"Come see Egypt's greatest treasure: the sun". "Visit business friendly Bahrain" See the undiscovered Gulf: Oman. Tourism slogans on CNN are more plentiful then the growing number of correspondents on CNN. Most of the commercials are for Eastern Europe or Angola, but they easily cover all the populated continents. Travelling today is huge, as is global reporting, but both in the Arab world are seriously lacking. It's not hard to see why. Being a general news junky myself, Most of the stories on the Middle East focus on either terrible political situations, wars, airstrikes, terrorism, or oil. The pieces on culture either stick to the most extreme Islamic judicial ruling of the day, the rapid development of the Gulf cities, or some Western music genre popping up in unexpected places (heavy metal in Saudi, break dancing in Iraq, or hip hop in Palestine). Very little exists on how people live their daily lives, what they think of the rest of the world outside of poorly written general surveys about Bush, or crisis torn countries such as Iraq.
In my third year living in the Middle East out of my last 4, it's easy to see why. Painting an overly general picture is easy, as is taking tiny snapshots of bizarre shit that happens every day. Iron Maiden T Shirts in ancient souks make for a great photo and interesting side bar to the other crisis stories, but doesn't help paint a picture of what life is like here. I've lived in 4 Arab countries and visited 3-5 more depending on how you count Israel and Palestine. Currently, I'm living and working in Rustaq, Oman, which will likely be the focus for most of my initial writing. However, I hope to include my insights from various past trips and comparisons between different countries to paint a better picture of what the Middle East is really like for the millions of people who live here.
Next Week: the countryside in Oman
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