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SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 DHUL QAADA 19, 1441 AH
ESTABLISHED IN 1981 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI VOL. 39 NO. 240 | PAGES 16
OMAN DAILY Be Careful,Be Responsible!
#Living_with_COVID19
MUSCAT: Masks are going to be part of our body just like mobile phones as we prepare to live with coronavirus. The risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 flagged by over 200 scientists again underscores the importance of covering the face outdoor and indoor.
One must wear a mask to protect all from possible infection as anyone can be an asymptomatic transmitter of the novel coronavirus.
Frustrated by the indifferent attitude of the people who dare not to wear masks, the authorities in Oman are dusting off an old standard punishment — name and shame.
“It is time to name and shame people who
repeatedly violate COVID-19 preventive rules”, said Minister of Health, Dr Ahmed al Saeedi, last week.
According to a decision by the Supreme Committee dealing with the COVID-19 situation, the names and photos of all those who are found to be breaking the rules will be published in the local publications.
But why should one wear a mask?
Masks are meant to limit the transmission of the respiratory droplets — primary way the coronavirus is spread from person to person, particularly inside public facilities like workplaces, shopping malls, places of worship etc.
“And while masks are primarily about catching and slowing your own droplets, they may provide some protection against incoming
droplets — better than not wearing one — and covering your nose will help there, too. If you’re not covering your nose, you’re directly breathing in any droplets in the unfiltered air”, point out health tips provided by The Inquirer.
According to Universal Medical.inc, wearing a face mask will prevent the individual from contracting any airborne infectious germs.
Perhaps the most common mistake, experts said, is people thinking it’s cool to leave the mask at home in some situations.
“Masks are meant to catch the air you breathe, but they can’t do that when worn under the nose. Stop taking breaks by putting the mask under your chin or on your head or dangling it from one ear”, experts suggest.
Boys pick up a bunch of delicious grapes from a vineyard in Nizwa. Farmers started harvesting grapes in Nizwa. In Oman, grapes become ripe to be plucked in June and July. The wilayats of Ibri, Al Hamra and Yanqul also cultivate grapes.
PHOTOS BY SAMI SALIM ZAHIR AL HINAI
JUICY PEARLS OF NIZWA
FRUSTRATED BY THE INDIFFERENT ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE WHO DARE NOT TO WEAR MASKS, THE
AUTHORITIES IN OMAN ARE DUSTING OFF AN OLD STANDARD PUNISHMENT — NAME AND SHAME
S A M U E L K U T T Y
SALALAH: The first repatriation charter for Delhi took off from Salalah Airport on Thursday carrying 180 passengers. The flight was arranged by Indian Social Club Salalah on pressing request from the community members, as many expatriate Indians are stuck after the COVID-19 spread and subsequent restrictions on air traffic.
The Club Chairman, Manpreet Singh, said three more flights are in the pipeline to Indian states of Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. “The flights to Kochi, Hyderabad and Madurai are being planned between July 15 and 20. Depending on the passengers’ choice the
dates would be fixed. We are receiving applications from people in need and accommodating them as per available seats.”
About 10 repatriation flights have left Salalah Airport carrying Indian passengers. Most flights were for Kerala due to the volume of passengers and high demand from all sorts of categories like those who were on a visit or tourist visas, elderly and people in need of medical attention.
The flight that left for Delhi was the first flight for North India from Salalah. A passenger travelling in the flight admitted that he wanted to go to Delhi long back but due to lack of flight from Salalah he couldn’t.
A growth mindset helps us to see that character strengths can be nurtured, and we can grow. It instils in us an idea that values can be learned, and we can always improve and be better people by learning.
Compared to a fixed mindset, a growth mindset encourages us to embrace challenges, sustain the effort, and try new strategies, and that is true for both children and adults. Research studies show that the brain is like a muscle and is something we can strengthen. Students who adopt a growth mindset about intelligence can earn higher grades. While children’s brains change more readily than their middle-aged parents, there is never a day when the neural structures that enable us to think, reason, and make sense of the world are totally fixed. So, growth is not only possible for children but even for us adults, no matter what age we are at, there is always something to learn and keep growing.
The concept of growth mindset does not only apply to intelligence but also to all other areas. If there are qualities we do not like about ourselves, a growth mindset dictates that we can change those. A growth mindset is advantageous when making our way through life. Someone with a growth mindset will not hesitate to try again where they once failed. At any age, we can learn new strategies and develop healthy habits.
How do we instil a growth mindset in our children?
As parents, we can model the growth mindset ourselves. Share stories of when we fell short of our expectations but
nevertheless learned a valuable lesson.
Growth mindset is more natural to teach when parents keep learning and see learning as a process rather than adopt an “I know all attitude”. When children see us learning new things and improving daily, they choose the same perspective.
Parents can learn from children too. If our children are good at something and have better skills than us, there is no harm in learning from them, that shows children that we are flexible, and we are not hesitant to learn anything new even from them.
Whenever children make a mistake, always look for ways for them to learn from it. Encourage them to love challenges because challenges can make them smarter. Instil
in children the belief that we can change.
Let children know that we can always grow in our intelligence.
Avoid praising young people
for being “gifted,” “talented,” or “a
natural.” Instead, appreciate the process of learning: “I’m so proud of you — when you got stuck on the problem, you tried a different way to solve it and didn’t give up!”
Create authentic opportunities for learning. Give children meaningful challenges, consistent support, and timely, constructive feedback.
