ISSUE NO.

31
may 3, 2011
P ub l ishe d
E V E RY first
tues d ay of
the M onth

IN THIS
ISSUE

articles

It’s the
female

Painting by:
Nujood Al Omrani
2
poetry

(Wandering
NUCLEAR POWER... A TREND OR A NECESSITY? in the Sand ,
Exiled, I am a
By: Aamal Rabia Al the use of oil and the amount countries which exceeds 50 their countries? And where valid to our hot weather is what ghost)

Rashdi
News spread three years ago
that Oman and other four Arab
countries (KSA, UAE, Egypt,
and Jordan) are willing to start
using the nuclear power for
peaceful uses like generating
electricity and desalination in
their countries.
These countries are not
planning to enrich Uranium
in their nuclear power plants.
They are intending to buy
ready-made plants with the en-
of oil spills and gases which
increase the pollution and the
heat of the earth causing global
warming. Thus, this kind of
power will reduce pollution
and provide much cheaper
electricity.
UAE has already started
on this project. They will
construct four nuclear power
plants with the cost of 75 bil-
lion$ and it will provide 25% of
electricity to the whole country
by 2020. Perhaps Oman is the
next!
°C in summer? Wouldn’t it fa-
cilitate the task for an extreme
explosion?
One will answer claiming
that safety standards in these
plants will minimize such risks
like in other countries with
such experience. Other coun-
tries? You mean like Russia? Or
let us give a closer example...
what about Japan? A country
with a far better experience
in nuclear plants. It could not
avoid explosions in its plants
after tsunami! Then, a much
are they going to fill the wastes
if the previous mentioned
countries like USA don’t know
where else to do so? Bearing in
mind that these nuclear power
plants, which produce radia-
tions, cause diseases and have
an effect on soil, plants and
animals.
Is it a trend that our coun-
tries want to follow or is it a
necessity to keep pace with
progress?
Such projects definitely need
further studies. The costs, the
3
Morocco has adopted. Moroc-
cans chose to use solar energy
and utilize the hot sun shining
in their sky only with the cost
of 9 billion$.
In fact, it’s good to employ
other resources of energy but
we should learn from others’ fiction
lessons. What should happen
now in Oman and all countries The Security
all over the world is to stop
harming the earth and go for Whose Heart
the eco- friendly projects that
guarantee efficiency with less Beat Before
pollution and less costs.

riched Uranium from countries
with longer experience in this
domain like: USA, Russia, and
France.
Such project will decrease
But what about the unavoid-
able radiations and the wastes
coming out of these nuclear
power plants? What about the
very high temperature in our
important question should be
asked. How would Oman and
other Arab countries avoid
such disasters when it is the
first experience of its kind in
6
climate, the expert workers Take it people: not every Stopping
should be put into account trend is chased! t
before rushing towards them.
A safer alternative to gener-
ate electricity that is very
2 ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011
Printed and
published by
Muscat Press &
Publishing House
It’s the female
By: Khalid Al Kindi
Translated by: Salim
EDITOR IN CHIEF Hamed Al Kindi
Essa bin
Mohammed I have just finished the Al
Al Zedjali Maghrib prayer in the Holy
Mosque of Makkah, where the
atmosphere of spirituality and
ceo warm feelings fill the sacred
Ahmed Essa space with a wonderful scent
Al Zedjali of faithfulness… And there I
hopped, pursuing the mortal
desires of life, but a gathering
Editorial for some of those who were
Supervision done with prayers before me
Mashaal Obaid Al- caught my attention when they
Hajri rushed towards a respected
Sheikh. That scene stopped me
Editors for a while. I could not identify
Thomas Roche who he was, for the distance was
Bader Al Jahwari insufficient for my eyes to get
Salim Al-Kindi hold of him. Despite that, the
Dalal Al-Attabi scene foretold that he would be
Azza Al-Kindi an exceptional religious figure;
Muna Al-Battashi especially with the sound speak-
Sara Al-Sheyadi ers starting to send what’s being
discussed in that lecture and
Text Selection such matter almost never hap-
Badr Al-Jahwary pens in the lectures in the Two
Holy Mosques. The incident
Design By compelled me to sit under one
Mahmoud Al Hosni of the sound speakers to listen
and I was also compelled to sit
after recognizing the voice and
Public knowing that the man was His
Relations Eminence Sheikh Abdul Aziz
Hasan Habeeb Al Al-Sheikh - may Allah keeps
Belushi him safe - the Al Mufti of Saudi
Arabia, our second home.
