Editorial Supervision
Editor -in-chief
Senior Editor
Editor & Translator
Design & Layout
Photography
Parents of children with disabilities face severe sadness, fear, worry and more from loved ones and even family members, regarding their little angels with eyes of spite, concern and even disbelief they are really disabled at the time. It can be Cerebral Palsy, mental retardation, down-syndrome or a learning disabilities. Dealing and coping with the problems that come with children with special needs or a specific disability and for those who care for them daily most certainly build up over time, often leaving a parent with a mixture of emotions they have to hide and cannot share with anyone. Medicines, long term treatment, counselling, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social and emotional development and schooling, all of these lead to money being swept away from families in order to help aid their child through life. Knowing where to turn, financial or government programs available, can help ease the strap on an otherwise empty wallet.
It is so soothing: we have the Family Support Group for Disabled
Children in Oman at the Association for Early Intervention which caters for disadvantaged parents and their disabled children. The Group regrets that medical treatment provided to disabled children often pays attention to one aspect of the illness and neglects the others. It appeals to increase public awareness especially among parents, educators, professionals and physicians with regard to treating neurological illnesses in children. The
Group advocates adopting an integrated approach in treating children by considering their educational, physiological, emotional, medical, developmental and social needs.
The international convention organized by the Group to explore various aspects of treating children with neurological disorders served as a platform for professionals to listen to the parents’ views and to receive feedback on their experiences in dealing with disabled children. We are delighted to learn that several SQU employees are active members of the Family Support
Group for Disabled Children, which led to organizing this convention at
SQU Cultural Centre. As the organisers of the convention rightly pointed out, the whole event reflected the Groups genuine quest to offer a helping hand to the hopeless parents to make differences in their children’s lives.
20 March 2011 P2
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form of articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are welcome. Contributions may be edited for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your contributions to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably credited.
Horizon is published three times a month by the Department of Public Relations and Information,
Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50, P.C. 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Phone: +968 24141045
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om
Fax: +968 24413 391
Website: www.squ.edu.om

Editorial Supervision
Editor -in-chief
Senior Editor
Editor & Translator
Design & Layout
Photography
Parents of children with disabilities face severe sadness, fear, worry and more from loved ones and even family members, regarding their little angels with eyes of spite, concern and even disbelief they are really disabled at the time. It can be Cerebral Palsy, mental retardation, down-syndrome or a learning disabilities. Dealing and coping with the problems that come with children with special needs or a specific disability and for those who care for them daily most certainly build up over time, often leaving a parent with a mixture of emotions they have to hide and cannot share with anyone. Medicines, long term treatment, counselling, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social and emotional development and schooling, all of these lead to money being swept away from families in order to help aid their child through life. Knowing where to turn, financial or government programs available, can help ease the strap on an otherwise empty wallet.
It is so soothing: we have the Family Support Group for Disabled
Children in Oman at the Association for Early Intervention which caters for disadvantaged parents and their disabled children. The Group regrets that medical treatment provided to disabled children often pays attention to one aspect of the illness and neglects the others. It appeals to increase public awareness especially among parents, educators, professionals and physicians with regard to treating neurological illnesses in children. The
Group advocates adopting an integrated approach in treating children by considering their educational, physiological, emotional, medical, developmental and social needs.
The international convention organized by the Group to explore various aspects of treating children with neurological disorders served as a platform for professionals to listen to the parents’ views and to receive feedback on their experiences in dealing with disabled children. We are delighted to learn that several SQU employees are active members of the Family Support
Group for Disabled Children, which led to organizing this convention at
SQU Cultural Centre. As the organisers of the convention rightly pointed out, the whole event reflected the Groups genuine quest to offer a helping hand to the hopeless parents to make differences in their children’s lives.
Horizon invites contributions from SQU members of staff and faculty. Contributions in the form of articles, news, travelogues, stories of unique and interesting experiences, encounters, etc., are welcome. Contributions may be edited for the sake of clarity and length. Please send your contributions to horizon@squ.edu.om preferably, as MSWord attachments. Authors will be suitably credited.
Horizon is published three times a month by the Department of Public Relations and Information,
Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 50, P.C. 123, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.
Phone: +968 24141045
E-mail: horizon@squ.edu.om
Fax: +968 24413 391
Website: www.squ.edu.om
The opening ceremony of the first international medical and educational convention for parents titled “Neurological disorders: a comprehensive approach towards treating the children’s needs” was held at SQU under the patronage of HE Dr. Mohammed bin Saif al Hosni, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health. This three day event was organized by the
Family Support Group for Disabled Children at the Association for Early
Intervention (FSGDC).
