Drive Safely.....Blog about Jordan

Let us face it the whole country is running out of options in terms of what to do about those ongoing never ending day in and day out traffic accidents. They pleaded, beseeched, installed cameras, exhorted, threatened and imposed hefty fines to no avail. People continue with their good old driving habits, accidents continue, and fatalities and injuries get added up to the long list of the ream of statistics. Studies after study were conducted, some put the blame on the reckless drivers, others put the blame on the conditions of the dilapidated cars, and the road designs had their share of the blame as well. What is the real cause of this traffic blight and is there a feasible solution that would at least alleviate rather than eliminate this daily scourge. Your guess is as good as mine; I have personally lost several relative members in Jordan due to traffic accidents. I have come close to having an accident on a number of occasions while driving in Jordan , but thank God they all were mere close calls. Will this problem go away any time soon? I doubt it, in my opinion it is all about attitude, unless the drivers themselves decide to abide by some kind of an attitude code of ethics and yield the right of way to the next driver, the problem will never go away. I honestly don't think that it is road problem or old cars problem, it is reckless & offensive driving problem. I think that the government ought to make it mandatory for every driver the good and the bad one to attend at least two to three courses totaling approximately 12 clock hours of defensive driving on an annual basis. Passing these courses would be contingent upon keeping the person's driving privileges current and valid, those who ignore taking the courses ought to have their driver's licenses suspended first and then revoked if they insist on ignoring the taking and passing the defensive driving course. If you think about it, most of the accidents are caused by aggressive driving, speeding, not obeying traffic lights, ignoring the traffic signs, and so on and so forth. All these pitfalls can be eliminated with a refresher course about defensive driving. Imposing higher fines will only aggravate the problem rather than mitigate it. We must adhere to the concept of continuing education for the young as well as the old. Continuous public awareness techniques work on the long run much better than saber rattling. The insurance companies can join the fray by offering incentives of their own. The traffic department can get on the act as well by offering incentives of their own like giving 5 to 10% discount on car registration. In other words it had to be a collaborative synergic effort. A bench mark must be established determining what is acceptable versus what is excessive. As a father to 4 children I'm very concerned that some day I may have to face what Qadoura father had faced, or my children are going to become fatherless in case I end up the one being lost to a traffic accident. It is very freighting thought, one day you are here and the next day you are gone because of a reckless driver. In this world of ours there are things that are within our means and we can do something about them, and there are other things that are beyond our means and there is nothing that we can do about them. Driving responsibly on the streets of our capital and on the highways leading to our rural areas is something within our means and each and every one of us can and should do something about it. Squishing six cars in three cars lane is an obvious no no, double and triple parking obstructing the follow of the traffic is another more than obvious no no, illegal U turns in the middle of busy streets, backing up in highways, tailgating, honking unnecessarily, not using turning signals, changing lanes haphazardly, are all no no no and we all know it but continue on doing it. It shouldn't be that way and it must stop. If we all some how get convinced that we are going to start driving defensively rather than aggressively & offensively, we will all get there to our intended destination where our loved ones are patiently waiting for us, and expecting us to arrive there whole unscathed. In sum driving is art, gusto, and character. What you manifest on the street represents you, your family, your tribe, and your country.

Palestinians V. Israelis

I wrote this article 8 years ago, nothing has changed since that time. see for yourself.


