Job Discussion Forums

[MuscatGary]

[veiledsentiments]

[Whatever will be]

@ VeiledSentiment

[nomad soul]

[veiledsentiments]

I'm not talking about tourists. I can't imagine Omanis ever having such a ridiculous idea.

I never saw a teacher in an abaya at work in Muscat - at either employer, and in fact, when a few students asked us if we would wear them during Ramadhan, the administration said no - but merely requested that we have long sleeves during the month. None of my friends who still teach there have ever been told that they should wear one. (some have been there since the '80s)

At my second employer in 2000 at a private college, in a couple years, I only had one student who wore an abaya, and most of the female students didn't wear hijab either.

At SQU facial veils were banned as un-Omani (at the time only Sur had the tradition of facial veiling, along with some of the Bedu in the Wahiba who wore the masks).

The hinterlands are naturally more conservative...

VS

[MuscatGary]

Veils are banned at Rustaq CAS after an incident when some boys dressed in abaya and veil managed to sneak into the girl's hostel. I have several Omani female friends in Muscat who NEVER wear abaya, they also drink alcohol in bars. Their families are Zanzibarian so from a different culture historically.

[Tazz]

Do you have any 'links' for any journalistic reports about the boys in Abayas sneaking into the girl's hostel?!! Would make an interesting read......

[Whatever will be]

http://www.timesofoman.com/Columns/2858/Article-Instability-defines-Middle-East-today

Instability defines Middle East today

Middle East, as rendered by Arab Spring, is fractious, impoverished and lawless — perhaps the dreariest and most ungoverned region on earth today. Self-immolation of the twenty-six-year-old street vendor in Tunisia, which set off a contagion across Arabia, has gone awry. The mirage has disappeared; emerging reality is appalling. Conflict in the region is all-pervading; everyone is killing every one; the dirty dance of death is relentless; Middle East is getting soaked in blood every day.

Four years later, the giddy enthusiasm is long gone and the region is wracked by turmoil and bloodshed. Far from being liberated from despotism, Arabia today is in stony desolation described by T. S. Eliot in section five, What the Thunder Said, of The Waste Land.

A London School of Economics report on Arabs' quest for liberty, equality and fraternity clearly says, uprisings across the Middle East have not led to any significant shifts towards permanent democracy even where they have toppled dictators. The West was wrong in prescribing liberal democracy for Arabs who did not have any replacement model.

Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans may have achieved their primary and immediate goals. Yet, their wider objectives — democracy, human rights, rule of law, equality and economic growth still remain as distant as ever. Fragmented along sectarian fault lines the Middle East has become "politically pliable, isolated and enfeebled."

Against this despondency the question Lina Khatib, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut, has asked is pertinent. Was the Middle East better off with its dictators? But what she has surmised isn't most in the world today would agree with. At least, I would not. We agree with her that aftermath of dictatorships is always messy and democratic transition is never linear. But we insist that the region was better off under dictatorships.

Instability and wretchedness that define the Middle East today — from Yemen to Libya to Syria — are "direct results of the West's own stance towards dictatorships in the region prior to and during the Arab Spring. The West's short sightedness in handling the Middle East throughout its modern history has directly contributed to its current devastation".

Therefore, when we try to understand the rise if Isis and chilling fundamentalism in the region; violence in Yemen, Syria, Libya and Syria we share the thoughts of political thinker Daniel Warner. The West was perhaps extremely naïve and ethnocentric in proclaiming common understandings among all people. The West was so enthralled with its benefits from globalization that it missed the importance of non-Western religions as well as those not benefiting.

The Western understanding of those outside its orbit was and is still so pathetically limited. The United States and its allies in Europe failed to understand the aspiration to set up a caliphate. It is, in its essence, an endeavour to create a socio-political order and a political entity radically opposed to the Western values and ethics and outside the West-dominated international order.

This explains why Egypt supported the military coup that set the clock back on its quest for democracy, supported backlash against Muslim Brotherhood. But that is not the story of Middle East and the Arabs. Their story is that the upheavals of the past four years have left almost all of them disillusioned with the uprisings. They regret pulling down their rulers and feel they were better off under dictators.

I am not a champion of dictatorship. But, I do share Warner's view. To choose between authoritarian or totalitarian rule and democracy is not an optimum choice. But the choice between Isis and Assad is real, a choice that Washington and the European Union are faced with today. If the people of Iraq, Libya and Syria are not better off today than they were under the dictators, then we better reconsider not only our enthusiasm for change, but also our vision of how society should be organised.