Special After finishing the lecture,
Thanks to His Eminence responded to a
selected number of questions
from the audience due to hav-
Society for Fine Arts ing the lecture between the Al
at Sultan Qaboos Maghrib and Al Isha prayers.
University His answers had a significant
depth in their reasoning and an
Photography Society extensive value in the knowl-
at Sultan Qaboos edge of origins. Although we
University have some different standpoints
on some issues with His Emi-
nence, which is a sign of sound
human judgment, I hereby
admit a personal admiration
for His Eminence and I pray
that Allah helps us to reach His
acceptance.
In any case, only a few mo-
ments passed before I was ren-
dered agape and the features of
my face were mixed with sorrow
and regret when a question from
one of the audience was read. He
was seeking deliverance from a
dilemma that had bothered his
mind and disrupted the peace in
his life. The issue was the rejec-
tion by his wife of wearing the
niqab (veil) despite his desper-
ate insistence. He was asking;
should he divorce her?! This
question brought back to mind
some story I had once seen,
aired by one television channel,
of a tribe in the Arabian Gulf
who forbid the husband from
looking at his wife’s face. The
tribe had a meeting to discuss
a matter of a very old man, who
had nine children from a wife
and had one time deliberately
looked at his wife’s face! Based
on that offense, the chiefs and
elders of that tribe had to dis-
cuss the issue and consider the
consequences of the old man’s
action!
Indeed, despite the vast-
ness and broad spaces of the
Arabian Gulf’s horizons, the
scope of the female sex is still
limited. Women have, since
the moment the human race
started, always been considered
as a key element in the forma-
tion of the social network. Part
of our legislative system seeks
to keep the broad objective of
the Islamic Sharia; to bring out
good and thrust away evil. This
procedural course in its total-
ity is greatly appreciated and
supported due to the fact that it
falls under the comprehensive
protection of the public interest
and there is no problem in that.
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
However, confusion occurs
when taking some matters with
a little extremism and narrow-
The issue was mindedness, and obliging people
to follow some concept without
the rejection adequate consideration of the
consequences of that mandate.
by his wife of Analyzing religious discourse
is not vital at the moment
wearing the neither is discussing the cur-
rent connotations that occur
niqab (veil) and how accurate these are
within the levels of realism.
despite his Furthermore, discussing the
Sharia standpoint of the niqab
desperate is irrelevant here, as many have
discussed it in detail. What is
insistence. He important at the moment, in my
point of view, is the necessity
was asking; to examine some of the cases
of family failures where a man
should he works as a negative factor
against the woman (the Arabian
divorce her?! Gulf woman in specific) and his
willingness to take apart in an
existing family from the social
network for some unacceptable
reason. Intellectual elegizing is
a tool of expression and change
towards the best for some
social issues, human concepts
and human cultures; although
some intellectual production
can be charged with unspeci-
fied absurdity, but it can create
some confusion over the general
pattern for the social under-
standing of issues. This intel-
lectual elegizing of the reform
advocates aims at achieving
some urgent rectifications and
mitigating some symptoms of
unrealistic human understand-
ing of divine calls. It also aims at
mitigating the symptoms of in-
tense feelings and calls that urge
the simulation of the Qurashi
community as a reference point
for today’s world. These calls
also demand the reproduction of
some historical features of clas-
sical eras that existed centuries
before with their unique cir-
TIMES OF OMAN
cumstances and considerations
that don’t seem to fit at ease in
today’s world.
These words might be read
by both men and women, who
support the discussed issue, as a
hidden call to fence in the ambi-
tious Islamic movements as well
as seeking the injury of a crucial
angle in these Islamic move-
ments, which is not the case at
all. It is rather a call for these Is-
lamic movements to proceed in
expanding and moving towards
human healing and working on
disabling all generators of hu-
man classifications of Muslim
societies and dealing with the
divine calls with a degree of
reflection, awareness and real-
ism. That is especially the case,
in the light of failures of many
political projects that are far
from touching the Muslim con-
science and which consider the
intellect of the Islamic move-
ments, in general, with some
apprehension and dissatisfac-
tion and considering them as a
factor of backwardness in the
contemporary renaissance. One
of the most significant reasons
for that negative perception
about the intellect of the Islamic
movement is the difficulty to
present some religious theories
as they are in reality due to the
fact that the writers did not
sufficiently interact with the
current interests and theorists
in the religious field and they
have to be accepting of that.
