As I am writing these lines the Ultra Runner Jesper Olsen from World Run II is crossing the Ramtha border control (hopefully without too much hassle) and entering Jordan. Jesper will be running through Jordan from today and is planning to exit to Egypt on the day before Christmas the 24th of December.

From December 18th to 24th, 2008, the Danish ultra runner Mr. Jesper Olsen will run through Jordan. He is completing the World Run II Project: The North - South Run, which is the world’s longest non-stop run, aiming at completing a distance of 40.000 km passing through four continents in three years. The run began in Nordkapp, Norway, July 1st 2008 and the finish point in New Foundland, Canada, is expected to be reached by the end of 2010. When arriving in Jordan Jesper Olsen will already have completed more than 8000 km of running.

Having met Jesper tonight I can say he feels fit and very welcome in Jordan. Passing the Ramtha border was a piece of cake - he was officially saluted “Ahlan wa Sahlan” by a small detachment in uniform and received various maps.

Today Jesper ended up just outside Amman on Jordan Street. Tomorrow he and Ammar Sabbah together with other Amman Road Runners will run to JRTV for a live interview on Ammar’s show “Beiti” on Jordan television and then continue towards the south. Other runners should feel free to join. Both Jordan Times and Jad’s blog wrote about the World Run Project. It is a truly unique and enormous project and for once something that is far away from politics.

In a post entitled ‘Falling Short: Amman’s November Gas Crisis!‘ on 7iber.com, Naseem Tarawneh writes:

What is perhaps interesting, at least from my point of view, is that this sudden crisis comes nearly a year after the government decided to lift fuel subsidies. The result has been a painstaking year for the average Jordanian as globally, a barrel of oil reached over $120 driving up local prices to unbearable amounts. The digits on the pumps have only very recently sunk to less than half that figure, in line with the impact of the global financial crisis. However, since the controversial lifting of fuel subsidies in Jordan, some might argue that station owners enjoyed a relatively decent killing in the market for a fairly long time. It is only now that stations are forced to sell consumers at the government-set rate, meaning a relative loss for them, that the industry’s muscles are being flexed. One important question remains: will we see a return of a limited subsidy granted by the government to station owners in order to get them back running, or will we simply see bankruptcies in the industry flowing like tumbling dominoes? Will stations be fined or is another compromise in the works?

Jad Madi said:

Two hundred and sixty gas station owner were able to impose their wishes on the government while the last found itself compelled to switch back to the monthly pricing system although they were about to install the weekly pricing system in favor of the six million citizen or we prefer to think like that.

For better coverage maybe you want to check Alghad or Jordantimes but my question is, do we have a government that is strong enough to protect the 6 million citizen from the greedy-businessmen starting from gas station business ending with shawerma?

And Jordanian popular cartoonist Emad Hajjaj brought up the issue in a humorous cartoon:

Bloggers from across the Middle East and North Africa are tipping their hats to Jordan's Queen Rania, and her visionary initiative on YouTube, after she was awarded YouTube's first-ever Visionary Award for launching an interactive online channel to combat stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arabs and Muslims.

In a post titled ‘Why I love Queen Rania?’, Jordanian blogger Moey writes:

Maybe because she’s the most pretty ever and she knows what brands to wear and what to wear, or maybe because she won the Visionary Award on YouTube Live. I’m not sure yet, I just love her

Andaluss, from Morocco, notes:

I stumbled upon Queen Rania’s Youtube channel. Apparently she’s been Vlogging since 2007, and has as a mission; the breaking down of the stereotypes surrounding Arabs & Muslims around the world. She’s many video responses that you can watch on her Youtube channel. And by the way she’s just won a youtube award.

The sad thing though is that people don’t realize that Muslims were the ones who invented: Paper, shampoo, ink, coffee, chess (yes chess is an Arab invention), pin hole camera, vaccination, surgery, soup, earth is in a sphere shape, calender, numbers.. just to name a few!! Google & find out more.

From Israel, One Voice peace initiative posted on its blog, saying:

Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan has been given the honor of YouTube's first Visionary Award, for her outreach to youth encouraging them to confront and deconstruct stereotypes of the Muslim world. We are always so impressed with her courage, vision, and leadership.

“Queen Rania sets the standard for breaking down stereotypes and her YouTube videos are nothing short of inspirational,” Al-Arabiya quoted YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley as saying. “It is both a pleasure and an honor to present her with this much-deserved tribute.”

Also from Palestine, the Philistine writes:

She may be queen of an ancient land. But this week word emerged that Queen Rania of Jordan was winner of a distinctively 21st century honor. She has been given YouTube’s first-ever Visionary Award for launching an interactive online channel to combat stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arabs and Muslims, Jordan’s Petra news agency reported.

