Democracy in Schools

This photo is at the entrance of the school where I’m giving an INJAZ course on Leadership to 9th graders. We’re already almost two months into the course. I don’t know why I haven’t been sharing reflections and thoughts like I did last semester. Not for lack of them, that’s for sure! The school is an all-girl “Military Culture and Education” school, and I’m left with some interesting observations (“interesting” being the tricky word that it is).

Every time I walk through the door and read that sign, I get lost in thoughts, and start trying to ponder how this really translates into what the girls are learning from a very tender age at school. I guess the realization that keeps re-affirming itself, is that practices of participative democracy just haven’t been properly engrained in our culture. Most families, schools, and society at large, are in one way or the other authoritarian regimes. Not to mention that apathy generally results from feeling that whatever you do does not really affect the decision making process or make a difference. Add to all of that, lack of dialogue and debate skills; the inability to really truly listen to one another. I don’t want to generalize, but I’m reflecting upon observations, especially those resulting from my interaction with school students.

In a recent INJAZ session, I was just going around the classroom having discussions with the different project groups. I found two girls yelling at each other regarding whether or not to postpone a biology exam they had the next day. I stepped in and was like “yalla fight, pull each others hair, come on, punch her, this is how you will win and have the exam postponed!!”

I asked the class to pay attention for a minute, and told them that we are going to have a vote. One girl would speak in favor of postponing the exam, for one minute, and then another would have a minute to speak against it, before everyone votes. The girl who stood to talk in favor was like:

“We want to postpone the exam because, well, um,… oh come on we really don’t feel like studying today!!”

The girl who spoke against didn’t even get the chance to finish half a sentence before everyone started interrupting and yelling remarks from their places.

The majority voted in favor of postponing, although personally I knew that the more logical and convincing argument was against it. One side of my brain says “what if the majority are emotional, illogical, and don’t know what is best for them? Says who that majority rule is the best way of governance?”

Note that this is just one side of my brain. People should have the power of free choice, but they should also have the information and tools to be able to make a choice.

These thoughts are reigniting at a time when I’m reflecting retrospectively on a conference I participated in last weekend, about the US Democracy Strategy in the Middle East, bringing together 25 young Americans and 25 young Jordanians for a very rich and thought-provoking debate.

I have some points to share about the conference, with regards to the panel speakers, the issues, and the final recommendations and interesting voting outcomes. I will definitely make time for that during this three day weekend we’re getting

My favorite recommendation and conclusion we came to was the need to create programs that engrain the culture of participative democracy since early childhood. Get kids involved in constructive debate, let them vote on issues that directly affect them, and see results of their participation… to know that one vote can make a difference and that participation is a responsibility. Let it take 20 years before we see results of such a thing, but we need to start somewhere!

Fun Run at the Dead Sea Marathon

Last Friday was the day of the annual Dead Sea Ultra Marathon, and although I hadn’t been training much, I decided to participate in the 10K category – also known as the fun run. I managed to convince a group of the students I work with to participate, and 20 of them did!

The number of people who take part in this event keeps increasing year after year; when I went to register two days before the marathon, all the 10K numbers were gone, and it took some exceptional measures to get all 21 of us registered. I wish I had taken pictures that day of the employees and volunteers at the Society for Care of Neurological Patients, the organizing body of the Marathon since 1993, along with the Amman Road Runners. The place was a busy bee cell, and it was wonderful to see the effort and dedication they put in to make this work and to make it the successful and internationally acclaimed event that it has come to be.

One of the things that ticked me off on the day of the race though, was how runners were throwing away the empty water bottles and the sponges on the side of the street. I soon realized that I cannot really blame the people, because there was not a single trash bin all along the road to the Dead Sea… NOT ONE!! I mean, this is something the organizers should’ve paid attention to. They had a lot of details taken care of, and having trash bins wouldn’t have been difficult.

Apart from that, I had a wonderful time; it was very refreshing. I loved seeing so much diversity of people participating; little kids and elderly. Of course, in 99% of cases, when you see an old person running you can immediately guess he or she is not Arab. It really gets me thinking, when I see people as old as my grandma, dressed in Athletic gear and running, not the 10K, but the 42K… it makes me wonder what it takes to be like that when you grow old, and what are the obstacles towards that in this part of the world.