The divine order for women
to take the niqab off (unveil)
while performing Tawaf in Hajj,
despite the crowded and mixed
place, is a matter that provokes
thinking. That is because there
is no doubt that there are some
divine considerations to be
made, the least of which is the
emphasis of the right for all to
be uniform regardless of type or
TIMES OF OMAN
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
sex as well as to acknowledge
the identity of women which is
equal of importance as men’s.
To imprison a woman’s face
(her identity) behind a mask
only because she’s a female is
taking away her right of freedom
of practicing her rituals the
way she is. Such acts invite
the enemies of Islam and the
opponents of human renais-
sance to ridicule the ideologies
of certain Islamic movements
and consider them as negative
currents against renaissance
and urbanization. I don’t call for
opening the jurisprudence dams
so that the winds of enlighten-
ment could move towards the
daughters of Islam, but I call for
a reflection on the consequences
of those coercive dams through
their social tanks and I call for
the search of dynamic options
that match our contemporary
context. I also call for the judg-
ment of the human conscious-
ness, which led some men into
accepting the idea of taking his
family apart and rectifying his
way of thinking, dealing with
the woman in general and his
superior view. In other words,
producing new thorough models
that are more harmonious with
the current necessities and
whole with the aspirations of
the individual and society, i.e.
working according to a religious
anthropological system. Ignor-
ing that and indulging in reli-
gious theorization, which sole
purpose is to imitate the former
and commune in jurisprudence
with them, guarantees the ini-
tiations of individual conflicts
that lead to rebellion. Rebelling
not against the general move-
ment, but against some specific
aspects of it and that would
not be surprising at all. For ex-
ample, statistics show that the
recorded divorce cases in Saudi
have reached 24000 cases in
just 2005 alone. Specialists say
that this is due to the deficiency
in emotions and the low rates
of religious and social aware-
ness. This staggering number is
worthy of pushing the religious
theories to examine and inspect
the issue in detail. Some of the
intellectual trends (Atatürk-
ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011 3
related ones) believe that
theorization is already too late
and the fate of the nation has
become a shadow that should be
coped with. Regardless of how
accurate that perception is, real-
ity compels us to accept the idea
of modernization mobility based
on the inherent principles of our
religion. Allowing the exist-
ence of any opposition between
religion and society is sufficient
to infect the joints of the Islamic
movements with complete pa-
ralysis, thus agitating the whole
civilization project. Note that
the opposition intended here is
the result of atrophy in the space
of a human understanding of
religion, which is the savior of
mankind from its narrowness to
the vastness of this cosmos and
its extensive spaces.
There is no doubt that the
existence of some disastrous
representatives of such kind
of men is a sign of the severe
lack of ability to identify safe
directions and to draw safe
conclusions and paths. This
results into tearing the social
network or making it flabby. Not
only that, but it is an indicator of
a general fault in some Islamic
societies (GCC specific) and an
indicator that it is going towards
social deterioration having
failed to notice its own weak-
ness. If mankind desert religion,
they will definitely go astray
and stumble over the swamps
of ignorance and darkness of
primitiveness. The same how-
ever happens with a misunder-
standing of religion! t
Image courtesy of:
Sanna Al Humaidi
4 ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011
The Security Whose Heart
Beat Before Stopping
By: Mazin Habib
Translated by: Umai-
ma Al Harthi
It seemed like an urgent mat-
ter for him to paint the eroded
ceiling in his room with his bare
hands. In that room, he had lived
for a period of time with his col-
leagues. The white color of the
ceiling upon which his eyes fall
every morning after a turbulent
wake preceded by a series of
long shifts the next morning,
evening, or night, reminds him
of the hospital’s walls where he
still thinks that he will continue
to work for a while. When he
remembered the color (although
the color of the walls in the hos-
pital were not completely white
but rather milky), he sensed the
smell, which either reminded
him of a loss he had in his life,
or the bitterness he felt towards
it. The sound of people’s shoes
pounding on the floor was
growing in his head, making
him unable to remain in bed
any longer. Whenever he looked
up, the white colored ceiling in
his room reminded him of the
hospital even before he actually
goes there. In those moments,
his heart would beat so fast as if
it were going to stop.