The FSGDC, which was established in January 2010, consists of a group of parents devoted to serve other parents and their disabled children. The organizers’ statement says that “as parents of disabled children, they are aware of the stressful situations and difficulties that parents of disabled children go through and their concerns about their children’s development.
However, these concerns are not valued by many professionals and physicians although current research has revealed that parents are usually correct in their concerns which should lead to additional investigation by the primary care paediatrician, a child neurologist, a developmental paediatrician or other qualified specialist, or preferably, a team of specialists.
However, the medical treatment provided to children; in Oman and many parts of the world, pays attention to one aspect of the illness and neglects the others”.
The convention was bilingual and targeted to parents. It covered neurological disorders and illnesses, psychological disorders, food, diet & nutrition, early
Intervention, genetic diseases, therapies, biomedical treatment, and special needs education. The event featured around 40 presentations covering different areas. There were 6 plenary sessions conducted by keynote speakers. One of them was Her Highness Royal Princess Sameera Al Faisal
Al Sauod who conducted two presentations on autism and schizophrenia .
Another plenary speaker was Professor Richard Deth, a Professor of Neuropharmacology and a Nobel Prize Nominee who gave two presentations; one targeted to parents and the other for professionals. An exhibition was also organised on the sidelines of the convention.
Activities of the 1st Gulf Academic Forum for Social Work was opened under the patronage of HE Dr. Yahya bin Badr al-Ma’awali,
Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Development in the presence of HE Dr. Ali bin Saud al-Baimani, SQU Vice Chancellor. The forum was organized by the Sociology and Social Work Department in the
College of Arts and Social Sciences. A large number of universities from across the AGCC countries took part in this forum.
HE Dr. Yahya bin Badr al-Ma’awali later opened an exhibition organized on the sidelines of the forum. The exhibition focused on information about the past and present of social voluntary work in the Sultanate and the future expectations. The exhibition also displayed artworks characterizing the voluntary work in the Omani environment. These artworks were presented by the students of the Fine Art Society and students in the Social Work Department. The forum discussed 12 working papers in five sessions with participation of a number of universities from the AGCC states and Yemen.
HE Dr. Ali bin Saud al Bimani, Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos
University, recently received in his office, HE Tadatsuna Koda, Advisor of
Japan Petroleum Exploration Company, JAPEX, and former Ambassador of Japan to the Sultanate of Oman. They discussed the possibilities of further strengthening research collaboration between SQU and Japanese organizations in different fields including water desalination, water treatment, solar energy and fisheries.
In collaboration with Oman Respiratory Society, the Departments of
Adult Health & Critical Care, and Community & Mental Health of the
College of Nursing at Sultan Qaboos University organized on March
9, a health campaign based on the theme, ‘Smoke free environmentlife is yours’ for 100 boys at Al Khoudh High School. According to a communiqué from the organizers, smoking amongst youth is a health concern which affects countries worldwide. Empowering youth is very significant to control the smoking disaster affecting many lives in the world.
On the occasion, Dr. Samira Maroof, Chair of Community activities at the College of Nursing welcomed the gathering. The highlight of the event was an interactive lecture by Dr. Hussein Al Kindi, President of Oman Respiratory Society. He explained the active substances in tobacco, its adverse effects and how tobacco is used in various ways. He further discussed how a person gets addicted to smoking and the influence of the advertising media in representing smoking as a symbol of modernity. “Smoking starts with experimentation but later becomes a habit”, Dr.Hussein said. The faculty and students of
College of Nursing displayed an exhibition utilizing models, posters and charts on the effects of smoking on health and explained it to the school students.
20 March 2011 P3
20 March 2011 P2

By: Dr. Surendra Nath Joshi
Senior Consultant
Department of Child Health, SQU
Metabolic diseases are highly specialized diseases. They are caused by genetic substances or the depleted useful ones. Sometimes measuring the activity of the defects that run in certain affected families. The genetic defect is usually present in both parents but parents are usually not showing the disease because they only have one wrong copy out of two of a particular gene. The affected child inherits both the wrong copies a gene from their parents. In Oman, like most other Middle Eastern countries, these diseases are at least 4 to 5 times more common than western countries. It is estimated that the general population risk in Oman for having an affected child with metabolic disease is 1 out of 1000 births. This high risk is because of consanguinity or cousin marriages (individuals from same family or tribe are more likely to carry similar genes and pass them to their children) and large family size (more the number of children in affected family more the chance). As the carrier person is not showing any symptoms there is no way to tell if person is a carrier except by gene testing which is being developed for many of the diseases in Oman. Once a family has an affected child, it is likely to reoccur by at least 1 out of 4 chances in subsequent children.
missing enzyme is needed for establishing the diagnosis. Nowadays the more specialised genetic testing is also being performed to exactly pinpoint the defect as well as to diagnose the carrier individuals. Some of these investigations are done in SQU Hospital laboratory and some are sent abroad the results of these tests could take long time (up to few weeks). Even while waiting for the results, the treatment is started to prevent further damage.
