On University Registrations

Ah registration. Ever since my first semester, it's always been a stressful event. Despite there being an online system, students always have to try to register as soon as possible before the sections close and they either end up with a terrible schedule or have to go beg someone to let one more person into their section.

Registration this time was exceptionally stressful, however. Not only did they make it on a Friday, when no one has the option of going to the university if something doesn't work out, but they also made it on Christmas day. Now it would've been fine if all we had to do was simply log in when it starts and register, but after 5 semesters of experience with our registration department, we know very well that they never start on time, so all we do is keep refreshing the page until it opens. So assuming this year wouldn't be any different, I, along with half the student body spent 6-8 hours refreshing the same page. And when it did finally start at 2 PM, turns out they changed the entire system so we couldn't register for half our courses.

It was an unbelievable waste of time, and I decided to send an email about it to both the registration department and the university's president. The registration department didn't even budge, but much to my surprise, the president actually replied a day later telling me to come see him. He told me that my comments were taken into consideration and even apologized for setting registration on Christmas day and I must say I was very impressed. We tend to complain a lot, but I felt like this time complaining actually helped in doing some good.

And this is why I urge everyone who has a problem to complain, to the right person at least. Maybe nothing will happen, but then again you might actually get your opinion heard and help solve whatever problem you and a whole lot of other people are facing.

A New Government. Yeah, so?

While the decision to dissolve the parliament about two weeks ago was met with pure joy and relief, the appointment of a new prime minister was met with either disappointment or most probably indifference. Sameer Rifai, the new prime minister is the third generation of a family of prime ministers, something that probably happens only in Jordan.

I like to think of the whole thing as a game. There's this circle of elitists, the ones allowed to play, all of whom at one point or another were ministers or CEOs and every couple of years one of them gets their turn as the top player. Now this top player would proceed to "reshuffle" the current players, or if he's looking for some change, add a couple of new ones. The field that each player is in charge of is truly irrelevant to their area of expertise. Now once the parliament is elected, the game of who destroys who first begins! Fun fun fun.

So I don't really think it matters who gets picked as the prime minister, the same cycle of events seems to repeat itself regardless of how optimistic we are of the new government. But not to be part of the blame culture, because we should take the blame as well. We should be part of a responsible, incorrupt election that would result in a parliament that speaks for the citizens rather than attack them, but hey that's just wishful thinking.

Once again, Emad Hajjaj depicts it best.

Amman Stand-Up Comedy Festival 09

Yesterday I went to the second night of the Amman Comedy Festival that was organized by the Greater Amman Municipality and it was a great show! First of all, just entering the place makes you feel like a VIP, with all the people smiling at you and telling you to have a great night. Not something you see in Amman everyday.

They started right on time, and we were sitting in the very first row, practically on stage that each stand up would make jokes about the people in the row (a married couple and a lady with 3 kids in particular became the targets of maaany jokes!). Dean Obeidallah from the Axis of Evil did a great job in hosting the show and Nemr Abou Nassar and of course Maz Jobrani were the funniest.

I have to give it to the municipality, they've been doing a great job with cultural events. You just feel like Amman's growing culturally, from the marathon which was very well-organized to other events like Fastwalk Jordan (it's not organized by the GAM but without their help wouldn't have been able to become as widespread as it is today).

These are a couple of videos I took, the first is of Nemr Abou Nassar and the second is a video of Maz Jobrani shaking it! A girl actually raised her hand in the middle of the show and asked him to do the infamous happy birthday dance, but sadly he didn't oblige...

City Light Hack

City Light Hack is a project that was performed by the IEEE student branch in GJU in 30/10/2009 and was deemed a truly successful project, the first of its kind in the Middle East. IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers) is a global organizations with more than 300,000 members in universities around the world, and the GJU branch's first project was City Light Hack.

What they did is they turned a building in Madina Monawarra St. with 6x5 windows into a big dot matrix screen by controlling the building's lights using a computer and a board. It's not as easy as it sounds, there's A LOT of programming involved and it took a bunch of 20 students about 3 months of programming and trial and error and succeeded in a project that was only performed in a couple of more countries in the world (it failed in Dubai!).

The video below shows scenes from the show, which despite the rainy whether gathered quite an audience and even caused traffic jams because the people driving would just stop their cars and watch. The police even tried to stop the show at one point!



So congratulations to the team and here's to more amazing achievements!

Event reported in Ammon

Project website

Sexual Harassment & Blaming the Victim

Reading the comments on this article, I had a hard time controlling my blood pressure. The article discusses sexual harassment against women and how it is still present in Ramadan. First of all, what did ya expect? With all due respect, who doesn't have moral standards for the 11 months of the year isn't going to suddenly develop some, holy month or not. Second of all, the prevailing mentality seems to always blame the women and practically fear them for their "fitnah".

Now I understand that there is such a thing as a provocative outfit that could attract more attention to a female, but any female above the age of 12 who has spent more than one hour walking a street in Jordan will tell you, the demeaning comments will come whether you're wearing a Jilbab, a veil or a a normal jeans and t-shirt. Also, there is something very wrong with a culture that divides women into fully veiled and therefore decent and not veiled or not properly veiled and therefore have no morals.

So it really pisses me off to tell me that it's my fault for being insulted by an asshole with no manners who considers my walking down the street an invitation for him to express his carnal thoughts.

And for the commentators who blame the women, are you comparing yourselves to animals who just can't control themselves at the sight of a woman? By what logic should we lock up the women at home -several comments seemed to suggest that-, if you're the animal that cannot be controlled? I say we should lock YOU up.

I know I'm preaching to the wrong audience here, but sexual harassment is an issue that hits a nerve for each woman. It is an issue that needs to be strictly dealt with, and not by blaming the victim but by punishing the offender. I'm not one to encourage violence, but I think every woman should buy a taser and stun the hell out of any asshole who dares to come near her.

What's the Deal With Quest?

Ok so it seems a lot of people are entering this supposedly lucrative business of network or multilevel marketing, namely this company called Quest. If you've been approached, probably one of your friends or acquaintances has tried to wow you with this fascinating presentation about the business. You can become a millionaire with the least effort possible, all you have to do is buy JD500 worth of their so-called unique online products and you're in. Now what you have to do is keep making these presentations for people in order to recruit them so they'd buy the products in turn. And the more people you recruit, the more money you make.

