Distance

  Distance is an amazing thing.  In astronomy we talked about the planets, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe.  It all was so hard to comprehend--more like a pretty picture or a virtual tour that we just looked at and admired--not reality.  It's amazing just how big and small the world is all at once.  Traveling can be so eye opening if you allow it to be.  Some times I just lay there in bed thinking about the universe.  Imagining this picture that was painted for me in astronomy, then I start to zoom in on just our own individual planet.  Even up to know my grandma and I just stayed shocked that technology has allowed us to stay in touch even though there is so much distance between us.  In real time I can talk to my grandma on the other side of the planet.  She and I have eight hours of a time difference but yet I can still talk to her.

  This past summer when my Saudi friends returned home for Ramadan, I remember talking to them and asking where the sun was.  I would ask them, "Do you see the sun?  Can you send it my way."  No matter how far in distance we are, there are some "universal" consistencies in our world.  The sun is the same no matter where we are and the stars are still all the same and so are people.  Before I left for Jordan I remember just looking up at the stars and taking comfort that no matter where I go, the stars will still be the same.  The world never sleeps.  I will always be able to see the big dipper from any place in the northern hemisphere.  Walking home at nights it always makes me feel so connect to see the basic constellation as I did back in Oklahoma.

  Just as well, not matter the distance, people are always the same.  I jokingly told my friend the other day that there was life in Jordan.  He asked how Jordan was and I said, "Well, there is actually life here!  It's not just a story that they tell me about.  Perhaps there isn't really life in China, I don't know, I haven't been there yet."   It's just amazing how life goes on all the time all around the world and it's so humbling whenever you just take the moment to think about the approaching seven billion people in the world and how they are all so similar.

  We all have drives and desires.  We all seek love, companionship, adventure, and truth.  We all justify our own thoughts and we try to make sense of the world around us.  Things motivate us to act one way or the other way and all through often times the majority of our misunderstandings are explained in just completely different ways of thinking, we still have the same primal motivators.  All humans are motivated by pride, respect, expectations, culture, ambition, greed, desire...the list goes on.  Whenever trying to understand another culture or another point of view, I take comfort that most likely, it's rooted in one of these most basic human emotion that we all can understand.

  When talking to a friend today, we discussed how people are people.  He said, "You can't find a place where everyone is bad."  I thought that was a very optimistic point of view.  I liked it.  Given in any situation, you will find good hearted people--any faith, any culture, any location or vocation.  People are always bound to surprise us and to cut a whole in the boxes we have build for them.  When you really start to get to know someone, you'll discover that they are much more complicated then we think they are.

  I love meeting people.  I love exploring but most of all, I like to just explore people.  Last night over an ice cream treat my friends and I were talking about our hobbies--a very elementary language lesson, but I was a good question just to start to better understand my own friends.  It's amazing how you can be friends with someone for so long but when you go to a public meeting where they have to give a random piece of information they can completely surprise you with stuff you don't know about them.  Last night we asked this public group question about hobbies and I surprised myself whenever I said that one of my hobbies is just meeting people (I make up stuff all the time that usually these ideas don't really come out until I make it up randomly on the spot).  I like to explore and learn.  I think that every person I met is an unread book, a new expedition that is to be traveled.  We are all so vast and deep no matter where we come from and I love to just explore people.  You can think you know someone but after 10 years most likely they've changed so much that you get to learn about them all over again.  I love it.  Meeting new people from all over just reminds me of how universal we all really are.

  Yet at the same time, even the slightest distance can change everything.  In Amman, Jordan, it is normal to find a girl wearing a vail and pants and a young guy wearing shorts, but if you go just 30 minutes to the city of Salt, expectations are completely different.  Just moving from one part to the other can change so much.  It takes around five hours or less to get from Amman to Tel Aviv (it's hard to judge because of transportation and boarder time fluctuations) but just reminiscing on the abrupt change in culture and mindsets amazes me.  In Jordan a girl is bound by the expectations of her community in so many ways but five hours away, girls are out on the street at 4 am going to the club in a mini skirt with no consequences.

  It's amazing.  Distance.  It can change so little and also change so much.  I often like to think of the world as a watercolor piece where colors bleed into the next and slowly fade into a new color.  In this world our distance and neighbors help color our world so much.  As you look at the cultures around the world, usually they change very gradually.  You can see the Indian influence in the Middle East as well as the African and the European.  Even between Israel and it's neighbors, even though the gradient is more abrupt, still parts of the Arab culture bleeds into the Israeli culture.

