Jordan Business Magazine

http://www.jordan-business.net/magazine/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=241&Itemid=40



This is by far the best business report that has been produced by Jordan Business since its inception. Three cheers to Ms. Zaina Steityeh on her succinct reporting. I have been reading Jordan Business from the very first issue until now, while some of the previous business reports were quality reports none of them come close to Ms. Steityh's comprehensive reporting.

For instance, I'm not a big fan of the interview type of reporting, the reader gets lost between the question and the answer, and some of the questions are much longer than the answer and so on and so forth.

By contrast, Ms. Steityeh appears to have spent a great deal of time studying the state of Franchising in Amman prior to sitting down in front of her key board to type her comprehensive report.

The story was very compelling, easy to understand, the sequence of events were chronologically organized and followed a systematic pattern from the opening statement all the way to the end of the report.

I enjoyed reading every word in this report although I'm not a franchisee nor will I ever be one, notwithstanding, the report taught me everything that I need to know about the state of all of the existing as well as the future American brands franchises in Jordan, something that I have always wondered about while driving around the streets of Amman and observing the bill boards advertising about the Burger King, Poppy's chicken, Pizza Hut and so on. Thank you Jordan business and thank you Ms. Steityeh for this wonderful portrait about the American franchising in Jordan

Arabs & US elections

There is a strong evidence in the media circles suggesting that an Arab American engineer, real-estate developer, and a political activist of Syrian origins named Tony Rezko may end up being the primary cause of ending the democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s chances of becoming president, he may even end up being the main cause of ending Obama’s political career altogether—and--getting him indicted on charges of corruption and money laundering.

Just imagine Obama going from being the first black president of the United States to being indicted on criminal charges stemming from his friendship with an Arab American that immigrated to the United States in the early years of the eighties.

Obama & Rezko appear to have some how become engaged in improper business dealings and wheeling, the deal involves a property and a parcel of land adjacent to the property. Obama appears to have bought the house and Rezko bought the land, the entire transaction has an aura of impropriety to it.

I personally don’t know Rezko but I do know a third person that was also indicted along with Rezko, his name is Ali Ata, this man already plead guilty to corruption charges and money laundering stemming from false allegations he had made to federal corruption officer regarding his relationship with Rezko and with an employment offer that he received in the financial office of the governor of the State of Illinois Rod Blogoyvich.

It is interesting to see how the sequence of events will unfold after the testimony of Mr. Ata before the grand jury on Wednesday. He is expected to spell the beans about everything he knows regarding the governor of Illinois and regarding Rezko/ Obama real estate deals. Ali Ata was at some point in time a real estate developer and a partner of Mr. Rezko’s real estate deals.

Mr. Rezko’s indictment stigmatized the Arab American community in Chicago, it seems like whenever the Arabs had an opportunity to spread the good word about their culture, their ethics, and their ties to the United States, they end up messing things up and making the whole community looks like it is guilty because of the few criminals in it.

It is a very low point right now in the Arab American community in Chicago, every body used to think the world of Mr. Rezko prior to his indictment. It appears as though behind the obvious front that he used to put on, he was nothing but a criminal, using his influence to shake up businesses to extort money from them, and use his influence to obtain loans to finance his failing businesses.

What do you want to be?!

I spent my entire adult life working in management, was I destined to be a manager all of my life?! I don’t know and no body else knows but that is what it is and that is where it stands right now.

But is it possible that at a time when I’m nearing my retirement age still doesn’t know what I really want to be!! I guess by now at this advanced stage in my life it is almost too late to even think about what I want to be.

When I was a kid I thought that I wanted to be a pilot, a lawyer, a journalist, a career diplomat, however, it didn’t happen and I’m still thinking about what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Some of you may wonder what at this stage in life prompted that line of thinking in me. I tell what it is; it is the new kitchen that I have installed/ remodeled in my house few months ago. Still, what the heck is the relationship between a newly remodeled kitchen and my career path?!

Well, it is the art of carpentry itself that I’m interested in addressing for this purpose. It all started when through friend of mine I met this carpenter called Abu Alaa, which in turn convinced me to remodel my kitchen. The idea appealed to me because he told that all we need to do is buy wood, and from the wood he will be able to manufacture a complete ready to use kitchen on his own.

