Blue Chi’s

(Photo Credits: dailyinvention)

The theme of blogging in Oman this Ramadan is clearly OmanTV – there is even a blogging campaign initiated by marketing blogger Bader Al Hinai on this subject.

For those unaware of the Arabic TV culture, the month of Ramadan has always been the official TV season of the year, all new series and tv shows are released during this month. Channels compete on exclusives and there are literally hundreds of new shows to watch during Ramadan. Unlike the Arab film industry that is dominated by Egyptian movies, the TV industry is not dominated by any single state, there are loads of high quality popular Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, and Khaleeji (Gulfy) tv shows. In the Gulf, there are some specific Kuwait and Saudi shows, but there are also general Khaleeji shows to which the general Gulf identity is attached and which actors from various Gulf states star.

Oman TV and Omani TV shows are a completely different story. Though there is an serious development in the production quality of the Arab television industry, Oman TV remains almost identical to the way it has been since the 80s. There is a general consensus in Oman that Oman TV sucks and that nobody watches it. Oman TV shows are known for horrible acting, stupid scenario, and low production value. Similar to Saudi and unlike other Gulf states, the Omani population has a wide variety of accents and it almost impossible to see a single a Omani TV series in which members of a single family have a single accent. Actors playing roles of elderly individual use Santa clause like white beards for which the stitching attachments are apparent. Scenes of rich characters driving fancy cars would show that the cars have a “rented” car number plate. And lets not even start with the state of the actual horrible acting and the poor scripts.

The disappointment of the Omani audience is more apparent this year on blogs and discussion boards. The public seems to be mostly irritated by two shows which are aired on the local Ramadan “Prime Time” which right after Maghrib and the Ishaa prayers (Most people stay at home during this to break their fast). The first show is Oman’s first 3D animated series, titled “ُEid and Saeed” which was described by an Arabic forum commentator as a show that “explores the struggle of the Omani citizen with household electronics”. The show is basically a silent animated cartoon that is supposed to be “funny” but turned out to be dumb and pointless. While Omanis are used to watch a comic or variety show at this time, the show seems to most to be one aimed as kids, yet as blogger Muscati tweeted earlier this week, even his young kid asked him to change the channel. Commentators on Arabic forum Omania2 find the show offensive as depicts Omani people to be illiterate and stupid. The very few supporters of the show argue that it is not meant to be seriously. The public are not convinced by this and say that such a show should not be aired in prime time on the country’s national television – which is thought by mainly as the channel through which the rest of the Arab world looks at Oman. You can watch an segment of the show on YouTube here.

The other infamous Omani Ramadan show is Darayish. This is the third season of the show which was thought by people on its first as a “revolutionary” series in the Omani media as it seems to be a very brave one for discussion a lot of public issues relating to the government. The show tells a different story each day discussing a social issue in a comic manner. However, many commentators on Arabic forums are starting to call the show a government propaganda platform in which the Omani citizen is shown as the cause of all troubles in society and that the government is doing everything it can to help this citizen. For example, on an episode on health services, the moral of the story was that we have an excellent health care service, but citizens have a misconception that anything done abroad is better and that hospitals abroad will rip them off without providing them with a cure. Bloggers and forum commentators also claim that the show displays Omani people as dishonest, noisy, and annoying people.

It is worth noting that OmanTV is operated by the Ministry of Information and both of these shows are produced by OmanTV.

An old Omani actor called Jumaa Haikal had an interview with Omani newspaper Al Zaman in which he argued that the reason why Oman TV is such a failure is due to the fact that wasta and family connections play a role in selecting the character playing roles. Jumaa Haikal started his own independent production company which intended to use foreign talents to produce Omani TV shows, but according to his interview, his production company and his efforts were crippled by Oman TV and the Ministry of Information. According to conspiracist Ammar Al Maamari the Minister of Information ordered an investigation of what is happening in OmanTV after the publication of that interview.

We discussed the issue on this Twitter and I think that we came to a different conclusion than the majority of the Arabic community. The majority of the Omani population still seem to be waiting for the government to do everything for them. Why do people expect OmanTV to make them the TV shows that they want? At this age and time, anybody with a camere and a computer can make a tv show. You do not need a multi-million budget to make something enjoyable. You can go to YouTube and watch thousands of indie production that are funny, touching, and informative. How come we don’t even have a single Omani YouTube personality? In many aspects, the Omani society is very uncreative and disrespectful of the majority of art forms as they seem to them as either haram, gay, or pro-Jews or Americans (you pick). I personally think that it is an educational problem, schools and universities in Oman do not promote independent thinking or thinking outside the box. Lets not even forget the culture of the “evil eye” and envy, where even if someone made something nice, he would not share it with other people. I’ve heard a story about a famous photographer who locks up his photographers in a cupboard and refuses to post copies of them online.

OmanTV sucks, but I don’t think that Omanis need it in order to start making their own content.

The Arabic Omani blogosphere has gone mad in the last two weeks over a post written by Muawiyah Al Rawahi that suggested that the government should loosen its alcohol regulations to allow local Omanis to also have an alcohol purchase permit, just like expats. For those who don’t know, except for the month of Ramadan, alcohol can be served at licensed restaurants and hotels in Oman legally for all Omani and expat customers. However, licensed liquor stores in Oman can only sell alcohol to “permit” holders. Muawiyah suggested in his blog post that the fact that locals are not allowed to have an alcohol purchase permit pushes them to seek the alcohol black market which is obviously not regulated and can have health and safety issues in addition to the monopolistic activities practiced in such markets.