Frankly I've done some research about it, and the whole thing is just too fishy, I'm not buying it. Their products are incredibly overpriced and you can only get them if you want to get in the business. Old members have to recruit new members in order to make money, but won't this have to stop at some point? Eventually the new members will be unable to recruit any more members, the very basis of what is called a pyramid scheme. Moreover, they fascinate you with their endorsements from FIFA and United Nations (even the Vatican!) but when I actually looked it up, I couldn't find a source other than the Quest websites themselves to verify this information.

Now some people I know have actually made some money already, but I fear they're making it from their friends and family who may very well lose. So my question is, does anyone know anything about this?

Dear Orange, YOU SUCK

The Black Iris is trying to make a campaign or a social experiment to see if we can do something other than complain, and I am more than happy to participate because God knows how much Orange piss me off. We don't get the speed we're paying for, if you try calling their customer services you're left to wait for a number of hours and the only thing they are persistent at is practically threatening their customers to pay. So spread this letter around if you agree that Orange SUCK.

Dear Orange Telecom (and all Jordanian service providers),

It’s been a while since I’ve written. In fact, I’m simply terrible at keeping in touch, so let me get straight to the point. You have a problem and it’s starting to affect others around you. Just like that guy at the gym who refuses to wear deodorant, we’ve started to notice. Indeed, something stinks terribly about your level of service, which I was for-warned about but was prepared to forgo in order not to deal with the hassles of third-parties. I wanted to deal directly with the source. Instead, the source has given a daily blinking red “disconnected” light.

All in all, I feel bamboozled. Swindled. Cheated. Robbed. And to a large extent, those adjectives are not far from the truth. For the 2MB connection that I receive from you, and which I pay a generous 50JDs a month for - has now, on average, gone down to around 0.60MB. It’s still the beginning of the month so I know I haven’t used up any of your very limited download capacity. I know that much.

I’m writing to you now about how your problem is affecting me, because you are someone who has been consistently communicating to me your own needs, and a good relationship always requires a two-way street when it comes to communication. You constantly send me your news in the form of an SMS. Something that states:

Dear Orange internet customer you have reached 70% of your download capacity, to extend your download capacity & avoid speed downgrade, please call our customer care at…

or…

Dear Orange Customer, we would like to kindly remind you to settle the bills due on your internet service within 1 week. Thank you from Orange internet.

See? You’re always communicating your needs to me. And I would kindly oblige to your requests but see, our relationship has sort of become like that broke uncle who’s always asking to “borrow” some money, and you just know you won’t get it back. As far as I know, that’s not how our relationship should be. Our relationship is supposed to be based on give and take: I give you something, you take it, and I expect a little giving in return.

To put it bluntly, I expect to get what I paid for.

And please do not ask me to call your customer service because that’s like asking me to explore new levels of frustration and I’m just not in to masochism. The person on the other end of the phone never knows what they’re talking about and you end up wasting 15 minutes with them (which I suppose is good for Orange Telephone), and this is after waiting 30 minutes to get through to a representative. They end up arranging for a visit by one of the technical crew, and that is a visit that requires at least a week of being Internet-less.

No, it’s not just you. I have met few people who are genuinely happy with the level of service they receive from the telecom sector in general. It seems the only good thing these companies are excellent at is taking their customers’ money. And by the way, even that requires me to line up for 40 minutes while tellers are busy servicing other people who are shopping around for a phone; why counters dedicated to bill payments cannot be arranged, I don’t know.

So how can I help but feel cheated?

And I won’t even mention my dropped cell phone calls in this letter.

If there’s one conclusion to be drawn from experience in the Jordanian sphere, it’s that we are relatively good at providing a serivce but terrible at delivering a service. In other words, we’re great with coming up with the next great marketable idea and taking money for that idea, but exchange is never mutual. We never get what we paid for.

And I know. This post might fall on deaf ears as others have. After all, why should any company that makes a great deal of money every year bother listening to its customers?

But fellow blogger Jad may have been on to something when it comes to starting an online campaign. It might need a better name, but I’m betting that bloggers and their readers alone can force a change simply by blogging about a company such as yours, and simply by putting Orange Jordan in their post titles, a little bit of tagging, a little bit of twittering, digging, Facebooking and other nifty weapons at our disposal, we can probably have our posts reach Google’s top ten ranking. So every time someone searches for your company, some of the most pertinent results they’ll get involve unsatisfactory reviews from your customers. And if you think that’s never made a difference, well, Google around and see if it ever has (try Dell for starters).

How else is a customer supposed to react when their satisfaction is no longer guaranteed? When they can no longer communicate effectively with their service provider?

I wanted this relationship to work out; I really did. But I feel like you haven’t given me any choices. It’s just been one bad thing after the other and I’m writing to let you know that I might be ready to move on. I know, I know. Our relationship didn’t last too long, but we all deserve a little happiness in our life. You once wrote to me that “Internet = Life”. I saw your message all over town in fact. It was sweet. But if that equation is true then I’m afraid, it seems, I can’t have that kind of happiness with you. So I want you to know, just so this is all out in the open, that I am starting to look for other people.

But whatever happens, I promise to stay in better touch with you (depending on the stability of my connection).

Yours Sincerely,

Naseem Tarawnah

Cervical Cancer Vaccine: The Controversy

Last month's "Living Well" had an interesting topic over Gardasil, the vaccine against cervical cancer. Definitely one of the greatest breakthroughs in the medical field over the past few years has been the development of this vaccine which prevents 70% of cervical cancer cases, the second most common form of cancer among women worldwide. The vaccine should be given to girls ages 9 to 25 as three shots over the course of 6 months with each shot costing 150 JD if memory serves.

So what's the problem? We've come up with a vaccine for cancer! Why would any parent refuse such a vaccine for their daughters? All cervical cancer cases are caused by strains of a virus called HPV which is sexually transmitted. And when the words sexually transmitted are involved, the average middle-eastern parent will become utterly offended by the fact that they're even offering a "sex shot" as it was referred to in the magazine. Such a vaccine will be seen as a green card for girls to start having sex, as if the only thing standing between them and promiscuity is the chance of contracting cervical cancer. One interviewed mother said she would not give the vaccine to her daughter, but were they to develop it for males she would give it to her son.

Tell me one thing, though. Do you tell your child to go play with rusty nails after giving him a tetanus shot? Would you kiss a flu patient because you've had your flu shot? Of course not. A vaccine is not a green card for anything, it is simply a rational precaution against a known disease. And to have anyone die from something completely preventable is absurd, in my opinion. One woman said "I'd rather live with the unfounded suspicion of my daughter sleeping around than to bury her one day because of my irrational decision".

