Shaping Modern Oman
Foggy Bottom in 1967 was a different
place from what it is today; when Richard
Baltimore III, BA ’69, transferred to GW from MacMurray
College in Illinois, “The main cafeteria
was in the women-only Thurston Hall, Quigley’s
really was a drugstore, and Metro didn’t
exist.” Baltimore is used to change after
more than three decades of international service.
Currently ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman,
a position to which he was appointed by President
Bush in 2000, Baltimore has made a career out
of witnessing and interpreting international
history.
|
|
Adjacent to Saudi Arabia and on the Arabian
Sea, Oman has experienced rapid modernization
and globalization since 1970, the year Sultan
Qaboos bin Said Al Said took the throne from
his father. Baltimore says at that time there
were less than six miles of paved roads in
the entire country, only a handful of schools,
and one hospital staffed by American missionaries. “Oman
now has a very modern nationwide road system
and the entire country enjoys schools, hospitals,
clinics, and public and private universities,” Baltimore
reports. He hopes that, later this year, Oman
will sign a Free Trade Agreement with the United
States, building on the countries’ growing
relationship.
Oman’s new Al-Buraimi College,
The Modern College of Business and Science,
and the Oman Medical College have ties with
American universities. Oman’s first national
ambulance service was inaugurated in 2004;
the attendant staff was trained at GW Hospital.
Though widespread modernization is a national
goal, Oman also is focused on preserving and
passing down its history and old-world practices.
Led by Baltimore, the Ambassador’s Fund
for Cultural Preservation has, for example,
made it possible for the sole Omani who knew
how to produce indigo dye from plant to finished
product to gain two apprentices to pass on
his wisdom.
Under Baltimore’s leadership, Oman was
the first Middle Eastern country to host a
U.S. government-sponsored freestanding computer/library
reference center, part of a global initiative
called “American Corners.” He took
the initiative to secure Oman’s participation
in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the
National Mall in June, the first Arab country
to do so as a single state.
Baltimore hopes American visitors and investors
will help Oman’s travel and tourism industries
to continue to grow. During his visits to Omani
villages, “Without fail, the locals insist
that I join them for coffee, tea, dates, and
often a meal. They have no idea who I am other
than a guest in their country who must be made
to feel welcome and at home,” he says. “There
are many aspects of U.S. foreign policy that
are points of contention, but what we have
in common outweighs the differences. This is
a safe country that has a long history of people-to-people
friendship with the United States.”
Religious tolerance and respect for women,
Baltimore says, are two of the many examples
of Oman’s dedication to peace: “Oman
is the only country in the Islamic world with
a majority that is neither Shia nor Sunni but
Ibadhi, a branch known for moderation and tolerance.
The government includes four women of cabinet
rank. Half of its primary university’s
students are female, as is a third of its civil
service.”
Baltimore has also participated in an underwater
expedition to explore seabed anomalies for
ancient Omani ruins. His professional and personal
adventures in Oman are a continuation of a
love of travel and diplomacy found during his
GW days when he switched majors from engineering
to international affairs.
After graduating and attending Harvard Law
School, he entered the Foreign Service as a
political and economic officer in Lisbon, Portugal,
witnessing the regime change when the Portuguese
military overthrew the government in 1973.
From there, he served in Washington and countries
including South Africa (where he befriended
Winnie Mandela), Costa Rica, Hungary, Saudi
Arabia, and Egypt. His last Washington assignment
was gaining private sector support for multiethnic
institutions in the Federation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in the late ’90s.
While his immediate plans are to continue
to foster goodwill and development between
the United States and Oman, he is confident
the future will hold more travel and adventure—Baltimore
enjoys hiking, rafting, photography, and “anything
that gets me in the air such as bungee jumping,
F-16 and F-18 aircraft, ballooning, and stunt
planes.” He shares his love of different
countries and cultures with his wife, three
daughters, and his father, a retired judge
who now lives with the family in Oman’s
capital, Muscat. “Notwithstanding having
visited more than 90 countries and all 50 states,
my interest in travel has not abated.”
—Laura Ewald
