Day 209
Deja Vu? This is an even stranger coincidence than the recent coffee culture repetitions in the press. I first started the 'Weird News' series last December with this post, after I came across an letter to the editor bemoaning the 'immoral' trend of young Jordanians sagging their baggy pants.
That first piece I discounted as the marginal rantings of an out-of-touch member of the older generation in Jordan. Unfortunately, this more recent editorial [Arabic] is straight from the pen of a daily columnist for the popular Ad-Dustour newspaper and a respected issues-blogger (with both Arabic and English sites) on domestic and international political, economic, and social matters--and who, by the way, is considered a pioneer among (young) Jordanian bloggers for building a bridge between traditional print and e-media*.
The parallels in language between the letter-to-the-editor and this columnist's editorial are striking...
"Jordan Watch: Young people of the nation: Raise Your Sagging Trousers"
(previous post's headline: "A National Campaign: Raise your sagging pants young people!")
some exerpts:
-"I fully support the 'unwritten' directives of the Public Security Directorate (blogger's note: I cannot believe the PSD is tackling this issue and not a myriad of legitimate domestic security concerns) to reduce the phenomenon of the young men of our beloved country wearing sagging trousers that reveal a significant portion of their 'backs'"
-"As a Jordanian citizen, it is my right to not to have to be exposed to the experience of seeing the 'back' and underwear of the person walking in front of me or that tragic moment when they bend down to pick up a pack of cigarettes or money."
-"Young Jordanians' problem is not their outward appearance, but a general lack of attention to work and culture and a lack of clarity in their objectives that we want them to receive from older generations, who judge and misunderstand young people because of their external appearance."
* article also available on his Arabic blog
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Update 2: Coffee Cultures
Day 198
So this iteration of the coffee culture question has more to do with the current economic situation in Jordan than specifically with changing coffee tastes. However, it does illustrate the observation I tried to make about the generational shift from traditional Arabic coffee to the Western style moving only as fast as economic progress in the country will allow: those who can afford cups at a Starbucks or similar venue are likely to make the switch, and the distribution of Western-style cafes in more affluent urban areas like West Amman proves the point.
For some context, early this year the Jordanian government removed gasoline, electricity, and heating oil subsidies to, among other reasons, keep its expanding Social Security program afloat (small world). Because of the ubiquitous role of these basic amenities in daily life, the price hikes have had a wide ripple affect, driving up prices for all kinds of commodities like food staples.
I think these two ideas are perfectly united in the following political cartoon, reprinted in Maraya News online, one of the emerging electronic news sites from my research...
Trans:
(A look at the serious skip)
1. "Honey, what do you think about drinking coffee in this cafe?" "Not here"
2. "Alright hun, here...great coffee...!" "No not here"
3. "Hey buddy, I want to get coffee with you...Nothing pleases you--enough, where do you want to drink coffee?" "Watch it!"
4. "Abu 'Adb, 2 coffees (with a little sugar) and a cup of water...you love of my heart!"
So this iteration of the coffee culture question has more to do with the current economic situation in Jordan than specifically with changing coffee tastes. However, it does illustrate the observation I tried to make about the generational shift from traditional Arabic coffee to the Western style moving only as fast as economic progress in the country will allow: those who can afford cups at a Starbucks or similar venue are likely to make the switch, and the distribution of Western-style cafes in more affluent urban areas like West Amman proves the point.
For some context, early this year the Jordanian government removed gasoline, electricity, and heating oil subsidies to, among other reasons, keep its expanding Social Security program afloat (small world). Because of the ubiquitous role of these basic amenities in daily life, the price hikes have had a wide ripple affect, driving up prices for all kinds of commodities like food staples.
I think these two ideas are perfectly united in the following political cartoon, reprinted in Maraya News online, one of the emerging electronic news sites from my research...
Trans:
(A look at the serious skip)
1. "Honey, what do you think about drinking coffee in this cafe?" "Not here"
2. "Alright hun, here...great coffee...!" "No not here"
3. "Hey buddy, I want to get coffee with you...Nothing pleases you--enough, where do you want to drink coffee?" "Watch it!"
4. "Abu 'Adb, 2 coffees (with a little sugar) and a cup of water...you love of my heart!"
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Skiing in Lebanon
Day 190
Yes, you can ski in the Middle East.
Last weekend, I traveled with friends and roommates to Faraya, Lebanon (a mountaintop ski village about 40km north of Beirut). Although the drive there through Syria was not without hassle and misfortune--one of our group was turned away on account of a grumpy border officer and some ambiguous evidence of her trip to Israel :( --the weekend itself was a blast.