Immediate treatment of a sick child is usually performed in an intensive care unit where the patient’s condition is first stabilized and monitored closely under the supervision of intensive care doctor and the metabolic team. The medical team then designs long term plans about the medications and specialized feeding formula for long term care. Before discharge from the hospital the parents are involved in the day to day care, administration of medication and preparation of milk for feeding until they are confident in fully managing the child at home.
The affected gene lead to deficiency of various chemicals (enzymes) required in complex metabolic reactions as a result of which there may be production of various harmful substances or the deficiency of energy production or storage of un-metabolized substances in the body. This leads to serious symptoms affecting various organs of the body especially the brain, liver, kidney, heart and muscles.
Metabolic diseases can present at any age but newborn babies are most vulnerable. There are at least 400 different metabolic diseases known and more are being discovered. More than 100 diseases are first present in the new born period. In its most severe form the picture is usually of a normal newborn who within a few days after feeding on normal milk develops excessive sleep, irritability, poor feeding and vomiting, if not treated at this stage, it does progress to breathing difficulty, fits, unconsciousness or even death. Even if the child survives he/she is very likely to suffer from a permanent brain damage and lifelong handicap. It is therefore vitally important to diagnose and treat these diseases as early as possible. The best way to detect the disease is by routine new born screening. Most of the western countries nowadays routinely perform screening for common diseases in all newborn babies so that the special treatment can be started before the appearance of first symptom thus improving the outcome. Sometimes, if the deficiency of the enzyme is partial, the symptoms may be delayed for a few weeks to months. It is also important to know that there are some other types of metabolic diseases that can appear later in childhood or even in adulthood; this is because the genetic defect is milder or the toxic substances take longer time to accumulate.
Long term management is done by using specialised diet plan as the affected patient can not digest ordinary food especially normal milk, milk products and animal proteins. Consumption of milk or food that is not recommended can make the child sick very easily. These children are only allowed to eat a special diet at all times. In addition, special drugs are also used in most cases.
The drugs help either by stimulating the deficient enzyme, or substituting the useful compounds, or getting rid of the harmful substances from the body. The parents must follow carefully the instructions of their doctor and pharmacist in doses, methods of administration and preservation of these medications. The drugs are available in various forms (capsules, tablets, powder, liquids etc.), the preparation and quantity of these drugs should be followed exactly as informed by the pharmacist. As the defect in the body is permanent, the treatment is also required for the life. It is quite important to know that any illness in the child could cause sudden disturbance of delicately balanced metabolic system leading to serious health risk, therefore a prompt medical attention is required on long term basis. In certain cases permanent cure may be achieved by organ or bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. Research is now going on for the ultimate therapy by gene transplantation but it is still quite far from reality.
The diagnosis and treatment facility for metabolic diseases in Oman is at present only available at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. This hospital at present is the only recognized referral centre for the whole country.
The diagnosis is usually suspected from the symptoms and the clinical examination and is strongly supported if there is a family history of the same disease in the past. To establish the diagnosis medics use blood and/or urine investigations.
These investigations depend on measuring the levels of accumulated harmful
20 March 2011 P4
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This article focuses on the main factors behind water scarcity based on the literature in the field and proposes the most appropriate solutions to deal with the problem.
By: Dr. Abdelmajid Bouazza
Associate Professor
Department of Information Studies
& Alaeddin Bouazza
Scientists forecast in 2000 that a third of the world population would be facing water shortages by 2025. Water experts are shocked to find that this problem is already there. Serious shortages of water are already hitting a number of countries in the world such as Egypt, which imports more than half of its food because it lacks enough water to grow more. The same can be said about Tunisia, Algeria, and
Morocco. Few years ago, Algeria was importing drinking water from
France because of a drought that lasted for more than a year.
This article focuses on the main factors behind water scarcity based on the literature in the field and proposes the most appropriate solutions to deal with the problem from our point of view. However, before that, one needs to provide a definition for the concept. What, in fact, does water shortage or scarcity mean? According to experts, “countries are considered water scarce when annual renewable water resources are less than 1.000 cubic meters per capita per year. Below that threshold, water availability is considered a severe constraint on socioeconomic development.” Currently, some 30 countries are considered water scarce.
Why do such a large number of countries suffer from water shortages?
Looking at the literature in the area, one would tend to be convinced that the reasons behind the problem are large in number and complicated in nature. However, we will try to synthesize them.
