Lees het hele verhaal op de wereldblog van Mo-magazine:

http://mo.be/index.php?id=71&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=311&tx_ttnews[backPid]=49&cHash=6c30519860

Groetjes vanuit het IBDAA-center in Deheisha Refugee Camp in Bethlehem

Dieter.

Voor de volgende berichten verwijs ik jullie, oh dierbare lezertjes, naar de wereldblog op de site van het onvolprezen Mo* Magazine. Hoe het me bijvoorbeeld tijdens mijn eerste stapjes in Jerusalem verging, lees je hier:

http://mo.be/index.php?id=71&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=309&tx_ttnews[backPid]=49&cHash=f24c0000ac

zonnige groetjes uit Bethlehem,

Dieter.

Tourism is an important and booming industry in Jordan. From independent backpackers, pilgrims, all-inclusive package resort tourists to even cruise ship tourist, all are welcomed and catered for. The downtown Amman city center is even being refurbished to better fit the stereotypical exotism that visitors expect to find. The original plan was to transform it into some kind of tourist souvenir shopping center, but the local shop keepers – backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, it is said – resisted and advocated a more moderate plan.

All important tourist sites are accompanied by an office of the Tourist Police. Whether they are here to protect or watch the tourists is unclear. During our excursions, we had two different guides. One was blatantly ignorant about the political situation of his own country, told lies about the integration of Palestinian refugees (No sir, not all of them got citizenship, Gaza refugees for example have no real rights in this country) and suggested we would just drive our big bus straight through the camp of Jerash, without getting off the bus. Luckily we had a link with the UNRWA-administration of the camp who gave us a more decent introduction and a small walking tour. No regular tourists come here, big is the contrast with the Roman ruins site that attracts hundreds if not thousands daily and is only a minute away from the camp outskirts.

But also our other guide, a well-educated young woman, was very cautious when talking about recent history. At first she doesn’t mention having Palestinian refugees in the country (the majority of Jordanians are of Palestinian decent), I confront her with this and she explains

“I don’t talk about those things, because I don’t know if you support Israel or not.”

After explaining to her that we are students of political science, she talks more freely to me in private and turns out to have very clear ideas about what is going on in the region. She tells me she cannot talk about this on the microphone in the bus though. Could that make her loose her job?

The only socio-political anecdote the guides do tell us in public – both of them on separate occasions – is the standard government discourse about the Iraqi refugees. “It is all their fault that housing prices have gone up tremendously in the recent years; they come here with literally bags of money so now us normal Jordanians can’t even afford a little apartment anymore.” This is only partly true, the Iraqis – not all of them rich of course – are used as a scapegoat to hide the government’s ever more neo-liberal course and unwillingness to provide sufficient social housing as a more influential factor in Jordan’s housing market.

The last and most fabulous stop on the touristy path of our trip is in Petra (Oh yeah, if you ever get the chance to visit the Bedouin’s in the Wadi Rum desert nearby, go for it. Being in the desert was an exhilarating experience). The ancient stone-cut city of Petra is open for mass tourism nowadays. Big hotels guard the entrance to the site, millions in entrance fees are being collected. I was a bit taken aback by the site of the barefoot kids, unwashed and dressed in raggedy clothes, selling souvenirs. They are Bedouin, the most recent inhabitants of this site, they were moved to a nearby settlement and got these little tourist jobs as a compensation.

Thus ends the Jordanian part of this blog, I am leaving for Israel/Palestine tomorrow. Greetings,

Dieter.

(foto: Jabal Nathif (c) Ruwwad)

Although on the surface Jordan seems as stable a monarchy as ever, things are definitely changing underneath. The role of the state as regulator is changing, being replaced by an ever more neo-liberal group of actors. Take for example the new Master Plan for the Greater Amman Municipality, designed by and catering for the elite. New built big roads will be connecting financial centers with gated residential communities and mundane shopping areas, smartly using bridges to bypass and hide the poorer, more shanty looking parts of town.

Learning about this plan and the development of Amman, I was reminded of something I have read and written on Nueva Managua, Nicaragua’s brave new capital and what I saw in New Kingston, Jamaica.

http://evilparadises.wordpress.com/2007/12/12/stedenbouwkunde-van-het-paradijs-neoliberal-style/

Dieter.

Jordan is in the Middle East, squeezed in between conflict-prone areas such as Israel/Palestine and Iraq. Contrary to public belief however, this does not mean it is a country of violent Islamic fanatics. As a personal inside joke, I grew a beard about a month before my departure claiming this would help me integrate here. Almost everybody in Belgium bought into that crap. What a laugh, the truth is that hardly anyone here sports facial hair except for the occasional moustache. Yes, most Jordanians are Muslims, but there are Christian and secular minorities, all peacefully living side by side. Downtown Amman you see all kinds of people, from black Afro-Arabs to red-haired Chetchens who fled from Russia generations ago. Men wearing traditional robes and checkered shemagh – also known as the Arafat-scarf – others in sneakers, jeans and all kinds of knock-off fake brand shirts. I’ve seen women with a head scarf or hajib working as taxi drivers and others in high heels and tight dresses drinking beer in the uptown bars. The tension between Westernisation (or rather an arabized form of modernism) and traditionalism is a very interesting phenomenon to witness and an exercise in balance that is continually being made in Jordan society.

There is a growing minority of Asian migrant workers, some locked inside special industrial zones, others exploited as household serfs. This said, Jordan’s most important ethnic group is the many Palestinian refugees and people of Palestinian descent, who actually make up the majority of the populace. Many arrived after being chased from their land in the 1948 Al Naqba, the founding of the state of Israel. A next wave of refugees came after Israel inter alia occupied the remainder of the West Bank (until then Jordanian territory) and the Gaza strip (formerly administered by Egypt) in the 1967 Six Day War. Many Iraqi’s, some rich other very poor, have been flowing in since 1991, with a definite increase since the US-lead invasion of Iraq five years ago. The ’48 and ’67 tent camps have long been replaced by precarious concrete constructions in over-populated areas, some of them absorbed into Amman’s city centre as government-neglected neighborhoods. Some refugees earned Jordanian citizenship, others – especially Gazans and Iraqi’s – have not and continue to live in a state of legal discrimination and uncertainty.

I know this will sound like a big cliche, typical for any new visitor in a strange country but Jordanians are very hospitable people. Seriously, out of all the countries I have visited before – how many roads does a man have to walk? – I have never experienced anything like this. Generosity and hospitality are the core values of the nomad Bedouin culture, the backbone of this nation – admitted, the cab drivers do occasionally try to rip you off and prices tend to inflate in touristy places. In just a few days, I have chatted with innumerous strangers, got invited to share a waterpipe, hitched a ride on a pick-up truck, hung around an entire afternoon in downtown Amman Hashmite Park with locals, a man from Gaza and a refugee from Baghdad drinking coffee and tea all afternoon, … and never once did I feel unwelcome, was asked for money or pushed into buying anything. Even after receiving so many cups of heartbeat-fluttering coffee, when I offered to return the favor and treat my company to a cup, my offer was refused, saying:

Welcome to Jordan, you are our guest

Dieter.

For all those concerned about my whereabouts and well-being or those just interested in a first-hand account of impressions by an interested visitor and newbie to the region, here is what I saw, heard and thought.

Cheers,

Dieter.