Chicago-July 15,2002.It makes no difference whetheryou are a Palestinian or an Israeli male orfemale ,young or old,rich or poor,Czar or streetvendor of any walk oflife- you always are more than likely bewilling,ready,and able totellingly disclose to any one willing to listen to youany time any where ananimated convincing forensic argument about your longstanding dispute withthe other side.Each side usually contends that they did all that cando to attainrapprochement but the other side is either unwillingor unable toreciprocate.The Palestinians accuse the Israelis of beingrapacious while the Israelisaccuse the Palestinians of being bent on thedestruction of Israel.The Palestinians say that they have given the Israelis78% of what used tobe called historical Palestine and they will be fullysatisfied with gettingthe remaining 22% which in essence consists only ofeverything Israel tookduring the 6-day June 67 Arab Israeli war.Israelis say that they aren't interested in governingthe private affairs ofall of the 3 million Palestinian people and willing togrant them their ownautonomy provided that they don't exploit theirfreedom to launch freshattacks on Israel.The Palestinians say that they aren't interested in noautonomy and wantfull fledged sovereign state with all the perks thatcome with it such asborder control plus independent internal as well asexternal Palestinianself managing state affairs.Israelis say that such a state of affairs would posegreat danger to itsvery own existence since the Palestinians would floodtheir putativelyindependent territories with weapons and people andeventually regroupmulling the re-taking or possibly pulverizing all ofIsrael.The Palestinians dismiss this notion as totally absurdsince Israel has thefifth strongest army in the world,it couldn't beeasily defeated by a newlycreated atrophied state.Israelis say that the Palestinians will not stop shortof annihilating everyliving Israeli all the way to the last one of them,thePalestinians say thatIsrael will keep expropriating land and buildingsettlements on their landuntil there is no land left to negotiate about and thedream of creating aPalestinian state will turn into a mirage.The Israelis say that they gave the Palestinians thebest offer there is togive in camp David II and the Palestinians not onlydidn't offer anycounter proposal they went back instead to violenceand killing which theirleader 'Arafat' vowed in the Oslo accord to neverutilize as an option.The Palestinians say that they were duped into signingan interminableaccord similar to bottomless pit with fire walls builtall around it toprevent any possible satisfactory outcome.The Israelis say that the Palestinians aren'ttrustworthy and thereforecould never be left unchecked & the Palestinians saythat the Israelis wantto transfer them out of their ancestral land so theycould have a Jewishonly state with no one else to share it with.What it all amounts to is that both parties are lockedin a virtualinternecine dueling.The Palestinians aren't going to give up any time soonor perhaps ever,theIsraelis will continue to prevaricate in hope that thePalestinians willwear themselves out and resign to fait accompli.The united nations,the European union,and the UnitedStates combined andseparately have tried with all their negotiatingskills to find a happymedium to satisfy the contending rivals but thus farall their effortsproved to be in vain.The question then become,how do you crack thejuggernaut!! or better yet,howdo you reconcile the irreconcilable differences?Is there anything out there that can be explored butfor one reason oranother it some how unwittingly got overlooked?Will any one of us be around to witness the hope thatwas so much visible inthe early nineties and quickly dashed away before theclosing of themillennium.We hear about the Mitchell,the Tenet plan,The Saudiplan,the Bush visionplan,the convening of international peaceconference,the Mubarak time tableplan,to many other miscellaneous unofficial floatingall over the placeplans.What is so ironic about all these plans is none ofthem proved to besatisfactory enough to be adopted by the parties towhom it supposed tohelp.The Israelis say that the Palestinians have tostop all their violenceand reform all their institutions before Israel willcontemplate any kind ofpolitical movement.The Palestinians say unless you show them some kind oflight at the end ofthe long tunnel they will continue to believe thatthey are resistingoccupation and their resistance is a legitimate rightguaranteed to them bythe international law.The Israelis say that they can't think straight whiletheir citizens arebeing blown away by suicide bombers while riding busesto work or school orwhile having Pizza at a parlor.The problem gets more intricate and heavily compoundedby the presence ofextreme elements on both sides of the fence.There is a minority among the Israelis that believethat all of the landshould be in the hands of the Israelis and all of thePalestinians should bekicked out completely to other parts of the Arab worldand by the same tokenthere are extreme elements among the Palestinians thatbelieve that theIsraelis are foreigners to the land of Palestine andthey must be kicked outat any cost even if takes hundreds of years.The majority however according to ongoing reliablepolling statistics fromboth sides believe that the Palestinians and theIsraelis should be separatebut equal.The Palestinians say that they have extendedolive branches fromtheir side long enough to circulate the entireuniverse time & again,but allthey got in return is fig leaves that give them pseudoimpression about afuture state in the apogee.Circumspection say that one can't lose hope and let godespite the failureof all previous attempts.The United states of America being a friend of thePalestinians and theIsraelis alike can and should impose a de factosolution as prefatory way ofgetting the parties out of the mess that they gotthemselves into,andconcurrently impose a de jure permanent accord basedon all theaforementioned peace plans combined.There is no one fit all type of solution.PresidentBush's vision to themiddle east is a good blue print for moving forwardbut it lacks a road mapthat gives the Palestinians a glimpse of hope that theday to livingoccupation free is nearing any time soon.There is no justification for the current impasse,aconsensus must bereached in order for the Palestinians and the Israelisto get their livesback on track.They have tried war and they tried peace,one needs toask-which one is morepalatable?Do the Israelis & the Palestinians have thewherewithal with thehelp of the United states acting as an honest brokerto get it done?Theanswer is a resounding yes.

US Presidential Primaries

Let me tell you from the onset that I’m a registered republican and have been voting republican since Ronald Regan had come into power. The reason I’m saying that so you know that I don’t have any interest in Obama or in Clinton. Nevertheless, as a political observer I never thought not even for a second that Obama has any glimpse of hope of winning the nomination, and even if by a stroke of a genius which is very remote that he does win the nomination, his chances of winning in the general election become even more oblique. The Americans are still afraid of another 9/11. Many of them believe that given the state of jitteriness that the world is going through these days, the possibility of another one ranks high in their agenda. The Americans perceive the democrat as weak on defense, they believe that Bill Clinton had an opportunity to finish off Osama Ben Laden but he chooses to deal with the matter as a law enforcement issue rather than a national security issue. The democrats on their part have been trying to explain to the people that should they take over they will try to polish the tarnished image of the United Stated around the world and thus averting another potential attack but the people aren’t buying into that line of thinking. They believe that Islamic “terrorism” is for real and their ideology is a destructive one, it is basically like a ticking time bomb, and it will take a very strong leader to stand up to that “fascist ideology”. And yes you guessed it as to what party portrayed that kind of a leadership. I understand that between now and November is a long way to go and anything can happen in between, however, even if nothing happens between now and then, and things remain constant, I’m expecting the republican party to retain the white house yet one more time. I know what you are thinking that I’m rooting for my party and that is the party that squandered all of the budget surpluses and put us in huge deficit, and dragged us into unnecessary war that could have been averted, and brought the economy into a recessionary mode, still, it managed to keep the people feeling secured in their homes, and you and I know from the Jordanian experience what does it mean to be secured in your own home. Please note that these are my own personal observations and not based on any expressed or implied evidence.