Tuesday, October 17, 2006

America surprassed three hundred million

This morning 10/17/06 around 7:00 am Chicago time, the population of the United States of America surpassed the 300 million people mark. China and India are the only other world countries that have more people than the United States.

No one exactly knows who is the lucky person that made the count reach 300 million, s/he could have been born some where in the United States or could have been an immigrant arriving from another country.

If we are to guess who that person might be it would have to be a white nonhispanic -since the whites still represent the majority of the people living in this country.

The census bureau reports that one new person is born every 11 seconds in the United States. In 1967 the United States population was only 200 million, and by the year 2043 the population is expected to go up to 400 million Americans.

The birth rate in this rich country is much greater than that of many other European countries, Americans are very optimistic about having babies, the fact that fathers are willing to pitch in helping with household chores and with raising their children makes it that much desirable for American women to want to have babies.

Faith is another contributing factor that helps American women to consider having babies, Americans are church goers, and the more devout the person is the more hope the person will have & believe in better future, and the more that will push the women to have babies.

Space is one more factor, most new born Americans have plenty of space to live in, more often than not, every one have their own bed room. In other countries the space is very limited and usually a bunch of children are crammed living in one room, a very depressing and discouraging sign for moms. On the average American woman produce 2.1 children per family..

Considering all of these factors combined, the question then that needs to be answered is : Can America cope with the increasing population and the immigration by people from other countries, the answer is yes, yes, and more yes.

America is a very rich country, it has a vast fertile land, and plenty of natural resources, it can accommodate many more people than what it already has. Although there are many people living in America which are still considered poor, the average family is still enjoying a relative comfortable standard of living compared to other countries around the world.

The economy is good, the unemployment is relatively low, and the interest rate is leveling off. All of these factors are very encouraging signs for moms not to worry about the future and about having more future babies that will grow up in this blessed country.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Open Memo

This memo is an open response to Mr. Ghariebeh's column http://www.alghad.jo/?article=4847 appearing in the Jordanian daily Alghad newspaper issue dated October 11, 2006.

Sir,


I beg to differ, if you think that the Jordanians that write in the English language suffer from great deal of deficiencies then I invite you to take a look at the writings of some of the following bloggers on Jordan Planet :

1) Tololy
2) Roba
3) Khalidah
4) Naseem
5) Khalaf
6) Ahmad
7) Batir
8) Firas
9) Hala
10) Hamzeh Nassif
11) Laith Zraikat
12) Lina Ejeilat
13) Ohud
14) Philip

Most of these Jordanian bloggers are in their early to mid twenties, they speak, read, and write the English language as good as the native English speaking people do and most of them do it much better than many of the natives. To suggest that the Jordanian English speaking and writing crowd is shallow and superficial is a stilted opinion.

And while I'm talking about the topic of writing, allow me to tell you something about your own writing : While I must say that to a cursory reader you appear to be an excellent writer but for some one that methodically traces your articles on day to day basis, one will notice that you write in a convoluted fashion, you should stop for a moment and take a look at the way veteran columnists such as Fahed Fanek write their columns, your job as a columnist must be to communicate your words, phrases and sentences in a very simplified fashion that is readily understood to the average fourth grade reader, your job as a columnist doesn't call on you to exhibit your prowess in every single column that you write. The terms that you use are very complex and require pages upon pages of illustration in order for these terms to be simplified and understood to the average reader. You must realize that the average reader doesn't have more than thirty seconds to one minute available at their disposal to decipher whatever it is that you are trying to say, and at any time the reader realizes that he doesn't comprehend whatever it is that you are going to communicate, he/she will skip reading your column and go on to read somebody else's column, and therefore, you lost one more reader. You must realize that in this era of fast moving technology people have too much information to decipher, the time that is allotted to the daily reading is shrinking every single day, so the readers are no longer looking for articles that reflects the classic way of writing, the modern readers want something that goes with the fad, with trends, with contemporary stuff that is readily and effortlessly understood. That is why you thought that those Jordanian writers that write in English are shallow. In essence, all they want to do is to communicate to the average reader, they don't want to delve into complicated matters that require plenty of their time, something readers are always short on.