AP PHOTO - Street vendors sell juice to motorists on the Amman-Zarqa highway in Jordan on July 1, 2009 as temperatures rose to 38 degrees Celsius, resulting from hot and dry air mass, which originated from the Arabian Peninsula.

Last month, 7iber launched an initiative to collect citizen-generated photographs that capture Jordan from behind their lens. Throughout June we received an endless amount of pictures with the objective of picking the best 10 and printing them as postcards to be sold in the marketplace, with any profits going towards future community projects.

Then we thought, why should we do the picking? After all, this is citizen-produced culture, it might as well be left up to the people to do the selecting.

So 7iber teamed up with the good people at Ikbis.com and now it’s up to anyone reading this to help decide on the best ten photos by casting their vote. All you have to do is go to Ikbis.com and register for an account if you don’t already have one. Then head on over to the contest page and take a look at what citizens had to offer.

Ten days of voting to chose ten cards.

Citizen produced and citizen selected.

So go forth and cast your vote, and while you’re at it, spread the word!

- More information on 7iber
- Contest Page

I have a bone to pick with these government and royal motorcades that careen through the streets of the capital at stellar speeds, stopping for no one and breaking the speed limit by leaps and bounds. I know these drivers are well-trained, but you know what, the rest of us citizens never got a special course in stunt-car driving. We just drive. We use our vehicles to get from point A to point B while trying not to hit anyone in the process. We have enough to deal with besides these annoying motorcades.

Imagine a stream of giant black suburbans, cruising up to your car, inches from hitting you, and then flashing their high-beams and red-blue lights, blazing their car horn, and while one guy is shouting at you from behind a loudspeaker, another guy has half his body outside the black-tinted windows, waving around a hand-held stop sign telling you to essentially get the heck out of the way.

First of all, if you want us, the citizens of the country to believe that no one is above the law and that everyone should abide by it, stop breaking the law so obviously and so in-your-face. Not only is it in violation of Jordanian law, but it reiterates the notion that in Jordan, some people are more important than other people, and those people are above the law and tend to be in government. It is downright hypocritical to expect us to abide by rules that you obviously don’t abide by.

Second of all, you are a danger to pedestrians and a danger to motorists. I don’t care if you were trained to drive on the set of Fast & Furious - you’re just a couple of cars amidst a population of average drivers trying to get by. Swerving around them, coming damn close to hitting them, and doing all sorts of stunts that a traffic cop would have you pulled over within the first 10 seconds, is just downright irresponsible and should not be tolerated.

Third of all, if whoever you’re carrying is something that important and security is a concern, hence the speed - how about driving normally? I swear to God that if you just tried to blend in with the rest of us, no one would notice you. If the person you’re driving needs to get somewhere quickly, try leaving half an hour early. Or better yet, if they’re that important: take a helicopter.

Let it be known that I have never, and never will change lanes under the assumption that the caravan of cars driving next to me or behind me are carrying someone who is more important than I am and therefore is allowed to operate above the law, which, as far as I know, is meant to treat every citizen equally. I don’t even care if there’s a huge suburban about to ram the rear bumper of my truck: I WILL NOT MOVE. I am driving within the speed limit and well within my legal right to drive in my lane. But more importantly, I will not move for anyone who insists so blatantly on reducing me to a second-class citizen simply by a) breaking the law and b) doing it in the rudest and most dangerous manner possible.

Please, officials, whoever you are, do something about this. Please, please tell your drivers to cool it. Tell them to tell their friends. If possible, change the entire system that supports and enforces this kind of driving behavior. I, and a few other million motorists, would be very grateful if that happened.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

—-

p.s. I feel obligated to clarify that the belief that the aforementioned vehicles are either government or royalty is simply an assumption. I haven’t a clue as to whom is being driven, primarily since they are large cars with black-tinted windows that are driving at an unfathomable speed. That being said, it should also be pointed out that even that assumption is based on what I believe to be, a widely-held perception that they are government and/or royalty driven, owned, etc. This perception tends to be further solidified by the presence of security-clad people who wear an official-looking uniform and are both behind the wheel and waving that stop-sign wildly from a window. It’s the reason why the typical response of a lot of motorists is usually “shiklo 7ada mohim” (looks like someone important). I should also note that I am not against officials having security in the first place - my concern is rather with the on-the-street impact of that security.

p.p.s: I am also against tawjihi, university, wedding and funeral motorcades. Yes, I’m really not a motorcade kind of person.

