A Good Friday

The revolution has quieted down. I think. It is shortly before noon on Friday here, and supposedly the region itself will have massive demonstrations after prayer gets out. I think Oman will be fine. There have been more "Violence is bad, we love the government, and especially His Majesty" protests than opposition ones. The cell phone companies keep sending around texts about pro-government demonstrations, and it appears many people are taking to them. A few nights ago I heard crying coming from the other room. I cautiously went to investigate. My host father had the television on and they were showing the demands of the anti-government folks-which were ludicrous. He was crying, saying this is not his Oman. It was really touching.
Some of the demands included giving more power to the legislative branch, and independent oversight of the police. This has been in the works for the last 8 months, as was rolled out right before everything went down. However other demands were raising the minimum salary to 500 Rials a month, but they would settle for 300 so we can get 15X their salary loans...then forgive all the loans. It is ridiculous. They have 12 jobs found for them before they are cut off from social security. I imagine everything will be fine, and it seems the movements are dying in Oman, but like so many other things in this world, we shall see.