On Jordanian Politics and What We Really Want

Haven’t written about Jordanian politics in quite some time, although it’s one of my favourite subjects on this blog. Reading this article made me want to write something about the Novemeber ’10 elections.

The article talks about the recent National Center for Human Rights report which reports violations of the electoral process and how despite promises of the executive branch to guarantee fair elections, the phenomenon of vote buying was evident.  It goes on to say how it resulted in a parliament of ‘government loyalists and lawmakers with tribal affiliations’.  Well, no shock there. It mentions how the report came out recently after the parliament gave the government an overwhelming vote of confidence of 111 vs. 8 votes, giving rise to such political satire. It concludes with the NCHR making a recommendation that the parliament review the new elections law to guarantee equal representation of candidates and votes and so on and so forth.

So that got me thinking. Imagine that the elections were completely fair. Imagine that there was no vote buying and no intervention whatsoever from the executive branch. Do you think the results would’ve varied? During the campaigning process, was there a candidate whom you believed had a good agenda but did not make it to the parliament due to the faulty electoral process? Heck, were you ever even made known of the political agenda of a single candidate?

Let’s continue imagining. Suppose we had a true democracy. Suppose the Muslim Brotherhood, the only functioning political party in my opinion, did not boycott the elections. And suppose they were elected into the parliament by the public who believes in their cause -cuz let’s face it, the only card that could trump tribalism has got to be religion. Do you think that would’ve led to a better Jordan?

In a country that is this socially and culturally divided, do we even know what we want? Actually the question should be, can we agree on what we want? Is it democracy that we really want?

The above are questions to which I have no answers. 3 years ago in the elections of 2007, I would’ve gone and voted if I could. This time, even if I did have the opportunity, I would not have. Is it that I have become cynical to believe that the future of Jordan could be shaped by it’s parliament?

Probably.

Random Rant of the Day

It seriously bugs me how there are no movie theatres that show movies in their original language. Everything is dubbed into German. And I can’t download torrents or so as my internet connection is monitored by the dorm, and they will block my connection if I do so.

I want to watch “Despicable Me”. And “The Social Network”. And while we’re at it, who shut down Ninja Video?

Also why does it give me a red line every time I write “movie”? Movie is still a word, no?

I’m off. Have a good day y’all!

Germany: A Summary

So my plans to blog daily about life in Germany have failed miserably. I started writing a travel diary but that lasted, what, two weeks? Ah well. Here is a summary of my last month.

I arrived first thing in Berlin. The weather was actually good, and seeing as I have friends in Berlin, it was a very convenient and easy stay. We visited the touristy places as well as a couple of other places here and there. The S-Bahn and U-Bahn (metro and underground) plan is extremely confusing, seeing as the network is very complicated and has many circles that interconnect. Definitely would’ve gotten lost if I did not have someone with me. In Munich on the other hand (details in a bit), it was very easy getting around the city even though I was completely alone on the first day. I was the one to lead my friends around the city even though I arrived only a couple of hours before they did, and given my sense of direction, or lack thereof, that is quite an accomplishment.

After 5 days of Berlin (I even extended my trip one more day because I didn’t want to leave), I was off to the city I was going to study in, Jena. A relatively small city, but the scenery is gorgeous. The city is located in a valley and surrounded by green mountains everywhere. The state in which it’s located, Thueringen, is known as the Green Heart of Germany due to its forests . It’s a student city with 25% of the population being students, so it’s really vibrant even though it’s considered a small city. It is most known for its optic industry, and writers Goethe and Schiller have both lived in Jena at some point. The location is also very convenient, it’s around the middle and is a hub of many connections, so it’s very convenient to get into or get out of the city. Students are also entitled to visit the other cities in the state for free, like Weimar and Erfurt.

My stay there has been very enjoyable. The first day I arrived, I started my German language course, so I met a lot of amazing people, and that has been great. Accommodation-wise, I have a single apartment, with my own bathroom and kitchenette, and it’s pretty big. It’s also located on the 6th floors, which provides for beautiful beautiful scenery but is not good when you have to transport a big ass TV and sofa. Downside is that it’s far from the city center and the university. It takes me about 45 minutes to get to the university, and I’m sure that’s going to affect my motivation to leave the house later on, when it’s freezing cold and I have lectures to attend. But all is good so far. The weather has been surprisingly good so far (you just know it’s gonna rain because I said that), but seriously it was really warm today and it’s raining heavily in Amman. Hmmm.

