Friday, April 14, 2006
All countries in the world are aiming to evolve into "knowledge societies" to be able to gain the benefits of the global economic and development trends. In Jordan our case is different since we already have an "established and rooted" knowledge society which is the biggest obstacle against reform!
To answer this puzzle I have to mention that Knwoledge society in Jordan is not what we bacame to understand as a "society driven by information" but a society in which "everyone knows each one". In this case all professional procedures related to administration in the public sector or conducting transactions in the private sector aer based on frienships and not on adequate standards.
Our knowledge society makes any decision maker rely on his/her network of social friends and family members and not on information and true data. All our administrative culture is based on nepotism, and I hardly see any task in this country that can be implemented without personal factors and friendships.
This knowledge society is the biggest obstacle against moving into a system of standards based on merits and professional qualities. My own idea is that corruption in Jordan is not a top-down phenomenon but a social norm practised with real justifications. Any public official who does not recruit his family members or provide services to them is considered "weak" and not "honest" as he/she should be labelled, while any official practising nepotism is considerd "strong" and trustworthy and gains more support and popularity.
We are really a special case of "knowledge society" that even the ambitious ICT programmes may not be able to challenge!
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On April, 16, 2006 2:09 PM , Khalidah
from Jordan
said:
from Jordan
said:Nepotism is the poison and worms that are eating our society from the inside out .. I always heard the phrase that it is not about what you know .. it is rather about who you know and this is really sad .. as no matter how experienced and knowledgable you are .. you will get no where unless you know a hot shot somewhere to help you get what you deserve ... so much for education and self development!!
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from Jordan
Well , I agree with you , but do you know something , this knowledge society that we have here is not all bad , on the other hand it is one of the good unique things , but the big problem we are facing that we cant understand the right way of implementing this for a better outcome on the individual & community level !
CheeerZ!