To calibrate your efforts, ask them about their goals, “what’s something you want to accomplish but can’t do yet? What can I do to help you?
The author is an educational psychologist based in Muscat. Email: [email protected]
DEVELOPING THE GROWTH MINDSET
IN CHILDREN
First repatriation
flight for Delhi takes
off from Salalah
2 SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
OMAN
K A U S H A L E N D R A S I N G H
M A S S R A T S H A I K H
@omanobserver
Be Careful, Be Responsible!
#Living_with_COVID19
Friday, July 10, 2020
MOH Statement
Today's Total Cases
1268Omanis
621Non-Omanis
Deaths Tested
244 23121134225
Recoveries
Newly admitted Currently admitted Current ICU admissions
1889
8 45741204
74 501 130
Total Deaths
Total Tested
Total Recoveries
Admitted Cases
53614Total Cases
Coronavirus lockdown was a great learning
experience for Zahra Lee, a flow artist and Kevin Watson, a business development manager.
Calling herself a ‘light and fire fairy’, Zahra performs with hula hoops, fans and pois, while Kevin as an engineer individually produced over 24 hour worth of
tutorials, which were used by nearly 200 students to enhance their learning experience during lockdown.
Since the pandemic began, Zahra has been building hula hoops and teaching online classes through her company called ‘Grow With The Flow Muscat.’
As stay-at-home moms were looking for new hobbies for themselves and kids, Zahra was wise enough to sell over 300 metres of hoops since lockdown
began.“I have built hoops
according to a client’s height and weight to fit their body type. They can pick their own colours of tape depending on availability,” she says.
Before the pandemic she had plenty of workshops booked at different venues in Muscat. As lockdown set in it went online and all hoop orders made through Instagram.
“Hula hooping is a great workout. It is good for your mental health as it helps you focus and also works on your posture. Just playing for an hour you will lose 420 calories. It is a great hobby for adults and kids and a great bonding activity for both of them,” she explains.
Most of her online courses were beginner workshops where she taught basics, on how to keep the hoop
spinning, how to turn while hooping and on how to stop the hoop from dropping.
All her materials for the hoops were bought locally and she made these from PVC piping, connecters and rivets. The hoop taping was covered with clients’ choice of colours.
To support the blossoming flow-arts community, she plans to open a creative arts school that supports its development by providing quality educational opportunities, informational resource hub and workshop-based festivals.
Zahra eventually aims to provide the highest quality flow-
arts education and experiences available.
Kevin used lockdown to hone his video editing skills watching YouTube.
He made many tutorials including ‘Staying safe during COVID-19,’ construction site safety, safety management of contractors and many others.
Kevin stopped all classroom sessions and quickly moved to Zoom when the pandemic hit his company in Al Athaiba. He suggested enhancing the learning experience by recording tutorials and posting them on YouTube for learners.
As a keen amateur photographer, Kevin offered to give a try using his equipment. First he created a studio and then had to make some lighting rigs out of some old fitting, which they had recently changed out in the centre.
With this they were able to fill the community’s need for flow-skills training, personal growth and professional development.
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 3
LIFE
L I J U C H E R I A N
Flowing against the tideOBSERVER
CAUGHT UP
WITH TWO
EXPERTS WHO
TEACH SKILLS
ONLINE FOR
STUDENTS AND
PROFESSIONALS
COOPED UP AT
THEIR HOMES
4 SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
REVIEW
WARS ARE NOT WORTH FIGHTING
If you are interested in war novels, I would recommend “The Soldiers of Salamis” by Spanish writer Javier Cercas. Other than combining fact and fiction, what makes this novella special is that it’s based on a real character Rafael Sánchez Mazas (1894-1966). Mazas was a Spanish nationalist writer and leader of the Falange, a right-winged political movement that was created before the Spanish Civil War.
The novel starts in 1994 with a fic-tional Javier Cercas – a writer and a reporter- interviewing the son of Mazas. The son shares the famous story of his dad escaping the execu-tion of January 1939. When the firing began at the prisoners, Mazas leapt out of the line and ran away into the woods. After days of manhunt, a Republican soldier found him hiding under some bushes and instead of arresting him, he spared his life.
When Franco took power in the same year, Mazas became a minister without a portfolio. Cercas is fascinat-ed by the Republican soldier who spared Mazas’ life and decides to find him. His six years of research brings him across many old soldiers who knew Mazas personally and helped him after his famous escape.
He also meets Miralles, a Republican soldier who had fought during that time and later joined the French Foreign Legion that led many suc-cessful battles in the Second World War. The intriguing question that faces Cercas and the readers alike: Was Miralles the soldier who saved Mazas’ life? And if so, what was the motive behind it? Would his life or death have made a difference in Spanish modern history? “The Soldiers of Salamis” was acclaimed by critics at the time of its publication in 2001 and was a best-seller for many months.
Nobel Prize winner Vargas Llosa described it as: “one of the great nov-els of our time”. But why did this war novel get its universal acclaim? Javier Cercas comes from a generation who lived through the Spanish Civil War. However, after the death of Franco in 1975, a political decision made by both left and right parties called “The Pact of Forgetting” deemed to leave the past behind and focus on the future of Spain. This made many of Cercas’ generation reluctant to write about the war.
But things changed in 2000, after the formation of the foundation of Association of the Recovery of Historical Memory.
Seven years later, the Law of
Historical Memory was established to recognise those who suffered perse-cution or violence during the Civil War and the Dictatorship of Franco.