The Arabic community was outraged by Muawiyah’s public discussion of a social and religious taboo: drinking alcohol. Though previously celebrated in forums and other blogs for his commentary and criticism of public figures and government practices, Muawiyah has been criticised and personally insulted on a number of online discussion boards for his “unislamic and immoral opinions”.  ِA single thread dedicated to criticise and attack Muawiyah on Omania2.net had more than 12 pages of comments AFTER deleting all the ones which were regarded by the staff members as ones that violate the rules of the forum. A Omani member of over a 1000 posts who claims to be currently in Australia asked the administration to ban Muawiyah completely from the forum because of his suggestions to disobey religion.

The outrage in the Arabic community is bizarre to some extent, mainly because the sale of alcohol is legal in Oman. Yet it remains socially unacceptable for most people, and it is of course prohibited by religion. The majority of commentators in Arabic forums cannot seem digest the idea that alcohol has always been legal in Oman. This reminds me of how I always tried to explain to my classmates earlier this year about different social norms in Oman, and how things could be legal, yet socially and religiously unacceptable (e.g. drinking alcohol), or legal and religiously permitted, yet socially no longer acceptable (e.g. having four wives).

It is interesting to see how ‘freedom of expression’ became a really popular proposition in the online Omani community with all the expose´campaigns and criticism of the government earlier this year, yet the community is not willing to allow a blogger to have an “opinion” on a legal topic that is not socially acceptable. However, just the same way the authority can no longer control what people want to say, the people themselves will not be able to control what anybody wants to say either.

So I’ve been on Mac OS X for a couple of months now and I think I’ve adapted my workflow to the way it works. Mac OS X has some awesome features that are not available natively on Windows.

The feature that changed the way I use the computer the most is Spaces. This feature lets you have a number of virtual desktops to which you can launch specific applications that do not appear on the other ones. I work with two screens all the time, so this makes a huge difference for me as I usually have different applications launch in specific screens, and this lets me switch both windows instantly instead of attempting to minimize and maximize a number of applications on Windows OS.

My second most used feature is Active Screen Corners. This feature lets you assign an action to be executed when you move the mouse cursor to a screen corner. I use this in conjunction with Spaces and Expose. This makes it possible for me to switch spaces and applications using a quick mouse gesture instead of using the keyboard or clicking on the spaces icon. I have another corner assigned for Expose and another one to show the desktop.

I also like customizing the dock. I only have the applications which I regularly actually use their permanently. These are Firefox, TweetDeck, and iTunes. I have the essential CS4 Applications in a grid folder, my work applications in another grid folder, and then I just have all the installed applications in their original folder.

Another feature I like the screen capture tool which I have configured to work with an extra button on my mouse. Using it I simply click my scroll wheel to the left and then select the outline of the area I wish to capture. Really helpful when writing web tutorials!

Anyway, in addition to all these things I like I also have a number of issues with the Mac OS X. The first problem I have is when Expose does not work. For those who do not know what this feature is, it is a quick method to switch between programs in a single space which spreads out all the applications in a zoom-out grid like form. However, some applications have a lot of floating panels, example all Adobe CS4 applications. Using expose here makes each panel appear as a separate window screen making it impossible to know what is happening on the screen. The screen below is supposed to have 2 applications and 1 window opened.

The Mac OS X separates the upper file menu from the actual application window. For most users who use a single screen, they will not think that this is significantly different from Windows, however, because I use two screens, this difference becomes a huge issue, because the file menu only appears on the primary screen, any applications opened on the secondary screen will have their file menu on the other screen which is plain weird and confusing.

I am also irritated by the crazy number of shortcuts built-in the system. Almost all the F buttons already do a system-wide function that override any function to these buttons in other applications. I had to disable them one by one in order to be able to do any work. Some other crazy ones like renaming any file you select by pressing Enter cannot be removed or edited. I also still cannot get over the fact that you cannot maximize folders and apple applications such as iTunes. Not sure if I ever will.

I booked my flight to travel back to Oman this upcoming Thursday. I have completed a very rough first draft for my dissertation and I decided I’ll review it and polish it up back home. I have to go back to office by the 1st of October and will be spending the whole of Ramadhan and Eid at home in Sohar. Packing was not as bad as I thought it would be, I’m carrying a whole separate suitcase just for books!

Reflecting back on my experience this year, it was surely different from the LLB, classes were so much more fun because I decided to share my opinion on every single thing we discussed the  IT law and IP law classes. I traveled to more places around the UK this year than the total of my previous four years! I also made friends with people from so many different places and did not just stick around with the Gulfies.

In preparation for my departure I printed a super awesome photo album which I’ll be taking with me home. Click on the image below to see the full version.

I’m also start playing with video. Check out the first video I made, it’s taken in the park next door:

The Ministry of National Economy issues a monthly statistics bulletin that covers a variety of development topics. One of the really interesting stuff on it is the report on the private sector. You can view the contents of the latest issue here. (It is bilingual)

The private sector  numbers shown in the report are of all the employees who are registered at the Public Authority for Social Insurance.

The statistics at the end of May are as follows:

• 151,341 Omani employees are registered. (male 81%, female 19%)
• 829,298 expatriate employees are registered. (male 90%, female 10%)
• 45% of Omani employees registered receive a salary of RO 140 or less.
• 1.7% of all Omani employees registered receive a salary of RO 1000 or more.
• 91,000 expats are employed as housemaids.
• 120,00 expats work in wholesale, retail sake, and car repairs.
• 319,000 expats work in construction.

For some reason the salary stats of expats are not mentioned, neither the industry details for locals. The report doesn’t say if these salaries are basic salaries or actually paid salaries.

The salaries are just way too shockingly little!