Tony Walsh – author on Oman & Arabia
I joined the crowds assembled to watch the procession of The Queen’s lying-in-state.
Opposite the Cabinet Office and Foreign Office in London, with an uninterrupted, privileged, view of the procession and sunny weather, it was a grand occasion. Continue reading “Procession of the Queen’s lying-in-state for Queen Elizabeth“
Eid Mubarak عيد مبارك July 2022
Sultan Haitham bin Tariq has made a number of Ministerial and other important changes of personnel in Oman. (He also made changes in 2020)
Oman’s oil minister Continue reading “Oman’s new Ministers and senior Government Officials are appointed”
London’s remarkable new train service, the Elizabeth Line is more, or less, open. Its cost is massive (as all UK infrastructure is) – pushing £20 billion – and the approval process is sluggish (again as is usual in the UK).
It’s currently running as 3 separate services: the east & west sections (largely overground) and the core section mainly underground. The service will be completely linked in late Autumn 2022, by which time the unopened Bond Street station will be finished. The trains are full-size overground trains – up to 200m long, and the system may well be capable of running automatically, though currently, it does have drivers – (the drivers Union is especially powerful).
Named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, who already has the Jubilee Line named after her for the Silver Jubilee. The Elizabeth Line’s purple colour may well have been chosen to represent Imperial Purple (or perhaps it was one of the few colour options left for the Tube lines), irrespective purple is the colour theme.
It is a superb service – the trains are extremely comfortable, and the stations themselves are well designed; goodness knows how many psychological and physical tricks have been used to get people moving between entrance and train. As a result, its very easy to use.
London is en fete, decked out in flags for the Jubilee celebrations. Even the miserable grey London Pigeons have been ousted by far more attractive Parakeets, in their lime green and bright crimson beaks.
Jokha Alharthi’s latest book in English, the Bitter Orange Tree, is another reflection, through the eyes of a protagonist, about several generations of an Omani family.
In the Bitter Orange Tree Zuhour, who is the protagonist, arrives in a snow covered British city to study. She slumps into a mournful reflection about a newly dead ‘grandmother, a miserable older sister and a depressed mother.
Zuhour lyrically remembers her grandmother’s scent of “civet musk, precious aloeswood oil, and ancient soil”.
As with Jokha Alharthi’s last Continue reading “Jokha Alharthi’s latest book in English, the Bitter Orange Tree”
Sultan Haitham bin Tariq met with Queen Elizabeth in Windsor Castle, London today,
on his first Continue reading “Sultan Haitham meets Queen Elizabeth in London”
Sultan Haitham will visit London on 14 December.
He will be accompanied by Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said, the Deputy Prime Minister for Defense Affairs, Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham Al Said, Minister of Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, General Sultan bin Mohammed Al Numani, Minister of the Royal Office, Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Albusaidi, Foreign Minister of Oman and Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Zaher Al Hinai, Oman’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
This will be Sultan Haitham’s first visit to Great Britain as Sultan. His son, Sayyid Theyazin, was a diplomat at Oman’s UK embassy.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud will visit Oman on Monday 6 December.
This comes after Continue reading “PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN AL SAUD WILL VISIT OMAN a sign of change in the relationship between the two monarchies. “
This week London has been hosting the World Travel Market (WTM) at ExCeL London from November 1 to 3 . Incidentally ExCeL , owned by Abu Dhabi was a centre for overflow Covid hospitalisations in London.
The theme of the event was ‘reconnect, rebuild’ Continue reading “World Travel Market (WTM) London 2021 ExCeL London from November 1 to 3“
Oman ratifies the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications by by Royal Decree 19/2021 on February 15, 2021 .
This Geneva Act in itself is Continue reading “Oman ratifies the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications this protects brand names that are geographic in nature.“
Alila Hinu Bay Oman is now taking bookings from 1 May 2021.
The property is a 10km drive from Mirbat, a small town east of Salalah International Airport.
With an Continue reading “Alila Hinu Bay Oman Mirbat Dhofar“
The annual ranking of the Middle East’s most powerful women in business has now been revealed by Forbes Middle East. From the sultanate, four Omani women have made to the coveted top 50 of The Middle East’s Power Businesswomen 2021.
From Oman, Haifa al Khaifi,
who was recently named CEO of Energy Development Oman (EDO) is ranked 30th. Continue reading “Middle East’s most powerful women”
The Oman Budget for 2021 has been announced.
The figures are based Continue reading “Oman Budget 2021”
The world is experiencing transformative change with technology developments, demographic changes, changing consumer habits, environmental and climate change. So to build for the future a new emphasis is needed. Local initiatives to support local people
These together with continued inequalities and the immense impacts of the COVID-19 have created a new approach, the Continue reading “Tourism needs to focus on local initiatives to support local people creating loval income was one part of the planning for inbound tours that I operated “
You must be logged in to post a comment.