Her video, “Send me your stereotypes,” was viewed by more than 1 million online users. Another video received 1.4 million page views within weeks, prompted 83 video responses from other users, and generated nearly 6,000 comments.

And finally, from the Queen’s kingdom Jansait posted the video which the Queen released on the occasion and wrote this one line :

We are Stronger when we Listen, Smarter when we Share

Blogger Roba Assi linked to the video on her blog, and commented:

When I started streaming this video, the last thing I expected was to find myself cracking-up a few seconds later. What I even expected less was having my colleagues scramming around my screen laughing too. But what do I know. The internet always has a lot of surprises up its sleeves.

Kudos to the Queen for such a good vlog; funny, short, and surprising. Plus, it the backdrop of the vlog is what I see out of our office window, Wadi Saqra, so that makes it even better, as far as I’m concerned.

And hey, she definitely beats Letterman

Here's the video:

Internet accessibility and penetration in Jordan is low when compared to the other countries. Recently, one of the main service providers, Orange, introduced a new internet connection at a speed much higher than what was already available in Jordan.Naseem Tarawaneh discusses what he sees as the socio-economic implications such a leap in speed might have on Jordanians:

A bit of news has been spreading like wildfire these past few days in Amman: the new 8mb ADSL Internet connection from Orange. The advertisements have been popping up all over town and it naturally got me thinking about what such a leap in speed might mean for Jordan. Yes, it is not the most significant event, but in a country this small the ripple effects of such a move can be pretty interesting.

Internet is not a commodity that is, as of yet, wide spread in the Kingdom. While many people do have access to the Internet through their workplace, through Internet cafes, through schools, universities and various other places, Internet penetration, as defined by the number of subscribers, remains relatively low. So for those who do have, say, Internet access at home, the pool is some what small.

My argument here is not against having faster Internet connections in the country, but rather suggesting that the direction this technology is advancing should be more towards making the Internet more affordable and therefore, more widespread, as opposed to more expensive and therefore more refined demographically.

Why can’t policymakers find a way to allow for free and/or very affordable Internet to various neighborhoods around the country? I’m not saying that all of Jordan should become a hot-spot (although that would be my ideal dream in the absence of private sector control) but, for right now, I think there are ways to turn specific areas in to “Internet Zones”. I would not mind my tax money paying for it. I’d admire more private sector companies picking up the tab with a little advertisement in it for them. Heck, how about a group of companies teaming up with a single Internet service provider?

More on that, here.

The Arab Observer talks about a new idea for social networking on the web that he helped devise at a workshop in Sweden that revolves around debates and values:

Our biggest assignment for the young leadership program in Sweden was to come up with ideas for a social media networking solution for 2010. My group, The Frozen 5, contained a Palestinian human rights activist, a Swedish journalist, a Syrian architect, am Egyptian media teacher, and me - Jordanian web developer/blogger.

It was a challenging question. We started thinking of what draws us to the internet, and what is the common trait of us - the young leaders participants of the program -. The answer was simple and clear: It is OUR PASSION to defend our VALUES. Isn't it the same thing that we all share? Isn't it what made blogging popular?

That is how the Debate Arena emerged! A place where two people (for now) can go head to head in debating a certain issue/value (see climate change scenario image below). I have always wished to go head to head against Qwaider (:P). Two people challenging each other while having all the resources that they can gather to support their views, and they can invite their friends to support them right below their debate. Supporters (like in blogs) can add comments, they can add videos/images/audio that would help the argument of each contender. And finally, they can vote! A voting that would decide the winner of the debate (if they want a win/lose debate). The winner gets a small icon indicating his win in a debate of a certain issue along with the number of votes he got. Eventually active people in different issues would be collecting many winning icons that would distinguish them as leaders in that area.

And finally, the Great Amman Municipality is proposing a set of logos for the Jordanian capital, which attempt to reflect the city's cultural, social, and demographic scenes. Ahmad Humaid talks about the new idea, and how the municipality is encouraging Jordanians to vote for their favourite logo to be selected:

Amman is getting a new logo in 2009. And all citizens are invited to take part in choosing their favorite design.

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) is publishing the above advert in today’s newspapers, inviting everyone to head down to Al Hussein Cultural Center to have a look at an exhibition of a number of options for Amman’s new logo.

So what’s all of this about?

Well, it definitely about more than a “new logo”..

This project will result in a new brand for Amman: a new communication identity and a new attitude which is hoped to be embraced by the city and its citizens, first and foremost, but which also will play a role in creating a stronger impression and better communication with the city’s visitors, potential tourism markets and the business sector.

Hundreds of citizens from all walks of life have been interviewed for this project, as we set on a journey that took us through Amman’s hills and history as well as its contemporary reality and its future aspirations. We had the most interesting talks with so many insightful Ammani characters: people who love Amman, but who also are able to critically dissect its identity. We talked to the young and old. We met people from the four corners of Amman. We read the writings of poets, novelists, historians, architects, anthropologists and bloggers.

