Horizon newsletter - Pt. 3

The Horizon newsletter that is printed and published by the Sultan Qaboos University had at last published my second short story which is titled Blue Ribbon Beauty.

This short story is the first of a two-part short story series on which I plan to send the second part in due time to the people behind the newsletter for publishment.

And since the newsletter has no official website on which you can check out the story, I have - below - typed it out for your pleasure and enjoyment.

Please do share your comments on it..

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We smiled
We just kept on smiling
Her eyes into mine
Our lives were connected

‘Hi’
‘Hi’

We stood there. We didn’t talk
We couldn’t speak. We couldn’t breathe. We just had to fall

‘Can I buy you a coffee?’
‘Maybe a drink?’
Anything to make you happy
Anything to make you stay with me

My life is embodied by the jewels that are around me
Your eyes; your lips; the elegance that surrounds me

‘If I could be this night’
‘I would ask to stay forever like this’
‘Why is that?’
‘So I can always remember you like this’

She just stood there and smiled
Her eyes gleamed like an innocent child

‘Would you like to sit down and have a chat?’
‘Maybe a better chance for us to know each other, to get to understand’

She was like a wildflower
Blooming, while she gazed
My heart was racing
Unstoppable, at this stage

Blue ribbon, on her hair
You’d think I was nuts
But I assure you
I have seen her before. Where and how? And why was I unaware?

Life beyond life
Beauty beyond compare
This night
This passion flare

Looking at her
‘You’re late’
She looked at me suddenly, worryingly
‘What took you so long to come into my life? Today?’

I only wish
I had seen you before
I have only dreamed of this moment
For a night, with you, to hit into my heart – the centre of my love, the core

Her cheeks blushed
She stared into the floor
She was smiling deeply
Yet she could not hide it at all

She flapped her hair over her ear
That is beauty
That is beauty
To me

I wish I could have said to her
That day
How could I let her go?
‘I have to go now; maybe we’ll meet some other day’

As she got up heading for the door
She turned around, smiled back at me, but unaware
That as she headed out
Something had fallen off of her, but I think she did it on purpose to show how much she cared

Getting up to reach it
Before it fell to the floor
She left, but the image of her, in my heart, it will always be
I pray that I will know her, one day more

As I knew I had another chance
Because of the blue ribbon within my hands…

good response

I wasn't able to come online tonight until around 12:30am local Oman time because electricity was out in one whole sector of the Muscat, aka: Qurum 29, for a full 4 and a half hours. This electrcity blackout wasn't limited for the night but had happened earlier on, as I was informed by others, this afternoon another 3-4 times.

Apparently, there were a few fuses burnt. And when those were fixed. Things went back to normal for a little time until the night came and it blew the cable. Sparks flew and neighbors didn't know what to do. Where aliens to blame? Was God trying to teach us to conserve power? Or was it the night we should just enjoy the beauty of nature in terms of the bright full moon and starry skylit night?

All in all. It was a night to remember for those who were there. And enjoyable it was even though stressful to come and go every half an hour to check it the power was back on or not.

I guess every dog has his day.

...woops ;oP

Racism: The unclosed chapter of man's existence

The world has now been able to overcome major diseases in the name of national science and bio-technology and the developments in these two fields hold almost every second of the day all over the world. But, unfortunately, the world has little to claim over taking out another disease that has been manifesting even since the existence of mankind on this Earth. Namely; racism.

Where-ever we go these days there is surely a big group of people that calls on the errdication and destruction of another race, nationality, or mere face that they care not to look at in the mornings they walk across the plains.

And it is more unfortunate even, that this not only exists in developed countries but also in developing and under-developed countries. Africa and the Middle East is by no means an exception. Even though the cases that arise are that of minority, but if it is not capped now, the problem will only grow larger beyond solution in the future and authorities will face an extravagent challenge in belting society and the indviduals who carry out inhumane acts of nature against their own brotherhood.

