So much protests here.....Is it good ????

We from India have seen so many protests during our life time and have got used to the same but then protests in Oman is something new and I can vouch that no one expected this to happen in years to come. But then it happened and in fact the early glimpse of these were during late January 2011 in the Ministry area and also in Oman Air at Seeb airport  and these both were termed as one off instance. The protest gathered momentum after the incident at Sohar and after that it has been free for all and at any time. The latest one was by Shell petrol and today it is back to normal.  Government has given in to most demands by the protesters and now it is the turn of the Omani’s working in the private sector to organize the protests so that their demand are met. Most demands by them are quite legitimate such as increments on regular basis, taking on responsibilities… hope it is with accountability !! and so forth.

Some demands such as lesser working hours(similar to Government employees working timing)  and 5 days a week does not gel with private sector companies since they need to work 6 days a week to ensure they meet the bottom line. So also the construction and contracting industry since the time lines for the project are pretty tight and the same can be achieved only if they work minimum of 6 days for 10 hours. All over the world the average working hours per week is considered as 48 hours and if this criteria is followed then I suppose the daily work timings will be roughly nine and half hour without considering the lunch break in the event of 5 day week scenario which seems to be inevitable ….. this does put in lots of tensions on the expat workers who have to work the entire office hours and also work on Thursdays as usual without getting any benefits.

Now you must be wondering as to why an expat has to work on Thursdays without benefits while everyone else are enjoying their week end…. Well it is because he has a Damocles sword hanging over his head all the time and he would not like his boss to label him .. not a hard worker ( well most Indian companies I know say that people who really work hard are the ones who put in long hours of working ) A wrong sense of judging a person’s capabilities.

Beyond a point these protests would be meaningless and ignored like it is being done in India and the very reason would get diluted and nobody is going to care....  Is that what you want !!!!!

Redundancy ……. How much do you provide ?????

Most people have a definite plan of action in their lives plus a redundant plan B in the event the main plan does not work out for whatever reasons thereof. Similarly is the case with most projects in this world especially if there is a potential to harm the environment and human lives. But then my question here is that how much redundancy does one plan in this case…. Is it one two or three????.

The current events in Japan has really raised this question in my mind and I would like all person reading this note/blog  give their comments for I am still confused. The designers of the Nuclear Power plant at Fukushima Daiichi did have three redundancy systems in their reactors to prevent the condition what is prevailing now and yet each one of them failed…..main power to the cooling system failed due to earthquake, then the tsunami took out the backup power generation system, cooling system to reactor by using water from condensed steam failed to provide sufficient water to immerse the fuel rods and finally pumping of sea water to cool the reactor failed. 

This only goes to prove the Murphy’s Law “ When shit has to hit the fan … it sure will “

Being in the field of engineering I know that we normally provide one redundancy or maximum two but now for critical operations in most parts of the world are surely going to demand multiple redundancy so as to achieve a failsafe mechanism in the face of all odds… quite a challenge to most designers and engineers .

There is going to be a huge amount of money spent for these redundancy which may never be operational …. Your take on this please !!!!!!!

Fury of Nature.... continues this year

As 2010 ended we had all prayed that natural disasters be a thing of past for this year .. 2011 but then it was not so with flooding in Australia, then the earth quake in New Zealand and a combined jolt in Japan.. a severe earth quake measuring 8.9 on Richter scale plus a devastating Tsunami. Mother nature is takings its revenge against the atrocities the mankind has committed on this planet and the occurrences are sudden and immense. The mankind cannot take things lightly for these are indications of future events that are going to take place on this planet !!!

Increased movements of Teutonic plates , global warming leading to melting of ice in Arctic and Antarctic,unusual climate world wide only are an example of what is in store for us in the years to come. God help mankind and hope that the world population does not take this for granted for i am sure all of us are going to be sorry for our actions which has percolated to this levels


I leave you all with two pictures of the natures fury unleashed in Japan... RIP to those who have lost their lives in this disaster and i am sure Japanese people are resilient enough to pull through this difficult times. Thinks of what each one of us could do to appease the the anger of this nature !!!!