From his uncomfortable seat-
ing position on the shabby plas-
tic chair which obscures half of
the visitors’ entrance, he could
monitor the situation closely.
He liked to contemplate on the
importance of his work and on
the power that he might yield
in either preventing or allowing
a visitor to enter just to see a
patient on the verge of death.
Sometimes, he thought about
his job, for which he received a
measly salary and which lacked
nobility and humanity, as a cruel
undertaking. He felt that he
was losing himself over time.
It seemed as if he was border-
line between the world of the
healthy and that of the sick. He
was indeed, but he did not know
to which of these worlds he
belonged. In truth, there were no
clear boundaries between those
two worlds - where someone
could belong to one and not to
the other.
Nevertheless, the only job
that he wanted to do the most
was to sit in front of the visitor’s
entrance although it seemed like
sacrifice for a young lad whose
face was no longer as youthful
as one would expect. This idea
seemed to be a secret that he did
not want to disclose to anyone.
He did this job and can no
longer see himself doing any-
thing else. Perhaps because he
has found himself doing it for so
long that it has become a habit.
For a long time, he avoided
working the night shifts in the
Emergency Department. The
color of blood, the surprising si-
rens of ambulances, the painful
whimpers, and the faces of rela-
tives of those who have emer-
gencies, were all transformed
into alarming mix of frequent
visits in his troubled sleep. And
since he could not prevent or
allow this and that to get in his
dreams, they were all intruding
without his permission.
However, he does not miss,
in his long shifts during visiting
hours, some of the moments of
TIMES OF OMAN
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
joy that sitting on the chair can
give while moving his glances
between walls and humans.
Sometimes he mocks himself
that if he stands up, it is likely
that the chair will remain glued
to his butt. He was not sure if
it were a joke that deserved to
be shared in front of others, let
alone to his colleagues or even
to strangers. It will negatively
affect his prestige. He has not
been seeking those joyful mo-
ments necessarily, but he has
not rejected them either. After
one particular long day of hate-
ful silence, having been com-
pelled to speak only in response
to the greetings of those who
enter and leave as well as being
placed in a situation in which
he has no authority over anyone
only in preventing a child from
visiting his sick father or his
mother who gave birth, he was
able to finally reward himself
by having a long dialogue with
one of the female visitors who
arrived late and was implor-
ing him to allow her in. He had
entered into negotiation with
her and allowed her “obligingly”
to visit, for an undisclosed price.
This price was in the form of
talking to her, looking at her fea-
tures and whatever revealed of
her body, smelling the womanly
fragrance emanating from her
body and the enticement of the
perfume tantalizing him with
what was hidden beneath her
clothes - all inflaming his wild
imagination and allowing him
to get as close to her as possible Image courtesy of:
without touching, to open the Asma Al Bulushi
locked door. He completed
this series of scrutiny with a
long look at her butt, although
 TIMES OF OMAN
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
Image courtesy of:
Anwar Al-Makhzoomi
nothing was visible since she
was dressed in a loose black
abaya . A deep sense of satisfac-
tion overwhelmed him with the
knowledge that both of them
got what they wanted from the
other without any harm.
His suppressed blackmailing
tendencies was not exclusive to
the female visitors but when-
ever he likes to have a bit of a
change, he delves into negotiate
with the male visitors to listen
to their excuses for an undis-
closed price too. They have
to come up with an innova-
tive excuse or an unheard of
storyline with exciting details
and upon his approval, he will
allow the visitor to enter. He
does not care if the story was
true or not, but it should be
subject to ratification, even if
he does not believe it. He would
spend his time surrendering to
the plotline of the claimed story
long after the visitor has visited
the patient and left the hospital.
His immersion with the story
carries on even after the patient
leaves the hospital. This was
enough to fill his time and to
provide him with distractions.
He dealt with all those excuses
and stories as fabrications not to
be taken seriously. He no longer
takes them personally as he did
when he first began working
that is not until a visitor makes
little effort to prepare convinc-
ing excuses, or narrates his
tale in faltering speech, or does
not provide sufficient credible
details. He then takes these epi-
sodes as direct personal attacks
set on insulting his intelligence.
Incidentally, he considers him-
self an unlucky intelligent guy.
All of these people are not his
friends and will never be, and he
does not hope that they would
ever be. However, he did expect
them to implicitly respect the
authority which his job provided
him and respect his intelligence.