Remember when the Bush administration decided to handle protesters simply by taking them to a designated “free speech zone” (also known as a “free speech cage”)? Well, Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament seems set on doing the same thing these days. Essentially, they’ve designated a room by the main entrance of the Parliament building for members of the press, who are not allowed beyond that point. When they need to do their reporting, a Parliamentary press attache sweeps in to feed them the talking points. When the press want to see an “elected” member of Parliament, the attache will organize it and questions can only be asked in the presence of House staff.

These latest happenings, first dreamt up a few weeks back, have been seen as an escalation to the ongoing battle between the mainstream media and members of Parliament, which saw its climax last week after the four major dailies declared a boycott on reporting from the Parliament in protest of them upholding the Cultural Tax bill, which would see a 5% tax levied on media and anyone else who makes their money through advertising.

Something interesting happened during those few days of boycotting: Jordanian politics did not come to an end.

In other words, no one cared.

In other words, it showed us just how defunct the entire parliamentary institution is in this country. Whether the government passes laws properly through the legislative branch or implements its own temporary laws, no one cares. The public has long deserted the government and its parliament. No expectations are set thus no expectations are met.

Beyond the purely symbolic, participatory act of voting every four years in a fraudulent electoral process that resembles an act out of the Moscow Circus, Jordanians have benefited nothing from their so-called “elected” Parliament - a branch of government so insignificant that when four major daily newspapers stop reporting on its activities for a week, no one notices. The movie goes on and no one in the audience has any idea. In fact, as columnist Jamil Nimri might argue, the only reason any one ever cared about something Parliament did was because the press was there to report it.

In other words, if something happens in Parliament and no one is around to report it, does that mean it ever happened?

I mean really, when your presence as a legislative body has been reduced to a long-standing philosophical argument, you have to wonder, were you really ever that important in the first place?

This recent boycott, whether one approves of it or not, was a clear demonstration at just how defunct this branch of government is. And it’s not their fault. This is like blaming a mentally-challenged child for being mentally-challenged. The reality of the situation is, his mother was a drug addict and nine months in that womb did not make for a healthy growing environment. In other words, the reason our Parliament is in the shape it’s in is largely due to the powers-that-be. In other words, it is what it is, because that’s how people want it to be.

This isn’t just about Parliament, but the entire political system that has integrated this body of government, and often times used it as a scapegoat. We forget that the bigger problems actually lie in the executive branch. We forget that being a useless member of parliament isn’t really a crime (unless they’re signing our laws), and is in no way comparable to, say, ministers who should be under investigation for much larger crimes.

What’s the solution. Unfortunately, there is none. Anything we can think of right now, including the dismissal of the Parliament or the declaration of new elections or strengthening an independent judiciary to induce greater transparency and accountability - all of these would be nothing short of band-aid solutions. As long as people are not allowed to truly elect who governs them, then all of these details are just futile arguments designed to distract us from the larger problem.

But if band-aid solutions are all we have, then Parliament should be dismissed. Let the media go after the executive branch for a while instead of chasing red herrings.

As for free press. Well. Nuff said.

Back in December I had the opportunity to get a first look at Nokia’s new flagship device, the Nokia N97. The mobile phone, or as Nokia likes to call them: “mobile computer”, was just released in the market recently, selling for about 450JDs in Jordan. I’ve been fortunate enough to play around with it for the past few days and discover what it has to offer.

The N97 is a touch-screen phone, with the touching feature being a massive improvement over Nokia’s previous touch-screen phones. You don’t have to press as hard as say the 5800 Xpress Music phone, although there are some buttons that require a double-touching, which takes a bit of getting used to. However, the most apparent feature of the N97 is the QWERTY keyboard that pops up from the side and tilts upwards at an angle designed perfectly for typing. It makes typing simple for human beings; a species that prides itself on the use of its opposable thumbs.

