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researchetcsblog · 4 years ago

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How a Non-Directional Radio Beacon Can Save Life

A non-directional radio beacon is an electronic transmitter in a fixed position, commonly used as a marine or aviation navigation aid, to emit a distress signal. In situations where ships and aircraft are operating in a non-standard or non-autical manner and are not equipped with adequate radars or GPS navigation aids, the use of a non-directional radio beacon is increasingly vital to ensuring the safe return of personnel and emergency situations. While the use of a distress beacon has been implemented since the days of the Wright Brothers' flight, the non-directional radio beacon was not developed until the Second World War. During the conflict, radio operators relied on signals from U.S. military broadcasts and signals from radio homing stations to mark their positions, allowing them to continue to communicate when communication lines were cut down or non-operational.

The use of a non-directional radio beacon proved invaluable to those in the aviation industry as it meant that they could continue to keep flying if there were a problem and not risk spending their valuable time transmitting distress signals to lost locations. As well as its use as a navigational tool, it also had the added benefit of allowing military rescue operations to continue when communications were cut. For many military personnel, the non-directional radio beacon became an essential part of their personal emergency kits. Many U.S. military Puma helicopters carry two portable non-directional radio beacon systems as part of their emergency kit.

The non-directional radio beacon research has become a popular item for those interested in purchasing a Pendant. It is not uncommon to find these devices for sale at auction, but you should always take caution when bidding or buying online. Bidders should exercise caution when determining the value of a non-directional radio beacon by taking note of any current depreciation. Non-directional beacons are typically very durable and rugged. Many are able to withstand the harshest weather conditions as well as being able to withstand the shock of a fall from a helicopter or plane. This is testament to the fact that they are dependable devices.

When purchasing a non-directional radio beacon, it is important to do your research. There are a wide variety of Pendants available, such as blue, white or red. Some of the most popular Pendants include the American flag, Celtic cross, American eagle, British flag and even the maple leaf. Another option when purchasing a non-directional radio beacon is to purchase one that is illuminated. This will allow you to clearly see the beacon during low light conditions.

It is important to bear in mind that the non-directional radio beacon should be serviced regularly. Most quality Pendants have a lifetime warranty and should be serviced regularly. Servicing will ensure that the device is operating correctly. It will also ensure that the batteries in the unit are not going to run down completely. When purchasing a non-directional radio beacon, you will want to ensure that you buy from a company that offers this service and has been using these products for years.

Most people find that once they have purchased a non-directional radio beacon that they use it on a regular basis. These devices are great if you need an easy way to notify people of an emergency such as fire or flood. Purchasing one of these devices, along with a cell phone, can give you much needed protection. Be sure to do your research and purchase the non-directional radio beacon that best suits your needs.

The research team projects that the Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon market size will grow from XXX in 2020 to XXX by 2027, at an estimated CAGR of XX. The base year considered for the study is 2020, and the market size is projected from 2020 to 2027.

The prime objective of this report is to help the user understand the market in terms of its definition, segmentation, market potential, influential trends, and the challenges that the market is facing with 10 major regions and 50 major countries. Deep researches and analysis were done during the preparation of the report. The readers will find this report very helpful in understanding the market in depth. The data and the information regarding the market are taken from reliable sources such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others and were checked and validated by the industry experts. The facts and data are represented in the report using diagrams, graphs, pie charts, and other pictorial representations. This enhances the visual representation and also helps in understanding the facts much better.

By Market Players:

AZIMUT JSC

HENAME

NAUTEL

Systems Interface

TELERAD

ARC Aviation Renewables

THALE

By Type

Radio Beacon Type

Locator Type

By Application

Civil Airports

Military/Federal Government Airports

Private Airports

By Regions/Countries:

North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

East Asia

China

Japan

South Korea

Europe

Germany

United Kingdom

France

Italy

Russia

Spain

Netherlands

Switzerland

Poland

South Asia

India

Pakistan

Bangladesh

Southeast Asia

Indonesia

Thailand

Singapore

Malaysia

Philippines

Vietnam

Myanmar

Middle East

Turkey

Saudi Arabia

Iran

United Arab Emirates

Israel

Iraq

Qatar

Kuwait

Oman

Africa

Nigeria

South Africa

Egypt

Algeria

Morocoo

Oceania

Australia

New Zealand

South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia

Chile

Venezuela

Peru

Puerto Rico

Ecuador

Rest of the World

Kazakhstan

Points Covered in The Report

The points that are discussed within the report are the major market players that are involved in the market such as market players, raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, end users, traders, distributors and etc.

The complete profile of the companies is mentioned. And the capacity, production, price, revenue, cost, gross, gross margin, sales volume, sales revenue, consumption, growth rate, import, export, supply, future strategies, and the technological developments that they are making are also included within the report. This report analyzed 12 years data history and forecast.

The growth factors of the market is discussed in detail wherein the different end users of the market are explained in detail.

Data and information by market player, by region, by type, by application and etc, and custom research can be added according to specific requirements.

The report contains the SWOT analysis of the market. Finally, the report contains the conclusion part where the opinions of the industrial experts are included.

Key Reasons to Purchase

To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the global market and its commercial landscape.

Assess the production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk.

To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the market and its impact in the global market.

Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations.

To understand the future outlook and prospects for the market.

Besides the standard structure reports, we also provide custom research according to specific requirements.

The report focuses on Global, Top 10 Regions and Top 50 Countries Market Size of Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon 2016-2021, and development forecast 2022-2027 including industries, major players/suppliers worldwide and market share by regions, with company and product introduction, position in the market including their market status and development trend by types and applications which will provide its price and profit status, and marketing status & market growth drivers and challenges, with base year as 2020.

Key Indicators Analysed

Market Players & Competitor Analysis: The report covers the key players of the industry including Company Profile, Product Specifications, Production Capacity/Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin 2016-2021 & Sales by Product Types.

Global and Regional Market Analysis: The report includes Global & Regional market status and outlook 2022-2027. Further the report provides break down details about each region & countries covered in the report. Identifying its production, consumption, import & export, sales volume & revenue forecast.

Market Analysis by Product Type: The report covers majority Product Types in the Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon Industry, including its product specifcations by each key player, volume, sales by Volume and Value (M USD).

Markat Analysis by Application Type: Based on the Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon Industry and its applications, the market is further sub-segmented into several major Application of its industry. It provides you with the market size, CAGR & forecast by each industry applications.

Market Trends: Market key trends which include Increased Competition and Continuous Innovations.

Opportunities and Drivers: Identifying the Growing Demands and New Technology

Porters Five Force Analysis: The report will provide with the state of competition in industry depending on five basic forces: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products or services, and existing industry rivalry.

COVID-19 Impact

Report covers Impact of Coronavirus COVID-19: Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost every country around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon market in 2021. The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought effects on many aspects, like flight cancellations; travel bans and quarantines; restaurants closed; all indoor/outdoor events restricted; over forty countries state of emergency declared; massive slowing of the supply chain; stock market volatility; falling business confidence, growing panic among the population, and uncertainty about future.

Global Airport Non-Directional Radio Beacon Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market report offers great insights of the market and consumer data and their interpretation through various figures and graphs. Report has embedded global market and regional market deep analysis through various research methodologies. The report also offers great competitor analysis of the industries and highlights the key aspect of their business like success stories, market development and growth rate.

Global Airport Video Surveillance Cameras Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Airport Video Recorders Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

Global Airport Metal Detectors Market Research Report 2021 Professional Edition Market

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fumpkins · 5 years ago

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'Blood Antiquities' Looted from War-Torn Yemen Bring in $1 Million at Auction

A minimum of 100 artifacts from Yemen have actually been effectively offered at auction for an approximated $1 million in the U.S., Europe and the United Arab Emirates given that 2011, according to a Live Science examination into the nation’s so-called “blood antiquities.”

The artifacts consist of ancient engravings, statues, coins and manuscripts from the Middle Ages, Live Science discovered after examining auction records.

A few of the artifacts have actually detailed provenance details that recommends they were secured of the nation years earlier, while others have little or no provenance details, raising the concern of whether they were just recently taken or looted. [Cracking Codices: 10 of the Most Mysterious Ancient Manuscripts]

Live Science likewise acquired shipping details revealing that given that 2015, when dispute in Yemen intensified into a civil war, there has actually been a rise in deliveries of artifacts, antiques and art sent out from Saudi Arabia (a nation that borders Yemen and is included in the dispute) to the United States. In Between January 2015 and December 2018, about $5,940,786 worth of these possibly smuggled products were sent out from Saudi Arabia to the United States. That’s compared to simply $3,703,416 of such products that were sent out to the U.S. throughout a 19-year duration in between January 1996 and December 2014.

It’s uncertain the number of of the artifacts, art and antiques sent out from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. were looted or taken from Yemen.

Continuous dispute

Demonstrations in 2011 through 2012 required Yemen’s long time president Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Efforts to form a steady nationwide federal government stopped working, and in 2015 the nation fell under full-scale civil war including various factions, consisting of the terrorist groups al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIL (likewise referred to as ISIS or Daesh). Countless individuals have actually passed away and millions are in risk of hunger, the United Nations has actually discovered. Airstrikes and weapons have actually damaged or harmed various structures, consisting of historic structures. [In Photos: The Destruction of Iraq Heritage Sites by ISIS]

Just recently, the Antiquities Union, a nongovernmental company that opposes the sale of looted artifacts and the Republic of Yemen (which manages area in the north, east and south of Yemen) put out a list of 1,631 items that were taken from a number of museums in Yemen.

“We call on the art market and general public to help recover Yemen’s missing treasures. These are ‘blood antiquities’ in every sense of the name. However, they are also the rightful property of the Yemeni people, which they hope to pass down to future generations,” Deborah Lehr, chairman of the Antiquities Union, stated in a declaration.

Live Science might not validate if any of the artifacts offered at auction given that 2011 are on that list.

Robbery through Facebook

A group of scientists with the ATHAR Task has actually been keeping an eye on 95 Facebook groups whose members consist of looters, antiquities sellers and purchasers. They just recently finished an in-depth research study of 4 of the groups that are based in Syria, finding 56 posts stating they had artifacts to offer from Yemen and 450 such posts providing Syrian artifacts, stated Katie Paul, an archaeologist who runs the task together with Amr al-Azm, who is a history teacher at Shawnee State University in Ohio. [Photos: Destruction at Syria’s Temple of Ain Dara]

“And we still have 91 groups we are working on recording,” Paul stated.

