I’m a recent resident of Jordan, and there’s one thing that really bugs me: the fact that everyone thinks it’s normal to accept to have their religion stamped on their passport and official ID.

And the existence of discriminatory laws whether you’re Christian or Muslim, regarding marriage or alcohol.

Cheers

I don’t know if blogging will solve the problem, lack of serious debate and interesting quality topics is a mentality issue and lack of readiness in terms of awareness and before anything else the freedom to discuss our local and international issues the right direct way with out being afraid from getting arrested or maybe had another black dot in our record.

I am saying that because was it online or in a real brainstorming session; we still have to reach a level where we can discuss and analyze things and people by their name and not blame any deficiency on a corrupted “system” or “men” or “the regime” or what ever X we can’t clearly say but we all know who is who !!

CHE,

Then you need to tackle the fact that even those that read blogs and write them they are more interested in stats and stating things rather than discussing an issue. The trend is that the only ones that discuss issues consistently on the comments are those who are outside the country or are foreigners in the country. So the impact of any issue raising on blogs is not minuscule its an illusion really.

then you can go with all the on the ground reasons of why there aren’t any.
So the fluff will only increase in percentage

Nas, I agree 100%. People underestimate the power of words. There are so many issues in this country that need discussing. With the turbulent economical system, education, traffic, infrastructure, health care, and lack of so many essentials, it’s amazing that Jordanian society hasn’t just collapsed (although it may be on the brink of doing so). The fact that it remains is a testament to the resilience of the people, as well as the governments ability to smoke screen the at-home issues (cartoons, anyone?), but resilience only goes so far before the snap. If we don’t begin addressing the issues that affect daily Jordanian life, that snap may occur soon and turn out to be quite nasty.

I also agree with Maha @ #5, The children of the fortunate few in the Arab world are generally addicted to sitcoms, Lost, Housewives, and other tv shows. As long as they can watch these things, go to Starbucks, shop at (or complain as why there isn’t an) IKEA, and pretty much imitate what they see on tv, they are satisfied, and thus there is no reason for them to massively complain and discuss real issues.

I understand this doesn’t apply to everybody, but sadily it does apply to many. In the past 8 months i used an extended break from my studies to live and work in Jordan and Palestine. Unfortunately, what i saw shocked me. Many people are more familiar with Oprah and issues discussed on that show than they are with REAL issues that are affecting their own country.

Heck, go to west Amman and try to pick up Arabic words if you can. People are even choosing to communicate in English … ORALLY !! I think the fortunate few are trying to live the illusion that they see in TV, and Nas, if you are living an illusion, then you don’t have to discuss real issues.

A quick google scholar search would result in plenty of studies which will give you a more specific answer.

rami – the majority of ‘international studies’ usually maintain that youth are politically apathetic because they are excluded from the process of political debate. It is a logical argument: the more inclusive the state, the more active the citizens. Media also play an important part in the equation because, normatively, they are responsible for mediating between politicians and the public; meaning they should focus on policies being discussed by government, scrutinize them, and open them up for public debate.

As our state media have miserably failed to do that, what Nas is proposing, that Jordanian bloggers take up the initiative and focus on policy and issues, might actually be the cure to the apathy you talked about!

Nas, maybe next batch of cookie I’ll add oats to make them ‘healthier’, and drop them by your office.

Musa: Sorry, I don’t know if you were making one or several points, but I think I’m not getting exactly what you’re saying. If you can clarify that would be great, thanks.

You engage in serious issues and we will watch.
Good luck engaging…

Maybe, I was hoping to see some form of mobilization, maybe something alone the line of
“The government and the parliament are too busy with other matters, if education, or lack thereof, is the problem that affects the youth , affects us, the most, then maybe.. just maybe.. its about time that we mobilize ourselves in a peaceful fashion to improve education in Jordan..

Who knows.. maybe 4 years from now, Youth Action and its impressive work on improving the educational system in Jordan would be used as a model throughout the Middle East?

