One of the most gripping things that I saw when visiting the controversial Bodies Exhibition (in which real corpses are on display) was the real lungs of real smokers. The scientific exhibition, currently running in Washington, D.C., makes a point of showing visitors the grave dangers smoking does to our bodies by showcasing the difference between a smoker’s lungs and those of a non-smoker. Naturally the smoker’s real lung was in a dire state. It was all black and looked rigid and in extremely rough shape.
Visitors to the exhibition that are smokers are encouraged to throw away their pack of cigarettes in a glass box that has a sign above it stating: "On average a pack of cigarettes takes two hours and twenty minutes off your life. We’d like you to be around longer. Leave your cigarettes in the gallery and stop smoking now."
After I saw this, I had this sudden urge to take every smoker I know by the hand and bring them to this exhibition to show them how they are killing themselves — slowly but surely. While there, I kept thinking about my home country, Jordan, and how widespread smoking is there. Would an exhibition such as this one deter people from taking up this nasty habit? Will I live to see the day when young Jordanians find it "uncool" to smoke? Maybe. Only time will tell.
I was baffled when I saw this picture on Lina’s blog. The photo highlights the new face of Amman: cranes dotting the new skyline of the Jordanian capital. It took me a while to recognize that I was looking at was my beloved hometown, which I have not visited for over a year.
At first glance, I thought the picture was taken in a city in the Persian Gulf, Dubai or maybe Doha. What threw me most were the skyscrapers — a sight I always associated with busy, hectic metropolises, not my quaint Amman, the city where I was born, raised and shaped.
Here is how Roba describes the new, fast-paced change:
Amman is changing, and it’s changing fast. Nothing is ever closed on Fridays anymore, the crowd at the malls is a cosmopolitan mix of people from all over the world, and you can get really decent shopping done at City Mall. Even more decent than that in Saudi Arabia. Personally? I love it 🙂 Of course, everything has a negative side to it as well, but for now, I’m enjoying the changes.
This sudden change is mind-boggling for me at least. Have I been away that long? I wonder.
The nature of my current job requires me to keep a close eye on press freedom violations across the world. I was surprised to see Jordan’s name pop up twice over the last ten days or so as a violator. The first violation involved the confiscation of an Alajzeera interview tape. The second involved the banning of Almajed newspaper because the Jordanian government alleged its front page article "harmed relations with the Palestinian government". Here is an excerpt [full article here] from the Committee to Protect Journalists’ report:
Jordanian authorities should lift their ban on today’s edition of an independent paper, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Fahd al-Rimawi, editor of the weekly Al-Majd, told CPJ that security agents moved Sunday to prevent printing of the edition because of a front-page story about a "secret plan" to oust the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Al-Rimawi said security officials told him they would ban the April 30 edition if he did not remove the article, the Associated Press reported. In an interview with CPJ, al-Rimawi said the issue had already been sent out for printing. Like many small tabloids in Jordan, Al-Majd is printed by larger publications that own printing presses. In this case, the leading pro-government daily Al-Rai handles Al-Majd’s printing.
Are we witnessing a press freedom backslide in Jordan? For the past several years or so Jordan has been making baby steps towards safeguarding the freedom of the press. One step was the recent scrapping of an article that allowed for the imprisonment of journalists. However, from what I read this week, things are not looking good. It seems the kingdom is regressing to previous years where stifling press freedoms was the norm. I don’t want to jump to conclusions quickly here so I must point out that the Jordanian government has denied banning the newspaper.
Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh told journalists Tuesday that the government had nothing to do with the issue of printing or banning the fortnightly. Meanwhile, the commercial printing press of the Jordan Press Foundation said it did not print Al Majd because it carried items "violating Article 26 of the Press and Publications Law," which prohibits publishing any material that might threaten national security. Source: [The Jordan Times]
It seems Aljazeera has upset the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan yet again, though this time the event involves HRH Prince Hassan. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported the following yesterday:
The Committee to Protect Journalists protests the Jordanian government’s seizure of a taped Al-Jazeera interview with former crown prince Hassan bin Talal last week. Ghassan Benjeddou, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Beirut, told CPJ that Jordanian intelligence officers stopped his producer at Amman’s Queen Alia Airport on Wednesday, shortly after the interview. They proceeded to confiscate the videotape of the interview, as well as several photographs taken of Prince Hassan during the interview.
