yesterday announced the first of its kind initiative in the Sultanate branded as “ITA Journey Across the Sultanate”.

This Information Technology Awareness journey across the country is a move set to digitise and promote the use, benefit and career of technology in the community.

In a statement here, Tariq said: “The Information and Communication Technology medium is a potential engine to empower everyone from poor to rich, student to professional, and private to government sector as well as to increase their access to quality education. Everybody should know what this rich medium holds in store”.

The main objective of the “ITA Journey Across the Sultanate” initiative is to educate the public, nourish the innovation to the community and promote digital literacy across the country.

The project will be carried out in two phases, starting from Muscat and then the next in Salalah. The initiative is being sponsored and supported by Tariq’s father who has been coaching and guiding him since childhood.

Tariq will be travelling with his father’s 4WD throughout the Sultanate during his annual leave at work in Nawras. Initially, he will be visiting Nizwa College of Technology to conduct a presentation on IT Security, Careers and the Future on December 16.

He is also scheduled to visit Musannah College of Technology and Sohar Unversity in January to discuss about the several aspects of software development and innovation, Oman German University of Technology in February and the Middle East College of Technology in Rusayl.

Tariq was invited by several schools, colleges and companies several times to conduct presentations and seminars at Deslie Training Institute, Oman Training Institute, Indian School Al Ghubra, Muscat Private School, Muscat College and Shatti Qurum School for Girls, on different topics under the umbrella of ICT. His last presentation on IT careers and technologies at the Sultan Qaboos University two weeks ago had received tremendous response from the audience which triggered the idea of “ITA Journey Across Oman”.

“The ITA initiative that I am set to embark on this week is from the northern most region to the southernmost region of the Sultanate, ensuring that I solidify His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s Progressive Vision to transform the Sultanate into a Knowledge Society and build a knowledge-based economy,” said Tariq.

Oman has all the root stocks to become the Gulf ICT (information and communication technology) hub, Tariq said.

Apart from this initiative, Tariq has also introduced, along with the Ministry of Information, the first and only information technology programme called ‘CyberTalk’ for the Oman Radio FM 90.4. The programme is aired live every Thursday from 4-6pm where it presents the latest local and international IT news, best of breed topics, quizzes and question and answers session. A similar programme called ‘Raqmyaat’ for the Oman TV Channel 2 was also introduced for the local TV.

Tariq is currently pursuing his doctorate of management of organisation with specialisation in Information Technology.

Omantel - In Play

Omantel issued a disclosure statement to the market earlier today containing the following:

• The government has agreed to reduce the royalties the company pays from 10% on fixed line and 12% on mobile revenues to a flat 7% effective on 2007 revenues.
  
• Omantel and Oman Mobile will be merged.
• The government is planning to sell part of its stake in the company to a "strategic shareholder with vast experience in the field of telecommunications." While the exact percentage hasn't been announced, it could be as high as 70% of the government's share in the company, giving the new strategic shareholder just under 50% of the company.
  

The royalty reduction is a huge deal for the company. It would result in a significant increase in the company's net profit. The royalty is taken on the company's gross profit. In other words, the company gave 10% and 12% of gross fixed line and mobile revenue respectively to the government. This is taken right off the top before the company deducts its expenses. Of course, this change in royalty will also have a positive effect on Nawras, which had not reached break even yet. The recalculation of Nawras' income for 2007 based on this lower royalty rate will probably result in an earlier break even. (They had announced last month that October might be their first month to achieve break even). Royalty is not the same as tax. Royalty is paid from gross revenues, and tax is paid from net profit.

The decision to sell part of the government's stake to "strategic investor" is a biggie. The big question here is who this mystery investor is. Are we talking someone with global experience? The are rumors of a big European operator being interest, I can't recall if it's O2 or Orange. Plus Omantel had initially entered the bid for Qatar's second mobile license with Belgacom, so it too could be a possible partner. Other possibilities include regional companies like Etisalat, Kuwait's Zain (previously MTC Vodafone), Oger, or even Egypt's Orascom which is already heavily investing in tourism projects in Oman. Question is why anyone would want Omantel and how much would they want to pay for it?

Don't get your hopes up too high. With our luck in Oman, we'll end up selling our second rate telecom company to a second rate operator.

Hoax emails are passe, await phone calls now!

Government changes

Big government changes in Oman today. His Majesty The Sultan has issued 9 royal decrees with the following changes:

The Ministry of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources has been split in two, a ministry for Regional Municipalities and Water Resources, and a Ministry for Environment and Climate.

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has been split into separate ministries for agriculture and fisheries.

Al Sayyid Humoud bin Faisal, previously the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers is now the Minister of Environment and Climate.

Al Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal Al Busaidi takes his place in the Council of Ministers.

Sh. Salim bin Hilal Al Khalili remains Minister of Agriculture.

Sh. Mohd Al Qatabi, previously minister of state and governor of Dhofar, is now the Minister of Fisheries.

Sh. Mohd bin Marhoon Al Ma'mari, previously ambassador in the UAE, is now the minister and governor of Dhofar.

