Dear Jordanian Bloggers and Tweeps. March 12th is the World Day Against Cyber Censorship, which has been organized by the French-based organization, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) for a few years now. RWB will also be releasing their annual “Internet Enemies” list, which compiles the names of governments that have unfriendly cyber policies - and most […]

On June 2, 2005, just weeks after the Cedar Revolution resulted in the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, prominent Al Nahar journalist Samir Kassir started his car at 10:30am and seconds later he was dead. An outspoken critic of the Syrian regime’s political and physical presence within Lebanon, Kassir’s assassination sparked an investigation that […]

In what has got to be one of the silliest stories of the new decade thus far - a move to name a street in Al Mazar after former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, has been revoked after a great deal of interference by the Jordanian government, supposedly lead by the Kuwaiti foreign ministry. It is […]

REUTERS PHOTO: A Jordanian demonstrator steps on a picture of Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak during a protest near the Egyptian embassy in Amman January 6, 2010. The demonstrators were protesting against Wednesday’s clash at the port city of Arish, 40km (25 miles) from Egypt’s border with Gaza, between Egyptian security forces and members of a […]

One of my favorite classical books has always been Alice in Wonderland - a story with enough allusions and alogeries to keep you thinking for years. Today, I am reminded of an interesting quote from the tale where Alice meets Cheshire.
`Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it […]

Merry Christmas to all the readers of The Black Iris in Jordan and elsewhere! Here’s a little something that’s sure to put a smile on your face:

ht: fadig

addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.black-iris.com%2F2009%2F12%2F24%2Fhave-yourself-a-very-merry-christmas-2009%2F’;
addthis_title = ‘Have+Yourself+A+Very+Merry+Christmas+2009%21′;
addthis_pub = ”;

Reuters Pictures
“It is not only Israel that has failed the people of Gaza with a blockade that punishes everybody living there for the acts of a few. World powers have also failed and even betrayed Gaza’s ordinary citizens. They have wrung hands and issued statements, but have taken little meaningful action to attempt to change […]

To begin with, last week, it was revealed that Israel had revoked the Jerusalem residency rights of over 4,500 Palestinians in 2008, mainly because it claimed that they had been absent from the city for more than the allowed seven years (had this happened anywhere else in the world, we would’ve called it ethnic cleansing). […]