I became very disappointed to realize that the two major issues about Jordan in which foreign reporters are obsessed are the relation between Islamists and the State, and the Jordanian Palestinian relation. If the reporter is more open and knowledgeable the third issue would be women rights in Jordan.

I am not disputing the importance of such topics but still think there is more in Jordan than only the previous issues. I find it difficult to see the importance of the Islamic Movement in Jordan in relation to the two main issues I am concerned with which are democracy and development. The Islamists have contributed very little to democracy and development apart from their own struggle to seek more space in the political system to advocate the causes of Hamas and the other Islamic "resistance" movements, while not putting good effort in distinguishing "resistance" from "terrorism" or playing a constructive part in Jordan's development challenges.

The issue of the Palestinian-Jordanian relations can be important at the political level between the state of the Jordan and the emerging state of Palestine. As for the internal sphere, I consider the Jordanian-Palestinian "rift" as an issue created by the elite corrupt figures in the country (whether Jordanians or Palestinians) to keep people involved in this silly stand-off while the elite continue exploiting the country's resources.

It is sad to see how much our own reporters and foreign reporters neglect the fact that Jordan with its small size, tough neighborhood, scarcity of resources and vulnerable democratization process is a clear testing ground of all developmental issues related to globalization.

Pick any report on global development and you can see that the priorities of energy security, inflation, food (in)security, education, health, transportation, housing, science, environment, women, trade deficits, unemployment, poverty and urban-rural disparity are priority issues in Jordan. Each and every threat associated with capitalist globalization can be studied and monitored in Jordan as a case study.

There are some good success initiatives in areas like education but a lot of failures and struggles that need to be followed and documented. The thrust of investment and business has not managed to energize development efforts in the country to the level of moving forward to sustainable development and democratization. This is one major example of the failed promises of capitalist globalization and the need for social democracy to have its contribution.

Jordan can be a rich source of academic and journalistic documentations about changes in the socio-economic conditions. More effort can be done by committed reporters wishing to provide a true vision of the changing conditions in Jordan and the need of new creative policies to work for the benefit of the people and not the elite. A lot of interesting features can be derived from this country beyond the Islamist rhetoric and the exaggerated Jordanian-Palestinian dualism but this need a new perspective of media and research coverage of Jordan.