Wednesday, November 3, 2010

National Day Reflections (1)

You know we're approaching National Day when:
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(1) the highways are decorated with Christmas lights.
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(2) poor labourers are touching up paint on the sidewalks at all hours of the day and night.
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(3) more poor labourers are putting up flags along the main streets at 3 a.m.
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(4) gardeners are taking extra care when trimming the bushes and trees in the centre of town.
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(5) every single event happening in the country ends up being dedicated to National Day (to celebrate 40 years, we're walking to spread diabetes awareness... to celebrate 40 years we're making the largest dishdasha in the world ... to celebrate 40 years we'll build more of this and more of that. I won't be surprised if Google ends up posting the national day logo on the main search page.
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(6) the (lazy?) Government sector gets double salary (or triple salary) this month but the private sector gets neglected as usual. (so much for encouraging people to move to the private sector!)
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(7) all ongoing projects (new roads, buildings, etc, etc) are expected to be completed by November 18!
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Sigh.
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Does anyone know when the holidays will be? I don't know how Oman plans to celebrate when, according to what I've heard, November 18th just happens to be the 2nd day of Eid al Adha. People will be too busy eating meat to celebrate 40 years.
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9 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 3, 2010 at 9:37 AM

    ... Bit of a shallow comment on point 7 from my side: Does this mean The new Lulu hypermarket & the new mall will be open on the 18th of Nov.??????? Maybe they should have put that date in the project planning as completion date! :-)

    Shocked comment on point 6: how is it possible that people who work for the govt. get 2 or 3x their salary? Is this tradition? And they presumably also get a longer Eid holiday. It definitely doesn't seem very fair. I've got a suggestion: maybe His Majesty can give everybody who works full-time in Oman an extra month's salary as a sign of appreciation. ;-)

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  2. AnonymousNovember 3, 2010 at 9:56 AM

    I'm thinking it will be Ministries will finish work 2nd December - and be back at work on the 11th eg the official holidays will be 4th-8th inclusive
    and the poor private sector - as usual a lot less

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  3. OmanNovember 3, 2010 at 10:03 AM

    I'm thinking it will be Ministries will finish work 2nd December - and be back at work on the 11th eg the official holidays will be 4th-8th inclusive
    and the poor private sector - as usual a lot less
    why?
    Its never on the 18th
    Eid for the government ministries could be so that they are off 15th – 20th
    Main National Day Events end November (same apples to usual practice on 18th no holiday ) & Queen Elizabeth’s visit
    So all that leaves the holidays to start of December – and to maximize the Government holidays ……
    what do you think ??

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  4. AnonymousNovember 3, 2010 at 10:40 AM

    Agreed. I am really disappointed that they have not announced the holiday schedule so far.

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  5. KimNovember 3, 2010 at 11:52 AM

    Salam Nadia.
    if you do find out when all the buzz will happen in salalah, please let me know. i want to be far away from all the traffic and high prices as much as possible..i think i may go somewhere beyond mirbat and hide in a tent with my laptop and a generator lol.

    i saw the xmas lights on the floor between the main roads and i asked dh..what are they for? he said national day.. i laughed so hard..the dhofar is going to look like a gigantic xmas tree..maybe they should only use 40 lights to celebrate 40 yrs.. better yet ill only smile at 40 people for the day.. ohh sorry my sarky comments. ill behave now.

    have a good one what ever you get up to. hiyyachAllah

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  6. AnonymousNovember 3, 2010 at 8:43 PM

    Lulu is definitely opening in December this year but then the Salalah World we need to wait maybe until the next National Day

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  7. CompayeeNovember 4, 2010 at 10:12 PM

    It's nice to live in a country (though I'm abroad right now) which hasn't got any designated national holiday such as the UK (though there are a couple of so called Bank Holidays though)

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  8. CompayeeNovember 4, 2010 at 10:16 PM

    It is nice to live in a country such as the UK (though at the moment I am abroad) where there are no officially designated (boring&tiring) national holidays (though we have loads of Bank Holidays :) but that's a different story)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_holiday

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  9. KkNovember 5, 2010 at 9:19 AM

    Ah..before we used have pics of HM on every pole..those lights..frankly I can't stand.

    Btw only Omani ppl in Govt get 2x or 3x salaries. Not expats!!

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