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.
Fadi Zaghmout فادي زغموت 
عمان – الرأي – صرح عبد الحميد شومان رئيس مجلس الإدارة / المدير العام للبنك العربي بان أرباح مجموعة البنك العربي قبل الضرائب للربع الأول ارتفعت إلى 5ر230 مليون دولار أمريكي ، أما صافي أرباح المجموعة بعد الضرائب والمخصصات فقد حققت زيادة مقدارها 9ر36 مليون دولار لتصل إلى 1ر187 مليون دولار مقابل 2ر150 مليون دولار عن للربع الأول من عام 2006 بنسبة 6ر24% .و أشار شومان إلى أن غالبية هذه الإيرادات قد نشأت عن المصادر الأساسية للدخل والمتمثلة في العائد على الاستخدامات وإيرادات التشغيل مما يؤكد النقلة النوعية في الأداء والتفوق في إدارة مصادر الأموال واستخداماتها كما ارتفع مجموع موجودات المجموعة للربع الأول إلى 3,33 مليار دولار مقابل 3,29 مليار دولار في الربع الأول من العام الماضي ، أما محفظة التسهيلات المصرفية فقد ارتفعت لدى المجموعة إلى 7ر14 مليار دولار مشكلة 3ر44% من مجموع الموجودات مقابل 0ر12 مليار دولار و 1ر41% من مجموع الموجودات عن نفس الفترة من العام السابق .
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On economy there are laws as in nature. In natural sciences we know that Energy is conserved!! it is only changes shape. The same is on economy. To get profits you must take it from somewhere. So if there are companies that get profits they get it from somewhere and this is the work of the people( this is called surplus!!!!).So my friend you are talking about charity. I say that this is the same as saying that you are asking from those who steal the surplus (our work) to give us a little piece back. I don’t realy agree with this idea!!!
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Hi Observer!Thanks for the honor…I’ll start thinking!j.o. – charity is a ‘heart condition’ for both individuals and organizations. May we all work toward this kind of heart!
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I wouldn’t say that “everyone” wants to help. I know of quite a few people in Jordan could care less. But most bloggers care and believe that everyone <>should<> help.
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to Kinzi:Poverty is a social and political problem. It has to do with the economical model. Poverty comes together with richness. For example in Greece where i live the 20% of the population is under the poverty limit and at the same time the development of the bank profits reaches the 150% and more.If we would like to solve the poverty problem we must study the political and economical reasons that give birth to this phenomenon.With charity we only “bring piece to ourself” saying that we did something to help but we don’t realy solve anything of the real problem.
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J.O, why wouldn’t profitable companies share their responsibilities towards the community that made it profitable in the first place?We all look for a better life, and when we, as individuals, can make a real changes in the poor people we see in our streets, why can’t we pressure big orangizations to do so? The nature of economy is cometitveness. When you have 2 products of 2 different companies with the same quality, why wouldn’t you choose the one for the company which give us back?Kinzi, thank you for participating in this. We need your voice 🙂Dave, I agree, some people would careless, but I guess that a lot would like participate and make a change.
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Good job man, Enshalla I will be writing about it, but the thing is that international companies are not doing that because they love the poor, it is a marketing strategy, they try to touch that sensitive part in all of us so that we buy more..Anyway, a suggestion that I have is that you can go to clubs and resturants where ammanies hang out and ask those place to put on the menu that 1 JD donation will be added to the bill if they want to..I think this would be nice!!
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Muhannad, I agree. International companies might do charity for their own benefit. We can emphasize on that and ask for more.As for the 1JD donation in restaurants. A lot of restaurants have it in Amman. It is a good thing 🙂
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Good job Observer.But we need to work on the idea to make it clearer somehow, to discuss the possible ways to get the best results.I’ll think in it and post about this campaign in my blog akeed. I am so glad that I’m IN.
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RedRose,That’s Great! Let me know what do you think we should do. I look forward to your suggestions. I believe that we can do something. You can tag other people as well to make them IN. We all can work togather.
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j.o., I see your point. But while we wait and do many studies, kids are hungry, don’t have clothes and need schooling. So, you run the studies, and I’ll work on the practical help of the here and now.I don’t do it to feel good. I do it because the need is great, and Jesus called it my responsibility.
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So my friends how many kids will you feed or dress with charity???First of all we must see that charity is a concept where we see other people (the poor) as weak people that needs help. Poor people are poor because maybe: 1. They can not find a work or 2. They get less salaries than they need to live if they work.For sure they are NOT weak people!!Have you ever thought what is the way that salaries are configured (i mean why a worker takes 100 or 200 from his work and more or less)?? Work and life with dignity is a human right. So if we want to give an answer to poverty we must fight for this human right to rise Salaries and to find Jobs for all the people.Now my friend Kinzy i think that we can open o very good discussion about all this things so we can get wiser. I assure you that i work on such things by my way ( and not only studying!!!). Now because you wrote about Jesus: can you tell me the amount of charity that Church (Orthodox or Catholic or any other dogma)do in relation with their wealth and what was the effect of that?????
