Tidy up… and Recycle!

Do you know how there’s always this drawer or two in your room that are too intimidating to attempt to sort out in any regular clean up??

Or is it just me?

Yeah I admit I have a scary amount of paper, and it’s cramming more than just two drawers… so yesterday, out of the blue – ok not exactly since there was something I needed to find badly – I delved into my huge little store of files and paper and miscellaneous objects, and started cleaning up and sorting out. Then I was enjoying it so much, that I went into some of the older boxes to clear… I forgot about the test I needed to study for, I forgot about everything else that I needed to do, and I sat there with one huge bag for paper to be recycled on one side, and a trash bin on the other, picking up item by item, reading, smiling, rejoicing over stuff I had completely forgotten, and trying out tapes I didn’t know I had (I know I know who listens to tapes anymore – but try finding the Cranberries and Phil Collins and you’d really appreciate your old walkman at that moment).

The best thing is not feeling guilty about all the paper you need to throw away… why? Because you send it for recycling! We picked up this habit in the house three years ago; I was in my second year at university and got introduced to the Recycling Project at the Community Service Office. They had big containers distributed around the campus and the recycling company would come two to three times a week to empty them, and then there were attempts at awareness campaigns and related-activities; the Community Service Office had gotten a fund for this program from the UNDP, as part of its support for the Jordan BioGas project, and so there were resources to support the ideas. Back then there was a volunteer at the office from Peace Corps, he was so active and was doing great things with the recycling project, but sadly, he had to leave in the middle of it after the Michael Foley incident… Student volunteers continued running the program nicely, but for some reason it didn’t sustain the momentum!!

Now it just saddens me to see all the paper containers in the different faculties used as regular trash bins, but then again, there are no clear indicators next to them, and there isn’t sufficient awareness of the whole recycling concept and the importance of turning it into an everyday practice.

It really isn’t so hard; you just keep an extra container or bag in your room and throw all the paper in it regularly. The collection points I know of are at C-Town (7th Circle and Amman Mall) but I’m sure there are others. I always call the Friends of the Environment to ask. I hope that recycling can pick up more momentum in Jordan, and then may be we’d also learn to separate the organic waste as well. This can be used to produce clean burning methane gas, electricity, fuel, and fertilizer through a process that releases no greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

I would really encourage you to read more about great initiatives by local NGO’s – they are taking action and trying to instigate change! If only they have wider-reaching awareness campaigns!!

Friends of the Environment
Jordan Environment Society
UNDP Environment Projects in Jordan

Amman… & my Graduation Project

I was over at my friend’s house yesterday working on our grad project, and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the view from the small garden; it’s on the outskirts of Amman overlooking the city from a perspective we don’t get to enjoy everyday… and even though I sometimes find myself more drawn to the urban pulse, I really appreciate the peacefulness of a quiet neighborhood and the beauty of a spread-out view!

I took a prolonged route and enjoyed discovering that area while the streets were empty at the hour of Iftar, and on my way back I stopped to take a picture that I had been longing to take for so long; the Mosque at the Hussein Park – I just love it, it stands so beautifully on top of that hill, and I am no architect but I really like its design and the way it looks from a distance!

Oh, I realized recently that I’ve mentioned more than once here being occupied with my graduation project this semester, but never really told you what it is! Well, we’re working on developing a real-time traffic monitoring system with web and SMS reporting! Tadaaaa we’re a team of four and we got funded by the King Adbullah Fund for Development (KAFD) through the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB). They started this program a couple of years ago where they fund a number of technical graduation projects, and it’s such a great initiative because there are usually very limited resources for technical projects at our universities, and this has caused many of the professors to opt for more software-based projects that wouldn’t cost much with equipment whatsoever… or they would ask students to work on some theoretical research. That’s why we don’t graduate with sufficient practical knowledge and we don’t get to develop a professional problem-solving approach; I can honestly tell you that my graduation project is the second technical project I get to do throughout my four years of studying engineering (the first being a rare initiative by a new professor). It’s a shame!! That’s why I think what KAFD and KADDB are doing is superb. There should be similar support from the Private Sector to universities… I know of one such initiative by Fastlink – they have a new program called “Barra Al-Saf” supporting teams of students to do innovative ICT-related projects, and they provide them with training and mentorship and access to hardware. I think every successful private sector company should follow suite… corporations are making a lot of money and they are capable of making a real difference in society, and I’m not talking about philanthropy – I’m talking about it being an obligation, an obligation that should be carried out through sustained programs.

