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]

Jordan Business Magazine is yet aiming to identify the 30 most influential people in Jordan (apart from the Royal Family) and for this purpose have designed a good voting system. The results should apear in the July edition. Here is my own list of the most influential 30 persons. The list should be divided by three categories, with 10 names in each. In my humble opinion, the second category of... [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]

The following post should be read with this post from Naseem Tarawneh   I was just strating to energize my brain cells to write about a phenomenon I have long observed in the Jordanian blogs, when I read Nassems' fantastic post about the same issue entitled "Jordanian bloggers and blogging about the issues that really matter". The brilliant post and the lively debates in Naseem's blog form... [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]

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]

Amongst the many blogs and online networks that claim expertise and understanding of Jordan and Middle East political and socio-economic complexities, I was thrilled to see a genuine source of deep and well articulated analysis. Jeb Koogler from Seattle maintains a very interesting blog entitled "Foreign Policy Watch". He is a student  of international relations and Middle Eastern studies at Brown... [read more]

I was astonished to read the summary of statements from the Government's Spoksman Nasser Joudeh in his weekly press conference where he stated that there is "no crises between the government and islamists in the light of the municiplaities elections". If withdrawal from the elections, provocating the military and general intelligence and intimidating the state was not a sign of a crises from Islamists... [read more]

According to a report by Al Arab Al Yawm newspaper, Jordanian Prime Minister Ma'rouf Bakhit had a stunning revelation in last evening's Cabinet meeting. The outraged PM accused some ministers of "providing journalists with information about the activities of the government and its other ministers through the political salons in which ministers and journalists interact. He added that he has "recordings"... [read more]

Jordan Business magazine has published its list of the most influential 30 Jordanians for the second year running. Last year the selection was based on the magazine's informed judgemens and it was convincing. This year however, the magazine opted to give the choice to its readers through an online vote. The results provides another evidence how voting can sometimes be irrational. The magazine received... [read more]

To the dismay of some readers of this blog Jordan is not a failed state. According to the Foreign Policy Index of failed States, published for the third year in the well respected American magazine "Foreign Policy" Jordan does not rank among the 60 failed states of the world which includes seven Arab countries, topped by Sudan.   The Index was developed by the Fund for Peace an independent research... [read more]

Jordan Business magazine has asked its readers to nominate their candidates for the Jordan power 30 issue to be published in July 2007. Maybe it is only few days but it is worth nominating now. Last year the magazine made its own intelligent judgement nomination which was met with some critical feedback. You can nominate here http://www.jordan-business.net/power30/   [read more]

This blog has received a plethora of negative comments from readers who disagree with my political opinions. Naturally any diversity in opinions is an enriching factor since it provides several perspectives on a certain issue. Some comments however, especially from anonymous readers have always shifted towards personal accusations and attacks. One of the most intriguing attacks are linked to the... [read more]

It has been like a magnetic attraction between Jordan and the middle ranking of most global surveys and indices. The latest of which is the Global Peace Index developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit in which the indicators of peacefullness were analysed for 121 countries. With no surprise Jordan came at no 63 making it the 9th  Arab state after Oman, Qatar, UAE, Tunisia, Kuwait, Morocco, Libya... [read more]

Plenty of reform initiatives are spreading all over the Arab world and they will be highlighted in this blog in the next few weeks, with special focus on the resources they provide online.  The following three initiatives provide very good general understanding and evaluation of the reform efforts in the Arab World. Other initiatives will be discussed and presented later.   I have a feeling,... [read more]

I always thought it was a matter of time before the Egyptiam security and religious apparatus crack down on a blogger so harsh to send a message of intimidation to all other courageous bloggers out there in Egypt. The massive movement and impact of the Egyptian bloggers has worried the traditional repressive minds, whether they are in the regime or in the religious oppression institutions.   Kareem... [read more]

This is an excellent review of the latest public opinion poll on Corruption in Jordan published by the Center for Strategic Studies in the University of Jordan. The review was published in the Jordan Times. If anyone is interested in having the full electronic version of the survey in Arabic please drop me an e-mail   By Alia Shukri Hamzeh  AMMAN — A new opinion poll released Wednesday reveals... [read more]

I think all of you who follow political debates have read or heared about the Article written by the American writer Borzou Daragahi from LA Times claiming that the monarchy in Jordan is risking a fate similar to the Iranian Shah. Jammed has already posted the whole article but in case the link is lost here is the LA times link http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-jordan1oct01,1,4432688... [read more]

Another package of economic aid has reached Jordan from the USA. This time it was a total of 25.0 M US $ from the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) that was released a few days ago. A press statement said that MCC's Board of Directors approved up to $25 million in Threshold Program assistance for Jordan. The program aims to strengthen democratic institutions by supporting Jordan's efforts to... [read more]