Webcams Around Jordan

Jordan just installed 24/7 webcams at the Citadel--which we wrote about recently--and at Petra, the Dead Sea and the Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba, plus one of the Amman skyline. We don't know if the Amman view ever changes, but our apartment is just five minutes up the road from what is currently showing. Click this link for the article in the Jordan Times about the initiative, and click here to go right to the webcams. According to the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), "Jordan is the first country in the Middle East to install tourism webcams."

All That Water Means No Water

All that rain and snow last week wreaked havoc on the water distribution system here in Amman.  The heavy rainfall and flooding decreased water quality levels and some pipes were swept away in the floods, and then, after it snowed, bulldozers used to clear the snow damaged some other water pipes. As a result, pumping from the water sources that supply Amman has been suspended for eight days now. We seem to have been affected by this issue, as our own tanks are much less full than usual. So, we've had to curtail our water usage. It's ironic I suppose: All that water means no water. You can read about it here in the Jordan Times. Wednesday is our usual water delivery day, so we hope to have enough in our tanks until then. We hope it comes then too. 

Lost in Amman

Today's Jordan Times included an astounding article about the stunned residents of a part of Amman not too far from where I work, who looked out of their homes around midnight last night to the obviously unusual sight of a Boeing 707 airplane driving through their neighborhood. Apparently, the airplane was of Egyptian origin and had been purchased at some point by a Lebanese businessman, who was having it towed to Beirut to turn into a restaurant. It had started the Jordanian leg of its journey in the city of Aqaba--on the Red Sea in the south of the country and across the water from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula--but at some point took a wrong turn in Amman, and had gotten lost in a residential part of town. The picture above is from the article in the newspaper, which can be found here. The best part of the story is that it is apparently not illegal to pull an airplane through town. No laws were broken, the police--who were just as confused about what was going on as the local residents--were just called in because the plane was lost. Assuming the plane finally found its way, though, its adventure is not over. It still has to be driven through Syria--where a civil war is currently raging--and from there the only way to Beirut is through and down the rocky mountains that separate the two countries. I hope the food is good.

Details

Two months ago when we left the United States to come back to Jordan, it seemed as if the news cycle there was beginning to move on from the so-called "Arab Spring." After all, there was the long-running Republican presidential nominating marathon to cover, as well as dire global economic news from countries like Greece, and the always popular stand-off with Iran over their nuclear weapons program, among other things. Here, though, the details of the Arab Spring are still obviously important, daily news, and this was highlighted again for me yesterday with two short articles from the English language Jordan Times newspaper. Both articles deal with the kinds of details that tend to get lost amid the flash and clamor of bombs and gunfire, and both draw attention to the human consequences that such flash and clamor bring.

Around 60,000 Libyans came to Jordan as a result of the revolution against former leader Muammar Gaddafi last year, and one article reveals that hotels in Jordan have recently decided to stop accepting them due to non-payment of bills. Apparently, the hotels are still owed around 90 million Dinars. The article goes on to say that hospitals in Jordan are still owed around 100 million Dinars from Libyans who came for war related medical treatment. According to the story, around 12,000 Libyans currently reside in hotels here, and a total of around 50,000 have come for medical treatment.

Right now there are reportedly around 100,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan due to the ongoing conflict there--a number that is said to be increasing by 500 people per day. The other article reports on the growing number of them arriving with various injuries and signs of torture.

Jordan is a peaceful, stable country, but there is war and conflict almost all around it. There are 1.5 million Palestinians in Jordan classified as refugees, and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians just across Jordan's western border continues to rage. At the height of the war in Iraq--on Jordan's northeastern border--there were an estimated 750,000 Iraqi refugees here, and of course that war continues too, and many refugees remain. And regardless of the world news cycle, the Arab Spring continues into year two. Two articles printed on the same day--one about refugees from Syria, on Jordan's northern border, and one about people from far away in the north African country of Libya--serve as a reminder about those details that linger after and during the blasts of gunfire, the far-reaching consequences of war.

Water is Big News Here

In a previous post, we wrote about Jordan being the fourth poorest water nation in the world, and about how that affects our lives, and the lives of everyone who lives here.  If you want to, you can read about it here.  Water is scarce here, and because it is scarce, its importance is felt more than it is at home.  Water is something people talk about, like how Minnesotans talk about the weather in the winter.  When our neighborhood was experiencing major water shortages a few summers ago, it was the main topic of conversation whenever I met someone on our street.  We would talk about how full--or empty--our tanks were, and we would complain together about the hardships brought on by a lack of water.  Just over the past few weeks I've had two separate conversations about a new water system being built to desalinate and pipe in water to Amman all the way from the Red Sea at the southern tip of the country.  Often when it does rain, people will bemoan the wet and cold weather, but they will usually follow-up their unhappiness with a sincere thanks to God for the provision.

The importance of water was highlighted again for me today, when I came across this short article in the Jordan Times about the amount of water currently stored in Jordan's major dams.  Then, after a quick search I realized that water updates were a regular feature of the newspaper, with at least three other short articles appearing over the past six weeks regarding the country's water situation.  This article discusses the improving situation of water levels due to recent heavy rains, this article discusses the impact of the heavy snowfall we posted about two weeks ago and this article includes a great picture of a dam in the desert, which I think I visited and skipped rocks into under the cover of night with some friends a few years back.  The stories all include figures detailing the amount of rainfall in various places around the country, the amount of water stored at various dams, the total water stored at all the dams in Jordan and the percentage of capacity that these amounts represent.  It's an important issue, and people want to know.

The View of Gaza from Jordan

Last night on the news we saw Israeli Defense Forces footage of precision strikes on what they said were various locations from which missiles had been fired into Israel. It was familiar looking footage; in America we see the same type during coverage of our wars. You know, grainy aerial shots with an "X" where the target is on the ground, followed by an explosion upon impact, after which we the viewer are supposed to take the word of the presenters that what is said to have been hit is really what was hit. Then we are supposed to be awed by the precision.

But what are Jordanians--around 60 percent of whom are of Palestinian origin--seeing on their news right now? And how are they reacting to this new crisis in Gaza? Since we're outside the country currently we obviously don't know exactly what they're seeing and how they're reacting to it. However, although we don't have access to regional television here, one can glean something of what Jordanians are seeing on their news now by looking at the pictures of the conflict they see every day when they open their newspapers. The following pictures are from the front page of the last three days of the Jordan Times, the English language daily in Jordan, but they reflect what's shown in the Arabic dailies too. I feel a bit voyeuristic presenting them here, but I think it's important to see what Jordanians are seeing regarding this conflict.

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

According to the Times, the last picture is actually the result of one of those videos we saw on the news. Thus, two different looks at the same action, and in general, two different perspectives. And this second perspective is what Jordanians are seeing.

http://jordantimes.com