The second feature is the home screen, one that is incredibly user-friendly and customizable. Essentially, the screen consists of widgets that you can edit, remove, add and even drag around to position them where you want them to be. The main widget, and one of the most useful, is the “favorite contacts” list. Four of your most commonly used contacts rest atop the screen and with a tap on their icons you can instantly choose to call or message them, without having to scroll through a contacts list. You can add a second widget of another four contacts as well.

Other interesting widgets include Accuweather, to get instant weather updates, as well as Facebook, allowing for easy access to the social network as well as a widget that displays your current status update. The Gmail is another useful widget that can update itself to display the latest emails. A whole other series of widgets include, AP news, Amazon.com, Bloomberg and the Music Player. You can also customize shortcuts to access applications instantaneously. This home screen is really what turns this device in to a genuine mobile computer, connecting you to the online world quickly and easily. You’ll need to be connected to the Internet or have a data plan with your local carrier, but it’s well worth it if you like to stay connected while away from your computer.
Continue reading ‘Gadget Review | Nokia N97′

“The country that uses this crisis to make its population smarter and more innovative — and endows its people with more tools and basic research to invent new goods and services — is the one that will not just survive but thrive down the road. We might be able to stimulate our way back to stability, but we can only invent our way back to prosperity.” - Thomas L. Friedman. June 27, 2009. [source]

A black stripe is seen on an advertising panel in Amman, on Saturday June 27, 2009, promoting the upcoming concert that Michael Jackson was supposed to have performed in London. Associated Press

- Also, check out this funeral posting in Swefieh. Here as well.

“He was just shouting at soldiers but then one soldier decided to attack him, so they beat the hell out of him - riffle butt to the head”. - Israeli soldier, identified only as “A.”, on the beating of a mentally-handicapped Palestinian man by Israeli forces. “We were sent to look for firearms, but didn’t find any weapons,” the soldier said regarding an Israeli raid. “So we confiscated kitchen knives. But what I was most shocked about was the looting. One soldier took 20 shekels. Soldiers went into homes and looked for stuff to steal.” Soldier A. has been convicted of absenteeism for refusing to serve in the army.[source]

Paris Hilton, the socialite and celebrity, hugs a camel in Dubai while promoting her reality TV show. (Getty Images)

While the Internet and mainstream media has turned its attention to Iran in the past few weeks, it’s almost difficult to see the country in non-political terms. In the name of comedy, The Daily Show sent Jason Jones to Iran to do a series entitled “Behind The Veil”. So far, it’s been a hilarious window in to Iran that subtly tries to show American audience that the country they know as being part of the “axis of evil” isn’t all that evil. These types of productions are why I have a lot of respect for the show and the people behind it. They’ve continuously put a great deal of effort towards trying to bridge cultural gaps by using the power of satire.

These videos are all worth a watch:

Minarets of Menace: where are all the Iranians who hate Americans?

Continue reading ‘Behind The Veil: The Daily Show Takes On Iran’

This isn’t one of those normal drawn-out movie reviews. A movie like Transformers doesn’t need it really. It’s a summer blockbuster that costs a lot to make in hopes of making a lot of money, which it probably will. Director Micheal Bay packs in a whole bunch of action sequences, enough to blow you away at what technology can do these days. The storyline and even a lot of the dialog that tried to go for the constant big laugh was at best unreliable and at worst, just didn’t add up. But again, it’s a blockbuster. It doesn’t have to make sense. As long as the cars, the girls and robot fights all look great, no one in the audience will notice. And indeed, it’s packed with all of that to the point where it feels like junk food: you know it’s bad for you but it tastes pretty damn good. Also, Micheal Bay’s trademark spin-the-camera-around-the-protagonist will make you dizzy till you drop in this movie. It’s much more racy than it’s predecessor so it’s not exactly a family-friendly film with all the profanity and sexuality. In the end, you walk out two and a half hours later high as a kite, believing you just had a great movie-going experience, only to wake up the next day and wonder what you were thinking. You start thinking strange things like, why did some of the robots speak like Rastafarians?