Maybe someone needs to take the lead, an initial group of 4 or 5 five should meet up, brainstorm on what students and young people -from every city in Jordan (representation is key – can do??

I would love to get involved in any similar form of action in the summer.. maybe these groups already exist, but I just don’t know about them

Sorry for my ranting… please let me know if there is anything I can do to help

kinzi: “He inspired me to blog less about cookies and more about issues”

lool, let me be frank and say both are healthy topics for discussion!

Mohanned: “The big brother system that we live in also plays an important role, we jordanians have no say in many things, and the system treats the people as if they are naive and don’t know what is good for them, so the policies are set and we just ride them..”

You’re right Mohanned, and this is perhaps all the more reason why people should be talking, especially Jordanian youth: to prove that system wrong, to prove that no policy will pass unnoticed by the silent majority.

“Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

So yes even in america, when you say the abstract truth you are grilled..

First off, I didn’t want to get into a discussion about the WHY-they-don’t – since as I said, the reasons are numerous as you and I both know – and instead I wanted to focus on the WHY-they-should, because people seem to focus a lot more on the former than the latter. I wanted to point out that there are a lot of things worth talking about and that our generation should be talking about those things online.

Secondly, it is a generalization, you’re right. With a topic like this it’s hard to approach it or to even write about it without generalizing; you have to talk in abstractions, it is the Internet after all. There are numerous Jordanian bloggers out there that DO talk about the issues and I love every one of them for it regardless of where I personally stand on those issues. Their contribution to blogging, and even to the way I personally blog, has been immeasurable, but sadly you and I can both count them on two hands, and that is the point I want to highlight.

So once again, my post is not focusing on those that DO or DID, but rather the overwhelming majority that unfortunately DON’T.

Also, it is not limited to “political debates” as you said, my emphasis is on issue-blogging, and those “issues” are vast and concern various people in various ways.

Adhoosh: Is that what you think it will take? hmm…

So rami, yes he can generalize because the portion is significant scientifically.

Of course there are some topics that are political in nature that people prefer not to talk about, just like race in america. Furthermore, there are some divisions that exist in our society where people are divided into two groups, and focus on the word divided.

Also, many of the people in jordan don’t have the outsider(birds eye) view when it comes to their lives both politically and econmically, if you live something day in and day out you become used to it that you no longer see it. The big brother system that we live in also plays an important role, we jordanians have no say in many things, and the system treats the people as if they are naive and don’t know what is good for them, so the policies are set and we just ride them..

Good post naseem.

I guess Nas already figured out though his blogstats that it was me who posted as J. Not that many in Sweden who are checking out Jordanian blogs after all.

I do not see a point in defending myself here, really, I said patronizing because I believe that NAS has the capability and brains to dig deeper and present the reasons WHY he considers Jordanian bloggers apathetic to local political affairs, there are many international studies on the topic.

Instead, NAS choose to completely disregard the many, rather successful, attempts by Jordanian bloggers like yourself to make a change, by generalizing that bloggers just do not take part in the online political debates.

J, your comment is actually reveals part of the problem. He didn’t say fun posts about gender jokes and what folks ate for breakfast are bad. With a little reading and courage, bloggers who write primarily for entertainment can become agents of change.

Imo, young commenters who pour contempt on those who inspire and challenge others to raise the bar are as much a part of the problem as the old guys in guv who don’t listen. You call that patronizing? Then you are just a younger version of the older generation suffering from the Tall Poppy Syndrome. Especially when you take little swipes at the writers level of privilege; many have that level of privilege, but few choose to use it for anything more than dissipation.

J, you read Nas’ blog, so you are obviously interested. Go the next step and be part of the solution, as he is. He inspired me to blog less about cookies and more about issues.

Our situation tends to be a bit more complex, and boiling it down to mere apathy is far from accurate. Furthermore, anyone who charges youth in this region with complacency isn’t paying attention to Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and even Iran.