Even if we agree with author and world affairs columnist Frida Ghitis that mass movements would not swiftly sweep away entrenched dictators and replace them with pluralistic democratic rule we cannot agree with her that the upheavals in Arab world were revolutions. At best, they can be called a series of disoriented and rudderless upheavals demanding a little more voice in governance rather than seeking to change society. This made what the Western media and academia called 'Arab Spring' self-limiting and also self-defeating.

Fundamental political changes take long time to happen. The Prague Spring of 1968 had failed but it awakened people and created the ground in the whole of Eastern Europe which led to the ultimate collapse of Soviet Union.

The revolutions in Europe in 1848 ultimately failed and ended up in counter revolution. Though repression returned, the failed European revolutions sowed the seeds of change that metamorphosed the continent's outlook, social order and political system. The failed revolutions reshaped Europe almost a hundred years later.

Even if we do not write off the impacts of Arab Spring we cannot feel optimistic either. The Middle East is fast spiralling downward into a phase of more unrest, violence and bloodshed; liberal thoughts are getting drowned in the sea of blood. Religious dogmatism and sectarian loyalties are dragging the region back to the Stone Age.

[MuscatGary]

[Whatever will be]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14654150
As with other Gulf nations, oil is the mainstay of the economy, providing a large chunk of GDP, but compared to its neighbours Oman is a modest producer. Agriculture and fishing are important sources of income.

Tourism, another source of revenue, is on the rise. Oman's attractions include a largely-untouched coastline, mountains, deserts and the burgeoning capital Muscat, with its forts, palaces and old walled city.

Most Omanis follow the Ibadi sect of Islam - the only remaining expression of Kharijism, which was created as a result of one of the first schisms within the religion.
The country has so far been spared the militant Islamist violence that has plagued some of its neighbours.

It has long been a useful Arab ally to Washington, not least because of its steady relations with Iran.

Oman has not been immune from the groundswell of political dissent in the region. Protests in 2011 demanding reforms were dispersed by riot police, and the government began a crackdown on Internet criticism the following year

[omanoman]

I was a witness to protests several years back - ugly scenes. Riot police in full force, seemingly lashing out indiscriminately, excessive force and herding of crowds into waiting police, intimidation, assault and abuse, many many injuries.

So, yeah, I try to stay away from Toronto, London and New York, to name only three. They talk about freedom and rights to speak out in those countries, but it looks like a load of crap in reality.


It's so easy to pass judgement on the "other" but meanwhile, the dirty dishes are piling up in our own kitchens. Just a reminder about perspective, black pots and kettles etc.....

[Whatever will be]

OmanOman

The OP asked for perspectives on Oman's importance in the Middle East.

The above is directly quoted from the BBC, the other a direct quote from The Times Of Oman.

Since you like metaphors: stop burying your head in the sand!

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[omanoman]

Glad I'm getting some responses.

I was a witness to a large crowd protesting at the Iraq Embassy years ago, the Palestinian office / consulate, around the same time, the ROH recently and just by chance being there. Several hundred people chanting, a few signs and some anger in the air for sure. Not a single moment of fear though, no action by the police or the protesters - they said their piece and left. The ministry office beside my work had a fairly large shut-down, shout-fest gathering, megaphones

Every event or incident is different of course and I would never tarnish an entire country or its people for the actions of a few like idiots in Vancouver after the hockey loss, racist football hooligans in many places, "occupy" protests in major cities that turned very ugly quite quickly and hundreds more examples from any number of countries world wide.

My point is that people are making assumptions about Oman far more easily than if they pointed their significant lens of judgement elsewhere, let alone their home countries. That article from the Times is not about the local conditions for heaven's sake - is Oman or the UAE 'racked by turmoil and bloodshed" ? KSA, Kuwait? Bahrain, definitely there are troubles. Did the poster read it before using it on a thread which, as you pointed out, is about conditions in Oman? if so, then perhaps the intention of the poster can be challenged and proven to be a form of fear mongering?

I've said this on other threads, often to the same members. I'm generally an optimistic person and that includes my feelings on Oman. But, I'm also not a fool. If you would care to raise objective and more realistic points about Oman and its people, then I'd be happy to agree, disagree, change my mind or try to change yours. But, if the posts become clearly full of hyperbole, xenophobic or overly cynical (some cynicism is fine, even expected and I'm also guilty) then I'll challenge them, and rightfully so.

Thanks for joining in the discussion.

[1st Sgt Welsh]