Peanut Gallery: This article gives a good overview of the challenges facing Oman in the future – government succession and diminishing oil revenue. However it does not recount the amazing forward leap into the 21st century that Oman has made under the wise leadership of Sultan Qaboos. While there certainly is censorship of government criticism, Sultan Qaboos rightly deserves and receives the respect and admiration of the Omani people. Western democracies would be well served by statesmen like the Sultan.

Oman: Waking up too | The Economist.

Oman: Waking up too
Even placid Oman is being buffeted by the Arab winds of change
Jun 23rd 2012 | MUSCAT | from the print edition

IT HAS been described as the world’s most charming police state. Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos, who overthrew his father in 1970, now stands out as easily the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East, and perhaps as the world’s only absolute monarch not to have a publicly designated successor. A few reforms have got under way since strikes and protests hit the country last year. But with most power still in the sultan’s hands, questions about the future have begun to loom. The calm is now being challenged, albeit still a lot less fiercely than elsewhere in the Arab world. Continue reading “Oman: Waking up too | The Economist” →