I have always thought that when someone needs a new kitchen all they would have to do is go to one of those places that sell ready kitchens, buy it, and then hire someone to install it for them.

It wasn’t that way with Abu Alaa, he makes everything himself from raw wood, he sands the wood, measures it, saws it, carves it, paints it, and then sculpts it together into shapes using nails and glue. Three weeks later the finished product is a kitchen; it is that simple for him.

In the three weeks that I spent with him putting together a beautiful kitchen from scratch taught me a lot about my self, about the carpentry profession, and about the manual work that the blue color people do.

I was there all day every day when the wood gets purchased from the factory, when the wood gets loaded on the truck, transported to my house, and finally unloaded in my kitchen.

I helped Abu Alaa in every step in the way, I handed him the tool that he needed while he was nailing in a precarious position, I measured with him, and I carved, sanded, and lifted and sawed.

I ate both my breakfast and lunch with him, we drank tea all day long, and at the end of the day I drove him back home to his family house. I tremendously enjoyed doing the manual work with this man; I have never felt more relaxed more at ease the way I felt during those three weeks.

I discovered that perhaps I was meant to be someone that should be working in manual labor rather than working with his mind all the time. I found that manual labor gives me the feeling of serenity, a feeling of placidness that never existed in me throughout my life.

Will I be switching my career? I don’t think so I’m just wondering if God had made me someone that should be doing manual labor but some how Instead was sucked into this management career and didn’t permit myself to think about anything else since the pay was comfortable and authority and prestige that comes with it blinded me from seeking an alternative.

Internet Strike

Oh those urge to splurge:

I think that at the very least the only punishment the people who comply with the call for a strike will get is a verbal counseling or warning from their supervisors for not calling their employers to inform them about their absence and not showing up for work, and at the very most a letter of warning placed in their personal file for failing to come to work. They may even end up losing the wages allotted for that same day. This applies only to people that have occupations which doesn’t endanger the lives of other people. On the flip side of the coin, if the striking employees occupy jobs that may endanger the lives of other people such as police men, fire men, doctors, and air traffic controllers, the consequences may become much more severe, particularly if lives were lost as a result of work stoppage. For instance: if the striking employee is an air traffic controller and his presence on the job is absolutely necessary on that day, and then suddenly and without a notice he doesn’t call or show up for work, and God forbid as a result of his absence to accommodate the strike an air crash occurred and 250 people lost their lives. In this hypothetical scenario we would be looking at a whole new set of rules governing the situation. The same would apply for other critical occupation; some jobs may even have a clause in the employment rules prohibiting the employee from ever participating in a strike or work stoppage under any circumstances. As far as I can remember from monitoring the news the duration of most strikes in Jordan range from thirty minutes to two hours. The most recent one was the doctors at Hamza hospital protesting the detention of their colleague emergency room doctor by the government personnel. My guess is that some people may get severely punished for their compliance with the strike while other people may only get a slap on their rest. It all depends on the type of occupation one is performing.

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.