“The items being offered out of Yemen are significant. Carved stone, bronze statues, even historic items and weapons,” stated Paul, including that “in some cases, one of the more prominent traffickers we have followed has even posted photos of his find spot for artifacts.”

Furthermore, Live Science has actually been following a Facebook group that frequently has posts by individuals who declare to utilize spirits called the “jinn” to discover artifacts. While a lot of the group members are from Jordan and Palestine, a couple of are from Yemen.

Satellite images

Satellite images recommends that robbery of historical sites in Yemen is not as widespread as it is in Syria, Iraq and Egypt. A high-resolution satellite picture of Shabwa, an ancient city in Yemen, was gotten from Maxar Technologies and revealed to Michael Fradley, an archaeologist and scientist with the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Task (EAMENA), which is based at the University of Oxford in the UK. [Photos: Damage to Syrian Ruins Seen from Space]

Fradley discovered that a big location had actually been collected, potentially with a bulldozer, north of Shabwa’s ancient city wall, at some point in between 2010 and 2015. “It is not entirely clear why this area has been damaged in this way, but it seems most probable that stone or other material was being dug for building,” Fradley stated.

Based upon obvious pockmarks that suggest robbery in satellite images, Fradley stated that pillaging of historical sites in Yemen hasn’t increased considerably given that 2015, throughout the escalation of dispute. “This is in sharp contrast to the steep rise in visible looting pits that have been recorded from satellite images in countries such as Syria and Iraq during recent conflict periods, and countries with widespread looting issues such as Egypt,” Fradley informed Live Science.

There are some exceptions. For example, the website of al-Sawda, where the ancient city of Nashan lay, experienced a boost in robbery in 2013 that decreased in 2016, Fradley stated. “The looting focuses on an area southwest of the ancient city, presumably an extramural cemetery where tombs may contain grave goods,” Fradley stated.

A male called Mohammad Mabrouk Ayyach who lives near al-Sawda informed Mwatana, a nongovernmental company that keeps track of the war in Yemen, that al-Sawda “represents the history and civilization of our old generations and represents a great source of pride for us.”

“In the past, citizens would dig in the site to get gold or beads because of poverty and unemployment in the region,” stated Ayyach, keeping in mind that the website has actually just recently ended up being a battle zone that is not safe to get in. The press reporter utilized details gotten from the United States International Trade Commission.

Initially released on Live Science.

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New post published on: https://livescience.tech/2019/06/05/blood-antiquities-looted-from-war-torn-yemen-bring-in-1-million-at-auction/

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bigyack-com · 5 years ago

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Fears Over New Coronavirus Grip Davos

Hello from Davos, Switzerland, where business leaders are worried about the growing coronavirus outbreak. More below. (Want this in your inbox each morning? Sign up here.)

The big worries at Davos: disease and trade

Attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos are fretting about global trade in the face of threats from trade battles, the coronavirus outbreak and more.• Executives are worried about China’s coronavirus and how its spread will affect business in the hugely important market. Some expressed their fears yesterday with President Trump, who responded that he wasn’t concerned. (More on the outbreak below.)• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is annoyed that European countries are still weighing special taxes on American internet companies, saying this morning that creating a global minimum tax was more important and more fair.

The toll of closing of Chinese cities amid outbreak

Chinese officials have closed off the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a growing viral outbreak, and nearby Huanggang and Ezhou. It’s the latest sign of how serious matters have become, with at least 17 people dead and 570 sickened in countries around the world.Wuhan “is the hub of industry and commerce in central China, home to the region’s biggest airport and deepwater port and sometimes known as the Chicago of China,” Amy Qin and Vivian Wang of the NYT write.The outbreak could also have economic effects outside China. Analysts at Goldman Sachs warned clients that it could “shave $3 from oil prices thanks to a slowdown in air travel,” Pippa Stevens of CNBC reports.Beijing is worried about a repeat of the SARS epidemic, in which Chinese officials initially obscured the seriousness of the crisis, Ms. Qin and Ms. Wang add. That illness ultimately led to 800 deaths worldwide.

Report details how Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked

An alleged plot to infiltrate the Amazon chief’s phone appears to have involved an international cast of hackers and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, according to a report commissioned by Mr. Bezos and endorsed by U.N. investigators. Here’s how it played out, writes Sheera Frankel of the NYT.• Mr. Bezos exchanged phone numbers with Prince Mohammed at a dinner in L.A. in 2018. (Here’s who else was at that gathering.)• A WhatsApp account tied to the crown prince then began repeatedly contacting Mr. Bezos, without prompting.• On May 1 that year, the WhatsApp account sent Mr. Bezos a video file of about 4.4 megabytes, with about 14 bytes of malicious code. It’s not clear from the report whether Mr. Bezos opened it.• Within 24 hours, Mr. Bezos’ iPhone X began sending about 29,000 times its normal data usage.• Messages sent by Prince Mohammed’s WhatsApp account later that year indicated that the sender knew Mr. Bezos was discussing divorce with his wife, MacKenzie.The report said the spyware probably came from the NSO Group of Israel and the Hacking Group of Italy.U.N. experts endorsed the report and called on the U.S. and others to investigate the accusations. “The hacking of Jeff Bezos is in a different league,” Agnès Callamard, one of the experts, said in a statement. She added that “his hacking appears to have been driven by his ownership of The Washington Post.”It’s unclear what the Trump administration will do, given that it regards Prince Mohammed as an important ally and Mr. Bezos as the owner of a newspaper that irritates President Trump. An unnamed U.S. official told the WSJ that the administration was “concerned” about the accusations.

Inside Microsoft’s big fight with the I.R.S.

For years, the tech giant saved on taxes by shifting at least $39 billion in profits to Puerto Rico. The I.R.S. took aim at the arrangement — but, as Paul Kiel of ProPublica reports, the agency has been bombarded by Microsoft’s money and lobbying.• Microsoft’s arrangement involved selling intellectual property to an 85-person factory that it owned in a small Puerto Rican city. Its tax consultants at KPMG had persuaded the government to give the company a tax rate of nearly zero percent.• A small I.R.S. team leading an audit of Microsoft “used special powers that the agency had shied away from using in the past,” Mr. Kiel writes. “It took unprecedented steps like hiring an elite law firm to join the government’s side.”• Microsoft rallied trade groups to its side in the legal fight and lobbied Republicans and Democrats alike to oppose the I.R.S.’s tactics.The big picture: “Microsoft’s war with the I.R.S. offers a rare view into how a giant company maneuvers to avoid taxes — and how it responds when the government tries to crack down.”

Tesla’s market value hit $100 billion. Now what?

Elon Musk’s dream of having the electric carmaker’s market capitalization surpass $100 billion has been realized. Yet the hard work continues, Niraj Chokshi of the NYT notes.Tesla’s stock has been on a strong run over the past three months, raising the company’s market value above rivals like G.M. and Ford.The accomplishment puts Mr. Musk on the cusp of a big payday. If Tesla’s market cap can stay above $100 billion for six months, including 30 consecutive days, he’s entitled to buy about 1.69 million shares for about $350 each — a payout that would be worth about $370 million before taxes at Wednesday’s price.There are plenty of buts. Tesla is under regulatory scrutiny for crashes involving its vehicles, and questions remain about the stability of its business and its dependence on overseas sales, especially in China.And there are still plenty of doubters. The number of Tesla shares being shorted is equivalent to about 20 percent of its overall stock count.

Fairway files for bankruptcy

The New York City grocery chain filed for Chapter 11 protection last night, the second time in four years it has done so. That puts the fate of the Manhattan institution into question.The company said it would hold an auction for its operations, including its 14 stores. It has a “stalking horse” agreement to sell five stores to Village Super Market, the operator of the rival ShopRite chain, for $70 million, though another bidder could top that offer.Fairway had disputed a report that it would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which companies liquidate themselves with no hope of a turnaround. “Despite reports, Fairway Market has no intention to file for chapter 7 or liquidate all of its stores,” it said in a statement, though it hinted at an alternative plan.The context: The company struggled from debt it took on as part of an ambitious plan to expand beyond Manhattan. It also suffered from competition like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Amazon. It filed for Chapter 11 in 2016, though an executive said in 2018 that it had “bounced back.”

The speed read

Deals• Alphabet’s GV division and other investors have bought out WeWork’s stake in The Wing, a co-working start-up aimed at women. (Fortune)• John Malone’s Liberty Global is reportedly working on a takeover bid for Univision. (Bloomberg)• Permira agreed to sell the consultancy Duff & Phelps to two other buyout firms, Further Global and Stone Point Capital, for $4.2 billion. (FT)• The production company behind the hit podcast “Serial” is said to be considering a sale. The NYT is reportedly a potential suitor. (WSJ)Politics and policy• The Fed did not prevent the U.S. economy from growing 4 percent, as President Trump claimed. (NYT)• Bankers in Europe are increasingly complaining about negative interest rates. (FT)• Britain’s Parliament finalized the bill that will take the country out of the E.U. (NYT)Tech• The popular social network TikTok is becoming a political battleground. It’s also reportedly searching for a new C.E.O., who would be based in the U.S. (Vox, Bloomberg)• Attorney General Bill Barr has threatened to review a law protecting social networks from legal liability for content on their platforms as part of his campaign against big tech. (Information)• “Mysterious GPS outages are wracking the shipping industry.” (Fortune)Best of the rest• Health insurers have pledged to invest $55 million to develop cheaper generic drugs. (NYT)• Gov. Gavin Newsom of California objected to PG&E’s deal with bondholders to exit bankruptcy. (NYT)• Starbucks says it will encourage customers to try nondairy milk products to reduce its carbon footprint. (Bloomberg)• The Giants quarterback Eli Manning is retiring from the N.F.L. after 16 years. Here’s what many consider his greatest moment. (NYT, YouTube)We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Read the full article

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caveartfair · 6 years ago

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The Five Trends That Will Shape the Art Market in 2019

Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images.

Each January, art dealers and auction specialists return from the holidays to a period of relative calm, free from any bellwether auctions until February. It’s a perfect time to take a look at the trends that could affect the art market one way or another in the year to come.