  Whenever I'm alone or lonely, I like to look to the heavens just because they remind me that we are all together and we all face the same problems and complications.  "Nothing is new under the sun."  As quoted from P.S. I Love You, if we are all alone, then we are all together in this too.  It's amazing how far away I can be from my friends yet I can feel so close.  Simple dialogue helps quench the ache of loneliness.  Communication even in distance helps heal the heart from sorrow.

  Loneliness it the downfall of mankind.  It's not good for man to be alone.  We are social creatures and no matter how far or near people are to us, the most important part of companionship is not a matter of physical connection (although we need that too) but most a matter of emotional connection.  No matter the distance, I still feel loved when I get an e-mail from my best friend or when my friend messages me on Facebook every day.  I feel connected and so close even though we're literally worlds apart.  Looking up at night or at the dawn or the day I remember that no matter how far I am away, I will always be so near.

"Waiting

How can someone so close

Be allowed to be so far away

Your red leaves fall in the evening

While Im waking up to smog these days

You know how I love when the sun touch my skin

But I still miss your thoughts on rain

So come and save me over the thin phone line

Just one of those days

Where you learn to fly

WIth broken wings

My thoughts are on an airplane home

While my feet are still on the ground

But you were never late

To pick up the phone and call

Now it's fall and I miss 

Making love in the sunday afternoon sunlight

Wednesday, thursday

One down, a billion to go

With glasses foggy you're losing sight

So come and I'll save you over this thin phone line"

"Across Waters Again"

-Blindside

  

Just once again...pillow talk.

"The Need for English in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan"

 The Need for English

in The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

May 5, 2013 | Tasha Overpeck | IAS 3910

 under the supervision of

Dr. Joshua Landis and Rachel Stokes

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has a long history with the English language and even though the Kingdom’s only official language is Modern Standard Arabic, which is taught in school, English is undoubtedly an undeclared second language.  Although by far not everyone in Jordan speaks English, the majority (especially in the capital city of Amman) can at least read and understand a good amount of the English that they hear or read.  All road signs are bilingual in Arabic and English and nearly very place you go there will be someone who can speak English enough to help you.

The history of Jordan started when the British decided to create a dependent regime to help order the tribes east of the Jordan River after World War I.[i] They then gave the British mandate to the son of Sherif Hussein bin Ali, Abdullah I bin al-Hussein who had been a close ally of the British.  The Kingdom of Jordan was granted independence in 1946 with Abdallah as their self-proclaimed king.  After King Abdallah’s death, his grandson, Husayn, became king at the age of eighteen in 1953.  It is said that King Hussayn had “impeccable English” because he studied at Harrow and Sandhurst, two well-known British schools, but at the same time spoke eloquent Arabic.[ii]  After his death in 1999, his second son took the thrown, King Abdullah the Second and according to many Jordanians, the current king actually has better English than he does Arabic since he was born to a British mother.

Regardless of the long political history of English being used amount the Royal Family, Jordan is only rated as having a small market for English amount the common people.[iii]   English teachers should only expect to break out even when working in Jordan.  Like much of the current Jordanian economy, the pay rate for English teachers is significantly low.  It is rumored that the average salary of a Jordanian family is only 300JD, which is what an English teacher starting out should expect to get paid.  Thanks to a low living cost, this still permits English Teachers to live somewhat comfortable if they do not have a family but doesn’t allow them to save money from their work. 

Jobs are hard to come by until you actually get to the Kingdom.  To start working in Jordan, a teacher usually needs to come and start looking for a job with face-to-face interviews.  This can be a high start off cost with no promise of a job, but once you get on-site in Jordan, you will realize the demand for English teachers is much higher that it appears on paper (or more commonly on the computer screen). 

According to the ESL Base, a website that helps English teachers find English training centers all around the world, there are thirteen English centers in Amman.  Once you start to search for a job in Amman, you will quickly find that there are many more private, small businesses where a native English-speaking teacher can find a job with either a British or an American accent.[iv]   Students want to speak with native speakers because they want to learn the accent.  This makes it easier for native speakers to get a job even if they do not have a degree, or even a certification, in teaching English. Unfortunately, this high demand for native speakers is never on par with the pay.