حكايتي انا والكمبيوتر

انا والكمبيوتر مش كثير صحبه، مع اني بقضي يوميا بين ١٠ الى ١٥ ساعه قدام الشاشه،والي بشوفني بقولك هذا الزلمه فطحل كمبيوتر مع ان معلوماتي لا تتجاوز الأمور البدائيه لفهمي الكلي لذه الماكنه.
إمتلكت في حياتي كلها جهازين كمبيوتر، واحد كان على ما اعتقد ويندوز ٩٥ والثاني كان ويندوز ميلينيوم. طبعا هذا الحكي بالنسبه للوضع الكمبيوتري في الدار، اما في الشغل فأن الجهاز هناك من طراز دل وهناك يوجد لدينا شخص متخصص في امور التشغيل والتحديث والبرمجه وازالة الفيروسات وعمل كونفجراشن، وتصويب كافة الأوضاع كلما احتاج الأمر او اصبح الكمبيوتر يعمل بأسلوب عشوائي. وطبعا بما انني اقضي معظم وقتي في الشغل فلم اجد ضروره ملحه للقيام بشراء جهاز حديث على الأخر للبيت لأن الأستعمال هناك مقصور على الويك اند والعطل الرسميه. المهم انه مضى لغاية الأن اكثر من سنه ونصف وأنا بفكر في شراء لاب توب،وطبعا اول شرط عندي هو ان يكون هذا اللاب توب شلبي على الأخر وبسعر معقول او حتى زهيد، بألأضافه الى فأنني اريد من هذا الجهاز ان يعمل في عمان كل ما ذهبت للزياره الى هناك. وهذا المطلب لوحده عطل مسيرتي اكثر من ٦ اشهر اخرى لأنني بحاجة الى دراسة النظام المعمول به هناك مقارن بأ النظام المعول به هنا والتأكد بأن النظامين النظامين سوف يكونو متطابقين مع بعضهم البعض. المهم شو بدك في الطويله قلت يا ولد لازم إنت زي الأمريكن تدرس الوضع تمام علشان تحفظ مية وجهك اولآ وثانيا تحافظ على فلوسك وما تصرف على اشي إنت في غنا عن صرفه.والله وبلشت أدور في الجرايد وعلى جوجل وفي محلات بيعة الألكترونيات،والقيت نظره على منتجات هاولت باكر،ودل، وكمباك، وسوني، وتوشيبا،وجيت ويه،و اي بي ام، إلخ.... وبلشت أسأل كل ما أشوف واحد بعرفه اذا كان بفهم بموضوع الاب توب،وفعلآ بدأت اجمع معلومات عن هذا الموضوع بجدية مطلقه. ولكن الشمله بدأ تتفاقم شويه شويه، فكل ما بوسع نطاق البحث كل ما بلاقي حالي متحير اكثر من المره السابقه. فمعظم الذين سألتهم كان جوابهم تقريبا بالأجماع ... ماذا تريد ان تفعل في هذا الكمبيوتر او مذا تريد من هذا الكمبيوتر ان يعمل لك. وطبعا انا عندي فكره جيده عن ما اريد، فأنا اريد ان ارسل واستقبل وأكتب وأسمع واقرأ وأشاهد افلام وقنوات عربيه واجنبيه والعب اقراص السي دي والدي في دي ،واطرب على صوت عمر العبدلات واشياء مثل هيك ، يعني امور بدائيه ، فأنا مش تبع ابحاث ودوسيات وخزين وعمل البومات صور او تبع حرق اقراص سي دي ولاشي من هذا.انا زلمه بدور على البساطه وبديش تعقيد. بدي الكمبيوتر يعمل كل شي لحاله انا ما علي إلا احرك الماوس شمال يمين او ادعس على الزر وغير هيك مش فاضي.لا تحكيلي ميجا وات ولا ميجا بايت ولا ميموري ولا دسبليه ولا جرافك ولا بروسيسر ولا بورت ولا مش عارف ايش تاني كمان، كل هذا لا يعنس شيء بألنسبه الي. المهم بعد جهد جهيد تمكنت من تقليص اللأحه الى ثلاثة اجهزه ، واحد دل وواحد توشيبا واحدهولت باكر. طبعا الأ سعر كلها كانت متقاربه من بعضها البعض ، وكنت على وشك ان اشتري جهاز هذا اليوم او غدا، ولكن شاء القدر ان يزورني اليوم واحد من اولادي الثلاثه ، وهو طالب جامعي سنه رابعه.وبعد ان جلسنا وسألته عن احواله وسألني عن احوالي ، ذكرت له بأنني عزم العزم على شراء لاب توب، واعطيته الأوراق لكي يطلع عليها ويعطيني رأيه بها.وعندم انتهى من مراجعة الأوراق صدمني اكبر صدمه. قال-- يا بابا مش إنت بتحب تفرج على الأفلاف إلي كلها هاي دفنشن، فقلت له نعم، فقال ،هذا الجاز الي انت اخترته لا يوجد به ميزة مراقبة افلام الهاي دفنشن، عندها جن جنوني وها انا سوف ابدأ رحلتي من جديد ابحث عن لاب توب علني يوم ما اهتدي الى شراء واحد كويس رخيص ومن مصنعيه معتبره

