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]

We have all been concerned with the sudden disappearance of Naseem Tarawneh's Black Iris blog in the last few hours. I have just called Naseem and he told me the hosting company had faced some difficult technical problems but the blog will be back operating on Monday after holidays. I am sure I am talking on behalf on thousands of Naseem readers when I say that even those few days will be missed by... [read more]

This is how the capital of Jordan, the city where the "supposidly aware" population, the intellectuals, professionals and economists vote declared its list of new deputees for the 15th parliament. This is how the myth of "political awareness in Amman" was destroyed once and for all. Remember that I carry the assumption that the government did not "systematically interfere" with the results which reflect... [read more]

Continuing our journey with the preview by international media of the coming elections.   BBC news did not find a more interesting perspective than to mentions "Jordan's struggle with Islamism" as another freaking reminder for the western reader about the potential threat of Islamists which is really exaggerated by such media. BBC reporter attended one IAF gathering and was clearly impressed with... [read more]

I just received this link for a very thorough and frank interview with King Abdullah II by the German magazine Der Spiegel. The King states in this interview that "Ultimately, it is my responsibility to make sure that the elections are clean and everything works out well.". Moreover, he says that the Middle class in Jordan is the prime factor to ensure stability and enhance democracy and he admits... [read more]

With less than 24 hours remaining to kick-off the Jordanian parliamentary elections, which will certainly wittness some hard kicking, it is useful to see what does the "highly-informed" international media has to say about the massive elections.   The Voice of America Radio does not expect a lot of surprises, and according to Challiss McDonough  reporting from Cairo correctly states that there... [read more]

This is really depressing for me to know. In the IT news Microsoft is to pay $240m for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook. The deal values the social networking site at $15bn. Microsoft will act as the exclusive third-party advertising platform for Facebook with the companies splitting the revenue generated. Prior to the deal Microsoft sold banner ads for the website in the US but this is to be extended... [read more]

This article was originally published it my Arabic blog. It has picked up and kindly translated to English by Amira Husseini for Global Voices. here is the English translation again   If there was an annual contest for the best photograph in Jordanian journalism, it would have certainly been awarded to the photograph published in Al Doustor newspaper on Monday which shows a number of candidates... [read more]

National Call for bids:   In the framework of the Jordanian state's policy to disengage from political and social decision making processes and in its pursuit for full fledged privatization and liberalization of its legislative constitutional authority, it has been decided to sell the 110 seats of the Jordanian Parliament in a natioanl public auction based on competitive financial offers by... [read more]

I felt like being injected with an overdose of frustration while going through the results of the poll conducted by the University of Jordan's Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) about the quality of the performance of the 14th Parliament. Although the press coverage focused on the negative reflections about the performance of the Parliament my main concern was going for the root cause of all the inability... [read more]

One of the best features in blogs is the fact that a blogger/writer is put face to face in an interactive exchange of ideas and positions with readers. I enjoyed the majority of the debates that my blog has energised with my readers. However, I was always intrigued why should some of the readers call me a "neoliberal"? I have tried to visit back all the definitions I know about neoliberalism and never... [read more]

I have published this article in the weekly "The Star" newspaper. I am hoping to publish a weekly environmental article in this newspaper starting next week. I hope you find it useful   In the past few weeks readers of the daily newspapers in Jordan were getting information about the closure, penalization and warnings of various factories and developmental facilities in Jordan due to environmental... [read more]

Few weeks ago I found myself in a room with 20 foreign maids and 40 children as I was supervising my daughter playtime in Mecca Mall. I was astonished to see that I was the only biological parent of any child present in the play area. Other parents were sipping "Mocca Freez" outside the play area or shopping in the mall. I love to take my daughter to play areas and recreational events and usually... [read more]