That’s why GAM (and we at SYNTAX) urge you to come down to Al Hussein Cultural Center in Ras al Ain this week and be a part of choosing the new logo for Amman.

This video is posted courtesy of Jordan Days

Carton cardboard for business, Saleem Ayoub Quna talks on 7iber about what he refers to as an ad-hoc successful small business project. He writes:

This is a picture of a cheap push-cart standing in the middle of the square in front of Al-Husseini Grand Mosque. The time is noon of the last Friday of Ramadan, the month of Fasting and piety which has left us few days ago.

It is the business of “selling or lending” a substitute for a prayer carpet that is offered to the worshippers who could not bring along their own colorful cloth prayer carpets from home. Each worshipper buys one piece of a cartoon, big enough to stand on while making the Friday prayers in the large square downtown Amman. Each piece is sold or rented, depending on the customer’s wish, for 100 Fils. I tried to count the number of those cartoons on the spot. They were in the hundreds.

So if there were at least 200 cartoons that would be good money for a time which does not exceed ten minutes. This is what I call the entrepreneurial spirit of the young generation in that bustling part of Amman.

Lina Ejeilat talks about Arabic music and a lecture she attended at the Manhattan School of Music:

I was in the midst of some google search, with at least 40 tabs open in my browser window - as usual - when I landed on the page of the Manhattan School of Music and found an announcement for a lecture on Arabic music with Simon Shaheen. I had found out recently that Shaheen lives in New York City and I was trying to find a way to get in touch with him for a project I’m working on.

Shaheen began talking about what distinguishes Arabic music - he explained the maqamat, and how they’re different from Western scales. He was demonstrating on his violin how the maqams allow for an abundance of modulations and melodic sounds, which makes Arabic music very melodically rich and different in that it does not rely on harmonic structures. Then he explained the rhythms and forms, and played his Oud and sang, all the while explaining the cultural and social context for these different forms.

Simon Shaheen has been doing an incredible job as an ambassador of Arabic music here. He organizes an annual Arabic music retreat in Massachusetts where students get an intensive session of Arabic music with ear-training, instrument and vocal lessons, and Arabic music theory. He recently composed a concerto for Oud that will premiere with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra soon and will be performed in Carnegie Hall next spring.

And Kinzi talks about a conference for Arab businesswomen she attended:

“Serve Your Way to the Top: The Secret of Great Women Leaders”. A conference designed to encourage and strengthen today’s leading business women, presented by LEAD International and sponsored by Eskadenia Software, the Business and Professional Women-Amman, and FrontRow Publishing magazines Living Well and Inti.

The main speaker is Trudy Cathy White, daughter of Jeanette and and Truett Cathy, the founder and CEO of Chik-fil-A, Inc. She is now telling us her father’s story of his first job as a newspaper boy at nine years old: too scared to speak to his customers, he left a card, but made sure he left the papers in a place most important for each of his customer’s needs. Later, not a brilliant student, not an athlete, without a college education, Truett Cathy began a restaurant chain that is now a family-run, 2.64 billion dollar business.

“She was in the car with him when her brother caught her in the act.”

“I’m not assuming anything, but it’s obvious there’s something wrong about her.”

“She had it coming, if you ask me! I always sensed she was hiding something.”

Many times we hear things like this, from neighbors, friends, relatives or even when we overhear two perfect strangers chatting the time away while waiting for a bus. It is established we do hear this all the time, but the question is, how often do we question the source of that gossip, or wonder about its consequences.

The sad fact is, many of us tend to take this lightly. We use gossip as a pastime and think that it’s OK to mention a rumor or too as long as we make it clear that we’re not sure about it and that it’s just a rumor, forgetting the most important feature of rumors: they snowball. So, you hear something, think it could be an interesting material for conversation over a cup of coffee and, after all, what’s the worst that could happen?

The following movie, Dandana, tackles the issue of rumor and gossip in creating such situations and disturb the peace of families. It may start as small as a molehill and end up as huge as a mountain. You never know how it started or how it will end.

Dandana was done by Fekra, a group of Jordanian youth who don’t have much, but are trying to make the best of what they have to carry their ideas to the world. Dandana is the group’s first movie.

This short video, with subtitles in English, is very much worth watching:

This video is posted courtesy of Ikbis

Kinzi talks about foreign students taking a gap year and coming to Jordan whom she refers to as Gap Year Guys/Gals (GYGs). She writes:

Since Nas’ post on foreign language learners and my previous post on Stray American Girls In Amman (SAGA) I have discovered another angle on the curiously increasing number of young foreigners hanging out in our fair city - GYGs: Gap Year Guys/Gals.