Such is the example in Africa, where Ethiopians, Somalis, and South African fight to regain their freedom in the lands they were born on but with the cost of their lives as they also fight to survive in hostile environments without food, water or shelter for that fact. The mere word co-existence will ignite a simple tribal war within the region let alone kill hundreds of thousands of innocent children, women and unable men.

In the Middle East, and specifically in the GCC region, the expatriate passport owner is unfortunately looked at with a red eye of mistrust and the ever-ready pounded fist of single-minded fury that shows no mercy on which the 'law of the jungle' is carried out on. Where most of the Omanis think that Indians are an under-classed race that should be stepped on and mastered over only because they are living off the peanuts their 'masters' present to them at the end of the month where in reality these so-called 'low lives' are the same ones who built everything their 'masters' live in, from roads, villas, apartments and the such all over the country. I very well dare any Omani to come forward and say that they built so and so in such a place in Oman. Because Omanis will only graduate from their under-graduate studies to follow a dream of sitting behind a desk with a PC in an air-conditioned office and have the company 'tea-boy' bring in his morning choice of hot beverage.

If anything, Omanis should be grateful to those have built them their homes and roads by showing some gratitude and respect instead of shouting at them as if they were animals or robots with no feelings whatsoever.

Omanis have learnt everything that the world has offered to teach them, but is there really a need to bring in a new subject called 'respect 101' & 'respect 102'?

There is little appreciation for the actual working force who work their butts off in the hot sun and only get 80 or 100 Omani Rials per month and send back almost 3/4 of that payment to their families in their homelands.

And somehow, it doesn't seem to be getting any better..

Heaven

There's not a soul that wants to say that it's ok to stay alive
There isn't a person in this world that says that life isn't worthwhile

You have to breath to appreciate
The wonders at your feet, the barriers you break
The different experiences your mind takes
The feelings, the emotions, the wisdom in-construction that you are given only to give back again

With all it's ups and downs
Like a rollercoaster
The hole you dig for yourself when you're depressed and alone
Is only yours and one day you would die in your thunder

Precious moments
Come and pass by
The candle you light
The moments you catch a smile
The flirtatious character you set loose and wild
Is perhaps the only thing that might get you to the end

Heaven is a wonder
And oh what a wonder it is
She smiles
She laughs
She cries tears of joy
She's there when you are under stress
And the world plays with you like a toy
She's the only one who would comprehend

Time will pass
And after many years you'll learn to understand
That love isn't a treasure you have to find
In fact
If it ever is something
It's the way you find yourself in her eyes
In the way you make her smile
When you find your way to her heart
It's the only thing that would get you by

...that's Heaven

The Child Inside Me

Mind the headache
The steps that I try to take
The wind that slaps in my face
I try to turn away
Yet I am lured into the game

Passive sense of love
The lies, the deciet, the mistrust
The path of the woods that grow dark and get you lost
Wind's in my face, your voice, I hear you not
The vigilant craft of the mind
The feelings I aim to hide
I take aim
I play the game
I keep focused
I stay the same

Now all alone
What do you do?
Face the facts
I am told
You will never get what you want if you stay that way
Learn to stay behind in the line so you don't experience pain

So now I tell myself
That I am no longer myself
I no longer care for the world and what everyone thinks
I start to move on, I get a pull, tugged on
And this child inside of me looks at me with these innocent eyes
He's crying
He's sad
He's asking
'What about me? When would everyone understand?'

I have no answer for the child
I move on, lifeless onwards with time

The Omani tourism policy

Up until a few years back, there were strict restrictions on who gets to come into the country and who gets their work visa in the Sultanate of Oman. You would need a sponsor for your visit/work/vacation visa(s). Tourism wasn't even an industry back then because of the low amount of tourists that would visit the country and the beauricratic policies that both the governmental and private organizations took into looking at such issues.

