Just a friendly Black Iris Public Service Announcement: Don’t forget to go out and vote tomorrow! Temperatures are expected to cool and it’s also a declared national holiday, so no valid excuses.
Voting starts at 7:00am on July 31 until 5pm. If the voter turnout is less than 51%, they will remain open for another […]

“Other than the increase in aid, we received an explicit and detailed commitment to guarantee Israel’s qualitative advantage over other Arab states…We understand the United States’ desire to help moderate states, which stand at a united front with the United States and Israel in the struggle against Iran.” Olmert
This is how the world works:
Israel […]

Let me first confess that as I begin to write this post I really haven’t formulated a position yet. Suffice to say it’s a topic that’s been brewing in the furthest confines of my mind and has only recently, i.e. the past few hours, found its way to the surface of articulation. That being said, […]

A few days ago His Majesty King Abdullah paid a visit to the Queen Alia Airport where he voiced his dissatisfaction with its lack of progress.
“This is not the first time I visited the airport. Every time we take measures to facilitate procedures for travelers, we return and find the same obstacles again,” the […]

Support for suicide bombings against civilians has fallen sharply across the Muslim world since 2002, a major survey has suggested…In Lebanon, Bangladesh, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia, the proportion of Muslims who support suicide bombing has declined by half or more since 2002. But in areas of conflict, the results are different - 70% of Palestinians […]

FOR YOUR MUGGLE READING PLEASURE, THIS POST IS SPOILER-FREE.
So the tale of Harry Potter comes to an end in The Deathly Hallow, with over 750 pages worth of reading. Let me say this, I never thought Rowling was a great writer; she had a great idea but not the best of writing to back it […]

I’m currently on a US trip to Harvard University as I was invited to talk about youth communication and civic engagement, specifically in the Arab World. Hopefully when I get back to Amman I can talk about it in more detail but for now I’d like to leave you with this story.
So I land in […]

I awake to the sound of a single stomp in the early hours of dawn. And then another, and then another. And in between the cacophony was a loud crunching familiar to Jordanian ears. My mother, preparing for the morning prayers, encounters a rare intruder. And so with smooth precision her sandal comes crashing down […]

What

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Paraskavedekatriablogphobia: The fear of blogging on Friday 13th.

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Since I came back to Jordan I’ve met a lot of people that read the Black Iris and most of them always have some feedback for me; the main one being that I don’t have enough personal “life” posts.
So here we go…
…Coming back to Jordan after university means having to live with your parents. […]

For showing “Hannibal Rising” and “Code Name” (two of the worst films ever made) instead of the latest Harry Potter.
Some one in management must’ve been high when they made that call.

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I always wondered why there are no gardens or parks on “Garden’s Street”.
Just traffic.
Just noise.

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Global Voices: It’s been an interesting few days on the Jordanian blogosphere. It seems nearly every blogger has been talking about Petra, the rose-red city that recently became one of the new Seven World Wonders. [Read]

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Long before Petra became a World Wonder, many suggested that they would not be voting for it primarily out of “concern” that Jordan did not have the required infrastructure to uphold the site. In my opinion, I think those people were probably too cheap to spend the 10 piasters for voting or waste their valuable […]

Loud noises. People laughing. Fire blazing. People crying. Cars honking. People cheering. Flags waving. People dancing. Lights blinking. Music blaring. People jumping. Cameras flashing. Everyone embracing…
something
that’s more
than just
pride.

22 million votes later…the Rose-Red city finds a place in this new world.

Congrats Jordan!

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