The concept of a gap year, a year taken off either while in undergrad studies or after uni graduation, has long been a staple of the British and European ‘youth experience’. It seems now to have caught on in the US as well, and with the increase in the number of Middle Eastern Studies majors in the US, is channeling many young Americans to Amman. They come to learn, and most importantly, they come to serve. Not as in-depth as the Peace Corps, but more than a ‘Middle East Lite Cultural Experience’.

The of course, you get the Just Plain Weirdos. We had a tall, elegant-looking black woman come to church in hijab AND jilbab. Thats not a problem, except she introduced herself as a Christian, called herself “Il Ukht Yasmine”. Folks were their usual welcoming selves, even though it seemed a little strange. She came to Bible study and told a couple ladies off when they called her just ‘Yasmine’, that they weren’t respecting her properly. She would come over for a visit, stay all day, and announce she had no place to live and no money and God told her she would live with you! She did this several times before someone came to the church leaders to complain. When confronted, she said we were all a bunch of racists (even though it was an African family who called her on her game). Had I known the K-Town ladies then, I would’ve warned them! There is a division of American Citizen Services who make sure people like this get on a plane to go back to the US.

More from Kinzi here.

Natasha talks about the latest Ridley Scott film “Body of Lies” which revolves around Jordan and the Jordanian intelligence system, she writes:

As you might guess from the title, I was not a big fan of the film Body of Lies and I regret watching it on our fifth wedding anniversary, of all times! The reason I wanted to see it was because of its depiction of the Jordanian intelligence services as well as the fact that it takes place in Jordan.

What really annoyed me about the whole charade was the director's decision to film in Morocco and pretend it is Jordan. Who did Ridley Scott think he was fooling when he made the decision to film in Morocco and digitally insert the King Abdallah mosque in a number of shots in an attempt to make it look like Jordan? Did he expect Jordanians or people that visited the country not to notice? Or did he just not care? In addition to the fake scenery, all the extras in the movie looked North African rather than Jordanian. And in more than one instance I noticed Saudi car tags in the streets of “Jordan.”

More from Natasha, here.

Let’s have a look at my own country, Denmark that once again topped the ranking of non-corrupt countries. There are a number of reasons for that. First, and foremost, the Danish society has through the years developed a widespread culture against corruption. Starting in the 17th century, corruption was made a criminal offense and enforced rather strictly. The next major achievement came during the 1920’s where a code on public servants that guaranteed a reasonable salary, job security and pension in particular for the lower echelons was adopted, and corruption laws came under review. Today, it is morally and utterly unacceptable to provide or receive anything that could resemble corruption. An example - trying to bribe your way out of a speeding ticket or into a construction permit will certainly get you an extra criminal charge on your neck.

Where does this leave Jordan? The Kingdom ranked 47 in the TI ranking, which is actually not that bad, and a 10% improvement compared to last year’s ranking. I have not firsthand witnessed any kind of corruption in Jordan, but I have, like everyone in the country, heard of possible incidents either directly or from press and reports. And I don’t think Jordan has a choice. Like the other small resource-deprived countries on top of the list there is only one way to become a wealthy Rule-of-Law country and that is to beat corruption, whether in the form of political vote-buying or in its domestic form of wasta.

In the end, it boils down to a change in culture towards rewarding merits instead of socioeconomic ties, and creating more transparency in public affairs. Some serious steps have been taken already, a number of them with Danish support. The establishment of the anti-corruption commission, training of law enforcement and the ombudsman bureau are examples but the real long term hurdle will be changing the culture of favoritism.

More on the Ambassador's view on fighting corruption here.

Meanwhile, Lina Ejeilat, a student at Columbia School of Journalism, writes about her experience in New York City:

I’m sitting outside the Journalism School building, working on my pitch for the New Media Masters project while watching some kids playing on the lawn and enjoying the gorgeous Fall weather. This campus just feels like a park sometimes.

A tiny mouse just passed by. I got so used to these by now, and they’re a much more tolerable sight than the big rats you occasionally see crossing the subway rails. Those are some of the rare moments where I actually miss Amman’s stray cats. You don’t see stray cats on the streets here, but I’d take cats any day over rats and mice.

But this doesn’t make me love New York City any less. One of the amazing things about this place is that it takes you in as one of its own very quickly. Just give yourself one week of living here and you no longer feel like a foreigner. You get on the subway and you see people of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds imaginable. No one is too different in New York. It’s a city of sub-cultures, and whatever your niche, you can be sure to find enough like-minded people who share your interest

One of our main classes at Columbia this semester is “Writing and Reporting I”, and what basically happens is that you are assigned a beat to cover - a neighborhood that you report and write stories on all through the semester. My beat is Red Hook, in Brooklyn, and I find the place so fascinating and interesting. In a way I feel that beat reporting enriches my experience of New York, because I get to explore aspects that I would’ve probably not explored otherwise.