In Jordan, “English is strongly emphasized in education as a language that should open the door to the West.  English is regarded as the language that provided Jordanian citizens with a bridge to the non-Arabic speaking world.”[v]  Although English has no official recognition in Jordan, it is a priority in the country’s foreign languages.  Children learn it in school.  “English language teaching is widely supported financially: in university libraries, in book shops, and also in schools, one can see a wide range of English teaching-materials, books in English and about English…”[vi]

There are many factors that contribute to this seemingly over-demand for English in this Middle Eastern 90% Arab community, three of which include: overall functionality, internationalized education, and the evolving job market.  When asking an English student why they want to study English their responses are generally all the same.  It either has something to do with needing to pass an international English test or so that they can get a better job.  Commonly students might stare at you blankly as if the question is just too obvious.  The need for English in Jordan has grown so much to the point that to most citizens it is bluntly obvious that English will help contribute to their overall life.  Ironically, English has more of an affect on their lives then the desired affects of functionality, education, and getting a better job, but it also changes cultural ideas in social classes and it has profoundly impacted the younger generation in Jordan.

Overall Functionality

In the simplest regards, by learning English, the overall functionality in the life of the learner is greatly enhanced.  In the social realm, learning English can help you to better understand international social medias that are commonly published in English—social media such as Facebook or YouTube.  Although these programs are often translated into Arabic, many users have used these social medias to help connect with the rest of the outside world.  Most people here now have some kind of contact with people from outside of the Arab World and in order to easily communicate with them they need English.  Even if you are Arab and your friend is from Taiwan, you will most like use English to communicate with them.[vii]

The movie industry also has a huge influence on the younger generation and their desire to learn English.[viii]  When you go to a movie theatre any where in Jordan, you will find at least half of the movies are in English with Arabic subtitles.  Movies on television are often shown in English with Arabic subtitles or are dubbed in Arabic.  Although there is somewhat of a movie industry in the Arab world, it isn’t nearly as big as Hollywood or as advanced.  The inferior Arab movie industry helps feed into the appeal of the American movies that, therefore, encourages Jordanians to learn English so that they can simply understand the movies.

This functionality also evolves beyond western-based media, to technologies that were made in dominantly English speaking countries.  The Western World (meaning primarily Europe and North America) is the leader in developing new technologies that sweep the globe today.  Computers, which have become a human necessity even in lower developed countries such as Jordan, are originally programmed in English.  They might say that they are programmed for Arabic, but ultimately, you need to know English in order to function with these new technologies.[ix]  You now find that words for social media, new electronic technology (e.g. computers and phones), and even the mechanical industries (e.g. automobile) are commonly just called by their English name.  “A steering wheel is just “steering,” you can’t give it another name.”[x]

At an academic level, English is important because it allows students to stay up-to-date with the newest research.  Whereas the Western World is developing much of the new technologies and sciences, it is important for Jordanians to know English so that they can read the newest bulletin about a breaking research or so that they can comfortably attend an international conference in their field which will broaden their understanding as well as keep them up to speed with the newest advances in their field.[xi]

That being said, English for functionality is mostly based on the need to be able to stay up to par with the newest knowledge.[xii] English is the “international language” producing new research in every field.  Instead of waiting for a computer program to be translated into Arabic or instead of waiting for a new research or a new service to be translated into Arabic—a language that is hardly used outside of the Arab World—the English speaker can go directly to the source and keep themselves at the newest standard in their field.  This is one of the largest motivators for Jordanians to learn English.  It is often why you might get so many blank stares when asking them why they want to learn English.  Even though many students do not want to study English, it is considered the most practical language for life therefore students learn it.[xiii]  By knowing English they can keep up with the rest of the world.

Internationalized Education

The education system has constantly been evolving and has had some drastic changes in the past 50 years.  The international community affects Jordan in academic concepts and presentation in both primary education and university levels.  The influence and implantation of international curriculum and schools has continued to develop Jordan’s need of English.  As the country continues to grow in every aspect it relies more and more on foreign education standards.