I think at least there needs to be awareness about the subject so parents can know about it before it's too late. I for one had no idea the vaccine was available in Jordan.

So what do you think? Should Gardasil be given to girls? And for the ladies under 25, would you take it? For the parents, would you give it to your daughters?

My Thoughts on CEDAW

A little late to the party, I suppose. I honestly didn't think the discussion would keep going till now, but people can't seem to give it a rest. And by people I mostly mean organizations pertaining to the Islamic Brotherhood.

Firstly, let me state something very clearly, I KNOW that Jordan is an Islamic country. I know that the personal status law which applies to people of all religions living in the country follows the Islamic law. I do know that.

What seems to bother the Brotherhood and more recently the Council of Ifta' are articles 15 and 16, which in a nutshell, guarantee women the freedom to travel and reside freely, as well as equal rights in marriage, occupation, etc. I will not go into discussion as to why would Islam disagree with the previous notions, because in the end it is a personal opinion. But this i will say: Jordan is not Saudi Arabia. We don't apply Islamic teachings to every part of our lives. We don't force women to wear headscarves, we don't force people into mosques at prayer time and we won't chop your hand off for stealing. The Jordanian constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and by that I don't just mean the right for non-Muslims to practice their rites of worship, but also the right for Muslims to choose whether to apply the teachings of Islam to their lives or not.

And that is why I don't think CEDAW should pose a problem. If certain women don't believe it is their right to travel freely, then by all means, don't. No one is forcing you to. What CEDAW does is guarantee this right for people who don't agree with that. What it does is provide women with the choice. I find nothing wrong with that, and if truly there is no compulsion in religion, then this shouldn't even be an issue.

Go ahead now, proceed to chopping my head off in the comment section xD

About the Recent Swine Flu Outbreak in Jordan

It's all in the newspapers by now, 13 teenagers have come back with swine flu from a camp in Ajloun, the largest number of people to contract the disease at once so far. I know a couple of people who were at the camp so I have a second-hand account of the events.

Firstly the camp, organized by Christian churches, takes place each summer and a couple of times throughout the year, and most of the participants are about 16 or 17 with older leaders and supervisors present as well. After the camp ended on Friday, two of the participants tested themselves after coming down with the symptoms and were found positive, so all those who took part in the camp were brought to the Prince Hamza Hospital, and those with a temperature of 38 or higher were quarantined and had samples taken to be tested. The results take about a day to come out.

From what I heard, the parents and those who were kept at the hospital were very disappointed with the way things were handled. The hospital is not well-equipped, conditions are far from sanitary and the section where they stay is very understaffed, with only one doctor and two nurses. The parents struggled to find a doctor to answer their questions. It makes me wonder if we really are as ready to handle an influx of cases should they happen as the Ministry of Health has been saying.

Contrary to what's being said in the newspapers, there weren't any participants from the UK, and only one from the US and one from Lebanon, and both tested out negative, so till now the source of the outbreak is still unknown. And with 6 new cases discovered today, I doubt the disease can be contained any longer.

Anyhow, Tamiflu was distributed to those who tested out negative and their families as a precaution, and those who do have swine flu are quarantined and prohibited from seeing anyone for the next 5 days. They're all doing fine though, they've got their laptops, DVDs and cards to entertain them! If you're going to go down with swine flu you might as well end up with your friends, I suppose!

7amdella 3al salameh to all.

Free Hugs in Jordan!

Yes, yes, I'm a terrible blogger I know it. But this I just have to blog! Remember this video? It's one of my favorite videos ever. Well apparently the Sunny FM people got one of their employees to dress up in a ridiculously stupid costume and carry the Free Hugs sign around different places in Jordan, just like Juan Mann, the man who originally started the campaign. I kinda wish I would've bumped into them, but man what's with the costume?



But Jordanians, you need to get better at the hugging business. Maybe what we needed was a free cheek-kissing campaign. Now that we would be good at! Anyway kudos for Sunny for thinking this up! And for the brave dude who went around Jordan offering hugs. Maybe the purpose of the costume was protection against being beaten up? Kidding, kidding, we're very friendly people. Most of the time.

Souk Jara and Jadal

One of my favorite things about Amman during the Summer is Souk Jara, the annual summer flea market in Jabal Amman. This year it kicked off just last week. Booths situated on each side of one of the oldest streets in Amman, selling unique merchandise, from antique jewelry to locally made Jo Bedu t-shirts. There are also small tables reminiscent of a "kan zaman" setting where you can sit and munch on saj sandwiches and have yourself an argeeleh. The best thing about it though are the concerts by local bands every week. We've got some seriously talented Jordanians!












































Yesterday's concert was by Jadal, an Arabic rock band formed a couple of years ago. It was my first time seeing them in concert, and I loved it. Listening to the combination of slang Arabic lyrics and electric guitar tunes while enjoying the view overlooking the Citadel and al Balad was really quite an experience. Plus, the drummer is the cousin of a personal friend who requested her name be mentioned here (so here you go, Diana :D).






My favorite song is "Salma", I've been playing it non-stop since yesterday. You can download it at their website. Here are the lyrics as well.





سمِّي سلمى يا أختي سلمي أمرك و اتكلي
سلمى صغيرة راح تبكي من أول وهلة راح تشكي

سلمى عيونك يشوفوا الخير يشوفوا أمك بتصلي
تشوفي و تسمعي كل خير ما يهمك خالك بيغني

سلمى صغيرة راح تبكي و راح تملى بيوتنا بالضحكه
و بأعلى صوتها راح تحكي أنا بحبك يا أمي

Chorus:
سلمى عيوني بتستنى تشوف عنيكي و تتمنى
العمر كلو يا سلمى العمر الي بتمناه
العمر الي بتمناه العمر كلو يا سلمى

Verse :
سمِّي سلمى يا أختي سلمي أمرك و اتكلي
سلمى صغيرة راح تبكي من أول وهلة راح تشكي

سلمى عيونك يشوفوا الخير يشوفوا أمك بتصلي
تشوفي و تسمعي كل خير ما يهمك خالك بيغني

Chorus:
سلمى عيوني بتستنى تشوف عنيكي و تتمنى
العمر كلو يا سلمى العمر الي بتمناه
سلمى عيوني بتستنى تشوف عنيكي و تتمنى

سلمى عيوني بتستنى


P.S. Uploading photos to blogger is a major pain effft.