In the interview conducted by Benjeddou, Hassan spoke critically of Saudi Arabia and U.S. policies in the Middle East, the journalist told CPJ. Citing a U.S. report, the prince said a Saudi official was financing Sunni militants to confront the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Al-Jazeera identified the official as Prince Bandar bin Sultan, secretary-general of Saudi Arabia’s National Security Council, The Associated Press reported. Hassan also criticized Saudi Arabia for holding political negotiations in the holy city of Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest site, Masjid al-Haram.
And the Jordanian response:
On Saturday, Benjeddou used his program to discuss press freedom in the Arab world and discuss what happened to him. He invited Nasser Judeh, the chief Jordanian government spokesman, to comment. The Jordan Times reported that Judeh told Al-Jazeera that Prince Hassan is "an intellectual whose views are respected the world over," but "there are national interests that should be protected."
The Jordan Times quoted Judeh saying "we cannot afford to have any misinterpretation of Jordan’s stand at this delicate stage," adding, "after all, remember that we live in the Middle East where media outlets are sometimes employed to serve political purposes."
I can see how HRH Prince Hassan’s comments could be controversial but at the same time I’m someone who believes in the total freedom of the press. In my humble opinion, I believe harassing journalists in this fashion and confiscating their work should not occur in a country that strives to be "democratic ." But then again, many would argue that things are not so black and white in the Middle East, and that sometimes there are exceptions. Ah well, I will agree to disagree!
Jordanian music station, Play 99.6 will receive this year’s NAB International Broadcasting Excellence Award during the International Reception on Wednesday, April 18 at NAB 2007 in Las Vegas. The awards recognize international broadcasters who have demonstrated leadership and successfully served their audience through innovative broadcasting and outstanding community service.
Play 99.6 led educational workshops to improve the role of radio in solving social and community problems. It included broadcasters from Egypt, Lebanon and Syria in its work. It also led Project Peace, a campaign that drew attention to the horrors of war in the Middle East, and collected US $78,000 to provide food and medical supplies to war victims in the region. Source: [Arabian Business]
I listened to play 99.6 briefly before my exodus from Jordan and they did indeed sound very professional. As someone who grew up listening to Radio Jordan (the one and only), I’m still baffled by the recent radio revolution in Jordan. I really can’t keep track of all the new radio stations launched in the Kingdom in the past few years. According to Ahmad, not all of them are up to par. Well, at least one of them manged to win an international award. Way to go Play 99.
I just finished watching a fairly recent interview with Jordanian singer Ruba Saqr, during which she talks about the censorship of musical expression in the Middle East. I enjoyed the interview a great deal, as some points she raised were spot on. I also enjoyed hearing her perform her song I’m a lantern, which is, as I understand it, dedicated to the city of Amman. Ruba’s voice is still just as beautiful as I remember from back in the days when I used to hear her perform in Amman.
Here is a blurb about her and her views.
Having worked as a reporter for several years, Ruba Saqr has written several articles to different Jordanian publications about the need to support underground musicians, and the need to change perceptions of musicians, in particular Arab female musicians in her part of the world. Ruba Saqr believes that female musicians are often reduced to being performers or singers and are seldom acknowledged by producers as full-fledged musicians who can write their own lyrics and music. She has experienced that some female musicians are pushed away from the music scene by society because it is not viewed as a "respectable" vocation, especially in traditional circles.
One of the most gripping things that I saw when visiting the controversial Bodies Exhibition (in which real corpses are on display) was the real lungs of real smokers. The scientific exhibition, currently running in Washington, D.C., makes a point of showing visitors the grave dangers smoking does to our bodies by showcasing the difference between a smoker’s lungs and those of a non-smoker. Naturally the smoker’s real lung was in a dire state. It was all black and looked rigid and in extremely rough shape. 
The Committee to Protect Journalists protests the Jordanian government’s seizure of a taped Al-Jazeera interview with former crown prince Hassan bin Talal last week. Ghassan Benjeddou, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Beirut, told CPJ that Jordanian intelligence officers stopped his producer at Amman’s Queen Alia Airport on Wednesday, shortly after the interview. They proceeded to confiscate the videotape of the interview, as well as several photographs taken of Prince Hassan during the interview.