FROM ENERGY POVERTY TO ENERGY EXTREMISM 53Life expectancy was an appalling forty- nine years. Oman only had two
hospitals and fourteen doctors.^5
Not only was there no TV or cocktails, there was no way to turn water
into ice. The sultanate remained unelectrified well into the 1970s. Most
Omanis got their energy from dung and firewood. In 1971, primary
energy consumption for the country, including all commercial, indus-
trial, and transport needs, amounted to the equivalent of 220 pounds of
oil per person per year. In the United States that year, the equivalent fig-
ure was sixty- three times higher: more than 14,000 pounds.^6
Oman was the most extreme and persistent case of pre- oil underde-
velopment in the Gulf. It was the last of the Gulf monarchies to discover
oil, finding it only in 1962. And because its oilfields were small and
located far from the coast, exports got off to a slow start.^7 Oman’s enig-
matic ruler, Sultan Said bin Taimur, was a fundamental factor in Oman’s
underdevelopment. Outwardly, Sultan Said was polished and impres-
sive. He could quote Shakespeare. He had traveled to Washington and
met President Roosevelt. But at home, he purposefully kept his country-
men in the dark, preventing them from leaving the country or getting
treatment for curable illnesses like trachoma and venereal disease.^8
Said’s prohibitions verged on the absurd. He forbade his subjects from
installing bathrooms or gas stoves in their homes. Also banned were
smoking, wearing glasses, watching movies, or playing drums or soccer.
Carrying an umbrella or transistor radio warranted especially severe
punishment. Ensconced in the ruler’s palace since 1932, Said’s survival
instincts told him that if Omanis grew healthy, educated, and prosper-
ous, they would throw him out. This was exactly what the era’s modern-
ization theorists— Lipset, Deutsch, and Huntington— had predicted. The
sultan’s British advisers agreed.^9
The sultan had reason to fear unrest. A rising number of Omani
citizens were indeed trying to vanquish him. A communist- inspired
rebellion was underway in the southwestern Dhofar province, where
an organized rebel army captured and governed territory. A British
scholar who toured rebel territory described open- air schools teach-
ing Mao’s writings as a big improvement over opportunities in the rest
of Oman.^10