I hadn't been skiing in over a decade. And it showed. After my gracious roommates Lynn and Bestian gave me a quick ski lesson on our first run, I was off and skiing (and falling, a lot). But several hours later I was respectable enough to take on some green, blue, and even one red slope. The weather was perfect. Although the ski resort had a good 3 feet of snow from the winter for the slopes, it remained mostly sunny and probably in the 40s.
One special feature of skiing in Lebanon is that you can sit atop a mountain and overlook the Mediterranean (you can distinguish the horizon in the first pic). Faraya is a known haunt for Beirut affluent families, but the slopes weren't crowded until the official state weekend started on Saturday and I had to avoid the mother-duck-and-ducklings ski classes that were weaving down most of the runs. Note, most of these 8 year olds were much better than me, so I would usually let them pass and then tag along and follow their well-chosen routes down the descent.
Coming off the previous weekend's Dead to Red adventure, I found myself pretty exhausted after ~8 hours of skiing on each of the two days. Running fitness only transfers so well.
I'll have to go back to Beirut again. Just walking past some of the protest tent cities and down streets famous for their restaurant and night life flare before catching our ride up the mountain was a treat.
Yes, you can ski in the Middle East.
Last weekend, I traveled with friends and roommates to Faraya, Lebanon (a mountaintop ski village about 40km north of Beirut). Although the drive there through Syria was not without hassle and misfortune--one of our group was turned away on account of a grumpy border officer and some ambiguous evidence of her trip to Israel :( --the weekend itself was a blast.
I hadn't been skiing in over a decade. And it showed. After my gracious roommates Lynn and Bestian gave me a quick ski lesson on our first run, I was off and skiing (and falling, a lot). But several hours later I was respectable enough to take on some green, blue, and even one red slope. The weather was perfect. Although the ski resort had a good 3 feet of snow from the winter for the slopes, it remained mostly sunny and probably in the 40s.
One special feature of skiing in Lebanon is that you can sit atop a mountain and overlook the Mediterranean (you can distinguish the horizon in the first pic). Faraya is a known haunt for Beirut affluent families, but the slopes weren't crowded until the official state weekend started on Saturday and I had to avoid the mother-duck-and-ducklings ski classes that were weaving down most of the runs. Note, most of these 8 year olds were much better than me, so I would usually let them pass and then tag along and follow their well-chosen routes down the descent.
Coming off the previous weekend's Dead to Red adventure, I found myself pretty exhausted after ~8 hours of skiing on each of the two days. Running fitness only transfers so well.
I'll have to go back to Beirut again. Just walking past some of the protest tent cities and down streets famous for their restaurant and night life flare before catching our ride up the mountain was a treat.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Dead to Red
Day 188
While the trials and tribulations of a 150 mile all-night relay race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea resort city of Aqaba may be too voluminous to summarize in a blog post, here's a short capsule of the madness and joy of the February 21 weekend.
With twelve teams of runners gathered at the start of an at-least 15 hour ordeal, the start line of 11th annual Dead to Red had a relatively party-like atmosphere. Personally, the Red Bull sponsor's inflatable arch happened to remind me of some other party-like night runs in Charlottesville, also involving the energy drink (and possibly other beverages...). My team, a hodge--podge of embassy employees, ex-pats, and young Jordanians--was certainly in good spirits. The weather was a nice, comfortable mid-60s at 3pm; which was extra nice considering a snowstorm had postponed the race 3 weeks prior.
Splitting up the ~250km distance was up to team strategy. I led off the first leg before we settled into a system where each of our two team vans of 5 members traded off 5ks (each person races a kilometer before the exchange zone, as specified by the odometers). The first good bit of the race hugs the glistening Dead Sea on a slightly-hilly coarse before flattening out and heading through some sparsely-populated towns and past a few Bedouin camps. By the time the sun sets, the road stretches through wide desert flats and by midnight we were running through surreal expanses of white sand illuminated by the full moon.
To enable more rest time for each van, we switched to 10 and even 15 K intervals of each group. This enabled enough time during rest stops to get in good stretch, a quick nap, and a decent amount of gatorade, Red Bull (a la the cute girls in the two Red Bull Mini Coopers trailing the teams all night), power gels, crackers, granola bars, pasta, cheese, olives, etc. Aside from the beginning of the race, the only teams we encountered were the semi-pro Aramex sponsored group, a crew running for a local drug store chain, and the Hadideens--original participants from the race's origins and a perennially-strong group of competitors. But by sun up, the Hadideens (with whom we had traded 3rd place a couple of times during the long night), were within sight and we caught up to them along a long, straight uphill that led to the Aqaba city limits. Grouping both vans together into 10-person continuous relays of 200m sprints, we started closing the gap. By the time we had entered the streets of Aqaba with just a couple Ks to go, they were within reach. I led our final charge with a 400 or 600m all out sprint to get us within striking distance before I joined up with our other top runners to put together 100-200m sprints and eclipse the Hadideens less than 200m from the finish, with a margin of only 5 seconds in the end after over 16 hours of racing. Our final time of 16:23.00 comes out to just under a 4 min/K average. Not too shabby, and it was a heck of a lot of fun.
