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Everyone in Jordan is aware about the amount of poverty we have in this country. While poverty can be found in every country around the globe and even in rich ones, the ratio of poor people differs from a country to another.

Jordan is still considered to be a developing small country with limited natural resources. And while the government has been struggling to ensure a better quality of life for all Jordanians, the problem of poverty has its toll on the Jordanian society at large.

Some people condemn the government policy in the past couple of years for the increased taxes and prices of the basic needs of living. While it can be argued with official numbers by the government the enhancement in income rates among Jordanians, many can’t really feel it reflected on their life. While some look at the bright side, a lot look the other way around and claim the rich Jordanians are getting richer while poor ones are getting poorer.

While people have been focusing their complaints on the government for enhancing the lives of the poor in Jordan, I believe that we have become to a time in Jordan where private sector has a huge responsibility for the Jordanian society as well.

With the huge amount of investments in Jordan, and the huge amount of profits the multi-million companies working in Jordan make, I believe that it is the time for us to start asking those companies to hold their responsibility to our civil community.

Now that the Jordanian blogsphere is getting larger everyday, I think that we can unite our forces and start an organized campaign to ask the Jordanian companies to give more charity.

I know that everyone wants to help. I know that each one of us feel helpless when we see those young poor girls asking for money on the traffic lights. I know that we have been outraged about the news of the poor young man who sold his kidney the other day. I know that some of us do charity by his own and from his private money.

But I also know that there is a global trend for the private sector to help civil communities. I know that in Jordan we are much behind in this issue. I know that we, as bloggers, can help in increasing the public awareness of the importance of charity.

We can create a banner to be added on our blogs that say “I prefer the products of the company that give more to charity”. It can be our slogan. I can work on it. You can suggest a different slogan. We can discuss it and choose the best.

Let us work together.

I am making this post a tag in order to spread the world. I know that each one of you can write from his own perspective. I tag Kinzi, Nas, Batir Wardam, Oula Farawati, Qwaider, Red Rose, 7aki Fadi, Devil’s Mind, Hareega, Hala, Roba, Muhannad Al Arabiat, Abed Hamdan, Lina, Vas and Natasha.

Those who are tagged should write about this subject and tag as many others as they feel like.

In the first gulf war in 1991, there was a great belief in Amman that Saddam Hussem would most certainly stike with a nuclear weapon!

In Arabic “Nuclear” is translated as “Nawawi”, while “Sperm” is translated as “Manawi”. Notice the similarity in spelling?

My mother’s grandma used to say – by mistake – Saddam will strike with his “Manawi” which means that he will stike with his sperm when she meant that he will strike with his nuclear weapons! lol. People tried to correct her, but she couldn’t realize her mistake. They still make fun of the incident.

In our part of the world where sex has been a taboo for ages, teenagers have to get their sex education from their peers instead of getting the right information from the right person of a parent, teacher or a mature adult.

Our parents claim that no one has taught them anything and yet they knew their way on their wedding and so most of them leave their kids to explore this part of their life alone without giving them any single guideness just because they feel it is not appropriate to talk about such an issue or because they don’t really know how to approach it and at what age they should do that.

Unfortunately my own parents, and while considered to be educated and open minded ones, have acted like many other parents, and left it to me to discover what sex means.

Having the conversation with many others of my peers now about the way they discovered what sex really is makes me feel a bit of a naive. While my friend learnt about it through another friend of his, I remember my younger sister telling me how it goes while I was 10 years old.

Ironically, and I can’t remember clearly, but at some point the idea of penetration crossed my mind before anyone told me about it. I didn’t really know that this is what happens when a man and woman have sex, but the idea itself occurred to me before getting to know that this is really what happens.

My aunt tells a funny story about what happened when she asked my grandparents of how kids are born. They told her that when a man and woman lie next to each other in bed, the woman gets pregnant. A week later, and while playing with her cousin, she laid on bed, and he laid next to her, so she started shouting on him not to do so or else she would get pregnant. They were both 8 years old at that time.

My friend had a same funny incident when he was a kid and went to visit his aunt in the US. She took him to the cinema to watch Forrest Gump. After the movie he was wondering how the woman got pregnant without marrying the man, and so he asked his aunt how this happened. His aunt answered that here in the US a man and a woman meets each other one day, next day the woman gets pregnant! He was like “Wow. That is cool!”

I also remember the first time (in my 4th grade) that I saw another kid at school showing his middle finger to another one. I realized how bad that sign meant from another kids without knowing what really it meant. I actually missed the exact finger and for a year or two I thought it was the other finger to the right of the middle one that means bad. Later on, and through a movie, I figured out that we even show it in a different way than the Americans. They pull their middle finger out straight, while we pull it to the front! A couple of years later, my friend, who studied in the UK, taught me that the British used their second and third fingers to indicated the same sign.

One thing that kept on boggling me for years in my teenage is the *secret habit* (masturbation). While most of my peers started their own secret habit at an early age of 10, it took me a while, and I feel shy to admit it sometimes in front of other guys, till I got 18 in order to start practicing it.