An expected downturn overall

In March 2018, Clare McAndrew’s report “The Art Market | 2018” indicated that in 2017, global sales increased 12 percent to $63.7 billion, marking a year-to-year increase after two years of declines. All signs point to 2018 also being an improvement on the prior year, with Sotheby’s up 11 percent and Christie’s up 6 percent. But McAndrew’s report also takes into account sales at fairs and galleries, so we won’t know for sure until March.

As for 2019, some are expecting there to be a downturn in sales compared to the last two years. During the Sotheby’s quarterly earnings call in November, CEO Tad Smith noted that potential consignors could be spooked by political destabilization in China and a fracturing economy in the United States, and opt to hold onto their masterworks. Overall, Smith said, the auction house was “planning for market conditions in 2019 to be a bit more subdued than what we experienced at the end of 2017 and into early 2018.”

“With respect to the market conditions, there are uncertainties, including political noise here and abroad, as well as rising interest rates and slowing global growth,” Smith added.

Smith and his colleagues usually treat the earnings call as a forum for spinning bad news in as positive a light as possible, so the bluntness of such a statement shows just how concerned the top brass at Sotheby’s is.

A New York gallery scene in transition

Architectural rendering of 540 West 25th Street, New York. Courtesy of Bonetti / Kozerski Architecture.

Mid-tier galleries have spent the last few years trying to deal with skyrocketing rents in Chelsea, the New York neighborhood that has dominated the city’s art landscape since the early 2000s. In 2019, another neighborhood has emerged as a viable alternative: Tribeca, the loft-laden downtown area that’s been an artists’ haunt since the 1980s, but until recently was known more for its trendy boîtes and eponymous film festival than its white cubes. Among those moving in are Chelsea’s James Cohan and Andrew Kreps, who will join Bortolami, which left the main gallery district for Tribeca in 2017. From the Lower East Side comes Canada, and from Brooklyn comes The Journal, which will move in right next door to art advisor Lisa Schiff.

Meanwhile, the mega-galleries that can afford to stay in Chelsea are doubling down and building up. The new eight-story, 75,000-square-foot Pace building will open on West 25th Street in the fall; Hauser & Wirth is still readying its first purpose-built gallery complex at 542 West 22nd Street; and David Zwirner—who already has a museum-sized space on West 20th Street—is planning a five-story, $50 million building for his gallery at 540 West 21st Street. It’s being designed by Renzo Piano and is set to open in 2020.

A brain drain at Christie’s post-war department

The end of the year always brings a few high-profile auction world departures, but Christie’s has perhaps never seen a hemorrhaging of talent from a single department like it did at the end of 2018. The department’s international director Koji Inoue left to run Hauser & Wirth’s Upper East Side gallery, while Francis Outred and Loic Gouzer—heads of the post-war departments in Europe and New York, respectively—departed without specifying their next moves.

Auction houses losing key talent to galleries beefing up their secondary market machinery is not a new phenomenon, but the recent brain drain at Christie’s reshapes its entire team, and deprives the house of three big-game consignment hunters with few equals in the industry. Gouzer was the primary architect of the sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi (ca. 1500), which became the most expensive artwork ever sold when it was purchased by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in November 2017. Outred, meanwhile, secured for the house the Francis Bacon triptych Three Studies of Lucian Freud (1969), which sold for $142.4 million in 2013. And Inoue was integral in forging client relationships throughout Asia, helping to secure a Cy Twombly work in 2017 that had long been in the collection of a secretive Japanese businessman.

The ship is still being steered by chairman Alex Rotter, alongside fierce Christie’s stalwarts such as executive deputy chairman Barrett White, deputy chairman Andy Massad, international director and head of department Sara Friedlander, head of sales Johanna Flaum, and head of evening sale Ana Maria Celis. But with the next major sales coming up in London during the first week of March, Christie’s needs consignments to come in now.

The rise of Taipei against mainland China

Nangang Exhibition Center, Taipei. Photo courtesy of the Nangang Exhibition Center.

With auction houses reporting a decline in bidding from mainland China, the market is poised to anoint Taipei, the biggest city on the semi-independent island of Taiwan, as a new global art-selling capital. On January 18th, Taipei Dangdai, the first fair in the city devoted entirely to contemporary art, will open under the tutelage of former Art Basel in Hong Kong director Magnus Renfrew, and mega-galleries such as David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian, Thaddaeus Ropac, Pace, and Lisson all signed on for the inaugural edition.

Taipei Dangdai’s swift embrace by the world’s top galleries shows how collectors in Taiwan—which is officially called the Republic of China and is not an independent nation, but has little interaction with the mainland—have made the island an essential piece of any serious gallery’s Asia strategy. Sean Kelly Gallery, long a single-gallery operation in New York, chose to open its first overseas location in Taipei, and will have a project space that’s run by newly hired director of Sean Kelly Asia, Gladys Lin. And when Lévy Gorvy announced in November that it would be opening a gallery in Hong Kong, it also announced that it had hired a staffer to work in an office in Taipei.

The coronation of a new Asian art market hub comes at a time when collectors in mainland China have been buying less at auctions and fairs. The main reason for the downtick appears to be a government crackdown on spending money outside of the country, which is happening amidst a trade war with the United States that is cutting into profits. The first quarter of the year ends with Art Basel in Hong Kong, and by then, we should have a better sense of which parts of Asia are fueling the continent’s art buying.

The effect of Saudi Arabia’s investments

Political uncertainty may indirectly affect the overall mood of the market; just as often, auction houses and fairs are hit directly by the decisions of foreign powers. Case in point: In April, Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel threw a dinner for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS for short), at the Santa Monica home of producer Brian Grazer and his wife. They dined while surrounded by works by Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, and Ed Ruscha to celebrate MBS’s 5- to 10-percent stake in Emanuel’s entertainment company, Endeavor—which is the majority owner of Frieze, the art fair and media giant—that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund had purchased to the tune of $400 million.

Such a deal was already somewhat controversial given Saudi Arabia’s checkered human rights record, bombing campaign in Yemen, and MBS’s power consolidation that involved imprisoning his enemies in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton. But it was not until the journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul that Emanuel began the process of pulling out of the deal, telling the Hollywood Reporter that he was “personally…really concerned.” That’s a large chunk of change to have to return, and it remains to be seen how it will affect the launch of a new Frieze fair on Endeavor’s home turf: Frieze Los Angeles, which will hold its inaugural edition in February.

Frieze’s parent company is out nearly half a billion dollars, but other art world entities are still figuring out how involved to be with a wealthy Saudi government intent on investing in cultural infrastructure. In December, it was revealed that Sotheby’s has been in talks with MBS to build an art city in an archaeologically rich part of Saudi Arabia’s deserts. The auction house is still in an “exploratory phase,” according to a spokesperson for the country’s cultural commission. And in November, the magazines ARTnews and Art in America were sold to Penske Media Corp., which in February accepted a $200 million cash infusion from the sovereign nation’s Public Investment Fund.

from Artsy News

#Artsy News

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ericfruits · 7 years ago

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Saudi Arabia and the UAE are gobbling up Yemen

BRIGHTLY painted dhows bob on the waves of the Arabian Sea. Fishermen auction the morning’s catch of swordfish, tuna and manta rays. Sardines dry in the sun, fodder for the camels that pad through the street. Life used to be simple in the port of Ghayda, the capital of Mahra governorate, tucked in Yemen’s far east.

The arrival of soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is complicating things. Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, Yemen’s president, invited them into the country to repel Houthi rebels, who pushed him out in 2015. The Houthis control about a fifth of the territory. Saudi and Emirati forces hold much of the rest. But as their grip tightens, Yemen fractures.

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Saudi and Emirati officials say their deployments across the country are part of their war effort. But join the dots and Saudi Arabia’s positions match the incense trade route that long ran overland from the Indian Ocean to Arabia. The kingdom appears to be carving a new corridor to the coast. Meanwhile, the UAE’s actions in Yemen appear part of a larger strategy to gobble up ports along some of the world’s busiest shipping routes.

The Saudis, operating out of Ghayda’s airport, which they took in November, have bought favour with tribal sheikhs in the east and south by dispensing weapons, cars and Saudi passports. They aim to block Iranian arms shipments at the seaport. In Seiyun, to the west, they train fighters loyal to Mr Hadi. They are also working closely with Ali Mohsen, Yemen’s vice president, and his allies in Islah, an Islamist movement, to rebuild Yemen’s army, which the Houthis routed when they took the capital, Sana’a, in 2014.

The UAE has been even more active. Early last year the Emirates Red Crescent launched a humanitarian mission in Ghayda—by August the Emirati army had taken over the mission. The UAE has captured a string of southern ports, such as Mukalla, Aden and Mokha. It controls Yemen’s only gas-liquefaction plant, at Balhaf, and an oil-export terminal, at al-Shihr. The strategic island of Socotra looks increasingly like an Emirati base. The UAE also runs two military camps in the remote Hadramawt region, where its troops have trained some 25,000 local fighters.

In securing the ports, say analysts, the UAE’s goal is to enhance the position of its own port at Jebel Ali, the region’s largest, either by stifling competition or directing traffic in its direction.

Many welcome the Saudis and Emiratis. “Forget such outmoded notions of sovereignty,” says Abdelhadi Tamimi, an official in Hadramawt. “We can all profit from trade.” The UAE is financing hospitals and a new power plant in the energy-starved region. Officials in Seiyun hail a new counter-terrorism force, trained by the Saudis, as a bulwark against al-Qaeda. Locals also say Emirati-trained fighters are more disciplined than Yemeni soldiers and fleece them less at checkpoints.

But others fear a creeping loss of control. The Saudis and Emiratis run their own detention centres and keep local officials in the dark. Smugglers in Mahra complain of a loss of business, as the newcomers crack down. Many in the region speak Mahri, an ancient Semitic tongue, and fear that the Gulfies will impose Arabic. The handing out of passports causes alarm. Socotra has 60,000 people and Mahra perhaps 160,000. In theory both could be annexed.

