Comments on: A Poem For West Ammani Twenty Something Year Olds, Lately

By: KJ

KJ — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:05:14 +0000

Thank you for the poem that I should have written a long time ago!

By: basel

basel — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:27:34 +0000

calm down….
it isnt worth it. i dnt go to tiesto nor sean and i like sushi and i dnt give a fuck about what ppl ask. and what do ppl around the world discuss????

bil ra7a!

By: Tania

Tania — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:42:29 +0000

I absolutely love it!!! I’m new to your blog and this is a very refreshing start
Thanks! Keep it up…

By: mo

mo — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:32:41 +0000

good stuff

the only thing missing from the poem is the word douchebags .. i kept waiting for it to appear but it never did

By: Sana

Sana — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:23:27 +0000

Hi Nas,

I do agree that you reserve the right to be critical about anything you want. But really aren’t we all the same: just moan moan and moan some more?? Why don’t we try to change things or atleast help change things. It sounds sad for us to always complain about everything!!
I also didn’t realise that you actually live in Jordan.
Anyway allah ysa3dak …

By: Nas

Nas — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:42:31 +0000

Thanks everyone for the comments; much appreciated.

Isam: its not about what they “talk about”; this isn’t about subject matter. read again, you may have missed the point.

Sana: thanks for the comment but technically i live and make a living in Jordan, not abroad. And even if i didn’t i would, as should we all, reserve the right to be critical of my own country right?

thanks again

By: Sana

Sana — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:09:07 +0000

I really loved the poem. haven’t been in Amman in almost 4 years now and I really can relate to everything mentioned in the poem. However, this behaviour of Ammanis is understandable since people like you and me only visit once a year leaving all these people to mingle amongst themselves , learning nothing and benefitting no one. Therefore, maybe if we go there more often and make an effort to mingle with these people and try to show them the other side of the coin then maybe things will get better. Let us not sit infront of our PCs in America, Canada , London etc and critisize people who are sitting in a country that we all abandoned!!

By: kinzi

kinzi — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 12:12:46 +0000

Well done, Nas. May your kind increase and save the day for Amman.

By: The migrant that will never came back!

The migrant that will never came back! — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:01:57 +0000

Marvelous

You have just said what I was trying to say for many people in Jordan, but I failed to explain to them.

Believe it, this is what is keeping me out of Jordan & not willing to come back.

I was really happy to see the responses to your poem & I know now that there is people in Jordan that hate those things

Byeeee

By: Verbal Alchemy

Verbal Alchemy — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:30:46 +0000

i agree with alias, its very refreshing to c that someone doesnt think like the majority do in jordan. that priorities are in fact in order..

and like alias, i live in dubai too, and am sick of all the mazaher-loving, concert-going, all-day-shopping ppl all around. ma byezha2ou?

By: Lubna

Lubna — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:07:55 +0000

loved

By: alias

alias — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:26:22 +0000

You won’t believe how refreshing it is to discover that there actually exists someone in Amman who thinks the way you do. So I’m going down in a week and I a m d r e a d i n g having to be dragged to this coffee shop that has the Arabic singer who sings pop or that coffee shop that is oh my God like So COOOL!! When I say ‘let’s go explore the old souq’, my cousins look at me like I’m nuts. And yes I know it probably isn’t the best place to be in for a girl but you know what, I just want to take my camera and take random pix of street vendors and bags of spice and crowded winding roads. To me, that is pure fun. I once stumbled upon an old Roman column in downtown Amman and thought I was going to die from sheer happiness because I love random surprises of exploration like that. For God’s sake, I live in Dubai. I don’t want to sit in a coffee shop, or go to the mall, because that’s been overdone for me. If you want to kill me, like really really torture me. Put me in a coffee shop that plays loud music so you can’t even talk and that serves shisha so you find everyone sitting with a pipe stuck to their mouth and staring at one another like dorks. I don’t do shisha and I don’t enjoy pop music and I hate talking over loud music – absolute torture, that’s what it is.

Your poem is real. I could SO relate! So what are your suggestions for things to do in Amman besides shopping and coffee shopping?? Any cultural events I should know about? Programs? Something, anything please!

By: Hamzeh N.

Hamzeh N. — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:49:55 +0000

That was brilliant man.

By: Who-sane

Who-sane — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:44:02 +0000

Nonetheless, I’d still go to a Sean Paul’s concert, even if it was just to put another tick on the been-there-done-that list.