For foreigners like us with little or no knowledge of the Spanish Civil War, I would recommend watching a six-part documentary about the sub-ject on YouTube before reading the book. It would make it easier to understand the reason behind the war and different political factions that were later united either under the Nationalist’s or the Republican’s banners. Cercas is an effective story-teller that takes you right into the pre and post-Civil War Spain as he clever-ly narrates the war from the perspec-tive of both sides.
The streak of melancholy accompa-nies the narrative for all the innocent lives that were lost, along with the eternal question: Was it really worth it? Although it lasted for three years only, the Civil War had left on its wake one million deaths including that of starvation. 250,000 Spanish refugees fled to France, crossing the snowy Pyrenees mountains on foot.
In 2003 the book was adapted into a Spanish movie by the same name. A year later, the English translation won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. “The Soldiers of Salamis” is a rare treat.
The author is a certified skills trainer and the author of The World According to Bahja. [email protected]
R A S H A A L R A I S I
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 5
OMAN
I have recently read a book that made me question all the beliefs I had held about myself for years.
I used to be a shy kid, or so I was told. Then, after years of education I became a teacher. But to my mind, a shy person couldn’t be a good educator so I had a problem. I would either be a poor teacher or change. Now, try to reshape your personality in a few months. Impossible... or so I thought. The canny solution that I came up with, was to pretend that I am somebody else. Luckily for me, I had marvelous teachers throughout my whole education so the only sensible thing to do was to mimic them. In the end, a classroom is like a stage and I became an actress. It worked perfectly well and still does.
As an English teacher, naturally my ‘acting’ language was English and after some time I noticed how my ‘English personality’ is different from my native - Polish one. Years of imitating being outspoken, confident and funny in the classroom made me that person in ‘real’ life so that I no longer had to pretend. However, when I speak Polish it is a different story. At least for now.
The book that made me think of my experience: “Personality Isn’t Permanent” by Benjamin Hardy, is a rare bird among the self-help books that I have read dozens of. Research based, full of powerful stories and incredibly hands-on, it makes you question all the labels you have been given or attained since your early childhood.
What is so unique about the book is that it gives you your freedom back. You can basically create your ‘new you’, regardless of your age, and the author gives you step-by-step instructions so that you are well-guided along the process. Like everything else in this world personality is fluid too. But you can be either very intentional about that change or leave it to chance.
A great book for everyone who feels stuck, bored with their lives, unhappy or simply doesn’t know how to start the process of change. An excellent read for these hard times. A true quantum leap in my personal growth journey. So forget self-pity and get ready to ‘rewrite your story’!
M A Ł G O R Z A T A P I E C H O W I C Z - P I E T R U S Z K A
MUSCAT: Activities of Al Hazm (decisiveness) exercise, carried out by students of the 33rd batch of Command and Staff College of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF), concluded on Thursday at the college’s headquarters in Bait Al Falaj camp. The exercise, which began on June 25, comes within the framework of the general
curriculum of the course and the culmination of a series of exercises carried out by the students to achieve objectives of the planned training. Precautionary measures related to the coronavirus pandemic were taken into account for the safety of students and the faculty. — ONA
Al Hazm drill concludes
FEELING BORED OR SAD? READ THIS BOOK
THE BOOK THAT MADE ME THINK OF MY
EXPERIENCE: “PERSONALITY ISN’T
PERMANENT” BY BENJAMIN HARDY, IS A RARE BIRD AMONG THE
SELF-HELP BOOKS THAT I HAVE READ
DOZENS OF
6 SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
SPACE
J U L I E T T E C O L L E N CHINA, UAE AND THE US
HOPE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
OF THE PERIOD OF TIME WHEN
THE EARTH AND MARS ARE
NEAREST: A MERE 55 MILLION
KILOMETRES APART
“We have lift-off, we have lift-off!”The summer race to land a
space probe on Mars is off to a hot start.
Three countries - The Hope Probe (United Arab Emirates), Tianwen-1 (China) and Mars 2020 (United States) — have all taken their positions, hoping to take advantage of the period of time when the Earth and Mars are nearest: a mere 55 million kilometres apart.
The neighbouring planets only come this close once every 26 months — a narrow “launch window” based on their relative positions in space.
Space agencies from all three nations plan to send rovers to the Red Planet to look for additional signs of past life and potentially pave the way to — someday — step foot on its surface.
The journey will take about six months.The UAE’s Hope Probe — the first
interplanetary mission by an Arab country — launches on July 15. China plans to send its inaugural Mars probe, a small remote-controlled rover, between July 20 and July 25.
By far the
most ambitious project, the US Mars 2020, has a planned launch date of July 30.
The probe — called Perseverance - is expected to spend one Mars year (or about 687 Earth days) on the planet’s surface collecting rock and soil samples that scientists hope will shed light on past life forms that may have inhabited the faraway planet.
The aim of subsequent missions will be to bring those samples back to Earth.
A fourth planned launch, the EU-Russian Exomars, was postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 public health crisis.
TRACES OF LIFESeveral dozen probes — most of them American — have set off for the Red Planet since the 1960s. Many never made it that far, or failed to land.
The drive to explore Mars flagged until the confirmation less than 10 years ago that water once flowed on its surface.
“It’s the only planet where we’ve been able to detect past signs of life, and
the more we learn about it more hope there is,”
Michel Viso, an astrobiologist at
CNES, France’s space agency,
said. — AFP
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 7
WORLD
BRITAIN’S QUARANTINE RULES
END FOR MANY DESTINATIONS
WHO TEAM ON WAY TO CHINA FOR PROBING VIRUS ORIGIN
GENEVA: An advance team from the World Health Organization (WHO) has left for China to organise an investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus which sparked the global pandemic, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
The virus is believed to have emerged in a wholesale market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late
last year, since then closed, after jumping the species barrier from the animal kingdom to infect humans.