Sh. Mohd Al Harthy, previously Minister of Transport and Communication, now the minister of Civil Services.

Dr. Khamis Al Alawi, previously minister of Housing, Electricity and Water, is now the minster of Transport and Communication.

Sh. Hilal bin Khalid Al Ma'wali, previously the minister of Civil Services, now a member of Majlis A'Dawla.

Sh. Saif Al Shabibi, previously undersecretary of the ministry of housing, electricity and water, is now the Minister of Housing.

Electricity and Water departments from MHEW are now split from the Ministry of Housing, and made into a Authority for Electricity and Water.

Sh. Abdulla Al Qatabi, previously president of Majlis A'Shura, is now a state advisor.

Sh. Ahmed Al Eissa'i, who was the minster of labour in the 90's, is now the president of Majlis A'Shura.

(all above translated from Arabic decrees. The official English names for all the ministries and posts will be in tomorrow's English papers).

Oman Air to launch daily flights to London from Nov.

Sorry for having two posts in a row just being copied/pasted from a daily newspaper, but this one is also an interesting news, and actually I'm expecting to hear similar news in the coming days; about Oman Air launching more daily flights to more destinations.

According to this article on Times of Oman newspaper, Oman Air will launch seven flights a week to London starting from November of this year.

MUSCAT — Oman’s national carrier, Oman Air, will launch its maiden flight to London this November. The daily non-stop — seven flights a week — scheduled between Muscat and London Gatwick will be a milestone in the history of Oman Air.

The carrier can now offer passengers seven flights a week between Muscat and London.

Full story

Since Oman has pulled out of Gulf Air ownership last May, I was expecting that Oman would add more airplanes to the fleet of its national carrier and will also have flights to more destinations. Waiting for the day they launch weekly flights between Muscat and Khartoum. I'm quite sure that many Sudanese expatriates in Oman would be delighted to fly to Sudan by the national carrier; Oman Air.

Nawras gets recognition for excellent service

From Times of Oman newspaper:

"... Nawras has bagged the prestigious Middle East Mobile Operator of the Year award at the CommsMEA Awards 2007 in Dubai recently.

...

Nawras was chosen out of 40 mobile operators from across the Middle East and Africa by a team of specialists and experts who judged the service providers on various parameters. Nawras was applauded for enriching the lives of people in Oman through better communication and at the same time being a catalyst for mobile growth, with the rapid development of its market share being one of the fastest recorded by any mobile operator in the entire Middle East... "

Full story

To be honest, I have no single idea about Nawras services and network, because simply I'm not a Nawras subscriber. However, I can tell that Nawras is doing pretty well because all of those whom I know using Nawras are quite happy with their provider. Having a Telecommunication company in Oman getting this recognition is something great I suppose. Maybe I will switch to Nawras soon! :-p

"Azzamn"

Azzamn (their spelling, not mine), is a new daily Arabic newspaper that recently launched in Oman with very little fanfare. It quietly slipped onto the news stands without a publicity campaign on August 12th. I read the first issue because they came and gave out free issues in our office that day, but that was that. I haven't heard anyone talk about it since.

Has anyone here been reading it?

Muscat Electronics loses Sony agency

Update:

I was testing to post directly from my phone using Shozu. After signing up and installing the software on your phone you can just take a picture, add a heading and a caption and send it directly to a blog. It worked well, but I wasn't aware it was going to add such a big logo below it.

As for the Muscat Electronics/Jumbo story, they've been fighting for a while it's been reported a few times in the UAE press but never mentioned in our papers - as usual. Jumbo Electronics is the agent for Sony in the UAE. Now they will have a direct presence in Oman, I suppose. I don't see how this will make a difference to us here. Jumbo was a partner in Muscat Electronics and yet their prices were always much higher than Dubai. In the UAE they've invested millions in having showrooms all over the place while here in Oman they've always been in the worst locations with the worst salespeople, and prices for Sony are so high that it doesn't make sense how it's the same company as Dubai.

Oman offers India gas in exchange for coal

Oman has made an offer to trade India natural gas in exchange for coal.

“We have received a very interesting proposal from the Oman government, which has been forwarded to the power ministry by the ministry of external affairs, about their interest in a coal and gas swap around a month back,” said a senior government official familiar with the matter. “We are studying the proposal, which will be very beneficial for our present and future gas-based (power) generation capacity,” added the official, who did not wish to be identified.

If the Indian government says yes, the two countries will enter into a long-term contract where Oman provides India natural gas in exchange for a steady supply of coal.

Indian coal has a high-ash content, one reason why some domestic coal-based power plants mix it with higher quality coal that is imported. However, Oman wants Indian coal for this very reason. Fly ash is a key component in the manufacture of cement and Oman, currently going through an infrastructure and construction boom, needs as much of the building material as it can get.

In return, India will get natural gas, currently in short supply across the world, to run its power plants. Gas is also a key input for fertilizer plants. Several power plants in India that run on gas have had to shut down because of scarcity of the fuel. [link]

Interesting, but isn't Oman short of gas itself and looking to get supplies from Qatar through the Dolphin project and from Iran through the proposed pipeline across Hormuz?