Oman in Flames

[davepoth]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/27/oman.pro...

http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&Arti...

Now if the protests take hold in Oman it could cause some troubles. Salalah is the major port in Oman, and a Transhipment hub for goods going to and from Africa to the rest of the world. This has the potential to be the most severe one so far.

[Targarama]

It won't. Plus, they are not protesting for regime change - it is a very very very different situation in Oman.

[davepoth]

Targarama said:

It won't. Plus, they are not protesting for regime change - it is a very very very different situation in Oman.

It's one of the many things people have been protesting about elsewhere. It's one to watch I think.

[mel]

The difference is that the majority of the people there love the Sultan and appreciate all the good that he has done for them.

[davepoth]

mel said:

The difference is that the majority of the people there love the Sultan and appreciate all the good that he has done for them.

Mubarak and Gadaffi said the same thing. If there's a riot on the streets about unemployment and buildings are burnt down and people are killed, I would suggest that a significant proportion of the population are in fact not that happy.

[ianash]

If my memory serves me well, didn't the SAS put down the last uprising. The Sultan is ex Sandhurst and employs many retired ex special services in his retinue.

[mel]

I've spent a lot of time there, and know a lot of people serving on loan service with the Sultans Armed & Security Services and can honestly say that you have a bigger problem getting the average young Omani to go to work rather than worry about unemployment. The program of "Omaniisation" has over the last few years been designed to get more Omanis into jobs to replace expats it has struggled mainly because the locals are too lazy and view any form of manual work as below them. You will honestly struggle to hear a bad word said from the average Omani about the Sultan.

[Targarama]

davepoth - sorry, but your comments come across as unknowledgeable of Oman. Have you been there? Trust me when I say that 99.9% of the population will currently be thinking WTF?! to the news of what happened in Sohar. They are planning protests to stand up for the Sultan agains't these 'bad' protestors.

Edited to add: I know Oman well, and I just got back from there on Friday night. Mel's comments are bang on too

[mel]

ianash said:

If my memory serves me well, didn't the SAS put down the last uprising. The Sultan is ex Sandhurst and employs many retired ex special services in his retinue.

Sort of. The SAS historically helped the previous Sultan to put down an internal rebellion around Jebel Akhdar in the late fifties, then aided the bloodless coup which enabled the current Sultan to seize power in the early 70's and finally played a big part in putting down the communist insurgency down on the border with Yemen/Dhofar. Today we still have a lot of senior people on loan service with the sultan and many more retired servicemen on "contract"

Edited by mel on Sunday 27th February 17:18

[Targarama]

mel said:

Sort of. The SAS historically helped the previous Sultan to put down an internal rebellion around Jebel Akhdar in the late fifties, then aided the bloodless coup which enabled the current Sultan to seize power in the early 70's and finally played a big part in putting down the communist insurgency down on the border with Yemen/Dhofar. Today we still have a lot of senior people on loan service with the sultan and many more retired servicemen on "contract"

Edited by mel on Sunday 27th February 17:18

I find the whole communist thing a really interesting bit of recent history, which not many people have any idea about.

I was up the Jebel at Christmas - the amount of infrastructure the Sultan has built is pretty impressive. The road up is better than most in the UK too, and they said I needed a 4wd!

[mel]

Exactly why the people love him. When he took over from his father there wasn't a single tarmaced road in the country and the gates to muscat closed every night to keep out rebels. He has dragged the country from medieval to 21st century in 40 years, and been very diligent in sharing wealth amongst the people.

I drove down from muscat to salalah last year which took two days, Tarmac highway all the way and sometimes it would be an hour or so without seeing another vehicle.

Edited by mel on Sunday 27th February 17:35

[Targarama]

mel said:

Exactly why the people love him. When he took over from his father there wasn't a single tarmaced road in the country and the gates to muscat closed every night to keep out rebels. He has dragged the country from medieval to 21st century in 40 years, and been very diligent in sharing wealth amongst the people.

I drove down from muscat to salalah last year which took two days, Tarmac highway all the way and sometimes it would be an hour or so without seeing another vehicle.

Edited by mel on Sunday 27th February 17:35

2 days? I assume you were sightseeing along the way. It took me 10 hours driving at 130kph or so, and I was being passed by Yaris taxis at warp speed all the time. I love the 'emptiness' once past all the oil fields. Have they finished the dualisation of the road from Thumrait to Salalah yet?

[davepoth]

I understand all that. But as we have seen it doesn't take the whole population coming out onto the streets to make a government fold.

In a way the fact that the government is liked (And a bit elected) makes it even likely that in the event of Oman falling they'd end up with someone we don't like.

The government is actively trying to get people into employment, and changing the laws to help that, but lots of people just can't be bothered to work. So why is there an unemployment riot?

[mel]

Yes, we did an overnight at the turtle sanctuary to go down onto the beach at dawn and see the females laying eggs and the babies trying to get to the water. Oh and on the way back we looped up into the interior to take in the wahiba sands and do a bit of dune bashing.

I'm still waiting to see if our plan to buy some ex papa johns pizza delivery bikes and ride them down to salalah comes off but it looks like it's died a death. The idea was to take about 5 days and ride early morning/late night and lay up during the heat of the day carrying only what we could get in the pizza box.

[Targarama]

mel said:

Yes, we did an overnight at the turtle sanctuary to go down onto the beach at dawn and see the females laying eggs and the babies trying to get to the water. Oh and on the way back we looped up into the interior to take in the wahiba sands and do a bit of dune bashing.

I'm still waiting to see if our plan to buy some ex papa johns pizza delivery bikes and ride them down to salalah comes off but it looks like it's died a death. The idea was to take about 5 days and ride early morning/late night and lay up during the heat of the day carrying only what we could get in the pizza box.

Excellent!

In other news: HM Sultan Qaboos has announced this evening : That the Majlis A Shura will have greater powers, The Monetary Monitoring Office will have it's role increased, 50,000 job opportunities are to be created by Government, and a monthly amount of RO 150 for registered job seekers with the Ministry of Manpower

[85Carrera]

mel said:

The difference is that the majority of the people there love the Sultan and appreciate all the good that he has done for them.

The south are, I understand it, less keen and somewhat secessionist. Hope it gets sorted out, though - Oman is a fabulous country and the people are extremely friendly (to the extent of inviting you in for tea within minutes of meeting them). Not been to the far south, though.

[Digga]

There is a strong rumour that the Sultan "bats for the other team". Clearly, no one from PH land who lives there should, perhaps, pass comment on this particular point, but I understand that this is culturally awkward and might be a chink in the armour exploited by more hard-line Islamists.

Granted the roads - non-existant prior to 70's are much improved and the em[ployment laws stipulate foreign firms employ x% local labour, but as I understand it, the root issue with employement is that many locals are idle and feckless - education is poor. The laws make the x%ers complacent at best.

Beautiful country though.

[mel]

The only bit of that I would disagree with is that "education is poor" The education system is outstanding, now days very few don't achieve a degree level of education and it's considerably better than the UK. This is backed up by several friends of mine who've had kids in schooling out there and have found that they are much more advanced than their peers when they return to UK schooling.

[Digga]

mel said:

The only bit of that I would disagree with

Very diplomatic.

mel said:

The education system is outstanding, now days very few don't achieve a degree level of education and it's considerably better than the UK.

Perhaps I'm confusing aptitude and ability with motivation then.