FM: Gaza violence deeply alarming

The official Danish reaction to the tragic events in Gaza:

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller says developments in Gaza are of deep concern. (Politiken) 

“The new spiral of violence in the Middle East is deeply worrying. The spiral of violence was started by Hamas, prompting a disproportionate response Saturday and Sunday from Israel,” Stig Møller says.

“But this development is seriously damaging the peace process and the two-state solution which is precisely what Hamas is trying to do. I therefore call on both parties to stop the violence. Although Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism and terrorist rockets, civilian losses are unacceptable,” the foreign minister continues.

“Therefore, Israel must contribute to an improvement of the humanitarian situation for Gazans and enable humanitarian assistance to reach them. Continued battles only serve the Hamas (Ed: cause) and seriously weaken the possibility of reaching a political agreement, which is the only solution to the conflict,” Stig Møller says.

“On the Danish side we politically and economically support the Palestinian Government on the West Bank and in the next year we will continue the efforts in assisting the Palestinian Government in obtaining peace and economic progress. This is a substantial contribution to the work for peace in the Middle East.”

Press statement from Sunday 28th December 2008

UPDATE I: Foreign ministers of the European Union will hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday (30th) in Paris on the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip, the French foreign ministry announced.

“The ministers will look into how the European Union can help ease the current crisis, along with the efforts of the international community, especially the secretary general of the United Nations,” the ministry’s statement said.

UPDATE II: Statement by the European Union on the Situation in the Middle East, Paris 30^th December 2008.

The European Union, conscious of the suffering and anguish of all civilian populations, puts forward the following proposals to resolve the crisis:

• Immediate and permanent ceasefire: there must be an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action. The cessation of fighting should allow lasting and normal opening of all border crossings, as provided for in the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access. The European Union is ready to re-dispatch the EUBAM to Rafah to enable its re-opening, in cooperation with Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel. It is also willing to examine the possibility of extending its assistance to other crossing points, provided that the issues relating to security have found a satisfactory response.
   
• Immediate humanitarian action: food, urgent medical aid and fuel should be delivered to the Gaza Strip, the evacuation of the injured and unhindered access of humanitarian workers should be made possible through the opening of crossing points. The European Union, the leading aid donor to the Palestinians, dispatched a field mission to provide the most appropriate response as quickly as possible in cooperation with the United Nations and NGOs.  It has also agreed to coordinate aid donated by each Member State, in collaboration with the European Commission and the outgoing and incoming presidencies.
   
• Stepping up the peace process, as called for by Security Council Resolution 1850. There is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in Gaza or elsewhere. The solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on the process set out in Annapolis and on the establishment of a viable Palestinian state existing side by side with Israel in peace and security.  Work must be carried out, notably on the basis of the Arab peace initiative, to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a comprehensive and operational manner. Europe encourages the inter-Palestinian reconciliation behind President Mahmoud Abbas, as called for by the Ministers of the Arab League on 26 November, and supports the mediation efforts of Egypt and the Arab League in this respect.

The European Union is more determined than ever to assist alongside the other members of the Quartet and the region’s states in ending violence and re-launching the peace process. In this respect, it has been agreed that a European ministerial delegation will travel to the region shortly.

World Run II has left Jordan

Jad made a good observation about world runner Jesper’s entry to Jordan. “The delay was due to instant hospitality in Jordan”. Why not make this a T-shirt slogan Jad thoughtfully suggested? Having read about Jesper’s problems getting to Egypt I guess he would not have worn the T-shirt leaving Aqaba.

After running 429 km in Jordan from north to south in nine days Jesper left to Egypt a couple of days ago. During his run he made an appearance on national TV, got coverage in print and met a lot of wonderful Jordanians along the way – some of them like Ammar and Farah accompanying him on different stretches of the run. Jesper made good progress running on average 50 kms a day but he didn’t catch up on his time schedule. 

Jesper, Farah and Ammar

Unfortunately, Jesper and a friend from the US ran into trouble when leaving from Aqaba to Taba by boat. According to the 27.-28. December report on his webpage they had at  first trouble with getting on the boat and was directed from place to place (not an unfamiliar experience to most of us I guess) and then when they finally got on the boat his American friend was “asked” to disembark for no obvious reason. I think it is safe to say that Jesper got his otherwise very positive impression of Jordan a little bit tarnished by these experiences.

On top of this Jesper ran into more “bureaucracy” on his first stage in Egypt, which almost took away his motivation for continuing. He explains in more detail on his webpage. From my side I’ll only say: Go Go Go Jesper – you’re already ¼ around the world.

From Exile to Empire

Not enough success stories are made known from this part of the world. The other day we witnessed an exception. Elia Costandi Nuqul – the chairman of Nuqul Group - launched his book about his life and achievements. “A promise fulfilled” is a good, easy read, written and edited by Prof. Wheatcroft and Dr. Christina Z. Hawatmeh. The mission of the book – according to Elia Nuqul – is to let young people learn from his experiences in business and life.

“A promise fulfilled” takes us from Elia’s boyhood in the Palestine town of Ramleh through the escape in 1948 towards Jordan and to the subsequent building of what has become a business empire with 5.500 employees and operations in 45 countries. We witness the daily struggle of a family that initially was not well off but where drive, fait and motivation created one of the business miracles of the Middle East. The story of Elia Nuqul is also the story of Jordan and Palestine and the many difficult moments their people have had to overcome.

