Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a lot of opinions, and I am not afraid to share them on a pretty consistent basis. I usually try and think before I speak, and enjoy engaging in a dialogue with others where I am challenged and pushed on my convictions… at the end of the day, though, I am fairly convinced that I am more right than wrong the majority of the time.
The nice thing about being in a new country when you don’t speak the language, is that it is easy to take a step back from that position, and things can be new again – and I can be quiet and naive, things that I’m not used to being in Canada. Here, I don’t know it all, and most of the time I can’t even participate in the conversation even if it is in English from a basis of knowledge or experience. Those budding intellectuals who blog about Jordan and how things are here (ie www.black-iris.com, or www.7iber.com, both great sites) know way more than I can even try to convey about this place, so hopefully you who are reading this are aware of the lens I get my information through… these are my month-in observations – I will try and leave the editorial-type opinions to those who know better.
That being said, people here are more than willing, if they have the capability and the time, to enlighten me about how this country, as a collective experience that I am becoming a part of (Jordan in the Present), got where we are today. There are many intersecting reasons this country is caught between modernity and tradition, local safety vs. regional strife, a generous spirit and inflationary fear, a joy and a wariness, rich in culture but dangerously lacking resources; a pull and push that has Jordanians expressing dismay over the current state of affairs without a consensus on how things got here, or what will happen in the future.
The more I read, the more I hear, and the more I experience make me appreciate the onion of Jordan… the many layers that are becoming more apparent to me, and the intersection of the stratified levels of society that create the civic fabric of Jordan, catalyzing and resisting change. There is much talk of modernizing in Amman, of things moving forward – with expediting foreign investments and a young king that not many are convinced can fill the shoes or the heart of his much beloved father King Hussein, considered the ‘father of Jordan’. You would never know this unless you began speaking with the public, as at first glance his image (King Abdullah) is one of the first things you see when entering the Hashemite kingdom, and his likeness confronts you everywhere you go. The frequency of his fathers image as well though is a remaining tribute to an age many Jordanians long for.
The past few years have been characterized by influxes of those seeking solace within the safe haven of Jordan; first the Palestinians, then the Iraqis. These are not refugees as most westerners perceive them; instead of coming in with hand-held carts and bags, those seeking political asylum here are driving land rovers and Mercedes. They are wealthy, and they have been influencing the age-old economics of supply and demand, pushing up prices of rent, groceries, and other commodities higher than the average Jordanian can afford. With this occurring in the past year especially in conjunction with the skyrocketing gas prices, the crisis was almost more than most could bear; taxi drivers insisted on adjusting the meters almost daily, shop owners and restaurant raised their prices astronomically as they were charged for delivery… it was a difficult time, and the Jordanians paid very dearly for their safety in this region as many others fled to it as well. Amman trumped Dubai recently as the most expensive city in the world to live in.
In the aftermath of the oil peak, Jordan is stil waiting for the decline in price to be reflected in all of the commodity prices that rose… the claim is that the reserves are still being depleted, and that when oil is bought again at current market prices these commodity prices will reduce as well, but this most Jordanians take with a grain of salt. Internet prices are supposed to go down by 20-30% in the new year as well, which is actually quite believable, as there is a quick adoption here of wireless technology for households that I could see being a profitable introduction into the tyranny of Shaw Cable at home – anyone else who comes from the West Coast of Canada know what I am talking about!! Technology use is surprising here, in both its presence and absence - not having a mobile is like saying you are walking without feet, everyone has satellite TV at fairly low cost per household maiking BBC and CNN instantly accessible as well as lots of reruns of desperate housewives, and even though JOHUD still has punch in cards remniscent of the 1950’s, my arrival at ZENID is documented by fingerprint recognition.
That being said though, home Internet is still, like everything else, way more expensive here than it is at home, and the average wages here do not even come close to reflecting the cost of living. Like other desirable countries that attract others to them (a similarity anyone I know trying to buy a house in Vancouver can attest to), the people who wish to immigrate to the country have a lot more piestres to rub together, leaving those born and raised in Amman to struggle to stay in the city and country they have always called home. The tradition of children staying in the family home is as much borne from economic dependence as choice: it is simply too expensive to live outside of the home while trying to go to school and begin your life, and once becoming married women are working as much as men not only because they want to, but because the dual incomes are needed to keep the household afloat.
A girl I work with is my age, and she got married about 2 years ago and has a child who is 4 months – adorable. Of course, she is back to work after the allotted 70 days of maternity here, but she is lucky because there is a day care facility provided for the workers’schildren, whether it be the mother or father who works for JOHUD. She concurrently worked, was pregnant, and completed her masters of civil engineering – I know all of this because she speaks my language fluently, not because I can communicate in hers. She is very impressive, but is not the exception – as I walk home from where to corporate bus drops me off every day I see an overwhelming number of women outside of the gates of Jordan University, and every time it makes me proud to think that I can count myself among their numbers as being a young educated woman outnumbering the men globally. Even in the most ‘conservative’ and poverty-stricken areas of Jordan, near where Petra is, the minute a post-secondary school opened up, the women outnumbered the men in attendance.
These new women leaders of Jordan take their inspiration from global as well as local figures of strong feminine attributes – as I have mentioned before, it helps having one of the worlds most beautiful people championing your rights every day on her famed YouTube channel as the Queen of Jordan (unlike her husband, Queen Rania has captured the hearts and minds of all Jordanians, and they speak of her with great pride). The girls hang out in packs – some all wearing headdresses, and some more influenced by a younger western style of wear – but no matter what they are all laughing and smiling.
With all of this development and indications of change, though, there is the difficulty of encumbering remnants of an over-inflated government body and stagnating growth that have plagued any efforts Jordan has made to embrace true democratization… our experience of attempting to extend our visas today was just another example of how quickly a ‘westerner’ can get frustrated in this climate of molasses-like bureaucracy that affects both public and private enterprises here that seems so simply useless and inefficient.
The space between all of these influences are what make this place what it is, and why I am growing to love it and be frustrated by it, like an older relative you just have to endure for all their crotchety bits because of the wise hearth of information they have brewing beneath their sometimes hard-to-relate-to exterior. You love them, but they have the ability to challenge you with their take on the world, their priorities, and their focus on the way things were ratther than the way things can be, the seemingly unrecognizable sloth-like approach to things that seem so immediate in their nature, or so easy to accomplish quickly; and you can’t drink, wear revealing clothing or swear in front of them…
yet you feel wildly protective of them and cherish the time spent in their presence, no matter how much more they ‘know’ about everything than you do in your brash youthful approach to situations that doesn’t reflect ‘enshallah’ – the will of god in the natural order of things. Tranisitioning out of and into all the religious holidays (both Christian and Islamic) in December, combined with Waiting for god to will things to happen has probably been the biggest challenge of all for a non-participator in organized religion such as myself. I know Jordan will always be in my heart for all of these reasons that are on the spectrum of the wonderful and the challenging.
Happy birthday Mary. Love you too 
.
