Observer & Busness 5 May 2012 - Oman Daily Observer

4 OUTLOOK
OMAN DAILY Observer
SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012
A salute to midwives
A
BIG salutation to
all midwives on
the occasion of
this prestigious
day in recognition of their
efforts on promoting good
health of pregnant women
and for making childbirth
safe.
The day, which is annually
marked on 5 May, is indeed
a significant occasion
for societies to value the
RECENTLY the media
came up with the
news of some people
possessing sizable
lands measuring thousands of
square metres. This worrisome
phenomenon is not confined to
Muscat Governorate alone, in
the other governorates it is not
uncommon that 30 per cent of
the size of a village is owned
by one person.
Some individuals are in the
habit of appropriating lands
in a random way. In the dead
of night they move old furniture
and other unused stuff to
plots of land so the shaikhs
bear witness that they are the
legitimate owners of the land
in question, after that the land
is officially registered in their
names and the documents are
endorsed by local committees
and finally approved by the
wali office. By such manipulation
they become owners of
lands that they have no right
to take for themselves. The
same method is applied prior
Maryam Khalfan
healthtalk2012@gmail.com
work of midwives.
Without doubt, the risks,
the midwives take on in an
attempt to save the lives of
mothers and babies during
child birth is undeniable.
The presence of a midwife
at birth can make a
difference between life and
death. Having a skilled professional
at birth protects the
life of the mother and child
with timely intervention
when the situation can still
be controlled.
Indeed, the continuous
endeavour and boundless
support the midwives provide
without discrimination
of ethnicity, faith and colour
is certainly commendable.
The joy and smile they
bring on the lives of mothers
and their families when they
overcome the challenges of
childbirth is extraordinary.
Their contribution to promote
the well being of women
and to prevent postpartum
haemorrhage — a condition
which can lead to death of
women if bleeding is not
controlled after birth, is all
the more praiseworthy.
According to UNFPA,
“the right to health is a basic
human right that every
woman should enjoy. Yet,
every day, almost 1000
women die in pregnancy and
childbirth. Every year, 8 million
women suffer serious
pregnancy-related illnesses
and disabilities, such as obstetric
fistula, and 2 million
babies don’t survive the first
24 hours of their lives. One
of the main causes for these
tragedies is lack of access to
maternity services, including
the care of midwives or
others with midwifery skills
at childbirth".
The occasion, which is
being commemorated under
the slogan ‘Investing in
Midwifery Pays’, is indeed
a strong message to governments
and private health
care providers to invest in
this segment for sustainable
health. For instance,
if we are to learn from our
Dubious land possession
to execution of large projects,
particularly road projects.
Scores of people scramble to
illegally appropriate lands that
were previously owned by
no-one at the time they hear
that a new road project will be
implemented and the govern-
ment ends up paying millions
of rials in compensation to
these illegal owners.
The aggravating phenomenon
of illegal land grab by
individuals raises an important
own country's experience,
for many years, Oman relied
on foreign manpower in this
field. The development and
improvement on the quality
of maternal health services
provided to women
in this country has gained
the praise of international
organisations related with
women and child health. Besides,
a lot is being done on
further advancements of the
midwifery services in the
county.
However, if the nation is
to be self-reliant in the future,
the need of investment
in Human Capital such as
midwives is the wisest step
forward that we can ever
make, to ensure sustainability,
ownership, fulfilment,
and consistently high results.
The need of investing
in Omani midwives and to
encourage them to advance
through career development
is mandatory, if the Sultanate
is to be self-reliant on
local manpower. Investing
on midwives is also mandatory
to improve the maternal
health, reduce child mortality
and combat HIV. Addressing
this shortage is also critical
to achieving universal
access to reproductive health
in the future and to meet the
UN millennium development
goals by the year 2015.
For instance, in the Sultanate,
the country has traditionally
relied on foreigntrained
expatriate midwives
to provide midwifery services.
But, in recent years
only a handful of Omani
midwives have begun taking
on the ambition through
career development.
In honour of this day, the
international community
should equally acknowledge
the tasks of the international
agencies like the International
Confederation of Midwives
(ICM), along with the
UN agencies like the UNFPA
and World Health Organisation
(WHO) and a range of
other international partners,
which are committed to addressing
maternal mortality
and morbidity through
greater access to essential
midwifery care worldwide,
particularly in developing
countries where 90 per cent
of maternal deaths occur.
Special gratitude also go
to the UNFPA for its tasks
of supporting nations all
over the world in using population
data for policies and
programmes to reduce poverty
and to ensure that every
pregnancy is wanted, every
birth is safe, every young
person is free of HIV/AIDS,
and every girl and woman is
treated with dignity and respect.
question: are there no moni- to get lands in accordance
Ali Khalfan al Habsi with the law only to be told
Hamda al Shamsiyah
toring authorities to verify the
status of lands and investigate
on whether they really own
these lands.
The situation has becoming
really worrying. Lands
are registered in the names
of toddlers in their cradles,
wives, sisters and others kin.
We are not speaking about
small-sized lands for residential
use but vast plots intended
The aggravating
phenomenon of illegal land
grab by individuals raises
an important question:
are there no monitoring
authorities to verify the
status of lands and
investigate on whether they
really own these lands
for commercial and industrial
purposes. This manipulation
takes place while honest
straightforward people wait
for months and maybe years
for completion of formalities
that their applications were
rejected because they already
possess lands. Ironically, what
they really possess are lands
of 300 square metres or maybe
less than that. After conducting
the draw many are granted
lands on foothills, wadis or
areas hemmed in by cemeteries.
Even this is not available
to thousands of applicants who
after a long wait were told that
their transaction files went
missing.
The authorities concerned
have to put in more efforts to
rectify the shortcomings in the
matter of granting lands. They
have to find root solutions to
the issue of illegal appropriation
of lands.
