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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

I wanted to write a lengthy post about the changes in the new Dahabi government and halfway through I was overcome with a bit of despair. Despair in the never-changing status quo along with the realization that the mainstream media will be filled with profiles about the new political players, or the old ones - […]

Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker, Errol Morris has a very interesting piece in the New York Times this week where he looks at the images that really capture the “Bush Years”. Some are widely known and popularized, others not so much. Some are funny some are just sad. From him standing on the rubble of […]

“My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy.” - US President Barack Obama during an interview with Al-Arabiya. Monday, January 26th. [source]
I agree that, generally, Americans are not the enemy of the Muslim world. However, I’m just not sure how to classify those Americans who have big […]

Vice President Dick Cheney on his last day in Washington is wheeled back to the cryogenic lab from whence he came.

Photo Credit: Leslie E. Kossoff-Pool/Getty Images
ht: FP

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Photo Credit: NYT
I hate sounding cynical. But I’m trying to be realistic here. This is not to say I hate the guy. I don’t even know him. And to be fair, it’s still his first day on the job. But seriously. Looking at how people are reacting to this. Especially the more westernized Jordanians here. […]

I would like to preface this post by saying I am well aware of the type of comments such a topic might draw, but as a blogger, staring at this article on my screen, I felt it would be utterly wrong and self-defeating to self-censor myself as a Jordanian citizen. There is an obligation to […]

In the middle of the news conference with Mr Maliki, a reporter stood up and shouted “this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,” before hurtling his shoes at Mr Bush, narrowly missing him. [source]
Here’s the kicker, if by Western standards, Palestinian kids throwing rocks are terrorists, then what about Iraqi journalists who […]

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 […]