Another trip down to the Balad recently yeiled several random shots of our precious downtown region.

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It never ever ceases to amaze me just how absurd some citizens can be. The news of AlQueda operatives in Irbid these past few days has been received by some as a “plot by the regime” to “fool the people”. This is a point of view that has been around for quite some time, even […]

My recent journey down south to the great governate of Kerak will be documented in a two part series of posts simply due to the overwhelming nature of rediscovering the territory, especially when one’s roots are involved. This first part which I have graciously titled “There and Back Again” simply because I felt like Bilbo […]

I went down to the balad today but as I had a certain destination and objective in mind I didn’t get much time to rediscover the beating heart of Amman. However I do plan to revisit it later on in the week at which time I can write an articulate photo-essay type post I’ve been […]

I admit it, there are too many portraits, pictures and monuments. I don’t find any pleasure in it, but the people demand it because of their mentality.
With Saddam’s execution late last month there is one political event that many people may have overlooked that took place only a few days earlier on December 21st, 2006. […]

[apologies in advance: this post was unavoidably long]
It’s been almost a month since I landed in Amman and one topic seems to dominate many of the discussions I’ve had with friends and family and taxi drivers: fights. Fighting in Jordan to be specific. I think the fight that happened at Yarmouk University was just […]

I was reading an interesting article lately about a large amount of copper that has been discovered in the Wadi Araba region, specifically the Dana reserve, worth up to $1.5-2 billion. A plan is floating around which suggests fencing off one fifth the reserve to mine the copper which will generate about $35 million every […]

Shawarmanoics isnt’ the only economic problem these days. Doesn’t it seem that we’re always in an energy crisis of some sort? Well the country seems to be out of natural gas lately and bad news never had good timing as it’s not even the middle of winter. To give you a somewhat realistic projection of […]

sha·war·ma·nom·ics n.
1. Study of socioeconomic impact as relative to a rise in shawarma prices.
Without a doubt the best measurement of inflation doesn’t include how expensive a box of Corn Flakes is or microwavable popcorn, but staple goods such as bread, sugar, rice and tomatoes. Outside the household, in the open market of the food industry […]

We
We peel back the winterberry sky
With our brown eyes
One gray cloud at a time
We
We wear checkered scarves
Fashioned red and white
One small square at a time
Around the circles of Amman

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Today I realized that my newspaper rituals are a bit dark if not acheronian. I read the paper in two doses the first of which involves a quick skimming of the front page headlines just like what I assume the overwhelming majority of readers do. Front page headlines in Middle Eastern papers are about 70% […]