In practical terms one cannot envy the Prime Minister of Jordan on his job right n  ow . It is true that being a Prime Minister brings with it a great social status and high political portfolio but at the end of the day the governance of a country like Jordan is a very tedious task.  Under the current political, economic and emerging social conditions this task must be addressed by... [read more]

Jordan was taken by surprise yesterday as King Abdullah II nominated Samir Rifai to form the new government. The fate of the change/reshuffle was eminent but the name of the new PM was a matter of speculations. On Sunday, Randa Habib relied on her legendary reputation of having exclusive exposure to the Royal court and without hesitation published a story (as AFP correspondent) identifying the current... [read more]

A continuation of the Alexandria declaration in 2004. In my opinion, this section on social reform should be the biggest priority for any reform effort in the region   Third: Social Reform   30- Recognizing that the Arab community as a whole possesses great social and cultural resources, it is time to make maximum use of these resources to establish a viable, cohesive Arab society that... [read more]

I am enjoying reading the fascinating book written by Jordan's former Minister of Foreign Affairs and deputy Prime Minister for reform Dr Marwan Mouasher entitled "The Arab Center: the Promise of Moderation". Although the main theme of this book is a sound description of the justification and potential of Arab moderation with a documented history of the betrayal of the Arab moderation vision by various... [read more]

I was disappointed to learn that Mr Ahmad Obeidat has resigned from his position as head of the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) in Jordan, most probably due to "requests" delivered to him by the Government after his participation in signing a public petition with other 149 Jordanian figures critcising the official liberal economic policies and privatization options. Ahmad Obeidat is one... [read more]

Jordan was taken by surprise with the candid interview given by HM King Abdullah II to the official Jordanian news agency Petra. The complete text of the interview can be read in Black Iris Blog. The interview answered a lot of the hot questions and worries that were vibrating through the minds of Jordanians in the past two months. I am not gonna comment on the answers here, but to reflect again... [read more]

In my last post, I wrote about a statement by John McCain's political advisor of foreign Affairs (Robert Kagan) during a "lecture" he is supposed to have given in New York University saying that Jordan should be the alternative country for the Palestinians. The source of the news was Ammon News portal, a Jordanian tabliod news that is very popular. I wrote about the same issue in my daily column as... [read more]

Bloggers are becoming a source of information for international reporters, journalists and even academic researchers on the issues of the Middle East. This blog has attracted some journalists to send me e-mails, talk over the phone and in person about contemporary issues in Jordan. I became very disappointed to realize that the two major issues about Jordan in which foreign reporters are obsessed... [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]

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]

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 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]