[meteorite-list] A Message Concerning Oman

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun May 15 16:25:36 2005
Message-ID: <s0cf81p53cd5iu94ccun19aiur4f3egn4s_at_4ax.com>

On Sun, 15 May 2005 12:04:22 +0200, "Meteoryt.net" <marcin_at_meteoryt.net> wrote:

>But from the other side, there is something that I dont understand.
>Some time ago someone sell on ebay Dhofar sample WITH oryginal Oman
>perission (for recover or export). So whate the hell. They know in the past
>that there are meteorite hunters who exporting Oman meteoites.

Just venturing my guess here, but maybe The Powers That Be in Oman hadn't really looked into the
commercial value of meteorites in the past. Maybe they thought the meteorites collected were mainly
of interest as trinkets or for scientific study.

Think about like beach resorts-- they make no complaint about tourists collecting seashells from the
beach and taking them home with them. But what if someone suddenly found something (I don't know, a
cure for cancer or something, use your imagination) that made seashells worth $50 each. You can bet
that the resorts and host states/countries would change their rules quickly, as collecting the
shells on their own would outprofit any lost tourst dollars for disgruntled shell collectors.

So how about the possibility that TPTB in Oman suddenly realized that "hey, these stupid rocks that
those crazy Westerners are picking up are worth lots of money!"? After all, what government would
officially allow "tourists" to come in, pick up 40 kilograms of gold nuggets from the desert, and
leave without paying anything for it? I'd say that exactly none of them would. So why officially
allow something worth potentially MORE per unit weight than gold to be taken that way?
Received on Sun 15 May 2005 04:36:26 PM PDT