There were only a handful of 5 star hotels in the Muscat capital area, and even then they were far too expensive to have a long stay in. Still then, there were no actual local companies that would promote the country outside Oman especially regionally and internationally. There were hardly any companies in the Sultanate who you could call professional tour operators that would tour the tourist sights all over the country.

The only amount of money that was spent to keep this little sector running back from the government was the financing to recreate the structures of the castles, forts, and relegious grounds that offered a high heritigal and relegious values to the visitor of Oman.

When the oil fields in Oman started to show signs of drought, the government embarked on a new era. That was to open a Ministry of Tourism and allocate to it an annual budget of 50 million Omani Rials for both; the sixth and seventh five-year plan.

The ministry started to allocate automatically to it all the sights that are relevant from a tourist 'perspective' forts, castles, relegious grounds, hotels, hotel night-clubs, and the such.

Thus also embarking on a wide scale but narrow field - or niche - of customers that it would target to attract. This means that the Sultanate was looking to attract middle and upper-class tourism to it's land. But there are discrepencies between the public eyes that this might lead to Oman being much like it's neighbor Dubai; which the government assures it won't, but nonetheless, it still lurks within the community.

There have been several projects of investment in the tourism industry since then like the Shangra-La Bandar Jassa Hotels & Resort, the Blue City located near Al Sawadi, and now a new fishing and ocean lining systems company to open up in Al-Duqm bya several Chinese and Omani investors, not to mention the Wave that includes several investors from the UAE and Oman.

Oman may be all set to start it's right foot into the tourism venture league. But this arises many questions such as; why the sudden opening to the tourism sector when the country isn't that aquainted with tourists in high quantities (almost every 10-15 days about 2000 - 3500 tourists arrive on an ocean liner)? What about the visa norms, why have they still not been relaxed? Why is the government still focussing on middle and upper-class tourists when they know that these individuals will pay cheeply - once they get here - for all their supplies? Is the community in Oman ready to face such an open-market policy now that Oman is now in negotiations with almost every main international airports to make Seeb International Airport and Salalah International Airport a main hub in the Arabian Peninsula?

Links:

- Shangri La, Oman
- The Blue City, Al-Sawadi
- The Wave, Muscat

The Blind Man

I suppose I have only myself to blame for the state that I am coming up to now which is the state of indeciveness. As in to not be able to clearly think out what is it that I really want.

Don't get me wrong here. I clearly know that I want to go further and hone my skills in the field of artistry. But as an online friend here once told me that such a future is doomed to fail here in Oman since there is no light to head to in that path. While I believe that if one was to pursue their belief no matter what anyone says or does and makes their dream ambition a reality that they would prove everyone wrong.

I know I want to write. I know that I want to also have a proper job. I know that I would like to, one day, settle down. But I sometimes cannot come to terms with the world outside and how lonely it feels to be alone. I guess no one can. I am asked constantly to look at the glass half full. I am asked to look beyond such long term goals and take things one step at a time. I am also asked to not rush into decisions and take my time with everything.

But I can't help it.

When I was young; I always wanted everything to happen so fast. When I was really young and had a light moustache - yes, go on, laugh all you like - I used to think to myself that I wanted to grow a full beard. But now, I am so bothered by my facial hair since it grows back almost fully in under two days.

When I was 19, I started to think about getting involved with people from the other gender (aka: females). But from one bad relationship to another it almost seemed like someone up there either doesn't like me to the point of punishing me of being single. I like being single, but I also don't want to die single.

I've come to learn that rushing things will just get me burnt all over again with almost everything except for those things that are of valid cause for quickening in speed measures.

Right now, all I ever want is to get me a job, which is just the thing that I am focusing on in terms of sending CVs and the such. And even though it's going to hurt me a lot inside and I know it will. I will just have to ignore my heart's calling for the time being until I am settled down with everything career-wise.

Yet, right now, I wish for the worst thing to happen to me.

I wish I was a blind man.