The rest of this review is dedicated to the issue of the movie being shot in Jordan and may contain some spoilers.
Continue reading ‘Movie Review | Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (And On Filming In Jordan)’

In 2009’s “Lemon Tree”, Israeli Director Eran Riklis takes the story of a rather ordinary situation under occupation and turns it into a fairly extraordinary journey into life under occupation. Salma Zidane (portrayed by Hiam Abbass), a 45-year old Palestinian widow who spends her time tending to her family’s lemon grove finds herself living next to an unexpected neighbor when the Israeli minister of defense moves in next door. As expected, the minister’s secret service personnel decide to cut down the grove, which has been in Zidane’s family for 50 years, in the name of national security, fearing that would-be “terrorists” could use it attack the house.

What follows is a legal battle as Zidane sues the minister and, along with her lawyer, Ziad, played by Ali Suliman, attempts to take the case all the way to the Israeli supreme court. Media attention begins to shine its spotlight as the minister’s wife starts to take an unexpected position on the issue.
Continue reading ‘Movie Review | Lemon Tree’

A while back, I decided to change up mosques for Friday prayer due to a lack of inspiration. Essentially, I’ve spent the past two years trying to find one that had something to offer but alas, it seems recycled material is what passes for a good khutba (sermon) these days. I even started a pet project of tagging each khutba with a few key words to see how often the same topics are discussed over and over again. Some day I’ll share the results.

But last Friday, I went back to the mosque that I once abandoned simply because I was short on time and it remains the most geographically-convenient mosque.

And I was surprised.

To start with, I was half-expecting the khutba to be about swine flu since it has hit Jordan recently. I expected to hear about the divine wisdom of forbidding the consumption of swine and how the current pandemic may be Godly retribution of some sort.

Instead it was a khutba about, believe it or not, brain drain.

The imam started through storytelling, a rare art these days in religious sermons. He described a young man who was an orphan and quite intelligent, who was offered a scholarship to study in the US. He was eventually offered American citizenship and he turned it down to go back to his country. Upon returning he went through a sequence of never-ending hassles and obstacles that ranged from ministries rejecting his degree, to experiencing an environment of bad work ethics, to the lack of fields requiring his high-level education, to losing out on job opportunities due to the presence of wasta (nepotism), etc.

Eventually the young man returns to the US where he finds a decent job (at NASA no less) and takes up the American passport.

The story, whether fiction or not, highlights the vast array of similar stories we’ve all heard or even personally experienced. To be honest, at this point I’ll take any story that is remotely contemporary, speaks to my issues and does not involve what someone did 1,000 years ago.
Continue reading ‘The Jordanian Imam Who Googled’

Health Minister Nayef Al Fayez visits Swine-Flu infected patients and fulfills his ceremonial duties of shaking hands with sick people. I wonder if he’s wishing right about now that he had a different job.

Any other caption suggestions are welcomed.

[source]

Garbage Warrior is a rather fascinating documentary centering around the life of Mike Reynolds - a 60-something year old architect who, with his long and gray hippie-like hair, has spent the better part of his career out in the New Mexico desert trying to create a different way to live. Nearly obsessed with the science of sustainable living, Reynolds has made a living (or not) off of attempting to build sustainable homes that require no external utilities such as water, electricity, heating or sewage, and are made almost entirely out of resources that include everything from beer cans to old car tires. He calls them “earth ships” and to an extent, they look almost exactly like you would imagine them to look like.

The film takes us through Reynolds work and the obstacles that naturally come with dedicating a life to building a physical and tangible entity so outside the box that it garners enough enemies in both the private and public sector that have grown accustomed to the norms and comforts of conventional living, to say nothing of being financial beneficiaries of such norms. Reynolds is insistent that the world has been set on a path towards self-destruction, a path fueled largely by ‘us’ and the way ‘we’ choose to live. While living in a home made almost entirely out of “garbage” may sound strange, if not eccentric, Reynolds, over a career spanning at least 30 years, has almost perfected it down to an art form, the result of which is a sustainable home that looks interesting enough for anyone to want to live in. Especially if there’s the advantage of never having to pay another utilities bill in your life again.
Continue reading ‘Movie Review | Garbage Warrior’