I met up with friends and went to Oktoberfest 2 weeks ago, and that was AMAZING. Imagine a huge field filled with Bavarian food stands, candy stands, amusement rides and of course the beer tents. We went on the weekend, so it was unbelievably crowded.  The only downside was the constant rain, alas, who cares when you’re in Munich. Also we couldn’t get in the tents the day after we arrived. We were supposed to arrive at 8 AM (yes, AM, I kid you not), and then wait till 9 till the tents opened, but we failed to wake up early  and arrived at 10 and all FOURTEEN tents were full. We waited and waited, but 3 hours later, it stopped raining, we were like screw it we’ll sit outside and the fun fun fun began. Oktoberfest is the BEST place to meet people. You just sit down on the benches and start talking to all sorts of people: Italians, Swiss, a German whose father is Jordanian -seriously that was a freaky incident, we just stopped a random person for a lighter, and turns out her father is Jordanian. And she was wearing a Paul Frank shirt, like my bag!- Anyway we only paid for our first beer, then people started inviting us (Mama if you’re reading this, of course I only had one beer). We were only there for 3 days so we didn’t have time to see anything else other than the city center with it’s famous dancing clock, the Glockenspiel, and the Allianz Arena, where Bayern Munich play. But yes, Munich is a beautiful city.

And now about the transportation systems. Needless to say, the German transport system is unbelievably organized. In the big cities you will find the S-Bahn or the high speed metros, the U-bahn or the underground rails and the typical trams and buses you will find in all cities. As for intercity connections, there’s the high speed IC and ICE trains which are very fast and convenient, but VERY expensive. A ticket to Munich and back would’ve cost me 160 Euros, which I find ridiculous. Solution: MITFAHREN! That would be the German word for hitch-hiking. As in getting in cars with strangers? Are you bloody insane, you might ask. But then you find out it’s the cheapest, most convenient way to get around and it’s completely 100% safe. You log on to a famous German website, mitfahrengelegenheit.de, write down where do you want to go and the date, and see how many offers there are. You start making phone calls, to see which ones are available, and to check out the person. How many people are going to be with us? What car do you drive? How much do I have to pay? A person cannot make an offer without having a verified account, so it would be pretty stupid to post your personal information and then go and, I don’t know, murder the people you’re driving. But still, it’s important to travel safely. For example, to Munich I picked one that was “from women, to women”. And it’s a great chance to improve your language. Honestly, bravo Germany, for inventing such an efficient system.

And now about the education part. Well up till a week ago, it was really siya7a o safar (travel and tourism) for me, as we didn’t have classes or anything, apart from the German course, but it’s so much fun, I don’t think it counts. We’d just travel around and go out all the time. But then you enter your first lecture and leave thinking “just what the $%^# where you talking about for the past hour?” Sure, my language skills are fine, but not sufficient to attend scientific lectures in fast German, possibly low-voiced and with a dialect as well. So yes, that hasn’t been fun. As exchange students, they know it’s tough, so they don’t expect you to garner what the German students are supposed to, but they do expect you to study your ass off and pass the same exam the Germans take. I sincerely hope it will get easier in time. In comparison with the Jordanian system (at least the one I was exposed to at the GJU), I wouldn’t say the teachers are better, but rather the atmosphere is so stimulating here. The students want to learn. They don’t take attendance, but the lectures are always full. The professor simply mentors, he/she does not dictate. Students are taught to think, not memorize. And that I love.

