The Jordanian Harassment Problem

How much of a bad boy blogger have I been? If it wasn't for a dear cousin of mine who took the time to complement this blog, it would have been totally out of mind. Put aside the fact that I'm on vacation, studies are minimal, and so on - I am just treating you unfairly oh blog, I beg your forgiveness. So many events have gone by without my blogging participation, I feel ashamed of myself - B4JO, or Blog for Jordan day, TEDxDeadSea, and  all the memorable and not-so memorable experiences that I went through, all down the drain. Yalla anyhow, subject at hand - the Jordanian harassment problem.

While riding a cab on my way back home last week from the ophthalmologist, we came to an abrupt stop as several women crossed the road. It seemed the driver was in a state of rage buildup - or something of that sort, when he suddenly turned his head to the right, looked me straight in the eyes, his cigarette now flaking all over the interior, and muttered: "Wallahi saro zlam".

The phrase referred to the women crossing, and literally translates to "by God's name they have become men". He further went on to emphasize his point, informing me most intelligently how women have brought themselves to have jobs, work in governmental positions, and even drive cabs. Now I would've been totally satisfied with his words had it not been for his pissed off, sarcastic tone of voice - and how he went on to comment about them not wearing hijab, their high heals, tight clothes, and so on.

Why is it, that female harassment has become the norm throughout Jordan? That everywhere I manage to be, I happen to see this phenomenon regardless of what the female is wearing? Hissing sounds, car stalking, Pepsi can throwing, and you can be creative with the rest. Is it sexual oppression? Lack of governmental / societal intervention? What is wrong with you people, what is wrong with us?

Like a friend recently told me how she was stalked by some fellows most vulgarishly, so she decided to inform the policeman in the nearby kiosk of their car number. The vehicle was found, the boys were stopped, but were released a few minutes later with no punishment whatsoever. Or like the story where a female working at a telephone company went complaining to her boss about her ever-so-rude and annoying coworker - later to find a nice note on her desk stating bluntly that she was fired for misbehaving.



Also worth mentioning is the deeply saddening issue of orphan harassment. I would like to thank Lara Hadi for her post ID000: Labeling Orphans when it's not their fault, which made me aware of this dire subject. Definitely worth a read, so please pay Sleepless in Amman a visit.

Why have we come to this I ask?

A Solar-Powered Jordan: Economic Independence a Heartbeat Away?

Check out my first blog post on TEDxDeadSea, a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience:

"As most of you know, Jordan today is edging and hoping for major reform; a whole makeover in terms of government, economy, and citizen lifestyle. But the fact still remains that our most obvious resources are not exploited in the least significant manner, and an estimated 96% of our energy needs are imported from abroad which accounts for more than 7.5% of our national income. The levels of energy and electricity consumption are expected to double in 15 years. Why should we bear this? And why are we not pushing harder for alternative energy solutions? This must change now.

Our beloved Jordan is considered to be one of the sun-belt countries, or a country which possesses high solar radiation on its horizontal surface. Each day, we wake up to a bright and shiny morning to get on with our lives, but why do we fail to notice the gleaming glory of the sun, a factor which we, as Jordanians, can make use off to lift our economic standing and pave the way for a new, energy independent Jordan? An answer which honestly beats me.

According to the Department of Statistics (DoS), domestic solar water heaters were used by 12 per cent of Jordanian families as of September 2010. What makes me lift my brow so surprisedly is the dodgy statistic that 26 per cent of Jordanians used to rely on solar systems in the 1990s. A 14% decrease, how can this be plausible? Are we a country that is moving forward in time and development or are we shrinking into corruption and black holes? I need to be assured as doubt has begun overcoming me.
Each solar water heater has the capacity to heat up to 150 liters of water, per day. According to the United Nations Development Programme, installing solar water heaters can significantly reduce agricultural waste since smoke produced through heating the water be decreased significantly. Household appliances used for heating water are also notorious for their green house gas emissions as they typically use oil or gas, and like hell we are in desperate need to cut our oil and gas consumption.

What is it exactly that I want you might be asking? What I need is an absolute reliance on domestic solar water heating systems in Jordan, an over 90% of houses with solar panels on their roof tops, a law insisting on the necessity of solar panels and provides loans for low-income familes to install them. That is what I want. Why should Spain, Israel, and Turkey be better than us in these regards, where solar water heating is standard practice in all homes? Why is our solar industry diminishing instead of expanding?

Now you are probably bobbing your head and ridiculing the idea as too expensive, that we don’t have the financial capabilities to do such a move. But the facts state otherwise. The cost of installing solar panels for domestic use ranges between JD450 and JD500, and the Kingdom’s annual expenditure on solar panels stands at around JD4.113 million. Let us put that into perspective, guess how much the country spends on tobacco producs each year? JD360 million, and ironically smoking-related diseases cost the country almost the same amount as stated by the Ministry of Health. Still, the news gets better. Solar experts in Jordan highlight that it takes less than three years to recover the cost of a domestic solar water heater. In other words, if you hopefully don’t die in the next three years, you would have purchased a solar water heating system and used it all free of charge for 1095 days, does it get any sweeter?

Today, Israel has the highest number of solar-power water heaters per capita in the world. By 1967 around one in twenty households heated its water with the sun and 50,000 solar heaters had been sold, I’m curious as to how many were sold in Jordan. With the 1970s oil crisis, Harry Zvi Tabor, the father of Israel’s solar industry, developed the prototype of the solar water heater now used in over 90% of Israeli homes. 4% of the country’s total energy demand is satisfied by solar panels for water-heating as estimated by the Israeli National Infrastructure Ministry, and solar water heating saves Israel two million barrels of oil a year. Need I say any more?

