The hottest topic this week on the Jordanian blogosphere is regarding the lack of political blogs on portal Jordan Planet [1]. Firas of IHeartAmman claims that “You know something is wrong when bloggers are neglecting local political issues [2]“. Natasha Tynes reciprocates saying “I believe the main reason is the fact that when growing up, we were never encouraged to speak up [3] and express our opinions.” Lina Ejeilat, on the other hand, says that “we learnt that there isn’t much we can do to change it… so why bother?” [4] while Roba Assi believes that the fact that there were “no real Arabic blogging softwares online [5] greatly contributed to the social segmentation of Jordan bloggers.” She then points out to the first Arabic blogging [5] service provided by Al-Bawaba and Ammar Ibrahim invites everyone to test drive it [6].
Nasim Tarawneh is wondering if Jordan Planet is becoming overpopulated [7] and Firas of IHeartAmman proposes a starting an article about Jordan Planet on Wikipedia [8]. In the meantime, Jad Madi is fascinated by the power of blogging as he relates the reaction [9] to a post he wrote earlier, and Khalaf of “What's Up, Jordan?” has an interesting post on freedom of speech [10] in Jordan. Haitham Sabbah posts about an attack on Jordanian daily newspaper Al-Anbat then says that this is worrying and hopes that [11] ” we are not facing a new form of individual or organized suppression of freedom of expression and media freedom in Jordan. Khalaf also writes about the upcoming 10 year National Agenda [12] and describes that there is “apathy even before the first vote is cast”.
Ahmad Humeid ponders about whether Email is dead. [13] Shaden of Sugar Cubes [14] and Haitham Sabbah are meanwhile upset with what they [15] describe as the low level of moral that some Arab artists are performing and promoting.
On a more physical front, Wael Attili has a sad image and says that he could not think [16] of a comment about it, and Roba Assi expresses her frustration [17] at the street naming [18] situation in Amman. Naseem Tarawneh ponders the cost of the holy month of Ramadan and describes it as a sign of massive hypocrisy [19], he also reports that “Jordan has overtaken Palestine as the most competitive Arab cellular market [20].”
Streets of Amman taken by Sabri Hakim [21]
As for upcoming local events, Ahmad Humeid of 360 East draws attention to Linotype's Arabic Type Design Contest [22], Ammar Ibrahim mentions that rocker Akram Baker from Ramallah is performing in Amman on the 3rd [23], and the monthly Jordan Planet blogger meet-up for October will be held on the 2nd. Firas of IHeartAmman mentions that the “Great Amman Municipality has announced that by mid 2006, they will distribute about 4000 recycling containers [24] all over greater Amman.”