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Observer, I both agree and disagree with your perspective.The part I agree on is that we as consumers are the basis of every business. As consumers we have the power to pressure businesses to one direction or the other.This suggestion reminds me of our old debate about banning “Hijabed-only” adverts from newspapers. We both agreed that as consumers we can pressure some business practices by refusing to do business with companies that don’t adhere to our views. But we disagreed whether or not the government should interfere in that process where I think that governmental interference is inappropriate.So I agree that as consumers we might be able to encourage business charity by showing our support to those companies that do charity.But I am not sure what you exactly mean by “charity”?! I agree with J.O’s view that charity should not mean that poor people are weak!! For me “charity” has a bad meaning. But more importantly, no-one can live a decent life by the charity of others. As the Chinese proverb says: <>“If you want to feed someone for a day give him a fish, but if you want him to live teach him how to fish!”<>…. So my point is, if we wanted to help people get out of their poverty, giving away money IS NOT the solution!!! We need to have specialized institutes that can rehabilitate people and teach them how to become productive. I think, the (almost) free education provided in our country (and almost all other countries) is much more important than charity!!I think companies can invest in educational centers that graduate people with skills and expertize.
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Devil’s mind, thank you. I totally agree with what you said. I think that Charity is just part of it. As Tala suggested, we can make a banner that says we support companies that work for a good cause. The idea is to pressure those companies to give us back.
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J.O., I completely agree…but structures need time and study, as you say. And yes, I have helped hundreds of mothers provide for their children. It isn’t a matter of position in society, it is a matter of a mom coming alongside another mom.I’ve been giving to Christian charitable institutions for 25 years. Ideally, Christians are called to give at least 10% of their income to the church for the work of helping others. My husband give that, plus another 15% to individuals who have special one-time needs. That isnt’ to rah-rah us, but to say we have a thought through plan for sharing from our resources. Most individuals don’t, and it becomes an afterthought at a religious festival.This isn’t creating a welfare/ dependency lifestyle for the poor, but meeting special needs. I was poor once, as in no food on the table, and people helped me without knowing I needed it.I know where you are going with the church thing, and I completely agree, churches have wasted and squandered resources when ungodly men led. But most Christian giving is done in secret, and for every dinaar wasted there are 100,000 quietly helping those in need. This mentality is not limited to churches, but every religion where unrighteous men use the poor to gain wealth.My point: you have to have it all. Economic and social reform, and individuals helping others AS EQUALS who may fall through the cracks of a system.
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Well said Kinzi. I do agree with you. Poor people are no less than us. We may all be unfortunate to reach that state. If they find an outing, they certainly wouldn’t be poor. Giving money can be helpfull. Empowering them to make their own money can even be better. Help is what I am asking for. Help for those unfortunate people who are struggling to meet their basic needs. I may not be able to make a real change as an individual, but large companies can certainly do.
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Good idea!! when you design this logo, I’ll add it!!dude, I wrote an elaboration from a different perspective about the very same topic! check my blog
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Abed, Thank you man. I appreciate it. I am trying to check your blog but it isn’t working. I will try in a while.
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Yeah, the server was down, now it’s working , I hope 🙂
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good start!
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Thanx a lot for the tag, I’ll be thinking about a few things in the future
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my name is Mohamad and I’m studying gov’t/econ. in California. just my two-cents. you might get some corporate charity but that will do nothing to change Jordanian income disparities. the reason these multi-national companies are in Amman to begin with are low-labor costs, a liberalized economy, stability, and tax breaks. if you start demanding better pay, benefits, hours etc. these multi-national companies will just relocate to another developing country. I think Jordan should invest heavily in research and technology. you already have a well-educated workforce and that should be used to steal high-tech outsourced jobs from India. if you get more professional high-paying jobs the money will trickle down to lower income brackets as newly hired computer engineers spend their money and increase demand in the economy. when that happens the government should consider protecting wages and benefits as it’ll be in a stronger position. Salam.
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Socialist, I can see what you are talking about, but I guess it is another subject for discussion rather than what this post is all about. Better wages is requested by everyone. The government studies these issues and plan for it. what we are talking about here, is asking those companies to participate in helping our local civil community in other ways. Those who do better in this department would gain more of our loyality. The idea itself is a common sense of people, but I guess it is better to spell it out and highlight it.
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We must not ask for hand outs ,the problem that Jordan faces is not whether private investors or some sleazy company that invest in Jordan,should give some kind of charity to alleviate the the suffering of the poor,it’s on the contrary,the reason people are suffering economically because we have opted to take the path of the so called “free” market economy which all of you know is not free.“Free” market only respond to capital and only capital.The only solution to this global problem is to overthrow the paradigm and replace it with more human one.
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I must add,The multinational companies whick i like to call them multinational thieves,they go to countries because those countries are rick in raw materials or human resources and Jordan is not exception.Kanesian,American economic theorist has written once”capitalism will devour it’s self if it’s not regulated”and that’s what we are witnessing right now,it’s self devouring process.
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antizionist, While I agree that multi nationl companies seek more profit by working i development countries, I disagree that being a part of the free market has made things worse in Jordan. In the contrary things are way much better than 10 years before, and it is getting better everyday.
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