Starting with the elementary school, in the past five years there has been a change in the curriculum where as students start to study English in KG1 and KG2.[xiv]  Students start to study the basics of English such as colors and shapes and their grammar and vocabulary is constantly developed through the years.  Regrettably, in most public elementary schools, the height of the education in English is largely stunted due to the lack of concentration on the subject.[xv]  In private schools on the other hand, English is highly emphasized because many of the more expensive privates schools are actually American or British schools.  These schools can often be taught completely in English (accept for Arabic and Religion which are taught in Arabic).  This gives the upper classes in Jordan a huge advantage over the rest of the population when it comes to their functionality and within the job market.

In order to graduate, ever student in Jordan has to take the national final test that is collative for all the major subjects that a student takes while in high school, which includes English.  The students are then scored according to their test results quick determines which majors they are allowed to get into.  If they do not score high enough in English, it will limit their selection for not only the university that they can get into, but also the majors that they can study.  The top desired majors, such as law or medicine, require a student to get very high scores on their national test.  If a student does not perform well in his/her English sections of the test, the student might not be able to get into the field of their choice.

 Inside the university level, international education standards dictate every part of their educational expectations.  The University of Jordan was first established in 1962 and is the oldest university in Jordan as well as the largest.  In the Middle East it is regarded as one of the best universities.  In all of its scientific majors, the lectures and the textbooks are all in English.[xvi]  Students in every popular major have to know some type of English in order to survive in their courses.  The University of Jordan tries hard to hold up to international models by holding student body elections (as a republication of western schools), holding special topic conferences, and by inviting new-foreign professors to guest teach at their university.  All of which is greatly encourages the use of the international language of English.

At the graduates level, even in Jordan, students are required to take an English Assessment Test such as the British ILETs or the American TOFEL test.[xvii]  Classes might be held in Arabic (formal or informal) but to even be accepted into a master’s program in Jordan, you are required to prove a certain proficiency in English.  The reasoning is at large discussed above—that all the latest international research is written in English, therefore, to become more advanced in any field, you need English to be able to understand the work of others.

Evolving Job Market

Overall, all of the reasoning above ultimately leads to the goal of Jordanians wanting to make themselves more marketable so that they can find a good job that pays well.  According to the Department of Statistics of Jordan, the current unemployment rate in Jordan is officially 12.8% but according to the US’s Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, the unofficial rate is approximately 30%.[xviii]  According to the newspaper The Jordan Times, a popular Jordanian newspaper published in English, half of the college graduates in Jordan will be jobless upon graduation at the end of 2012.[xix]  When so many graduated students are sitting at home for over a year after they graduate waiting to find a job, students, young adults, and even the employed do anything they can to make themselves as desirable as they can on the demanding job market.  English is part of what makes anyone more marketable here in Jordan.

Fridrik Tiedemann, an American who has been living in Jordan for around twelve years and has an organization that teaches soft skills to Jordanians, says, “Employers overwhelmingly want English” because “knowing English means that you have a higher level of functionality.”[xx]  Interviews in Jordan are conducted mostly in English and in order to get a pay raise in Jordan, many companies require for the employee to pass some type of English test. 

For lower level jobs, such as factory workers, there is no need for employees to know English but you will not find someone in any type of management that cannot speak English.[xxi]  Because Jordan is such a small country, it requires them to go outside of the country to get any type of raw materials.  “Even the brochures they send us from Turkey are in English.”  This requires English.  Many businesses in Jordan are international companies, whether they are just Jordanian companies that trade internationally or if they are companies that come from other countries.  To be a manager in any of these companies, you must know English.

Tourism is the largest industry in Jordan and for anyone who works in the immediate public, English is a requirement because of the high number of foreigners that they will be working with.[xxii]  As Jordan grows, much of its training in nearly every field requires to send their employees outside of the Arab World for training.  This requires English.  Even the Jordanian Army requires their lieutenants to train in America and Canada.[xxiii]  English is simply the international language of business and Jordan is too small of a country to not be interacting internationally to some capacity—therefore its job market is constantly demanding for its candidates to know English.  Employers want employees that will be able to function in any situation and who will be able to easily solve problems.  English enables employees to obtain more education and helps them to be able to manage through their responsibilities easier.[xxiv]  This makes better marketability in individuals on the Jordanian job market.

The saying goes in Jordan: “English is money.”[xxv]  Even if you have low-test scores in your field, you are more likely to get the job in Jordan if you know English.

