The Parade

Amman celebrates it’s first 100 years as a modern entity – the city itself is much older dating back at least some thousand years B.C.

The main celebration event was a big parade through the streets of downtown Amman last friday. A big number of floats illustrating the many different origins of the city’s founding inhabitants since 1910 drove by and illustrated in a nice way the history of Amman as a cultural and ethnic crossroad.

The Mayor and Municipality have since then taken a lot of flak for not being Jordanian enough, for not giving enough credit to Jordanian national figures and present establishment and for not giving enough prominence to political and security personalities in their seating arrangements And the Jordanian TV-coverage have been criticized as well.

I was there with my family – and giving the fact this was a premiere for Amman with such a big event – we had a good time – disregarding a little bit of chaos when the parade was over. And most importantly my three boys loved the parade from the beginning to the end. In particular seeing the different municipal workers like the public park janitors, the street cleaners, the gaz sales car, the doctors and nurses, the policemen (and women) on motorbikes and of course the bedouins is something they are still talking about between themselves. Not so much the balloons and colorful cars even though that made them excited during the parade.

So seen from my family’s point of view the parade event was a success. Now we are looking forward to the Marathon and fun run on Saturday.

Stephanie Naber

There is a new Jordanian star shining in Denmark. Stephanie Naber – selected for the national soccer team – have joined (or do you say been bought by) the Danish soccer club Fortuna. She is now a professional football player and university student in my country. This is a kind of exchange of talent that we have far too little of – so well done Stephanie – and good luck.

“Stephanie started her professional career with the Danish Fortuna Club

AMMAN – by Odeh Al-Doleh Al-Rai Newspaper 14.09.09.

Stephanie Naber, the star of the national team and Shabab Al-Urdon Club for women’s soccer, began last night her tour with the Danish Fortuna Club to become a professional soccer player.

Stephanie joined the Danish club after the participation of the Jordanian team in the Officers Club Championship in the UAE, where Jordan came the 2nd. She started the professional season there and played international matches.

Through a telephone conversation with Al-Rai, she indicated that she will partake in a match between Fortuna and the Italian Verona team in the European Champions League in the coming days, where the winner will play against the French Lyon Club to reach the latter stages.

The splendid game maker proved herself through the first appearance at the European stadiums when the coaching team of the Danish Club announced its adherence to have her among its players in all future matches of the team due to their importance according to the agenda of the league and the continental competitions.

The Danish Fortuna has registered Stephanie Naber at a university in Denmark to complete her study there, while carrying her daily intensive exercises with their club to appear in the Champions League, which is very strong and full of clubs with a long experience in continental competitions.

Stephanie confirmed her high readiness to start the real journey in her professionalism mission as she said: “I will prove the high level and development of soccer in Jordan all levels and fields, and I will spare no efforts to give my best.

She considered that her transition to a European club, is an indication of the interest of the West in the sport in Jordan. She wished her colleagues to get the same opportunity which raises readiness and physical preparation.

The Danish Fortuna club signed a contract of professionalism with Stephanie during her participation in Abu Dhabi women’s championship after discussions with the coaching staff of her team, who recommended her highly to get engaged in exercises with the team and then participate in its official matches.”

Unofficial translation by Sawsan

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.

The Ombudsman and journalism in Jordan

The other day Al Ghad ran a story  (for English read this part) about the Jordanian Ombudsman institution and my country’s involvement in its establishment. Basically, the journalist had found an anonymous source claiming that Denmark was supposed to fund the institution for the next three years but because of disagreement about the structure of the ombudsman we had withdrawn from the commitment and Jordan had lost “millions”.

To my knowledge the paper had not tried to get a comment from the Embassy or me – which I understand since that would have deprived them this front-page. Like everyone else I am frustrated by the widespread self censorship but a bit more self-criticism and professionalism wouldn’t be bad at all.

Anyway, another Jordanian daily called me the same morning and asked me to comment on the story, which I did as follows (questions omitted).

“The article is apparently based on some misunderstandings that could have been clarified if the newspaper had asked the Danish embassy for comments before printing the story. Denmark has been supporting the establishment of the Jordanian ombudsman institution since 2004 and it has always been the intention to end financial support with the formal establishment of the institution. Originally it was foreseen to end the financial support in 2007 but the grants were extended until end 2008 when the institution was established. The ombudsman institution is one among many other projects that we support in Jordan through the Danish-Jordanian Partnership Program.”

“Denmark has been supporting the technical unit for the establishment of the ombudsman and a number of seminars and visits to other ombudsman institutions in preparation of the Jordanian law and technical regulations establishing the institution. There has been neither pledge nor intention on the Danish side to fund an up and running working institution. Such an important national institution needs to draw its main funding from the national budget voted by parliament and not from foreign countries. An ombudsman dependent on funds outside the national budget could raise questions as regards the independence of the institution which would be damaging to its credibility. To my knowledge the Jordanian ombudsman institution is today funded from the national budget for the financial year 2009 – as it should be.”

“No […Denmark is not obliged to financially support the ombudsman…], not after this grant expired end last year. What we hope is that the Jordanian ombudsman – when he once again has been appointed – seeks partners among other European ombudsman institutions including the Danish ombudsman for technical cooperation and exchange of best practices. We will try to help facilitate such exchanges between different ombudsman institutions and their Jordanian counterpart.”

“The ombudsman setup that was chosen in Jordan is not in all aspects similar to the Danish counterpart. One reason for this is the difference in our constitutions. Our ombudsman is attached to the parliament only, where in Jordan he is primarily attached to the executive – the government. It is not an unknown model in some countries but it might raise questions as to his independence of the executive branch. None the less it is important that the new ombudsman quickly seeks to establish relations to the International Ombudsman Institution in Vienna in order to be internationally acknowledged as an ombudsman institution. But what is also very important is to understand that any ombudsman institution has to take into account the local and national context in which he functions. That is why Denmark never has sought to impose a specific model on Jordan.”

“Since 2004 we have been supporting the Jordanian ombudsman project with a total amount of around 1 million USD.”

Ad Dustour and Al Rai have run stories about the ombudsman today – both touching on this issue.

Update 7.5.09: Minister of State for Legal Affairs (and former ombudsman) Salem Khazaleh corrects Al Ghad on Petra News Agency. And a long story on Ammonnews.net with contradicting statements. I tried to post a comment but I don’t think it was accepted.

European Union Press Award

As discussed in an earlier post the EU Commission in Jordan has instituted a yearly price for excellent journalism in Jordan. The awards are ment to encourage and raise the standard of investigative journalism in Jordan – which in my humble opinion is very much needed. 49 articles was submitted for the awards of which 8 was presented to the jury.

Tonight, at the award ceremony three journalists received a price. Their pieces were very different.

Third price went to Salah Abbadi for a traditional investigative reporting on bad management of medical waste. It was originally published in Al Rai last year and I remember it create some debate at that time.

Second price was – what some probably would consider controversial - a opinion about power in Jordan and how the higher public positions tend to go to particular families and business circles and how this creates a divide between the average Jordanian and those in power. The column or op-ed like piece was written by Rania al-Hindi in Arabic in/on Minbar al Umma al Hurr (I am sorry to say I don’t know this media).

First price went to a report on the way the Jordanian society treats former inmates from Israeli prisons. It was a short article, very well written by Mohammad al-Fudeilat, which exposed the difference between words and deeds, when it comes to reintegration of prisoners back into society. The news website Al Bawaba published this early last year.

The three articles will be (re)published in English and Arabic on the EU Press awards site soon.