More from Lina, here.

And finally Naseem Tarawneh addresses the impact of the global economic crisis on Jordan:

Of all the things Jordanians tend to talk about, it is simply interesting to see the global financial crisis rank first in coffee-house conversations. Some are arguing that this is the “end of America”, while others are looking at it from a more personal perspective: how will something that is so global affect Jordanians? Will banks hold back on loans? Will the Dinar continue to sink to the pegged-anchor that is the American dollar? Will the crisis induce prolonged inflation? Will purchasing power take a plunge?

More or less, the conversation in Jordan seems to be driven back to that debate of how sustainable this economy is with its growing reliance on Gulf-driven development projects. It’s funny how Jordanians tend to be very tangible when it comes to this debate; they want to see the end-game, the final result of such projects. It seems hundreds of them are announced but few of them unfold, or so the general perception holds and that is typically the argument for the opposition. All of these projects do take a lot of time and the fact that their source of funding comes from the Gulf does not mean they’ll be constructed at the same pace of Gulf-based construction.

More on Naseem's opinion on the Jordanian economy, here.

In the four-post series, Orientalista lays out her friend's story detailing her own personal involvement in the matter. In the post titled “Manar Escapes,” she writes:

A week earlier Manar had been sitting on my balcony with me, overlooking the square. “I'm thinking about running away,” she said after complaining about her family. She had been telling me about meeting with the latest arees (groom). She showed me his love poetry texts to her mobile. He was about 30, had a good job and seemed nice. She doesn't want to get married. She's 22. There had been earlier meetings with prospective grooms. We'd be hanging out, I'd ask what she was up to tomorrow. “Oh, meeting a groom.” They came to her house, sat with her and her parents, and she refused them. She didn't seem too concerned about the latest Romeo, though she thought the poetry was kinda sweet.

A week later she was in my house and I was stuffing her plastic bags into my suitcase to hide them away. It's not like I hadn't expected her to follow through, but I hadn't expected it so soon.

She refused the guy and her parents got pissed. You're going to have to get married anyway, they said, so why not this one? He's got all the credentials, including the most important one, being Druze. They set Monday for his parents to come and formally do the engagement with her parents. She refused and they told her she couldn't leave the house. She'd have to agree to some one eventually. She missed work Thursday. Her father took her ID and hid it somewhere. Friday she waited until her father left and her mother went down for a pack of smokes. She got the ID and ran.

At my house, we tried to think through the options. She had 6000 lira cash ($120) and stolen her brother's fancy mobile, which she could sell for maybe another 5-6 thousand. Foulan, who was at my house when she came and has loved her forever despite her insistance that nothing will ever happen between them, said we should start looking for a place to live. Outside of Jeramana.

She continues in “The Law is With Us” :

The next couple of days Foulan and I looked unsuccessfully for a place outside of Jeramana. The search was complicated by Ramadan. Real Estate offices don't open until after 10am, close again while the owner goes to the mosque to pray (during Ramadan, a lot of people pray who don't outside of it, while many others who pray regularly make the trip to a mosque instead of just praying at their office). Before 6, all offices close for Iftar, breaking of the fast, and a few reopen again after 9 for maybe an hour or so.

So I had to find a place for her quickly. I got an American girl I know to put her up for the night. The next day, Sunday, I was able to contact a woman I know who works on gender issues including violence, who gave me the hotline number to a safe house for women, run by nuns.

This woman told me to tell Manar that the law is with her. She's 22, not a minor, and by Syrian law does not need for father's permission for anything. She's an adult. None of us are doing anything illegal.

Then, in “Back to Jeremana” she writes :

The next day I left Manar with strict instructions. Obviously, no leaving the apartment. TV and music should be quiet. Keep the shades drawn.

That night I was watching a movie with Manar, Foulan, my roommate and my boyfriend when Foulan's mother called. Um Foulan was upset. Foulan told her he was at my house. She told him to come now, he said no, he was in the middle of a movie. After the call finished, he told us that sometimes she gets like this when she fights with her daughter. My boyfriend was more worried, saying it probably had something to do with Manar.

A few minutes later Um Foulan was at the door and Manar was hiding in my room under my bed. She said eight men showed up at her shop and demanded to know if she knew where Manar was. Manar ran away she told us. We acted properly surprised and asked the details. When? Why? Foulan told her he hadn't seen Manar in months. She said the family was threatening to get the police involved.

My boyfriend said Manar's family probably followed Um Foulan, and were probably outside. She can't leave now. Within a couple of minutes her father and uncle were outside my door. I walked into the hallway with my boyfriend, leaving the door open behind me. “Why is HE at your house at this hour!” they asked (it was 11). We were watching a movie, I said.