The two WHO experts, specialists in animal health and epidemiology, will work with Chinese scientists to
determine the scope and itinerary of the investigation, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said, declining to name them.
“They have gone, they are in the air now, they are the advance party that is to work out the scope,” she told a briefing. This would involve negotiations on issues including the composition of the fuller team, she added.
“One of the big issues that everybody is interested in, and of course that’s why we’re sending an animal health expert, is to look at whether or not it jumped from species to a human and what species it jumped from,” Harris said.
“We know it’s very, very similar to the virus in the bat, but did it go through an intermediate species? This is a question we all need answered,” she said. — Reuters
LONDON, BRUSSELS: Quarantine measures for those travelling to Britain from around 70 countries and overseas territories, including France and Italy, no longer apply from Friday in a boost to the ailing avia-tion and travel industries hit by COVID-19.
Those arriving from high-er-risk countries will still have to self-quarantine for 14 days but many popular destinations are now exempt, meaning millions of Britons are able to take summer holidays without having to stay at home when they return.
Airports have imposed safety measures such as perspex screens, mandatory mask-wearing, hand-sanitis-er stations and hand-wash-ing facilities to stop the spread of the virus. But flights are likely to remain far below usual levels and the boss of Gatwick, London’s second-busiest airport, said he was hoping that quaran-tine-free travel would be wid-ened to other destinations.
“What we would like to see at the end of the month, when it is next reviewed, is the Portuguese market open up as well,” said Chief Executive Stewart Wingate.
“Our absolute focus is on
the European markets because that’s what will help us to build volume during the summer and protect as many jobs at Gatwick as pos-sible this year.”
VACCINE SCHEMEMeanwhile, the European Commission said on Friday that a possible decision by the United Kingdom not to join an EU scheme to secure potential COVID-19 vaccines
up front would not affect talks the bloc is conducting with several drugmakers.
On Thursday, the British Telegraph newspaper reported that the UK gov-ernment had decided not to join the EU scheme because of concerns that there could be costly delays in securing the vaccines.
“The fact that the UK has apparently said they would not join up to whatever con-
tract we are able to negoti-ate with producers is defi-nitely not something that is going to influence our own negotiations with the pro-ducers,” a spokesman for the EU executive told a news conference.
He said the EU was currently negotiating advance purchases of vac-cines still under develop-ment with a series of pro-ducers. — Reuters
A passenger lowers his mask for identification at the Gatwick Airport, as travel restrictions are eased following the COVID-19 outbreak, in Gatwick, Britain on Friday. — Reuters
8 SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
WORLD
ISTANBUL: A top Turkish court on Friday revoked the sixth-century Hagia Sophia’s status as a mu-seum, clearing the way for it to be turned back into a mosque.
The Council of State, the country’s highest ad-ministrative court which on July 2 debated a case brought by a Turkish NGO, cancelled a 1934 cabinet decision and ruled the Unesco World Heritage Site would be reopened to Muslim wor-shipping.
The decision was made unanimously, according to the decision seen by AFP.
The sixth-century Istan-bul building — a magnet for tourists — has been a museum since 1935, open to believers of all faiths thanks to a cabi-net decision stamped by modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Hagia Sophia was first constructed as a cathe-dral in the Christian Byz-
antine Empire but was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman con-quest of Constantinople in 1453.
Transforming it into a museum was a key re-form of the officially sec-
ular republic.Calls for it to serve
again as a mosque have led to anger among Chris-tians and exacerbated tensions between Turkey and Greece, which closely monitors Byzantine herit-
age in Turkey.Ahead of the court de-
cision, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul shared a picture of Hagia Sophia on its official Twitter ac-count, with a message: “Have good Friday.” – AFP
Turkey court opens way for Hagia Sophia to revert into mosque
IN BRIEF
A view of Hagia Sophia, which is currently a museum, in Istanbul. — Reuters
Half of Oklahoma is ‘Native American land’
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Thursday recognised about half of Oklahoma as Native American reservation land and overturned a tribe member’s rape conviction because the location where the crime was committed should have been considered out-side the reach of state criminal law. The justices ruled 5-4 in fa-vour of a man named Jimcy Mc-Girt and agreed that the site of the rape should have been recognised as part of a reservation based on the historical claim of the Mus-cogee (Creek) Nation - beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities.
The decision means that for the first time much of eastern Okla-homa is legally considered reser-vation land. More than 1.8 million people live in the land at issue, in-cluding roughly 400,000 in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city.
— Reuters
Australia cuts citizen returns as cases surge
SYDNEY: Australia will slash the number of returning citizens al-lowed into the country by half as it struggles to contain a worsen-ing coronavirus outbreak in its second-largest city, officials an-nounced on Friday.
From Monday, only 4,000 Aus-tralian citizens or permanent residents will be allowed back into the country each day, down from around 8,000 currently, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
He said the move was needed to focus resources on countering the “very concerning” virus surge in Melbourne, where authorities re-ported a record 288 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
It was the highest daily jump in new infections since the outbreak took off in Melbourne in mid-June, with officials linking the increase to a record amount of testing for the virus. – AFP
Top broadcaster denied new licence
MANILA: Philippine lawmakers refused on Friday to issue a new operating licence for the country’s broadcasting giant ABS-CBN, in the latest blow to media outlets critical of President Rodrigo Du-terte’s policies.
