39th National Day

Sha'fea, Nov 18 -- His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the

Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

presided over the military parade staged this evening at the military parade ground at Mua'askar Sha'fea to mark the

Sultanate's 39th National Day

Blog Action Day 2009

The Kingdom

One of the very rare Hollywood movies that reflected the Arabs in some kinda positive manner. Usually we are portrayed as absolute idiots ! At least this time around we were reflected as semi smart and cooperative.

Arab & American Business Followers @ NYC

Later on the day after settling in the hotel, I met with the rest of the selected Arab American Business Followers. We were seven in total from different countries, which are UAE, Palestine, Bahrain, Egypt, and Oman. They were either nominated just like me by a Young Arab Leaders board director or applied directly to Young Arab Leaders for the program. Very bright followers who represent different sectors of the economy such as telecommunication, jewelry, banking, IT and automotive.

no ring

I never thought this would ever happen ! no more ring ! am I jinxed or what !!

Jaguar XF vs Lexus GS

Gone are the days when the Japanese imitated European auto designs ! Nowadays, European/American vehicles resemble Japanese supremacy !!

Landing @ New York

I didn’t make up the above picture ! No photoshop of any kind either ! It’s a cover of a guidebook I found @ my hotel room in NY.

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Landing @ NY JFK airport was pretty smooth ! Contrary to the horror incidents that I heard of people been stripped down to their underpants, and lengthy interrogation process ! None @ all for me, nor did I notice any other passenger experiencing any of it. I was actually Surprised !! especially after the lengthy visa process ! kinda expected some welcome party @ the airport ! They didn’t even ask me to open my bag nor did I have to take my shoes off ! I think I managed to exit the airport within 30 min.

Etihad = Delay !

Etihad flight from Muscat to Abudhabi got delayed for around an hour ! The connecting flight to JFK, New York, closed its gates just by the time I reached AbuDhabi airport ! Imagine I was seeing the airplane yet on the ground, though too bad cant ride ! I mean they delayed their own flight flying into Muscat and now they cant make the airplane wait few more minutes in AbuDhabi !!! Although their incharge in Muscat assured that the JFK flight would wait for Muscat flight late arrival ! Nope !! It didn’t happen ! They gave two alternatives, either wait for next day flight or take a car to Dubai and catch a flight via Emirates to JFK after 6 hours ! yup, Dubai I went ! They provided a car to Dubai, and the driver was crazily cruising @ 200km/h ! I slept on the way anyhow !

Arab & American Business Fellowship Program

Last July I was nominated by a Young Arab Leaders board director to participate in the first Arab & American Business Fellowship Program. The AAFP is a partnership between the Young Arab Leaders, Business for Diplomatic Action, and the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy. Nomination isn’t enough to secure a seat, I had to submit my CV, statement of intent, and go through a phone interview via a conference call of three people from the States who represent the organizers of the event. Luckily after two months of processing I was welcomed as a 2007 Fellow to participate in the first Arab and American Business Fellowship Program for 2007. The program starts on the 22nd of Oct, 07 to 13th of Nov, 07. Participants would be flying in to New York, then to De Moines, Iowa, and finally Washington DC.

"This program is designed to foster mutual understanding and respect between Arab and American societies by :

- Dealing with cultural differences between the Arab World and the United States
- Understanding as many aspects of the U.S. company’s business as possible across multiple functions, such as sales, marketing, communications and public relations
- Gaining a deeper understanding of US politics through discussions with the government, business, and policy-making community
- Developing sustainable networks across boundaries."

USA Visa ! Part 2

After God knows how many emails, phone calls, by the org who invited me to the States, or by me, I finally got the visa early last week ! I was already scheduled to fly out the day after, so that’s about less than 36 hours before take off ! Frankly, I didn’t even shop around for cloths nor prepared my bag before getting the visa ! However, once I did it was an immense rush !

Summer @ Malaysia

Spent my summer holidays @ Malaysia, and I was surprised of the number of GCC Arabs who were spending their summer over there. No matter where they go u’d still find them in their abayas, dishdashas, and even shisha was present ! Surprisingly even Planet Hollywood was serving shisha !! Apart from the taxi overcharge and the humid weather, Malaysia is a fine place to spend a summer with family. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click on Malaysia Summer 2007 to view the 99 photos of Malaysia that I added to my flicker.