Oh, and I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this… selling shorts! I wonder how many they’ve sold

Exploring Public Transportation

The mechanic said the car will be out tomorrow… sooner than I expected, which means less time for the experiment, but I’m not exactly complaining.

Nasim, being the bus expert in the blogosphere with his graduation project “BiSCA”, was kind enough to send me some information on bus routes between Rabieh and 8th Circle, along with the fare. But I figured, suppose I wasn’t lucky enough to know someone who has actually gone through the process of collecting all the detailed information on the bus system in Amman… what would I do?

I picked up the phone and called the Public Transport Regulatory Commission, and asked the lady who answered: “where can I find information on all bus routes in Amman?” and she replied, with apparent suspicion in her voice “may I ask why you want this information?”

“uh… for personal use”

“Who would ask for such information for personal use??!!” she said

Because I want to commute by bus, perhaps!! I, having no problem making a short story long, explained to her why I am looking for the information, and she finally said:

“Oh if you’re looking for something like maps, they are not finished yet but we are working on them. In the meantime, you can send an email to the commission, and tell us the areas you want to know routes for, and we’ll tell you.”

Turn to another practical source of information; bus drivers themselves.

Needing to go from Queen Nour St. to Rainbow St., I walked to 8th circle, found multiple “coaster” buses standing, and went up and asked the “control”…

Take the “Muhajireen” bus to third circle, and then take a “service” cab from the 3rd to the 1st.

Perfect

The Bus in question showed up less than 2 minutes later, and it stopped for a minute before it started moving again. Note that this was at an official bus stop. Between 8th circle and 6th circle, the bus stopped 6 times, 5 of which were unofficial stops… random points along the way to pick up passengers and drop others.

Between 4th and 5th, the bus stopped at an official point and took a passenger, and then stopped again a few meters later to take another.

The drive to 3rd circle took 12 minutes, and it took 5 minutes only to wait for the “serveece”. Six minutes later, I was in Rainbow St.

Not bad at all.

This morning however was a completely different story. While there was an available ride to work, I insisted on going by bus. I walked in the beautiful fresh morning breeze for 15 minutes before getting to the main street where the big yellow bus passes. Unlike coaster buses that arrive very frequently, those bigger ones are slower and less frequent, so I kept my fingers crossed that I wouldn’t have to wait more than 15 minutes.

I couldn’t find a marked bus stop, so I just stood where I saw a group of people standing, also waiting for a bus.

15 minutes later, the bus appeared from a distance. Yuppeeee it stopped 50 meters ahead of where we were standing, and started moving before I could head towards it, so I just signaled with my hand, but the bus kept going, and then stopped something like 50 meters afterwards. I didn’t quite get that because neither points were “official”, so how come it didn’t stop for me?? Regardless, I started running to catch it before it starts moving again… passengers where stepping down so I hoped this would buy me time, but no… the bus left before I could reach it!!!

It was not full, and I had been standing in a very visible place, and it did stop at short intervals. In any case, it was pointless to try and figure out why I missed it!

But that was it. Furious, I gave up and hailed a taxi.

…

More thoughts on the bus experiment to come…

Car-less in Amman

I had two car accidents in three days. The first caused a minor bumper scratch, but the second was more serious; leaving me somewhat shaken and the car inoperable until fixed, which would probably take a while.

I’m not going to say “you don’t appreciate what you have until you lose it” because the truth is that I’ve always really appreciated having a car, and fully realized how dependent I am on it. Yesterday, as I started emptying the car of my personal belongings before dad takes it to the insurance company, I paused to look at all the stuff that were in there; the bulky camera kit and filming equipment in the trunk, the magazines in the back seat, the Injaz volunteer bag, and other work files and paper scattered around, besides of course the tapes that no one but me would listen to… I figured that my car has really become my second room over the past year. Ones car can be a great sanctuary, a place where you get some time to space out, sort of.

My dad was commenting about the dramatic increase of cars on the streets of Amman, and what it might be like this summer. That’s when the dreary thought hit me that Amman’s streets will be unbearable within a couple of months, and that traffic will be suffocating to say the least. NOT a pleasant thought!!

I then started trying to envision some solution; what would one resort to in order to keep business and activities running as usual without having to be put through the torture of heavy traffic?