He is fully aware that they will
not hesitate to invent any excuse
in order to enter. He could read
the faces of those who claim
that they were not aware of the
changes in visiting hours as an
excuse, and he couldn’t accept
such reasons for the sake of
one’s self-respect.
He would not try to hide his
anger when provoked by a visi-
tor. He would show discontent-
ment on his face and indica-
tions of having been insulted
whenever someone calls him a
“guard”. This is particularly so
when he hears a visitor convers-
ing on his cell phone to a patient
in one of the wards apologizing
for his visit because “the guard”
at the door would not allow him
to enter. He would allude to
the word guard as if he meant
a “school guard” or a “janitor”,
and they were both hard for him
to accept. All he would do is
glare at the visitor hoping that
he would sense his displeasure,
but most of the times the visitor
remains obtuse. Perhaps it is too
much to hope the departing visi-
tor would understand that the
reason for that glare was in part
due to the visitor’s lack of man-
ners in conversing on his cell
while attempting to enter. This
is how he preferred to confuse
his visitors, rather than reveal
his weakness to them. He would
show his annoyance, regardless
of the reasons just to provide
him with a sense of satisfaction.
He thought a lot. He didn’t
like talking on the phone like
his peers who obsessed with
talking to new girlfriends and
wasting their already meager
salary on useless things. They
were doing this to attest to their
masculinity, which, encased
ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011 5
MY OMAN
By: Safaa al nabhani
I have been thinking for a while
To sing for my great land
That draws on every cheek a smile
Where folks go hand in hand
My Oman my Oman
between four walls, seems to
unfold with the passing of time
and. If the ideas that often arose My words now flow in verse
in his mind were affixed on the
walls, the walls would turn black In pride or maybe cheer
from the excessive repetition
of words. The ideas themselves Telling the story of this nurse
were not black. They were just
ideas that have been recurring Who hugs us when we fear
and eventually clash. Every
night in bed while staring at
the ceiling, he retrieves those
thoughts. He would remember My Oman my Oman
the faces of visitors more than
anything else - the remark-
able ones in particular or the
ones related to a remarkable Our souls are yours
event that was worth recalling.
He would inspect the faces of And there is no harm can come
those who were prevented from
entering and try to commit their Nor dares a foe
last look to memory, especially
the angry look on their faces Tread our valleys or our farms
before they turn their backs on
him. The faces come to him at You banish every woe
his connivance, and he retains
them for when he needs to evoke
them. It is as if he is seeking
redemption and solace for his
conscience before sleeping. His
reasons for preventing visitors
entering may not be compelling
and the sense of guilt kills him,
but despite this, it does not stop
him from barring visitors from
entering.
6 ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011
The faces he revives while
trying to sleep gradually
decreases, and their features
become faint, their voices
depart, except for one face that
keeps appearing- its appear-
ance gradually increasing. Its
features have previously been
neutral but did not maintain its
neutrality since. The features
have taken on a look of anger.
This face was murmuring
inaudible words that could not
be identified or read. He, who
thought himself capable of
reading the body language of the
daily complaining visitors, could
not decipher what was being
said by those lips. Each time,
the utterances would become
different, ambiguous, and the
movements of the lips were
never repeated. He was not sure
at first if this face, which began
to haunt him gradually, belonged
to one of the faces of the visitors.
He could not find a resemblance
to it in his shifts.
The new faces he daily
encountered no longer adhered
in his mind. They were melting
like a piece of sugar in a cup of
coffee: he feels them without
identifying them. He searched
for the face among the passing
faces. The face has secured it-
self in his dreams and been loyal
in its visits. He no longer scruti-
nizes the faces approaching him
as he did in the past. He couldn’t
even if he wanted to. His glanc-
es at the passing faces are fleet-
ing and only to compare them
to that face. His frustration was
becoming apparent since he
could only search for the face
with those who approached him.
The dominant presence of this
face captured his imagination
and its existence kept his mind
busy. What if that face wanted
to tell him something? This
is a matter that was worth his
attention. He thought that this
is the reason for its frequent
visits. It was a face full of anger.
It was not a temporary anger
with which he was very well
acquainted. It is an accumulated
anger, probably of someone
having experienced injustice.