They Were Just Kids

She looked into his eyes
And blushed away
Smiling like the Angel she always is
Refraining to look at his face

He would pass a look
Maybe one or two
He'd smile often
Because she was there, too

They both fell for each other's eyes
Together, they became another love affair at first sight

But sadly
The day had to come to an abrupt end
They were both just kids
Back then

But who knows?
Maybe, the powers-that-be
One day, they would re-unite
And live happily, for all eternity?

Starlight Surprise

In a surprising turn of events, I have been asked to turn the lyrics that I had written down for the UNICEF benefit, which is due to be launched, into a full song.

Thus, I will be starting to work on my first song ever, written and sung by me.

Surprising, eh?

Horizon newsletter - Pt. 2.5: Eratta

Just a correction here about the Horizon newsletter from the Sultan Qaboos University here in Oman..

I mentioned in an earlier post that it was going to come out on March 10th, 2006. When I realized that that exact date is a Friday..

So I figured the date that was given to me was wrong and it should be out on a Saturday.

In any case, when it does come out - I will publish the short story herein this blog..

Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

One step too far

I found out my ultimate fault.

I think into things way too far into the future. I predict for myself such a bright future or just as much a bad one, for that. And when I am hit by reality it's like a brick wall hitting my head at a thousand kilometres an hour.

Talk about having an astronomical day.

That's mostly why I shift into fifth gear with everything around me expecting the unexpected to happen in my advantage and when we collide you can all say goodbye to Rose and Jack.

God. Where's an iceberg when you need one?

Colliding nature
Divided dillusion
Sense of love of kiss and tell
The weather isn't always warm as Hell

I tell myself a thousand times
That I can always get up and do a million things
I can always move move up
And accomplish my dreams

But I am not happy
I am no the least
I have almost everything I could ever want
And nothing I wish I had

Dreams are clouds
Of lies and make believe
The sense, the pride
That we hold onto, the rise from the fall beneath

Hollowed into a corner
Sitting all alone
Crying there
On my own

Credit Cards & Maturity

I was having this discussion yesterday (Tuesday) night, and it started to become tense because of the way it was being dragged and I thought to myself I might as well post it here to see what the others here on the web would think and reply back to the issue.

So here goes..

The issue in discussion is about credit cards. Someone I know (who started the whole flamengo) was just employed recently for a company that issues it's own credit cards and it has it's own bank and banking system. And he was flattering the company because it was of an American origin and he never liked American products or services (because he himself is a Palestinian) - but that's besides the point that is being made here.

The point that I am trying to make here is that he went on about how only mature people can recognize the special treatments that included with having a golden or a platinum credit card.

Having heard that, I tried to move in with a few questions such as why would anyone in the world need a credit card, even though they have the unreasonable highest interest rate in the world over?

I believe that the credit card scheme has been over-valued all over the world because the very concept of the whole system is manuplative. You are lured in to get a credit card for your account in your specific bank with all the glimmer glamour that camouflages the actual truth behind it.

You get free tickets, free treatment at VIP airport lounges, free drinks at a certain restaurant, free discounts at some international hotel chain and the list just goes on and on and on. And for what? So that you end up taking a loan on your account that you have to pay back in time and if you don't you have to pay it all including a daily interest rate?

I am talking about the relegious point of view here that states that this very transaction that has maddened the world's economic population wildly thus increasing it's growth in the very terms that Islam says it is prohibited because it is basicly an act of riba - whereby you are taking a loan on something you don't own and have to pay it back with an extra fee.

From a logical point of view, why would anyone want to get into the never ending maze of paying for a scheme which in all honesty laughs in your face and plus charges you extra fees should you want to pay the amount later on?

Why?

Why put yourself into this position in the beginning? The world does not revolve around squandering money here and there. Although it may feel nice to actually buy some new stuff every now and then. But why should you be worried later on about how you're going to pay the amount?

And how does this all link to maturity?