Across the planet, poor governance and mismanagement of natural resources, coupled with the growth of population, the increasing of urbanization, and economic development have led to a growing imbalance between water supply and demand. This imbalance is reaching crisis proportions in different regions in the world, such as in northern India, the Middle East, and North Africa. Water shortage has led, in some cases, to political and military tension as is the case of
Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, because of the discord over the distribution of the Tigris River waters.
scarcity increases, the rising of economic value of water should improve the costeffectiveness of some new water development projects, particularly multipurpose dams that both supply new water and generate revenue from hydropower. The environmental costs and benefits must be carefully weighed in evaluating new water sources. The implementation of this solution, in the bulk of developing countries, requires both financial and technological assistance from international organizations and developed countries.
As to the second point, the implementation of a comprehensive water policy reform will not be easy in the world in general, and in developing countries in particular because long-standing practice and cultural and religious beliefs have treated water as a free commodity.
Moreover, entrenched interests benefit from existing arrangements.
Thus, additional research is required to design specific policies within any given country. However, key elements of a comprehensive reform should include the following:
• Secure water rights: this can be achieved by increasing the incentives for efficient water use and reducing incentives that may degrade the environment. An example of this type of reform would be to encourage farmers to adopt drip irrigation and organic agriculture.
• User management of irrigation system: in many developing countries devolving irrigation infrastructure and management to water user associations would be beneficial.
•
•
Reformed price incentives: privatization and regulation of urban water services, together with reduced subsidies for urban water consumption, can also improve efficiency.
Appropriate technology: computerized control systems and drip irrigation using low-cost plastic pipes could have promising results in developing countries.
• Environmental protection: the government should restrict water use in the event of damage to ecosystems, overexploitation of aquifers, and other environmental effects.
In some parts of the world, water shortage became a serious problem because water is considered a strategic resource, creating tension between some countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.
Therefore, the world should look for appropriate solutions in order to avoid the rising of such tensions between nations. However, water specialists keep reminding us that “water problems are clear enough whereas the solutions are not.” Any proposed solution for water shortage should take into account two aspects: (1) the development of new water sources, and (2) a comprehensive water policy reform.
Since policy reform often transcends national boundaries, as is the case of the Middle East, one should admit that the success of the above solutions requires an international cooperation. Therefore, cooperation between countries sharing the same water basin is increasingly important as water becomes scarcer.
Water shortage is a real problem. As a result, we should not ignore it. Rather, we should plan for an appropriate strategy to deal with it in order to ensure peace and prosperity for future generations. We should keep in mind that “a drop of water is more valuable than a treasure”, as an Arab proverb sates.
With regard to the first point, one would tend to suggest that as water
20 March 2011 P5

By: Dr. Surendra Nath Joshi
Senior Consultant
Department of Child Health, SQU
Metabolic diseases are highly specialized diseases. They are caused by genetic substances or the depleted useful ones. Sometimes measuring the activity of the defects that run in certain affected families. The genetic defect is usually present in both parents but parents are usually not showing the disease because they only have one wrong copy out of two of a particular gene. The affected child inherits both the wrong copies a gene from their parents. In Oman, like most other Middle Eastern countries, these diseases are at least 4 to 5 times more common than western countries. It is estimated that the general population risk in Oman for having an affected child with metabolic disease is 1 out of 1000 births. This high risk is because of consanguinity or cousin marriages (individuals from same family or tribe are more likely to carry similar genes and pass them to their children) and large family size (more the number of children in affected family more the chance). As the carrier person is not showing any symptoms there is no way to tell if person is a carrier except by gene testing which is being developed for many of the diseases in Oman. Once a family has an affected child, it is likely to reoccur by at least 1 out of 4 chances in subsequent children.
missing enzyme is needed for establishing the diagnosis. Nowadays the more specialised genetic testing is also being performed to exactly pinpoint the defect as well as to diagnose the carrier individuals. Some of these investigations are done in SQU Hospital laboratory and some are sent abroad the results of these tests could take long time (up to few weeks). Even while waiting for the results, the treatment is started to prevent further damage.
Immediate treatment of a sick child is usually performed in an intensive care unit where the patient’s condition is first stabilized and monitored closely under the supervision of intensive care doctor and the metabolic team. The medical team then designs long term plans about the medications and specialized feeding formula for long term care. Before discharge from the hospital the parents are involved in the day to day care, administration of medication and preparation of milk for feeding until they are confident in fully managing the child at home.
The affected gene lead to deficiency of various chemicals (enzymes) required in complex metabolic reactions as a result of which there may be production of various harmful substances or the deficiency of energy production or storage of un-metabolized substances in the body. This leads to serious symptoms affecting various organs of the body especially the brain, liver, kidney, heart and muscles.