They left, Manar cried and apologized for getting me into this. I asked if they really would kill her, with her mother crying like that. She told me the story of a Druze girl from Sweida who ran away. Six months later she missed her family and wrote to her father, begging for forgiveness because she wanted to see them again. Manar told me the father had always loved his daughter dearly and he wrote back, forgiving her. They picked her up and drove her to their village. They stopped at what used to be gallows a long time ago. Her brother slit her throat and her mother dipped her hands in the blood, raised them to the sky and trilled.

In “No Solution“, she ends the story describing how Manar's family found out she was hiding in her apartment and then went there trying to force their daughter to go home with them, and how she refused to leave unless her American friend went with her!

Finally Manar's brother got her to come out. She collasped on the floor (there was no air in the cupboard and she was all sweat) in Um Foulan's arms, who wiped her face with water and gave her some to drink and we all bawled. Manar's mother came, shot me a dirty look and was clearly hurt by Um Foulan taking her maternal place. She shifted Manar to her, crying.

Manar went to lay down on my bed and her uncle gave her a pill to “calm her down.” I demanded to know what it is. He tried to open her mouth and put it in and I yelled “She's not a cat!” but she sat up a bit and took it. Manar didn't want to go. I apologized and told her I wouldn't leave her side. I told her I wouldn't let anything happen to her.

She refused to go home. She refused to go to the doctor. She agreed to go to her uncle's house, but only if I went with her. I grabbed my toothbrush and we all left together, Manar and I holding hands and her mother pissed that Manar didn't want to hold her hand or sit next to her in the car.

On Sunday, September 14, 2008, trendy Books@Cafe in the old part of the Jordanian capital Amman was forced to close down, after the police cracked down listing various accusations such as: obscene public affection, lack of hygiene, and serving food and alcohol during fasting hours in Ramadan. Co-owner Madian Al-Jazera describes what happened on 7iber, a popular citizen journalism website in Jordan. His post yielded about a 150 comments.

According to Al-Jazera:

The night before Ramadan, the police violently stormed into the café and asked us to close down. “This is the holy month of Ramadan!” they barked. Since we are officially licensed and they could provide no official papers, we refused to close.

This is the third year we operate, fully licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and the Hotel and Restaurant Association. This is very important, because we are categorized as 3-star tourist, with recent faxes from the Ministry endorsing the permit to operate all day with regular food and drink service, including alcohol.

Sunday night, we get shocked with the visit from the police with an order to close. There was no reason within the order. Of course, they only come at night so that there is no one to call or anything to do. When we showed them our papers, they kept calling us a night club. We are licensed as a restaurant. To them, if alcohol is served, then it is a night club. This is the logic we encountered, regardless of the fully accredited and legal license.

The commenters were divided between those who were in complete denial about the cafe's shutdown, and those who were in support. Some interpreted the crackdown as a setback on civic liberties and rights in the country, while others agreed that drinking alcohol and eating during Ramadan should be prohibited. Meanwhile, the debate rages around Islam, coexistence, and democracy.

Here is a selection of reactions from 7iber:

By Faris on Sep 18, 2008 | Reply

This is very sad news Madian, I hope there’s a peaceful resolution to this situation, it seems some elements in the government like to flex their muscles every chance they get, and a clear indication of a lot of uneducated people behind this.

What about Christians? non-Muslims?
If they’re going to act like we want this to be a theocracy, a purely Muslim nation, let’s cut to the chase and do some ethnic cleansing already, I’ve already taken the initiative and ethnic-cleansed myself.

By Maha on Sep 19, 2008 | Reply

Thank God that finally such places are closed in Jordan!

It’s funny that for you people “human rights”, “Freedom” and “Democracy” are synonyms for DRINKING ALCOHOL, NOT FASTING, HOMOSEXUALITY and other digusting stuff!!

For those who don’t want to respect our relegion and live with our tradition in Jordan as a muslim country, I advise u to leave to another country

For more on the story visit 7iber here.

Bloggers in Jordan picked up the story on their blogs and here is what some of them had to say about it.

Tim, a young American living in Amman, wrote:

This is a real shame because we all love Books and it was one of the few places where you could still have a meal with alcohol during Ramadan. Some other places have been closed too, according to the piece above. Beyond the inconvenience to us degenerate expats, this is also symptomatic of the public tendency here to obsess about things like alcohol, Zionist conspiracies in music festivals, foreign cartoons and boycotts, etc. rather than actual issues. As long as these types of things continue to easily rile the masses, the government will be more than happy to play along and smother any rational criticism about things that matter. It's not hard to close down restaurants.

More on Tim's opinion here.

And Naseem Tarawneh had this to say:

I understand both points of view. I understand the one that says there should be freedom of religion and people should be allowed to eat and drink whenever they like. I also understand the one that says it’s Ramadan and people need to respect the will of the majority, especially if it’s only one month of the year. I even understand the point of view that this is not in fact a religious argument but a political one.

