author - oman observer

Living in today’s world, and looking back over our shoulders, I wonder how many of us yearn for the quieter life of yesterday? Just think about it... has every technological advance, every ‘must...

I have spent an awful lot of my life looking at exam papers, guiding students towards success in exams, yet I am still uncomfortable with the way the arts in secondary and higher education, are...

“Humility,” wrote the famed author C S Lewis, of The Chronicles of Narnia fame, “is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself, less.”It’s so simple, isn’t it? Something of an...

Are you starting out in business? Or maybe you are an entrepreneur? Whatever your life’s ambitions you need to be aware of the ethics of what you do. But don’t become a slave to them because the...

Looking forward to this newest of years, 2023, ensures that our reflections upon ’22 leave us hesitant, fearsome in many respects, but most of all, uncertain. Ironically, it’s exactly half a...

Well, another year has come and gone, and with it, as always, an opportunity arises for me to reflect upon the old year, its good and not-so-good, and to have a bit of fun, at the expense of a few...

Seeing as it’s Christmas Day, and from memory the first time this column has been published on this festive occasion, I thought I would wrap some Christmas wisdom. I’m a wee bit short of goodwill...

Living in the Middle East, even though surrounded by one of the most attractive and hospitable coastlines in the world, it’s easy to take the desert environment for granted, but it is very much more...

Is bigotry and intolerance on the rise? Or have we just become more sensitive? Or are we being wrangled by the world’s media, yet again?There certainly ‘appear’ to be rising tensions globally...

I enjoy food, and always have. After all, what’s not to like about it? And... as John Safran Soer put it so immaculately, “Food is not rational. Food is culture, habit, craving, and...

How safe do you think cyclists feel when they are on the road? Apart from finding them an inconvenience now and again, do you ever genuinely consider them as much road users as you are? They are...

I think we, as global societies, have achieved so much in diversity acceptance in recent years, rather than continuing at this exhausting pace, we should now, to paraphrase Simon and Garfunkel,...

It hasn’t been a dramatic realisation, but one that has gradually emerged from the experiences of a lifetime, and the observations of a uniquely equipped generation, trying to make sense of having...

I’ll tell you later. In the meantime, in what could be a significant game-changer for the Sultanate of Oman, and the entire MENA region, the Kyung Hee University in Seoul, working alongside the...

A friend confided recently that he was feeling absolutely shattered, ‘wiped out,’ was how he put it, ‘completely exhausted, but that he had no prospect of a break, or a holiday to unwind, until...

With a current population of around 4.5 million, approximately half Omanis and half expatriates, the Sultanate of Oman is fortunate to have a tolerant, respectful, and compassionate population, so...

Here we are, in an age where autistic spectrum disorders are becoming progressively more widely acknowledged, across all societies. They are nothing to be scared of, but to be aware of, and in fact it...

Mother Nature, I feel, could do with a little help right now in keeping a sense of balance. Although we are challenged by one thing after another, in the ‘nature’ of cyclones, hurricanes,...

I have been, at different times in my life, like most of us, a worrier! However, if there is one outstanding learning in this often entertaining, sometimes chaotic, remarkably diverse, always...

In 1984, Jim Steinman and Dean Pitchford collaborated with the husky-voiced Welsh, yes that’s right, she’s Welsh, starlet Bonnie Tyler, to produce the almost anthemic, “I’m Holding Out for a...