Good Blogger. Nice Blogger.

Exploring the weird species that is bloggers.

If Zain Send Me One More Message....

No I don't want to know the Manchester Barcelona game score or whatever that message was about, I don't want to receive your health tips and I most certainly don't want to send a joke so I can be "rewarded" by receiving two free jokes (oh joy!). So STOP sending 10 stupid message a day, or take your wonderful world and shove it somewhere. Jeeeez.

Queen Rania Joins Twitter!

I have a LOT to complain about when it comes to how our country is run, but one thing I love is how the Royal Family are humble and try to stay connected with the people, especially technologically speaking. First a YouTuber, now Queen Rania has moved on to the next popular internet craze, Twitter, the microblogging website. She started her account only yesterday and has updated her status over 17 times. It's the real deal, in case you're wondering, her account has been confirmed by the Royal Court.


It seems that as with her YouTube page, the Queen intends to use this website to raise awareness about certain issues, this time being educating children. In her first and second tweets she says: "Salaam! Last time you heard from me, we worked together to breakdown stereotypes. This time, I want us to tweet together to get every child an education."

But what will probably interest you more are the personal tweets which give people an amazing insight into her life as a royalty. Check these out:

• Wknd begins for us, watching Matthew McConaughey in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. Glad I'm not single. It's vicious out there!

• Nice movie to watch with girls; husband (real life action man) mumbling "chickflick!'' under breath. Spoilsport. Just kidding! Watch it... (haha my favorite)

• Just choppered to airport to receive Pope. Husband piloting, he got acrobatic to quiet butterflies in stomach :) told u he was action man
  

• Taking kids 2 meet Pope, just about convinced eldest 2 wear suit. Now negotiating with my 4 yr old!

Queen Rania is following 23 people at the time of this post, including Oprah, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Gore. She has over 3000 followers, and is personally replying to some of the messages people are sending her. Can't wait to see what she's coming up with next! I sure hope the King makes his own account.

Oh and in her bio, she describes herself as "A mum and a wife with a really cool day job.." Haha, you gotta love her!


h/t: The Observer

Swine Flu? Nah, They're Just Kidding

I don't understand this poll on Alghad's website. It's asking if people think Swine Flu is an actual disease in reality. And over 30% so far have voted that they do not. They don't think it's a real disease? So what is it?

Encounter With a Creep

One thing I like to do is walk. I usually go for a walk early in the morning, at like 6, when the air is still crisp and the streets are relatively empty. I mostly circle around the neighborhood. I've done it for the past three years I think and today for the very first time, I've had an incident with a creep.

I was walking like usual, with one of my iPod headphones in my left ear, so I can still hear any approaching cars or so. I am always aware of my surroundings. I noticed that there was a man walking behind me but didn't think much of it. He was medium built, wearing black pants with a black jacket, clicking away on his mobile. At some point I notice that he's walking exactly behind me, as in two steps away, so I thought it be best to just turn around, go in the other direction and let him go past me, what I usually do in such situations. So I turn around, but the bastard turns right with me. Staring at him I watch him put his phone right in front of my face. I realized at that point that he's been following me, presumably shooting a video or photos. Why else would he stick the mobile in my face. I flipped out. Screaming at him, I snag the mobile out of his hand but he manages to take it back and starts running. I start running behind him and chase him down for half a street but then he takes a turn, so I decide to turn around so I'd catch him from the other side, but he had disappeared. I'm thinking he hid in one of the garages of the apartment buildings in that area.

Why the hell was he photographing me is beyond me. I was wearing black, baggy sweat pants and my older brother's over-sized hoodie. Other than the pony tail, I swear I looked like a teenage boy.

A man driving in his car saw what happened and asked what's the matter and said he would drive around and see if he can find him. I kept walking around in the area hoping I'd run into him. I'm not sure what would have happened if I had caught up with him. I wish I had snatched his mobile so I'd be able to find out who he is. I don't think I've ever gotten this angry in my entire life. I wanted to beat the shit out of him so bad. I think he was surprised when he saw that I was chasing him. He wasn't expecting that.

But all is well. The whole thing is just a tiny incident, and other than a cut in my finger (I think from when he snatched the mobile back), nothing happened. I'm gonna keep taking my morning walks as usual. I hope I run into him again, though.

This is just to say to all you ladies out there to be careful. Be aware of your surroundings. And fight back. Creeps do exist.

Arab Stand-up Comedy!

Apologies about the lack of blogging, people, I've been kind of busy with midterms and the such. But check this out. After the huge success of the Axis of Evil comedy tour, Showtime put together Minority Rules, a stand-up comedy show of Arab comics. I'm posting a couple of my favorites.

Here's a video of Egyptian Ronnie Khalil describing the stages of "ya lahwi" that Egyptian women experience!



And this is one of Wonho Chung. Yup, Won Ho. LOL. Wonho is a South-Korean who's lived in Jordan all his life. So i'm guessing it's part of our genetic structure then, that we are unable to breed funny people.

h/t: Laura

Earth Hour In Jabal Amman

Yesterday I joined the candlelit march across the Rainbow Street in Jabal Amman and I must say I thought it was really nice. People gathered up at Wild Jordan Cafe where they were showing Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth", then at 8.30 the switch was turned off -really, there was a switch to turn the light off the entire street- and people walked around the street a couple of times with their candles and gathered back again at the Cafe till the lights were turned back on. The Minister of Environment Khaled Irani was also there and he walked along with the crowd.

Although the weather was pretty cold, and keeping the candles lit was almost impossible, the scene from Jabal Amman with the lights turned off and with the ambiance of the candles was beautiful. Maybe overall, it didn't provide the awareness it ought to have, but I think given it's our first year doing this, it wasn't so bad. Baby steps, I suppose.

I couldn't take any pictures (the grainy one on the right is the best thing I could take with my mobile camera), but I'll post if I receive any.

Earth Hour 2009: Turn Your Lights Off!

• Where?

Amman

• What?

Turn your lights off

• When?

Today from 8.30 till 9.30 PM

• Why?

To raise awareness about Global Warming, Amman is one of the participating cities in the global campaign Earth Hour. Several streets in Amman will be turning off their lights.

There will also be a candlelit march in Rainbow St. in Jabal Amman at 8.30.


The irony is that I have two electric circuits exams tomorrow. Ugh.

Stop Getting So Offended

Ah, just another boycott, this time against Alghad newspaper. I woke up today to find several invitations to a facebook group calling for the boycott of Alghad for publishing the Imad Hajjaj cartoon shown here.

