From the Jordanian Blogosphere · Global Voices
Roba Al Assi

Jordan: A New Government in the Making
The newly appointed Prime Minster has been announced, being Marouf Bakhit. Naseem Tarawneh thinks that this might help the path to reform. Khalaf says about the newly appointed PM, “Being self made, one would hope that he would respect merit over pedigree.” At the same time, Khalaf, though, is not amused, “What is bothering me is that I feel that these changes don't seem to serve any purpose, except to keep people amused, while the fundamental policies stay the same.”
Abu Aardvark, meanwhile, is uncomfortable in regards to the military background  of the new Prime Minster, “I'm still very uneasy about the symbolism and the institutional reality of concentrating power in the hands of the military “.
Politics in Jordan; unsexy?
Meanwhile, the “sudden” interest in politics on the Jordanian blogosphere resulting from the Black Wednesday incident gave way to a lot of speculation as to why there is general apathy towards the political scene in Jordan. Haitham Sabbah wonders if the explosions were a “wake up call”, while Naseem Tarawneh points to a recent study on Jordanian newspapers that showed that there is in fact a lack of local political news coverage. Naseem also says, “Our politics is dominated by constant change in governments, the lack of noticable reforms, and more of the same old same old.”
Life for the Jordanian Bloggers
Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the very first Arabic podcast; Dagdegni, by Reef Fakhouri, George Akra, and Karim Arafat.
Tololy and Sabbah argue the different facets of implementing a dress code in offices, while Yazan Malakha has a post on superstitions, “I find it amusing how we spend our lives doing all sorts of things to protect us from all sorts of evils. Whether those evils are self detonating terrorists, spirits from beyond or a huge stream of carbonated beverage in our face.”
Meanwhile, the monthly Jordanian blogger meet-up for the month of November will be held on Sunday the 27th at Wild Jordan Café at 6:30 PM, all bloggers in Jordan that day, both Jordanian and otherwise, are more than welcome.
Science, Art, Culture, and Technology
Jameed reports about the latest AIDS epidemic on the genral HIV status in the MENA region, especially in Jordan. Lina Ejeilat talks about a new education initiative that is being launched to spread awareness about women’s empowerment and career planning curriculum into 1,500 schools in the West Bank, Gaza, as well as 100 Discovery schools in Jordan.
Eman of Aquacool and Isam Bayazidi report on Jordan's participation in the WSIS summit held in Tunisia this month. Eman writes about the Jordanian participants and provides some feedback while Isam says, “I am glad that light is being shed on Freedom of expression in the internet, specially for bloggers.“
Jordanian movie maker Amin Matalqa posts a link to his latest short, “Obsession“.
Local exhibitions taking place in Amman this month include “Erasing the Black Day“, “Jordan University Exhibition“, and Carmen Calvo at the National Gallery. A little Eastwards, Ahmad Humeid of 360East points to the annual design conference “Tasmeem Doha” held in Qatar early next year.
Freedom in Arabia
Natasha Tynes reports about a study on religious freedom in Jordan, and concludes, “Christians in Jordan enjoy a very good status”, Haitham Sabbah reports to a published a research that reports the status of Political and democracy freedom in the Middle East, as well as a report that reveals that the Arab world is one of the most troubling areas for press freedom.
Naseem Tarawneh writes about abolishing the Jordanian Press Association(of which belonging to is mandatory), which subjects journalists to “constant harassment”.