by Natasha Tynes | Jul 31, 2004 | Jordan, my nation, Music, Shutterbug
Yesterday Tania got us free tickets for a soprano and clarinet concert taking place in Jerash as part of the annual cultural festival there. So we, accompanied by mom and her friend Ra’da, drove to Jerash, about one hour north of Amman, to enjoy the festivities and the music.
The concert was a combined French-Jordanian effort with Jordanian musicians Dima and Nadim Bawwab accompanied by musicians from Toulouse, France presenting a unique evening of clarinet and soprano coloratura performance.
I was particularly impressed with Dima, the young soprano. Her voice is really something else. I can tell she is really working on it, as each year I notice an improvement. This young woman has a bright future ahead of her! I can really see that. She has both a strong voice and strong passion about her music — a perfect combination.
Her younger brother Nadim was really impressive as well. His performance on clarinet (in far right and middle below) was top-notch. It was also touching to see Nadim and Dima’s dad acting as maestro and announcer, as he worked to ensure everything went properly.
Their dad, a musician as well, is the primary person behind last night’s event. His constant support and encouragement of his kids is certainly one of the main reasons they have excelled in such a way! Kudos for his efforts!
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by Natasha Tynes | Jul 30, 2004 | Everyday me!, Shutterbug, Weblogs
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My Swedish friend Nouna just sent me a link for a gallery she created featuring various pictures of our MA journalism class at City University. Ah! the wonderful year we had in London! You might want to take a minute to check it out!
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by Natasha Tynes | Jul 28, 2004 | Film, Jordan, my nation, Shutterbug
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Today we got to watch one of my all-time favorite movies: Como aqua por Chocalate (Like Water for Chocolate) and I fell in love with it all over again. It’s sensual, magical and portrays the art of cooking so beautifully. You can’t help but love this movie.
The film was screened at a fairly new cultural house in Amman called Makan, which is basically an initiative started by art and culture lover Ola Khaladi.
Although the site itself is fairly small, it offers a range of cultural events such as concerts, exhibitions, movies and others. Such initiatives are among the many positives signs I have been noticing in Jordan. Kudos to Makan and those behind it!
Makan is located in Jebel Weibdeh and has a fantastic view from its veranda of Jebel Amman, which can be seen below. That little white daub in the midst of that blue, blue sky is the moon.
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by Natasha Tynes | Jul 27, 2004 | Religion, Shutterbug, Travel
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Of the many new and interesting things we saw on our recent trip to Sharm, I found the room in this house very intriguing.
The building is called The House of Skulls and it is found at the entrance to St. Catherine’s Cathedral right in the middle of the Sinai Desert. As you can see, the room has skulls neatly stacked on top of each other.
According to our Egyptian guide, back in the old days the caretakers of the monastery would separate the skulls of dead saints brought to the church from the rest of the bones of their body and display them in this manner we believe to honor them in some fashion.
We got to peek in on this room through a gated metal door. There were many tourists jammed in to take a look at the skulls so, unfortunately, I didn’t get to examine the room as closely as I wanted 😉 Curious stuff eh? The picture is courtesy of my talented husband, the photographer of the family 🙂
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by Natasha Tynes | Jul 25, 2004 | Books, Jordan, my nation, Media watch, Religion
At last! The truth is coming out regarding the now clearly fictional book "Honor Lost," whose author narrates an alleged "true story" of her friend’s murder at the hands of her family because she, a young Muslim woman, was dating a Christian guy.
According to a Jordan Times article by Rana Husseini (a women’s issues reporter from whom some of the information for the tale was gleaned without permission), the book is the fabrication of an author writing under the name Norma Khouri, a name that now appears to be fictitious itself.
The article addresses a number of false claims by Khouri, including that she had to flee Jordan to Greece and then Australia after the incident, fearing for her life.
I remember last year when I first heard about the book. I was so furious I couldn’t sleep for days. What really annoyed me was how she fabricated her portrayals of Jordanian women and their male counterparts.
One example of these falsehoods was that women in Jordan aren’t allowed to eat at the same table with men. Instead, she claimed, they waited until after the men had their fill, staying behind to eat the leftovers. What a load of crap!
Another thing that infuriated me was how the author claimed Jordanian Christians pay some sort of a tax, called Jizyeh, to be able to live in Jordan! That is also a load of crap! I’m a Jordanian Christian and neither I nor any member of my family has ever paid Jizyeh! And we’ve been here all along, for generations and generations.
According to Rana’s article, a series of exposés by the literary editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, Malcolm Knox, in cooperation with the Jordanian National Commission for Women have exposed Khouri’s tale as fiction.
Click below to read Rana’s full story
Source: [The Jordan Times]
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Yesterday Tania got us free tickets for a soprano and clarinet concert taking place in Jerash as part of the annual cultural festival there. So we, accompanied by mom and her friend Ra’da, drove to Jerash, about one hour north of Amman, to enjoy the festivities and the music. 
At last! The truth is coming out regarding the now clearly fictional book "Honor Lost," whose author narrates an alleged "true story" of her friend’s murder at the hands of her family because she, a young Muslim woman, was dating a Christian guy.