North Africa and Middle East protests ….The Jasmine Revolution !!!!

Unemployment, poor living conditions, inflation  and lack of political freedom spurred the protests against the government in Tunisia . We in India have seen similar scenes quite often in India but then it have never been culminated to such a extent that the government collapses and the country is in disarray . The catalyst to this movement in Tunisia was due to a self immolation by one person in December  2010 and in January 2011 within a span of less than a month the president of the country Ben Ali  who held on to his power for over 20 years had to flee to Saudi Arabia leading to a regime change there.

Within another 30 days another massive anti government protests in Egypt which started as a peaceful demonstration at Tahrir Square, Cairo and other parts of Egypt took an ugly turn when pro Mubarak supporters clashed with the protesters and in the end jolted the rule of Hosini Mubarak which he held for over 3 decades leading to a regime change.

Libya also witnessed anti government protests from the mid February onwards and is now blown to a fully fledged civil war between the government forces and rebels looking for a change of regime . Libyan episode has till date seen over 7000 deaths and is still going on with armed fights between pro and anti government  forces. Migrant labor from most Arab world and third world countries are fleeing the country through the Tunisian border and through sea and air helped by their respective governments.

Meanwhile in other parts of the gulf such as Bahrain, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Oman, Algeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia inspired by the happening in the Tunisia , Egypt and Libya also had protests against the government in various magnitudes and the “ Arab leaders started shaking in their boots “ as stated by the famous Middle East foreign correspondent Robert Fisk . Some of the gulf countries ( Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait) immediately channeled lots of funds to be distributed among its population to appease the protestors so as to avoid any violent incidents and also have stated that necessary reforms will be in place to address the issues raised by the protesters

In Oman the violent incidents that happened in Sohar (looting and burning down of a super market by the protestors) was orchestrated by outside parties as per the authorities but then even this day there are still over 1000 protestors camped in the square and we as expats are not able to comprehend what is going to happen. Similarly at Salalah, the southern city of Oman people have put up tents and are camping in front of Wali’s office from last Friday awaiting for their demands to be met by tomorrow as informed by some local Omanis, in spite of the benefits been announced by the Sultan immediately after the Sohar incident. Army has been deployed along the border to UAE and in Sohar too. The latest news from Salalah is that people have noticed movement of Army to the region too. . An uneasy calm is prevailing in the region and it is wait and watch time before it turns to a full blown confrontation.

A sea of change is happening in the Middle East and the whole world is watching with bated breath the future of the region and its impact to the global economy. The media which has played a major role during the protests termed the protests as Jasmine Revolution… may be an analogy to waft of smell from the Jasmine flower spreading around  similar to the protests that is spreading country to country in the region !!!

Last year was termed as the Year of Calamities , I only hope that 2011 is not termed as the Year of the Protests as similar incidents are happening in China as well and in other regions of the world. Looking forward to a peaceful end to all these protests since it is the ordinary people like you and me who have to suffer and put up with hardship in the event the protests turns violent.

Care and affection among female siblings !!!

One evening while the family was just sitting and discussing general issues happening in our lives my younger daughter stated that she has more rights on her elder sister than me…. For a moment I was stunned with her statement and I started telling her that I have more rights as I am their father but then thinking back after sometime I concluded that each of us have rights over one and another ….me as a father and she as a sister and these two are quite different and unique.

Most sisters always have a special bonding throughout their lives especially when they are twins or if age difference between them is small and in my daughters case it is just an year. They share all secrets among themselves ,both me and my wife would have no clue until one of them blurts out the secret by mistake. My sisters who are three years apart share similar relationship and the bonding is very strong in spite of difference of opinions at times.

Seeing all these I feel bad that I have no male sibling with whom I could have shared a similar rapport ……but then not all relationship between brothers are as strong as between sisters.

Your thoughts on this !!!

