by Natasha Tynes | Jul 30, 2007 | Jordan, my nation, The Disturbing
I’m not really sure why I can’t understand the logic behind the court sentencing mentioned in the article below. Perhaps it is because it is the end of the day and I’m too tired to fully grasp what I read in the Monday edition of The Jordan Times. Can anyone shed some light? Does the article below really state that a man that kills his daughter can get a reduced sentence because of a claim that his daughter "left home without his permission and cursed him"?
The Criminal Court has sentenced a 41-year-old man to seven-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of murdering his daughter following a domestic argument in November 2006. The tribunal first handed Mohammad A. a 15-year prison term after convicting him of bludgeoning his daughter to death with a club at their family’s home on November 23. But the court immediately reduced the sentence to half "to help the defendant in life and because the victim left home without his permission and cursed him." Source: [The Jordan Times]
If this really is what I think it is then I’m simply speechless. I really have had it with the blatant dehumanization going on in the society in which I grew up. At this moment of my life, I truly believe that Jordan needs to set the investment in malls and towers aside, and instead invest in restructuring its judicial system.
by Natasha Tynes | Jul 30, 2007 | Everyday me!
It always amuses me to no end when I see my mom getting interested
in the latest technological trends. As I was meeting my parents and sister at
the airport last weekend, my mom recounted how my sister almost lost her
Ipod before they took the flight to DC from Amman.
My first reaction was: "Mom, you know what an Ipod is? Impressive."
"Of course I do!" said my mom sounding offended. "And I know Facebook as well," she added.
Is that not just so cute? It seems that facebook is more embedded in Jordanian life than I thought. Fascinating!
by Natasha Tynes | Jul 26, 2007 | Jordan, my nation, The Mideast
This is a quick update to my earlier post about the situation of Iraqis at Jordan’s entry point. According to the Associated Press, Jordan and Syria are calling on the international community for help.
AMMAN, Jordan –Jordan and Syria complained Thursday they have been abandoned by the West to deal with the massive burden of more than 2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the violence in their homeland. Both countries issued urgent calls for help at a conference on Iraqi refugees, specifically expanded resettlement opportunities in the West and financial assistance.
Milad Atiya, the Syrian ambassador to Jordan and head of his country’s delegation to the conference, said the international community "must be involved, especially the United States because its policy led to the plight the Iraqis are currently in and it bears responsibility." Jordanian Interior Ministry Secretary-General Mukheimar Abu-Jamous argued that Western nations "relinquished their responsibility in shouldering the Iraqi refugee burden, and we urge them to rise to their obligation and resettle the largest number possible of those Iraqis." Source: [AP]
This is a good step towards improving the dire status. International intervention is what is needed at this moment and it is precisely what I suggested in the previous post.
by Natasha Tynes | Jul 25, 2007 | Jordan, my nation, The Mideast
Two Iraqi bloggers recently began talking about a similar subject related to Jordan: the treatment of Iraqis upon entry to the Kingdom. The two are veteran blogger Omar from Iraq the Model and Fayrouz from Fayrouz in Beaumont (who posted a story from her friend in Basra). After reading their posts, I realized that the situation at Jordan’s entry point — particularly when it comes to Iraqis — is far worse than I thought. Not only that, but the tension between these two Arab nations on an individual level seems to be on the rise. I came to this conclusion mostly after reading the last two paragraphs of Omar’s post:
On the next day in the early afternoon, I boarded the plane that was returning to Baghdad with about a dozen other Iraqis. The kind stewardess was apparently familiar with cases like ours and noticed how tired we were so she immediately welcomed us with bottles of cold water and some kind words to comfort us, "There’s a few of you this time, yesterday we returned 75 passengers!" she added.
The guy sitting to my left said "There will be a day when they [Jordanians] will beg us to let them enter Iraq". No, the guy sitting to my right objected. "They were mean to us and they hurt us, but if we do the same we’ll have sunk to their level. Let’s instead hope that one day our country will become a better place."
Jordanian blogger Hamzah added a comment to this post that is worth highlighting in order to get the Jordanian side of the story:
Not only Jordanians, but all Arab nationals were denied entry to Iraq in at least two periods between 2005 and 2006, with the second one being the longest. And the funny thing is, during those periods, only Arab nationalities were denied entry into Iraq. So it’s really not they way the article makes it sound like in the end. Iraq too has played this game in the past, and actually before Jordan, and today, it is Jordan, not Iraq, that has hundreds of thousands of the other country’s citizens living in it.
And when you think about it, it might as well have been a Jordanian saying that quote a couple of years ago about Iraqis, and what happened to you and your friends, was that day that that Jordanian talked about!
The current situation needs to be amended. If Jordan is overwhelmed handling the number of Iraqi visitors to the Kingdom then the international community needs to step in immediately to help Jordan establish a more efficient and humane manner of handing the influx. Fayrouz’s friend ended her post by saying:
I wonder about what’s behind what happened to us in Amman. Isn’t it a violation of human rights to keep us in custody for no reason? Is it humanely proper to keep a child in custody for two days without reason? I just wonder.
Jordan, with the help of the international community, needs to act soon to amend the current situation. My two cents.
Update: Here is a comment from Fayrouz:
It wasn’t me who traveled to Amman. As my post states clearly, it was my friend from Basra who traveled with her family and co-workers to Amman. Every word in the post needs to be attributed to her.
My bad. I amended the post accordingly.
by Natasha Tynes | Jul 22, 2007 | Everyday me!
Last year, I was contacted by Oxford University Press for permission to reprint an article that I had written for The Jordan Times some years ago. I was really pleased and humbled that such a prestigious publisher was interested in my work. I gave them permission to publish my work instantly and waited patiently for the book to be published. The book, called Well Read 4, is a an educational textbook that encourages English students to embrace reading. Here is how the book is described at Amazon.com:
Worried that students find academic reading boring? Think again! Well Read develops the skills and strategies that make academic reading enjoyable and interesting. Well Read accomplishes this with relevant and interesting readings, through strategies and skill building exercises and by encouraging active participation in the classroom.
Well Read 4 has a number of articles by various contributors. I received a copy of it a few days ago and could not be happier to have my name associated with such a top-notch publisher. At this moment of my life I’m feeling grateful. The article that was selected was an interview with Jordanian director Jackie Oweis Sawiris. Here is an excerpt:
AMMAN — The travails of Raz, a young Arab American woman searching for her true self, is the theme of a feature film that producers hope to shoot entirely in Jordan but with the western market as its target audience. The film project, "Falls the Shadow," is the brainchild of Jackie Oweis Sawiris, an Arab American director, born of a Jordanian mother and Egyptian father.
"It is a semi-autobiographical epic love story of denial, the search for and, ultimately, the acceptance of self," explained Sawiris, also a screenwriter and an actress. For the enthusiastic 39-year-old, the efforts she is exerting are not just about making a movie. The film would be a prototype upon which other Jordanian film productions could be based, helping the burgeoning film community here "develop into a commercially competitive entity within the global media marketplace," she explained.
You can read the whole article here.
Last year, I was contacted by