التدوين

اعتقد ان التدوين لا يختلف كثيرا في فحواه عن ان كونه اداه مسليه تعكس تطورات العصر الحاضر.خذ مثلآ ابوي وابوك وسيدي وسيدك كانو زمان لما يزهقو يلعبو شده، ضامه، طاولة زهر، شطرنج،وهلم جر. الكمبيوتر كان وقتها يدوبك مكتشف واستعماله محصور للشئون العمليله وليس الشخصيه كما هو الحال الأن. لذلك وبما ان التدوين حسب اعتقادي بأنه ماده مسليه فهذا معناه ان التدوين لا يحل ولا يربط وان تأثيره اقل بكثير من تأثير الكلام الكتوب في الجرائد اليوميه مع فارق واحد الا وهو ان ألجرائد اليوميه لها استعمالات اخرى كمسح العوره مثلآ بعد ازالة اسماء الجلالة منها ،كما تستعمل لتنظيف وتلميع الزجاج ، الى كونها شرشف تستعمل لألتقاط الزيت الذي يسيل من اطراف صحن الفول خلال الأكل،وايضآكواقيه من لهيب الشمس وتساقط المطر،اما الألكترونات التي نضيعها في صياغة مدوناتنا فلا يمكن حتى اعادة تدويرها للأستفادة منها كما نستفيد من ورق الجرايد. التدوين يا إخوان لا قبض ولا صرف وفي معظم الأحيان يكون مثل نظرية زيرو صم جيم،ليش،لأنو التدوين لا يتطلب اي نوع من المهارات الشخصيه، ولايحتاج الى اي نوع من التدريب، ولا يتطلب اي رخصه معينه،او الأنضمام الى اي جمعيه او هيئه معترف او غير معترف بها،يعني ان غابة عنكم زي الي بقول على بال مين يا إلي بترقص في العتمه.ومع هذاوذاك فأنك تجد اعداد الدونين يتكاثر يوم بعد يوم بس يا هل ترى لو انه نعرف بطريقة ما عن كم ما هوالعمر الأفتراضي لكل تدوينه على حدا،شهر،سنه، سنتيين،فأذاعرفنا اشي مثل هيك فممكن انه نعرف الده المحدده لأختفاء عدد كبير من الدونالت او حتى كلها بدون استثناء،لأنه اذا الواحد اكتشف انه التدوين لا بقدم ولابأخر فمعناته هذا الشخص بده يروح يشوفله شغله ثانيه غير التدوين يتسلى فيها.ألموضوع شأك شويه فعشان هيك رايح هسه اتركه بس لازم ارجع له وان معي حج اقوى من هذي الحجج القصصية الطبع الي دوشتكم وانا قاعد بطنطن فيها من الصبح.يمكن هدا كله يكون اثار جانبيه من كث البهادلا لي اكلتها في تقصيري على ايداء الواجب في عيد الحب لإنشغالي الفرط في المودونات والمدونون والتدوين.

ما احلى الرجوع إليك

يا الله صار لي اكثر من ١٣٤ يوم بدون تدوين، مش فاهم باألزبط شو الفلم، هل جف حبر دماغي، هل سيطر الكسل على كل جزء من اجزاء حياتي، هل انني اصبحت غير مكترث لأي شيء يدور من حولي، هل اني اعاني من مرض المناعه القلميه. الله اعلم عن سبب الأمتناع لأنه في الواقع لا يوجد اي تفسير وجيه لهذه الظاهره. وفوق هذا وذاك فائنني لأول مرة في حياتي ادون باألغة العربيه.وطبعا لا ادري من اين جاءت هذه الرغبة الملحة للتدوين بلعربي.فرغم انني حاولت شتى وسائل المقاومه لتجنب التدوين بلعربيه الا ان الرغبه غلبت علي في النهايه وها انا ادون بلعربيه ولغاية الأن لا ادري اذا كنت فخور في نفسي او خجول منها لأ ن من الفروض ان اكون متمكن من التدوين في اي من الغتين، الا انني لااذكر باألتحديد كم مضى من الزمن دون الكتابة بلعربي ولربمى تكون الفتره اكثر من ٣٣ سنه علىالأقل. لذلك ارجو المعذره من الجميع اذا كان هنالكاخطاء قواعديه او اخرى املأيه.مع اني متاءكد بأن وضعي سوف يتحسن مع مرور الوقت والتمرين على الكتابه اكثر واكثر.