Metabolic diseases can present at any age but newborn babies are most vulnerable. There are at least 400 different metabolic diseases known and more are being discovered. More than 100 diseases are first present in the new born period. In its most severe form the picture is usually of a normal newborn who within a few days after feeding on normal milk develops excessive sleep, irritability, poor feeding and vomiting, if not treated at this stage, it does progress to breathing difficulty, fits, unconsciousness or even death. Even if the child survives he/she is very likely to suffer from a permanent brain damage and lifelong handicap. It is therefore vitally important to diagnose and treat these diseases as early as possible. The best way to detect the disease is by routine new born screening. Most of the western countries nowadays routinely perform screening for common diseases in all newborn babies so that the special treatment can be started before the appearance of first symptom thus improving the outcome. Sometimes, if the deficiency of the enzyme is partial, the symptoms may be delayed for a few weeks to months. It is also important to know that there are some other types of metabolic diseases that can appear later in childhood or even in adulthood; this is because the genetic defect is milder or the toxic substances take longer time to accumulate.
Long term management is done by using specialised diet plan as the affected patient can not digest ordinary food especially normal milk, milk products and animal proteins. Consumption of milk or food that is not recommended can make the child sick very easily. These children are only allowed to eat a special diet at all times. In addition, special drugs are also used in most cases.
The drugs help either by stimulating the deficient enzyme, or substituting the useful compounds, or getting rid of the harmful substances from the body. The parents must follow carefully the instructions of their doctor and pharmacist in doses, methods of administration and preservation of these medications. The drugs are available in various forms (capsules, tablets, powder, liquids etc.), the preparation and quantity of these drugs should be followed exactly as informed by the pharmacist. As the defect in the body is permanent, the treatment is also required for the life. It is quite important to know that any illness in the child could cause sudden disturbance of delicately balanced metabolic system leading to serious health risk, therefore a prompt medical attention is required on long term basis. In certain cases permanent cure may be achieved by organ or bone marrow or stem cell transplantation. Research is now going on for the ultimate therapy by gene transplantation but it is still quite far from reality.
The diagnosis and treatment facility for metabolic diseases in Oman is at present only available at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. This hospital at present is the only recognized referral centre for the whole country.
The diagnosis is usually suspected from the symptoms and the clinical examination and is strongly supported if there is a family history of the same disease in the past. To establish the diagnosis medics use blood and/or urine investigations.
These investigations depend on measuring the levels of accumulated harmful
20 March 2011 P4
International World Water Day is held annually on 22 March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This article focuses on the main factors behind water scarcity based on the literature in the field and proposes the most appropriate solutions to deal with the problem.
By: Dr. Abdelmajid Bouazza
Associate Professor
Department of Information Studies
& Alaeddin Bouazza
Scientists forecast in 2000 that a third of the world population would be facing water shortages by 2025. Water experts are shocked to find that this problem is already there. Serious shortages of water are already hitting a number of countries in the world such as Egypt, which imports more than half of its food because it lacks enough water to grow more. The same can be said about Tunisia, Algeria, and
Morocco. Few years ago, Algeria was importing drinking water from
France because of a drought that lasted for more than a year.
This article focuses on the main factors behind water scarcity based on the literature in the field and proposes the most appropriate solutions to deal with the problem from our point of view. However, before that, one needs to provide a definition for the concept. What, in fact, does water shortage or scarcity mean? According to experts, “countries are considered water scarce when annual renewable water resources are less than 1.000 cubic meters per capita per year. Below that threshold, water availability is considered a severe constraint on socioeconomic development.” Currently, some 30 countries are considered water scarce.
Why do such a large number of countries suffer from water shortages?
Looking at the literature in the area, one would tend to be convinced that the reasons behind the problem are large in number and complicated in nature. However, we will try to synthesize them.
Across the planet, poor governance and mismanagement of natural resources, coupled with the growth of population, the increasing of urbanization, and economic development have led to a growing imbalance between water supply and demand. This imbalance is reaching crisis proportions in different regions in the world, such as in northern India, the Middle East, and North Africa. Water shortage has led, in some cases, to political and military tension as is the case of
Turkey, Iraq, and Syria, because of the discord over the distribution of the Tigris River waters.
scarcity increases, the rising of economic value of water should improve the costeffectiveness of some new water development projects, particularly multipurpose dams that both supply new water and generate revenue from hydropower. The environmental costs and benefits must be carefully weighed in evaluating new water sources. The implementation of this solution, in the bulk of developing countries, requires both financial and technological assistance from international organizations and developed countries.
As to the second point, the implementation of a comprehensive water policy reform will not be easy in the world in general, and in developing countries in particular because long-standing practice and cultural and religious beliefs have treated water as a free commodity.
