By Bob Van Leer

(MUSCAT, OMAN, Thursday, April 6, 2000) - This is the land of the Queen of Sheba and Sinbad the Sailor. At first look it is a country of bleak, rugged mountains and valley floors growing little but thorny, scrubby bushes.

   But that is not all there is to the country. Betty and I took a long tour of the countryside on a tour called "Wadi Bashing". Wadi is a term for canyons and the bottoms of some of them have live streams even in this land of very little rainfall. In some of the oasis areas there is farming of palm trees, bananas and mangos, but overall only 3% of the country is arable.

   Oman is an old country that was the major power in the region up into the 19th century. Zanzibar, off Africa's east coast, and much of coastal east Africa was under Omani rule. The countries reach extended east to dominate Baluchistan, now part of Pakistan. But in the late 19th century the empire fell apart and the country slept until oil was discovered in 1964. The country is ruled by a sultan. Sultan Qaboos Bin Sa'id assumed power in 1970 after a palace coup that ousted his father. The old sultan had basically closed the country to outside influence. Sultan Qaboos, with the aid of oil money, has dramatically developed the country since he took over. For instance, the number of schools rose from three (3) in 1970 to 840 by 1993, while hospitals and clinic beds increased from 12 to 4355 in the same period. Life expectancy is now 71.6 years, not much below the U.S.

   Sultan Qaboos has tried to avoid the mistakes of some of the other oil-rich states. In Oman, 25% of the country's 2.3 million population is expatriates. This may sound like a lot, but the comparable figure in Dubai is 80%. some of the oil states support their native population so well they don't have to work or, they have soft jobs with the government.
A Gulf newspaper article from Kuwait illustrates what has happened there.

   "Unemployment has soared as the sought government jobs can no longer absorb the some 10,000 Kuwaitis who enter the job market every year. Government figures have put the number of Kuwaitis working in the private sector as only 1.4% of the total work force. The government currently employs some 222,000 people, paying them high salaries for relatively short working days, while the private sector is dominated by expatiates. Kuwaitis are exempted from taxes an get education, health care, housing, electricity and water provided for almost free."

   Oman is about the size of Colorado and has a 1200 mile coastline. Temperatures can be fierce, up to 50 degrees Centigrade (22.2 C equals 72 degrees Fahrenheit). The overwhelming religion is Muslim but other religions are allowed.

   On our tour we drove about 100 miles from Muscat and about 25 miles inland. We passed through a number of villages and noted that Oman has kept to an Islamic style of architecture which gives the country a style. Much of the way we were on a modern highway which our driver said was the most expensive road in the country. A German company built it and some of the rock cuts going over mountains look impressive.

   Traffic rules are strict here. I heard a beeping sound and our driver said all vehicles are equipped with a beeper that sounds when the vehicle is going over 120 kilometers per hour (72 miles per hour). In the cities there are cameras at intersections and running a red light costs a week in jail.

   We were told that water in the city of Muscat is desalinated sea water and is piped to homes. Outside the capital, water is from springs and is delivered by tank truck to storage tanks in homes, not by pipes.

   Our next stop is Salalah, also in Oman, but far enough away that we will be at sea a day to get there. The prophet Job is buried in Salalah and the sultan has a palace there.