Meanwhile, tension is increasing between Saudi and Emirati proxies. While Saudi Arabia seeks to stand up the old northern-based army under Mr Mohsen, the UAE trains fighters from the south, many of whom would like to re-establish South Yemen, which merged with the more populous north in 1990. Emirati-backed separatists took control of Aden last month. Some believe the move had Saudi assent and is part of a divide-and-rule strategy by the two Gulf states.

The many new Gulf-backed militias are accelerating Yemen’s fragmentation. Tribal leaders are exploiting the chaos. Pretenders claiming to represent the duwailat, or principalities, that made up the British protectorate of Aden are dusting off old flags. A self-declared council led by Abdullah al-Afrar, who calls himself sultan of Mahra and Socotra, has vowed to resist the Saudi-led “occupation”. “We fear Yemen will never be united again,” says Mr Afrar.

This article appeared in the Middle East and Africa section of the print edition under the headline "Gobbling up southern Arabia"

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qahtaniauction · 6 months ago

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shirlleycoyle · 5 years ago

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Why Is the Oil Price Negative and Can You Buy Some? An Explainer

A barrel of crude oil currently costs -$37.63 on the West Texas Intermediate futures market. This means that, quite literally, you can get paid to take oil, which is a pretty shocking thing to be writing for someone who grew up paying $4 a gallon for gas, watched America go to war in the Middle East in part to secure oil, and has generally been taught that “the price of oil” is why everything costs so damn much.

We should all have a backup plan in these uncertain times, and so now seems like it could be a good time to get paid to take oil, a commodity that has historically traded for more than $0 and has at times broken $100 per barrel. As someone who knows basically nothing about commodities trading but loves a good get rich quick scheme, I decided to call up commodity traders, academics, and people who study the oil market to learn a) what the hell is going on and b) whether I can get rich from the chaos. Here is what I learned:

Why is oil so cheap right now? There are two types of commodities markets: The “spot” market and the “futures” market. The spot market is where you’d go if you wanted to buy a barrel (or lots of barrels) of oil right now. It is pegged to a physical good being bought, sold, and traded in real time. There are various futures markets, all of which trade “contracts,” which are essentially pieces of paper that can be exchanged for some amount of grains, or hogs, or metals, or, in this case, crude oil. One oil contract on West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the most important futures market (and the one that went negative), is worth 1,000 barrels (42,000 gallons) of oil. All of these contracts are associated with real, physical barrels of oil. These futures contracts “execute” on a certain date, which is when the oil companies look at your piece of paper for 1,000 barrels of oil and become contractually obligated to deliver you 1,000 physical barrels of oil.

Most traders do not actually ever get oil. Instead, what they do is buy contracts of oil that are set to execute during a specific month, and when that month comes around, they kick the can down the road by selling the contract and buying one for a later month. In theory they do this to make a profit. Besides generally allowing speculators to make money, the futures market is important to the economy because it lets companies who use oil lock in the price they're going to pay for it far in advance, which gives some level of stability to their businesses.

“As much as we talk about commodities as a number or an imaginary contract, there’s a physical aspect to it,” Doug Stetzer, vice president of EKT Interactive, a company that trains people going into the oil industry about how it works, told Motherboard. “If you own a contract of crude oil, when it executes, technically, you have to take delivery of the physical crude oil.”

One commodities trader, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk to the press, said that having a contract execute is generally considered to be very, very bad. Traders are “taught on day one to never let these futures go to settlement. Because then you’re stuck with 1,000 barrels of oil and you have to find someone to take it for you.” When the economy isn't collapsing, these contracts ultimately end up with an airline or a refinery or an energy company or companies like that.

Normally, selling a contract isn’t a problem because America uses a shitload of oil, which means there are usually lots of oil buyers. But with everyone driving and flying less because of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for gasoline, petroleum products, and other refined oil products has plummeted. So big physical oil buyers such as airlines, refineries, and a host of other industries aren’t buying as much oil as they used to. But production has not slowed down. Russia and Saudi Arabia have flooded the oil market in recent weeks, and America and Canada continue to produce oil from our various onshore and offshore wells.

There are a few problems that have caused the price to plummet:

No one wants to buy oil

There is nowhere to put the oil

May’s futures contracts are set to execute at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time today

What this means is that a bunch of oil speculators who have no infrastructure or capacity to handle tens or hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil have a few hours to figure out what they’re going to do with the oil contracts that they bought a long time ago. It’s kinda, sorta like putting in a fake bid for a rare gem at auction and getting stuck with it, except in this case the thing you’re getting stuck with is hundreds of thousands of gallons of a poisonous pollutant. And so you have a bunch of people panic-selling oil for whatever they can get, which in this case means they are paying people to take oil so they don’t have to take it themselves.

What's happening right now is an anomaly, combining a usually routine monthly contract-execution deadline, a messy commodities market, geopolitics, and coronavirus, but also something like a cartoonish version of the market working as it usually does.

“Weird things always happen when the contracts expire,” Stetzer said. “But this is an extreme scenario.”

Just for reference, the types of companies that normally have the ability to take and store oil are companies such as Morgan Stanley, Glencore, Vitol, as well as some oil refinery companies. These companies are out of storage (or are running out of storage), and so they're not really buying much, either. But normally, having physical storage capacity gives these megacorporations some control over weird times like this: They can buy up tons of oil for cheap, store it, and then sell it later when prices are higher. “Having physical assets allows them to make trades other people can’t make,” Stetzer said.

Seemingly, this mess would offer both opportunity and a chance for deep introspection about what, exactly, we’re doing here. Both Stetzer and Alex Gilbert, who studies energy at The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, agreed we are in a bizarre and unprecedented situation.

Can I buy the oil? WTI is traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange In what is some outrageous gatekeeping, you must have a membership to trade directly on this market. According to CMEGroup, which owns the exchange, you must be “an adult possessing good moral character, a good reputation, business integrity, and adequate financial resources to assume the responsibilities and privileges of membership.” You also have to pay a fee, which costs roughly $100,000. This is obnoxious, but you can also pay a commodities trader to trade for you, which means that you can buy oil for this ridiculously low price, if you want to.

“The simple answer is you can buy a crude contract for a couple of bucks [or even receive money to buy one]. 42,000 gallons,” Stetzer said. “If you held onto it til after the market closes, you’d get a call from the exchange saying ‘come get your oil.’”

Alternatively, you can buy physical oil from a small oil manufacturer, but you’ll have to pay whatever price they tell you to, because they wouldn’t be selling it on a market. Planet Money did just that a few years ago.

Where do I get my 1,000 barrels of oil? Executed WTI contracts are delivered to Cushing, Oklahoma, which is the United States’ largest inland oil distribution center. It is connected to many, many pipelines. Oil that is purchased there is pumped to the Gulf Coast, where it is refined, You can also pick it up in Cushing with a tanker truck.

Where do I put the oil? This is basically the biggest reason why oil prices are so low right now. It’s not so much that oil is worthless, it’s just that there is too much oil right now, and there’s nowhere to put it. And so investors who are now stuck with a ton of oil they can’t do anything with now essentially have to pay people to store it. And there are increasingly fewer places to store the oil. Cushing, apparently, is out of places to put the oil.

“This raises a serious question of whether there’s enough oil storage in the country,” Gilbert said.

Unfortunately, you cannot just put it in a swimming pool. There are a lot of regulations about where you can store oil, but for the sake of argument, Stetzer estimates that 1,000 barrels of oil would fill up roughly three backyard swimming pools. You would need seven of these above-ground pools to store your oil.

Unused oil isn’t going to be burned or destroyed like unused food is being destroyed. (“The optics of seeing a ton of oil taken and burnt off would be really bad for the industry,” Gilbert said.) Instead, it will probably sit on shipping tanks and in pipelines in our oceans and underground, which could cause a whole lot of other problems.

Gilbert said that there is the very real possibility that pipelines will become "full" and overloaded with too much oil, which can cause a buildup of pressure and could cause environmental problems under a worst-case scenario or if there is not good coordination among producers. He did not say the pipelines could explode, but it very much sounded like he was alluding to the possibility that the pipelines could explode.

Why don’t we simply … make less oil? A smart thing to do, for the Earth, and seemingly for the industry, which is now selling their product for fewer than zero dollars, would be to simply make less oil. Ultimately this seems to be where we’re heading. Stetzer said, “It’s got to be turned off at the tap. People have to cut supply.” Gilbert said the only way to prevent pipelines from getting overflowed is to take the oil out of the pipelines by using it or to “stop the oil from flowing.”

One issue is that many oil wells simply cannot be stopped easily. “Demand is completely collapsing but you can’t turn off oil very easily. It has pressure, and so you essentially uncap the cork and it just flows out,” Gilbert said. “To re-cap it, you have to damage the well, which means you’re losing a lot of money.”

And so oil wells all over the world are essentially playing chicken hoping demand comes back or their competitors cut supply first—they would rather sell their oil at a loss for a short period of time than stop pumping the oil, because stopping their wells could end up costing more than taking the short term loss.

What’s going to happen? Nobody has any idea what is going to happen, but both Stetzer and Gilbert think that we will indeed make less oil. The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas production, is set to meet soon and is seemingly very seriously considering restricting oil production, which hasn’t happened in a half century.

It’s also possible that the federal government will use this opportunity to replenish its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which it uses to keep prices down when supply is low. Stetzer speculated that the U.S. government has the last bit of free oil storage capacity in America.

It is also very bad (for capitalism) that oil is trading for negative money. Traders and economists often look at the price of oil as a sign of stability, and oil prices also affect the prices of other commodities, travel, shipping, etc. While it's evil to go to war for oil, it's not stupid—oil is still, in many ways, the backbone of our economy and it's certainly the backbone of our transportation and shipping infrastructure. As much as we'd all like to say this is the end of oil, it is not.

"Unless things return to normal, we’re going to have very large price impacts and bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions, and instability," Gilbert said. "For me when I look at oil prices, I see an indicator of what’s happening in the global economy."

Is this all fantastically stupid? Yes!

Can I get oil and bring it to my house? If you're willing to drive to Oklahoma and obtain physical oil, let's talk.

Why Is the Oil Price Negative and Can You Buy Some? An Explainer syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

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mastcomm · 5 years ago

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DealBook: Fears Over New Coronavirus Grip Davos

Good morning from Davos, Switzerland, where business leaders are worried about the growing coronavirus outbreak. More below. (Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

The big worries at Davos: disease and trade

Attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos are fretting about global trade in the face of threats from trade battles, the coronavirus outbreak and more.

