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]

Human Rights Watch got it right this time. Instead of campaigning for the sake of Al Qaeda terrorists held in Jordan the HRW has finally tackled the real issues that are necessary for creating a civilised and modern political society in Jordan by criticising the regressive drafts of the public assembly and non governmental organizations laws currently discussed by the Parliament. I agree and... [read more]

This is really funny and eccentric! It seems that our Iranian friends (well, not a lot of passion is shared at the official levels) are furious with Jordan and causing us of supporting terrorism. We are not talking here about Al Qaeda and Fath Al Islam but as supporters of Mujahedin Khalq Organization. The hardline leftist military opposition to the Islamic regime in Iran has generously invited... [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]

This blog will no longer be about political issues in Jordan. Due to the fact that I need to be away from the corrupted and depressing political situation in the country I will only write about the things that I enjoy and love most. This blog will be more personalised. For more details please check this Arabic post. http://www.jordanwatch.net/arabic/archive/2008/6/607178.html    [read more]

Just when I started to think that football can still be fair and allow the better team to win (Spain beating Italy) this cruel match of tonight brought me to the reality of lack of justice in most football matches. I started watching the Germany vs. Turkey semi-final as a neutral. I was grateful for Germany after sending spoiled boy Cristiano Ronaldo packing in the quarter final and I enjoyed... [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]

I would like to share with you this fascinating speech by Dr Ismail Serageldin, the Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the former vice president of the World Bank for Water and Environment. Dr Serageldin is a phenomenal person with an encyclopedic knowledge on science, culture, development and politics in one holistic humanist package. This speech is about his selection of the ten books that... [read more]

I am writing this post in the few hours before the Turkey-Croatia game trying to put my expectations of the three remaining matches of the Quarter Finals of the Euro 2008. I was thrilled to see Germany defeat Portugal. It seems that we Circassians have a special affiliation with Germany. Maybe two in each three Circassian people I know support Germany. I am not an avid supporter of the German team... [read more]

Although this particular blog is focused on socio-economic and political issues in Jordan, my real passion is about football where I consider myself as a self-declared expert on international football. This is why I am sure I will be enjoying this review of Euro 2008 first round and I hope you find it useful.   To begin with I love the European Championship since it is way better than the World... [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]

Update on June 18th: Most likely we have been fooled with this fabricated news. Check http://www.jordanwatch.net/archive/2008/6/598062.html   Two news items have struck me this morning as they include dangerous signs and strange antagonism. According to Ammon news Republican candidate John McCain will consider Jordan to be THE Palestinian state, bringing back into life the Jordanian option... [read more]

Tomorrow I will be flying to the beautiful Alexandria to participate and act as a rapporteur in a debate conference entitled "Future of Sustainability in the Arab World" which will jointly organized by IUCN and Bibliotheca Alexandrina. This will be a great chance for me to be back to the massive scientific and cultural icon of Bibliotheca Alexandrina and get another dose of firm belief of the... [read more]

Despite the great importance attached by the Jordanian society to education, which is reflected by the willingness of Jordanian families to spend a large proportion of its budget on education of sons and daughters in universities, the recent transformations in the Jordanian economy have made education a minor element in the process of wealth creation in Jordan.    It is true that education still... [read more]

From time to time I like to be satisfied with a few good traits in managing my life. One of them is that I do not leave issues unresolved for a long time and tend to take decisions soon to move on to the next level. One of the few things that I face trouble in sorting out is my blogging habits. As I decided from day one to have a bilingual blog with two separate interfaces I began to struggle with... [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]

This is one of the most exciting breaking news I heared for a while. If this project is implemented with a high standard of committment, it will be a turning point for housing and urbanization in Jordan. This article was published in the very impressive and new UAE newspaper: The National   Chris Stanton The master planners of Abu Dhabi’s carbon-neutral community were now working on the... [read more]

Iam still struggling with managing the time to be back in full-fledge blogging here. However, I will continue posting some interesting features published by other news sources and informative essays on Jordan. This is an article about Jordan's nuclear option from Oxford Business Group. It is interesting to see that Jordan has opted to deal with the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP), which is... [read more]

An informative report from Oxford Business Group about Jordan's elusive Disi conveyor project. Will it finally see the light?   Ground will finally be broken on Jordan's Disi Water Conveyance Project in June, as the drought-stricken country looks to boost its increasingly scarce water supply and combat the persistent shortfall of potable water in Amman and other urban centres. Speaking last... [read more]