Having finished the book, three observations stands out about Elia’s path to success. They can be summarized into Education, Adaptation and Ingenuity.

Throughout the book, Elia and his family put extreme emphasis on the need for education and schooling in order to succeed. Due to political events Elia didn’t get the full formal education that he wanted, but from reading about how he meticulous prepared his interventions into new business sectors and sought out new investments I think it is safe to say that he never has stopped learning. From early on – and with almost no financial means – he pushed his younger brother into continuing education instead of securing a job to provide for the family. This line of thinking has marked his whole life and to this day he is sponsoring other less fortunate children so that they can receive high quality education. The proceeds from this book will also serve the same purpose through the Elia Nuqul Foundation.

In order to grow a business, a manager has to be flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances. When other businesses saw political developments in the region as a hindrance Elia Nuqul saw the opportunity. But the most crucial adaptation came when the Nuqul family fled their Palestinian hometown of Ramleh. Eventually, the family ended up in Amman where they had to start all over. Without forgetting his roots and where he came from for one single moment Elia took the decision that the future of his business and his family should be build in Jordan. There was no cause for sitting idle and wait for better times to come.

As for all successful businessmen, there has to be an element of ingenuity and creativity – an ability to see new ways of producing, transporting, selling or marketing. And to understand the needs of the customers and find ways to satisfy their demand. There are a number of examples in the book about how this ability made the Nuqul business prosper. One of them concerns Elia’s first business trip abroad in 1955 where he went to my country Denmark. He was dealing with a Danish chewing gum producer “Dandy”. Chewing gum in the Middle East was sellers market but it took too long to get a shipment from Denmark to Jordan by direct shipping which was problematic for the business model Nuqul was applying at that time. But he looked at this problem with creativity and found new ways of transportation that reduced delivery time from 90 to 20 days at constant costs.

If you look for criticism of the Nuqul way of doing business, of governments, of national or international figures you are reading the wrong book. It is understandable – I guess that Elia Nuqul have had a big saying on the text. That said, there is some remarkable statements about former business partners that Elia had to deal with including some that did not live up to the standards that Elia had set on corruption and customers. The book emphasises Elia’s high morale and his total refusal of participation in anything that resembles corruption. His business motto is “Fair deals last longest” which within diplomacy is an age old maxim – because who wants to do business again with someone who is not fair?

Politics is also almost absent from the book. As Elia Nuqul says “Politics at arm’s length”. None the less, Elia touches some core questions that might be sensible in some circles. One is his statement about Arabs being their own worst enemy: “Unless we grow up politically and economically, we will continue to be targeted and attacked”. The other – more political – statement regards the future independent Palestinian state and Jordan, where Elia believes that “…the future state should be tied with Jordan in some form or shape: perhaps a federation, or a confederation, that entails two governments, two parliaments but definitely one state…”.

The book concludes with looking into the future of the Nuqul Group. As all family businesses the Nuquls will be faced with some though choices to make. As a second generation company they have not yet ran into transition problems, but it seems that Elia and his sons Ghassan and Marwan are very much aware of this issue. In the future, the Nuqul Group might end up going public. It will mark – if not the end then – a substantial change in this Middle Eastern business adventure – but on the other hand it will make it possible for all us to be a part of this fantastic history.

UPDATE: Jordan Times published the review in a slightly edited version on January 5th 2009.

World Run II Jordan update

Having met Jesper tonight I can say he feels fit and very welcome in Jordan. Passing the Ramtha border was a piece of cake – he was officially saluted “Ahlan wa Sahlan” by a small detachment in uniform and received various maps.

Even for runners, technology plays an important part and his first mission in Jordan was to get a Jordanian mobile number in order to be able to GPS-verify the run for Guinness Book of Records. It took longer than he expected – not due to red tape but because of Jordanian hospitality. In his own words using SMS:

I went to buy a phone simcard in Al-Ramtha 1km after the border… But was invited to lunch by the young owner. Taken to a small tour of town. Stopped by a bookstore on the way where an Imam giftet me a computergame (! I mentioned, while talking ab. culture & wr2, that I missed my occational reading and.. games. Since I couldnt carry the koran he insisted to gift me a game for my joy – “Beijing Olympics”

So, it took a while before I was back to the phonestore and ran on. Two friends richer !!

Today Jesper ended up just outside Amman on Jordan Street. Tomorrow he and Ammar Sabbah together with other Amman Road Runners will run to JRTV for a live interview on Ammar’s show “Beiti” on Jordan television and then continue towards the south. Other runners should feel free to join. Both Jordan Times and Jad’s blog wrote about the World Run Project. It is a truly unique and enormous project and for once something that is far away from politics.

Shoes and Bush

It is not every day that Denmark is mentioned in the Jordanian press – and the same is true for Jordan in the Danish press. Today is the exception for Jordan.

The Danish National News Agency “Ritzau” wired a telegram  today about the “one minute silence” manifestation that took place in the Jordanian Parliament yesterday in honour of the Iraqi journalist Zaidi, who threw a pair of shoes at Bush. Most – if not all – Danish newspapers have taken the story on their Internet front page and inside the written papers.

The telegram was based on a DPA telegram, so I guess this event is making news in most of the world.