The Affects of English in Jordan

As globalization continues to develop a deeper need for English, there are two major affects that it plays on the citizens of Jordan.  First, English has established a dividing line between the upper and lower class, which in part, gives some type of social prestige.  The second is that by being more exposed to Western media, the western culture is slowly creeping into the younger generation that causes strife between the new and old generation, as well as a strong desire for youth to want to escape from their culture.

In the richest communities in Jordan, a Westerner can feel quite at home.  One of the richest neighborhoods holds the majority of western embassies, including the American and British embassies.  In these neighborhoods, there are very few forms of public transportation like you would find in a poor neighborhood (such as private buses or shared taxis) and restaurants and other businesses commonly put their menus in only English.  In the malls everything will be written in English and all the companies are from the west.  As people walk by in the malls you can hear a combination of both Arabic and English spoken.

In Jordan, the wealthy like to flaunt their education and therefore money by using English, rather than Arabic, on a common basis.  Some Arab parents will even speak to their children in English instead of Arabic in daily lives.[xxvi]  Because this class of people has the finances to be educated in the best schools, their English is usually substantially better than the majority of Jordanians and by speaking English, they can in part show their class.  Overall, this creates a mindset in Jordan that English is a sign of esteem or prestige.[xxvii]  In an average job, a manager might value his English speaking employee more not only for their functionality, but also just for the sack of stature.[xxviii]  The idea is that English speakers are better equipped to interact with all classes of people: foreigners, upper class, and lower class.

With an external outlook, English opens many doors for people, not just education and occupational opportunities, but also to a different culture and a different lifestyle.[xxix]  Once a youth starts to learn English, they are then exposed to a completely different world of ideas and concepts.  Often times, these ideas and concepts romanticize the Western World for many Jordanians and make them start to detest parts of their own culture.  This causes many problems in the Jordanian community.

Whereas younger people are more exposed to western ideas via the Internet or media, the older generation is not.  The younger generation is clearly starting to evolve their way of thinking by mixing both Arab culture and western culture as their parents stay with their own traditional customs.[xxx]  This creates a clash when it comes to concepts such as love and marriage, work and family, and even religion.  The generational gap has been widened by this new exposure to the western world that English has.

Immigration becomes a huge aspiration for many students.  They attend western style education, they have international friends on Facebook, and as they look around to the small country with traditional customs that surround them, they desire to leave it.[xxxi]  The more they learn about western ideas and viewpoints they more they feel disconnected to the culture around them.  More and more students not only want to learn English to get a better job, but also just to escape the trap they feel like they are in.  English opens doors to a new culture and new-international opportunities ready for exploration. 

Conclusion

            Although Jordan is considered to be in low demand of English, its actual demand is growing but the amount of financial support limits its supply.  Jordanians desire to learn English for many reason including being able to better adjust to the changing world, opening the door for international education, and helping people get a job after graduation.  “Jordanians need to learn English to meet the challenge of the world” which face Jordanians in media, education, and employment.  Overall this is starting to change the way that Jordanians think and interact with the world.  Because of their exposure to western society, the younger generation is starting to become more western minded as the older generation stays with the traditions of their ancestors.  As Jordan tries to meet the demands of the world they are also changing themselves within.

---

[i] William Cleveland, and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2009), 213.

[ii] Ibed, 331.

[iii] International TEFL Academy, "English Teaching in Jordan." Accessed May 3, 2013. http://www.internationalteflacademy.com/jordan-English-teaching-jobs-abroad-middle-east/.

[iv] ESLBase, "ESLBase Teach English." Accessed April 29, 2013. http://www.eslbase.com/schools/jordan.

[v] Ulle Rannut, Minority Language Policy in the Middle East: Circassian Language Maintenance in Jordan, (Amman: The American Center of Oriental Research, 2007), 3.

[vi] Ibed, 13.

[vii] AlWan, Malik, (First Lieutenant, Jordanian Army), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 5, 2013.

[viii] Tariq, Alia, (Recent Jordanian Graduate and English Student), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 5, 2013.

[ix] Tiedemann, Fridrik, (Director, CGE Jordan), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman April 30, 2013.

[x] AlWan, Malik

[xi] AlWan, Malik; Tariq, Alia

[xii] AlWan, Malik

[xiii] Tariq, Alia

[xiv] Tiedemann, Fridrik

[xv] Tariq, Alia

[xvi] Ibed

[xvii] AlWan, Malik

[xviii] CIA, "The World Factbook." Last modified May 1, 2013. Accessed May 3, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2129.html.

