On July, 25, 2006 10:35 PM , jameed
from United States said:

I think it is only wise of you to erase your failed WC predictions :)

Good luck!

On July, 25, 2006 10:44 PM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Hey Jameed I got two semi-finalists out of four (Italy and Portugal). Where was your Brazil? I cannot claim 50% as a Failed prediction.

On July, 25, 2006 10:54 PM , moi
from Jordan said:

Looking forward to your new posts focusing on Jordan. Btw, I was so excited today when I picked up Addustour and saw your article in print for the first time (I usually read them on your blog). It was a great article!

I think you are too afraid that some of your patriotic/human rights ferver may come back to haunt you. that's what a call being a pragmatist. you have just blinked and it does not look pretty

On July, 25, 2006 11:28 PM , Khalidah
from Jordan said:

Love the idea and looking forward to see the new makeover

Best of luck and you have my support all the way ..

I like the new name :)

On July, 25, 2006 11:46 PM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Jordan Watch please elaborate to get your point rigt.

Waal. “Jordan First” is spreading so “efficiently” it even got to Batir’s blog.
Or is it “we are all Jordan” now. Anyway, “Jordan on top”, “Jordan Rules”, “Jordan wa bass”, “Jordan foog foog… wil bagi batata”…whatever you want to call it, it got to the blog.
(Not that there is anything wrong with that)

And speaking of posts that need to be deleted ASAP, start with that disgraceful (inexcusable by the way, so save the explanation) comparison between bush and olmert from one side, Assad and Najad from the other.

P.S. I hope this comment is don’t defined as (mohataratt) :o)

On July, 26, 2006 1:56 AM , Ahmad Humeid
from Jordan said:

Reshuflling your old content is not a good idea if it breaks the links of the articles. I really hope you take this into consideration. People who have linkined to you stuff might be sending readers to 404 error pages.

I also hope you don't actually erase any old content. A blog is a record of thoughts that change and evolve over time. It's not a book that needs "editing."

Finally, I saw you quoted in the economis magazine, but you name was misspelled.

Best of luck..

On July, 26, 2006 2:08 AM , Moey
from Jordan said:

Hey batir,
great your skin finally works on firefox :)

On July, 26, 2006 2:22 AM , Hasan
from United States said:

jordanwatch, I was thinking the same thing, this is funny.

People get fired over their blogs in the US, you think it will stop to that in Jordan?

I think this coincides with Batir receiving a lot of flak from people on other blogs accusing him of contradicting him self. Maybe some house cleaning will do.

Either way, you are so neutral it's not normal. Anyone who claims that journalism/media should be objective is either a fool or liar.

Abu Shreek, I think that Journalists in Jordan not being able to live up to their dream of "Truth First" reverted to convincing them selves love their country so much that they won't find any need to disagree with it.

If you don't see it, you don't report it.

Walahi I don't want to be in your shoes Batir right now. I can only imagine how hard it is to choose.

As Master Yoda once said "The hard path is the right path."

On July, 26, 2006 7:13 AM , Oleander
from United States said:

Batir, I add my voice to Ahmad Humeid's regarding deleting old posts, there's nothing wrong in shifting the focus of the blog as you see fit. However, posts about subjects that are not related to that focus do not take anything away from your blog.

There's no need to be 1 dimensional and certainly no need to avoid posts with a personal touch.

Best,

On July, 26, 2006 11:52 PM , Batir
from Jordan said:

Thanks guys for all your important feedback.
Moi thanks for your nice words and I hope you do enjoy reading the articles. I will be very interested with any critical assessment.
Ahmad Humeid: I agree that linking to an error page is bad, but it happens even in big and resourcful websites. I have to make this "sacrifice" to keep the focus in my blog. The quote in the Economist magazine was bad, they took oone sentence out of context and chose it to support their argument that Nassrallah does not have wide support in the Arab World.
Hasan there is no issues of firing and hiring with this change. It is just an issue of better delivery and more informed arguments. This blog is completely independent of my journalist career, actually the main reason for establishing it was to free myself from traditional media constraints, but I think I should have not revealed my identity.
Oleander I will keep the personal posts but not the World Cup posts for sure!