Let’s go back to what this post started with; views of Amman. The other I was out taking pictures for the project (getting some traffic flow parameters using image recognition)… and while pulling a stunt to get the right angles of the “kilo” circle, I couldn’t resist taking this one which I felt reflects the construction-mania in Mecca street, don’t you think?

We’re the Asian Cup Champions :D

WoOoHoOOooO!! Jordan’s Al-Faisali just beat Lebanon’s Al-Najmah in the second leg of the Asian Federation Cup Final 3 – 2 in Beirut after having won the first leg match in Amman last week 1-0, bringing home the first-ever Asian trophy in the history of Jordanian football!

Beautiful match! Khaled Sa’ed was definitely the man. He scored Al-Faisali’s first goal, before Moussa Hjeij equalized for Al-Najma from a penalty kick. Then Khaled returned in the second half to score again for Al-Faisali, and yet again it was Hjeij who scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute. That’s when things started looking risky for Jordan, anything was possible… we were kept on our toes with high forward pressure from the lebanese and unfocused play from our side. Still the draw would’ve been enough for us to take home the cup, which might explain this laid-back performance… but the guys had their good moments and knew how to take advantage of the holes and mistakes in the lebanese defence, with Captain Hassouneh Al-Sheikh scoring a third goal and closing the match with pride and ecstacy.

It’s during games like these that I miss our commentator Mohammad Al-M3aidi… I could just hear him yelling with all the excitement in the world “YAH YAH!! 7ilweh ya wlad… yalla ya wlad!! YAH 3alaik ya Khaled Sa3ed!!”

Victory is sweet I can hear the cars and cheers and honking outside right now… it’s a night of celebration for Jordanians!

You gotta love football!

Rum Group Performing in Tunis and Damascus

The brilliant Tareq Al-Nasser and his group RUM will be performing in Tunisia and Syria this week – so if you are anywhere close, I’d say DON’T MISS IT! Their music is amazing – passionate, authentic, vibrant… and different!

Related:

Rum and Shibly Band Concert last August

The Cyber Space Late Night Show

It’s almost 1:00 AM, I’ve had two cups of coffee in the last two hours, but looks like sleep is going to win this time…

Here are some tidbits for you before I go;

The Belfast Telegraph has a very interesting article about MBC’s Arabic version of the Simpsons - Al Shamshoun. I personally haven’t seen it, and I was never really a Simpsons fan in the first place, but I agree with those who say that the show would lose its most distinguishable traits with all the modifications made to it so as ‘not to offend the arab audience’.

Michel Costandi, business-development director of MBC TV Network, was quoted to say: “I think The Simpsons will open new horizons for us to the future. We are opening up a new genre of programming in the Middle East.” Excuse me… but what new horizons?? Is this the progress and originality Arab media is aiming for??

Sherine El-Hakim, head of Arabic content at VSI Ltd, a London-based company that dubs and subtitles TV shows for broadcasters and corporations, told the Wall Street Journal that Arabisation is going to boom in these next few years, because “we’re such an impressionable people and we aspire so much to be like the West, that we take on anything that we believe is a symbol or a manifestation of Western culture.” ~sigh~

On a different note, the Observer writes about a new wave of young, educated and opinionated people determined to sidestep the consumerist perils of modern life… “if you own a 4×4, spend all your time shopping, or are simply overweight – watch your back.” At the end of the article there’s a short questionnaire to let you figure out where you stand – here’s what I got:

There is no doubt that you mean well and are flirting with the temperate outlook, but you are still too frightened of being thought of as extreme. [...] you cannot bear to acknowledge the demise of libertarianism.