Abbadi Not Guilty

I’m predicting that Mr.Abbadi will be found not guilty, perhaps not all of the charges will be thrown out, perhaps he won’t be getting an out right acquittal but his conviction will be on a much lesser charges that may or may not carry jail time other than what he already had served while in detention awaiting the trial. I think that his lawyer’s resplendence idea of inserting the hacking issue into the mix will prove to be a huge mitigating factor. If the judges don’t somehow doubt the credibility of the defendant’s attorney, they will have no choice but return a not guilty verdict. The letter is considered the fulcrum with which the persecution case rests’. Abbadi denied writing the letter, and further more says that he was framed by someone that wanted to harm his interest, and hence wrote the letter and attributes it to him. He also testified that he would never harm Jordan’s interests abroad and he is a loyal citizen and former law maker dedicated to the service of the Hashemite regime and the country of Jordan. If that defense is not convincing enough I don’t know what else would be. This new turn of events had changed the entire make up of the case and shook the ground underneath the prosecutor’s general feet. Had Mr. Abbadi insisted that he is the one that wrote the letter, and had he insisted that he wrote it because he was exercising his freedom of speech rights, he would be convicted with no if and or but about it. Nevertheless, having found an outlet to get him off the hook will prove to be a brilliant thinking on the part of his attorney. There is no way in the world the prosecution can prove with an absolute certainty that Mr. Abbadi wrote the letter, the IT experts that testified the other day on behalf of the defendant clearly stated that possibility of hacking the cite exists and it may very well be that someone had inserted the letter into the web site and made it look like Mr. Abbadi wrote it, in other words, the implication is that he was framed. When I reviewed this case few months ago I was thinking in my mind that it is going to be for sure 100% conviction, it is crystal clear that the letter which was allegedly written by Mr. Abbadi sounds like it is intended to harm the Jordanian interests and sully its reputation abroad, needles to say, the subsequent turn of events and particularly the framing allegations turns the whole story upside down and throws the ball back in the prosecution court. And despite the fact that the prosecutor asked that Mr. Abbadi be found guilty as charged, I’m sure the judges are much more sagacious than the prosecutors and they will take the issue of the denial as well as the issue of framing very seriously. Let us wait and see what the verdict is going to be but I have a deep visceral feeling that it is going to be favorable to Mr. Abbadi



http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=2575

It must be the end of time

http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=2547

I can’t believe that Fahed Fank, one of the most ardent opponents of the National Agenda; long even before it was even published, is now calling for its revival. The end of time must be drawing near. He questioned in his daily column published in AlRai newspaper on October 20, 205 whether the goals of the national agenda were obligatory or merely hopes and expectations, he questioned the hypothesis with which were used as a fulcrum for the national agenda, he stated that the fundamental issue in the economic development in Jordan is based on outside influences and not under our will and determination, he cited the Palestinian problem, the future of Iraq, the stability of the region, fluctuating oil prices, out side grants, the gulf market, and other reasons that will hinder the launching of the national agenda. Mr. Fank went on to say that the most farcical item of the agenda’s ten main items is the one that pledges to turn the countries budget deficit into a surplus even prior to having to take into consideration the foreign grants. According to him even if this economic surplus goal was achieved it would have caused as much damage to the economy as the budget deficit itself since it will demand an increase in tax levies.

Jordanian Initiative

I’m surprised that no one particularly those amongst us that make it a habit of theirs to address these issues bothered to mention about the project lead by former president Clinton entitled “Clinton Global Initiative”. This link gives some back ground about the project.

http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=1399&srcid=-2


I’m personally impressed by what I have read about it especially that it covers four topics that are very near and dear to my heart. A) Education b) Energy c) Health d) Poverty alleviation.

I think that an initiative like that would be very helpful for country like ours, we hear about so many initiative that were created in Jordan over the last decade or so, sadly most of these initiatives either die in their infancy, never see the light, or never develop all the way until fruition.