I have always heard about the secret habit, but never understand what it really means. I remember at 8th grade in a religion class where a guy from school asked the teacher if it is wrong or right to practice it from a religion point of you. I remember the teacher advising the guy to try to make it less and concentrate on other things in his life instead. I, at that time, didn’t know what they were talking about.

I also remember reading the sexual problem section in a small Arabic magazine called “Tabibak” (your doctor), and reading a lot about the secret habit, without really figuring out.

Society imposes a double standard on us. At one side and in public, people talk and talk about virginity and the risks of having sex, and how much it should be avoided before marriage for a religious reasons. While at the other side, people do encourage males to explore their sexuality where those who don’t can be looked at as naive rather than men with high morals which they talk about in public.

The delimma of doing the right thing imposed itself to many young men who try to balance between their religion and their parents expectidness from one side, and their biological needs and their social role among their peer on the other side.

At our time, porn movies were popular among guys at schools. A friend of mine used to steal cigarette packets from his father in order to trade them with porn movies. Some guys used to make money out of it. I am not sure how much this is still applicable at this time where porn movies can be transmitted on cell phones. I am sure that the current generation of teenagers does carry much of porn in their pockets behind their parents backs.

Sex education is a necessaty at our current time more than ever. Our kids are exposed to many media where information is very easily transmitted. Parents should learn that it is better for them to give the right information for their kids instead of letting them struggling to figure things out. A lot of problems can be avoided with just some better communication between the parents and their kids.

Two weeks ago I have finished reading the new novel of the Egyptian famous writer Alaa Aswani who wrote Yacobian Building that was a big hit last year.

I loved Chicago as much as I loved reading Yacobian building. Alaa has a very nice style in writing. I loved the way he gives glimpses of the life of several people’s in his novels where he highlights several problems that people in a certain city face.

Chicago is as close to reality as Yacobian buidling. Every character represents a real case in life where the readers can get a closer look into the characters, the way they behave and the way they handle their problems.

One of the things that stopped me in Chicago is something that was mentioned by a character about Alcohol in the Abbasi Islamic Era.

I am not sure how much credibility one can build upan a character claim in a novel, but I am certain that Alaa wouldn’t have mentioned in his novel is there is no source to this claim.

The character claims that Islamic religious leaders had allowed Alcohol in the Abbasi Era. He even claimed that Haron Al Rasheed, the famous Abbasi khalifah, used to get drunk with his pals in his palace.

I tried to google the topic but unfortunatly I have got no results. I have tried to ask some of my Muslim friends about this claim but everyone denied that it existed, some said that it is a history fabrication.

If this is true, I want to know how those religious leaders explained the versus in the Quran that prohibited Alcohol. I want to know at what time they allowed it and at what time religious leaders prohibited it again and for what reasons.

I have never heard about this before, that is why I am wondering. I thought of blogging it so that people who have a better idea can provide me with more information or links. It would be appreciated.

This woman cracks me up. I always check Saadna’s blog for new posts hoping to get a smile or a laugh.

This 18 years old young girl has a deep perception of life along with a sence of innocence and strong humor writing skills.

I do love her style in writing.

She tells a story in peotric sence. She writes sentences below each other paragraphs like in poems. She says something, then contradict herself in the second line, then give another perspective in the third line, then a funny comment which only puzzles you and force you to laugh.

She goes like this:

“I love RED dresses the most
Actually I love GREEN dresses the most
Well, to be honest, I don’t really like dresses

I only love the one I wore in my cousin’s wedding
It was RED, very RED

That is not the reason I loved it
It was because everyone loved it
Especially that handsome guy
who kept on hitting on me all the night
Actually
*Keep it between us*
I was the one who hit on him

Well, I knew he noticed me first
It doesn’t matter anyway
Because he loved the dress
I mean, He loved me
No, he loved the dress
And
Me
or is it the dress?
I don’t know.

No it is me.”

Saad, what do you think? Was I able to write like you? 🙂

I don’t really believe in zodiacs and the effect of distanced planet on us, but sometimes I feel that it is time for a certain thing. Like for instance someone looking for a job getting two or more job offers in the same day or someone not doing well in his exams that he has done in the same day or week, or having a day where everything get broken down at home…

There is no real scientific evidence about the relation of these things, but while trying to observe things around me, maybe it is just an illusion that I have built, but whenever things go bad, I tell myself it is just a period and would go, maybe it is the zodiac moving or something else, but there seem to be something hidden affecting things to act in a certain way at a certain time.

Today, yesterday and before yesterday I have witnessed many accidents. There has been a really big accident in Al Rabieh near my house before yesterday afternoon. Yesterday I saw a couple of crashed cars and today I have seen another couple. I have even read on Tamara’s blog about how she found her car crashed.