I realize this was supposed to be a summary, but I seem to be in a blogging mood and don’t want to stop. Are you still reading? Hehe. Ok random points:

• The Germans are not always punctual. Most of them are, but not always. I have arrived earlier than Germans on several occasions.
• The German definition of a pillow is umm, weird? A mushy square peace of stuffed cloth is NOT a pillow. And I haven’t been able to find a non-mushy pillow till now. My back and neck are suffering as a result. Also, my bed is very small – I fell off it the first night. Not funny. Ok a little. So I bought a sofa-bed, and I have been sleeping on it since. But still not very comfortable. I would kill for my bed right now. Yes, murder, I kid you not.
• The food is good. I haven’t technically cooked yet (all the meals I prepared lacked a protein animal form), but for a hot meal you can eat at the student cafeteria for about 2 Euros. But they add sauce to everything. And potatoes. I’m getting sick of the potatoes. Also, after a week of eating random meals, I, believe it or not, missed vegetables. I actually shop for vegetables now. There’s only so much pork and potatoes your body can survive on.
• What else, what else? My spoken English has been significantly deteriorating. All I’ve been exposed to lately is foreign English with an accent. The Germans don’t pronounce “th”, seriously we tried it, cannot be done! The French don’t pronounce the “h” and many, may other seemingly funny, but eventually disastrous alterations to what is considered correct English. I hope my writing skills have not deteriorated . If they have, don’t tell me, and leave me in denial.
• The German bureaucracy. It’s bullshit. It’s ridiculous. It’s bloody impossible. If you thought bureaucracy was bad in Jordan, I invite you here. The forms, the emails, the phone-calls, the visits. AAAAH. And Deutsche Bank should die. I’ve been here for a month, and they still haven’t sent me my online PIN. Die, I tell you.

But apart from the expected nostalgia, I’m really happy and this is going to be an amazing year with great learning opportunities.

Bye bye for now. Seriously if you read all this, I must be really interesting or you’re very bored. Whichever it is, thanks for reading! Bye!

The Awful German Language

I just cracked up while reading this essay by Mark Twain entitled “The Awful German Language”. I like languages so taking German courses at the university wasn’t too much of a hassle, and I aced all of them, but still I couldn’t speak fluently. So as I recently attempted to improve my language by reading German newspapers or watching German movies, I realized what a truly messed up language it can be.

Twain describes it best with much sarcasm in the following paragraphs:

An average sentence, in a German newspaper, is a sublime and impressive curiosity; it occupies a quarter of a column; it contains all the ten parts of speech — not in regular order, but mixed; it is built mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot, and not to be found in any dictionary — six or seven words compacted into one, without joint or seam — that is, without hyphens; it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects, each inclosed in a parenthesis of its own, with here and there extra parentheses which reinclose three or four of the minor parentheses, making pens within pens: finally, all the parentheses and reparentheses are massed together between a couple of king-parentheses, one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it — after which comes the VERB, and you find out for the first time what the man has been talking about; and after the verb — merely by way of ornament, as far as I can make out — the writer shovels in “haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein,” or words to that effect, and the monument is finished. I suppose that this closing hurrah is in the nature of the flourish to a man’s signature — not necessary, but pretty. German books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking-glass or stand on your head — so as to reverse the construction — but I think that to learn to read and understand a German newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner.

The Germans have another kind of parenthesis, which they make by splitting a verb in two and putting half of it at the beginning of an exciting chapter and the other half at the end of it. Can any one conceive of anything more confusing than that? These things are called “separable verbs.” The German grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs; and the wider the two portions of one of them are spread apart, the better the author of the crime is pleased with his performance. A favorite one is reiste ab — which means departed. Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced to English:

“The trunks being now ready, he DE- after kissing his mother and sisters, and once more pressing to his bosom his adored Gretchen, who, dressed in simple white muslin, with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair, had tottered feebly down the stairs, still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening, but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself, PARTED.”

Germany: Coming Soon

Sitting outside enjoying the cool Ammani breeze we have not experienced for a while, I realize I am really going to miss this place.You see next week, I will shipping off to Germany for a year as part of the GJU program.

I have to say I’m really excited about going, and well, it’s about time for a change. It’s a great opportunity to become independent, improve my German, work in Europe among many many other wonderful experiences.

But for now, a tribute to all the things I’m going to miss:

1) The weather. Not the 40′s weather from hell we experienced last week, but more like this week’s weather. Over there it basically rains in the summer and snows in the winter.

