'Weird News' Update

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