I don’t pretend to have any answer but I’m just trying to toss some ideas around so hopefully it will stimulate a discussion about how can we lift Jordan to a higher standard better and more improved than the current one. Can we emulate the global initiative, better yet, can we localize or domesticate the global initiative with a similar initiative called the Jordanian initiative.

I know I sound like I’m too influenced by the global initiative and to tell you the truth I’m, but why not, I guess I’m extra ordinarily utopian individual, or a big day dreamer.

Help Wanted

Help Wanted



The Jordanian press and publication department is looking for qualified candidates to fill in a number of vacant positions available for a recently enacted domestic surveillance program.

Positions entail spaying on electronic media websites, blogs, web pages, electronic news beaurues, correspondences, news bulletins, comments, chats, announcements, and electronic press releases.

Qualified candidates must posses an excellent command of the English language, must be willing to engage the bloggers into a lively desirable discussions for the purpose of entrapping them. This isn’t a nine to five position, a designated spy must be available on a twenty four to forty eight hours shifts. When the story breaks so will the spy be ready to report on the flurry electronic activities about it.

The position offers a basic salary and plenty of commission incentives, the more people you turn in the higher your income will be. Our goal is to shut the mouths as well as the spirit of those nonconforming so called electronic media journalists.

In the past we have been successful at shutting the print journalists as well as defining delineated borders for the video and audio journalist personnel, we expect to have the same level of success if not better, faster, and more swifter at the electronic media.

For immediate consideration forward “ironically” via electronic media your curriculum vita outlining your qualification, interests, and goals. Only applicants that demonstrate the highest degree of becoming excellent spies will be considered for the positions, and will be invited for further processing and training on the best methods of how to spot violators of electronic media journalists and bring them to justice.

If you aren’t self confident well rounded spy willing to turn in the most intimate person to you;then you need not bother applying for any of these open positions, this isn’t for the feign hearted individual.

Interested applicants need not worry about public exposure, confidentiality is of a paramount importance to the press and publication department, all reporting and turning in people will be done in highly covert operations, you need not worry about being exposed.

We encourage young talented English proficient male and female Jordanians to take advantage of this rare opportunity, applications will be reviewed on first come first serve order, don’t let this excellent opportunity pass you by, hurry, the time to become a highly paid spy is now. Experience is not necessary, nor is it a requirement.

New ways of looking for a job

Nowadays eager job seekers are turning to places like You Tube to tout their marketable skills, prospective employers are reacting positively. A decade or so ago, the same people were sending in video tapes of themselves to companies that they hoped to work for, in a recorded two to three minutes segment they would outline their career goals, education, training, professional experience and even hobbies. When those video tapes ended up being too bulky and require video cassette players to view them, employers lost interest in them and soon enough they have become extinct. Not long afterwards the compact discs emerged as the favorite tool for sending one's blurb about him and his job prospects. While I concur that the cold calling is dead but so is the web sites that people post their resume on it 'on line' in hope of trying to locate a job, it too caught up with the frenzy of job searching for a number of years .Regrettable, the trend didn't last and the force of the imposed technology caused it to move on as well. Check this out: In any given day there are millions of resumes circulating on the internet, even those resumes that are job specific number in the hundreds of thousands, employers don't have the necessary time to sift through these job applicants in order for them to select the right candidate. Often times even human resource managers are under intense pressure to staff the vacant positions as soon as they possibly can in a relatively short period of time line, though, to do so in a hasty manner would do the company disservice and result in hiring the wrong candidate. On the flip side of the coin, watching an already uploaded segment on You Tube can be achieved with relative ease by a click of the mouse. Only then the employer can get a very clear idea about the person's character by watching him/her introduce themselves on You Tube or similar website, and if they don't like what they see they never have to see them again. There are no reams of resumes to go through, no highlighting of important facts, and no narrowing down of three, two, and finally one candidate. When the human resource manager watches the You Tube like video he/she will decide on the spot whether that particular candidate in the segment is suitable or unsuitable to work for their company. They will be able to watch his appearance, listen to his voice, and determine his nationality, color, body language and so on. These are very important characteristics for employers. By contrast, posting a resume on the internet is going out of vogue; soon it will be extinct just like the video cassette and the compact disc before it. People should realize that technology is changing the face of how we should be looking for a job now and in the future. Remember once upon a time when finding a job was solely based on referral. A friend of yours, your neighbor, or your uncle used to recommend you for their boss and then the next thing you are hired based on their recommendations. Then there was the job ads appearing in the newspaper, and answering them via the postal services, followed by an invitation for an interview, and finally the hiring. Then there was the cold calling, the walk in, and even the stopping of managers in the middle of the street begging them to give you a chance for an interview. All of these styles have gone out of business; they are no longer effective in locating and landing a job. While I do wish the best of luck for the founders of this new online job seeking company in Jordan, I think that they have arrived into the market too little too late, the digital divide had caught up with them, and unless they add some new innovative features to go a long with merely posting a text resume they will be doomed. One must be mind full of all of the changes that are occurring around him, what used to be fitting a couple of years ago may not be fitting these days. The key word for Akhtaboot is innovate- before-it -is too- late.