[Cartoon shows Abu Mahjoob welcoming and baptizing Tony Blaire with filthy water in the baptism site, with the minister of water on the other side announcing that the contaminated waters did not affect the drinking water and were rerouted to the Jordan River.]

The cartoon spurred the catholic union to send a letter to Alghad's editor denouncing the cartoon because of the "hurtful insinuations it carries that offend not only Christians, but every good-willed citizen", also mentioning that this isn't the first time they've been offended by a Hajjaj cartoon.

This in turn caused Hajjaj to post a clarification on his website, that the caricature was not in any way a mockery of Christians or their traditions, but a sarcastic commentary of how the minister of water and irrigation announced that the water contaminated by Israel was disposed of in the Jordan river just a few days after the opening of the baptism center with Tony Blair attending the ceremony.

هذا الرسم لا يستهدف من قريب أو بعيد الإساءة للديانة المسيحية وأتباعها. ومن المهم هنا التأكيد على القضية الأساسية التي يبرزها الكاريكاتير وهو إعلان وزير المياه أن جميع المياه الملوثة قد تم التخلص منها في نهر الأردن بعد أيام من تدشين معمودية مغطس نهر الأردن بحضور السيد توني بلير. أي أن حل مشكلة التلوث كان بتلويث النهر المقدس الذي يتعمد فيه الحجاج المسيحيين من كل العالم، وهذا ما يرفضه رسام الكاريكاتير شكلا وموضوعا.

The cartoon was posted yesterday and already 3 groups have been created calling for boycotting the newspaper and Imad Hajjaj, created by people who, I'm sure, have no idea of the underlying meaning of the cartoon. The sensitivity of people when it comes to anything bordering religion is unbelievable. You do not object the fact that what you regard as a holy site is being pumped with sewage but a cartoon offends you? Seriously save your energy and outcries for bigger things, like oh I don't know, drinking sewage and radiation infested water.

[On a completely unrelated note, this is the 100th post on this blog!]

Honor Crimes: Enough Is Enough

Yes I've been trying to ignore the subject lately. Because every time I read about another case, I feel like a little part of me dies inside. We're watching innocent victims die every other day and we're doing nothing. I feel so angry at the fact that there ARE people who can be doing something about it but they're not. I've said this before and I'm going to say it again. There's no point of trying to make Jordan look like the modern country where equality prevails when women are being murdered frequently and their killers are set free. I couldn't care less if we have female police officers or plumbers as long as a father can kill his daughter for wearing makeup and be guaranteed to get away with it. The last time somebody tried to do something about it was almost 10 years ago. A decade ago. Since then nothing has been done and this disgusting charade continues. What scares me is that we've gotten so used to them to the point where no possible story could shock us. We ALL need to become outraged by this. We should never accept it as the status quo.

So here's a start. Join in Kinzi's initiative to flood the Jordan Times with emails about the subject expressing our anger. Just send in whatever feelings you have about this subject at jotimes@jpf.com.jo.

I've attached here Narmeen Murad's article in the Jordan Times.

A father and his two underage sons tortured and killed their 19-year-old daughter and sister because she reportedly was caught wearing makeup while out on an errand with her younger brother. Her uncle, who caught her apparently walking in an area other than the one she said she was going to, brought her back to her father and reported her “crime”.

I want to repeat this news. A young girl, a teenager, was relentlessly beaten with water hoses mercilessly and continuously by three men until she died. Initial reports indicate that the police arrested the three after she was declared dead by the doctor. The father, who led the two-hour beatings, shared his hose with his underage sons and encouraged them to join in the beating. Now this has been designated as an “honour crime”.

Welcome to Jordan in the 21st century. This case underlines the paradox of messages from this apparently modern country that has taken a leading position in the region with its progress despite its limited resources, yet still allows its human resources and future to remain hostage to archaic practices that have no relevance to the majority of society.

Parliament has rejected amendments to a law that would have banned the use of a ‘fit of fury’ clause to stop the practice of letting the perpetrators of crimes against women go free. Instead they have continued to support heartless and unnecessary murder, which is masked as a claim to have cleansed the honour of their families. This is the same Parliament that has failed women repeatedly thereby institutionalising open discrimination and the subordination of women to their male “guardians” as well as condoning violence against women.

The fact that Parliament does not fairly represent the makeup of society not only serves to maintain the integrity, and therefore supremacy, of only a certain category of people in the country politically - which is obviously the aim of the legislator - but it also allows this mentality to continue derailing all efforts to improve the legal status of women in the Kingdom. This Parliament, which was elected to serve all the people, has silenced half of the population because of their gender.

Women activists, including some of the most influential women in the country, have spoken out and advocated against what can only be described as stark legislative discrimination against women in Jordan, to no avail. The reason behind their failure is not that “society” is intrinsically against these changes, but because the cause of women has not been taken up by our male leaders who have left gender issues to women and forgot that it is the responsibility of societies as a whole to ensure that all members of that society are treated fairly and with justice.

When was the last time the prime minister made statements about improving the situation of women in Jordan? When was the last time the government intervened with Parliament and used its considerable clout to ensure the passing of laws that would change the lives of women for the better? Clearly there is no political will to improve the status of women in Jordan or even extend them the minimum protection against violence and inexplicable discrimination. As long as that political will is absent there will be no change.

An adult woman has the right to make choices in her life including personal ones. We all know this. We all know that men and women are equal in their humanity, their intelligence and their needs. We all know that it is not acceptable for any man to use force on a woman. We all know that the majority of Jordanians would not stand by idly and quietly and watch a woman being beaten to death without stepping in to stop it or even prevent it in the first place.

If we the people can’t stand to watch murder being perpetrated, how long are we going to accept that the government does exactly this? The government is watching the murder it has condoned.

Every single member of the Cabinet and every single senior official and every single journalist, judge, lawyer, activist and citizen who isn’t doing something to stop this “horror show” of crime against women, is doing exactly that: watching the long episode of torture and murder without batting an eyelid or lifting a finger. We watched this show 18 times last year. We have watched it seven times already this year. In every show a human being is robbed of their chance at life by an apathetic society.

I think we should all be ashamed of ourselves.

I really admire her courage to candidly speak about this. All I have to add is this: for all of you in a position of power, shame on you. From leadership to government to the parliament, shame on you. Do something. ANYTHING.