I suppose it’s true – I mean, I choose not to eat fast food and not to drink anything fizzy, I feel like a sell out when I shop at Zara and Stradivarious (but am not doing anything about it!!), and I’m not a TV person… but I’m not sure we should get to the point where ‘good choices’ are imposed by the law. I don’t know!! Oh well, do read the article.

One last piece of news (that’s two weeks old):

Miniwheels_3 has a blog!

Go get’em sis

That’s it for tonight folks… Looks like I might be able to pull off another hour and perhaps get some studying done.

All the Colors of the Rainbow

I’m sure many would agree when I tell you that Jabal Amman is my favorite part of town – especially the First Circle and Rainbow Street, with all its surrounding area. I absolutely love the aura of the place, I love Amman’s old houses there, I love how cozy the streets feel, and I love the diversity it offers… bringing modern enjoyable hangouts with the most wonderful view and feel of the old town. Think Wild Jordan the Café, Coffee ‘n News, Books@, the Bakehouse, the Royal Film Commission with its great summer terrace… and while we’re at it, let’s not forget the Amman Bowling Center (the one and only AbudDahab) and the legendary Falafel Al-Quds… Oh and the original and brilliant JARA flee market.

It’s great that the municipality is recognizing the vivacity and importance of Rainbow street (officially known as Abu Baker Al-Siddeeq Street) with major plans for renovation and revitalization to take place at the beginning of 2006, as reported in Al-Ghad. The emphasis will be on highlighting and bringing forth the cultural character of the street which has been built 80 years ago.

On the entrance of the street at the First Circle, big banners will hold the tag line “My Street of Many Colors“, and will tell its history. On top of the old Rainbow Cinema theatre, a huge screen will be set up, displaying old films from the 60’s and earlier.

At the corner of “Nzoul el Serveece”, underneath the old trees, there will be a kiosk facing an old house that the municipality is turning into a museum with Bohemian graffiti and old paintings, and that overlooks Amman’s Castle (Jabal el-Qal’a). Pedestrians in the street will be able to enjoy traditional delicacies and drinks with flavors from the early 20th century, before they reach the old house of the late King Talal, where his late Majesty king Hussein spent his childhood and youth until the early 50s. The municipality will bring down four stores that are blocking this old building, and will have in their place a kiosk selling and distributing brochures about the history of the street and the royal house.

At the end of the street, plans are to build a new parking lot that can take up to 120 cars, as well as a café.

Rainbow street is also home to the Center for Studies on the Built Environment, the Jordan River Foundation Show Room, and the British Council.

Experts assure that ‘neo-liberal’ restructuring projects like Abdali’s 1 billion dollar project are not what will help Amman compete with cities of the region such as Beirut, Cairo, and gulf cities in drawing foreign tourism and investment. The emphasis should be on Amman’s unique characteristics, namely it’s topography (with the old stairs connecting its streets), downtown (el Balad) with the surrounding neighborhoods and hills, and the quiet residential areas with a special Ammani architectural style.

Cheers to the Amaneh for their vision and efforts… I can’t wait for this one to be done; I’m definitely optimistic and excited!

Oh – and forgive my poor attempts at translation, I would highly recommend that you read the article in Al-Ghad if you can, very nicely written and a very interesting and enjoyable read.

On the Streets of Amman

Seems like everyone is constantly complaining about the traffic jam in Amman these days! Yes, I admit, it is crazy… it is a nightmare when you want to go home from university at 1:00 PM, not only is it a mission-impossible to catch a cab or find foot space on a bus, but more nerve-wrecking when you see the endless queues of cars on the roads, moving one inch at a time! Everyone is so grumpy, everyone behind a wheel becomes terribly quick-tempered… and since it’s psychologically harmful to lock up feelings and allow it to turn into pent-up anger, everyone either honks it all out or exercises their vocal chords and creative vocab.