Needless to say, there was much rejoicing among our team at having been on the winning end of the final photo finish. The Aramex team guys and the second place crew (who edged us by only 2 minutes) were also on hand to offer congratulations. I knew several members of each from days of training at Sports City, and we could share in the relief of ordeal finally being over. Later on we picked up some hardware (some metals and a dinky trophy) and much respect from the Jordanians at the after-race dinner.
And then a day and a half of jacuzzis, beers, and beach time (and much soreness) followed.
While the trials and tribulations of a 150 mile all-night relay race from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea resort city of Aqaba may be too voluminous to summarize in a blog post, here's a short capsule of the madness and joy of the February 21 weekend.
With twelve teams of runners gathered at the start of an at-least 15 hour ordeal, the start line of 11th annual Dead to Red had a relatively party-like atmosphere. Personally, the Red Bull sponsor's inflatable arch happened to remind me of some other party-like night runs in Charlottesville, also involving the energy drink (and possibly other beverages...). My team, a hodge--podge of embassy employees, ex-pats, and young Jordanians--was certainly in good spirits. The weather was a nice, comfortable mid-60s at 3pm; which was extra nice considering a snowstorm had postponed the race 3 weeks prior.
Splitting up the ~250km distance was up to team strategy. I led off the first leg before we settled into a system where each of our two team vans of 5 members traded off 5ks (each person races a kilometer before the exchange zone, as specified by the odometers). The first good bit of the race hugs the glistening Dead Sea on a slightly-hilly coarse before flattening out and heading through some sparsely-populated towns and past a few Bedouin camps. By the time the sun sets, the road stretches through wide desert flats and by midnight we were running through surreal expanses of white sand illuminated by the full moon.
To enable more rest time for each van, we switched to 10 and even 15 K intervals of each group. This enabled enough time during rest stops to get in good stretch, a quick nap, and a decent amount of gatorade, Red Bull (a la the cute girls in the two Red Bull Mini Coopers trailing the teams all night), power gels, crackers, granola bars, pasta, cheese, olives, etc. Aside from the beginning of the race, the only teams we encountered were the semi-pro Aramex sponsored group, a crew running for a local drug store chain, and the Hadideens--original participants from the race's origins and a perennially-strong group of competitors. But by sun up, the Hadideens (with whom we had traded 3rd place a couple of times during the long night), were within sight and we caught up to them along a long, straight uphill that led to the Aqaba city limits. Grouping both vans together into 10-person continuous relays of 200m sprints, we started closing the gap. By the time we had entered the streets of Aqaba with just a couple Ks to go, they were within reach. I led our final charge with a 400 or 600m all out sprint to get us within striking distance before I joined up with our other top runners to put together 100-200m sprints and eclipse the Hadideens less than 200m from the finish, with a margin of only 5 seconds in the end after over 16 hours of racing. Our final time of 16:23.00 comes out to just under a 4 min/K average. Not too shabby, and it was a heck of a lot of fun.
Needless to say, there was much rejoicing among our team at having been on the winning end of the final photo finish. The Aramex team guys and the second place crew (who edged us by only 2 minutes) were also on hand to offer congratulations. I knew several members of each from days of training at Sports City, and we could share in the relief of ordeal finally being over. Later on we picked up some hardware (some metals and a dinky trophy) and much respect from the Jordanians at the after-race dinner.
And then a day and a half of jacuzzis, beers, and beach time (and much soreness) followed.
Weird News Volume 3
Day 188
Unfortunately, a recurring theme in some Arab news media (and even more individuals' points of view), is a tendency to filter some unexplained news events through a conspiracy filter. Not that Western cultures are at all immune to this predisposition either (the continued resonance of JFK and Princess Diana assassination theories comes to mind), but the asymmetrical power relationship that usually sparks this kind of explanation is a remnant of the region's colonial and Cold War experience and a continuing part of modern day political life here--whether the culprit is Israel, America, or some combination of the two in a form pan-Western meddling.