[xix] Areej Abuqudairi, "Youth unemployment remains a major challenge for Jordan," The Jordan Times (2012), http://jordantimes.com/youth-unemployment-remains-a-major-challenge-for-jordan (accessed May 3, 2013).

[xx] Tiedemann, Fridrick

[xxi] Hajeer, Asad, (Notebook Factory Owner), interviewed by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 5, 2013

[xxii] Ibed

[xxiii] AlWan, Malik

[xxiv] Arabiyat, Eyad, (Senior Accountant at the Arab Bank in Salt), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 4, 2013.

[xxv] Mousa, Mohammad, (Pharmaceutical Representative), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 5, 2013.

[xxvi] Tariq, Alia

[xxvii] Tiedemann, Fridrik

[xxviii] Ayasah, Mohammad, (TOFEL student), interview by Tasha Overpeck, Amman, May 5, 2013.

[xxix] Tariq, Alia

[xxx] Ayasah, Mohammad

[xxxi] Ayasah, Mohammad

Democracy in a Tribal Community

When I was planning to come to Jordan I was largely motivated by the idea that studying a culture through books is one thing, but living in it is completely different.  This idea has played to be very true. One of the major ideas that I have studied about this region before I came was the political mindsets here.  I remember studying it and thinking, "That makes since" but now that I'm here I has an even higher understanding of the different ideas.

Background information.  Jordan is kingdom.  It has a king and although it has elections for members of parliament, the majority of the people here are highly devote to the king.  As any google search will tell you, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was created after the first World War when the Middle East was split up into the present day countries.  The Hashemite family was given authority over the country and they still rule it today.  Pictures of the king and his family are everywhere.

King's picture over a Baptist School's Auditorium 

There are pictures of the king in nearly every place where people meet: theaters, offices, businesses, billboards, entrances to establishments, any government office, any university...  There will be pictures of the king eating when you go to popular restaurants.  When I go on trips I like to play "count the king" with my friends where we see who can find the most pictures of the king on our trip.  Included with the king might be a picture of his father and oldest son as well.  At first, it felt awkward having the king stare at me ever where I went.  Coming from America, I was not use to this public display of appreciation--for anything real--so it felt a bit overwhelming, but through time, it became normal.

The public have a tremendous respect for the king.  Although you might friend citizens who might speak ill of him, you will find many more that have his family picture as the background of their personal computer.  It is not required to hang pictures of the king everywhere, but out of pure admiration the citizens do it.  Sometimes citizens will also hang up pictures when their business is in trouble hoping that they might get assistance from the king if he happens to come by.  

Despite of all of this, the king is at large absent in the daily lives of people here.  He is more or less a ghost figure, a legend, or a rumor.  If he goes into a restaurant, people in that restaurant will talk about it for months, but when there was a major gas crisis last fall which lead to major protest, the king was no where to be found.  I remember feeling a void during this time.  In America, if anything major happens, I would expect for the president to get on public television to address the country.  Although he might not say anything of true value, it was comforting to just know that he was there knowing the concerns of the people.  

At the establishment of the modern Middle East, less then 100 years ago, the Middle East was made up of tribes.  There were constant tribal wars and honestly these alliances and tensions are still evident in the populous today.  Once modernity broke in this area, a mixture was created between the old tribal lifestyle and the "new era of democracy."  This mixture has created deep ruts that have been hard for the population to overcome.  This past January, Jordan held it's parliamentary elections.  Leading up to the elections there was a surplus of signs that cluttered every road in Amman.  Unlike America, where the race last for a year or more, here it only lasted around 2 months.

Before the parliamentary elections, the University of Jordan held its student elections for its students.  To my amazement, the University's election completely foreshadowed the elections that I would see in the fallowing months.  Before the campus elections, there were thousands of fliers posted at every gate and walk way.  Some students even had 30 foot tall posters that hung off the side of buildings promoting their canadidancy.  Every guy running for office had some type of glamour shot on every single poster and every girl had some type of graphic design that would catch the eye.  Posters and papers cluttered every inch of the university.  