SuBerstar the Video

I just loved this video, it's so creative and original and perfectly describes the lives of West Ammanis! It's a spoof of Nickelback's "Rockstar" song by Jordanian artist Humam Amari. Make sure to check it out!



Also check this bloopers video, it's hilarious!

Becoming A Cynic

Usually I would spend a minimum of an hour a day reading up on newspapers online from alghad to ammon and so on. But lately I haven't been in the mood at all. Lately everytime I open the homepage of the news site, I'd just get frustrated and exit. I'm so sick of politics and I'm beginning to believe it's not the way to change anything around here. I wouldn't even know where to start. I don't know what's the way to change anything around here. I'm becoming more and more pessimistic everyday.

I didn't expect to become a cynic so soon.

Against Cyber Censorship: Why I Will Continue to Speak

Reading Naseem's post really got me thinking. People continue to ask me about why I insist on writing on subjects that are considered controversial or somewhat sensetive (i.e. anything that relates to criticizing officials and the such). Just yesterday I was warned by family members that I need to be more careful about what I write, because there can be dire concequences, and that it's just not worth it. That it's pointless.

But it's not pointless. Not for me. Everybody knows there can be dire consequences and we are all reminded of that very often. But we HAVE to say something because otherwise we're basically pretending to live in this bubble where everything is okay and it's not. There can be no progress whatsoever if people are unable to criticize whatever it is that determines their lives. How can you NOT speak out when you're not okay with how things are decided for YOU?

“We are at a point where the state isn’t being tested to the extent of which it should when it comes to free speech online, and those boundaries need to be pushed. As Jordanians, we should be taking the opportunity to use the net in a manner that allows us to critically analyze our country from a political, economic, social and cultural perspective - constantly.”

And that's why I will continue to speak out. I don't mean you should go on bashing people but how about we start thinking about how our lives are being run? We are lucky that we have the opportunity to speak. And we should use it.

BAJD: I Love Jordan

Skimming through my previous posts, I sometimes think my blog can give the wrong idea about Jordan for someone who doesn't know a whole lot about life here. I use this blog mostly to vent about things that drive me insane, but the truth of the matter is that I really love this country. It's where I was born. It's where I've spent my 19 years of existence. It's part of my identity.

But see for me, it's not about being a Jordanian. It's about loving this country and wanting to be a part of its progress. And people who complain about everything here without actually doing something bug me just as much as those who don't want to admit we have problems. We do, there's nothing wrong with that as long as we're willing to do something about it.

I've been thinking for a while about how I could possibly explain why I love Jordan, but I'm still not sure how I can.

It's the place I will always come back to.

It's home.

BAJD

Press Freedom Hits a New Low: Journalist Referred to Court for an Online Article

““In Jordan there will be no detention of any journalist for carrying out his/her duty.”

“Detention of journalists is prohibited. I do not see a reason for detaining a journalist because he/she wrote something” or for expressing a view."

King Abdullah/November 2008

Today, Journalist Khalid Mahadeen, was referred to court by the general prosecutor, for "defamation" after criticizing the privileges given to parliament members in this ONLINE article. I may, therefore, want to choose my words carefully, but nah, the hell with it, just explain this to me. Are the King's words considered bupkis now? He says something one day, and the next day people do the EXACT OPPOSITE?? If people are scared shitless of opening their mouths when it comes to royalty, how come there's no inclination to implementing what is being said every couple of months?

Sky's the limit, eh?

Tell that to Mahadeen while he's being dragged through courts and humiliating interrogations, probably to be eventually paid off at some point.

Newspapers Appoint Women Editors for International Women's Day

Thought this was pretty interesting. Ammon is reporting that it is appointing the editor of the english Ammon as the official editor of the online news site for tomorrow, March 8th, in celeration of International Women's Day. Other major newspapers are also participating such as the Jordan Times, Alrai, Aldustour and Al Arab Al Youm.

It's good to see something actually being done, even if just for one day.

After Doubling Ministers' Salaries, PMs to Receive a JD2000 Raise

I think what surprises me the most is that I continue to be surprised at what can only be described as pure corruption. Not an ounce of decency left. Not so much as simple reservation or consideration towards the average citizen suffering to make ends meet.

About a week ago, a recommendation to raise Parliament Members salaries from JD2500 to JD4500 was approved. This took place during a meeting between Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali and Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, who not only approved it, but encouraged it as well. But such a raise, if instated, is suspected to be faced with objection from the majority of the members.

This is because Parliament members who are eligible to a pension before having become a member of the Parliament can combine both their pension and the member's salary, which definitely amounts to more than JD4500. This is applicable to about 75 members- those who reached retirement from previous jobs. With the rest feeling all left out, the government sees this raise, provided that combining the salaries is no longer allowed, as a solution to those feelings of hostility and resentment among parliament members, resulting from the "whose salary is higher" complex. This "solution" will cost an extra 1 million JDs, paid for by janabna, the taxpayers.

Getting elected into the parliament is quite the lucrative business. Not only do they receive two huge salaries, one of which encounters a raise at least twice a year (last raise was in June), but they also receive university scholarships, an exemption from duty tax, which they can sell, and a quota for Hajj. And for what? Working a maximum of 5 months a year for 4 years (mostly spent fighting with one another).

And if you haven't heard already, the ministers of the new government have doubled their salaries from JD1500 to JD3000.

We should all be mad as hell. And we shouldn't take this shit anymore.

Are You Prepared?

Can't wait to hear radio stations refer to snow as الزائر الأبيض (the white visitor)

Or to watch JTV for that one time a year when your satellite dish has accumlated snow and doesn't receive any other channels.

Or to watch everything come to a halt regardless of whether it actually does snow. The anticipation of snow is enough to do that here.

Or to call the electric company 15 times a day to get them to send someone to fix that wire across the street.


I love this time of year!

Why Smoking Bans Will Be Ignored

When the Parliament, the place where "representatives" of the people create laws , implements a smoking ban, maybe people will start taking this a little more seriously.

A Jordanian Valentine

HAHAHAHA! That would be a donkey painted red in Ramtha to make fun of people's obssession with Valentine's Day.

Poor donkey.