Moreover, entrenched interests benefit from existing arrangements.
Thus, additional research is required to design specific policies within any given country. However, key elements of a comprehensive reform should include the following:
• Secure water rights: this can be achieved by increasing the incentives for efficient water use and reducing incentives that may degrade the environment. An example of this type of reform would be to encourage farmers to adopt drip irrigation and organic agriculture.
• User management of irrigation system: in many developing countries devolving irrigation infrastructure and management to water user associations would be beneficial.
•
•
Reformed price incentives: privatization and regulation of urban water services, together with reduced subsidies for urban water consumption, can also improve efficiency.
Appropriate technology: computerized control systems and drip irrigation using low-cost plastic pipes could have promising results in developing countries.
• Environmental protection: the government should restrict water use in the event of damage to ecosystems, overexploitation of aquifers, and other environmental effects.
In some parts of the world, water shortage became a serious problem because water is considered a strategic resource, creating tension between some countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel.
Therefore, the world should look for appropriate solutions in order to avoid the rising of such tensions between nations. However, water specialists keep reminding us that “water problems are clear enough whereas the solutions are not.” Any proposed solution for water shortage should take into account two aspects: (1) the development of new water sources, and (2) a comprehensive water policy reform.
Since policy reform often transcends national boundaries, as is the case of the Middle East, one should admit that the success of the above solutions requires an international cooperation. Therefore, cooperation between countries sharing the same water basin is increasingly important as water becomes scarcer.
Water shortage is a real problem. As a result, we should not ignore it. Rather, we should plan for an appropriate strategy to deal with it in order to ensure peace and prosperity for future generations. We should keep in mind that “a drop of water is more valuable than a treasure”, as an Arab proverb sates.
With regard to the first point, one would tend to suggest that as water
20 March 2011 P5

The Remote Sensing & GIS Centre at Sultan Qaboos University recently organized a seminar titled “Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring,
Disaster and Environmental Management”. Hans Peter Roesli,
Consultant in Satellite Data Applications, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Darmstadt,
Germany, gave a talk on EUMETSAT and Climate Monitoring Activities with special focus on the Middle East. He explained that EUMETSAT, in accordance with its convention, makes a substantial contribution to the operational climate monitoring and the detection of global climate change. “To this end EUMETSAT implements operational continuity for novel instruments. EUMETSAT, including its Satellite Application
Facilities, provides a powerful sustainable environment for the generation and archiving of climate data records in international collaboration. EUMETSAT is contributing to international initiatives related to climate monitoring and future model-based reanalysis.
EUMETSAT data offer excellent opportunities for the development of advanced climate monitoring products focused on the Middle East”,
Hans Peter Roesli said.
In the second session of the seminar, Henk Verschuur, Senior Training
Officer, EUMETSAT, Darmstadt, Germany, gave a presentation on
“Using Satellite Data for Disaster and Environmental Management”.
He said that satellites provide full coverage of the globe, which allows a continuous monitoring of the oceans, the continents and the atmosphere. These capabilities are used for many disciplines and applications such as meteorology, climate monitoring, agriculture, oceanography but also for disaster management. EUMETSAT operates the Meteosat series of satellites in geostationary orbit and a
METOP satellite in polar orbit. Henk Verschuur presented examples of applications such as volcanic ash, dust monitoring, fire detection and tropical cyclone monitoring.
The opening ceremony of the International Workshop on Fire Safety
Engineering and Management, organized by the Civil & Architectural
Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at SQU, in collaboration with the Civil Defence Unit of Royal Oman Police, was held recently under the patronage of HE Ahmed bin Suleiman al Maimani, Undersecretary for
Administrative and Financial Affairs and Regional Affairs at the Ministry of
Commerce & Industry.
Delivering the organizing committee speech, Dr. Ali bin Salem al Harthy, Dean of the College of Engineering, said that the value of fire safety engineering is growing and it is considered as separate discipline in academic institutions as protection of people and their environments from the destructive effects of fire and smoke is an matter of high importance. He hoped that the workshop would pave way for more interaction among policy makers, practising engineers, faculty members and students about the latest developments in the field of fire safety engineering and management. The audience, later listened to the address of Dougal Drysdale from the BRE Centre for Fire Safety
Engineering at the School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh.