On the day of the university elects, when I went to class, I found police officers at every gate entering the university.  After class finished my professor advised me just to go home to avoid any violence that would break out.  From years experience, students who ran for office and lost would often get offended at their failure and it often turned into a huge tribal fight after the results came out.  One student would say something to another and instead of it being one on one, family defense brought the whole clan in on the dispute.  But this display of tribal patriotism is not the only one at the university.

In the past four years the University of Jordan has but put a huge fence around their campus with security gates at every entrance to try to cut back on the number of tribal fights.  Every student is required to swipe their ID cards to get into the campus--especially the men.  (Being a female foreigner I can often just act like I don't know what they are asking for--only speaking English, not Arabic--and they let me in.)  These efforts have not completely stopped the problem.  In the fall I expected at least one fight every two weeks.

Returning to the parliamentary elections: from those who I talked to, it was quite predetermined who people would vote for.  They should vote for the member of their family that was running.  On the day of elections I was able to go with a friend to vote.  After driving around in a mindless inquiry of where he should vote, we found a school tucked into a neighborhood.  We had to walk about the length of a block and the whole time I had, perhaps, a hundred people handing me fliers with more electoral promotion.  Once we were inside the gate of the school, we were approached by many people to go and meet the candidates that were waiting outside of the school.  We then had to show the election card as well as the National ID to get into the school.  Girls and guys were then separated to go to different rooms to cast their vote.  My friend was male, so I fallowed him to the men's section.  He then signed in again to wait his turn to vote.  All of the men who came held their heads high actings quite proud of themselves for being an active member of their community.  Most of the men were older-higher classed citizens (but this might have been influenced by the place where we went--it was a nicer neighborhood).  When my friend turned in his ballot, he then had to put his finger into ink that stained his finger for the week.  A few days after the votes were counted, I heard canons go off in celebration for the victory.

Being here has greatly changed my idea of what it means for there to be democracy in the Middle East. As an American it is easy to think that democracy would be best for everyone, but in some societies I question this idea.  Just because it works in America doesn't mean that it will work in the rest of the world.  When explaining it I always talk about how in America we are all immigrants.  The majority of us have little to no generational ties to the land where we live.  The people who had lived in the land for thousands of years have been frequently uprooted by different forces which has eventually weakened their emotional connection to the land.  Most Americans are not aware of their extended family beyond cousins and such.  I know that I have no idea who my mother or father's cousins are.  Once grandparents pass on, the connects die with them.  This is completely different.

Families in Jordan have been around since the time of Christ.  Generations of history and memories tie people to their land.  Families are not just mother, father, and children, but a clan.  Children grow up in the same land where their family had lived for hundreds or thousands of years.  Children are born and raised, then continue on the family business whether that is farming or herding.  The threat of industrialization or relocation completely corrupts the mindset of the region.  This is one reason why the creation of the state of Israel has left such a huge wound on Palestinians.  Even today if you ask a Palestinian teenager where their homeland is, they will tell you Palestinian--even though they have never even been there.  It's ingrained in the identity of the people in a way that I feel is incomprehensible to westerners looking in from our western view point.

As I said, trying to bring the two mindsets together has caused many problems.  It has caused a weak false sense of democracy.  Not from the side of the rulers, but from the community.  There can be no democracy when people feel obligated to vote according to their family name, not the quality of the candidate.  Even people here will acknowledge this dilemma but its challenges still stand strong.  It will be nearly impossible to try to remove the mindset of strong family connections here but I don't think there is really a need for that either.  The tribal mindset is in many ways the strength in this region.  There is a huge emphasis on knowing your family and the idea that everyone belongs to some family or group.  Women do not change their names when they get married and orphans are prohibited from accepting a new last name just to preserve the true patrilineal bloodlines.  

I have heard stories about how some tribes have their own newspaper and their own websites.  I have also heard about how some families get together once a month just to share family news.  They all put money in a pot and give it to the family members who are in need.  People here take care of their family  both immediate and distant.  No one is ever allowed to feel lonely or alone.  There is always a support system and there is always someone to talk to.  It is the strength of the area.  If you meet one person, they'll introduce you to their whole family and you then have an entire family at your side.  This just limits our idea of democracy.  

