author - oman observer

The Muscat Marathon of 2020 is coming, and one person you cannot miss is the race announcer, the tall, lean bearded Eoin Flynn, the man with the golden voice, whose impeccable Irish lilt is just...

THE seaside location of Ras Al Ruways, near Mahout has never seen so much activity, or so many people as ‘eclipse chasers’ from all over the world converged on the idyllic sand dunes for a glimpse...

I am usually in a good frame of mind around this time of year, after all it’s the Christmas season, ‘time to be jolly,’ ‘goodwill to all men,’ and so on, but this year it’s difficult to...

Plagiarism is the current curse of higher education. For those stuck in the dark ages, it is “the act of taking another person’s ideas, words, or writing, and presenting them as your own.” Those...

Who would ever be a teacher? I often wonder, when I see the manner in which they are often taken for granted. Why even the great philosopher and statesman Mahatma Ghandi said, “Those who know how to...

Sons of Oman, don’t be passive and settle for okay. I challenge you to go out there and do things that are not only within your realm of possibility, but greater than that, within your culture,...

The ‘Bahrain Riders,’ a twenty-five strong group of motorcyclists from our Gulf neighbours made a welcome return visit to Nizwa, much as they do every year at this time, on their traditional Omani...

The Business Studies Department (BSD) of the Nizwa College of Technology recently conducted a Research Poster Exhibition to showcase its students’ research skills and academic intelligence through...

Paraphrasing James Bond, Torsten and Kirsten Rex are on vacation, and having the experience of their lives in a country that is light years removed from their home in Cologne, Germany. This fourth...

“The gun went off and hundreds of kids roared down the road towards me. I could’ve been trampled,” laughed Eoin Keith, the winner of the Oman by UTMB 170 km event, as he talked about the...

Proud Irishman, IT professional, and enthusiastic endurance athlete, 51-year-old Eion Keith, beat back a strong challenge from Oman’s Hamdan al Khatri, to win the inaugural 170 km Oman by Ultra...

There must be a decent amount of fossil fuels in the Sultanate’s ‘catchment’ for now, and it will always be needed, somewhere. But the genuine alternatives for overseas funds after that are few...

NIZWA, Nov 28 - Oman’s most challenging ultra-distance race, the Oman by UTMB, over 170kms of the mountains, cliffs, tracks and canyons of the mighty Jebel Al Akhdhar and the towering Jebel Shams,...

There is an old African proverb that “Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors,” that somehow has more allusion to our lives today, and that in spite of all of the technological advances of...

The son of a farmer, and retired former Ministry of Agriculture official, young Ayoub al Oufi is cutting a little career path for himself at the amazing Salut Archaeological Park, just 40 kilometres...

It’s entirely appropriate that on the same day you can see blood, sweat and tears from the worlds elite ultra-athletes at the end of November, you can share a light-hearted, family day out at Al...

How do you top climbing Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain?” It’s a question no doubt asked numerous times, of those who have actually climbed the great peak, and anyone else who has...

Renowned for his piety and frugality, and the complexity of his phonological analysis of classical Arabic poetry, Al Khalil Ibn Ahmad Al Farahidi was renowned and revered throughout the entire Asian...

Oman’s own version of Indiana Jones, local adventure athlete Riyadh Al Hinai, is taking on a new challenge at the end of the month when ‘The Beast,’ the Omani version of Europe’s toughest...

If I see that sixteen-year-old Scandinavian school-kid, Greta Thunberg, scowling at me from the pages of my morning newspapers again, whilst munching on my Cornflakes, I’m going to scream! Barely...