I await your answers..

UNICEF - Making it happen

Here you go people..

Here's the link to the song I'm Innocent.

You can download it as many times as you want to for 30 whole days, after that the link is inactive.

But a request from me to you all.. download it, burn it onto a CD and pass it on to everyone else you know but before you hand a copy of the song to the other person make sure that they donate a small sum of money - no matter how big or small - towards the UNICEF.

Please.. Please.. Please.. we need to make sure that everyone we know who can access this file has to download it and pass it on and make a small donation for the UNICEF.

Make it happen.
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I'm Innocent

Health in the hand of the ROP

Here's something you don't see everyday..

An ROP escort to an important VIP delegation slowing down traffic to about 60km on a 120km speed road limit on the way to a hospital. Obviously you can't overtake them because they would then arrest you and interrogate you asking you a lot of dumb questions like why you were attempting to overtake the escort group and such. But being the smart alecs they really are, they wouldn't guess in the end that you were in a hurry to the hospital.

Someone should arrest them for having to willingly endanger someone's vital signs in a race against time to the nearest hospital.

Is the country's security system taking a backward step? Or what?

The boundaries of freedom

Let me be very clear about what I am going to say here. I am very much in support of freedom and the right to express freely as long as it does not offend another's culture nor relegion or society/community. That being said, this does not mean that we, as citizens of our country, should tolerate the misbehavings of foreignors here or their defyness to local laws.

And now; on with the post..

I saw what I would have thought I would not see anywhere in any other Muslim country in the world - a couple kissing in public in broad daylight. I have nothing against the couple kissing but in public? If they really did want to enjoy each other's lucious lips then they could have respected the country, it's culture, it's relegion, and it's people by doing it within the privacy of their own home.

The point that I am trying to make here is if we as Muslims in our country let these 'simple things' go on freely without reaction from authorities then whose to say that further into our future we won't say anything about a couple having sex in the middle of nowhere in daylight in public? If we shut up about the small things and do nothing about them now they'll only build up more and more to a point whereby we cannot contain what goes on and it turns out of control.

This is seeing it from a logical point of view and not relegious. Just so that I point this out before anyone starts to lash at me for intrusion into private affairs. Which, reminds me, if they were private affairs, shouldn't have they been doing it in their own private quarters?

It's sad to see two grown ups do this in a country that has allowed them, neigh, trusted them to respect it's laws, culture and relegion.

Such a shame.

Such a shame..

Horizon newsletter - Pt.II

The short story that I had submitted to the Horizon newsletter has been approved for submission and will be printed in the coming issue of March 10th, 2006.

The story submitted is part one of a two part poetic short story named Blue Ribbon Beauty.

I am hoping that anyone who gets their hands on that copy will let me know what they think of it and when I do I will make sure to post it here as soon as possible..

Cheers!

The singles club

There has been a major discussion over the years on the reasons that have driven the youth of today to either getting married at a late age or staying single in pursuit of their career-like ambitions.

And unfortunately, although it may seem to be a sign of progress that Omani men (as do the women of this society) think of other things to be their ultimate goal in life besides getting settled down and having a family; it is also viewed as an alarming trend that the community is trying to curb. As according to a recent census that was achieved back in 2003, there are now 3 Omani women to every 1 Omani man in the country.

Many thought the reason behind such as this debatablely-large ratio is that they (men) look to marry from outside the country which current laws forbid unless given an approval certificate under stringent rules and regulations. Others sought the reasons to be that there could be a rise in same-sex relationships between the two sexes (although this can never be confirmed as it is prohibited both by law and Islam). Then comes the final reason that ever could rise; that neither gender is really interested into getting involved with the other. This is due because of the many experiences of the youth of today that attempt to court the other gender in various ways and also due to abnormal societal norms.

Many of the youth today prefer to know each other before they get into a maritial relationship whether it is an informal or formal one. Having said that, the bad experiences they take on possibly gives the impression that such a task is almost impossible in achievement. And thus, they shelf the idea from ever happening.