And it is this latter view that I see to be the most pertinent.

More on Naseem's opinion here.

How much influence do Jordanian blogs exert on political discourse in Jordan? What sorts of political change do bloggers effect in Jordan, and why is the Jordanian blogosphere tepid in comparison to many of its Arab peers?

Answering these questions proves to be quite difficult. While there have been a number of events in Jordan in which bloggers have
had a clear-cut influence, it seems fair to say that, at the moment, the primary impact of Jordanian blogging has been on intangible processes that are intrinsically difficult to measure.

Marc Lynch’s 2007 essay entitled “Blogging the New Arab Public” is perhaps the most exhaustive study on Arab blogging as it relates to politics. The author argues that, although “it is highly unlikely that blogging will induce wide political change in the Middle East,” it “would be wrong to conclude that blogging has no role in Arab politics.”

Read more here and here…

Ohoud (Arabesque) shares her experience visiting the music conservatory in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestine.

Walking through the narrow alleys of Old Ramallah, past the tightly fitted houses we finally found it. It was a gem. Yeah, it was.
(One of the old houses of Ramallah, while we were taking pics a boy came out thinking we were foreigners shouting and telling us we should take pics of our wonderful buildings in the U.S)
Back to the gem. It was yet another old house but not quite the ordinary one.
In the middle of old Ramallah, stands the new conservatory to teach music, Al kamandjat.
It is a dream realized by Ramzi Aburedwan, who spent his entire childhood in the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah. He then went to Angers , France to study at the Music Conservatory. His objective was to establish music schools for Palestinian children, favoring the most destitute children, those living in the refugee camps.

More on that here.

Shaher (Thoughts Expressed) talks about what he finds as a lack of pride in Arabic culture and language among some Jordanians, in a post titled “OMG I can speak English.” He further explains:

What's wrong with us people, we are Arabs, our mother language is Arabic, our first sentence was in Arabic. so what the hell is going on in our country. the other day I was listening to Mazaj FM, and there topic was about Arabic language fading and demolishing in the time being, and they are defiantly right. Its not COOL to speak in English and for sure not COOLER to have an English word between every two Arabic ones !!! and the most disgusting thing is when you see a mother in the street disciplining her child by saying NO NO NO NAUGHTY BOY !!!! what's wrong with LA2 ILLI 3MILTO `3ALAT. I was just on the phone with someone who called me and said :

” hello Shaher how r u DOIN !!! “

Read more here.

Liana, an American living in Jordan, discusses archeology in Jordan and its political and economic significance on the country and region at large. She explains:

Archeology is not only historically interesting, I have learned - it is also a political, economic, and cultural force in this region. The Jordan valley and Mesopotamia hold the remains of some of the earliest beings on Earth. I say “beings” very purposely because these sites date back so far (more than a million years) that the definition of “civilization” or even “human” is called into question when trying to describe these places. One of the archaeologists today (Susan, who has been running digs for more than twenty years) described uncovering layer after layer of different existences, piled atop one another. Imagine.
This act can become very political, for example, if you look at Israel-Palestine. Archeology is being used to make a case for who was there “first,” and thereby rightly possesses the land. As a result, there are accusations of some artifacts not being properly observed as the search goes deeper for the truly “original” inhabitants. People use archeology there to try to prove or disprove religious history as well.

In another post she talks about her new years' eve in Amman…

The Western new year in Amman is a cause for celebration (and January 1 is a national holiday), but it is not the wild debauchery that we're used to in the States. Many of the classier bars and restaurants have New Year celebrations, but these are 40-50 JD minimum to attend, and didn't seem worth it to me. I didn't have any plans for New Year's Eve until that very afternoon, when happily some friends decided to have a party.

At any rate, I rang in the new year laughing, which is what matters to me. The party was lovely. When I think that at this time last year I was still an undergraduate student, and now I am celebrating 2008 in Amman as a Rotary Scholar with people from Jordan, America, Australia, Germany, Iraq, and even Saudi Arabia, among others, I can't even believe my good fortune. Quite simply, this year is changing my life. There will always be the time “before” Amman, and “after” it.

Happy New Year!

More on that here and here.

Amin Matalqa, shares his experience participating in the Dubai International Film Festival, and talks about his film Captain Abu-Ra'ed , which has been selected for the World Cinema Competition at the Sundance Film Festival.

The festival was a lot of fun. I didn't get to see many films, but I got to meet a bunch of exciting people with a lot of enthusiasm. The organizers of the festival have really put an effort to make you feel welcome. First class treatment and a great place to motivate the future of Arabic cinema and cross-cultural diversity.

