The leader never carries out the killing himself but will always get his hands dirty. So how will the execution of Saddam be seen 200 years from now?
A quarter of a million American troops invade Iraq. Hunt down its leader and set up a tribunal with all the trappings of ‘fairness’ and he is in […]

My first “real” Jordanian Eid in half a decade is tomorrow. I finally get to simply walk to the mosque to pray instead of taking a one hour bus trip. But how to celebrate it? How does one fill that big gap that comes right after the Eid prayer? Go out with friends? Stay home […]

Loved it…

(This is only one way that our society teaches our children religion)

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Right across from the King Hussein public park is City Mall which is still being built. The French company Carrefour however has now opened and I went to take a look at what they have to offer. First of all let me say the mall is much better than Mecca Mall and Abdoun Mall combined. […]

Growing up in Canada I went to public school where Christmas was of course a dominant social theme. However I, being totally ‘in on it’, was the Grinch who stole Christmas for many many children as my second grade self would go around telling his fellow class mates that Santa Caluse wasn’t real. And neither […]

Because of wasta and people who cheat on their driving exams, it never surprises me just how many people slip through the cracks in our country’s full proof system and are thus unaware of their constitutional rights as drivers in Jordan. The following are a list of rights every driver is constitutionally protected by. Please […]

One thing I don’t recall seeing 5 years ago, which was around the last time I celebrated any sort of Eid in Jordan, were these modern ways to sacrifice the Eid Al-Adha lamb. Lately little cardboard cutouts of cartoon lambs have been popping up all over western Amman’s traffic circles, which as many Ammani dwellers […]

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked music and uploading songs to the radio has been a hassle in my past life so the resolution these days is to merely have a play list.

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The good thing about Amman’s geography is you end up with some great views of the city. My parent’s home has what I believe to be, a stellar view of Amman. Today I went up to the roof to take some pictures and stitched together this panoramic view of what we see everyday. From the […]

Just a note wishing all the Christians in Jordan a Merry Christmas. And I’m totally free this week if any of you need help disassembling your gingerbread houses. Ya3ni…just in case…

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I was watching Jordan TV’s “60 Minutes” and the two topics this week were the sewage problem s in Zarqa and the cement factory in Fuheis. With the Zarqa issue, as many know, sewage has been flowing into the Zarqa river. What I found interesting on the show was that (I believe it was) the […]

Today I took a taxi to Tla Al-Ali. It would have cost me half a JD for the taxi to make the u-turn on Medina street where my final destination lingered just on the other side of the road. Thus, not wanting to pay the extra fare when my perfectly good feet could carry me […]

You shall know a Jordanian by the lighter he carries…

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The following are random observations of an economic nature that indicate just how much or little Amman has changed in the 5 years that I’ve been gone.
Has there really been a rise in jobs in Amman? I open the paper everyday to find a handful of decent job availabilities, usually in English. A four […]

I still don’t get this magazine. It’s almost like a high school year book except only the cool kids get to have their pictures featured. Actually, it’s exactly like a high school year book. I found Osama Hajjaj’s take on it to be pretty funny and quite telling.

(click to enlarge)

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In the past 8 days three Lebanese people and two Iraqi people, driving cars with Jordanian plates, have stopped me at a red light to inquire about directions. And I, with my suddenly shaky usually-perfect sense of direction, have in all probability given them bad directions. So if you happen to be one of those […]