• Executives are worried about China’s coronavirus and how its spread will affect business in the hugely important market. Some expressed their fears yesterday with President Trump, who responded that he wasn’t concerned. (More on the outbreak below.)

• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is annoyed that European countries are still weighing special taxes on American internet companies, saying this morning that creating a global minimum tax was more important and more fair.

Mr. Trump appeared more preoccupied by Boeing — “big, big disappointment to me,” he said — and the impeachment trial in the Senate.

The Davos roundup:

• Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook said at a private party that the company would help users improve their privacy practices on the social network.

• Why Davos attendees’ preferred way to fight climate change is planting trees.

• The cannabis industry is trying to get a piece of the action at Davos.

____________________________

Today’s DealBook Briefing was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin in Davos and Michael J. de la Merced in London.

____________________________

The toll of closing of Chinese cities amid outbreak

Wuhan “is the hub of industry and commerce in central China, home to the region’s biggest airport and deepwater port and sometimes known as the Chicago of China,” Amy Qin and Vivian Wang of the NYT write.

The outbreak could also have economic effects outside China. Analysts at Goldman Sachs warned clients that it could “shave $3 from oil prices thanks to a slowdown in air travel,” Pippa Stevens of CNBC reports.

Beijing is worried about a repeat of the SARS epidemic, in which Chinese officials initially obscured the seriousness of the crisis, Ms. Qin and Ms. Wang add. That illness ultimately led to 800 deaths worldwide.

Report details how Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked

• Mr. Bezos exchanged phone numbers with Prince Mohammed at a dinner in L.A. in 2018. (Here’s who else was at that gathering.)

• A WhatsApp account tied to the crown prince then began repeatedly contacting Mr. Bezos, without prompting.

• On May 1 that year, the WhatsApp account sent Mr. Bezos a video file of about 4.4 megabytes, with about 14 bytes of malicious code. It’s not clear from the report whether Mr. Bezos opened it.

• Within 24 hours, Mr. Bezos’ iPhone X began sending about 29,000 times its normal data usage.

• Messages sent by Prince Mohammed’s WhatsApp account later that year indicated that the sender knew Mr. Bezos was discussing divorce with his wife, MacKenzie.

The report said the spyware probably came from the NSO Group of Israel and the Hacking Group of Italy.

U.N. experts endorsed the report and called on the U.S. and others to investigate the accusations. “The hacking of Jeff Bezos is in a different league,” Agnès Callamard, one of the experts, said in a statement. She added that “his hacking appears to have been driven by his ownership of The Washington Post.”

It’s unclear what the Trump administration will do, given that it regards Prince Mohammed as an important ally and Mr. Bezos as the owner of a newspaper that irritates President Trump. An unnamed U.S. official told the WSJ that the administration was “concerned” about the accusations.

Inside Microsoft’s big fight with the I.R.S.

• Microsoft’s arrangement involved selling intellectual property to an 85-person factory that it owned in a small Puerto Rican city. Its tax consultants at KPMG had persuaded the government to give the company a tax rate of nearly zero percent.

• A small I.R.S. team leading an audit of Microsoft “used special powers that the agency had shied away from using in the past,” Mr. Kiel writes. “It took unprecedented steps like hiring an elite law firm to join the government’s side.”

• Microsoft rallied trade groups to its side in the legal fight and lobbied Republicans and Democrats alike to oppose the I.R.S.’s tactics.

The big picture: “Microsoft’s war with the I.R.S. offers a rare view into how a giant company maneuvers to avoid taxes — and how it responds when the government tries to crack down.”

Tesla’s market value hit $100 billion. Now what?

Elon Musk’s dream of having the electric carmaker’s market capitalization surpass $100 billion has been realized. Yet the hard work continues, Niraj Chokshi of the NYT notes.

Tesla’s stock has been on a strong run over the past three months, raising the company’s market value above rivals like G.M. and Ford.

The accomplishment puts Mr. Musk on the cusp of a big payday. If Tesla’s market cap can stay above $100 billion for six months, including 30 consecutive days, he’s entitled to buy about 1.69 million shares for about $350 each — a payout that would be worth about $370 million before taxes at Wednesday’s price.

There are plenty of buts. Tesla is under regulatory scrutiny for crashes involving its vehicles, and questions remain about the stability of its business and its dependence on overseas sales, especially in China.

And there are still plenty of doubters. The number of Tesla shares being shorted is equivalent to about 20 percent of its overall stock count.

Fairway files for bankruptcy

The New York City grocery chain filed for Chapter 11 protection last night, the second time in four years it has done so. That puts the fate of the Manhattan institution into question.

The company said it would hold an auction for its operations, including its 14 stores. It has a “stalking horse” agreement to sell five stores to Village Super Market, the operator of the rival ShopRite chain, for $70 million, though another bidder could top that offer.

Fairway had disputed a report that it would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, in which companies liquidate themselves with no hope of a turnaround. “Despite reports, Fairway Market has no intention to file for chapter 7 or liquidate all of its stores,” it said in a statement, though it hinted at an alternative plan.

The context: The company struggled from debt it took on as part of an ambitious plan to expand beyond Manhattan. It also suffered from competition like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Amazon. It filed for Chapter 11 in 2016, though an executive said in 2018 that it had “bounced back.”

The speed read

Deals

• Alphabet’s GV division and other investors have bought out WeWork’s stake in The Wing, a co-working start-up aimed at women. (Fortune)

• John Malone’s Liberty Global is reportedly working on a takeover bid for Univision. (Bloomberg)

• Permira agreed to sell the consultancy Duff & Phelps to two other buyout firms, Further Global and Stone Point Capital, for $4.2 billion. (FT)

• The production company behind the hit podcast “Serial” is said to be considering a sale. The NYT is reportedly a potential suitor. (WSJ)

Politics and policy

• The Fed did not prevent the U.S. economy from growing 4 percent, as President Trump claimed. (NYT)

• Bankers in Europe are increasingly complaining about negative interest rates. (FT)

• Britain’s Parliament finalized the bill that will take the country out of the E.U. (NYT)

Tech

• The popular social network TikTok is becoming a political battleground. It’s also reportedly searching for a new C.E.O., who would be based in the U.S. (Vox, Bloomberg)

• Attorney General Bill Barr has threatened to review a law protecting social networks from legal liability for content on their platforms as part of his campaign against big tech. (Information)

• “Mysterious GPS outages are wracking the shipping industry.” (Fortune)

Best of the rest

• Health insurers have pledged to invest $55 million to develop cheaper generic drugs. (NYT)

• Gov. Gavin Newsom of California objected to PG&E’s deal with bondholders to exit bankruptcy. (NYT)

• Starbucks says it will encourage customers to try nondairy milk products to reduce its carbon footprint. (Bloomberg)

• The Giants quarterback Eli Manning is retiring from the N.F.L. after 16 years. Here’s what many consider his greatest moment. (NYT, YouTube)

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow.

We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected].

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/business/dealbook-fears-over-new-coronavirus-grip-davos/

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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Tips & How to travel to Oman in 2019

For most people back home, Oman is an exotic, off the beaten track destination which would never get into their travel plans, and they are particularly surprised when I tell them that Oman is a country that has been receiving tourists for decades.

I mean, Oman was never the type of country filled with random backpackers and casual independent travelers, but Western tour groups were not a rare thing to see, and both the harbors of Muscat and Salalah were daily loaded with cruise ships coming from all over the world.

It was, however, an exclusive country, with very little and really expensive tourism infrastructure; but today, thanks to the gradual internationalization of its neighbor Dubai, Oman is becoming a popular destination, both for expats who wish to escape from the urban jungle of Dubai, and Westerners who wish to explore the most traditional and welcoming Arab country.

This travel guide contains everything you need to know to travel to Oman, including all the practical information, travel tips, top experiences and loads of cultural facts.

If you are interested in Saudi Arabia, read here how to get a visa and travel to Saudi

Here you will find:

Intro: why visit Oman Visa for Oman Best time to visit Oman Travel insurance for Oman Books for traveling to Oman 5 Top experiences in Oman Tours in Oman Is Oman safe 20 Cultural facts about Omanis and Oman Food in Oman Money and budgeting Transportation in Oman How to get in Accommodation Internet More information

Intro: Why visit Oman?

I have visited Oman 7 or 8 times.

The fact is that I lived in Dubai for nearly 3 years, and going to Oman was the classic weekend getaway.

Two years after leaving Dubai and my corporate job, I came back to the region and decided to travel around Oman for a whole month, this time without a car, right before making my way to Saudi Arabia.

I love Oman, I absolutely love it, for many reasons, but mainly because it is a country which, unlike the United Arab Emirates, Qatar or Kuwait, has managed to keep its own character and traditions.

Oman is an oil-rich country, but they don’t need to spend billions building extravagant buildings and nonsensical monuments.

No, they don’t need to because people visit Oman to meet the kind-hearted Omanis, to check out the incredible coastline and the most epic mountains in the Arabian Peninsula, which go as high as 3,028m.

However, I like to travel to Oman because I freaking love experiencing a culture which, despite the modernization of the country, has managed to preserve all its traditions and that is why, today, in Oman you can still attend a livestock market and always share a meal with a local in the traditional way.

Not surprisingly, Oman is getting immensely popular, but the good thing is that the country is big enough, so you can still find loads of off the beaten track places that have remained untouched for centuries.

Welcome to Oman.

Animal auction in Rustaq – I was the only tourist in the entire market

How to get a visa for Oman

Most nationalities can buy an Oman tourist visa on arrival:

30-day visa: 21 rials or 60USD.

10-day visa: 5 rials or 13USD

Multiple-entry visa, valid for 1 year: 50 rials or 130USD.

If possible, try to pay in either Omani Rials or with a credit card, because the price in USD is higher than the actual exchange rate.

You can also buy your Omani visa online through this portal at a discounted price (around 1 rial), which is 2-3USD, for the 30-day visa at least.

What nationalities are eligible for visa on arrival?

European Union, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Moldova, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, San Marino, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela

If you come from any other country, I suggest you check the e-visa portal.