It was most likely closer to the
TIMES OF OMAN
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
anger of an oppressed, facing the
one oppressing him with chal-
lenge, without fear. Yes, on its
features appeared the wrath of
someone having nothing to lose
or fear any more. It is perhaps
because it had lost the cause for
fear. He, too, had thought about
the times when his own face had
reflected such rage. What had
he done to the face? He thought
while listening to his violently
escalating heartbeat: “Perhaps I
had prevented him from visiting
a patient once ... maybe he came
late to the visit. Perhaps he tried
to enter, and I did not allow him.
I might’ve impeded his attempts
to enter rather harshly. Or
perhaps he told me a story and I
did not believe it. Maybe he told
me about a relative inside the
hospital, and for some reason
or another prevented him from
visiting. Maybe he came the next
day, saw his ailing relative but
remained angry. What if the face
wanted to tell me something
else; something I do not know
now and I could not perceive.
What if he could not see the
patient after that day? What if I
was the one who prevented him
from visiting the patient and
which might have been the last
visit the patient receives in his
life”. t
Painting by:
Sanaa Al Humaidi
TIMES OF OMAN ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011 7

omani_beacon@hotmail.com

(Wandering in the Sand , Exiled, I am a ghost)

Written by Is- I am tired of the old path anger Be the blue bank I will come back, Between my fingers are grow-
shaq Al /khanjari In my ribs, That watches over me Do, come back ing
Translated by: Asma Al Your scream is a sky The breaking mud is a cem-
Dawoodi That sends life to the exile I… You etery, I love you
Tired of the night as my fore- The two of us, confused in as- I am dying Here I am,, on a stone
You’re the only one head similation My wounds moved pass me And you are away from me
In my details My sorrows are a horizon Going to the trap of the un- I am digging In the morning, I followed the
I love you Tired of this mirage known In longing past
Fire up a home in my body On my hand Who knows Sick of my glass Traveled in twos
I’m a journey Tired of my exhaustion Maybe, magic dwells in the I love you Listened to the coming burst
In front of you I love you poem, Two roses In the evening, I have no pi-
Never been a metaphoric Two stars united my soul I love you The flute, the vision geon warmth
Never known the dawn Your innocence when it I wish I wasn’t eastern I sing when your land lights I see no letter
boundaries touched me Nor the soar sand is my green I called him my child
In your eyes Your sudden revolution on me memory, I adore, your virgin prophecy Your sorry is the tone
I was watching the desert, You form water I read you, oh lightness god A virgin, hurt by an echo Above heart beats
Shaking, running away in Your departure is wasting Regressive I was No more dancing Your words hurt me
God’s land Stop being away But didn’t wake up Absence filled me Oh stranger,
Broken among my own voice I am empty alone, For what, I’m looking for? I looked for a shadow This is the memory of love
I want you as my inner moon An exhausting fog, Except for death My departure left me lost in torture,
I love you A ghost of my steps Exiled, the heart Singers’ mirror
Will your calls pull me to you? The sand doesn’t lead to rut I love you What to deny? Orphans’ map
Alone, I prepared my end And these palm trees are Lost in your voice water The way is tough An oasis, a north divided us,
Growing like the noon. tougher than my vision --- I love you Wake up,
In the sea breeze, I shook my inside Cultivating the words The clouds are still western There is no rhyme in talking
I fall, I bowed My roads up-rose Hoping for a white lake, My sorrow is full of tears I love you
I love you I love your pure call To get me A bow of nightly smoke is fol- In the south crossroad,
Never found the rain, I love you I hate my storms lowing me My language raised into the
The rain that taught me my ---- The sun I am blind unknown
features, only you… did Whatever your charming sky The harbor Stars don’t remember my life And it died
You’re the runner-away in my is, The drowns How can I be a star? So the horse will take me
craziness, Or anything else The smell of superstition And my blood is the prison Towards me
In the grass land Your desire is enough for me The stubborn cellos key. In vain
I wrote you as a pigeon As we walk towards a tendon The calling I am crying This stranger bites his image
To be the heart Your torturing new-born I hate them all I love you In vain. t
To survive beauty I hate the after-world bells What brightness occupy my
To stay a moving space Your mesmerizing voice The edges solitude
Like the wine Are enough… for me The flutes Gambling with dreams inside
You are The weird Gaff tree next to my me
I love you My time window But didn’t win
--- The wound prayer I love you A humiliating break-down
Without you, sounds are Is stronger than mine Oh wintery summer Opened a door
incomplete Sense my worry From an arrow The first cries come to me
The meaning in clouds isn’t I love you Windows filled the poem Are those of sick town convoys
enough You are my opening Get me ready Have mercy on me
To set me on fire My earth-uniting secret I may be your arrow It is the fever, torturing me
I don’t belong to the wind, And all the names, the beau- Today, there is no escape A wailing desires this orphan
Fall down towards me ties around me. From a destiny here Black shores
8 ISSUE NO. 31 | tuesday, may 3, 2011
“Culture” Looking for
the Identity of the Term
Written by: Hatim
Salim Abdullah
Translated by: Amira
Al Harrasi
A Cultural symposium, a cul-
tural phenomenon, a cultured
person, and perhaps a cultural
watermelon as well! The us-
age of “cultural” has recently
expanded to different areas of
life, which is mainly due to the
lack of a certain definition for
the concept of culture. Usually
there are certain concepts that
people commonly agree upon
and refer to in describing indi-
viduals as cultured and deeds as
cultural. Initially, having plenty
of knowledge should be enough
to refer to a person as cultured,
as well as it is enough to de-
scribe a deed as cultural if it has
to do with any field of knowl-
edge by one way or another.
