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[bloggs34]

I have the misfortune of having spent 4 months in Ibri. It is by far the most desolate, god-forsaken 'town' in the known Arab world. Even the locals complain of mindless boredom. If your idea of entertainment is past the sell-by cans of lager in an empty, silent hotel (with a huge sandy space where someone was once gonna put a swimming pool) then come to Ibri! The 'nightclub' btw is a tiny room full of drunken and raucous Omani men shouting and balling at an overweight Morrocan 'dancer', who is perhaps a female. The 'gym' was a set of dumbells in a roadside shack and was closed down by the police for 'indecent homosexual activity amongst foreigners'. The 'supermarket' is called Mecca and is great if you like tinned tuna and black tomatoes. If you work at the College of Technology then teach advanced level and try to get a class full of girls as they are the only students that want to do any work or learn anything. The male students, particularly the lower levels, are boisterous and childish. Btw 'advanced' level means 'intermediate' and of course everyone passes the exams so most students figure out quite soon that they don't need to do any work.
Poor Ibri! Whatta dump. They mean well though: A beautiful white college plonked like a wedding cake in the middle of the desert. Sandstorms or gale force wind without sand (if you're lucky) at around 4pm each afternoon.. ahhh the howling song - I can hear it now... Why did I leave all this behind...
If only someone had answered my own request for information BEFORE I had actually gone there! But there you go. Please read mine and weigh up other options with this information in mind.

[Middle East Beast]

I'll see your Ibri and raise you a Khafji, Saudi Arabia. The latter was like a Saudi version of a one-horse town in an old American western movie. I swear one day I thought I saw John Al-Wayne walking down main street.

MEB

[It's Scary!]

[bloggs34]

It is by far the most desolate, god-forsaken 'town' in the known Arab world.
yeah, that might be a sweeping statement - I forgot about saudi arabia..

[veiledsentiments]

I must say that I don't recall any positive reviews of the place here. I don't think I've been there, but the interior villages do tend to be... um... rather similar... and dull. To survive one really has to be able to live with oneself comfortably. Spring for the sat TV and the best internet the hinterlands may provide... perhaps work on an online MA or write that novel. BE sure to have your Kindle brimming. Spring for a 4WD and spend every weekend hitting the nearest beach or bashing wadis.

I survived 4 years in Muscat far "suburbs" in the late 80s before internet, one Arabic channel on the TV (15 minutes of English news and one ancient sitcom like Cosby or ALF) and getting outside news was managing to get the Beeb on the shortwave. Books were so hard to find that I was forced to start reading SciFi. That said, I loved the place and have only fond memories. It was a different country then...

VS

[Middle East Beast]

[johnslat]

Dear veiledsentiments,

" . . . I was forced to start reading SciFi."


Dune by Frank Herbert, perhaps. Actually, there's some very good writing and ideas in the sci-fi genre.

However, as one of its most famous and accomplished practitioners, when asked why so much sci-fi was trash, replied,

"I repeat Sturgeon�s Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of SF is crud.
Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other art-forms."

"According to Philip Klass (William Tenn), Sturgeon made this remark in about 1951, at a talk at New York University at which Tenn was present. The statement was subsequently included in a talk Sturgeon gave at a session of the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, held over the Labor Day weekend of 1953."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Law

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

Actually "Dune" was the first one I read and it was rather downhill from there... and no... I never picked up another SciFi book once I left Oman in the early 90s. Much better choices in the faculty lending library in the UAE and beyond.

VS