This post. Is carefully worded. Because words. Still matter.
They put you in a small room. Very small. No cell phone. No keys. Just walls. They send a soldier every now and then. He pretends to be your friend. He asks stupid questions. You give him stupid answers. They wait for you to get […]

…flow my tears, the policeman said…
A study released on Thursday revealed that though many Jordanians support media freedoms, a majority support government restrictions when it comes to destabilising issues.
In the study, performed by WorldPublicOpinion.org and supported and coordinated by the Centre for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan, 78 per cent of respondents agreed […]

“In order to prevent unemployment rates from rising in Jordan, we have to create 80,000 jobs annually, or, in other words, a job every seven minutes,”. These words were recently spoken by HM Queen Rania at the opening of a conference in Amman on unemployment.
I always found labor day in Jordan to be a […]

It’s like I’m living in the Twilight Zone:
The Jordanian government said Monday it had terminated an agreement signed with a Pakistani-Chinese coalition of firms to build a light railway between Amman and the industrial city of Zarqa for legal reasons. “From a legal viewpoint, the documents presented by the coalition included a number of issues […]

The latest draft of the new traffic law has been given urgent status in the Lower House, and will likely be put up for discussion but seeking an endorsement after the recess. Running a red light will now cost you 250JDs, that’s twice the average monthly minimum wage, which the average Jordanian earns. If you’re […]

Folks, I know that those of us who are still sane have been massively affected by the “Messenger of Allah Unites Us” campaign in Jordan that is boycotting Danish products. Suddenly, Lurpak, our favorite butter is no longer sold in stores, and I know, I know, we were all shocked to our core when we […]

As the story continues to develop, it has taken quite an interesting turn. Hospital staff at the Prince Hamzah Hospital staged a one-hour protest yesterday in defense of the X-ray doctor who has been accused by the Prosecutor General for being involved in the death of Hassan Hafnawi last week. More insight into the case […]

This issue regarding the Danish cartoons is like a monkey on the nation’s back: it just won’t go away! The redundant quality to it has rendered it even more absurd than the first time around, which by now feels like ages ago! It’s like beating a dead dog with a stick.
On the front page […]

This might sound like deja vu, but this is Jordan and that feeling is consistent with our inability to solve the same problems. So, by now, everyone (specifically on the Jordanian blogosphere) is aware of blogger Who Sane’s dilemma last September when his father went missing for several days before being discovered at the […]

Following the attack on the Jewish seminary that resulted in the death of 8 Israelis, the gunman’s relatives in Jordan set up a mourning tent as is common in the country, in his honor. The state decided to shut the whole thing down.
Not only does this contradict any position the country took towards “urging” Israel […]

Going to work on a Saturday, especially when most of the employees that don’t “have” to work are absent, just throws the whole week off. Saturdays become Sundays, and Sundays become Mondays, but by the time Thursday comes around, your mind is already sleeping in on a Friday morning, except it’s really only Thursday. So […]

A colleague of mine caught my curiosity when she told me of an article she read about a material that has been created which is blacker than black. So I went digging for it. Now before you judge this as just some tech-geek sciencey stuff you’d rather pass on reading, give me a moment to […]

There is a social trait in this country to shower people with flattery; it’s known as mujamalat. Most of it is insincere but then again, those being showered are well aware of that and participate in the masquerade. Having not grown up in Jordan, the concept of flattery for flattery’s sake is foreign to me […]

I.
Tala, the Black Iris reader who sits across from me at work, was telling me about an interesting social observation she noted a while back. People in Jordan like to notice and know other people, so they can say they saw so-and-so the other day, or that they know so-and-so. For example. People seem to […]

I think the only thing possibly worse than that chaos associated with actual snow in the country are those few days leading up to a potential snow fall, when everyone is talking about it. The topic is so dominant in everyday conversation that the war and conflict which surrounds us is rendered insignificant. Weather information […]

The United Nations’ top human rights official said Friday that waterboarding — a tactic used by the U.S. in its battle against terror — qualifies as torture. The Bush administration acknowledged for the first time this week that it waterboarded al-Qaida detainees. Vice President Dick Cheney said it was “a good thing” that the prisoners […]