Tuesday, September 11, 2007

6 Days in Oman

Just when I thought I could have a rest and stay away from the ever increasing stress of airports, I ended up spending six nights in Oman last week.

When I was a kid, Oman was a little non-entity. We on the other hand were the ones to whom the people in the region looked up to.

Now imagine how I felt when I was shown the Omani police boats patrolling the Omani waters, with their main task being to stop Iranian refugees enter Oman illegally. It was like an arrow through my heart and I cursed the ragheads and the pseudo-intellectuals of the previous generation who have reduced our people to such lows.

Oman is now a stable country in a volatile region and the people of Oman enjoy the prosperity that the stability has brought them. So much of this prosperity is because of a reformist forward looking king, but of course one must not forget the toil of the migrant workers in Oman who have helped build the country too.

As soon as you enter the airport, you see the migrant workers with worried looks on their faces, queuing for their permits to be approved.

The English language daily, Oman Times, is not really worth reading, the front page is boring and just about government officials visiting or hosting their counterparts. On the next pages however, I came across notices that I have never seen in any other newspaper. A big notice on the page 3, was a picture of a Pakistani national who had been sacked by his employers. Imagine someone getting fired from their work and then his employers announce it in the newspapers with full picture and details! Other notices were about other migrant workers, again with their pictures and full details, who had absconded their duties and left before their contract was due. The notices warned other employers of the legal implications of hiring them.



Oman has a rugged beauty about its landscape. Its mountains and even the greener parts of the country have an austere look about them. This coarse and craggy scenery however is what makes it interesting and not flat and boring like Dubai. It breaks the monotony of the repressive humid heat around in Oman at this time of the year.

The luxury hotels in Oman are on par with the ones in Dubai, even better some people think. They are as near to paradise as you can have on earth.

The people of Oman have come a long way since I was a kid. Iran on the other hand has regressed further and further every year, and it will not get any better until we break this mood of apathy and submission to the status quo.

12 comments:

Winston said...

What r u doing there dude?

Winston said...

Tell them about "Dhofar" where Iranian military helped them prevail... ;-)

Anonymous said...

پتکين عزيز،ـ
خوشا به حالت که ساعاتی را در کنار آبهای خليج فارس عزيزمان گذراندی. حسادتم را برانگيختی!ـ

Azarmehr said...

براستي پاشاي گرامي پرواز از روي آسمان ايران و در سواحل خليج هميشگي فارس شنا كردن بسيار شادي بخش بود ولي همانگونه كه گفتم دانستن اينكه مردم ما براي رهايي از زندان جمهوري اسلامي حاضرند به كشورهايي فرار كنند كه در زمان كودكي من آنها را اصلا كشور حساب نميكرديم بسيار دردآور بود. تفو بر تو اي چرخ گردون تفو. لعنت بر آن روشنفكرنماهايي كه ما را به اينروز انداختند.

Zencali said...

Hello, well you upper class weeping crying Iranians are kind of waring out the world's ignorance about you. I lived there many years as an american married to a Iranian who beat me and listened to rich neigbors beating wives, etc. You treat your workers like slaves, you are all very cheap and greedy and your main aim is to get to some other country and get rich while forgetting to help the poor in Iran. So, did you expect the revolutinaries to NOT UNEDUCATED IGNORANTS AS YOU DESCRIBE THEM??? Since rich Iranians are NEVER CHARITABLE, ALWAYS greedy and very unkind to lower classes: this is the result you get: their usurption of your sickening disgusting big houses in Northern Tehran where you hobnob with foreigners who are abusive to and dismiss lower class Iranians as tea-boys, cooks, slaves and brick carriers, evn if they are children. Every one of my ex-husbands family got rich using their maids and slaves to get there. Now are you upset that they run things. go to hell

Zencali said...

My Iranian relatives stole my son, stole his inheritance when his father died and had my son put away in a mental hospital, etc. Greedy bunch of money grabbers all of you. There is no charity in Iran and no help for the poor and just people like you who are shocked by their quote unquote ignorance. Well, these ignorant souls are apparently all the same in the eyes of god and the new government. You are one greedy sick country who deserves what you get.

Azarmehr said...

How the hell did you come to that conclusion I have no idea!! Have your wires checked out, looks like sadly you were beaten on the head far too often.

Please explain the meaning of this sentence:
"So, did you expect the revolutinaries to NOT UNEDUCATED IGNORANTS AS YOU DESCRIBE THEM??? "

Bahramerad said...

Ms. Julia Simmons - Having pondered on the tragedies that you have suffered, after falling in love with a brute that called himself Iranian, I kind of sympathise with your feelings and the rage that you feel regarding the way that you have been treated bt your ex husbands family. Many Iranians have suffered like you in varying degrees in the last 50 years trying to reconcile their 'Islamic' upbringing with the new modern age understandings of what it is to be called a civilised human being in the 20Th and 21St century. Unfortunately the Khomainie and his Islamic Republic of Idiots have not only stop the progression of Iranian people toward this goal, they have set the clock back at least for 50 years. I am sorry for you and for 40 million of my dear women folk in Iran. Maybe tomorrow will bering better days for all of them and us, helpless men folks who are trying to remain human in the face of so much heat and repression.
In the meantime, here is a book that I thought you might want to read in order to understand that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
'Caspian Rain' by Gina B. Nahai (Carmela Ciuraru) A girl from the wrong side of the tracks marries a wealthy, arrogant young man who quickly tires of her and abandons her and their daughter. It's a familiar story. But transplant these characters to Iran in the decade before the Islamic Revolution, during the shah's final years, toss in some magical realism and the plot becomes more intriguing. That's the setting of "Caspian Rain," the entrancing fourth novel by Gina B. Nahai, a creative writing professor at USC.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-book15sep15,1,7589628.

Anonymous said...

Julia Simmons: Can you explain your story in a more coherent and non-hostile way. I think you would get more sympathy and audience to listen to your somewhat legitimate greivances against Iranians.

Azarmehr said...

I have checked my post and I cant even find the word 'ignorant' in it. So I have no idea what this woman means by 'quote unquote ignorance'.

I am sorry if she was treated badly by her ex-Iranian husband and his family, but I really see what it has to do with my post.

Her logic to accuse me of the stuff she is coming up with is as pathetic as that of the Portuguese police accusing the Madeline McCann's parents of her murder.

Anonymous said...

she might have seen "Without My Daughter"

Anonymous said...

you look like you've been lifting weights.
;- )