The workshop discussed 25 working papers on different aspects of this discipline. The papers were presented by international speakers from China,
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Nigeria, UK and USA. Dr. Khalifa al Jabri,
Chair of the workshop organizing committee observed that there is a growing interest towards fire safety in the GCC region for the past few years due to rapid development in infrastructure and industry. “The main aim of this workshop is to update on the latest developments, strategies and solutions for key fire safety issues to enable construction professionals to learn more about how to create the safest possible buildings”. HE Dr. Ali bin Saud al
Bimani, SQU Vice Chancellor, opened the exhibition held on the sidelines of the workshop. The Civil Defence Unit of ROP and other private and public sector organizations participated in the exhibition.
of engineers and scientists to develop measurement, test, and control systems. According to Prof. Hadj Bourdourcen, Director of CIRC, this graphical program platform offers excellent integration with hardware devices and provides built-in libraries for advanced analysis and data visualization for creating virtual instrumentation. “This allows engineers and scientists to design and build cost-effective interface systems with measurement and control hardware, analyze data, share results, and distribute systems”, he said.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the College of Engineering and the Communication & Information Research Centre
(CIRC) at SQU organized a two-day workshop on LabVIEW recently.
LabVIEW is a graphical programming environment used by a huge number
During the workshop, the resource persons from National Instruments,
(http://www.ni.com/labview/) led the training sessions. The major areas covered in the two day workshop included introduction to
LabVIEW, platform, simulation, prototyping, measurement and comparison, education, research, latest technology, real time and
FPGAs, PXI and R. The training workshop was attended by faculties working in the fields of computer aided data acquisition, measurement, control and instrumentation systems. The event was proved useful for those senior students from the College of Engineering who are using
LabView in their final year design projects.
20 March 2011
P6

her writing and instrumental towards shaping and forming the writer that she is today. The poems in these volumes are musings, thoughts, and observations from a child’s perspective, the way she amalgamates all that she sees around her into her imaginative universe.
Priyanka Sacheti is an independent writer and journalist based in Muscat. She completed her schooling in Muscat at American-
British Academy (ABA) and pursued her higher education in
UK, achieving a BA (Hons) in English Literature and Creative
Writing and Masters in Women’s Studies from Universities of
Warwick and Oxford respectively. She has been contributing to various local, regional, and international publications and her articles have appeared in Gulf News, USA Today, Hindu, and Guardian Weekly, to name a few. Priyanka’s association with SQU is a long-time one: her father, Dr. Nirmal C. Sacheti, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematics
& Statistics while her mother, Dr. Usha Sacheti was a faculty member of the Biology Department at SQU. She has been personally associated with SQU through the Department of
English and the English and Translation Society; she has been invited to conduct seminars and workshops at their behest.
Her Poems
Priyanka has been writing since the age of eight; her first poem was published in Dubai-based newspaper, Khaleej Times’ children’s magazine,
Young Times. She published over 100 poems and short articles in leading
Gulf and Indian newspapers and magazines during her childhood; she also won several awards for her poetry. These three volumes published by known publishing houses such as Writers’ Workshop, Calcutta have marked the various stages of her poetic journey through her school-years; her third volume is entitled, ‘Poetic Journey’ and she would especially like to thank her mother for it as she was the one who meticulously preserved, dated, and collected all the poems she had written during those pre-computer days and made the third and indeed, all the volumes possible. Priyanka says that her parents and younger brother, Abhinav have been hugely supportive of
Short stories and novellas
It was after Priyanka began to pursue her degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at Warwick that she deepened her interest in fiction; prior to that, she had had already completed an unpublished manuscript of collection of short stories when she was at school. Her fiction tutor,
Maureen Freely (official translator of Turkish writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature, Orhan Pamuk) greatly encouraged Priyanka in this genre and she produced a number of short stories and novellas during her university days. She has since then published several short stories in literary journals with two of them recently being included in two international short story anthologies, Indian Voices and Word Masala.
She is presently working on a book of short stories.
Stylistic innovations in writing
Priyanka is interested in challenging the traditional story-telling structure: how many different ways can a story be told? This could include innovations in structure or the way a story is narrated or writing style. At the moment, this young writer feels that she still in the process of developing her style. “In any case, it is a perpetually evolving process and I would very much hope that my style varies over the years as this indicates constant innovation, rather than stagnation. I am also interested in literary non-fiction, which involves using techniques of fiction to narrate real life incidents or situation”, she says. In fact, Priyanka has published several such pieces of the literary non-fiction genre as well and it is a great transition point between journalism and fiction. Priyanka does not have any role models as such as she is more inspired by innovative pieces of writing, rather than one particular writer’s body of work. She adds:
“Having said that, I must say I have great admiration for the Indian-
American writer, Jhumpa Lahiri’s quietly elegant style and Vikram Seth’s novel, A Suitable Boy figures amongst my favourite books”.
Juxtaposing poetry with painting
Priyanka feels that art thrives in collaboration and juxtaposition and she has always enjoyed the coming together of two different artistic domains, such as fashion and art or photography and text. She is especially interested in the latter and would definitely like to pursue the poetrypainting idea, such as collaborating with a visual artist for this project.
