How similar is King Abdullah to Obama?

Like Obama, King Abdullah is a youthful overachiever who represents a bridge across generational and demographic divides in his country. Both men are 46. They both love Mercedes. Following his meeting with King Abdullah II, the Democratic presidential nominee got a lift to the airport from none other than the monarch himself and in a royal Mercedes.

Obama's buzz hits Amman

Jordan is not a swing state in a White House campaign but surely it looks like it today. US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama had a news conference at the Amman Citadel, an ancient Roman landmark, in Amman. He also had a long meeting with the King who offered an impressive unprecedented welcome to a presidential candidate ever. According to the Associated Press,the king had cut short a trip to Aspen, Colo., especially to fly back to the palace. And that it was the Jordanians who had requested a one-on-one meeting between the king and Obama before they are joined for dinner by Reed, Hagel and others.

Apparently the King who has an unmistakable political intuition believes somehow that Obama is going to be living in the White House for the next 8 years and he wanted to build a working relationship with him. Two things that come to mind here. First, Jordan apparently is becoming more important to the American policymakers regardless of their political orientation or party affiliation. John McCain the presumptive Republican nominee made a similar trip last month to Amman and met with the King as well. Second, Jordan is positioning itself as an asset to both parties. On one hand, Jordan is increasingly becoming a keystone player on the national security front to the US and its war against terrorism; a value that Republicans embrace. On the other hand, Jordan continued to play the diplomacy card with its relationship with different regional players in the Middle East such as Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia as well as Iran; a value that held dearly by the democrates.

In political terms, Obama's- trip is designed in part to boost Obama's image inside the United State. With all of that it is a good trip for Jordan for the above mentioned reasons.

Embarrassing Mugabe: A dictator under pressure

On Jews in the Arab world and appointing the first Arab Jewish envoy to the US

Jews in the Arab world have been diminishing in number since 1948 either because of forces of voluntary immigration or political persecution or a combination of both. The conflict with Israel has undoubtedly been a major factor in their immigration to Israel. Most Arab Jews whom estimated number is 8000 live in few countries; Bahrain, Yemen, Morocco and Tunisia. There not have been many report about these minorities in the news but recently there were two articles that I personally found to be very interesting and encouraging.

Today Bahrain's king appointed a Jewish woman as the country's ambassador to the U.S.today. The new ambassador; Houda Nonoo who is 43 years old is a lawmaker in the Shura counsel and had served three years in that capacity before being transfer ed to Washington for her new assignment. It is noteworthy to mention that the small gulf island is ruled by the Sunni minority. Most Bahrainis are Shiite but according to a new report re lased by the BBC, Bahrain has one of the world's oldest and smallest Jewish communities, at about 50 people.

The other news article comes from the Tunisian island of Djerba, home to one of the world's oldest Jewish communities. An American researcher went there to ask the resident of that island whether Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together in peace? A common myth claims they can't. Americans are told, falsely, that Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting each other "since time immemorial," and that their conflict will never end; that they can't agree on anything, so why bother? and that peace is impossible. The article mentioned that Jews and Arabs lived and have been living in that island for centuries and that they get along just fine.

It is my hope that these two examples will have a domino effect on the current situation in Israel and Palestine. May be peace is just around the corner.

Jordan in the presidential race

Not that many care but I have not been able to blog for a while. I am overwhelmed with different projects at this point in my life but I was struck yesterday to see my blog entries decrease to almost non-existence stage. And since blogging has been therapeutic to me to say the least I decided to get back to the game and write more. So what have I been doing? Writing my dissertation, working on project with one of my buddies and spending time with family and friends but more on that I have been consumed for the last months with the democratic presidential primary this year. On many occasions, I was tempted to write and comment but since most of the people who read this blog are from the other part of the globe,so to make this entry interesting enough for you to read. I want to comment on that fact that Jordan came up few times on the presidential debates and the race. So here is the record:

First, Huckabee; a republican candidate mentioned at one debate that the unfound WMD were hidden in Jordan. When he was confronted by Hardball Chris Mathew of the MSNBC, Huckabee seemed to confuse Jordan with Syria. Ya.. that is the person that American should have elected to be in charge of its national security.
Second, John McCain or McSame as many like to call him here in the US for his current association with the unpopular Bush presidecy, made sure to stop by Jordan and meet the King in his attempt to tout his foreign policy experience. Ironically, John McCain and in a press conference in Amman confused Sunni with Shiite and had to be corrected by his buddy Joe Lieberman who by the way ran as a democrat in in the last two presidential races.
Third, HRC which stands for Hillary Rodham Clinton who ran on the pulpit of her assumed 35 years experience made sure to meet with the King when he was in Capital Hill. Hillary made sure to mention his majesty by name to remind the American public that she really has forign expereince.