Abnormal societal norms include heavy expenses for wedding treats such as the wedding night, the honey moon, and the mahr (which is the amount of money that the man pays or offers to the woman in order to court her formally), which, in many wilayats in Oman, could reach a sum of 40,000 Omani Rials (roughly $25,000).

And since most of the population (75%, actually), is under the age of 30 years old and mostly 'looking for a job' they pretty much have to take whatever job offer they can get their hands on. Even it means that you have studied for a bachelor's degree (with honors) for 4 whole years and all you end up is with a job that pays you barely 300 Omani Rials a month (minus 6% for social services) that makes you work 6 days of the week at a 10-hour rate every day with only half an hour lunch break.

And the government is thinking in the right way in implementing Omanization in the private sector but what about the salaries? When someone with only a high school certificate with so many children and a wife lives off a 120 Omani Rials salary?

The solution may be in employing more Omanis in the private sector but to make them grovel for their slight pay that scarecly helps them survive over the first week isn't helping at all. Even with all the free education, free health services that the government provides.

The current population of the Sultanate of Oman is now standing at 3 million people, where half of million of which, are expatriates. In 10 years time, this number will probably double or tripple. The current accurate number of people looking for a job is unknown, but that does not mean that we have a big time ahead of us in order to arrange the suspension to cushion that coming calamity.

There is a diyer need to do something very urgently about this. Everyone - the government, the private sector, and the individuals involved - are all demanded by their moral, and social obligations towards this society lest we all fall into recession.

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This is my 500th post!

Horizon Newsletter

I had been requested to submit a new short story to the Sultan Qaboos University's Horizon newsletter once again ...

So I'll have more information on when it should come out, inshallah..

Doesn't it feel good to be appreciated?

Spotlight - Pt. II

As promised..

Here is the article that came out in the newspaper about my new book (Sorry, but it's in Arabic)..

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Omanis on roads: Ignorance is bliss

It's no wonder that Oman has the 2nd highest accident rate in the world after the USA. People drive here as if they own the roads that others have paved for them to use carefully - not carelessly.

The other day I was taking a stroll in my car and I was entering a small roundabout around where we live and on that roundabout I needed to go straight. Now as far as my teaching goes, we were instructed, that, should we want to go straight we would have to take the right lane to go right or straight and to take the left lane should we need to go to the left of the roundabout or take a U-turn on it.

So what did yours truly do? I took the right lane. First indication that I wanted to go either right or straight.

As I drove into the roundabout in the right land I noticed that on my left hand side there was this woman with a man on her right passenger seat and child on his lap. She was attempting to go straight where I was heading. Having seen this, I increased slightly to take my leading position to my 'goal'. But still she pursued as if nothing had changed. And she almost hit me too had I not tapped my breaks.

I was furious with this person. Terribly.

I gave her a honk and a signal signifying to her that she doesn't know how to drive properly or that she could have gotten her driver's license from Nizwa. She - in her own melodramic way - pointed out that it was her way. I was this close to stopping her in the middle of the road and getting that man on her passenger's side to keep her on a short leesh otherwise I would be very much tempted to give her a piece of my mind and send her home with two black eyes.

And this is just one incident amongst many that happens more than occasionaly on Omani roads despite the fact that the ROP has installed traffic radars every 1.5 kilometeres all over the Sultanate up until every road border that is known.

People don't understand that the instructions that they are taught during their schooling years of driving are meant for all life and not just to pass a slight exam that you have 2 police officers over looking at every mistake you might take taking into consideration that your instructor is there to be either tormented or delighted at your performance (sometimes it's delightness in both cases - should you pass or not - because in both cases he gets paid more).

I will say this, ignorance will not go unforgotten on roads.

Neither will breaking the law either.

Let it not be said that everyone's not been fairly warned.