Do you have UAE residence? If you are not in the lucky countries list, but you are living and working in the United Arab Emirates, you may also be able to get a visa on arrival. However, you should check it with your own embassy.

Entry & stamp for Oman – Oman travel blog

Best time to visit Oman

In Oman, there really isn’t a spring or autumn season but the weather just evolves from crazy hot to pleasant. Note that, depending on the year, May and October could still be really, really hot

Summer: May to October Winter: November to April PROS

Pleasant weather in the high mountains

Low-season prices

Monsoon season in Salalah (South Oman)

Pleasant weather across the whole country

Loads of social life, events, etc. (Omanis are in their best mood)

CONS

Unbearable heat across the country

High levels of humidity in the coastal areas

Summer is so hot that you can’t even go to the beach because the level of humidity is just crazy – I found this beach around 2 hours driving north of Salalah

Travel insurance for Oman

Hey, Oman is an adventure destination, a country where you may be camping in the wild, go trekking and do epic road trips, plus their health care system is private.

For this reason, you should get the right insurance and I strongly believe that World Nomads is the best one because:

It covers the largest number of adventure activities

It is the only company that gives an unlimited medical budget

Pretty much any nationality can apply for it

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE QUOTE FROM WORLD NOMADS

Books for your trip to Oman

Oman Travel Guide by Bradt – The guide to Oman by Bradt is, definitely, the best guidebook about Oman that exists.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

Arabian Peninsula travel guide by Lonely Planet – They also mention UAE and other Gulf countries but if you like collecting the LP or want to combine a few countries, this is also a good option.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

5 Top experiences in Oman

Some travelers may not agree with the below list, basically because most of them are not on the tourist trail, but having visited Oman extensively, getting quite off the beaten track, these are my personal must-try experiences:

Traveling to Dubai? Read my complete 1-week itinerary to UAE for the independent traveler

Experience the khareef season in Salalah

In Oman, there is a place full of green meadows, where it rains, and the locals sell locally-grown coconuts, pineapples, and papayas. This place is called Salalah, in southern Oman, a city that experiences a monsoon season called khareef, which takes place from July to September.

During this season, Salalah becomes beautiful and lush green, attracting visitors from all over the country, as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Lush green hills of Salalah during the monsoon season – I took this photo in 2014, the first time I visited Oman

Driving the coastal road from Salalah to the Yemeni border

Very few travelers visit this remote part of the country, which is a real shame, because the coast of Dhofar province is home to the most dramatic coastline in Oman, composed of lush green mountains which, at the same time, serve as vertiginous cliffs that directly drop to turquoise-blue waters.

A type of landscape you would never think of in the Arabian Peninsula.

It looks like Hawai, right?

Dhofar coastline, somewhere near the Yemeni border – By the way, this isn’t a drone photo, but it was taken from the top of a cliff

Experiencing the Omani traditional life

What I like about Oman is that, unlike its neighbors from UAE, Qatar, Bahrain or Kuwait, it is a country with a complex, ancient history that managed to keep its traditions.

From livestock markets to artisan shops, actual Bedouins and historical mountain villages, the cultural experience in Oman is just as great as its epic landscapes.

Artisan man, in Nizwa

Camping at one of the many wadis in Oman

Oman is about outdoors and since the country is not known for its nightlife, not even Muscat, both locals and expats tend to spend their weekends outdoors, especially camping in a wadi (valley) over a night barbecue.

If you want to join an Omani group, check the weekly events on Couchsurfing.

If you decide to go alone and go on a weekend, expect kind Omanis to tell you to join them.

One epic wadi, somewhere in Oman

The historical heritage, from ruined cities to epic forts and abandoned villages

Despite being a mostly desert country, Oman has a fair amount of historical places to visit, ranging from well-restored, impressive forts, like the one in Rustaq, Nizwa or Bahla; to absolutely ruined historical cities like the barely visited one in Manah.

Moreover, the mountains of Oman are also filled with abandoned villages that had been inhabited for centuries, but due to their inaccessibility, the Omani Government gave the villagers incentives to move to more accessible towns.

The ruined city of Manah

Manah ruined city

Do you need to join a tour in Oman?

Heads-up.

Oman is a difficult country to move around, basically, because you hardly find public transportation.

Therefore, to travel in Oman, you need to either rent a car or go on a tour.

There is a third, more challenging way: hitchhiking – but we will get into that later.

If you want to go on a tour, I recommend the guys from GetYourGuide, as they offer a large variety of tours for all prices, and you can book them with just one click. These are some of the best tours they offer:

Empty Quarter – Well, like I said in the top 5 experiences, the Empty Quarter is one of the top experiences in Oman, and in any case, you can’t really go on your own, so booking a tour is your best bet. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Muscat City Tour – Muscat is full of amazing sites, but it is not very walking-friendly precisely. Joining a tour will definitely prove cheaper than hiring a taxi driver. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Jebel Shams – The Grand Canyon of Oman is one of the most epic, natural places in the country, and it is easily visited from Muscat on a day trip. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Nizwa Tour – One of the most historically important cities in Oman has a great souq and a beautiful fortress. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Musandam – Dolphin watching and the most impressive fjords in the Persian Gulf. CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL TOURS IN OMAN

Taking sunset photos in epic Jebel Shams – Oman travel guide

Is it safe to travel to Oman?

Oman is safe and, perhaps, one of the safest countries I have ever been to, no kidding.

Even the utterly negatively-exaggerated FCO advice says that Oman is trouble-free.

The fact is that Oman is one of those countries where crime is a rare thing to see.

Actually, a good friend of mine from southern Oman told me that since he was born 40 years ago, there is only been one murder in his province (Dhofar), and it was between foreign workers.

How many people have been murdered in your province or city?

There are no pickpockets and nobody will mug you. Oman is very safe and terrorism is unheard of, especially because it has always kept away of all Middle Eastern conflicts.

For a more comprehensive analysis, read: Is Oman safe?

Here you can find all my travel guides to the Middle East

An abandoned village in the middle of an oasis

20 Facts about Omanis and the country of Oman

1 – Oman is an Arab country and Omanis are Arabs – It is one of the 22 countries that comprise the Arab League.

2 – Many Omanis are ethnically from Zanzibar – From the 17th to the 19th century, the Sultanate of Oman was a major maritime force which controlled a large part of East Africa, Zanzibar being one of the most important territories.

When you travel in Oman, you will see a lot of very dark Omanis with strong East African features. Most likely, their ancestors come from Zanzibar but, culturally, they are 100% Omani.

Read my city guide to Muscat!

3 – And then you have the Baluchis – Balochistan is a region spread across Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan and, for many years, the Baluch city of Gwadar (in today’s Pakistan) was under Omani rule. Baluchis were known for being fierce warriors and that is why, over the centuries, the Sultanate used them as loyal mercenaries to consolidate Oman’s power.

Today, a large population of Baluchis still remain in Oman (about half a million) and while they are considered 100% Omanis, many of them speak a distinct language which is close to Hindi or Urdu, and they have similarities with their South Asian neighbors.

4 – But there are more groups – From the several Dhofari tribes in southern Oman (which are culturally closer to Yemen) to the Bedouins, Oman is ethnically rich.

An Omani man from a certain Dhofari tribe, somewhere in the remote mountains of Dhofar province

5 – South Asians make up around 45-55% of the total population – By South Asians, I mean people from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh, especially Bangladesh, most of them being workers with low-qualified jobs.

Bengali man selling fruit in Oman

6 – Arabic is the official language – Omani Arabic is very similar to the one spoken in UAE, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf countries, with its own similarities, of course. They claim that the Arabic from the Gulf is the closest to Classical Arabic, the Arabic the Quran is written in.

7 – Other languages, however, are also spoken – I personally spent several days in Dhofar province, staying with a guy named Mussab in a small village north of Salalah. Mussab spoke Jabali (Shehri), a language that sounded completely different from Arabic. He said that some old people from remoter villages in his region can’t speak Arabic, only Jabali.

8 – Many educated Omanis speak English – Especially in Muscat but, in smaller cities and rural areas, communicating in English can be a problem sometimes.

9 – Most Omanis are Sunni Muslims – There are small concentrations of Shias in Muscat and along the northern coast, but Sunni Islam is the prevalent religion.

10 – And they are a very conservative society – Islam is the basic pillar for pretty much any Omani, including the young generation. I hung out with Omanis from all ages and social classes and I barely met anyone who didn’t pray 5 times a day. They are strong believers and most of their rules, habits, and laws are based on Islam.

Some old Omanis in the market of Nizwa

11 – Conservative, but tolerant with foreigners – In Oman, there aren’t specific rules dictating how you need to dress, and alcohol is widely available for foreigners. Women don’t need to cover up and, if you want to wear shorts, you just wear them. Omanis understand the cultural differences between themselves and Europeans, so you don’t need to explain anything to them.

A piece of advice for women – When I was traveling in the touristic areas of Oman, I saw quite a few Western women dressing like they would do in a beach destination back home, and that was with very tight and small clothes. There isn’t really a law against that, and Omanis are the kindest people on Earth, so most likely, whatever you wear, they won’t say you anything to you because you are their guest. However, I certainly know that many Omanis get bothered when they see a woman dressing like that, especially in villages. Look, I know that I shouldn’t tell a woman what to do, but just bear in mind that you are in their country and, in order to enjoy their kindness and hospitality, showing your respect for their culture is a great start. You don’t need to cover your head or anything like that, but just try to dress more conservatively, and you will see that Omanis will receive you in open arms. For more information, read: Solo female travel in Oman

12 – Some of the most hospitable people ever – You may think this as a cliché statement, but it’s not. Omanis are in the top 3 of the most hospitable people I have ever met, along with Iranians and Pakistanis.

Over my backpacking journey, I lost count of all the house invitations I got, plus the kindness of the many locals I hitched a ride with, always willing to meet and help you, expecting nothing in return.

With a family of Bedouins, somewhere in Central Oman

13 – You will visit many guest rooms, but nothing beyond that – Omanis are very private. Families don’t really like people entering their houses, especially because it is the only place where their women can roam around freely.

For this reason, all houses tend to have a guest room, which is a living room attached to the main entrance of the house. If you are a man, you won’t be allowed to cross that room but, in that room, you will be treated like a royal guest.