A scooter perhaps; maneuvering through any traffic jam and parking easily, now isn’t that nice? The only problem is that, with the way people drive here, a scooter driver would be very highly prone to accidents, and in this case there is no bumper to get the scratch!

How about a bicycle? Well… I had to make you smile Didn’t they once say something about creating a bicycle lane on the Queen Nour St. (between the Hussein Park and somewhere)? In any case, what good would a lane on one street bring, other than cycling for leisure and not to actually get somewhere?

Then I thought, why not just walk? If one can keep a supply of tissues to manage the allergic reactions caused by all the trees on the sidewalk (when a sidewalk exists, that is), if one can keep a straight face and ignore the car honks and comments, if ones destination does not involve a meeting where you need to look fresh and smell fresh, and if one is not in a hurry and can manage to give over an hour to get from one place to the other… then why not walk? (to give credit where credit is due, GAM is already uprooting trees from the sidewalks and moving them elsewhere to make Amman more pedestrian-friendly)

Let’s just say that my train of thoughts took me back to the street; if only there were less cars on the streets, one can get from a place to the other by whatever moving vehicle, relatively peacefully and efficiently. It goes without saying that the only way for that to happen is for people to have a decent alternative to personal cars; a.k.a, a reliable public transportation system. I keep reading and hearing about plans for that to happen, and being the optimist that I am, I will just look forward to it with good faith, but until that happens… what do we do?

Since I’m going to be car-less for over a week, I’m going to seize the opportunity to conduct a little experiment, and give our existing public transportation system a chance. I’ll try to minimize the use of taxis to things that are extremely urgent, and try to resort to the bus system and understand how it works here. Back in my university days I used to take the bus very often, but that was just between university and home. I also took the bus to Irbid and Kerak for work at some point. But now the challenge is to find efficient paths inside the city, and try to find information on things such as stops, destinations, routes, and times. No.. I’m not expecting to find a comprehensive bus guide or bus map, but I’m sure this information can be found somewhere, don’t you think?

I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.

Story of a City…

I love early mornings. I love coffee from Cups and Kilos. I love the daylight saving time. And I love the beginning of Amman’s spring before the sands from the South and East start creeping into our clear blue sky.

I recently finished reading Abdul Rahman Munif’s “Story of a City”, which tells the story of Amman in the 1940’s. The book is wonderfully intimate, drawing a picture of Amman in that era through the lens of personal memory. Memory is an intriguing thing, oftentimes filtering, reshaping, and adding a tint of its own.

I am very tempted to go off on a tangent, as “memory” is one of the topics that fascinate me the most about human nature and life. But I won’t. Not here and now at least.

I was thinking about Munif’s book as I was driving to work at 7:30 in the morning, smiling at the thought of a time, barely 60 years ago, when first circle was considered to be at the edge of Amman (with the Husseini Mosque downtown as the center, mind you!) It was amusing to read about how, when the Scientific Islamic College was built past first circle, people wondered why a school was built so far, and students struggled to get there through the rain and mud. The book tells of the people who lived in Amman at the time, the street corners, the stairways, the market downtown, the lifestyle, and some of the events that had an impact on the city. It describes the path of the “river” that ran through the heart of the city, next to which the Circassians settled when they first came to Amman. Munif talks about the time of World War II and how it affected Ammani’s in terms of inflation, scarcity of supplies, and the gatherings in the house of the neighborhood that was lucky enough to have a radio that picks the signal of Radio Berlin.

One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was towards the end, describing the political climate around 1947. The three secondary schools in Amman (The Bishop, the Islamic College, and the Hussein College) were a fertile soil for growing activism and political awareness. Students would collaborate in organizing street demonstrations, and a school paper (Sawt Al Jabal) – published by Irbid highschool – was a vibrant platform for student voices all over Jordan at the time.

Makes one wonder what happened to really effective student publications and to youth being involved in public life?

My dad, who also read the book, tells me that you’d enjoy it more when you can relate to what Munif is talking about. To me however, the book is a chance to reflect on Amman’s character and how it grew and evolved. It makes me want to go on a journey of retracing the places mentioned, seeing what remained, what changed, and what completely disappeared. Can you be nostalgic to something you haven’t actually lived?

I stole this photo off Natasha’s blog she has some pretty interesting ones of Amman in the past..