Aaaarrrrggghhh!!

This stupid computer froze 4 times in the past 2 and a half hours, forcing me to restart every time right before I’d saved the article I was working on, posted the blog entry I almost finished, sent the email I was writing, or bookmarked the really interesting webpage I found!! Aaaaaaarrgghhhh!! Just when I want Word’s auto recovery system to work it doesn’t!! Just when I need to resort to my explorer’s History the pages are not there!!! And just when I tell myself I won’t do the same mistake of not saving again, I’m one minute too late!!

I guess I’m too lazy (and busy) to decide to fix the problem with my anti-virus software (which expired a month ago) and figure out what is wrong with this device! This came at very bad time given that I still haven’t recovered from the painful ‘accident’ I went through a few days ago when 100 names were lost from my cell phone memory…ONE HUNDRED contact numbers!! The numbers on the SIM memory remained intact, so I immediately got started with the back-up process that had been on my mind for quite a while but that I never got around to.

One of these days I will do an experiment, I will turn off my cell phone and refrain from using the computer and internet for a week… and see how it goes! For one thing I’d probably be fired from my job, not to mention the irritation I’d be causing my friends who’d try to reach me… but I am so tempted to do it!! I’ll let you know when that happens.

The intro to the post I was writing went something like this:

Being an early morning person even when I don’t have to leave the house till midday means I got to enjoy an extended breakfast, a delicious cup of coffee, and a good tour of online news sources and blogs. Here’s a round-up for you…

It saddens me to admit that this relaxed, laid-back morning mood got spoilt… and that I no longer have time to share what I wanted to share right now!! Hopefully tonight… the post title would change from “Good Morning Cyber Space” to “The Cyber Space Late Night Show”.

Gotta go now, catch you folks later!

No Regrets ;)

Today marks the beginning of my final semester at UJ, it’s been six months since I started blogging, and this is post no. 101

I started writing this post on Saturday… and this is the fourth version! At first I wanted it to be highlights of my past four years at university with the unique experiences of each semester, but I realized before long that one post can’t do it! Then I thought that this is a good time and a good post to make some resolutions for my last semester, but I got stuck at resolution Number 2. The third time, I caught myself offering tips and tidbits of insights as a “baba sanfour” to the young smurfs… but when I came back to it I no longer felt this is what I want to post.

So here I am today, overwhelmed by thoughts and ideas but at a total loss for where to start and what to say… MiniWheels-4 has just started university (architecture in case you’re wondering)!! Four years ago this day seemed so far away… the one semester when four of us would be at uni and yet before I knew it, four years passed by!

Now I look back at my experience as an engineering student at the University of Jordan, and I can’t help but smile! Every semester brought something completely different with it, I got myself involved in so many things (some would argue too many things), learned so much about myself, and about Jordan. When you go to a private school in Amman, you’re trapped in a bubble… and nothing like a university of 32,000 students from all social backgrounds and mentalities to pop it in your face!

When I started my second year, it felt weird seeing all the sanafer (freshmen)… like they were intruders invading our territory, and my motto was that I want to be a “Sanfoura” (smurf = freshman) till I graduate! In one sense, that plan was against the laws of nature and the natural process of things… so I can’t say I succeeded. But in another sense, take a look at the Sanafer this week as they stroll around excited about the little things, noticing the details, filled with curiosity, loud and cheerful and enthusiastic… that’s the outlook and the attitude I was hoping to preserve, and that’s the attitude I want to start this final semester with.

Here are a few things that I still feel I want to do before I graduate:

-Have a picnic on the beautiful lawn… I have no idea why enjoying the green lawn has been relentlessly deemed as ‘7afartali’ by the so-called-cool crowd. I want to liberate myself from the meaningless labels and be able to enjoy what our UJ campus has to offer.

-Pay the new Dean of Student Affairs a visit and speak up my mind about a couple of issues that have been bothering me year after year (I will write about these very soon), possibly even get a petition signed to back our request.

-Write regular columns for “Saba7 el 7’air ya Handasseh” (Good Morning Engineering); our famous daily board magazine that greets everyone at the faculty entrance and that is dominated and run mostly by the Islamic Current. They could definitely do with some new ‘different’ voices.

-Change the fact that the Engineering Faculty Cafeteria is male-dominated territory. Not only is it a guys-only place, it’s also characterized by ‘closed communities’; the saltiyyeh, the i7’wan… etc. It’s not fair because the place is very convenient and comfortable to sit in during breaks, especially on cold winter days.