The lower house committee vot-ed 70-11 to reject ABS-CBN’s appli-cation for another 25-year fran-chise, after it was forced off the air in May over a stalled renewal of its previous licence, which Du-terte had pledged to block.
The results of the vote - slammed by critics as an assault on press freedom - could poten-tially keep the radio, TV and Inter-net giant from broadcasting until the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.
ABS-CBN president Carlo Katig-bak said the company was “deeply hurt” by the decision. – AFP
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 9
ANALYSIS
Long tail of COVID-19 can prolong suffering for months
They call them-selves “long-haulers”, “long-tailers”, or
simply survivors.Some have been sick
almost as long as the new coronavirus is known to have existed.
Six months after the virus began to scorch its way across the plan-et, it is becoming clear that COVID-19 causes far more symptoms than first suspected.
T h o u -sands of people of all ages are staying sick for weeks or even months.
B r i t i s h f o r e n s i c p s y c h i a -trist Jenny Judge be-gan an od-yssey of illness in March with a fever, cough, headache and breath-ing problems.
She has since expe-rienced waves of other symptoms including a racing heart, scald-ing rashes and “COVID toes”, which were itchy and ulcerated. At one point she was so deliri-ous she heard her dogs talking, and was not par-ticularly surprised.
“Now I am going through a belly phase,” she said on day 111 of her ordeal.
More than 12 million COVID-19 cases have been recorded world-wide with more than 550,000 deaths. Some six million people are listed as “recovered”. But these figures do not tell the full story.
‘THEY FEEL LEFT OUT’A study of 143 recov-ered hospital patients in Italy, published in
the JAMA N e t w o r k journal on Thursday, found that 87 per cent were still s u f f e r i n g at least one s y m p t o m 60 days af-ter falling ill.
F a t i g u e and breath-ing difficul-ties were most com-mon.
This follows research published last week by the US Centers for Dis-ease Control and Pre-vention that found of 350 people surveyed, about 60 per cent of inpatients and around a third of outpatients were not back to health 14-21 days after testing positive.
People leaving hospi-tal may need ongoing care for organ dam-age, injuries sustained in invasive oxygen therapy or post-trau-matic stress. — AFP
The conservative-majority US Su-preme Court, with Chief Justice Rob-erts leading the way, has distinctly
staked out its independence from President Donald Trump by delivering a series of set-backs to him and his adminis-tration in pivotal cases.
The court ended its nine-month term on Thursday by rejecting Trump’s sweeping assertions of presidential im-munity in a ruling that paves the way for a New York prose-cutor to obtain the president’s financial records, which he has sought to conceal. The court also rejected Trump’s broad arguments for preventing Con-gress from obtaining similar records and sent the matter back to lower courts for fur-ther consideration.
Those rulings were only the latest setbacks for the Re-publican president in the past month from a nine-member court that until this term gen-
erally backed him in big cases.The court also ruled against
Trump in blocking him from re-scinding an immigration pro-gramme created by his Dem-ocratic predecessor Barack Obama, in expanding gender minority rights and in striking down a restrictive Louisiana abortion law defended by his administration.
Roberts was in the majority in all of those rulings. The chief justice, who served in the large-ly ceremonial role of presiding officer in Trump’s Senate im-peachment trial in February, is known for his concern about the court’s reputation as an in-stitution led by law and not poli-tics.
“Roberts certainly has an in-terest in the court appearing independent and being inde-pendent,” Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Carolyn Sha-piro said.
That tendency was on display in the abortion ruling, Colum-bia Law School professor Gil-lian Metzger said. — Reuters
US Supreme Court defied Trump at key moments
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this page are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the opinion of the Observer.
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HEAD OFFICETel: 24649444, 24649450, 24649451, 24604563, 24699437 Fax: 24699643
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L A W R E N C E H U R L E Y & J A N W O L F E
K E L L Y M A C N A M A R A
SIX MONTHS AFTER THE VIRUS
BEGAN TO SCORCH ITS WAY
ACROSS THE PLANET, IT IS BECOMING CLEAR THAT
COVID-19 CAUSES FAR
MORE SYMPTOMS THAN FIRST SUSPECTED
10 SATURDAY JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
BUSINESS
Co n s t r u c t i o n work has com-menced on what is billed as the first plant in the
Sultanate dedicated to the manufacturing of smart meters based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology.
The project is being spear-headed by the National Energy Center (NEC), an Omani company jointly owned by public sector organisations and private investors, and well-regard-ed as a pioneer in the intro-duction of smart metering services in the Sultanate.
Efforts to build domestic smart-meter manufactur-ing capacity in the Sultanate come against a backdrop of an intensifying drive by var-ious stakeholder ministries and institutions in support of IoT based connectivity. Besides enabling connect-ed devices to communicate via the Internet, IoT is also seen as an important in the realisation of Smart Cities in the Sultanate, heralding the roll-out of smart trans-portation and driverless mobility, and enhancing energy efficiency, among other objectives envisioned by the 4th Industrial Revolution.
In the Sultanate, a fledg-ling effort by a number of electricity, water and gas distribution utilities to intro-duce smart meters is rap-idly gaining traction. Smart meters not only provide timely and accurate meter readings, but they also gen-erate warnings in the event of any leakages or outages. More importantly, they ena-ble customers to monitor
their consumption patterns and thereby keep a tab on their monthly bills.
