An informative report from Oxford Business Group about Jordan's elusive Disi conveyor project. Will it finally see the light?   Ground will finally be broken on Jordan's Disi Water Conveyance Project in June, as the drought-stricken country looks to boost its increasingly scarce water supply and combat the persistent shortfall of potable water in Amman and other urban centres. Speaking last... [read more]

This is an article published by Carnegie Endowment's Arab Political Reform Bulletin.    Recent labor protests and bread lines in Egypt—in which the army was called in to organize distribution and restore order—present a stark contrast to the Egyptian government’s narrative of impressive economic growth, which international financial institutions have validated. Jordan has not experienced serious... [read more]

I am curious why Naseem Tarawneh has never mentioned this in his blog, but I was excited to read this month's issue of Jordan Business where our friend blogger talked to the prominant American writer and researcher John Esposito about his latest ground breaking book "Who Speaks for Islam?" which is an analytical description and discussion of six year survey by the Gallup Organization between 2001... [read more]

I was thrilled to find a very important book that I was looking forward to read while visiting Virgin Stores in City Mall. The book is "The Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace" by Avi Shlaim who is a prominant Israeli historian and expert in Middle East affairs.     The book was published in a summarised 20 episode series in Al-Sharq Al Awsat last year. By reading... [read more]

The following post should be read with this post from Naseem Tarawneh   I was just strating to energize my brain cells to write about a phenomenon I have long observed in the Jordanian blogs, when I read Nassems' fantastic post about the same issue entitled "Jordanian bloggers and blogging about the issues that really matter". The brilliant post and the lively debates in Naseem's blog form... [read more]

It is 1:00 Thursday morning and I have just finishing a task that should be submitted tomorrow morning. In fact this the 4th night in a row that I have to work late. Out of the blue came a glimpse of memory of my teenage years when some of the songs I used to like and adore echoed in my mind. I know that the main percentage of the readers of this blog are young (in their 20s) so most of them have... [read more]

It seems that one of the most popular amusements for the so-called "Middle East experts" in American research centers and media outlets is to redraw the map of the Middle East according to their own wishful thinking, often influended by the strong neo-conservative apparatus advocating the balkanization of the region. I think some of you remember the "map" drawn by Ralph Peters in the "Armed Forces... [read more]

A paradigm shift is being developed in energy management at the national level. The previous dependence on foreign oil imports is coming to an end with a new package of legislative, administrative and technological innovations aiming to steer the country into more reliable, sustainable and even environmentally friendly energy resources. Of course this transition is governed by necessity and financial... [read more]

I have been waiting eagerly for some of the Christian Jordanian bloggers to shed light on the recent controversey about the deportation of 27 evangelical activists from the country and the subsequent media "campaign" that was launched in favor of the decision and against it. Remember that the issue was first raised by the Compass Direct, an evangelical Christian news service. I have only read a concerned... [read more]

It is really interesting the see the Danish ambassador in Amman mr Thomas Lund-Sorensen blogging about his own perspectives of the second part of the Danish cartoon fiasco that has erupted two weeks ago. In his blog post he describes the demonstration that was organized by the Islamic Action Front (IAF) and his meeting with the Secretary General of the IAF while praising how the demonstration was... [read more]

Back in January, I wrote in this blog stating that my posts will be less frequent than usual. The reason is the amount of work responsibilities as well as the tasks I have in maintaining three other blogs, the Arabic version of Jordan Watch and my two environmental blogs. In the past year I have put more effort in the Arabic blog. The main reason was that I felt the need is more to provide Arabic... [read more]

The miserable statement for regulating Arab satellite media announced by the Arab information ministers at their "exceptional" recent meeting in Cairo caused a wave of negative reactions from many journalists, intellectuals and human rights institutions and media organizations in the Arab world. This united refusal of the document provided an ironic model for the Arab writers and journalists being... [read more]

No, this title is not a phrase in a typical Jordanian soap opera, but a very concerned observation about the 40 day silence of one of the best Jordanian bloggers, the one and only Khalaf. The last post by Khalaf, author of the famous "What's up in Jordan?" blog was on January 12th where he discussed in his typical sracastic and well articulated post the phenomenon of abandoned infants in Jordan... [read more]

The financial committee of the lower house of Parliament is still discussing the three year public budget (2008-2010). In a report published in Arabic language Jordanian newspapers on Tuesday, the Committee is said to have asked to government to reduce public expenditures by 15% to combat deficit. This is a reasonable action, provided that the reduction should be in running expenditures (salaries,... [read more]

A couple of days ago I received a nice message from Dr Khaled Hroub, the Director of the Cambridge Arab Media Project and one of the most enlightened and honest Arab political writers. He informed me of his new article that was published on the Arab Reform Initiative website after the latest Parliamentarian elections in Jordan. The writer provides a fascinating description of the political, legal... [read more]

It has been more than one month since I last posted on my English platform of Jordan Watch. I have written a few enthusiastic posts about the elections and then went into a hibernation period. Parallel to that I wrote many posts in my Arabic blog and I enjoyed the most open, personal and light ones of those. Last year was very productive in terms of career and professional dimensions where my... [read more]

Our fellow blogger and journalist Oula Farawati launches her articles for Al Ahram Weekly with a very well articulated assessment of the Jordanian elections. However, Oula still echos the traditional view of the "under-representation" of the cities were political awareness and palestinian activism is. I would have really liked Oula to provide an assessment of the "political qualities" of deputies... [read more]

This is a very good article from Khaled Al Hroub, Director of Cambridge Arab Media Project (CAMP) and in my opinion one of the top 5 Arab writers. This is a review of the Jordanian elections that was posted on the website of the Arab Reform Initiative   A serious setback for the Islamists, a sharp and surprising ascent of businessmen, the vanishing of the left and other opposition forces, a rise... [read more]

Although the main focus was on the surprise defeat of the IAF in the Jordanian elections, little has been written about the humilation of the Jordanian left. We all know that the IAF is the biggest party with all the resources and mobilization tools but the Jordanian left should be able to show a justification for the numerous statements and number of parties it has. Unfortunately it was a humilating... [read more]

Jordan certainly deserves better than the Parliament that was elected yesterday.  Jordan's rate of human resource development, education, scientific competencies and economic openness needs develop better electoral conditions. Many people have claimed that it was better to boycott the elections than participating. For me I think negativity can never be an option for reform. Participation is essential... [read more]