Although these beliefs, when manifest in news media, are almost always confined to the editorial page or the marginal comments of a guest on one of Al Jazera or Al Arabiyya's "talking heads" analysis programs, their presence is a nonetheless regrettable sign of the the media's role in legitimizing and sustaining this mode of thinking. For example, the death of long-time Hizbollah terrorist operative Imad Mughniyeh in a car bomb in Damascus gave rise to a flurry of American-Israeli covert operation theories ("Mughniyeh's Death is a Harbinger for a New War").
However understandable that cognitive connection may be in the Mughniyeh story (given he was a top priority on Mossad and FBI anti-terror lists since the 1980s), this next story still made me laugh. It comes from the editorial page of an English-language daily, The Star, owned by the prominent Jordanian Daily Ad-Dustour:
Middle East Undersea Cable Cutting: A Zionist-Neocon Covert Operation?
"...as of February 1, internet traffic routing through/from/to Iran has been cut to zero. Packet loss is 100 percent...Internet traffic to Israel has been unaffected" and "Lebanon and Iraq have been 'spared the chaos.' So, the sudden, unprecedented round of undersea, communications cable cutting in the Middle East leaves Israel and Iraq still connected, while completely shutting down the Iranian Internet. Funny how that works, isn't it."
--So the author is proposing that the cable cutting was a premeditated act by the Americans and Israelis designed to target Iran. But how? Why?
"As it happens, the US Navy has for decades had special operations teams that go out on submarines and deploy undersea, on the seabed itself, specifically for cutting or tapping communications cables...It may be that this is what the beginning of a war against Iran looks like. Or maybe we are merely seeing a dry run, a practice run, for a planned, upcoming war against Iran. The cables that have been cut are among the largest communication pipes in the region, and clearly represent major strategic targets."
Sounds like this guy should be ghost-writing for Clancy...
**Update (4 March): Looks like the Iranians are already two steps ahead of the U.S./Irsael--
"Iranian Internet users face blockage during coming election"
"The Iranian government might block private access to the Internet for the general legislative election on March 14...Several million Iranians follow political news on the Internet, and political parties have their own active Web sites."
Unfortunately, a recurring theme in some Arab news media (and even more individuals' points of view), is a tendency to filter some unexplained news events through a conspiracy filter. Not that Western cultures are at all immune to this predisposition either (the continued resonance of JFK and Princess Diana assassination theories comes to mind), but the asymmetrical power relationship that usually sparks this kind of explanation is a remnant of the region's colonial and Cold War experience and a continuing part of modern day political life here--whether the culprit is Israel, America, or some combination of the two in a form pan-Western meddling.
Although these beliefs, when manifest in news media, are almost always confined to the editorial page or the marginal comments of a guest on one of Al Jazera or Al Arabiyya's "talking heads" analysis programs, their presence is a nonetheless regrettable sign of the the media's role in legitimizing and sustaining this mode of thinking. For example, the death of long-time Hizbollah terrorist operative Imad Mughniyeh in a car bomb in Damascus gave rise to a flurry of American-Israeli covert operation theories ("Mughniyeh's Death is a Harbinger for a New War").
However understandable that cognitive connection may be in the Mughniyeh story (given he was a top priority on Mossad and FBI anti-terror lists since the 1980s), this next story still made me laugh. It comes from the editorial page of an English-language daily, The Star, owned by the prominent Jordanian Daily Ad-Dustour:
Middle East Undersea Cable Cutting: A Zionist-Neocon Covert Operation?
"...as of February 1, internet traffic routing through/from/to Iran has been cut to zero. Packet loss is 100 percent...Internet traffic to Israel has been unaffected" and "Lebanon and Iraq have been 'spared the chaos.' So, the sudden, unprecedented round of undersea, communications cable cutting in the Middle East leaves Israel and Iraq still connected, while completely shutting down the Iranian Internet. Funny how that works, isn't it."
--So the author is proposing that the cable cutting was a premeditated act by the Americans and Israelis designed to target Iran. But how? Why?
"As it happens, the US Navy has for decades had special operations teams that go out on submarines and deploy undersea, on the seabed itself, specifically for cutting or tapping communications cables...It may be that this is what the beginning of a war against Iran looks like. Or maybe we are merely seeing a dry run, a practice run, for a planned, upcoming war against Iran. The cables that have been cut are among the largest communication pipes in the region, and clearly represent major strategic targets."
Sounds like this guy should be ghost-writing for Clancy...
**Update (4 March): Looks like the Iranians are already two steps ahead of the U.S./Irsael--
"Iranian Internet users face blockage during coming election"
"The Iranian government might block private access to the Internet for the general legislative election on March 14...Several million Iranians follow political news on the Internet, and political parties have their own active Web sites."
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