[Source]

The Assassination of Khalid Mashaal

This is a story that has always fascinated me. It sounds like a plot taken out of some espionage movie but happened right here in Jordan, and fairly recently as well: in 1997 (though I have no recollection of it at the time). Before the expulsion of the Hamas movement from Jordan, Mashaal, currently chairman of the movement, was the chief of the Jordanian branch and resided in Amman. He was the target of an assassination attempt under orders of then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But what’s weird is that I stumbled across two completely different accounts of the actual attempt. Behold:

Scenario 1: Mossad agents, in the country posing as Canadian tourists, broke into a home where Mashaal was sleeping and injected a deadly poison into his neck. Jordanian authorities arrested two of the ten agents who were engaged in the attempt. [Source: Wikipedia]

Scenario 2: And this is the story that I had previously heard. This one took place in broad daylight. On September 25th, 1997, two Mossad agents brushed past Mashaal on his way to office and attached a device to his ear that unleashed the poison into his body. The agents quickly got into a getaway car but were captured by the police after being cornered by Mashaal’s bodyguard. They were found to be carrying Canadian passports which turned out fake. [Source: The American Jewish Yearbook 1998]

Both scenarios had the same ending though. As Mashaal lay dying in a hospital bed, a furious King Hussein demanded that Israel deliver the antidote to the untraceable poison, which at first Netanyahu refused but then turned over after increasing pressures, and Mashaal survived the attempt.

The Mossad agents in custody were later released in exchange for the release of Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas who was serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison. The entire episode helped Mashaal’s rise to power in the movement.

Pretty fascinating, huh?

It's pretty ironic that if Netanayahu wins, he would have to deal once again with the same man he tried to kill.

In Remembrance

"All what we hope for is that a day will come, when we have all gone, when people will say that this man has tried, and his family tried. This is all there is to seek in this world."

King Hussein (1935-1999)

A Thought

Just like we wouldn’t label a child as liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, shouldn’t we, by the same logic, refrain from labeling children as Muslim, Christian or Jewish? If they are too young to understand politics, aren’t they just as young to understand religion? You could argue that while politics is something one would choose, religion is not. But shouldn’t religion, something that determines one’s way of life, be taken out of conviction and not by inheritance?

I’m not looking to start a discussion on religions here, I am merely pointing out the absurdity in labeling children of a certain religion, or in teaching them JUST their parents’ religion.

Critical Thinking

• What is critical thinking?

The disciplined process in which you analyze, reflect and apply prior knowledge (making connections and using schema) to get the best answer possible. It's about learning "how" to think rather than "what" to think.

• Why is critical thinking important?

All actions, decisions and judgments spring from assumptions-if they are unchecked or inappropriate, we will make poor decisions and wrong judgments.

Answer with a yes or a no: (think of it first before you check the answer!)

Police: Sorry, but only people with a special ZZ permit can park here

Driver: Well, since I have a ZZ permit, that means I can park here.

Is the driver right?

When the police officer told the driver, "Sorry, but only people with a special ZZ permit can park here," the driver thought "Well, since I have a ZZ permit, that means I can park here." But, as it turns out, the driver is incorrect in thinking that this follows. Now, can you explain WHY the driver's inference was faulty?

Answer: the important little word here is 'only.' When the parking policy is that only those with a ZZ permit can park in the lot, that means that having a ZZ permit is necessary in order to park there, but it doesn't state that having a ZZ permit is a sufficient condition to park there. So, while the driver may have met one condition for parking in the lot, there may be other conditions that are yet unmet that are barring them from parking. The word 'only' is quite technical. When the IRS says "only those who have done such-and-such are eligible for a deduction," that doesn't mean that doing such-and-such automatically gets you that deduction. Knowing how the word 'only' behaves is very important!

A whole bunch of other tricky questions here.

Where's That Judicial Reform?

I wanna scream bloody murder at this point.

"A 19-year-old man walked free from the Criminal Court on Wednesday after receiving a six-month prison term for murdering his sister and her alleged Syrian lover in Azraq last year.

The defendant was released as he had already served over six months while on trial.

The court declared A. F., a shepherd, guilty of shooting to death his 23-year-old sister and the 17-year-old Syrian after spotting them walking together in the early hours of March 8, 2008.

The same court acquitted the defendant's two cousins, aged 31 and 33, of complicity
in murder charges for lack of evidence."

[Source]

Ma 3aleina. We've seen a lot more shocking crimes than this. Plus the details or the motives are pretty much irrelevant during the actual trial. "Ah, you murdered your sister, you say? To reclaim your honor? No problem! Acquitted!"

But you see this is what's making me fly over the cookoo's nest here:

The court decided to amend the premeditated murder charges to a misdemeanour as stipulated in Article 98 of the Penal Code, because the defendant "committed his crime in a moment of rage".

Constitutionally, the fit of fury crap piece of law should only be used in cases which are NOT PREMEDITATED. Hear that? Not freaking meditated, as in not previously planned, as in saw something, happened to have a weapon at hand then INSTANTLY committed a murder.

But from yesterday's Alghad story:

وأوضح ان المتهم الأول اتصل بأبناء عمومته المتهمين الثاني والثالث وأخبرهما بالأمر، حيث اتفقوا على أخذ أسلحة نارية والبحث عن المغدورين وقتلهما فور العثورعليهما.

وتابع القرار أن المتهمين خرجوا بواسطة سيارة "بكب" يعود للمتهم الثاني وبعد البحث عثروا على المغدور داخل محمية الشومري، حيث قاموا بوضعه في صندوق الـ"بكب" وأجبروه على دلالتهم على مكان المغدورة، وعندما وصلوا اليها أشهروا جميعاً أسلحة نارية غير مرخصة وبدأوا بإطلاق النار على المغدورين الى أن أردوهما قتيلين.

The suspect called his two cousins, and they agreed to take firearms, look for the two victims and kill them when they find them.

The three defendants took a pickup truck and found the victim in Al-Shomari Reserve, put him in the trunk and forced him to disclose the female victim's location. When they found her, they drew their unlicensed guns and shot them dead.

[Source]

This is not premeditated?

THIS IS YOUR JUDICIAL SYSTEM? These are the people entrusted to ensure JUSTICE? Is this JUSTICE?

I swear I am pretty close to committing a crime "in a fit of fury" over this.

Where's your judicial reform, Jordan...?

Mother of Six Gives Birth to Octuplets

Octuplets as in 8 children. No seriously, what the hell is wrong with people?

" The mother of a woman in California who gave birth on Monday to octuplets said her daughter already has six children at home and was undergoing fertility treatment.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that Angela Suleman said her daughter had the embryos implanted last year, resulting in the eight births.

