Oprah goes to Denmark – Watch this

Followers of this blog will know that my country have had its share of bad press coverage. So now to something totally different.

Oprah Winfrey recently visited Copenhagen in Chicago’s unsuccessful bid for the Olympics 2016. During her stay she shot a sequence about danes and the way they live for her show. It is a quite rosy story but it also give some insights to some of the things that Danes value in their life.

If you’re into Oprah this is something for you.

I think I am going to have a look at how they live in Dubai – the contrast must be remarkable

Freedom of Press

Reporters Without Borders have made their 2009 index of press freedom public. 

Jordan is 112th on the list – an improvement from last year. Reading the Methodology paper RSF mentions that the Index ”measure the level of self-censorship in each country and the ability of the media to investigate and criticise” which is probably what puts Jordan in the lower half.

On top of the list you find a group of Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland – and Ireland) – all at an equal high score of zero points meaning full freedom of Press.

The first 15 countries are all small and highly developed countries and no one more than roughly double the size of Jordan in population. It seems that size does matter…and there is room for Jordan in the club.

BAD 15. October 2009

What happened in Jordan?

during the last two months? Not much according to Jordan Times and Petra which are the two main stream media I have had the opportunity to follow on-and-off from Denmark. Well, don’t you say “no news is good news”?

What also struck me in the last couple of weeks was the lack of blogging from the Jordanian bloggers I usually follow. Maybe they have gone “tweeting” as another observer stated recently. I certainly do not hope so – 140 characters might be good for breaking news, slogans or personal image building but not for more in-depth analysis. But now it seems that most are back in force. Black Iris is of course leading but other good ones have taken of their summer hat and started blogging again. I guess that bloggers also need to take some time off once in a while.

One thing I did notice was that king Abdullah – like last summer – felt the need to speak to the nation. I must say that you really have to have a close understanding of the intricacies of Jordanian politics and societal structure to understand what that was all about! No many analytical comments or surprising reactions in the media on that one – and even Jordanian blogs a bit absent. Wonder what happened to journalism – or political culture

Ohh- and I should send a RAMADAN KARIM to everyone. It is hot and long days in Jordan – but did you know that Muslims fast for as long as 21 hours in Denmark during summer – and for only 6 hours during winter.

Courtesy of Sawsan at the embassy the following is an uofficial translation of an article from Al Arab Al Yawn yesterday:

Al-Arab Al-Yawm newspaper
30.08.2009

Muslims in Denmark fast for 16 hours
By: Osama Al-Habahbah 

Copenhagen (Petra) – Muslims in Denmark whose number is not more than 150 thousands live in different circumstances than the other countries in the world during the holy month of Ramadan, as they fast for 21 hours a day in the summer while in the winter their fasting time does not exceed 6 hours.  This year, it reaches 16 hours.
The holy month of Ramadan gives them a push of faith and a spiritual encouragement as it is considered as an educational school, which returns to Muslims their faith and spiritual brilliance.  It is a clear call to maintain the threatened Islamic identity, which Muslim families seek to preserve especially for the new generations born in Denmark.

Muslim families in Denmark avail themselves of this opportunity to take advantage of the atmosphere of faith during the holy month of Ramadan to make up some deficiencies and shortcomings that affected family members due to the Danish environment around them.  They also share the Islamic unity with fellow Muslims in the world.
The Danish Imam, Abdul Wahid Petersen, stated to the reporter of the Jordanian news agency (Petra) in Copenhagen that Ramadan is a religious event through which Muslims worship God and perform a lot of prayers, calling on all Muslims to show tolerance and love the man on the earth.  

Moroccan national, Abdel Aziz Musdad, said that some female worshippers prepare collective breakfast meals on Saturdays and Sundays aiming at meeting with other Muslim families and eating together.

He added that Muslims turn the weekend evenings into Ramadan evenings similar to those take place in Arab cities, which often occur on Saturdays and Sundays – the weekend in Denmark- as it is difficult to go about it on Fridays being working days in Denmark. He stressed that Muslims in this country try to make use of any religious event such as Ramadan to observe their religious rituals and consolidate the social ties among them.

Blogging in the Arab World (and Jordan)

The Berkman Centre and Harward Law School is conducting a study on Intenet and Democracy. As part of that study a mapping of blogs in the Arab World has recently been published on this link.

On Jordan the report says:

This cluster contains mainly Jordanians, but also some Palestinians. It has the highest proportion of women in the Levantine/English Bridge group. Female bloggers comprise 40.2%, 30.2%, and 33% of the Jordanian, Lebanese, and English Bridge clusters, respectively. Women’s issues are more widely talked about here than any other cluster (54.2% vs. 19.1% across the map). Jordanian bloggers are less critical of domestic leaders than Lebanese (29.2% vs. 51.6%), probably reflecting Lebanon’s more democratic system. Bloggers in this cluster use the word ‘Palestine’ more frequently than any other cluster, and ‘Nakba’ (1948 Palestinian exodus) more frequently than all but the Egyptian Religious cluster.

 Any comments?