14 – About women – Yes, Oman is a conservative Muslim society and as such, women have fewer rights than men but still, they are much further ahead than Saudi Arabia, especially when it comes to high education and public jobs, and you will hardly see any women wearing the niqab. However, you won’t really see women socializing alone in the street and, as a man, you will hardly talk to any of them.

Read: 9 Misconceptions about traveling as a female in Saudi

Men & women dancing together, in a random festival I attended in Badiyah

15 – Expect to see many pictures from Saddam Hussein – I traveled around Oman always hitchhiking and, during my journey, I got lifts from many people who had Saddam Hussein’s photo hanging from the rear mirror.

One of the few cars I saw with a picture of Sadam

16 – Get used to shopping from the car – Omanis have a strange custom which is that they don’t like to get out of their car when they go to the grocery store or want to take away food. Instead, they stop at the entrance and beep like crazy until a poor Bengali comes out asking for their order. A strange custom which I never managed to get used to.

17 – They even have drive-thru ATMs – When I was at the gas station of Salalah, for the first time in my life, I saw a drive-thru ATM, which was also located right next to a few normal ATMs. The shocking fact was that there were 3-4 cars standing on the line, yet, the normal ATMs were empty, which meant that they preferred waiting to getting out of the car – and it wasn’t due to the heat because it was during winter.

18 – The strangest signboards for shops – ”Fish Marketing”, ”Food Stuff”, or ”Café that offers meals mainly”, among the most classic ones.

Café that offers meals mainly

19 – Sultan Qaboos is the most beloved leader in the world – There isn’t a single Omani who doesn’t love their leader and the reason is that he has made their country great, not only when it comes to giving free stuff to its citizens – like houses – but he introduced a bunch of liberal laws (like freedom of religion) which his dictatorial predecessor didn’t allow.

20 – What you need to know about camels – In Oman there are a lot of camels, but most of them are concentrated in the south, in Dhofar province (the north is more about goats). Dhofar is perhaps, the place with the largest concentration of camels in the world, no kidding. They are absolutely everywhere, like sleeping in the middle of the road and stuff like that. Unfortunately, most of them will end up their days in a butchery.

Tales of Omani hospitality – I wish I had space here to tell you all the stories of hospitality and kindness I had with the tens of Omanis I hung out with. As I told you before, I traveled in Oman completely by hitchhiking, camped in the middle of towns and cities, and did a lot of Couchsurfing. When you are backpacking this way, the local interactions are non-stop and in most cases, Omanis just tried to be overwhelmingly helpful. I got invited to have coffee to countless houses, they took me out for lunch and dinner every other day and, on many occasions, the people I hitched a ride with, always insisted on driving me to my exact location, even if that required them to make a huge detour. For this reason, I strongly recommend you travel in Oman independently, not on a tour.

I love camels

Food and coffee in Oman

Honestly, food isn’t the highlight of any Oman trip, but there are some surprises and interesting facts.

The first thing you need to know is that Omani cuisine is very limited, as it mainly consists of meat or fish with rice, served in ridiculously massive portions.

Camel meat is eaten all across the country but nowhere like in Dhofar province, the place with perhaps, the largest concentration of camels in the world. In Salalah and around, camel meat is eaten very regularly in most restaurants, usually grilled, but you also find camel shawarmas, burgers and stuff like that.

Grilled meat plus a huge amount of rice. This massive Omani meal cost around 7-8USD and it could feed 3 people

Besides rice with its respective portion of protein, you may also find shurbah, a local soup made of oatmeal, tomatoes, and other vegetables.

That’s it pretty much when it comes to Omani food but, one day when I was Sadeh, a coastal village 2 hours north of Salalah, my host wanted me to eat a very special dish from his region.

And what are we gonna eat? – I asked

He didn’t know the name in English, so he Googled it and said: It’s called oysters. My friend catches them.

I thought we would be eating oysters in the same way we eat them back home but instead, he brought a massive dish of oysters without shells, cooked in a spicy sauce, but they still preserved the strong sea taste oysters usually have.

That dish was, definitely, one of the best dishes I ever had traveling, if not the best.

Loads of oysters, cooked in a spicy sauce

On the other hand, due to the big Indian influence, you also find loads and loads of restaurants – even in the smallest villages – serving all kinds of Indian food, ranging from daal to fish curries, and even calamari masala, always very cheap. Daal was usually my everyday breakfast.

Here are some facts about eating when you travel in Oman:

Typically, you will eat on the floor, with a plastic tablecloth

Usually, everything will be served on one single plate, even if you are several people, and you will eat from the same plate.

You eat with your hands, and no plates or forks are provided.

Guests are not supposed to leave any food – That was hard because of the XXL portions

In rural areas, you should eat with your right hand and doing otherwise is considered rude – This rule applies in all Muslim countries but Oman is particularly conservative and, along with Saudi Arabia, it is the only country where, on several occasions, the locals told me I was doing it wrong (I am left-handed).

What you need to know about kahwa

Kahwa is the local coffee from the Arabian Peninsula, consisting of regular coffee with cardamom, served in a traditional pot.

The problem with kahwa is that if you travel in Oman independently and have a lot of local interactions, you will be offered this coffee several times a day, meaning that you will have a shit load of cups, therefore, your heart rate is likely to increase.

When I was hitchhiking in Central Oman, where tourists are rare, one day I had to have more than 25 cups of kahwa – no kidding – as you are supposed to have at least a few when you are offered.

If you are in a house, kahwa will be typically served with dates and if you are lucky, with tajin as well, a kind of sauce in which you dip your dates.

In fancier occasions, they will serve it with halwa, a traditional sticky, jelly-like dessert made of wheat starch, eggs, saffron, cardamom, nuts, and A LOT of sugar. It’s a bomb.

What to do with all the dates – Of course, dates are immensely popular in Oman, especially in the north, and they claim that dates from Nizwa are the very best. Every time I stayed with an Omani from the north, they gifted me with a crazy bag loaded with dates, and they were so heavy. Since I couldn’t finish them all, they were piling up, so every time I hitched a ride with a foreigner, I also gave them dates.

Money & budgeting when you travel in Oman

In Oman, they use the Omani Rial (OR) and, approximately, 1USD = 0.39OR – Yes, it is worth more than 2USD.

Omani Rials are split into baisas (bzs) and 1OR = 1,000bzs

The Omani Rial is a stable currency.

Exchanging money – Given the fact that half of the population are foreigners, money exchange offices abound.

ATMs – Plenty of ATMs everywhere

Credit cards – In local eateries, taxis, small shops, budget hotels etc. you must pay in cash, so always bring plenty of it.

How much does traveling to Oman cost?

All right, Oman is an expensive destination (yeah, really), for two reasons:

There is no public transportation

There aren’t budget hotels

How much you will spend when traveling in Oman is hard to say, as it will depend on several factors.

For example, I have never spent much because, during my first 6 or 7 visits, I always came with my own car and used to camp in the wadis or the beach and, on my last occasion, I was purely hitchhiking and Couchsurfing, so I barely spent 20USD a day.

Local food is actually cheap but, if you rent a car and stay in hotels, costs will add up significantly.

Here are the typical prices of the most basic stuff:

One-month visa – 20OR (52USD)

Welcome package SIM + Data – 3OR (7.80USD) but then you pay 3OR for 1GB

The most budget hotel – 10-12OR (26-31USD)

A plate of daal – 500bzs (1.30USD)

A biryani – 1.5OR (3.90USD)

A big bottle of water – 200bzs (50¢)

A beer – 4OR (10USD)

Short taxi rides within Muscat – 2.50OR (6.50USD)

Bus from Muscat to Salalah – 7OR (18USD)

How to travel in Oman on a super budget:

Do hitchhike (it is fairly easy)

Do Couchsurfing

Only eat in Indian-run restaurants

Go to the mountains and camp outdoors

If you want to know more, read my guide on how to go backpacking in Oman on a super budget

Half Omani Rial, the most curious note

Transportation tips – How to move around Oman

In Muscat

Regular taxi – If you don’t have a car, taxis are the way to go in Muscat. They don’t have taximeters, however, and taxi drivers from Muscat are really annoying because they always try to rip off tourists. I recommend using Careem or Uber.

Bus – There are a few bus lines in Muscat that go all the way to Ruwi from the airport. They cost 500bzs. For more information, read my Muscat City Guide.

Renting a car in Oman

To be very honest, Oman is a country which is best explored by car, as the vast majority of its places are completely inaccessible.

A car will make your life much easier, plus you will be able to find epic camping spots and just have a lot of freedom.

I recommend you find your car via Rental Cars, a search engine that helps you find the best deals, no matter where you are.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE BEST CAR RENTAL DEALS IN OMAN

Do you need a 4×4 for your trip to Oman?

Before making this decision, you need to think: where are you going to go?

The roads in Oman are generally good and the only 2 places I went where a 4×4 was needed were Jebel Akhdar and the road from Al Hamra to Rustaq via Bald Sayt.

Then, you have the Empty Quarter but, even if you had the best 4×4, it is not recommended to go without an experienced driver – The dunes in the Empty Quarter are a few hundred meters high, and they are shifting sands.

Unless you really want to drive off-road, bear in mind that renting a 4×4 is much more expensive than a regular car, so you really need to assess whether it is worth to pay the extra money for being able to go to Jebel Akhdar and Bald Sayt.

Bus

Traveling in Oman by bus sucks, for 3 reasons:

They just go to the main cities and towns

There are only a few a day

Cities in Oman are not walking-friendly, so when you get to a city by bus, you are screwed again.

Going by bus isn’t a good option for traveling in Oman.

Hitchhiking

The best option for budget backpackers.

Hitchhiking in Oman is super easy. I hitchhiked more than 1400km, from Salalah to Muscat and everything in between, and never had to wait much.

For more information, read my budget backpacking guide in Oman.

Why visit Oman? Camels are often found on the road

How to travel to Oman

Traveling to Oman by air – Today, there are many international connections coming from different European and Asian cities to Muscat. However, flying to Dubai will always be cheaper, so I recommend you check both and then you decide. The southern city of Salalah also has an international airport, with connections from other Arab countries, India, Pakistan, etc.

Traveling to Oman by land – Oman shares a border with UAE, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

UAE – Traveling from Dubai to Muscat is a 400km drive. You can come by car but there are also buses from Bur Dubai. Check here for more info.