Having said that – I must also admit that this entire talk about traffic is over-consumed!! Yes Amman’s population is growing, yes the number of cars on the streets is increasing disproportionally, yes we need a much better public transportation system to solve the issue… but you know what, while it’s here, we might as well learn to deal with it – less unpleasantly

Yesterday I was stuck in traffic in Shmeisani at 13:45! For those of you who know Shmeisani, you can imagine what kind of traffic we’re talking about… and I started getting fidgety and restless, looking at my watch every minute and trying to figure out ways to fly over the cars or at least find the nearest exit to a street less jammed! Every clear path I found eventually found its end at a bottle neck… the trip that would normally take 10 minutes took 45!! While sitting there, stuck in a line of cars at a traffic light so far from me that I couldn’t see it, I realized something… I’m going to be late anyways, so what the heck! I might as well enjoy the ride. The weather was perfect (a beautiful fresh breeze most suitable for walking or running), I rolled down the windows, Mood was playing some of my favorite songs, and I tried to just breathe slowly, and smile I figured I can just use this time to relax instead of wear myself out with tension… You could sense everyone fuming in the cars next to you, you could sense the adjacent driver (and the one behind you, and the one in front) staring, because that is what Jordanians do at traffic lights (and everywhere on the streets for that matter) they stare… you can feel bugged and annoyed all you want, it’s not going to change anything! Relax. You can even read a magazine while waiting for some movement to take place!

Next time you’re stuck in traffic – remember: Hakuna Matata ;p ok ok forgive the cliche, but seriously now, smile just smile… and kick back! And in cases of important appointments and urgency, just start your journey 30 minutes earlier than you think you should. Come on, let’s change the general façade of Jordanians on the street; the grumpy, cranky, frowning lot! Do you think you can do it?

to blog…

I got a very interesting email today telling me about the Felix Moley Journalism Competition. Naturally, I was excited to find out more and to see if there’s a chance for me to participate (y3ni bil 3arabi in3ajagt!) This competition is organized through the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS)– an organization that promotes concepts and ideas of individual liberty.

Anyways, the rules of the competition state that you have to submit three to five already published articles. Fair enough, right… except I was a bit surprised and disappointed when I read the following:

Publications qualifying for consideration include editorials, op-eds, articles, essays, and reviews. Applicants are encouraged to submit news and feature pieces in student newspapers, magazines or other periodicals for consideration.“Blog” entries will not be considered.

Why wouldn’t Blog entries be considered??!! I’m not talking about myself here but about the principle in general!! There are some serious, professional, highly interesting and informative blogs out there! Just as I was thinking blogs are playing a very important role vis-à-vis today’s mainstream media, and that they are a powerful tool of expression, especially in countries with less press freedom and less open media… how come they aren’t recognized as “published” writings by an Institute supporting liberal values? In a move that supports and promotes blogging, “Reporters without Borders” recently published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, recognizing blogging as a form of journalism… or at least that’s what it looked like to me… please correct me if I’m wrong!

Apparently this is an old topic… but I came across this interesting article that looks at Journalism vs. Blogging (on a nice website I found: the Big Blog Company), and it links to other good articles exploring and tackling the point… worth checking out if you’re interested.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just send the folks at the IHS an email and find out the reasons and logic behind their stand.

Al-Jazeera’s Children Channel

One of the things I constantly complain about is my little bro’s addiction to cartoons and computer games. Now there’s nothing wrong with cartoons – I have such sweet memories of the ones we used to watch in my days – but to have it available 24/7, mostly full of commercial crap and purposeless entertainment is very disturbing. Ok so may be it’s unfair for me to generalize and be judgmental, I’m sure Spacetoon, MBC3, and Arteens have some interesting stuff… but I definitely see something wrong with the majority of today’s cartoons; the only message and value they seem to transmit is the same old cliché of the battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, used to cover up the emptiness of content which is all about fictional creatures!! Also, it’s painful to see that there are no cartoon characters or stories inspired by our reality and culture… none whatsoever! I wonder what made the Japanese anime dominate the world in this area. Wouldn’t it be nice to have an authentic local cartoon character for a change??

