We've Moved!

After about a year and a half of being on Blogger, I've decided it's time to move this blog to Wordpress as I find their themes neater and more comfortable for reading. So if you're one of the blog readers, please follow me to:

www.jordanianobservations.wordpress.com

See you there!

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

Good Blogger. Nice Blogger.

Exploring the weird species that is bloggers.

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

Action Alert | Ramadan Food Drive!

So it’s that time of the year again folks and hopefully we can rally together to make a difference in the lives of a few citizens. The Action Committee has started its food drive for Ramadan and your help is needed! The Ramadan food package is going to cost 20JDs and will contain:

• 3 kg Rice
• 3 kg Sugar
• 2 kg Beans
• 2 kg Lentils
• 6 Packs of Pasta
• 2 Cans Tomato Paste
• 1 kg Tea
• 2 A’mar Eldin
• 1 Oil
• ½ kg Dates
• 12 packs Maggie

The drive is underway and will last for the next week or so, depending on the donations. The Action Committee is targeting the last 10 days of Ramadan for distribution.

So tell a friend, tell a family member, tell the neighbor, tell the people at work, even the weird guy who sits in the corner of the office and who no one talks to; this could be your chance.

For bloggers: Forward this message. Post about it. Spread it. Mobilize!

You can contact Sara at 079-5154498

Facebook group

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Jordanian Bloggers Making the News

Here's an article about Jordanian bloggers in the Star newspaper mentioning Batir from Jordan Watch, Naseem from the Black Iris and myself. It's nice to see that bloggers are becoming more known in the mainstream media. Here's to freedom of expression!

One Month Blogoversary

Observations of a Jordanian is officially a month-old! Don't worry, I won't be doing this every month, but it's a slightly significant milestone for me that I thought deserved a post. For some reason, don't ask me why, some people are actually liking the blog. Crazy, I tell ya. To be frank, when I made the blog, I had no clue what I'd do with it. I hadn't decided on what I would be writing about, I just thought I'd post whatever interested me. Post after post, I found myself sticking to the "serious" stuff, or local issues, and I was branded an "issues blogger", a title I find very flattering, especially considering that the Jordanian blogosphere doesn't have a lot of issue bloggers, and even fewer issue bloggerettes.

Anyway, i'm rambling. I just wanted to thank everyone who's been reading the blog, and fellow bloggers who've welcomed this newbie. Also, suggestions/ideas/criticism are always welcome. Besides, I can always delete your comments. :p

My First Post

I finally did it. My own blog. I've been itching to do it for quite some time now, but I always found something to hold me back, with me being the biggest procrastinator in the world and all. I've been using my facebook account to post and write things that interested me, so I decided I'll do the same here.

About a year ago, I started reading blogs, mostly local, and I came to the conclusion that blogs are pretty much the only form of free press we have in Jordan. So here I am, joining the blogosphere, in hopes of making a difference, as naive as that may sound, or at least to have my voice heard.

And so I hereby officially inaugurate the Observations of a Jordanian!