Stone care techniques

I was reading this column published on Friday August 31,07 http://www.alghad.jo/index.php?article=7016&sub#msg in alghad jordanian daily-- and then I decided to speak my mind on it.


Here is how I feel about it :

The market is awash with stone care products but the owners of these stone buildings are unwilling or unable to utilize these products that keep their building aesthetically sound. Stone surfaces can very easily be maintained by power washing them annually with 1500-300 psi power washing machine. However when the dirt is allowed to dwell on the surface for a number of years it first penetrates into the porous stone surface, hardens, and builds up just like the plaque that adheres and builds on the human teeth. Once the dirt on the stone surface hardens and gets exposed to hot and cold and rainy weathers, removal of the dirt becomes that much more difficult. The key to maintaining beautiful looking stone surface is preventive maintenance, power wash the exterior of the entire vertical surfaces from all four sides of the building at least once a year and you can rest assured that your building will look as good as the first day you built it for many years to come. Conversely, ignore power washing your building surfaces for five or more years and your building will look very ugly. In any event, even those who ignore the preventive maintenance stage can still get their building back in shape by moving into step two of stone care and that is called corrective and restorative maintenance techniques. In this stage the building surface must be cleaned using a number of ways among them acid based chemical to etch the surface, sand blasting, or poultice, any of these methods would take care of the cleaning part, after the surface had been thoroughly clean, an impregnator would have to be applied on the stone surface by using either a spray gun, a soft wool lamb applicator, or hand brush. In some instances more than one application would be needed especially if the stone surface had gone into vigorous cleaning prior to the application. Once the impregnator dries up the stone surface would look like brand new again and all it would need is a regular hosing with a garden hose about twice a year. I'm amazed about how much the Jordanians ignore the maintenance of the exterior stone surfaces of their buildings, I even once thought about opening a stone care business in Amman consisting of washing all the intolerable ugly looking permanent grime adhering to the buildings stone surfaces.

Blogging---again ?!

I think that the bloggers need to coalesce over one single issue at the time and try to break it open inside out in the public view so it can turn into the talk of the town. This is the only way that public officials will begin to pay attention to what the bloggers are saying. At this point in time each blogger is blogging about anything and everything, there is no one particular issue [except may be for the snow] that would attract a collection of bloggers to debate in a deliberate fashion and prosecute a particular issue from A to Z.
The bloggers can if they want to- become the lobbying voice- the public defenders- if you will for- the general public, they have the ability to understand the issues more than anyone else, they have the necessary education to fathom the most intricate details surrounding the issues, and they have the technology to spread the word around with relative ease.
I think that the bloggers can operate as a pressure group by explaining the pros and cons of every issue that affects the citizens of the country, be that health care or lack of it, education, immigration, taxation, foreign labor, and so on and so forth.
So why aren’t they doing it?! I think that part of the reason is apathy, and part of the reason is their impotence toward believing that no matter how hard they try they aren’t going to be able to change anything and business will continue running the way it has been running for the past several decades.

The final part is probably fear of retribution by the government against them personally or against members of their families. Perhaps some of these concerns are quite legitimate and others are just imaginary.

Where do we go from here? I say we go toward coalescing, toward a synergy like effort, toward parsing every issue in a manner that is comprehensible to the average citizen of the country.

