Comments on a… (part II)

An update. Ten MP’s have joined MP Dhalaeen’s request to summon the Dutch and the Danish Ambassadors for meddling in internal affairs. So they signed a petition to HE the Minister for Foreign Affairs requesting that. It was reported in today’s Ad-Dustour front page. This is the petition itself.

Well – it’s weekend now, time to relax…..

Comments on a press release from a prominent MP

Do you ever get the feeling that you don’t know whether to be happy or sad?

I have just received information that an honourable Jordanian MP Ali Al-Dhalaeen (the chairman of the Committee on Education and Culture and member of the boycott committee) has issued a press statement (Arabic and English) reproaching me and my Dutch colleague of meddling in Jordanian internal affairs. According to solid information that was revealed to him – so it says in the statement – I am supposedly violating international conventions. Apparently the violation consist of having meetings with Jordanian importers of Danish products under the pretext of promoting economic relations between our two countries, but in reality trying to persuade them not to join the boycott campaign. One argument purportedly used by me should be that a boycott would be a threat to the food security in Jordan. In the view of the honourable MP I and my Dutch colleague should be expelled from the Kingdom of Jordan and the Jordanian ambassadors withdrawn from our countries.

Let me first thank the honourable MP and chairman for giving me this opportunity to correct some misunderstandings on my own behalf. I am a little bit sad that the honourable MP himself did not contact the Danish embassy beforehand in order to get a reaction to his information. If he had done so I would immediately have extended an invitation to him to come visit me in my office for a thorough discussion of the issue at hand. This is the way I normally do business and I sincerely hope that he would have accepted such an invitation.

Others – and among them a small number, about two or three, of Jordanian importers – have approached the embassy about the boycott issue and asked for a meeting. They did not come to seek advice on what to do but to inform us about developments within their sector. The reason that they do not seek advice is purely and simply because they know by themselves what they are going to do regarding the boycott. They are in business – not to promote Denmark and Danish policies – but to earn money. So they make their own economic business calculation – taking their local Jordanian environment into consideration – and decide against this background their stance towards the boycott. This is what they tell me and this is how it should be. And as long as a boycott is led by consumers and not governments there is nothing illegal to that. So no need for me to give any advice that they are not asking for. Boycott is a political instrument that consumers can approve or disapprove of but which I for various reasons find ineffective.

As I have stated many times previously I have an ambition of increasing trade between Jordan and Denmark. It is not the easiest task for the time being but I will always seize any occasion to try to promote the economic relations between our two countries. I don’t think this runs against any international convention that I know of. And I actually consider this to be one of the important diplomatic tasks that an ambassador and an embassy have to perform in order to take the relations between two countries to a higher level. The honourable MP might disagree but I don’t think promoting and enhancing the ties and solving issues between two friendly countries can be put into a negative connotation as meddling in internal affairs.

As regards the issue of the boycott of Danish products threatening the food security of Jordan I don’t consider myself so naïve that I believe that 4 million $ worth of butter and cheese in any way can create a food security issue in Jordan. No way and luckily for that.

The honourable MP speaks about preventing conflict of cultures, civilisations and religions but concludes from that, that this ambassador should be expelled. With all due respect to the MP and chairman’s points of view I don’t think this is the wisest way of solving issues. Maybe we on all levels – but most fruitfully people-to-people – should start talking to each other – having a dialogue – trying to understand our differences instead of expelling, boycotting or suing one another.

Back from Denmark

I would never have thought so but I am so glad for being back to my Jordanian internet connection with all its flaws, disconnections and slow speed. The last week I was in my native Denmark where the minimum ADSL-connection is 2 MB/s and the average speed in the two digit MB range. But not where I and my family have a small house in the countryside. Well, mobile broadband do give access to 7.2 MB/s – if you have the right provider with coverage in that particular area which I didn’t. So I had to settle with – yuck – 57 KB/s. That was just not serious – at least not in a country that wants to be on the edge of information society. So no blogging or surfing on the net.

But it has it advantages as well. Getting back to basics with a real paper newspaper is not bad at all. And in particular interesting when you can read about some of the issues that took place in Jordan last week. Apparently there was a “relaunch” of the boycott against Danish products which in it self was no news, but to read some of the statements from the Jordanian organizers when interviewed by Danish journalists was deeply fascinating and I have to do a more elaborate post on this. But I think it is safe to say that the statements were different from statements intended for a Jordanian audience.

Just as an example the organizers claim in their main campaign poster that the boycott so far – after a little less than 4 months – have created an economic loss on the Danish economy (and the Dutch where the boycott was just launched) of 3 billion Euros (4,5 billion USD).

The last time I looked in the statistics the total annual Danish exports to the 57 OIC-countries was about 3 billion USD. And the export to Jordan on an annual basis was only 50 million USD.  Confronted with these facts by the Danish press the organizer stated that he believed that the loss was 3 billion Euros (4,5 billion USD) “but I don’t really know”. So now the Danish readers know that the figure is taken out of the blue sky. Anyway, it seems that this 3 billion Euro figure will be one of the main features on their boycott poster – so much for facts and seriousness when dealing with a Jordanian audience.

On another note Copenhagen was on the same day selected as the world’s most liveable city. The winning formula: a combination of good ideas, good planning and manageable scale, plus a sound grasp of environmental issues, regional transport and a variety of subjective but nonetheless important elements like food culture, housing design and a sunny disposition. There is more to read here.

Constitution Day

We Danes celebrate our Constitution Day today. It’s our National Day and I think it reflects our general mentality, that we have choosen the birthday of our Constitution for that particular day. 

It is also a day for political speeches and a some has dealt with the attack in Islambad. The message is very clear. Terrorists will NOT be allowed to decide Denmark’s policies.

The weather is Amman is just beautiful and I am sure that we in spite of loomning boycotts, potential courtcases and thightned security will have a nice celebration tonight.

Tillykke med dagen.

Terror hits Denmark in Islamabad

While we mourns our lost Colleagues at the Danish Embassy in Islamabad we have now joined a club we don’t want to join. The Club of the countries that have been victims of terrorist attacks on their embassies. USA, UK and Jordan are among those who have suffered such losses.

Not much is known about the terrorist attack. Nobody has claimed responsibility nor indicated a motive. Many speculates whether this has something to do with the Cartoons or maybe is more about the fighting of Taliban that the Danish forces are heavily engaged with in the southern part of Afghanistan. The first evidence from the blast points to the Taliban, since the explosives used was of their preferred type. I am sure we at some time will find out through the investigations that are under way.

This cowardly and heinous act can only be blamed the perpetrators that must bare the sole and full responsibility of their act. I wonder what they wanted to accomplish. Knowing the Danish mentality nobody will bow in the face of terrorism. It might be possible to convince people with words and writings – but not with bombs.