Having been tapped by the government to pilot the introduction of smart meters in Musandam Governorate, the National Energy Center (NEC) has since embarked on plans to establish a factory for the manufacturing of a range of smart meters. But as an industry that is subject to strict standards and speci-fications, the project encountered initial chal-lenges during the imple-mentation phase – chal-
lenges that the govern-ment’s one-stop approvals facilitation agency, the Implementation Support and Follow-up Unit (ISFU), took upon itself to resolve. ISFU, operating under the auspices of the Diwan of Royal Court, is tasked with fast-tracking approvals for projects and initiations seen as key to aiding Oman’s economic diversification.
In lending its backing for the project, ISFU said it saw the initiative contributing to more than the establish-ment of a domestic produc-tion facility for smart meters. Local manufactur-ing of such devices, it noted in its recent Annual Report, will also contribute to “local-ising technical knowledge, building local skills, increas-ing imports, and contribut-
ing to Oman’s GDP”.To this end, the Unit coor-
dinated the Ministry of Technology and Communications (MTC), Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) and Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) to “acceler-ate the issuance” of techni-cal standards for metering systems. At the same time, the National Energy Center signed a consultant for the design of the first stage of the project, construction of which has since com-menced.
Shareholders in NEC include the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn), Shumookh Investment and Services, a number of state pension funds, and an inde-pendent investor.
C O N R A D P R A B H U
Oman to invest in domestic IoT device manufacturing capacity
TECH-DRIVEN SOCIETY:
SMART METERS NOT ONLY
PROVIDE TIMELY AND ACCURATE
METER READINGS, BUT
THEY ALSO GENERATE
WARNINGS IN THE EVENT OF ANY LEAKAGES
OR OUTAGES
BUSINESS
MUSCAT: The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (Madayn) has issued reg-ulations to deal with violators among the industrial firms in the industrial cities of the decisions issued by the Supreme Committee tasked with manag-ing the pandemic.
Eng Basim al Zadjali (pictured), senior health, safety and envi-ronmental health specialist at Madayn, stated that joint cooperation is effective between Madayn and the relevant govern-ment bodies to unify control and awareness efforts in the industrial units on the precaution-ary measures against COVID-19, ensure their commit-ment to the decisions and rec-ommendations of the Supreme Committee, and take legal action against violators.
Al Zadjali pointed out that based on Ministerial Decisions 167/2020 and 186/2020 issued by the Ministry of Manpower, Madayn has begun obliging com-panies and factories to imple-ment the measures that aim to protect the public health of all stakeholders. Penalties will be imposed on the violators as spelt
out in the decisions. In case of any infected cases of
coronavirus, the Ministry of Health’s call centre has to be contacted, or Madayn’s Emergency Room, or through email: [email protected] regarding any technical advice or enquiries on the indus-trial units’ emergency plan to deal with COVID-19.
As of June-end, the number of inspection visits covered 2,392 industrial units. “Of these units,
1,669 were found adhering to the precautionary proce-
dures, while warnings and practice correction notices were issued to 723 industrial units. Besides, violations were
filed on 43 units, among which 42 were closed,” he
said. During this period, Madayn, in
cooperation with Oman Investment and Development Holding Company (Mubadrah), has carried out sterilisation and disinfection operations for 224 industrial units, in addition to sterilisation operations that included all the administration buildings in the industrial cities, Knowledge Oasis Muscat and Al Mazunah Free Zone. During the same period, Madayn Emergency Room has received 1821 communications.
B U S I N E S S R E P O R T E R
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY JULY 11, 2020 11
Madayn to penalise those infringing COVID-19 guidelines
Energy major BP and Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector company, have announced the start of their new Indian
fuels and mobility joint venture, Reliance BP Mobility Limited (RBML).
Following initial agreements in 2019, BP and RIL teams have worked closely over the past few months in a chal-lenging environment to complete the transaction as planned. BP has paid RIL $1 billion for a 49 per cent stake in the joint venture, with RIL holding 51 per cent.
Operating under the “Jio-bp” brand, the joint venture aims to become a leading player in India’s fuels and mobility markets. It will leverage Reliance’s presence across 21 states and its millions of consumers through the Jio digital platform. BP will bring its extensive global experience in high-quality differentiated fuels, lubricants, retail and advanced low carbon mobili-ty solutions.
BP and RIL expect the venture to grow rapidly to help meet India’s fast-growing demands for energy and mobility. India is expected to be the fastest-growing fuels market in the world over the next 20 years, with the number of passenger cars in the country estimated to grow almost six-fold over the period. RBML aims to expand from its current fuel retailing network of over 1,400 retail sites to up to 5,500 over the next five years. This rapid growth will require a four-fold increase in staff employed in service stations – growing from 20,000 to 80,000 in this period. The joint venture also aims to increase its presence from 30 to 45 airports in the coming years.
B U S I N E S S R E P O R T E R
BP, RELIANCE ANNOUNCE ‘JIO-BP’ PARTNERSHIP
BUSINESS
PARIS: Oil output hit a nine-year low last month as pro-ducers reacted to the plunge in demand triggered by the coronavirus crisis, the IEA said on Friday, but output is now set to recover.
While the Paris-based International Energy Agency warned that the resurgence of the corona-virus in parts of the world injected added uncertainty into forecasts, it sees the market turning a corner.
“During June, global oil output tumbled to a nine-year low” as the Opec cartel and its allies cut production and producers in the United States and elsewhere react-ed to continued relatively low prices and scaled back operations.