2) The food. Oh the food. I can write entire posts about the food. Mansaf, Mlookhieh, Msakhan, Tabbooleh, Koosa o Wara2, Shawerma, Falafel. How will I survive without you? You might say “but you can surely cook there”, but you would be sadly mistaken as my culinary skills amount to those of a 10 year-old.

3) My bed. I wish I could ship it with me.

4) Driving. Well, certain parts of driving.

5) Not having to do the cleaning and the laundry and the such. We always had someone to help around the house so I never HAD to do it. My mother on the other hand is totally ecstatic about that. It amuses her.

6) And last but not least, my family and friends. I guess the feeling of going away makes you realize just how much you will miss everyone, regardless of how often you feel you might kill them. Another advantage of going away!

I bid thee farewell, Jordan!

Mousa Barhoumeh Becomes Martyr for Freedom of Press

Events in this country have ceased to surprise me. Few are the things that can still infuriate me. A survival mechanism, most probably, as otherwise I would have developed suicidal or homicidal tendencies by now. Now I would just think “well, what else is new” and move on. But I guess some things still have the power to make me angry, the following being one of them.

A week ago, Alghad’s editor in chief Mousa Barhoumeh was forced to resign by CEO Mohammad Alayyan after the former accused him of caving into governmental pressure. Several of his colleagues consequently threatened to resign in attempts to dissuade Alayyan from his decision. That in turn caused Alayyan to threaten closing down the newspaper than to go back in his decision, which he claims to be the result of “administrative affairs”, whatever that means. The fact that the decision was made two weeks after Alayyan met with Prime Minister Samir Rifai is purely coincidental.

Barhoumeh however does not hold Alayyan responsible for his decision, because “he was facing more than he could handle”.  He says “this decision came from those fed up with different opinions, and who want to stifle the truth and turn the media into their podium.”

It’s sad considering that this is supposed to be Jordan’s most liberal newspaper. Notice how The Jordan Times chose to report the story, mentioning nothing of the disputes:

“CEO of Al Ghad Mohammad Elayyan last week accepted the resignation of Musa Barhoumeh, who served as chief editor of the daily since October 2008. Thanking Barhoumeh for his efforts and dedication to place the independent daily on the Kingdom’s media map, Elayyan said Al Ghad will continue to perform its duties as one of the Kingdom’s dailies.”

For what it’s worth, thank you Barhoumeh, for refusing to sell out and as cheesy as it may sound, become a martyr for freedom of press. And as blogger Osama Romoh suggests, maybe Alghad should put the following ad for their new editor in chief:

“مطلوب رئيس تحرير “بِسمع” الكلام و “بحب” الحكومة حُبّاً جمّاً، على ان يكون جباناً فارغ الدماغ، ليس له رأي أو فكر، لا يكترث بارتفاع الأسعار وفرض الضرائب، ولا يتدخل فيما لا يعنيه شخصيا. الخبرة غير مطلوبة”.

Amman’s Nonexistent Sidewalks

Reading this NY-Times article and this article by Ahmad Humeid brought this issue to mind, one that is extremely annoying, but I think after all these years we all found a way to get accustomed to it: our sidewalks. They really are horrendous, and are designed for anything BUT walking. I truly came to notice it yesterday as I walked the streets of Amman with the Fastwalk group. Normally we would skip the sidewalk and walk on the street when faced with an obstacle, but yesterday with all the streets flooded in water -must discuss ineffective drainage systems in another post- we had no choice but literally jump over whatever was blocking the sidewalk – in instances where there was one. You can imagine how convenient that was.

I must say, like Ahmad previously mentioned, I don’t get why this issue hasn’t been taken care of already. I understand we don’t exactly harbor a pedestrian culture, but our sidewalks and our streets are a reflection of the city’s image, and they should not be neglected. And it wouldn’t take that much money to fix it. Sometimes I wish some important official would come walking with us, I imagine all the sidewalks would be fixed the next day.

And after sidewalks are properly constructed, serious fines should be imposed on anyone who would place any obstructions: from giant piles of dirt to a car. Sidewalks are not storage areas nor parking spaces.

With all the great work the Municipality has been doing, I hope this becomes one of their priorities.