Flip side of Valentine’s day celebrations

Always wanted to know more about Valentine's day and the reasons for why it is being celebrated as Lover's day and i found that there is no relevance to the centuries old tradition of feast on the February 14 and today's celebrations

History…….

From 276 AD February 14^th has been celebrated by Roman Catholic Christians as a day of feast for Saint Valentine . Historians state that there has been more than one Saint Valentine (derived from Valens meaning worthy, powerful) and till the 14^th century there has been no romantic link to the day of celebration. In the 14^th century Roman Emperor Claudius II wanted to expand his army and he found that young men who were married we reluctant to join the army and hence brought out a directive that no young men should marry. However there was a Saint Valentine who was marrying the young men in secret and when the emperor learned of this Saint was immediately caught and was sentenced to be executed. The evening before the saint was executed he wrote a note to his beloved … jailer’s daughter whom he had healed and befriended and the note read “ from your Valentine”. This I suppose was the start of the tradition of exchange of cards, gifts between lovers .

Present times….

As I grew up 14^th Feb has been just an another day except that Roman Catholics used to have a feast on this day in the honor of Saint Valentine. During the last 10 years with the advent of electronic media (TV & Internet) a immense hype has been created around the Saint Valentine’s day and the present generation has lapped up the same and added a new dimension to the day.

Peer pressure of the youth  today has diluted the traditional Valentine’s day celebrations of love and affection between intimate companions. It is a status symbol among the younger generation to have a partner on this day and celebrate the day so if you notice most of the couples may just be a casual acquaintance or someone with whom they have interacted over the Internet in a social networking sites. I do not mean that all couples celebrating this day are not following the traditional ways.

Today the Valentine’s day can be termed as a day of one night stand for majority of the couples…..With so many social networking sites couples married or single meet each other and generally make it a point to meet on this day and invariably leads to one night stand without any commitments especially when one of the partner is married.

Valentine’s day is a money spinner too in India and approximately 10% of the global Valentine’s day sales are in India. Roses has been replaced with mobile phones and other expensive gifts and most shopping mall all over India have a whopping sales during this period and gift giving ritual seems to be more prominent among the younger generation in India unlike the other parts of the world. Some not so good news of Valentine’s day are the suicides being committed by young couples due to restrictions to their love and rapes. 

In spite of  Moral policing by some political parties ,honor killings, suicides and rapes it does not seem to deter the younger generation from celebrating this day and Valentine’s day has entrenched itself in India’s popular culture.

Ali Baba …………….

A fictional character from ancient Arabic literature made famous by the story Ali Baba and forty thieves in One Thousand and One Nights wherein he outwits forty thieves and takes home the treasure they had hidden within a cave. Most Arab friends I know use the term Ali Baba in their speech and it means a thief. Now you must be wondering why I have chosen this topic out of the blue…well last couple of days I have been hearing of thefts in various houses of my colleagues which has taken place during the last two months including two of them in the building I stay. Last two years in Salalah I have not heard of such incidents taking place there but then Muscat is different in all aspects I suppose.

One friend who was in Salalah for over 3 years was owning a Harley Davison motorbike relocated to Muscat and within 3 months of coming here the bike was stolen from his house and even this day he is running pillar to post to claim the insurance money. Another colleague who stays in the next wing of the building I stay went out with his family for weekend shopping and when he returned 2 hours later he found to his surprise his locked front door ajar…burglars had pried open the door and stole the jewelry and money kept in the cabinet… poor guy lost over 300 Riyals!!!

Once upon a time it was prided that one could leave ones door open and go and yet not a item would be taken….times have changed Muscat for now even a locked door is not safe. 

I have added two more locking arrangement to the main door to deter such incidents from happening and moreover as I am proceeding on vacation I need to take extra care and I do not want to come back and see my flat empty.

I fail to understand the reason for increase in such incidents in the capital and how the culprits do not get caught. I only hope the authorities take stringent action to apprehend the culprits engaging in such activities and make the city of Muscat safe for both Expats and locals.