Friday 26 / April / 2024
MUSCAT: The Muscat Book Fair 2019 organisers have pulled out a book from the fair after it mislabelled Oman as a different GCC country.
A statement by Yousuf Abdullah Al Balushi, Director of the fair, read, “The fair’s administration will not accept any excuses from the publishing house unless it takes steps to remove this book or proves that there is quick work to change the book’s contents and provides a document proving so from the Arab Publisher’s Association and the Egyptian Publisher’s Association.
“The publishing house must also provide an apology to the administration of the Muscat Book Fair through a public statement approved by the Arab Publisher’s Association and the Egyptian Publisher’s Association, advertised through all the various forms of media.”
“If this is not done,” the statement added, “the administration will make moves starting on Thursday to exempt the publishing house from this edition of the fair and subsequent editions. Legal action will also be taken.”
A map on the book, which was meant to depict GCC countries, had labelled Oman as a different GCC country.
According to the statement, “The Publisher, Dar al Shuqooq, has published a book which contained a map where Oman was mislabelled as another GCC country. There were other maps, which showed Oman with parts that had been cut off.
“All copies were pulled from the publisher. We hereby notify the publisher and the associations about the Muscat Book Fair Administration’s condemnation of this mistake, and hold the publisher fully responsible. The publisher should withdraw the book from all markets and book fairs. Should the publisher wish to correct this mistake, it should include the official map from Oman’s official sources.”
Meanwhile, the book fair continued its operations, drawing thousands of visitors each day with its large selection of 523,000 titles and its inclusion of cultural events, such as a poetry reading.
According to a statement by the book fair, “The poets were artistic in their poems, both in word and meaning. This came as part of the events for al Buraimi, the guest of honour of this edition.”
Sheikh Ahmed Al Siyabi, Secretary General of Oman’s Iftaa Office, presented a seminar regarding Oman’s representation, where he chose five books from his collection which had done a good job representing Oman, including “The Comprehensive Omani Encyclopedia”, a study on Oman’s foreign affairs between 1913 and 1932, a book about oil politics by Ameena Al Saadi.
On Wednesday, Oman’s Youth Vision, a private organisation, focused on developing the youth of Oman, participated by presenting “three corners, one called Make a Story, another where imagination is developed, and a store”, according to a statement by the book fair. In Make a Story, there are specific games which participants can use to invent their own stories using different images. In the Imagination, Expression and Discussion Development Corner, there were different games which allowed participants to discuss topics based on a lottery system.”
There were also inaugurations and signing of books such as “Arts of Postmodernism” by Dr. Fakhriya al Yahyaiya. Furthermore, there was a performance of a children’s play called “A bite to eat” by the Masrah al Dun troupe.
The book fair also included corners for young children where they watched, played, learned to draw, and had a corner where author Maithaa al Mandhari read stories to the children.
Furthermore, Dr. Wafaa al Mazghani presented a paper called “How can children’s book producers be encouraged to make good content?” where she spoke on the issues that book producers in the Arab world have that affect their production, and how they can be encouraged to produce books that allow children to develop their skills.