If we continue to blog with no aim in sight we are going to be blogging for the rest of our lives about things that no body read except the authors themselves. By contrast, if we can show that we are dead serious about plowing the rugged fields and prepare it for reform, we are serious about seeing a change taking place in the country during our life time not our children or grand children’s time, then just may be and that is a big may be somebody out there will begin paying attention to what we blog about and why.

There are a lot of grievances’ out there; there are a lot of people that don’t know what is going on and why they have arrived at where they are at right now. There are a lot of people that were better off five and ten years ago.

There are people that lament the good old days and wish that they are still living in the past. All these feelings combined need to be articulated and simplified. It doesn’t take a lot for the people to be content in Jordan, but the constant influx of foreign workers, regional immigrants, refugees with no refugee status, sky rocketing real-estate prices, have put the Jordanian citizen in a state of shock and bewilderment.

Bloggers can and should collectively discuss and parse some or all of these issues, they can help put the citizen’s mind at ease by creating a group of informed citizens, ones that know what to do to find jobs for their children, where to go to get an annual check up, how to apply for a scholarship, how do you get a tax relief and exemption.

I guess I’ll stop here before I veer too much away from my main objective which is the need to coalesce toward a primary issue and stay with it from A to Z.

Blogging

I just learned that there are more than fifty million blogs out there and the number is expected to double by year end. Most blogs are read by the author only and by no one else. Most blogs don't generate any type of profits.The Blogger isn't recognized as journalists. Bloggers are called pajama journalists because most bloggers blog while they are at home, they don't go out on the field looking for stories to report about. Bloggers can be considered as an add on, an accessory, a supplement to real journalism. Journalists aren't worried about the bloggers taking over their jobs. I guess the bottom line is that bloggers aren't being taken seriously by anybody. Their future is unknown, some have already run out of the passion for writing and others are on their way out as well. It would be interesting to find out what will become of blogging five to ten years from now.

Arab Chatter: What It means

Arab Chatter: What It means

Garden variety of choices

People ask me why do I love living in the United States ? I say it is the choices that are present in the United States & can't be found any where else are the main reason.

It is up to the individuals themselves to make whatever choice they want to make, and when the choice turns out to be a bad one they have no one to blame but themselves. Why? Because it is they who made the choice in the first place, the parents don't make choices for their children in here, the teachers, the doctor, the lawyer, or your next door neighbor don't make choices for you, it is you who make a choices for yourself.

If you don't like your present job, quit and look for another job somewhere else, the opportunity is there for you, you just have to look for it and it isn't too much to ask for.

If you don't like living in this part of the town, then pick up your stuff and move to whatever part of the town that suits your need, you need not be stuck living in the same place or same neighborhood for the rest of your life.

If you don't like your appearance change it, either by changing the way you dress, the way you style your hair, or you can even change your entire facial expressions if you really want to do that.

If you don't like your car then sell it and buy another car with another model and more horse power to it, you need not stay stuck with the same car for ever.

I mean all of these are just samples to give you an idea about the wide variety of choices that exist in America, they are by no means representative of every choice but I'm sure that you get the jest of it.

It is very nice in my opinion to be able to decide for yourself, it gives you a sense of empowerment, a feeling of boldness, and when the choice turns out to be great you feel the ecstasy emanating out of you. By the same token when your choice turns out to be bad you feel the agony of defeat, but still it isn't so bad because it was you who made those good and bad choices in the first place.

I recently made a choice to be involved in the lives of the gifted and academically enriched children ages 11 to 14, and what an exciting experience it turned out to be, those gifted children have a lot of talents hidden underneath their sleeves, you be surprised how much of cognitive skills they have, sometimes they keep me on my toes throughout the period that I spend with them.

This is by the way totally volunteer program aims at helping to further the knowledge and depth of abstract reasoning for children in sixth through eighth grade.

Some people may have a choice of working with senior citizens, some may choose to work with people that are physically and mentally challenged, some people choose to do nothing and live their life without doing any paid or unpaid work, the choice is still yours.

In America the choices are endless, the menu of choices is so long it could be wrapped around the entire globe several times and there would still be more choices written on it for you to choose from.

Endless choices