Oman
The eruption of protests in Oman's Arabian Sea port of Sohar surprised everyone. Oman has been a peaceful country since the popular ruler, Sultan Qaboos, overthrew his backward father in 1970 and then defeated a communist insurgency in the south.
The recent unrest was sparked by a government measure that led to several workers getting laid off, but it was, once again, an over-reaction by the security forces that led to an escalation in which two people died.
Oman is not a rich country - unlike its Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE, it does not have a huge hydrocarbon industry and many of the population work in agriculture and fishing.
There is now discussion of a Gulf-wide "Marshall Plan" for Oman and Bahrain to inject billions of petrodollars into their economies and give priority to their nationals for jobs, in order to stave off further protests.
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