RIP Whitney & Sailing Arabia the tour

Well, driving to work this morning I was flicking radio stations and landed on Merge 104.8 and heard Chris Fisher saying he saw Sky News and just learned that Whitney Houston died in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel. No word yet on how she died, but does it really matter - she's dead. RIP.

Moving on, and back to a somewhat local news interest - the Burj Khalifa last night was rumored to be on fire, but it was just surrounded in mist instead, and definitely not on fire. The story appeared to break on Twitter and spread very quickly.... but fortunately it was not true.

Now, the Sailing Arabia The Tour (SATT for short, heh) was due to start today in Bahrain, but the start has been delayed by 24 hours and so will start tomorrow (13th). There are 9 teams participating in the tour, 4 from Oman, and one from each of these countries: France, KSA, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar. The tour is due to have 3 stops in Oman, Musandam, Mussanah and Muscat (well, The Wave), with the race due to finish on February 29th (I just realized we must be in a leap year), or perhaps due to the 24 hour start delay it will culminate on Thursday the 1st of March instead. Anyway - good luck to the Oman teams participating!

And finally, a black Labrador was found in PDO camp yesterday - very clean and not hungry at all - here's a picture, if you recognize the dog please get in touch with the person on the phone number listed.

More soon!

le fin.

Some local news and observations

On Saturday, Muscat Daily's cover proclaimed that the good men of the RNO (Royal Navy of Oman) put the smack down on some cheeky Somalian pirates. Here's a link to the story. With a follow up here and here.

Oman: not pirate friendly

Now, reading this objectively, I could get all conspiracy theorist and start wondering about if the mission was perhaps botched... 2 of the kidnapped crew were shot dead, and another 2 are apparently in critical condition, one of whom was shot nearly 10 times reportedly. But rather than dwell on that, I think what is more important to note is that the RNO boys have made it pretty clear to any Captain Jack Sparrow wannabees that they will bring the pain if they muck about in their waters. Which to be honest is exactly the right response, and if the countries surrounding Somalia conducted the same policy, things would not have become as endemic as they have. So, RNO - well done.

In other local news, tomorrow sees the by-now well publicized Oman Cat-Astrophy fund raiser book (and other things) sale at the Costain Dolphin Club. So in case you forgot: 3-9pm tomorrow.

A little Muttering I heard yesterday was that there has been yet another U-Turn in the ongoing story of Booze at the Royal Oman Opera House, and that now Alcohol licenses will be permitted for F&B outlets in the attached mall. More on that as it develops - and if you are reading this and know more, please share!

And finally..... There's some big acts coming to town brought by the lovely people at Hi FM and Alive Entertainment. More on that as things get closer, but its something that people should be pretty excited about!

More tomorrow!

le fin.

Oman gets another boat, and HIV discussed in the national press

I've been a lazy blogger this week, but thats basically been because there has been nothing to write about really. Until today.

Originally reported on my blog in August 2009, Oman signed up to buy 3 Khareef class (Corvette I understand) boats ships from UK firm BAE Systems (albeit a company called VT Systems which was then subsequently bought by BAE and a division formed to be called BAE Systems Surface Systems). Anyway, the first one, the Al Shamikh underwent sea trials earlier this year and failed them. The rumours are that the engines don't work, well, not to specification anyway which led to a delay in the delivery of the final 2 ships until, apparently, today (as reported by Muscat Daily) with the third ship, the Al Rasikh. I wonder if the RNO have fined BAE SSS for the delay?

I imagine that the new ships will be pressed into service to help keep those pesky pirates away from Oman's waters, as well as a spot of smuggler hunting too.

And next:

On the front cover of the Times of Oman today, and I also read about it in the Muscat Daily today as well, that Oman is starting to realise that people living with HIV/Aids can not be just made a statistic and forgotten about. The general gist of the articles seems to be that more needs to be done to deal with counselling and treating those with HIV and also helping to spread awareness, especially amongst young people. The ToO article then goes on to say that drug addicts that inject themselves and share their needles are the most likely to become infected.

I was somewhat amazed that the ToO article then went on to suggest that there are only 80-90 new infections in Oman each year since 1999. At least the people at Muscat Daily clocked that this statistic must be totally inaccurate and so didnt print the ridiculous statistic.

How about the case at the school in Salalah in 2009 as reported by Dhofari Gucci where 5 girls were diagnosed with HIV in one go. How about all the poor Omani wives who only find out they're infected when they become pregnant and go to the doctor? Well, at least recognising that more support needs to be there for people infected with HIV is a step in the right direction.

I hope a successful campaign to spread awareness is rolled out.

Thats all for today.

le fin.