What's On My Mind This Week

• I'm pretty shocked that police in Jordan are actually setting traps to arrest alleged homosexuals. According to "sources", this crackdown is to prevent the increasing numbers of gays, whose number is approximately 600, from spreading STDs. Where they obtained such a number is beyond me. Now I'm not campaigning for LGBT over here, but i find this inhumane and stupid, especially when they put it under the excuse of "preventing STD spread". You want to prevent STDs? Make sex education a part of highschool curricula. The way I see it, this "campaign" is just to win easy points with the public.

• I can't believe Jordan is one of the four water-poorest countries in the world. We sure don't act like it. We use water like we have an infinite supply of it. Just observe the streams of soapy water running down the streets from people hosing down their cars every morning. It's ridiculous.

• 17 honor crimes have occurred to this day since the start of 2008. Four only this month.
  
  
• I love the cold weather. Despite the fact that people sort of freak out and the streets become crazy from the combination of stupid drivers and a practically non-existent drainage system. I love the rain, the jackets, the scarves, the blankets. It's all very cosy. I even don't mind being cold. But I don't understand why only my right hand gets cold, mostly when I'm working on the computer. I'm right-handed, so if anything, shouldn't it be my left hand that gets cold? So every 20 minutes or so i go to the kitchen and stand over the stove for a minute, till my hand gets warm, after which i resume my computer session.
  
  

• Cups and kilos is an awesome place. Even though I've been introduced to it fairly recently, like 2 months ago, I've been an addict ever since. I especially like any banana-flavoured drinks they have. Last week they had a concert featuring college students playing cover songs and jazz tunes, it was really nice. A friend of mine has been going to the same Cups and Kilos branch for 25 consecutive days now!
  

• I've been a terrible blogger and I know it. I'm feeling pretty guilty about it, and I've been kicking myself for it especially since toot added a new bunch of bloggers about a week ago. It's that i can't seem to get back to the blogger mode I was in when I first started this blog. That's when you automatically start writing posts in your head and start categorizing everything into bloggable or non-bloggable. Hmmmmph.
  

And now that my right-hand has become cold again, I'm going to go.

Bloody Murder

Is it me, or are murder stories in Jordan becoming more and more common? Everytime I open the newspaper there seems to be a new murder in the headlines, each one more violent and shocking than the next. 

So I took a look at the archives, and over the last 10 days the following took place: 

• A 61-year old shot his 17-year-old daughter to death in an "honor crime" in Al Balqa. Upon questioning, the father said his daughter allegedly confessed to having consensual sexual relations. A source said he saw the victim's family members congratulating each other after the murder.

• A 44-year-old man murdered his married 42-year-old sister by strangling her with a "dishdasheh" (the traditional robe), in yet another so-called "honor crime". The victim, who has been living alone for the past 5 years because her husband is in prison, was murdered because "she would often leave the house without her family's approval". The victim became the 15th person killed for an honor crime since the beginning of the year. You think we'll be able to reach our yearly average of 20? 2 more months to go!
  
  
• A body of a man in his thirties was found stabbed in the King Abdullah Gardens. The suspect, who confessed, reportedly killed his friend over 200 JDs. 
  
  
• The body of a newborn baby was found attached to a tree in Wadi Il Seer. I don't know what to say about this one. This is just beyond despicable and sick.

• A chopped up body turned up in Marka in Amman. The police apprehended the suspect, an Egyptian worker for the victim in his factory, who killed his boss for refusing to give him a raise, and them disassembled the body into four parts to facilitate moving it.

• A man was sentenced for 10 years in prison for poisoning his neighbor unintentionally. The man wanted to kill his father by poisoning his tea, but a number of neighbors happened to drop by and drink the tee. Ah the irony.
  

Not to mention the multitudes of car accidents and hit-and-run accidents which seem to have become everyday news by now. Are we becoming a more violent society?

Just Who the Hell Is Joe the Plumber?

So the press seems to be smitten with this "Joe the Plumber" guy, who's apparently been mentioned by Obama and McCain a multitude of times. Check out this Jon Stewart video!

So who is he? He's your average American who when encountered Obama, asked him about and criticized his tax-plan. Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame, Joe.

What Your Tax JDs Are Paying For

مجلس الوزراء قرر في الجلسة التي عقدها قبل اسبوعين منح اعفاءات جمركية لسيارات اعضاء مجلس النواب. وبموجب القرار فان آلية حصول النواب على الاعفاء ستكون بالحصول على كتاب بهذا الخصوص من دائرة الجمارك اعتبار من اليوم للتوجه لشراء ما يرغبون من انواع السيارات.وحصل نواب في المجالس النيابية السابقة على اعفاءات جمركية فيما حصل نواب المجلس النيابي الرابع عشر على تسهيلات جمركية ومالية فقط للحصول على سيارات

[Source]

As if a JD2460 a month salary is not enough, now our lovely Parliament members are entitled to duty free cars, all paid for by us, the naive Jordanians who helped elect them in the first place. And to do what? To go and throw water and juice cups on each other. Great. Long live democracy.

Bab El 7ara Mania

Silly me, I thought it couldn't get any worse than the obsession with the notorious Noor and Muhannad. But we sure take our entertainment very seriously.

Attempting to recreate the famous show, a group of youngsters renamed two areas in Tla'a il Ali, Amman into "7aret Shaker" and "7aret al Bostan" after the tv show Bab il 7ara, and then ignited a fight between the two "7aras" that was broken up by the police.

Now I understand the show's popularity with the older demographic: the nostalgia towards old values and traditions in a modern society now, but I really wonder why so many young people find it appealing. I mean, even my 11 year-old cousins were avid followers of the show.

But like Noor, this show's popularity will also remain a conundrum that baffles me. Oh well.