To sum it all up, I think Jordan has made a good effort to promote the solar industry by exempting energy-saving devices from sales tax and customs duties, and solar power is expected to account for 10 per cent of the country’s energy mix by 2020, not to mention the Shams Ma’an Solar Plant project which is said to become the largest solar power plant in the world upon completion. But even with that said, satisfaction is not in me, and I can hardly say my country has exerted enough to embrace solar energy and promote its technology and industry. What I want is to see this magnificent resource being abused.

To continue reading, please follow this link.

Disclaimer: This post has been partially re-blogged from the TEDxDeadSea blog where it was first published.

First Blog Anniversary and a Road Trip to Irbid

Who would have known time could run so fast! Browsing through the archive it just struck me that I missed Qahwa Saada's first year anniversary, which was supposedly on the 17th of January, boo. Accordingly, I'm actually six days late, but come to think about it, I guess I had an exam then, can't be too harsh on myself now, can I?

If you're worrying how yesterday went with all the packing, the road trip to Irbid one-on-one with a Jordanian gendermerie personnel, the unpacking, and the cleaning, I would like to comfort you and tell you that I made it back to Amman in one piece, I think.

First of, the guy came about three hours late, which prevented me from enjoying my falafel sandwich the way I was supposed to. Bought it from the Abu Jbara Medina St restaurant, and I payed a good deal more than I usually do for falafel sandwiches. So it turned out breakfast was rushed through for no reason. After I loaded everything into the KIA truck with his kind supervision, we set of on our journey.

Can't say I enjoyed the ride, it took about 45 minutes longer than it usually does, probably because I was in a truck full of furniture rather than a speeding 2011 Ferrari GTO rusty old Daio bus. To add to that, the trip was spent listening to overly loud Qur'an cassettes, traffic horns, and a load of interesting swear words. Plus, the driver had no idea where he was going. Irony. Things progressed pretty smoothly from there, I found out my key to the apartment neither opened nor closed the front door, and all I got was an order to get new keys from the shop around the corner.

As much as I love the city of Irbid, the second largest in Jordan after Amman, and the hometown of my ancestors, one can't help but note how dirty the city is, and by dirty I mean plastic bags and tin cans blanketing the lands all around. This brings me to how clean I found my kitchen and bathroom to be; my stove was drenched in greasy remains, with a lot of grease stains infiltrating the counter top. Stepping into a puddle I also found a leaking pipe in the bathroom, and the best thing of it all was the toilet. No other words would describe it than utterly befouled. Now luckily the water bill isn't on me, and I wouldn't consider myself a person who gets disgusted easily, so I took the situation lightheartedly and started with the cleanups and repairs.

Then it came to me that I should hurry if I was to make it back to Amman, and to add to my luck I was greeted by a lovely young taxi driver who offered to drive me there for 4 JDs, a total rip off. Some stubborn travelers stood by my choice in not taking the taxi, and we found a lad who agreed to drive us to Amman for 2JDs and a half; not too good a price, but it was the best offer I was getting for the night. So we got to Amman, and after walking a bit, I finally made it home at 10pm - stinky and soggy with a broken back and a dead phone that is.

The Light at the End

It has been quite a while since my last blog post, my sincere apologies dear readers. I wouldn't have really thought I'd be saying this, but in the last few months, I've been surprised at the amount of time and effort medical school has been draining out of me. To put it in perspective, the number of hours I spent sleepless before my final Microbiology exam was 35 consecutive hours, but you can probably exclude the 10 minutes in the Amman-Irbid service taxi in which I found myself unconsciously banging my head against the front seat's rear. If, by any chance, the girl who was seated there is reading this post, forgive me for the unpleasant ride I might have caused you.

'The Spirit of Children' by Mohammed Sada

I've been asked several times why I never continued a previous post about my experiences thus far at Jordan University of Science and Technology, and I honestly don't have a convincing reply to that, so I'll just stick to saying that I might follow up on it and I might not, depends on how much time I'll be getting.

So many great events have gone by, I'm not sure where I'm supposed to start. Can't really say Christmas and New Year were very festive this year, as a confession to you I had a brawl with the parents on Christmas eve, regretting it now. New Year wasn't too happy either, the majority of it was with my beloved Pharmacology books, can't say we didn't have a blast. Yes, sarcasm. On the bright side, however, I made several resolutions I'm really hoping to stick to; drastically improving my grades comes as a priority, going back to playing the violin, and finally working an extra bit on the blog.

Being finally on holiday, the family and I decided today we ought to buy some trees to green the garden. It has been more than three months since we moves houses, and unfortunately our backyard remains but brown soil except for two blots of land in which I planted an apple and an apricot tree some time back. Something that comes as a surprise to me is how people react when I tell them I've been working in the garden. I mean seriously, it's quite fun in the outdoors, and if you ask me, one can actually get a good workout. Could be the fact that my ancestors were farmers, dunno. Come to think about it, the ancestors of most of this society were either farmers or bedouins, so I'm not really comprehending the stiff stance on gardening I get.

In other news, tomorrow I'll be moving to my new studio apartment in Irbid. A lot of work is yet to be done, I guess buying a fridge is the most important. Then I've got picking out the kitchen stuff; spoons, cups, plates, food, and whatnot. Looking forward to the cooking, not sure I'll be very proficient, but no harm done in trying, aye? I've been blaming my family for my below expected grades for some time, so I hope moving back to Irbid will do me a favor and stay up to my expectations in terms of increased uni performance.

In an attempt to fulfill my resolutions, I've also taken the time to design a new header for the blog, hope you guys like it. Starting next semester I'll be blogging more often I hope, but for the mean time the aunt and cousins are impatiently knocking at the door, better run.

- The photo above isn't really relative to the post, but I thought I'd share it as it gave me a good smile. Hope it does you the same favor.