Queen Rania

Ever since her ascendancy to the throne as a full fledged Queen of Jordan in the late nineties, Queen Rania has been very active on a number of fronts promoting domestic social programs, as well as polishing the image of the Kingdom abroad. Nevertheless, her efforts have been largely well below the radar level and haven't gained the necessary momentum to generate the broad based publicity necessary to put her directly under the spot light.

Fast forward to October 8, 2005. A massive earthquake strikes the country of Pakistan killing tens of thousands and injuring twice as many and leaves hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people without any shelter. Queen Rania, being the compassionate person that she is volunteered her services to the victims of the earthquake, and vowed to raise a massive public awareness campaign on behalf of the victims, exposing their case before the world public opinion, generating as much donations as it can be possibly generated.

Consequently, we couldn't miss noticing Queen Rania appearing at different times of the day on various satellite television stations promoting the cause of donations and soliciting other material help that can be provided to the earthquake victims. While it is very hard to measure the fruits of her Majesties message, it nevertheless gained a lot of publicity, and the Queens stature has been elevated in eyes of the people that watched these public announcements.

Queen Rania must have learned a lot about all of the human being sufferings while visiting the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan and while making those television appearances before the world audience, as her next performance shall be her best ever.

Fast forward again to November 11, 2005. Three Iraqi nationals blow themselves up in three different Jordanian hotels killing over fifty people and injuring over a hundred, a fourth bomber failed to detonate and was later apprehended by the authorities. Jordan goes numb, the country in deep mourning, no one can come up with a logical explanation to answer the questions : Why us? Why now ?

In the midst of all of the commotions, here comes Queen Rania appearing on Good Morning America for an interview on a television show that is shown across the United States coast to coast by millions of American on a daily basis.

The queen had made a very compelling case articulating the reasons for what happened and why did it happen, and despite her stunning performance the first time around, the queen must have felt that there is more to be said about this despicable act of barbarity that will go to any length for the purpose of inflicting pain and suffering on normal ordinary people enjoying a wedding party.

Fast forward one last time to November 13, 2005, in an exclusive interview with George Stepanapolus, the host ABC this week show, another nationally televised news show watched by millions of Americans on a weekly basis and shown coast to coast, here comes Queen Rania, poised, very elegantly dressed, speaking very authoritatively, and delivering a stunning super flawless performance. I must admit that I have never seen her so determined and so reassuring the way I seen her yesterday on this week program.

The host Mr. Stepanapolus tried to ask her very tricky questions, but the more the difficult the questions were, the better the answer she would give. Queen Rania described the attacks as attacks purely and simply directed against the people. There were no military instillations at those hotels, they weren't governmental institutions, the people are the ones who suffered the consequences of the atrocities.

I was so proud of Queen Rania, I have never seen any one from Jordan that was able to articulate the Jordanian position towards the bombing the way Queen Rania articulated it.

She connected all of the dots, replied to every question in a very coherent and cogent fashion, I wish for those who still have any kind of doubts about my Queen to watch the interviews and judge for themselves.

If you would ask me today I would have to say that Queen Rania is the best and most eloquent living public speaker in Jordan. The message has been delivered your Majesty, we are very proud of you Jordanian abroad, you have made us raise our heads high and our shoulders aplomb.

Our pledge to you and to Jordan that we will be the invisible soldiers spreading the good word about Jordan and polishing the image of the Kingdom abroad in every step of the way. This is the very least that we can do, fighting terrorism is not a one round match, it is several rounds, and just because the terrorists got away with one round, they will not get away with any successive rounds because we are determined along with your leadership to completely stamp them out .