Remember when the Bush administration decided to handle protesters simply by taking them to a designated “free speech zone” (also known as a “free speech cage”)? Well, Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament seems set on doing the same thing these days. Essentially, they’ve designated a room by the main entrance of the Parliament building for […]

It was perhaps with great pleasure that I read about government plans to exempt computers from taxes in Jordan around two months ago. Sources at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology leaked such plans in late April, and the Minister, Bassem Roussan, seemed to confirm it at a meeting with members of the ICT […]

His Majesty King Abdullah paid an incognito visit to the Health Ministry’s Patients’ Affairs Department on Wednesday to check on services it offers citizens, sources told The Jordan Times. Wearing a black thobe (traditional dress) and a red-and-white kuffiyah, and sporting a black beard, the King arrived at the department, located in Shmeisani behind Le […]

It perhaps goes without saying that the most defunct and notoriously futile arm of the entire Jordanian government apparatus, is the Lower House of Parliament; the very small government body that “the people” actually get to “vote” for. The Lower House never ceases to amaze me in its imbecility and it is a constant reminder […]

“I am proud because I was not prosecuted for corruption, or for spying, but for saying a word of truth.” - Khalid Mahadin on being cleared of charges of slandering the Lower House of Parliament.
While it’s good to hear that Mahadin is cleared of these idiotic charges levied against him by an even more idiotic […]

AMMAN (AFP) — Jordan plans to begin work on a six-billion-dollar railway next year to bolster trade with its neighbours and create jobs for its cash-strapped population, Transport Minister Sahl Majali told AFP in an interview. “The 4.5-billion-dinar project is vital to Jordan because it will make freight movement faster and easier, cut transportation costs […]

Former Minister of Public Works, Sahel al-Majali, has been the on-again, off-again center of a brewing scandal regarding the royal initiative: decent housing for decent living. Today, columnist Jamil Nimri opened the Pandora’s box on the whole issue with some rather interesting findings.
Briefly, the initiative was set to build 100,000 homes for poor Jordanians, offering […]

AMMAN (AFP) — A military prosecutor has charged a member of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood with plotting to form a “militant faction” inside the kingdom, a judicial official said on Saturday. [source]
This one is more for the “unbelievable” files. If it’s one thing Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood knows, it’s that trying to create a militant faction on […]

The Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and the Audit Bureau said on Tuesday they will review a bureau report which deemed bonuses recently disbursed by GAM as illegal…At the meeting, attended by Amman Mayor Omar Maani, lawmakers questioned the legality of the decision to disburse JD128,000 in bonuses to senior GAM officials.
Defending the decision, Maani said […]

It’s a topic that’s recently floated to the surface in Jordanian politics: plans to curb, if not moves towards abolishing, the death sentence in the state security court. Amendments to the penal code are looking to remove capital punishment for all crimes except premeditated murder; in other words, crimes against state security, which include terrorism, […]

Remember when HM King Abdullah said that journalists wouldn’t be jailed any more? Well they can still be sued. As many know by now, Khalid Mahadin was just sued by the Lower House of Parliament for “slander” after publishing an article on Kheberni.com entitled, “For God’s Sake, Abdullah”, where he criticized members of Parliament. To […]

Palestinian officials and analysts have linked the incident to the Jerusalem municipality’s eviction orders of more than 1,500 Palestinians living in some 180 houses in the East Jerusalem suburb of Silwan area. It will become the largest mass expulsion of Palestinians since the Israeli occupation in the 1967 war. [source
We’ve been hearing this for quite […]

The other day I received an invitation to a meeting with the Prime Minister only a few hours before the meeting was actually held. Apparently, the point was for “electronic news sites” as our government loves to call them, to have a chat with Prime Minister Nader Dahabi. The post-meeting analysis was a brilliant review […]

International markets took a huge plunge yesterday, with the Dow Jones hitting its lowest point since 1997. Everywhere, even here in Jordan, people are feeling the financial pinch. Jobs are being lost and those who still have them are fighting to keep them. Salary raises are almost out of the question.
Except in the Jordan government.
The […]

“There is no greater hypocrisy than a country that just 39 years ago, on Black September in 1970, murdered 10,000 of its Palestinian residents, dealing with international crimes today…Jordan will not be the one to teach Israel what combat morals are.” - Israel’s Internal Security Minister, Avi Dichter, expressing outrage at reports that Jordan planned […]

The new cabinet isn’t the only funny thing happening around town this week. Another funny political joke I’ve heard recently actually took place in the final days of Salah Al-Muwajdeh as minister of health, who announced that smoking in public places such as the airport, malls and tourist-related restaurants will be banned starting the first […]