Yesterday it was quite a pleasant surprise when dad accidentally came across Al-Jazeera’s new Children’s Channel (not exactly new since it was launched last month – but new to us). He told Laith about it, who wasted no time in sitting and getting a taste of some of its programs. What I found interesting is that the educational programs it promoted seemed actually fun and gripping; unlike the stereotype of preachy documentaries. It has a high percentage of original content, another asset compared to the dominance of imported material on other kids’ channels. I caught a glimpse of a children’s talk show with young presenters from different Arab countries hosting various guests and tackling interesting issues.

All of these are first impressions… but I can tell you, at first glance, something there impressed me, and recently I’m not easily impressed by anything on TV! I’m very curious to follow what this channel will offer!!

This whole thing got me thinking about Al-Jazeera in general, and about the idea of Pan-Arabism in particular. There’s a lot that I’ve wanted to share with regards to this, but that’s definitely something for a separate post and a more structured-thinking mood. Until then, I guess I’m pondering the major impact Al-Jazeera had on Arab media and politics over the past decade, and what impact this new children’s channel will have on the culture of kids in the Arab world. Quoting from the official website of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development – the funding body of the channel:

JCC is committed to making a difference in the lives of Arab children. Through its edutainment content, JCC promotes self-esteem, understanding and freedom.

The channel already defines and promotes itself as a “Pan-Arabic Youth Television Channel”.

I honestly don’t know what to think… I haven’t had the chance to formulate an opinion yet, but it’s definitely something to ponder and reflect upon. And in the mean time, I definitely wouldn’t mind having Laith watch something other than B-Blade and “Sabeq wa La7eq”

PS. Here are some interesting articles I came across about Al-Jazeera – I’ll leave you with that until I get the mood to reflect more deeply on this entire topic and write something more thought-out.

Is Al-Jazeera the new symbol of Arab Nationalism?

Africa Needs an Al-Jazeera

Al-Jazeera’s Brand Name News

These are a few of my favorite things…

1. Za3tar (thyme)… whatever form it takes; manaqeesh, in sesame bread, on labaneh, dry with halloum cheese in mu3ajjinat, with other herbal drinks… you name it, but nothing tops a freshly baked manqoosheh!!
2. Honey… for a long time I couldn’t stand honey because it was too sweet, but now I absolutely love it, especially with yoghurt
3. Dates, and dried apricots
4. Fresh milk, and again only recently… when I was younger I used to close my nose to be able to drink it, and I used to gulp it down quickly so I wouldn’t feel the taste, but now I really enjoy it and take my time sipping it!!
5. Homemade Fig marmalade, with a hint of cinnamon.
6. Lebnani Snack’s Fruit Cocktail – the best in town.
7. Lebnani Snack’s fresh juices, especially Kiwi or Grape.
8. tiny tomatoes from our farm.
9. mama’s tabbouleh – no competition

10. my oatmeal and coconut cookies
11. Um Ali (can someone help me explain it?)
12. Nescafe Gold with a touch of cardamom – my fake Arabic coffee
13. broccoli
14. Carrots, and carrot cake
15. Sweet potatoes baked on the old gasoline heater in the kitchen during winter.
16. Stuffed vine leaves

17. After Eight, whether chocolate, or cake at Chez Hilda
18. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate made in the UK.

Once you start writing such a list, you keep remembering more things and can go on and on… but I’m going to stop here, partly because 18 is my favorite number, and partly because…well… I’m feeling a bit silly! It’s 2:00 AM, and I have to go to University at 8:00 tomorrow morning, ie. In 6 hours!!