Sabbatical in Geneva - More on Oman

Service of a local treat

  In my previous post I mentioned that while in Oman we were treated as VIP guests and served Arabian coffee or tea with every gathering and on the above occasion, we were given a local favorite sweet treat. It is a combination of sugar and flour that apparently is boiled to death until it becomes a sticky paste and then nuts are added and the entire goop is congealed in a bowl with the consistency somewhere between jello and mousse. You eat it with a small spoon which everyone does from the bowl. It was great. After I found out it takes about 3 hours to make, I felt even more like a VIP. During our entire meeting, the fellow serving us stood in the background on the ready with more coffee as the cups are small and need frequent refilling.
  After returning to Geneva, I read an article about Oman with information I would like to share here. The country is a monarchy ruled the past 40 years by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said who took over the rule from his father. His picture is everywhere from the Interstate crossings, to the clock faces, to being in every government office. It is always the same solemn picture except at the airport where he is smiling and waving goodbye when you leave.  Forty years ago, the capital of Muscat was a small walled city where at night a cannon was fired at dusk and anyone found roaming around outside was subject to being shot. There were only 6 miles of paved roads in the entire country, only a small number of boys receiving any education, and they were isolated and fearful of outsiders. They believed radio and TV were the work of Satan and most of the population lived as they always had and were uneducated. It was an extremely conservative country. The Sultan Qaboos opened the country up and declared that all Oman citizens, men and women, would be provided a free public education which was a radical departure. Now Muscat is a growing modernizing city with satellite dishes sprouted all over the landscape, the overuse of cell phones like everywhere else, traffic congestion on the Interstate, English as the second official language, the government is friendly with their neighbor Iran, and they are pro-western with good relations with the US and Europe, and it is obviously a prospering economy.  An amazing transformation in just 40 years. It is no wonder that the recently freed American female hiker who was captured and held by Iran was released to Oman on her flight home. Their neighbor to the east is Yeman which is still more like the Oman of old and a hotbed of terrorist training. The point made in the article was that the policy the US has had toward the middle east has relied on war and bombs to solve problems and it has been unsuccessful. Oman is an example of what education of the population can achieve. Yet, even though Obama pledged two billion dollars in educational aide in the middle east and apparently has not lived up to that pledge, we are spending ten times that on implements of war. I haven't checked out any of these facts but it does play into my belief system that more can be accomplished with education than war.

Oman Bizarre

We were shown and shopped in the new American style malls that rival anything back home. However, we were more intrigued by the old style bizarre in the older part of Oman. There were numerous entries into the bizarre and it kept separating into different alleys and side streets so that we were good and lost in short order. The vendors have small open stalls mostly off the walkway and in some, they opened up into larger warehouses in the back. The picture to the left is a typical scene other than the bizarre was as full of women as men which this picture doesn't show. We were there early evening and the longer we stayed the more the business picked up. The fun thing about the bizarre was that you can haggle over the price, the bad thing was we were never sure we did well. Our guide and friend Salam Salim Al Kindi advised us that whatever price we were told to offer half or less and work from there. I bought several things including an Omani hat like the men on the left are wearing. I had seen them in the mall for 20 to 30 rials so I was not surprised when the merchant I was talking to asked for 20. I offered 8 and he countered. I ended up paying 12 and the samefelt pretty good about it. As we were walking through another section, a vendor called out to me to buy Omani hats for 3.50 Euros, around $5.00. The ceremonial Kandjar knife is a possession of all Omani men and is now strictly ceremonial. It actually is a poor quality knife in an elaborately decorated silver scabbard. The picture below shows a collection of older ones from one of the many shops we visited that sold them. They are a great tourist sell. Come by the office and I'll show you.

Kandjar Knifes