-Make use of the running track at the Physical Education faculty

-Organize a soccer and/or basketball game between our department’s professors and students.

-Take a picture riding the Dinosaur.

-Don’t spread myself too thin!

These are the ones on top of my head now. Expect some more to be added throughout the semester. I guess I’ll be taking more pictures at university during the coming four months (Four Months… that’s like before the end of winter!!!!) and I’ll keep my eyes more open to the quirks and details of the UJ experience. During my second year I wrote an article for the student newspaper regarding an incident that happened on campus. Being critical of the university’s action, the article was censored by the Dean of Student Affairs – simply pulled out before the paper went to print. I didn’t let it pass very peacefully (I seized an opportunity when I saw the university president and told him – in front of the Dean ;p ) the president’s response was very positive and supportive – except the article never made it!! But now, thankfully, I have my blog… so I don’t have to deal with some narrow-minded ‘Dean of Student Affairs’ deciding what I can or cannot say Isn’t blogging just great?

Oh well… enough blabbering for one post! Looks like version four is going to make it after all

Jordan Adventure Camp

Thanks to my new part-time job, I got to discover an amazing place called the Jordan Adventure Camp, where we’ve had training retreats for participants in a new student program. Being on the coordination team meant I got to go for three days in a row… and Oh did I love it!!

Very nice location, next to the horse-riding club on the Airport road… very beautiful setting, with a true camping spirit, lots of activities, games, and things to do, and a team of wonderful people running the place.

There were three ‘serious’ sessions during the day, but the most fun part for the students (and us) were the games of getting to know each other and then the different challenges of climbing, jumping, and doing the things we thought we couldn’t possibly do.

I’m not going to attempt to describe exactly what we did, I will let the pictures do that let’s just say it was a good challenge, great physical exercise (my sore arms attest to that), and loads of fun. After the first time I started adding twists and having more fun; hanging upside down, swinging head-down, jumping backwards, and climbing where I wasn’t supposed to ;p another cool aspect of being ‘staff’ and not participant

Just think where I was standing to take this picture of Seema

You can’t help but feel at home at the end of the day, and you can’t help but admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the people behind such a project. They’ve been holding summer camps for kids for the past three years now… and they’re planning on expanding the facilities. It’s a great place to spend the day with a bunch of friends, and a great place to get a summer job.

Oh and another good thing that came out of it for me; I’m going back to Tae Bo and a better fitness program – running on and off is definitely not sufficient, as my aching muscles have kindly reminded me.

Ok enough talking, I’ll leave you with the pictures…

Be there this Weekend for Fair Trade Jordan

A Consortium of NGO’s as well as the Enhanced Productivity Program are organizing three days of Fair Trade events:

- Friday 23: A Marketplace for goods and ideas, at Wild Jordan Nature Center, Jabal Amman (will extend to the JARA Flea Market)

- Saturday 24: A workshop for lesson learning, at Queen Zain Al Aharaf Institute for Development, Hashmi Shamali (I’ve been to the center before, wonderful place, great people, amazing spirit)

- Sunday 25: A platform to advocate with policy makers; Fair Trade delegation will attend the launch of the UNDP 2005 Human Development Report: Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World (by invitations only)

So what is Fair Trade? (off the leaflet and website)

It’s a growing international movement which aims to ensure that producers in poor countries get a fair deal. It means a fair price for their goods covering the cost of production and guaranteeing a living income. It means long-term contracts which provide real security. The Fair Trade movement globally is a powerful response to the problems facing commodity producers, it gives consumers an opportunity to use their purchasing power to tilt the balance of power in favor of the poor.

Read more

The goods covered by Fair Trade internationally include coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar… among others. Now locally in Jordan it would help producers of products like olive oil, honey, pickle, dried herbs, jameed… etc.

Be there on Friday and Saturday, participate in the event, buy Fair Trade goods, support Jordan’s local farmers and producers, and be part of supporting sustainable development. That’s not to mention the excellent choice of venue, and a chance to stop by the JARA Flea market if you haven’t already.

Big Cheers to JOHUD, IUCN, and the RSCN.