“From July, however, oil supply should begin to trend higher as producers react to signs of recovering demand as lockdowns ease”, said the IEA in its regular monthly report on the oil markets.
“Futures markets are anticipating a transforma-tion in the oil market from substantial surplus in the first half of the year to a
deficit in the second half”.The lockdowns adopted
by nations around the world earlier this year triggered an unprecedented drop in demand for oil as travel was restricted and many facto-ries slowed or shut produc-tion. The IEA estimates glo-
bal oil demand fell by 16.4 million barrels per day year-on-year in the second quarter, when much of Europe and North America were under lockdown.
But as nations ease those measures, demand has been recovering, with the
IEA pointing to strong rebounds in China and India in May.
As the second quarter demand drop was a bit less than it had earlier estimat-ed, the IEA adjusted its fore-casts.
It now expects that global oil demand this year will average 92.1 mbd, down by 7.9 mbd from 2019, a slightly smaller decline than it fore-cast in June.
The better performance in 2020 translates into a slightly lower recovery of 5.3 mbd next year to 97.4 mbd in average daily demand.
“However, the strong growth of new Covid-19 cases that has seen the re-imposition of lockdowns in some regions, including North and Latin America, is casting a shadow over the outlook,” said the IEA.
From September it sees the drop in demand for pet-rol and diesel to be nearly gone. From that point lower demand by the aviation industry for fuel will we be the major component of the overall drop in demand.
— AFP
12 SATURDAY JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL: IEA SEES OIL OUTPUT RECOVERY
Crude oil is dispensed into a bottle in this illustration photo. — Reuters
THE LOCKDOWNS ADOPTED BY NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD TRIGGERED AN UNPRECEDENTED DROP IN
DEMAND FOR OIL AS TRAVEL WAS RESTRICTED AND MANY FACTORIES SLOWED OR SHUT PRODUCTION
WASHINGTON: As govern-ments rushed out funding to prevent an economic collapse amid the corona-virus pandemic, global public debt swelled to the highest in history, but the
IMF warned on Friday that cutting back too soon could undermine the recovery.
Government spending “will need to remain sup-portive and flexible until a safe and durable exit from
the crisis is secured”, IMF Fiscal olicy Chief Vitor Gaspar and Chief Economist Gita Gopinath said in a blog post.
Even with record low interest rates worldwide,
the debt figures are stag-gering — surpassing the size of the global economy, and deficits in advanced economies five times high-er than pre-pandemic esti-mates for 2020.
The health crisis and the business shutdowns to contain the spread of COVID-19 demanded “a massive fiscal response” of close to $11 trillion to help support households and prevent bankruptcies”, the authors said.
“But the policy response has also contributed to glo-bal public debt reaching its highest level in recorded history, at over 100 per cent of global GDP, in excess of post-World War II peaks”.
And, they cautioned, “we are not out of the woods”.
— AFP
IMF warns cutting spending too soon could derail recovery George Washington is seen with printed medical mask on the one Dollar
banknotes in this illustration. — Reuters
BUSINESS
WASHINGTON: Insurers are creating products for a world where virus out-breaks could become the new normal after many businesses were left out in the cold during the COVID-19 crisis.
While new pandemic-proof policies might not be cheap, they offer business-es from restaurants to film production companies to e-commerce retailers ways of insuring against disrup-tions and losses if another virus strikes.
The providers include big insurers and brokers add-ing new products to exist-ing coverage, as well as niche players that see an opportunity in filling the void left by mainstream firms that categorise virus outbreaks like wars or nuclear explosions.
Tech firm Machine Cover, for example, aims to offer policies next year that would give relief during lockdowns. Using apps and other data sources, the Boston-based company measures traffic levels around businesses such as restaurants, department stores, hairdressers and car dealers.
If traffic drops below a
certain level, it pays out, whatever the reason.
“This is the type of cover-age which... businesses thought they had paid for when they bought their current business interrup-tion policies before the coronavirus pandemic”, the company’s founder Inder-Jeet Gujral told Reuters.
“I believe this will be a major opportunity because post-COVID, it would be as
irresponsible to not buy insurance against pan-demics as it would be to not buy insurance against fire”.
The company is backed by insurer Hiscox and indi-vidual investors, mostly from the insurance and private equity world.
Restaurants in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, where Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Monday ordered dining to shut down soon after reo-
pening, are now reeling, said Andrew Giambarba, a broker for Insurance Office of America in Doral, Florida.
“It’s been like they made it to the ninth round of the fight and were holding on when this punch came out of nowhere”, said Giambarba, whose clients include restaurants that did not get payouts under their business interruption coverage.
“Every niche that is deal-ing with insurance that is affected by business inter-ruption needs every new product they can have”.
Pandemic exemptions have helped some insurers emerge relatively unscathed and the sector has largely resisted pres-sure to provide more virus cover. Indeed, some insur-ers that paid out for event cancellations and other losses have removed pan-demics from their cover-age.
British risk managers association Airmic said last week that the pandem-ic had contributed to a lack of adequate insurance at an affordable price and most of its members were looking at other ways to reduce risk.— Reuters
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY JULY 11, 2020 13
PANDEMIC EXEMPTIONS HAVE HELPED SOME INSURERS EMERGE RELATIVELY UNSCATHED AND
THE SECTOR HAS LARGELY RESISTED PRESSURE TO PROVIDE MORE VIRUS COVER
INSURANCE MAY NEVER
BE THE SAME AGAIN
A waiter stands by empty tables outside a restaurant at St Mark’s Square, which is usually full of tourists, after Italy’s government adopted a decree with emergency new measures to contain the coronavirus, in Venice, Italy. — Reuters
14 SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 www.omanobserver.om
SPORTS
SPIELBERG: Red Bull have given “a definite no” to four-times Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel’s hopes of returning to them next year, team boss Christian Horner said on Friday.