The local committees
should be strict when dealing
with land holding cases which
need to be assessed properly
in order to decide whether or
not the claimants deserve to be
given the land in question. It is
unfair that some people own a
single plot of land while others
are in possession of three,
four and maybe more than a
dozen.
Overhauling business specialisation
THE Master of Business
Administration
(MBA) programme
has over the last
few few years outshone the
other disciplines worldwide.
An MBA certificate is a
sure password for ambitious
youths aspiring to enter the
world of business and scale
the career ladder.
This trend has lately swept
the labour market in Oman
too as almost all educational
institutions incorporated
MBA into their Master’s programmes
to meet the demand
of increasing numbers of
students, mostly employees,
seeking to obtain the coveted
certificate. Along with other
business management specialisations,
the MBA is the
most sought-after certificate
the world over.
On the other hand some
experts are calling for the development
of business management
curricula at a time
Developing the
reading habit
I
WAS deeply impressed
by the idea of the Children’s
Reading Festival
(CRF) that was held in
the UAE emirate of Sharjah
recently. The event was aimed
to instil reading habits in children.
I am in favour of any
initiative that can distance the
children from television, and
rid them of the influence of
useless satellite channels that
have imprisoned their minds.
These channels are blamed for
the children being distracted
from their studies. The children’s
minds are muddled
with trivial songs and stories
that spoil their thinking and
academic prowess.
Every evening I see my
children glued to the TV
watching kids’ programmes
with extreme pleasure. Every
time I try to dismiss them
from the TV, they deceive me
and come back after a while
to turn on the TV once again
and watch Tom and Jerry and
other children’s programmes
and cartoons. Such TV stuff
is loved by the children however
it steals their time to the
point that there is no time left
for useful activities especially
when the specialisation as a
basic condition for recruitment
is receding in a large
number of establishments.
The employment services director
of Facebook once said
that her company doesn’t
recruit on the ground of
specialisation as they seek
employees with personal
skills the most important of
which is the ability for strategic
planning and analytical
thinking. Such skills are not
acquired at business administration
colleges, according
to human resources officials
at Facebook.
This trend from the part of
Facebook and other companies
has prompted prominent
universities in Europe and the
US to consider overhauling
the business specialisations,
especially after the number
of graduates from these universities
has dropped. Employers
think the business
colleges at these universities
Mohammed al Hadhrami
if parents are too busy to organise
the children’s time and
divide their timetable between
study, sleep and entertainment.
I am not against children
watching TV as they are in
need of some fun, but it is too
harmful for them to devote
their entire time for watch-
ing TV which becomes the
only source of visual stimulation
and this weakens their
chances of developing reading
habits, consequently they
hate books and shy away from
doing their homework which
then becomes all the more a
loathed task.
TV is too distracting and a
source of trouble when children
are given too much
time to sit idle in front of it.
This habit is likely to turn into
some sort of addiction when
we fail to convince the children
to practise useful hobbies
that can enrich their knowledge
and broaden their understanding.
Reading is the most useful
among these hobbies. It can
be developed through certain
methods known to educational
experts the most important of
no longer cater to the labour
market needs as they focus
only on the basics of finance
and accounting without giving
the students sufficient
knowledge on the other fields
that are inextricably related
to job performance.
In his book Rethinking
Undergraduate Business
Education, author William
M Sullivan says that today’s
business world is based on a
broad platform of knowledge
as the business fields have
become more co-related than
ever before but the academics
who are shut out of the
real business have failed to
understand the developments
in the world of business.
This has prompted several
world renowned universities
to redesign the curricula being
taught and introduce arts
and literal studies to enhance
the students’ knowledge and
enrich their creativity and
problem solving abilities.
Business administration colleges
are teaching out-dated
subjects which did not witness
any development since
these disciples were introduced
in 1,800 as job qualification
programmes.
In an article published in
the Wall Street Journal last
month, the writer Melissa
Korn said that a considerable
number of universities have
which is to have a home library.
Do you have a library at
home? Do your children see
you reading? The children
grow up with the childhood
habits inculcated into them by
their parents.
It is not strange that the
children of non-reading
parents grow up with a tendency
to play video games
rather than reading books.
Parents who are not reconciled
with books and have
no inclination to reading
are most likely to bring up
children with little or no tendency
to read.
The Sharjah government
has launched the ‘Unlimited
Culture’ campaign, an initiative
aimed at providing every
family with a home library of
50 books with various topics
including books for kids,
adults and women.
After reading the books
neighbours share the books
with each other for further
benefit. As time passes by the
people become accustomed to
reading and the habit slowly
becomes an essential part of
their day-to-day life.
It behoves the cultural institutions
in Oman to adopt
a similar initiative with the
aim of encouraging people to
cultivate the habit of reading.
Many years ago the Ministry
of Heritage and Culture used
to sell books at the markets
and public places in cities and
villages.
already begun to introduce
changes to the business curricula
and are encouraging
the students to take up other
specialisations besides business
administration. Those
who studied arts were sought
after by employers as the
study of arts boosts the person’s
creativity which is a
key skill in today’s business
management.
It seems that our local
employers are also attaching
attention to the new business
orientation. I met an Omani
girl who graduated from the
University of Manchester
with IT major, she works for
Nawras Telecommunication
Company. When I asked her
about the link between IT and
telecommunication she said
the company’s recruitment
policy is not based on specialisation
as we believe that
the success of the employee
depends on his/her personal
abilities and skills.
The new trend has been
perceived by many students
who opted for other disciplines
in their higher studies.
It is not uncommon
nowadays to find master’s
students adding up IT or law
to finance and accounting or
engineering at a time of high
demand on employees with
wide knowledge of various
fields.