Finding Balance--Externally

I have talked before about finding balance in the expectations of oneself while in a Middle Eastern country.  Being a western female here, you feel like raw meat on display--but you get even more attention than the butcher shops do here.  Today a friend and I went for a walk and we were told about two older gentlemen who completely turned around in their step to watch us walk pass them.  It takes "turning heads" in a completely different level but unfortunately not in a respectful one.  First as I wrote about before, it was hard to understand how I was suppose to see myself and allow other to see me, but now my balance have altered from an inward measurement to an outward one.  I struggle now with what should be the appropriate expectations that I should have toward the culture that surrounds me.

If you look closely, you will see a cross of an Orthodox Church and the Crescent Moon of a Mosque.

This is something that I have been observing for several months.  At first, it is so easy to "vent" to your westerner girlfriends about the problems we face here, but eventually the "venting" never stops.  Anytime you get westerners together, especially girls, the conversation will become about the negative aspects of this culture.  We will talk on and on about the lack of self-control we find in men and the complete control we find over women.  When talking to locals at times I have to simply walk away before I take out all of my frustration from the culture on one person.  When men share with me their idea of who and what women would be, my empowered spirit within me raises up.  When I hear a Muslim decides to show now tolerance towards another faith, my spirit roars within me.  When I finally acknowledge that it's not just men who confine women, but instead a shared mindset that both men and women share, my spirit quivers.  I never want to be the person whose eyes are too narrow to see the truth that is placed before me or too focused on the focal point to see all the details that make up the picture.  We all see life differently.  If I try to force my view point on those around me, or simply substitute the way women here actually think with the way I think they should perceive life, I am no better than those who make me feel guilty for not covering my hair or for wearing tight clothing.

A normal day wearing the Nacab

It's easy to get overwhelmed with the bluntly obvious problems.  It's even easier to over generalize all the people from this culture and simply clam up where you do not see anything else.  So many foreigners that I meet here do just that.  They see the bluntly obvious things and they are never able to really move on from them.  They learn how to make their lives as comfortable as possible here and they just look at the rest of the people through their colored lenses comforted in the idea that they have it all figured out.  If I allow myself to eventually stop trying to learn from those around me and simply categorize the experience that I have had here as another entry in my mind, then I feel like I will have become the thing that I have always run away from.  I want to build understanding and cultural exchange--not allow myself and others to simply put other cultures on the shelf and say, "That one's nice" or "I don't like that one" or "Of course I know how women there think!  They think just like I do!  I'm a women."

I do not mean to say that the blinding light should be ignored.  It can never be ignored, but I refuse to allow myself to to stare at it mindlessly.  Just like a car driving past you at night with its bright lights on, you should always acknowledge that it's there, but not focus on it.  Look for the smaller lights that are trying to shine and work towards them.  If you go towards the blinding light, there will be no compromise or understanding, only a crash.  In a none metaphoric way: I remind myself to not just look at the people who speak only out of their culture, but try to search out one people here that are good and true.  This doesn't mean that the negative aspects of the culture aren't bluntly obvious--they are--or that we shouldn't acknowledge them acting like the don't exist.  Instead, we should inspire the good qualities that we find in people here.  We should encourage them to rise above the struggles that they face and perhaps one day they might even raise above the mindsets we find so appalling.

Culture being passed on at a Christmas Eve service.

People are undoubtably formed by their community.  Our culture is instilled in us from the earliest age.  We are taught when to say please, how to wash ourselves, how to share, what to think of others, how to treat women, and how to treat the outside world.  Our community has such a huge affect on us and we will never be able to escape it.  With every person I meet here, I need to acknowledge that their culture in ingrained in them to the deepest core.  Every person--but instead of looking at this core and shunning it, I feel like I should aways remember be constantly trying to pull out the good qualities that I see.  I should be culturally sensitive when we don't agree--not allow our disagreements to make us stop the way of communication between us.

I am reminded of a Muslim friend that I had back at home.  He and I never saw religion the same way and it would constantly come up in even the simplest of conversations.  Regardless of our constant arguments, the spirit inside of me pushed me on to continue our friendship in order to--even in the smallest measure--build a bridge.  I cannot control what other decide to make un-alterable, but I perceive that with enough time and enough trust, even the unalterable things might become a matter of discussion.  I do not set out to convert the whole world.  Just before I die, I would love to see some of these strongholds between our cultures start to tare down.  The Berlin Wall eventually fell.  The Great Wall of China has been taken down in many places.  Just like a physical wound, it takes a lot of time to completely recover.  It takes time and time again of treatment with small improvements and often set backs, but eventually, it can heal.