Saudi – Apparently, the border was recently opened, but there are no buses and it is actually faster going through UAE, which would be a 1,300km drive from Riyadh to Muscat. Read my travel guide to Saudi Arabia.

Yemen – The border is open but it is a very long drive. For more information on visiting Yemen, read this post.

Accommodation tips – Which kind of accommodation do you have?

The first thing you need to know is that in Oman there aren’t hostels or guest houses, only hotels.

Budget Hotels – Only available in big cities and on roads. You pay 25-30USD for a single room but on the bright side, the few I stayed in tended to be clean and have some minimum standards.

Hotel-apartments – In big cities, you can also find hotel-apartments, which are very good value-for-money if you are more than 2 people.

Mid-range hotels – In rural touristic places such as Jebel Shams, Jebel Akhdar, villages like Bald Sayt, etc. there aren’t budget hotels and rates may easily start at 100USD per night.

5-star hotels – The offer of luxury hotels in Oman is very large.

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE LATEST HOTEL DEALS IN OMAN!

Airbnb – Probably, the most budget options but the offer is quite limited outside of the main towns. Remember that, if you create an account through my link, you will get up to 35€ of FREE credit on your next booking.

Couchsurfing – Plenty of profiles but I recommend you send the requests in advance because Omanis tend to take a while to reply.

Internet

Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi usually works great but, unfortunately, it is difficult to find a Wi-Fi network, as the internet is expensive in Oman, so only hotels and Western-style cafés can afford it. So, when you are traveling in rural Oman, getting connected may prove challenging.

Moreover, Wi-Fi networks tend to require a local Omani number in order to connect, so you will have to buy a SIM Card anyways.

SIM Card – SIM Cards in Oman are expensive as well. Omantel is the most popular one. They offer an entry plan which may be enough for short-term stays but then, if you are planning to travel to Oman for several weeks, the price per GB is pricey, like 8-9USD for 1GB worth of data.

More information to add up to this Oman travel guide

Here you can find all my articles and guides to Oman

Traveling to Saudi Arabia? Here you can find all my articles and guides to Saudi Arabia

Are you traveling to Dubai and have little money? Read how to travel in Dubai on a budget

Iran is so close to Oman, are you going there? Remember to check then my tips for visiting Iran

And here all my content to the Middle East

This Oman travel guide contained everything you needed to know for your trip. If you have any additional information, or questions, kindly post it in the comments section

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trunewsofficial · 5 years ago

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President Trump Greenlights Rand Paul’s Olive Branch to Iran

President Trump has given Senator Rand Paul the go-ahead to sit down for talks with the Iranians in a bid to ease tensions with the Islamic Republic. POLITICO reports the president gave the plan the green-light last weekend during a golf outing. The plan would have the senator sitting down with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. While officials have confirmed the president’s approval, it’s not yet known if a meeting has been scheduled. This comes amid conflicting reports, however, about Iran’s willingness to sit down for talks. Tuesday, Zarif gave a statement that strongly suggested his government would be willing to talk about its ballistic missile program—a first for the Islamic Republic and a major concession that aligned with the president’s goal. The foreign minister reportedly put a high price on gaining the concession: ending all military sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But later Wednesday, he reversed course and insisted he never said his government would be willing to negotiate with the U.S. Meanwhile, the drumbeats for war continue in the Persian Gulf. The United Kingdom has announced it is sending HMS Kent, a frigate, to the Persian Gulf. There, it will replace HMS Montrose, which will undergo a refit at its home port in Bahrain. HMS Duncan, a destroyer, is already en route to the gulf region to help protect British shipping interests. Those interests have been in jeopardy since the July 4th seizure of the “Grace 1 supertanker” with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatening the UK with “consequences.” But now an Israeli group has petitioned the British court in Gibraltar to have the Iranian oil tanker auctioned off. The proceeds would then go to pay a 178-point-5 million dollar judgment to the family of Chaya Braun. The American 3-month-old was killed five years ago when a Hamas terrorist drove a car into a group of pedestrians at a Jerusalem light rail station. Here in the U.S., Justice Department officials have announced the extradition of one Iranian man and unsealed the indictments of two others who were exporting carbon fiber to Iran through third countries in an effort to circumvent sanctions and American export controls. Carbon fiber has a number of aerospace and defense applications, including the construction of centrifuges used to enrich uranium. According to the Justice Department, the men exported “many tons” of the substance over five years. Iran certainly hasn’t given the Washington war hawks a reason to blink. During an impromptu meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Iranian special envoy Hussein Abdullahian denounced “the occupying regime of Israel” as a “destabilizing cancer and the root cause of insecurity and instability in the region.” He added “the Zionists do not have a future in the region.” But DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources say the meeting was a sign of a growing rift between Tehran and Damascus which has been accused of contacting “Iran’s enemies.” And in neighboring Iraq, tensions between Turkey and the Kurds worsened after a restaurant shooting in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital city of Erbil. Three Turkish diplomats were killed, including the local deputy consul when gunmen opened fire at an upscale eatery. Turkey does not have the best relations already with the Kurds, and now Ankara has vowed it will retaliate. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. (Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons) source https://trunews.com/stream/president-trump-greenlights-rand-pauls-olive-branch-to-iran

#TRUNEWS - Rick Wiles

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fumpkins · 5 years ago

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'Blood Antiquities' Looted from War-Torn Yemen Bring in $1 Million at Auction

At least 100 artifacts from Yemen have been successfully sold at auction for an estimated $1 million in the U.S., Europe and the United Arab Emirates since 2011, according to a Live Science investigation into the country’s so-called “blood antiquities.”

The artifacts include ancient inscriptions, statues, coins and manuscripts from the Middle Ages, Live Science found after analyzing auction records.

Some of the artifacts have detailed provenance information that suggests they were taken out of the country decades ago, while others have little or no provenance information, raising the question of whether they were recently stolen or looted. [Cracking Codices: 10 of the Most Mysterious Ancient Manuscripts]

Live Science also obtained shipping information showing that since 2015, when conflict in Yemen escalated into a civil war, there has been a surge in shipments of artifacts, antiques and art sent from Saudi Arabia (a country that borders Yemen and is involved in the conflict) to the United States. Between January 2015 and December 2018, about $5,940,786 worth of these potentially smuggled items were sent from Saudi Arabia to the United States. That’s compared with just $3,703,416 of such items that were sent to the U.S. during a 19-year period between January 1996 and December 2014.

It’s unclear how many of the artifacts, art and antiques sent from Saudi Arabia to the U.S. were looted or stolen from Yemen.

Ongoing conflict

Protests in 2011 through 2012 forced Yemen’s longtime president Ali Abdullah Saleh to resign. Attempts to form a stable national government failed, and in 2015 the country fell into all-out civil war involving numerous factions, including the terrorist groups al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIL (also known as ISIS or Daesh). Thousands of people have died and millions are in danger of starvation, the United Nations has found. Airstrikes and artillery have destroyed or damaged numerous structures, including historical buildings. [In Photos: The Destruction of Iraq Heritage Sites by ISIS]

Recently, the Antiquities Coalition, a nongovernmental organization that opposes the sale of looted artifacts and the Republic of Yemen (which controls territory in the north, east and south of Yemen) put out a list of 1,631 objects that were stolen from several museums in Yemen.

Live Science could not confirm if any of the artifacts sold at auction since 2011 are on that list.

Looting through Facebook

A team of researchers with the ATHAR Project has been monitoring 95 Facebook groups whose members include looters, antiquities sellers and buyers. They recently completed an in-depth study of four of the groups that are based in Syria, finding 56 posts saying they had artifacts to sell from Yemen and 450 such posts offering Syrian artifacts, said Katie Paul, an archaeologist who runs the project along with Amr al-Azm, who is a history professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio. [Photos: Destruction at Syria’s Temple of Ain Dara]

“And we still have 91 groups we are working on recording,” Paul said.

“The items being offered out of Yemen are significant. Carved stone, bronze statues, even historic items and weapons,” said Paul, adding that “in some cases, one of the more prominent traffickers we have followed has even posted photos of his find spot for artifacts.”

Additionally, Live Science has been following a Facebook group that often has posts by people who claim to use spirits called the “jinn” to find artifacts. While many of the group members are from Jordan and Palestine, a few are from Yemen.

Satellite imagery

Satellite imagery suggests that looting of archaeological sites in Yemen is not as rampant as it is in Syria, Iraq and Egypt. A high-resolution satellite image of Shabwa, an ancient city in Yemen, was obtained from Maxar Technologies and shown to Michael Fradley, an archaeologist and researcher with the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa Project (EAMENA), which is based at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. [Photos: Damage to Syrian Ruins Seen from Space]

Fradley found that a large area had been dug up, possibly with a bulldozer, north of Shabwa’s ancient city wall, sometime between 2010 and 2015. “It is not entirely clear why this area has been damaged in this way, but it seems most probable that stone or other material was being dug for building,” Fradley said.

Based on telltale pockmarks that indicate looting in satellite imagery, Fradley said that pillaging of archaeological sites in Yemen hasn’t increased dramatically since 2015, during the escalation of conflict. “This is in sharp contrast to the steep rise in visible looting pits that have been recorded from satellite images in countries such as Syria and Iraq during recent conflict periods, and countries with widespread looting issues such as Egypt,” Fradley told Live Science.

There are some exceptions. For instance, the site of al-Sawda, where the ancient city of Nashan was located, experienced an increase in looting in 2013 that slowed down in 2016, Fradley said. “The looting focuses on an area southwest of the ancient city, presumably an extramural cemetery where tombs may contain grave goods,” Fradley said.

A man named Mohammad Mabrouk Ayyach who lives near al-Sawda told Mwatana, a nongovernmental organization that monitors the war in Yemen, that al-Sawda “represents the history and civilization of our old generations and represents a great source of pride for us.”

“In the past, citizens would dig in the site to get gold or beads because of poverty and unemployment in the region,” said Ayyach, noting that the site has recently become a war zone that is not safe to enter. The reporter used information obtained from the United States International Trade Commission.

Originally published on Live Science.

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New post published on: https://www.livescience.tech/2019/06/05/blood-antiquities-looted-from-war-torn-yemen-bring-in-1-million-at-auction/

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