We premiered Captain Abu Raed at the festival, and the crowd was fantastic. We had a full house of 400 people, with a mixture of people who'd heard about the film and some who knew nothing about it. I was really pleased at the laughter and the tears that resulted in a beautiful finale and a long standing ovation. A very special moment and the first sign of success for our special little film.

And we picked up the Best Actor Award for our fantastic Nadim Sawalha (Abu Raed) at the end of the festival. I think this is just the beginning for things to come. The buzz around the festival was circulating about Abu Raed, and that makes me smile. Next stop… Sundance!!!

Read more about it here, and also view the trailer of Captain Abu Ra'ed from You Tube here.

Lina Ejeilat brings up, the story of a newly born baby, that was abandoned by both his parents, after he came to life at Al-Basheer hospital in Amman.

It’s becoming old news; another newborn was found in a pool of her blood, in the WC of Al Basheer Hospital. Apparently her mother came to the hospital seeking pain killers for cramps. Doctors suspected she was pregnant and she denied it, so they asked her to take a urine test. She went to the toilets, delivered the baby, cut the umbilical cord with some sharp device, left the baby there, and escaped.

The baby is recovering in hospital before being handed over to the Ministry of Social Development. The 24-year-old mother was found an hour after the baby was discovered, and she admitted that she was pregnant out of wedlock. The newspaper report says she is now being hospitalized for excessive blood loss, and will be later handed over to police for further investigation.

In another post, she talks about used book stores in the Netherlands, and she shares memories of trips she made to the Netherlands and Turkey.

In August of 2006, I was in Muenster/Germany, and we made a quick trip across the border into the Netherlands, stopping in one tiny village. We were told it’s known for being a “Book Village” (I can’t for the life of me remember its actual name). Everything about it was tiny, except perhaps the windmills, and the number of small family-owned used book stores. Most book stores were part of some house - practically the family library compiled over the years and opened to the public. The one I entered had a small wooden door that opened to the kitchen, where a dog stood barking and an old woman was baking. The great thing about the Dutch is that they, unlike the German and French, take pride in their fluency in other languages. I bought about eight English and French books for only 20 Euros.

A few months later I visited Istanbul – and although I was there for only two days, I fell head over heels in love with that magical city. It’s so hard to explain what’s so captivating about Istanbul. I promised to blog about it last year but never did. Yesterday, I had a very interesting conversation with someone who has been living there, and after discussing the great contradictions of the city, Turkish nationalism, cultural identity crisis, visual richness, the Bosphorous, and the mystical air of all the elements the city brings together, I found myself deeply longing for Istanbul.

Read more here and here.

Naseem Tarawneh ( Black-Iris), expresses his disagreement with the citizenship law in Jodan which deprives women married to foreign men from passing citizenships to their children and husbands.

There is an absurd law - the Citizenship law - in Jordan that women who marry foreigners cannot pass the Jordanian citizenship on to their children. Most reside in Jordan, these are Jordanian women, with, for all intents and purposes, Jordanian kids who were born on this soil and have probably lived here their entire lives. Yet, just like a foreigner, they need to renew their residency permits every year.

He also brings up a pressing issue for Jordan these days, and that's the rising fuel prices, and how this will affect the pocket of the Jordanian citizen.

The new economy-minded government is going to help us all out by telling us how much more we’ll be spending on filling our gas tanks every month. It’s part of a new initiative to let us all know how broke we’ll be in advance. Meanwhile, every time a new Minister of Energy comes on to the scene, we always seem to be filled with renewed promises of energy relief. Oil shale, wind, solar, nuclear. Jordan will be producing all of it in just a few more years. So, you know, hang in there.

More on that here and here.

Liana, an American living in Amman, talks about what she found Jordanians' love for mobiles, and how the use of mobiles differs in Jordan from her own country.

Cell phones in Amman are often people's main source of communication for both business and personal matters. Business cards often just have a cell phone number, and it is not uncommon for people to have two or three mobiles. (This is not to separate parts of their lives, work and home, for example, but to save money.) “What company do you have?” someone will ask when getting your phone number. The choices are basically Zain, Umnia, or Orange. Based on your response, your friend will pull out a different phone, since it is much less expensive to call within in a company (from a Zain phone to a Zain phone, for example.)

In the States, not putting your phone on silent, even during an informal social gathering, will earn you a sneer and a major faux pas. Here it is a normal part of daily life, and many adults have Arabic pop songs or even religious chants as their ringtones - another element not relegated to the “youth” here in Jordan.

In another post she expresses her dissatisfaction with graduate classes she is taking at the University of Jordan.

This class, Theories of Conflict and War, has been essentially empty academically for me. We cursorily discussed how the major theories of International Relations (Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, and Critical Theories) view conflict. There was less material than I am used to seeing covered in one undergraduate class (maybe this is because we ended the three hour lectures two hours early on most days?) and there was one book that was suggested reading, which we never discussed.

More on that here and here.