By: 7aki Fadi

7aki Fadi — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:28:47 +0000

Heeyyy you added emoticons. cooooool

By: 7aki Fadi

7aki Fadi — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:27:30 +0000

This is really good Naseem…

When I came to Amman last time I was craving to speak Arabic just to be met by English speaking pretentious Ammanis who say 10 words in English and inject an Arabic word here and there, I felt sick.

But hey, Sushi is good . It’s funny how eating it makes you cool in Amman, IT’S JUST FOOD PEOPLE. F.O.O.D.

And by the way, I would KILL for maghloobeh …. biddi mama .

Good stuff Naseem good stuff

By: Mish Ahmad

Mish Ahmad — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 11:01:07 +0000

Bro…

i usually choose not to comment, since i see u almost everyday, n its more reasonable and convinient to talk it through… yet this one was unbelievable that i had to speak directly…

i usually read the comments, but i scrolled all the way to the bottom of the page to tell ya bravo ya m3alem… keep impressing me more bro… you sure know i can relate, most of the times:)

By: Isam

Isam — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 09:25:44 +0000

i can see ur point … but come on … what do u want them to talk abt ? politics ?? economy ?? Cultural rising ? since when are all of these more important than music … social habits or cars or whatever ???

we are without anything to say or do … a hopeless nation … so if ur being ass-kicked ,,, some people will say “I am sad i wont forget” and some would think they should laugh abt it and just have fun trying to forget … its a choice … you dont have to like all choices but at least you have to respect them !

this is the 21st century … everyone is watching ya but ur on ur own ! do whatever u like to do …

By: Aftehar

Aftehar — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 08:52:30 +0000

“but to me

it is completely

and utterly

beautifully

comfortable”

well-said. loved it all…i’ve just started my short stay in jordan and its exactly as you put it. Everyone wants to take me to the fancy restaurants and cafes in amman to eat italian, chinese, and everything else that isn’t Jordanian. They tell me its the best thing here and I disagree..I tell them all i want is a nice spot with a nice view of the amman skyline, some good coffe with arabic music in the bakground and they laugh especially at “the view” part. the local stuff is taken for granted and all they want is to westernize. gal Mcdonalds is better than Shawarma!!ufft! So they punk me and tell me they will send me to the nicest spot with everything i want…where do we endup.. Salute… with American 80s music, no hummus no falafel no arabic food and ok a little view. it seems every place i have been to has played the “Happy Birthday to you” song at least twice. I went to another place where i was told there was going to be some good music and nice spot to hangout. I got excited prematurely,my fault because for some strange idiotic reason i thought it would be fun. We get there and seriously half the crowd had no idea who the guy was but he was”cool” because he played the guitar and sang in english! Seriously makes me not want to head out anywhere and whats worse is that its not only west ammanis!

its sad when conforming is all they have going for them. When a trend is more important than who you really are. it seems like the slogan here is “Conform or Die Trying”
im afraid it will never change.

By: globalorama

globalorama — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:28:18 +0000

power to you my Friend.
I’ve been away from Jordan for ten years, visiting only once. why? for reason just like these in your poem.

By: mala2e6

mala2e6 — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 06:48:28 +0000

yea
tell them.

they went to see paul van dyke in beirut last year

and when i asked who is paul van dyke..
they said: yiiiiiiii ma bte3rafi? hahaha and i said..no wala into bte3rafo..hahaha ..

the prices in lebanon are much cheaper..i cannot recall now but it was maybe less than 20 jds..

the year before it was armin in distant heat..70 jds per ticket

believe it or not 90% of those who attend these concerts just go to show off and to talk about it the day after.. who was there and who wasn’t

some kind of a circle you have t be in..i try to put some sense in the heads of those who concern me..but ..man they are like brain washed..

the only concert i was really excited to go to was Bryan adams in 2004

By: Who-sane

Who-sane — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:07:17 +0000

That was out of this world!! Loved every single line of it and can relate to most of it, and in Amman more than elsewhere.

By: Maha

Maha — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:25:42 +0000

Loved it !! it’s how i feel when i visit and how i will feel like a social outcast that everyone needs to correct and you are called a “6afra”

Nas it all could be worse..you could be a JORDANIAN FEMALE!!

By: Moey

Moey — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 01:51:15 +0000

Tiesto is a nice DJ, fish is not tasty in amman at all, sushi here sucks you got a point. lancer’s cool! rawweg mesh mestaheleh

By: euroarabe

euroarabe — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:05:35 +0000

7abbait.

By: hamede

hamede — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 22:49:40 +0000

Cool like swimming pool.