Mentors: Inspiring the new generation
I have often felt that, having reached an age of some maturity, one of my life passions is to be able to pass on my professional and life skills to the younger generation. It would be such a waste, if...
The forgotten syllabus... workplace skills
Whether from college or university, we can rarely be certain that graduates will enter the workforce and workplace fully prepared. They will be enthusiastic, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of...
Half a world away, a journey continues
I reflect often upon how the Sultanate of Oman has been, for so long now, not only a beautiful jewel in the Arabian Gulf, but a warm, hospitable, oasis of tranquillity within a wider region so often...
Teachers required, with artistic motivation
How can we help our learners learn more, and be better? Maybe one of the problems with global education is that we don’t ask the learners. We keep going to the so-called experts, the educators,...
Changing the world: Once imagined... now real
Aren’t innovation and invention marvellous words? The implication is not just of something new or better, but something to change the world... like electric cars are becoming, almost life-changing....
Flying, wealth, tourism, and a little ‘Bond’
I see myself as a typical traveller, not a Goldfinger, and not made of money, but ‘doing alright,’ who would like to go home and see the family and friends every couple of years, and on the...
Democracy is very much on a knife edge
Global societies must look at the Sultanate of Oman's leadership and governance model, with its blend of hierarchical leadership and the social-democratic model of the Majlis Ash’shura, with so much...
The Third World Conundrum: Who Cares?
We possibly still refer to them as third world, the countries that still face the same enigmas they did more than half a century ago, a maelstrom of poverty, disease, conflict, and hopelessness that...
Covet their value... because you can’t spend thanks
Despite our good natures, our concern for nature and the environment, and our humanitarian dispositions, we are still by nature, covetous. Not in the greedy, avaricious manner that the word accurately...
English: Forever and a day...
The English language is a simple one to learn, or maybe Omanis are just very good learners, and it is now if not the most spoken language of our world, it has surely displaced French as the...
Words are all I have... to take your heart away
Although penned by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb, the Bee Gees, in 1968, somehow those words came into my head as I read of the passing of Omani poet Hilalah Al Hamadani, earlier this week....
Life, like a movie... It never really ends.
All of this week’s offering is plagiarised... well maybe, copied... or maybe simply inspired, by someone else... but is made up of some of the most impressionable philosophers, homespun and...
The journey matters as much as the goal
Experience, and experiences, have left me with a distinctly cynical perspective about many things, and disappointingly, too much of that is in the institutional encouragement to our young people to...
Get out of bed!
Why do you get out of bed in the morning? Because you must... to go to work, or school, or to care for your family, maybe cooking breakfast, or make coffee? We do tend to get up because we have to,...
I’m not complaining, but...
When it rains we want sunshine. When it’s hot, we want rain. We are so fickle aren’t we? Even though we know it’s the weather, and we are never going to change it. Are we just naturally moaners?...
Celebrate words of wisdom
You may not think it, but your Arabic literary culture is a survivor. Authors and researchers both within, and outside the region, point to a remarkable 600,000 different documents having survived the...
Understanding, respecting Disability
Have you ever had a pebble in your shoe, felt a twinge in a calf muscle, or in your back? Of course you have, and until you remove the pebble a couple of steps on, or until the twinge simply ‘goes...
Arabian Nights: Enriching the world
Arabic folk tales hark back to a golden age, with their origins to have been Persian, Indian, and Iraqi from the 8th century as performances, later formally written in Syrian Arabic script of the...
The ‘Echo Chamber’ phenomenon
When we see people protesting, particularly on social and environmental issues, have you ever noticed how it can be difficult to empathise, or sympathise, with them?To be honest, I thought it was just...
The Ballad of Bacari-Bronze O’Garro: Not a film
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is the name of a 2018 anthology western film by the Coen Brothers, Ethan, and Joel. Just one of the anthology tales follows the deeds, of cowboy anti-hero Buster...