UNESCO removed a natural park in Oman from its list of world heritage sites

Unesco strips Oman site of heritage status Paris - Unesco on Thursday removed a natural park in Oman from its list of world heritage sites - the first time it has taken such a step since the list was created 35 years ago.
The decision to delete the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary from the list was taken after the Omani government reduced the size of the protected area by 90 percent, Unesco said in a statement from its Paris headquarters.
The UN cultural organization’s World Heritage Committee is meeting in New Zealand to consider new applicants to the prestigious list, as well as problem sites that risk losing their world heritage status.
"In 1996 the population of the Arabian Oryx in the site was 450 but it has since dwindled to 65 with only about four breeding pairs, making its future viability uncertain. This decline is due to poaching and habitat degradation," Unesco said." The Committee felt that the unilateral reduction in the size of the sanctuary and plans to proceed with hydrocarbon prosecution would destroy the value and integrity of the property, which is also home to other endangered species including, the Arabian gazelle and houbara bustard," it said.
The committee earlier this week placed Ecuador's Galapagos islands on an "endangered sites" list because of the threat from tourism and non-native species.
source: http://www.int.iol.co.za/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After reading this article. It made me wonder: -

- When did Oman reduce the "Arabian Oryx Sanctuary"??

I known for a long time now that Oman has one of the largest Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in the gulf, when did this change? us as Omani’s we have great pride in our heritage and the Arabian Oryx is one of the main things that we put our pride for it. How did he dare (The person who signed the reduction of the "Arabian Oryx Sanctuary" and turned it into an oil field production area. I am disappointed in such act.

- How come it wasn’t announced in the Omani local media??

As we all know the local media is decrease to so called media. They cover and hide every thing from the local population.

- Would his majesty do such a thing or as always things were done behind the sense!!!

Well I have nothing to say about this, every thing in Oman is done from behind of his majesty, every thing that people in power in Oman do is look for ways to improve their bank accounts number's and care less for other useless material to them. I would like to ask you people who do such acts, do you care about your country & heritage or you just care about the endless amount of cash that you would like to snap from the system.

Every time I hear such things I loss hope for our heritage to last for the next generation...

3-D printers

As a child, Hod Lipson lost Lego pieces constantly. Now the 39-year-old director of Cornell University’s Computational Synthesis Lab can build replacement parts on the spot. Completed last year, Lipson’s fabrication machine, called a “fabber,” can print thousands of three-dimensional objects, everything from toy parts to artificial muscles, using dozens of materials, including PlayDoh, peanut butter and silicone, by following simple directions sent to it by a PC. About the size of a microwave, the fabber costs $2,300 to assemble—roughly one tenth the cost of commercial 3-D printers.

I am going to get one those as it gets to the streets,,,

Yemen trip # 2

Four hours of nice sleep, I wake up with few big knocks on my room door,,, I freaked out and fell down the bed (I thought something has happened and we are needed to evacuate), Luckily that wasn’t the case, I answered the door and saw someone who gave me a ticket and told me that I need to get ready to go to Mukala... I was a bit pissed since I didn’t get lots of sleep and they didn’t inform about this earlier,,,, after few minutes I went down to the airport the city was empty and it was about six in the morning,,, Later after I reached the airport, and started my check in,, they told me that there is something wrong with my ticket and I needed to change my ticket!!! I was pissed off when they told me that,,, This is not the way the company is suppose to be running. After I changed my ticket, I checked in, few minutes later I am on the airplane going to Mukala.

An hour later I have reached Mukala where there was a driver waiting for me and then we went to Massila,,, which is about three hours drive through mountain terrain there were huge and steep, Some were like 60° where cars has a bit of hard time to get up...

When I have reached Massila and settled in the room that they gave me,,, I spent some time to look around and see if there were any person that I know so we can hang out… luckily my emeriti friend was there (IBY)... So we had some time to fool around and joke about every thing, We then managed to be friends with the people working there, where they invited us to their “PARTY” That night was hell of a fun… Other than that we were doing nothing, just surfing the net and shisha and Qat,,,

Few days of having fun both of us went to the rig and did some work, I have only spent three days on the rig and then back to Massila and spend nine days, and when I managed to contact my manager here in Yemen, I discovered that they have actually forgot that I was over there,,, Then they said that I need to go back and my services are no longer required...

Well I am happy about it getting some serious cash when all I did is sleep, eat & surfing the net...

The getting back, was a whole different story with its own mess ups and destiny’s way of saying that I need to suffer so I can enjoy that cash that I got,,, where hopefully I will take about it in the next topic...