The public and the educated
class share the same belief; ex-
cept that the latter excludes the
knowledge associated with ap-
plied sciences out of the frame
of culture. Apparently, this is
due to the belief that culture
is mainly related to intellect
and human sciences such as:
literature, arts, politics, philoso-
phy and economic theoriza-
tion. Applied sciences, on the
contrary, are just mechanisms
of civilization found in a more
comfortable life.
However, culture, in a differ-
ent case, converts the political
and social reforms of a society
at some stage in peoples’ lives;
particularly when peoples are at
the reaches of their desires for
liberty. The same thing applies
Image courtesy of: to the stages prevailed by criti-
Moroj Al Zidjali cism, ideologies, social and po-
litical theories which gather to
form an organized entity of, as
we can name it, enlightenment
omani_beacon@hotmail.com
movements. Hence, whoever
takes a supporting role in the
move is referred to as cultured. I
think this is close to the linguis-
tic meaning of culture, which
is intelligence and adroitness
or, in other words, the ability to
observe, formulate and solve
out problems.
From another perspective,
culture becomes a populist be-
ing as soon as it accompanies an
ethnic or international entity.
There the meaning of culture is
converted to an image reflect-
ing lifestyle, way of dressing,
traditions, religion, folklore,
music. This definition of culture
is common in public and formal
speeches, as if we are actually
talking about anthropology we
when talk about culture, the sci-
ence of studying human habits,
behavior and beliefs. Therefore,
it is good to mention there is a
branch of anthropology called
cultural anthropology!
The combination of all those
meanings will give us: knowl-
edge, reformation, and identity.
However, it is impossible to
come up with a definition that
combines the previous three
elements as they share no com-
mon concepts. Controversially,
if we accept the belief: culture
as an identity is an incident and
true culture is only reflected in
knowledge and reformation, an-
other sub-definition for culture
will be created. Culture will be
defined as: the knowledge that
promotes humanity, which is
the same definition stated in
some western books.
An issue like human-
ity’s promotion seems, at first
glance, to be progressive and a
constructive movement only;
however, thinkers explain that
it goes beyond that. That is, any
knowledge or experiment that
TIMES OF OMAN
contributes in improving mor-
als and artistic senses is part of
humanity’s promotion, and so it
is culture. Therefore, accord-
ing to the previous definition,
culture is related to civilization
as each one is the cause of the
other. Furthermore, this makes
us wonder whether civilization
is an old term for culture or
if culture and civilization are
basically different words for the
same concept.
Nevertheless, we cannot
describe culture as a confused
duplication. In the midst of
so many beliefs about what it
means, it remains a term that is
recognized through the social
and functional context of the
speaker, prior to anything else.
When an artist talks about cul-
ture he means intellect, when a
diplomatic talks about culture
he certainly means identity,
whereas when an ordinary per-
son refers to you as a cultured
person he or she means that you
posses good knowledge.
It is safer when the rage
and conflict over terminology
remains quiet in papers than
agitating a summer war for it.
It does not matter, be cultured
as you wish to be, but stay away
from the noise of definitions as
they are disturbing or so think
I!! t