Najma al Zidjaly is a writer and assistant professor of linguistics and intercultural communication in the English department of the College of Arts & Social Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University. You can e-mail her at najma@apexmedia.co.om

Last week, I decided to dedicate a few columns to a chapter from a must read book entitled The Happy Pill: Portrait of a Middle-Class Homeowner During the Fallout of Economic Meltdown by John Stines, an American writer and photographer.

This week, I would like to share a chapter from a book recently published by an American writer and photographer, John Stines. The book is called The Happy Pill: Portrait of a Middle-Class Homeowner During the Fallout of Economic Meltdown. The book I believe is a must-read for anyone interested in world affairs, especially Americans.

An RO400 mountain bike, I bought. Two years and three months ago, to be exact. The decision was not an afterthought; it was the outcome of two years of agonising and calculated thought that led, in a trip to America, to the re-realisation of the joy of biking I knew as a young Omani girl.

In Oman currently, as in the West, there is an ever-escalating debate between teachers and students in schools and in graduate classrooms about the use of mobile phones in educational contexts. The preliminary findings of my study on mobile culture in Oman suggest that a ban might not be the route to follow.

At the risk of sounding prejudiced, I must admit there is a vast difference in how Western and Arab expatriates living in Oman perceive Omanis. One would assume that Arabs, our neighbours, whom we are connected with through beliefs, and for whom we opened our lands, have our backs, but alas that is not always the case!