author - oman observer

There’s no doubt in my mind that the first thing we should do, or I should do this week, is reflect upon the positive outcome of the Chiang Rai cave rescue in Thailand during this past week. Just...

Sometimes, as family heads, we must step back a bit from things like the price of oil, cars, phones and check what’s genuinely important to us. We all have the ethereal responsibilities such as...

Culture is defined as “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a people”. This very expression of the word tends to drive the separation of people though doesn’t it? It offers that...

Waddesdon Manor is an imposing Grade One listed house, meaning it has historical and architectural merit, built in the Loire Valley French chateau style in the county of Buckinghamshire, in the United...

petersen_ray@hotmail.com What do we want for our kids? Most of us raise our kids instinctively, based on our own childhoods, so do we plan their futures based on our own experiences? It’s hard...

When Dutch born Canadian, oil and gas service industry executive, Rene VandenBrand arrived in the capital last month, as part of a global fact-finding mission, the current oil revenue situation...

By the time you read this, Lena, my wife and I, will be ensconced in County Durham in the North East of the UK, where our daughter Sasha has purchased a beautiful old stone-built house. Like tens of...

Marhoon bin Mahfood al Nabhani, General Manager of the Ministry of Social Development, expressed his gratitude on behalf of a grateful community this week when the Golden Tulip Nizwa Hotel,...

I like to laugh, chuckle, be animated and engage with people, and if I have one significant disappointment in this very diverse environment, it’s inability to laugh readily, of many. Why this...

I’ve been doing some research recently in the Literature genre and was able to get the research paper published in a prestigious journal. It’s actually a part of our obligation towards academia to...

Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” But I’ll be the seer, and say that for the Sultanate, this has been a great week, as the oil price has soared...

My old rugby coach would probably be turning in his grave if he heard about what’s going on up on Jabal Akdhar. For him, a three-mile run every day, and 20 press-ups was all it took to get fit....

Summer vacations are looming, and with it the annual ‘outflux’ of expatriates on their annual leaves, not just to escape the heat, but to check on homes, families and pets. I noted a couple of...

Have you ever tried to imagine life after High School? Do you think getting out of High School is the end of your troubles? Let me tell you of the purgatory that awaits. School and university are so...

Someone asked me the other day, “Did you know that the X chromosome that determines males from females is reducing every year, and that in one and a half million years there will be no males...

Into thinking that the stunning Gold medal Award to young Omani students and inventors, Salim al Habsi, Ashhar al Malki and Amira al Abri, at the International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva last...

A trio of French Language authors met recently with an appreciative audience, at the Lycee Francaise de Mascate, under the patronage of the French Ambassador to Oman, Renaud Salins. The University of...

Ray Petersen - petersen_ray@hotmail.com - The long awaited and eagerly anticipated opening of the new Muscat International Airport will surely be a boon to Oman, and the region, with just a few...

A new initiative was launched at the University of Nizwa Department of Foreign Languages last week, as 24 participant students in the Current Events Course, took the opportunity to offer their...

Ray Petersen - petersen_ray@hotmail.com - It was the renowned fairy tale author, Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote, “Where words fail, music speaks,” and that thought came to my mind often...