Bond and Fire of Anatolia @ the Dead Sea

The amazingly talented British quartet Bond and the brilliant Turkish dance group Fire of Anatolia will be performing at the Convention Center at the Dead Sea on Thursday and Friday 22nd and 23rd of September, as part of Fastlink’s celebrations of its 10 year anniversary.

Via Al-Ghad

I absolutely love Bond, they play with such incredible passion… and I love it when renowned international artists come to Jordan. Isn’t great when something like this comes out of a company’s big spending plans for marketing once in a while?

wouldn’t mind seeing more of that

Oh Long Summer Days You will be missed!!

One of the beautiful things signaling the arrival of Fall… the clouds…

There are many things I love about autumn, but shorter days and less hours of sunlight are NOT among them.

oh well… there’s nothing I can do about it, right?? I might as well learn to enjoy early sunsets and darker evenings, since it has been officially announced that as of Friday September 30th, the clock will be delayed by 60 minutes…

Bye bye summer!!

Go Sally :)

A couple of weeks ago my 15-year-old sis -known as miniwheels-5 (think; 3jeilat) decided to run for student council elections at her school.

The fun part was that they get to campaign for a week… yours truly tried to be the helpful big sister by suggesting some meaningful and powerful things to write on flyers and posters, but my suggestions were deemed “too serious”, so I just sat back and enjoyed observing some great teen-style creativity Sally also happens to make the best chocolate chip cookies ever, so she decided to use this as a little treat for potential voters ;p

This got me thinking about the school environment and our education system. I have come across so many opportunities for involvement and activities for university students, and I started wondering why we had no idea they existed back at high school and why we weren’t properly exposed to such concepts (with the exception of a handful of schools to be fair)! There are tons of ideas for projects and activities that can be implemented from 1st grade all the way to senior year… because there is just so much energy and creativity there it’s such a shame to let this potential go untapped, and because civic engagement should be introduced at an early age, and kids should get the chance to step out of the school bubble and become more aware. If we’re ever going to change the ‘why-bother’ mentality, schools – primary schools – are the place to start!

However, when you look at the University acceptance system, you realize that students and schools are not to blame for not giving a lot of emphasis to the extra-curricular aspect; it’s the GRADES that determine if you’re lucky enough to get that seat at a good Jordanian university and what major you get to study (or the money, but I don’t feel like getting started on the parallel program)! It wouldn’t matter if you were actively involved, wouldn’t matter if you have developed leadership skills, wouldn’t matter if you did community service, and wouldn’t matter if you were head of some student club whatsoever… No dear high school graduate! Sorry! This is all irrelevant for your university application! Please give us that slip with the number, and we’ll use it to decide if you’re qualified to get your choice or not… just that number at the end. What? Don’t we at least look at subject grades?? Why would we do that? It doesn’t matter if you got a very high grade in biology and messed up in Arabic… that doesn’t mean you deserve to be considered for medicine!! No dear kid… it’s just the grade, the final average, that one number at the bottom, see it? This is what you should’ve been working towards throughout your entire school years. Your performance in certain classes does not indicate to us you’re likely to do well in a certain major. Your record in activities, in personality development, in showing awareness… IRRELEVANT!! You should’ve known better than to get distracted by these ‘other stuff’!

Oops! (thinking doesn’t always start me ranting…but this topic hits a chord) Sorry Sally… this post was supposed to be about you! CONGRATULATIONS for winning your class council seat I’m so proud of you… and it always gets me excited and happy to see things like that taking place at school! So yalla… make the most of this opportunity, immerse yourself in it, bring out those creative ideas and make a difference in your small school community… I know you can

Where are the Students? (Part I)

It’s 4:00 AM as I’m starting to write this… just finished writing something that required quite a bit of mental energy, ate some cookies, made myself a cup of coffee, and now feel that my appetite for thinking and writing is still very open and I want to make the most of it while I can.

This issue has been on my mind for a while but I never got around to writing about it, until I came across this via Jordanian Issues. It’s directed towards American University students as they start the new academic year, and it’s so well-expressed and says a lot of what’s on my mind I couldn’t help but quote so much from it here.