The German, who is out of contract with Ferrari at the end of the season and facing an uncertain future, had said on Thursday he would say yes to a Red Bull drive if one was offered.
Vettel won his titles with Red Bull from 2010-13 and remains on good terms with the Austrian energy drink brand’s senior man-agement.
“We had a brilliant time with Seb,” Horner told Sky F1 television during prac-
tice for the Styrian Grand Prix at Austria’s Red Bull Ring. “He will forever be a part of our history.
“We didn’t expect him to be on the market this year and our commitment is to our existing drivers. We think we’ve got a great pairing in Max (Verstappen) and in Alex (Albon). We think that has great potential for the future as well.
“So unfortunately it’s not something we are going to be able to accommodate. That is a definite no, I’m afraid. Sebastian I think is aware of that.”
Horner’s comments closed another door to the 33-year-old after Renault announced on Wednesday
that they had signed dou-ble world champion Fernando Alonso to fill the vacancy left by departing Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo, Vettel’s former Red Bull team-mate, is moving to McLaren next year in place of Ferrari-bound Spaniard Carlos Sainz. Vettel’s options would appear to be dwin-dling, with champions Mercedes expected to stick with six-times cham-pion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
Racing Point, owned by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, or Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo could still be possi-bilities, however. — Reuters
WE DIDN’T EXPECT HIM TO BE ON
THE MARKET THIS YEAR AND OUR
COMMITMENT IS TO OUR EXISTING
DRIVERS. WE THINK WE’VE GOT A GREAT
PAIRING IN MAX (VERSTAPPEN) AND
IN ALEX (ALBON). WE THINK THAT HAS
GREAT POTENTIAL FOR THE FUTURE
AS WELL
CHRISTIAN HORNERRED BULL TEAM BOSS
Red Bull says no to Vettel’s hopes of a return
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 15
SPORTS
COACH HAMDI CALLS FOR INVESTMENT IN PLAYERS
WITH POTENTIAL
MUSCAT: The former Oman national football player, Hamdi Hoobes, believes in the technical capability of the next generation of potential players to lead the national teams in near future and compete with other advanced teams in the region.
Hoobes added in his statements to Oman Daily Observer that modern football required many changes and reaching the top team is not so difficult but it is not easy.
“We need to work very hard and eliminate the thinking of cannot advance to the European or top world teams. Nowadays, things move to an easier way and we have many tal-ented players which need proper exploration. Nowadays, all the pro-fessional football acade-mies are available in the GCC countries accom-panied with the former stars of football. Renewing the team members and grabbing the talented players with providing the right plat-forms to them will defi-nitely develop the tech-nical performance of the players.
This may require some
proper longer plans and that should be done now if our target is to be accomplished in the near future”, he added.
Coach Hamdi Hoobes recalls the memories and said the final clash of the HM Cup in 2000 between his team Al Nasr against Al Oruba was the game which changed a lot in his foot-ball career.
“Clinching the top domestic competition title in 2000 with Al Nasr made a big differ-ence in my footballing business as I joined the national teams,” he said.
In 2003, Hamdi had joined the national team and in the following year, Oman national team had impressed all the other GCC teams as the Sultanate team secured a spot in the final match of 17th edi-tion of GCC Gulf Cup for first time.
“Unforgettable days!. We have started the real challenge on Gulf Cup title in the 16th and then in 17th edition in Qatar and I remember the efforts we had delivered. Our objective was to lift the title for first time but we suffered a loss in pen-alties against Qatar in the final clash”, he said.
A D I L A L B A L U S H I
NEW YORK: Tiger Woods announced on Thursday that he will compete at next week’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, the 15-times major champion’s first PGA Tour event in five months.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the @MemorialGolf next week,” Woods said on his Twitter account. “I’ve missed going out and competing with the guys and can’t wait to get back out there.”
Woods last competed on the PGA Tour in mid-February when he laboured through a final-round 77 at the Genesis Invitational where he finished last among players who made
the cut. The 44-year-old reigning Masters champion then skipped a number of events with back issues prior to the PGA Tour’s three-month COVID-19 hiatus that began in mid-March and opted to sit out the circuit’s first five events since the break.
Woods, who is one win shy of a record-breaking 83 PGA Tour victories, did play a May 24 charity match with Phil Mickelson and Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.
The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village is one of the most high-profile, non-
major events on the PGA Tour and Woods has triumphed there a record five times, most recently in 2012.
Woods will be part of a loaded field that also includes world number one Rory McIlroy, five-times major champion Phil Mickelson, 2018 Memorial champion Bryson DeChambeau and major winners Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia.
The July 16-19 tournament was originally supposed to have a limited number of spectators but earlier this week the PGA Tour scrapped plans to let fans attend due to COVID-19. — Reuters
WOODS READY TO RETURN, COMMITS TO MEMORIAL
www.omanobserver.om SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 16
I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING IN THE @
MEMORIALGOLF NEXT WEEK. I’VE MISSED
GOING OUT AND COMPETING WITH THE GUYS AND CAN’T WAIT
TO GET BACK OUT THERE
TIGER WOODS15-TIMES MAJOR
CHAMPION
SPORTS