I have been wondering what’s up with people these days. It is a bit scary watching all those accidents in the same day. I have just seen a car without its front parking infront of my work when I got back from lunch break. I saw another one being pulled by a truck in Abdoun and a third one crashed and parked in Abdoun as well.

Maybe there are some reality to the zodiac thing. Maybe it is the moon, or maybe it is bad weather. I have no idea.

I just want to warn you guys to drive carefully these days. It seems to be the period of accidents!

Finally I had the chance to watch the 300 movie. Like everyone, I loved the cinematic animation scenes (they are brilliant), but I have also loved the story as well.

Before watching the movie, I have read some good reviews about it on various blogs. Roba gave a good review about the movie in general while Vas talked about Hollywood politics and the Greek history and methodoly moda. Marie linked the spirit of the Spartan warriors to the definition of the Warriors of light in Paulo Coelho’s novel.

For me, I couldn’t help but to link the story of the 300 with all the heroic stories of the early Islam battles that they taught us at school.

Whenever Leonaides (The Spartan King) shouted Spartans, to encourage his warriors, I heard it Muslims.

The story of the 300 is just too similar to the story of Khaled Bin Al Waleed in Ajnadayn or Yarmouk battles, or The battle of Badr or other battles in the Islamic history where a few bunch of men where able to fight others who were much more in number and win.

It became clear to me that every nation has its own fabricated heroism stories in order to bring up the morals of its people.

The reason for fights were always honor, freedom and glory. Every nation claims the superiority of morals. Every nation claims to be the light who fights the forces of darkness for the sake of humanity.

The days of the 300 are not over. It was just recently that George Bush lead a war on Iraq, the country who he considered a part of the axis of evil in the name of protecting the free world. It was just recently that Al-Qaeda are bombing everywhere in the name of freeing the Islamic world.

The culture of sacrificing one’s self for the sake of other is not explicit to our Arab culture. People in the west who are boggled by the logic of suicide bombers can understand it by watching 300. It is exacly like what Vas said about US current politics and propaganda.

We – human beings – are the masters of deception. We have invented honor, glory and freedom as high values to legitamize killing each other. Our history full of blood shed, it is always honorable at the side you read the story from. Unfortuantly it is still going on, and doesn’t seem that is ending in the near future.

I have been watching the movement of King Abdullah II in the past few months and his persistance and constant pushing towards coming up with a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Every day or two you read the headlines in the Jordanian newspapers about the efforts of the king to push this matter forward. Whether it is a meeting with high officials of the US administrator, a press conference or release to the American/Arabic or Iseraeli median, or even constant talks with Arab leaders, the efforts of the King has never worn out.

King Abdullah has been reminding the world for months now that it is the time to solve this conflict. With his position and responsibiliy as an Arabic leader, he seems to have a vision of improving the life of the people of Arab world in general, and the people of Jordan and Palestine in particular. Unfortunatly this can not be done without finding a solution for the conflict that has worn out the whole region for the past 60 years.

Since he claimed his position as the king of Jordan. King Abdullah and accompanied with Queen Rania, have been working in parallel to improve most of the sectors that form the Jordanian economy. While their job has showed its fruits with the measured improvement on the Jordanian economy and accomplishment, it has been strained by the conflicts taking place in the region.

The Palesitian-Israeli conflict are percieved to be the major set back of any imporvement of life for the people living in this region. King Abdullah is very aware of that, and seems to be focused to solve it in a time where the majority of people from both sides including the Palestinian and Israeli leaders have reached dispair.

A single voice with such strength of this young king can made a change. He does give me a hope for a brighter future where we can put aside the fear of war and concentrate of imrpoving our lives. If anyone can make, then it is our King.

In a region full of darkness, I feel that we, Jordanians, are very lucky to have this ray of light born to warm us, then spread around us to cover our brothers around the neighbourhood.

Inspite of the opposite stand most of the commenters on my yesterday’s post took of not likeing to hear anyone talking loudly about a good quality in him, I still see that sometimes it is good to talk about someone’s own goodness.

I feel myself a loveable person. I don’t know whether my perception of myself being loveable is due to me loving the person I am where I assume that other people love me, or is it because of my love to myself I make people love me, or is it that I am living in my own world where I assume that people love me where most of them don’t and those who show me love are only pretending, or is it something in between where there are people who love me and there are those who don’t.

I believe that the life of a person depends on how he sees it. A person who hates himself would percieve life in general as a dark entity where everything look clouded and sad, while a person who loves himself would look at life as a colorful place where people love each other and everything is shiny.

I also believe strongly in the saying that one can’t love anything else untill he loves himself and that one can’t help anyone else untill he helps himself.

It is not that I am trying to flaunt here, and it isn’t like talking about a quality in me to exaggerate it or make people see what they weren’t seeing. It is merely an acknowledgment of how I feel about myself.

Along with a lot of boundaries we put upon ourselves, we let what we think can be inappropriate hold us from celebrating the goodness in ourselves. I stand firmly with what I posted yesterday. There is no harm in complimenting one’s self as long as you are not doing it at some other one’s expense.