Word: rashid
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...just the landscape that draws people to Oman; it's the Omanis themselves. Before landing in Muscat, a Kuwaiti oilman tells me, "Omanis are hospitable, hardworking and humble." Rashid, a young Omani man who works in the oil fields of Abu Dhabi, responds with a wry smile: "That's because we are poor." It's a stretch to call Rashid poor?he sports a new mobile phone and a watch-mounted digital camera?but in relative terms, he is right. Oman's oil reserves are modest compared with the rest of the gulf states', and many Omanis like Rashid work...
...Abdul Rashid Dostum, the thuggish Afghan warlord, would not seem a likely student of Abraham Lincoln. But there he was, echoing the Gettysburg Address as he spoke recently to a large political gathering in northern Afganistan. His speech was a booming appeal for a future that offered Afghans "government by the people, for the people." To accompany his new rhetoric, Dostum also has a new look. The powerfully built Uzbek general has shaved his beard - his thick trademark moustache remains - bought some new neckties and found a good tailor...
...deputy to Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, Jamiat's military strongman, and in March he named Dostum his "special representative" in the north. Dostum has also conspicuously aligned himself with former King Mohammed Zahir Shah. The moves suggest not powergrabbing as much as defensiveness. "Dostum is feeling threatened," says Ahmed Rashid, author of a best-selling book on the Taliban. "He's looking to ally himself with the King and with Pashtun aligned with the King." The cleaner Dostum looks, presumably, the better his chances with this crowd...
...Israel have insisted that the PA disarm all the political militias outside of the formal PA security structures, and Arafat aide Muhammad Rashid has said the Palestinian leader accepts that and is prepared to ensure that PA security structures have a monopoly of force. But disarming the gunmen is a political challenge that Arafat is unlikely even to attempt as long Israeli forces remain in his domain and there's no prospect of imminent statehood...
...ceremony, a cross between Christmas (suddenly all the blinking neon lights on the street are lighted as the government turns on regular electricity) and the Fourth of July (with the obligatory patriotic parades). Journalists who usually never get visas fill the press center. Handsomely dressed Arabs crowd the Al-Rashid lobby, all invited to witness how much the Iraqi people love their leader. For Saddam, it is time for another charm offensive: he is using all his old diplomatic wiles and faux hospitality to put off the threatened day of reckoning with the U.S. He is busily embracing Arab leaders...