Imagine students back on their campuses. Do they discuss what courses to take? Ways to hook up with new guys or gals? Upcoming athletic seasons? I’d be surprised if not, but I hope students’ also focus on war and peace. I hope they focus on New Orleans, and why calamities afflict the poor so much worse than all others. I hope they focus on why life in the world is so much less than it could be for the starving, the bombed, the unemployed, and for those working at jobs that rob dignity, stifle creativity, and subject so many souls to stupefying rule by others. I hope they even talk about working at elite jobs and having no time to live, no space to be humane, and no meaning beyond the next dollar. I hope students’ main topic this Fall is what they want out of life, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and yes, materially, and how they are going to get it consistent with their working hard for everyone else getting it too.
[…]
Imagine students deciding enough is enough. Maybe one particular student who wears a funny hat and has a history of being aloof, or perhaps one who looks straight as a commercial and was high school class most likely to have a million friends, will write a song about masters of the universe – and unseating them. Maybe another student will write about floods drowning people’s hopes, and about a rising tide of our own compassionate creation lifting people’s prospects. Maybe another student will write about resurgent racism and sullying sexism, and then about combative communalism and feminism and their time finally coming. And maybe students will hum the new tunes and sing the new lyrics – and rally, march, sit in, occupy, all while waving a big, solid fist.
[…]
Imagine students, now sharing many views and much spirit, angry and also hopeful, sober and also laughing, sitting in dorms and dining areas forming campus organizations, or even campus chapters of a larger encompassing national community of organizations – perhaps something called students for a participatory society this time around – or even students for a participatory world – and maybe even having each chapter choose its own local name.

Imagine young people, with time, energy, heart, and mind, discerning that they are being coerced by society most often to become passive victims, sometimes to become passive agents, occasionally to become active perpetrators but only as cruel and rich beneficiaries of society’s injustices
[…]

I think, I hope, students are about to not only reject statist war and corporate greed, but to carry that rejection into positive advocacy and anger that gives entire campuses and not small sub communities sustained commitment.

Embark Now, by Michael Albert

Sounds too romantically revolutionary and idealist?? Let me tell you… we badly need such a thing to happen! Now from where I’m standing, this looks like a beautiful fantasy, as far from our universities as it can get! Apathy and indifference are a plague among young people in our society. Looking back at four years I spent at university, I think about all the things I experienced, and all the lessons learnt (socially not academically)… and these observations keep coming to mind:

-True activism, speaking up, and taking a stand on issues important (and unimportant) to students is mostly limited to the Islamic current… everyone else just complains and does nothing! (more on Student Council politics and the Islamic current)

-With over 32,000 students, and something like 20 registered student clubs… only a handful of those are active, and almost always only by their executive boards – basically 7 students!!

-You could find a decent number of students involved with programs like INJAZ, the community service office, and the Career counseling office of KAFD… but a large number does it only to add a line or two to the CV, and even those who are serious about it are not the type who would choose to take a stand for something they believe in against the system or the administration, and they would mostly never worry themselves with politics…

-There’s a lot of fundamentalism… more than we’d like to believe! And it’s only spreading, especially with the lack of an organized opposing current. The vast majority is too apathetic… sometimes bordering on shallow, and sometimes just frustrated with a general feeling of “why bother? Nothing I ever do could possibly change anything!”

-Bureaucracy is another plague at UJ.

-Did you know that you’re not allowed to write petitions and collect signatures without official approval?! Now usually for pure academic issues like available classes and stuff, the rule is overlooked… but try signing a petition against some controversial university policy, and see what happens!

-UJ is also a very classist place; the most liberal and hippie sit in the “Adab” square, next to the faculty of arts – then the hip and cool community (where the girls all look the same) sits in the tree alley behind “wasfi” or nearby around the cars, and on “tal3et el tijara”… then you have the “nawar” street and the square next to it, which is generally labeled by those who consider themselves “cool” as “7afartali”… and the list goes on!!

… to be continued in another post! It’s 5:00 AM now and today is the last day of my internship so I don’t want to be late in the morning. This turned to be longer and more gloomy than I intended!!!

Untitled…

Ahmad Humeid wrote a very nice post about the new look of the Guardian, which was launched today Monday. In case you haven’t noticed, the Guardian Unlimited has become one of my favorite daily reads recently. Now it is not the technical details of the new design that grip me – but what has been going on behind the scenes in the fascinating world of a leading daily newspaper… we get a great glimpse of that through the eyes of editor Victor Keegan, as he blogs the entire launch day.

I don’t know why at one point I got goose bumps while looking at the vibrant snapshots from the newsroom and reading the posts that reflect the atmosphere and energy.

Journalism… it has always been my first true love; since I was 10!

