“The key to a healthy society, is a thriving community of storytellers…storytelling is a commodity, it’s a staple, there is no life without stories.” - Franco Sacchi, Italian filmmaker.
Check out his TED Talk, it really is inspiring. Who knew that Nigeria had the third largest film industry in the world; Nollywood? And it seems […]

How fast can someone put a book together on President-elect Obama? Well, on the day after Obama won the election, The Guardian created a Flickr group to find a creative way of capturing the victory. The group, which now has over 1,600 members, quickly became a collaborative effort to send various messages to Obama and […]

Reuters
There is really nothing I can say about the events that have transpired in Mumbai. The only reason for this post is for fear that any relative silence from this part of the world be mistaken by the readers of the other side of the world that such a horrific event has gone unacknowledged and […]

“Nearly seven in 10 Jordanians (69%) support greater efforts to make buildings more energy efficient, and 62% would favor the government requiring businesses to use energy more efficiently, even if this might make some products more expensive.” - Worldopinion.org Survey, conducted in cooperation with the Center for Strategic Studies.
Read The Report
[h/t: batir]

addthis_url […]

Activists video Israeli police headbutting a Palestinian woman. The group, B’Tselem, said the incident was filmed during Israel’s November 5th demolition of homes built by Palestinians without permission from the Jerusalem Municipality. There are at least half a million Israelis living on illegally-built settlements on Palestinian land, which kind of makes Israel’s demolition of homes […]

Wearing a traditional Peruvian poncho, President George W. Bush gestures as Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso stands below before the official group photo of the 16th summit of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC, in Lima, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
I am sure going to miss you…

addthis_url = […]

Probably the most significant diplomatic trip of the entire year, in my humble opinion. The King and Queen’s visit to Qatar is incredibly important, and may signify the beginning of a thaw period between the two countries that have been at odds with each other for various reasons. Efforts to put this relationship back on […]

It’s interesting, although not surprising, how the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not even making a blip on the radar screens of international news outlets. But I suppose it’s not their fault really:
Leaders of the world’s biggest media organizations filed a protest with Israel’s prime minister Wednesday criticizing the government’s decision to ban journalists from […]

One social element in Jordan has always been the turning down of music whenever the athan (call) for prayer begins. It was probably one of the first things I noticed about the country when I came here as a child and learned to do the same. Even the non-religious or the non-Muslim in Jordan engages […]

An interesting survey result:
US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. [source]
So, how well would would our own government officials score on a similar test?
How well would the people?

addthis_url = […]

Even since the King held a meeting earlier this month with the chief editors of the Kingdom’s dailies, there has been some movement with regards to media reform. I have to say, I wouldn’t really call it media reform any more. Media in Jordan, at this point, is what it is. There seems to be […]

A bit of news has been spreading like wildfire these past few days in Amman: the new 8mb ADSL Internet connection from Orange. The advertisements have been popping up all over town and it naturally got me thinking about what such a leap in speed might mean for Jordan. Yes, it is not the most […]

…go figure

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.black-iris.com%2F2008%2F11%2F20%2Fthe-one-news-headline-i-thought-id-never-read%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘The+One+News+Headline+I+Thought+I%26%238217%3Bd+Never+Read’;
addthis_pub = ”;

Dear People,
I hope this finds you well. This is in fact my two thousandth post on The Black Iris. It’s hard to believe. I know these sorts of things are considered to be momentous occasions in the blogging universe, and I know on such occasions I’m supposed to say something clever. Perhaps try to find […]

LMAO.
Once again, Hajjaj describes how we all feel…

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.black-iris.com%2F2008%2F11%2F18%2Fhajjaj-on-the-fuel-crisis%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Hajjaj+On+The+Fuel+Crisis’;
addthis_pub = ”;

Designed solely for movie buffs who also have very short attention spans, the Jordan Short Film Festival is taking place all this week at Muhtaraf Al-Remaal in Jabal Al-Weibda. If you don’t know where that is, don’t fret. The directions are rather easy if you actually follow them. And speaking of locations, what I find […]