Suleman said she was concerned about her daughter's homecoming because her husband, a contract worker, is due to return to Iraq. "

[Source]

So you have six kids, your husband is getting deployed to another country and you implant yourselves with multiple embryos? Yes, I realise I'm being judgemental here but this is insane!

Honor Crimes in 2009: Two & Counting

“ Zarqa criminal prosecutor has referred a 17-year-old youth, who confessed to murdering his younger sister over the weekend, to a juvenile court for further questioning.

The suspect, confessed to stamping on his 13-year-old sibling’s head several times with his boots, then stabbing her 30 times at their family home on January 21, to defend his family’s honour, a senior official source said.

The suspect then headed to the nearest police station and handed officers on duty a dagger which he claimed he “used to stab and kill his sister”, according to the source.

In his initial testimony, the suspect told investigators that he killed his sister after learning from his friends that a man gave her a piece of paper with his phone number written on it.

“The victim informed her mother about the paper and when the suspect came home he grabbed a knife and stabbed his sister, who denied any wrongdoing,” the source said.

The victim was rushed to hospital with multiple stab wounds to her chest, stomach, liver and back, but she was declared dead on arrival, according to the official source.

A postmortem conducted by government pathologists indicated that the victim was not sexually active. ”

What's going to happen to the brother? Well since he is a juvenile, he'll spend some time in some juvenile correctional centre at best then leave with a clear criminal record.


Meanwhile,

“ Criminal Prosecutor has charged a 73-year-old man with the manslaughter of his younger divorced sister in the second reported so-called honour crime since the beginning of the year.

The 19-year-old victim received three bullets to her head and chest.

The suspect claimed that he killed his sister due to “accusations by her ex-husband that she had a bad reputation and because she went missing from her home on several occasions”.

He told investigators that he shot his sister after seeing her attempting to leave the house without his knowledge, and also claimed that he had carried a gun for the past 30 years.

“These are all claims by the suspect, but we have expanded our investigations and are currently questioning the victim’s family members,” the official source said.

A senior judicial source confirmed to The Jordan Times on Saturday that 18 people were killed in so-called honour crimes last year in the Kingdom. ”

[Source]

The same disgustingly violent, ridiculous rituals of these crimes happening over and over again and nobody is doing a single thing about it. It's like honor crimes have become integrated into the country's traditions and customs.

And nobody is doing a damn thing about it.

And I don't understand how are we to change any stereotypes about us when murderers of innocent women are being set free.

It's sickening.

How You Can Still Help Gaza

Reposted from the Black Iris.

A lot of people have been wondering how they can still help do something on-the-ground in Jordan when it comes to the situation in Gaza.

Here’s three things you can do:

First: 7iber needs volunteers who are willing to help sort and package goods just like last time, at the Aramex warehouse.

Second: 7iber is raising funds for urgent medical equipment. We’ve got 15,000JDs worth of equipment so far, but we’d like to have a significant leap in the number this week so we can send it as soon as humanly possible.

Third: Spread the word! Blog it! Repost it! Facebook it! Email it! SMS it!

For all the details JUST CLICK HERE

Something's Going Down Today

Riot police are lining up all the way from the protest tents in Rabieh up to the hill leading to the embassy. They're all holding batons and shields, and carrying in small boxes what I suspect to be teargas. There's a tank at every exit and some roads leading up to the embassy are closed.

This is probably why.

Allah yostor.

UPDATE: After two hours of being allowed to protest, clashes between the protesters and the police started taking place. The protesters threw rocks at the police and tried to advance toward the embassy, so the police dispersed the crowds with teargas and water cannons. For updated info check 7iber's watwet channel.

Why I'm Against Annuling the Treaty

Disclaimer: Before you go on to make a comment, bear in mind that I am an avid supporter of the Palestinian cause. I have not been "washed away" by Israeli propaganda nor can I begin to explain my fury and frustration at what is going on in Gaza right now.

I was reluctant to speak about this at first, because of all the vicious fights that I've observed around the blogosphere whenever this subject is discussed. But I'm putting my opinion out there so people can see the other side of the equation. The other opinion, that everybody I've met seems to be terrified to disclose.

I am very much against the annulment of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, the closure of the Israeli embassy or the expulsion of the ambassador, and I cannot see what good it could possibly achieve or contribute in ending the massacre the Palestinians are currently facing.

Here's the thing. I understand the feelings of frustration and anger, I really do. I understand the feeling of helplessness that takes over you as you see the lives of over 400 people, 400 human beings just like you and me being taken away in a place not so far from what we call home. I understand how the Arab nation feels like something has to be done, something needs to be done, so that we stop feeling so inferior to the rest of the world, to do something after being persecuted for so many years. I understand that it was OUR land to begin with, and that the Israelis were the ones who came here and unrightfully took over what's not theirs. I understand all of that.

But here's what I also understand. This dreaded treaty between us and the Israelis, the treaty that protests have been calling to annul for at least 3 times (that I can remember) , is what's preventing Israelis from starting a war with us. It's also what's enabling us to send in the donations to help those in the battle-zone. I honestly don't understand those who want to go into "war" and start a "jihad" against the Israelis. We are a country of 5 million, we have very few resources, and to put it simply and clearly, there's no way in hell we can win a war against Israel. The reason Jordan has remained quite a safe country (considering the fact that we live in a war zone), is not exactly a miracle. It's because we've accepted the presence of the Jewish nation as a fact and let's face it, it's not going to go away anytime soon, and if you think otherwise, you are either affected by your emotions, or grossly overestimate the abilities of the very country you're criticizing.

And this is why I can't support the riots that have been breaking out all over the place. i couldn't be more angry about what's happening, but I frankly think you're a hypocrite if you tell me you're willing to sacrifice your freedom and safety to go into a battle, to go into a war, that you KNOW there's no way you can win. I like the fact that I live in a safe, secure country, where I can go about my daily life without fear of having my house brought down over my head. This doesn't mean we've given up. I'm not giving up. I make my voice heard to let the people around the world, who aren't being told the whole story, know that a massacre is taking place. There are other ways we can fight this war, and sacrificing this country is not one of them. We've done that once before and lost. We'd just be hitting the self-destruct button.

Also posted on 7iber.

Deja Vu

"Scores of riot police blocking roads to the embassy complex fired teargas at around 1,500 demonstrators, forcing them to retreat.

Worshippers chanting: "No Jewish embassy on Arab land" left the Kaloti mosque in the Rabia district of the Jordanian capital after noon prayers and headed to the nearby Israeli embassy. "

For more links.