And finally, Obama is the only candidate who does not mention Jordan by name and I did not expect him to mention anything about Jordan or any Arabic countries between now and November. The reason for that is because 33% of the American people think that Obama is either Muslim or they are unsure about his faith.

Now who candidate will be the best for Jordan? I will leave that for you to decide.

"Yes We Can" May God Bless America

My 3 years old son has a new favorite phrase; Rack Obama. Signs fill the street in the way to my work. My favorite so far is "My Mama for Obama". Another sai d: "Tired from this drama: Vote Obama!" The presidential hopeful who is half Kenyan-half American is beyond inspriation. Along the years,I heard powerful speeches, sermons and poems but this man is in a different league. He is a combination of Martin Luther King, Ronald Regan and Oprah Winfery. His list of endorsers include talk show hosts like Oprah, athletics as Abdel Jabar, dynasity like the Kennedys and most of the Hollywood gangs. His political support comes from the left and the right. In a brief, he is a transformative figure.

Unlike other politicans who use fear(Bush), hate(Clinton)and partisan division in their tactics, he empowers people with a hopeful message. "Hope is the rock of any nation," the junior senator of Illinois says. People are more simialr than what they think and Yes We Can as his speech said get along together, work together and live together. The senator from Illinois is expected to crush the Clintons tommorow. Keep crossing your fingers.

God Bless America for allowing a skinny guy with a funny name to reach all of his potential. The joke in the streets of Mombasa where Kenyans slaughter each other and where Obama's father was born goes "it is easier to a Kenyan to become the president of the US than Kenya" and for that God Bless America. Barak Obama is good for America, good for the World

Somebody needs a nap!

I am not sure how many Jordanians follow the American primaries but it is getting interesting out here. If you are a news junki like me, you will know that "interesting" is a another term for "nasty" in politics. Take for example, Bill Clintion; the former president who is heavily involved by assoication in the current election because his wife. Bill complained consistently that his wife has been treated unfarily in the media. Lately, he has been increasingly seen as irritated, passionate and contraversial depends on whom you are for in this election. Regardless, the former president whom is known for being calculated finally lost it today. The incident happaend when he answered few questions to a reporter.

In several occasions, I thought that he is going to immitate Zidan and his head kick in the last World cup finals. He gets closer to the reporter few times. His facial expressions appeared intense, his face turned red and his thoughts were incoherent. I always liked Bill Clinton but when my 3 years old kid act in the same manner, I tell him that it is "time for a nap."

Funny snapshots from Jordan's parliamentary election

Till now, the Ministry of Interior Affairs refuses officially to post all the number of votes that losers in the last election got. Security and order concerns might have compelled the Ministry to do so, as well as the "save face" concept. A cultural concept that is well-established in our tribal society where winners do not brag about their victory and give a space to losers to gather their pride again in the eye of the public.

However and according to Alquds Alarabi, there has been a leak aboutthe number of votes that losing candidates gained in the last election and some of the results are really funny.
Take for example Mohamed Alqaran who had 0 votes. Another word, the guy did not vote for himself! We had a similar experience in the municipality election but the candidate was a woman and she did not need any votes to be elected according to the quota system. So what Mr. Qaran was thinking? I mean one can write a PH dissertation in psychology to explore why would someone run to the election and refuse to vote for himself.
Other results are puzzling as well and need to be studied by sociologists whom by the way might need help themselves to understand the complicated Jordanian culture. Take for example Dr. Sari Naser; a well known sociologist and well known author. Dr. Naser received only 125 votes. Well, may be Dr. Naser should have known better our society by now. That could be another book to publish Dr. Naser.
On the celebrity side, Aroub Soboh; a young beautiful TV host, who is well known in Jordan and the Arab World for her children TV shows. Unfortunately, Aroub did not get more than 250 votes. Too bad children can't vote; otherwise, Aroub could have been our new Prime Minister. And finally, Naser Ghandour, the previous gallkeeper of Al-Wihdat club and the National Soccer team. Ghandour had 259 people voting for him. Unfortunately, the huge popularity of Wihdad club did not help much. May be he should have run when Al-Wihdat club was preforming better in the National League. Anyway, there is no such thing as losing. To all the losers out there. The bottom line is this. If you spent a lot of money, your labor is not in vain and you helped distributing the wealth equally in the Jordanian society. If you did not spend any money, you did not really lose.