Oman Offers Some Lessons To A Region Embroiled In Protest -- New York TimesMUSCAT — More than half of Oman’s 2.8 million people are under the age of 20, and 83 percent are under 35. It is not surprising then that a chief complaint of Omani citizens is a lack of jobs and training for the sultanate’s young population.
Yet when the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world led to violent protests in late February in the port town of Sohar, they quickly fizzled out.
Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled Oman for 40 years, eventually replaced two-thirds of his government and gave pay increases to civil servants and government pensioners. He also raised the minimum wage to 200 Omani rials a month, or $520, from 150 rials; introduced unemployment allocations of 150 rials a month; and announced plans to create 50,000 jobs in various areas of the public sector.
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My Comment: With more than half of your population below 20 years old .... you are going to have a problem in satisfying the needs and aspirations of these youths when they get older. While "bread and circuses" will provide a temporary relief .... in the end .... if there is no accountability within government itself .... the people will revolt.
1 comment:
Well, it is not so simple. Most of the youth are semi-educated yet want managerial positons. There are 700K foreign workers doing menial jobs which Omanis won't touch. I would suggest that there may be room for compromise.
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