Does your first love forgive you if you betray and fool around for a while??

Bicycle Memories

I was sitting on the couch in our farm very relaxed when I caught a glimpse of my brother’s new bicycle and the thought occurred to me; I haven’t gotten on a bicycle since the little accident, back in 1999…

It was after the French Examination (DELF) results came out and I got to go on a two-week trip to France, to an International Language and Sport Center (CILS) near Reims. I was 16 back then, and it was the first time I travel alone… so you can only imagine how happy and excited I was. Besides morning French language courses, the center offered opportunities to enjoy all kinds of sports in the afternoon… and so I didn’t spare any energy in trying out different things everyday; water-skiing, canoeing, climbing… until, on my 5th day there, I signed up for the cycling activity, where we take the bikes for a one hour ride through the fields all the way to the “Base Nautique”; the place where the water sports are done. I don’t know why I thought it would be a simple fun thing, and that my bike rides on the roof of our house qualified me for it. The terrain turned out to be a wee bit more difficult than I imagined… and well… to make a long story short, as I got to a road going downhill, the bike speed accelerated way too fast, I was losing control, and in a stupid attempt to slow it down, I put my feet on the ground… BIG MISTAKE!!! The bicycle flipped and turned a few times and tossed me (coincidentally) on a big square stone object lying on the side of the road. The helmet protected my head and the backpack covered my spine, but I got up to see my left arm dangling at a twisted angle… very unpleasant sight if you ask me!!

One of the group leaders went to call someone from the center while the others stayed with me. When I managed to look at my arm again I just held it in position, and the first thought that occurred to me was “wow I’ve never broken a bone before so this is quite an experience”. Little did I think of what would happen next or how this would affect the remainder of my two weeks.

At the hospital, the x-ray revealed a serious fracture in the upper left arm, and the doctor said he would try to stabilize it under general anesthesia but that it might need surgery. He said I should call my parents and see if it’s ok with them to do surgery if needed. I called home, and they were all at the door about to go to Jerash to watch Swan Lake… my sis had to call dad from the car for me :s

“Hi dad, how are you?”
…
“well, I…um, was… riding a bicycle, and…um… looks like I broke my arm!”
“WHAT???”
“Well… uh… the doctor says it might need surgery, and was wondering if you’re ok with it.”

Now my dad being a doctor, he wanted to talk to this French dude who was examining me and figure things out in the proper medical sense… only this French orthopedic surgeon barely spoke two words of English. So my dad told me “don’t let him operate, let him try to stabilize it in a cast, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll get you back here and have it done in Amman!” That’s when reality started sinking in; my fun days in France were coming to an abrupt end

I woke up from the anesthesia a couple of hours later to find myself completely wrapped up in a cast – which the doctor said was needed to keep my arm in place until I get back home, because the fracture was too unstable and surgery was unavoidable. I spent the night at the hospital, but with my back pack forgotten in the car, I had absolutely nothing with me… NOTHING! I had to ask the nurses for paper and a pen to write journals

Dad tried everything possible to get a visa quickly and come to France so I can have the operation done there, but it didn’t work, and I wouldn’t have wanted him to go through such trouble anyway… so two days later, I was on the plane back to Jordan – a week earlier than planned!

In case you’re wondering, doctors here said we can do without surgery… and they just replaced that vest of a cast with something a bit lighter that I had to keep on for SIX WEEKS! Yes six weeks of not being able to sleep in my comfortable position and six weeks of having my mom tie my hair up for me every morning and six weeks of properly understanding why God gave us two arms

Yet something great did come out of the experience after all… to make up for the week I missed, the lovely couple who run the center (CILS) sent me an invitation a year later to go there and spend THREE WEEKS and I did go, right after my tawjihi results came out, and after my parents made me promise not to do any risky sports (I mostly stuck with fencing and kick-boxing ;p )

So… yesterday, for the first time in 6 years… I got back up on the bicycle, and enjoyed a nice short ride on the bumpy road next to our farm! It sure felt good – and brought back a flow of memories. Don’t worry I’m not taking it up as my new regular exercise anytime in the near future. I still prefer running. And anyways, with the streets of Amman being not quite pedestrian-friendly, even less runner-friendly, I think cycling is a bit far fetched, wouldn’t you agree? ;p

PS. I tried putting the cast back on the way it was for these pictures, but looks like I’m not as petite as I was six years ago