Guevara

A fascinating documentary of Che Guevara. Details how this Argentinean doctor flipped into a revolutionary. Also carries an interview with the photographer who took the above said most famous picture in the world. Reveals shockingly how he was in charge of executing dozens after gaining power with Castro. In the final bit it shows a rare footage of him dead as if alive !

30

Crossed 30 last month

ATM waste

Bank Muscat one of the leading banks in Oman finally woke up and put an end to the environmentally wasted ATM slip papers. Nowadays, once you enter your pass code the ATM prompts you to a screen showing your account balance, then give you options to proceed with your ATM transactions. Previously ATM users used to go directly to withdrawal options and an ATM slip would print out along with the cash. Hope the other banks would follow suit soon.

Jackie Chan @ Oman

Local rumors suggest Jackie Chan is gonna film a Hollywood movie @ Oman next year.

Ring

Blog Action Day

Eid

Eidekom eMbarek

She Screams !!!

"Be Part of The Solution"

USA Visa

Beware that the US embassy as it seems got the right to stamp your passport, if they received from you a visa application. However, that does not mean you will get one.

3 out

Unlucky with books lately ! Got bored out of the endless details of the middle book. The other two books lacked all sense.

17 years ago

The last time the 9 of us all met was 17 years ago. Yup @ 9th grade.

Cyclone Gonu > Disaster Aftermath

The last two days been very tough to many residence of Muscat. The local radio reported 32 dead and 30 lost due to the disaster so far. A friend of mine slept the night on his house roof along with his family and little baby ! He lost his car and all his house furniture. Similarly many houses living near the coast were flooded with water and mud. The local gov opened schools and uni hostels to shelter an estimated 20,000 people.

Some parts of the city are out of electricity and water. Water supplies could be out as reported on the local radio for the next 6~9 days. Rumors suggest the main water pipeline is broken.

We are running out of supplies @ local market. No water, milk, nor bread. The gov urged the market to reopen, though it seems the shops face a logistics problem as the roads and drivers are not suitable/found.

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Some parts of the main roads are no longer accessible nor do exist. However, it is possible to drive from Qurum to Seeb, as I’ve been told by people who did so.
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Nevertheless, the local gov management of the disaster is by far commendable. They warned the local people of cyclone two days in advance. Also they urged people who live by the coast to seek shelter on higher grounds. The army deployed to assist the public with water supplies, clearing the main road, evacuation, and several other urgent support. The local tv and radio were on live coverage advising people what do to and conveying urgent civil-defense/police messages.

I leave you here with more pictures of the disaster collected from local TV, Mindazi, and Sablet Oman :

For more details Omanforum (VANQUISH is my nickname over there) got two ongoing topics on the issue along with several other pictures :

Tropical Cyclone To Hit Muscat

Gonu aftermath - update on supplies/utilities

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Tropical Cyclone Gonu

Oman is expecting to be hit by Gonu within very few hours. The local gov raised the danger to Red Alert. Holidays been announced until next Sunday. The alert is predicted to last until Saturday. We were asked to leave work early today. Many rushed to the local market to stack up reserves and fuel up their car tanks. Schools are declared as emergency shelters if needed. The local tv right now is on live coverage with the latest updates.

Ice CreamLess

Baskin Robbins outlets around Muscat were mostly closed in the last few days due to ice cream shortage. Right in the middle of the summer when supposedly their peak season is. It is said their supply line from Canada got delayed.

Unlimited

Congrats to all Yahoo! email users. Their email storage now is Unlimited.

833

28 queue X 4min average = 112min waiting
ummm I think I’ll pass . . .

Essential :
- More clerks
- Faster clerks

Rolling

5 hours plus for few minutes scene :

Director : you are Stupid !
Cameraman : don’t you talk to me like that !
Director : you don’t understand, do you !?

few minutes later . . .

. . . both were laughing together

Lavish

5.4M

Vast 3M
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Petite 2.4M

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Reflect

Potential

Untapped

Crude

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Crude
Infinite
Bluster