Introducing Indian Diaspora to others
Being part of the Indian Diaspora, Priyanka often finds herself writing about issues affecting the Indian Diaspora in her writing. “It is not as much a conscious as a subconscious decision as writers often tend to write about what they know and understand best and aspects relating to diaspora are those that I constantly encounter. I am not sure if my writing is as much explaining as describing the experience to people of other cultural backgrounds. It’s more of my perspective of and response to the
Indian immigrant experience abroad; the focal point is the immigrant experience and that itself may resonate with people of other cultural backgrounds who themselves have left their native countries to pursue life elsewhere”, she explains.
Comment on the role of Omani women in society
Having both lived in Oman for a long time and had the privilege of interacting and speaking to Oman women-achievers through the medium of journalism, Priyanka would rather like to emphasize her pride at living in a country which accords much respect to and provides myriad opportunities for women to pursue their dreams and aspirations. She says: “His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has consistently and constantly encouraged Omani women to participate in the development of their country and it is testimony to his vision and Omani women’s potential that we encounter Omani women achievers in all walks of life, whether it be corporate or sports or art or entrepreneurship or education”.
20 March 2011 P7

Horizon:
What was the purpose of your visit to Oman and Sultan Qaboos
University?
Thank you so much for your interest in my visit to Oman and
Sultan Qaboos University. The main purpose of the visit was to facilitate two workshops based on my book: A Leader’s Guide to Knowledge Management:
Drawing on the Past to Enhance Future Performance. The sessions were attended by many senior leaders on campus; the first workshop included many of the deans, while the second session included many campus directors.
I truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet, work with, and learn from this amazing group of people. I hope they benefited from the workshop as much as I did.
Although the primary purpose of my visit was business, I did take some time to visit your beautiful country. I particularly enjoyed being hosted to a traditional
Omani lunch at a friend’s house and visiting Muscat. I hope to return soon to learn more about and see more of Oman.
Horizon: How topics such as knowledge management, social media, virtual business, online education, and globalization became your areas of interest?
Great question – that is the precise theme of my new book on virtual business. The book focuses on how leaders can create real value in this global, connected world in which many us now operate. We are witnessing a revolution that is transforming the way people connect, communicate, and collaborate. The convergence of ubiquitous communication networks, lowcost appliances, exponential web-based content growth, and a cultural shift towards sharing has created an always-on, always-connected, always-sharing environment. Today, many of us assume that no matter where we are we should be able to connect immediately to our cyber security blanket. There is no question that today we all live in a global community. I remind my business students at Minot State University about this on a regular basis. I think it is vital that students and business leaders think globally and consider the impact of their decisions. Arguably, the world is becoming even “smaller” through social media and virtual business. Gone are the days when local or regional businesses can ignore what is happening on the global arena.
Horizon:
What is this activity called knowledge management, and why is it so important to each and every one of us?
In the workshops, there were many great discussions about knowledge management and the importance of creating, transferring, and exchanging organizational knowledge to create a competitive advantage. We discussed the significance of the three enablers of knowledge management
(KM): technology, leadership, and culture, the so called “TLC of KM”. We shared many examples of organizations that were able to balance correctly the enablers to create value; however, we also examined so implementations that were not very successful. Sometimes we learn more from mistakes than successes!
We spent much of the workshop looking at specific knowledge management processes that leaders may apply. For example, we examined a concept called data mining where we use powerful computers to take a deep dive into large data stores to find data anomalies that can be used to create value.
We also discussed less technologically focuses ideas such as communities of practice and organizational storytelling. To be successful, it is important that organizations consider the unique needs of their organization, especially culture, as they develop and implement knowledge management.
Horizon:
Could you summarize the activities of Sagology? How people of
Oman can make use of this platform?
Sagology is dedicated to connecting people with people to facilitate collaboration, learning, and knowledge sharing through keynotes, workshops, and consulting. As I mentioned I hope to return to Oman soon and I look forward to working with other Omani organizations to help them reap the benefits of knowledge management and virtual business. Sagology partners with Success Steps of Riyadh (www.success-steps.com) for all of our work in the Arab world.
John Girard is a tenured full professor at Minot State University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate business classes. John’s cur-
rent research interests include knowledge management, social media,
virtual business, online education, and globalization. John is founder
and Chief Knowledge Strategist of Sagology (www.sagology.com). John
is a graduate of TUI University, where he completed a PhD in Business
Administration and an MBA, and of the University of Manitoba where
he achieved a BSc with a Computer Science major. In addition, John is
a graduate of Canadian Forces College, Toronto and the Royal Military
College of Science in the United Kingdom. He visited SQU recently.