The Jordanian Blogosphere: February Clippings
The Jordanian blogosphere is abuzz with two controversies this month. The first revolves around the proposal to build a tourist complex near the Dibbin Forest that will result in the cutting down of many trees. While a small online campaign has started up in recent days, other bloggers see the issue in a completely different light.
The other issue involves a recent decision to remove two bloggers from the central Jordanian aggregator – Jordan Blogs. It seems Several bloggers have thrown their two cents in. The central theme seems to be about whether there should be limitations on freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech is not limitless, there are boundaries and the moderators of JB understand those boundaries and act upon them, accusing JB of oppressing freedom of speech is just ridiculous, think about it for a minute, what’s their motive?”, says Bakkouz.
Elsewhere on the Jordanian blogosphere…
Since Jordan Planet was shut down and Jordan Blogs was launched, bloggers got together for their first official “Jordan Blogs” meeting. Read the reviews from Khalidah and Kinzi (in Arabish)
Are Jordanian women worse drivers than men? Naseem and (Her Eminence) Lubna exchange male and female point of views respectively on the topic. They also tackle another social matter as well: the life line of Jordanian girls.
Mansaf is the national dish of Jordan but you'd be naive to think there isn't a right way to both cook it as well as eat it. Dino posts a short video (Arabic) on how to do both.
Dima and Lama Hattab, Jordanian twins and national sporting enthusiasts, are currently training to climb Mount Everest. Bloggers Natasha and Tamara have more on the exciting news. Meanwhile, Ammar plays with some prose to produce a post on what it means to be Jordanian.
In an entertaining post, Roba tells us how she overcame being intimidated as a new driver and learned the art of “zorabah”, while Moey has drawn up a list of top 10 blogging mistakes to avoid that are worth a read. Tololy goes down theology lane as she wonders whether our belief in God is genetically inevitable, which inspires a debate on what came first: God or the need for God?
A blast from the past! Natasha shows us how today's popular Zahran Street looked like over half a century ago.
In the political realms Firas is not too happy with the fact that a Christian has been given a leadership position in the Islamic Action Front party. Issam has similar feelings regarding the news. Firas also gives a review of Russian President Putin's February visit to Jordan.
Meanwhile Khalaf isn't the biggest fan of the Minister of Municipalities right now and for pretty obvious reasons. Naseem points out the legislative contradictions in the draft of the ‘press and publications law’, which was later shelved by the Lower House; Khalaf tells us why.
With elections expected to take place some time this year, Naseem wonders if the voting age should be lowered from 18 to 16. You can also check out this video (Arabic) by a sketch comedy show on the women's quota in elections.
Meanwhile, Batir takes a look at the political landscape in Jordan and what role the word “reform” has been playing.
In Amman, city hall is trying to alleviate high-pressure traffic areas with a new policy allowing drivers to pay for parking spaces via SMS. However Ash of JoLadies has her doubts that this will solve the problem. Meanwhile, one of the biggest complaints in Amman has been the presence of trees in the middle of sidewalks, as Lina tells us:
“Anyone who has attempted to take up the healthy habit of walking and making the most of Amman’s generally lovely weather knows that if it isn’t a near-suicidal mission, it can best be described as a measure of one’s elasticity and ability to zigzag and dodge branches sticking out right, left and center.”
Lina looks at the latest plan to remove trees from sidewalks in order to create a more pedestrian friendly Amman.
5 comments
This is such a bad shameless promotion for yourself Naseem. So the way I understand this is not about just self promoting yourself while “touching” on others…
And apparently the little brush we had together took away your objectivity and credibility …
sad!
Qwaider, I would like to thank you first of all for your kind comment. I am not completely certain about what you’re refering to however I will do my best to formulate a reply.
I have been a GV author for almost one year now and I do not believe I’ve engaged in any shameless promotion as I am allowed, as far as I know, to insert links to my own posts as I am a part of the same blogosphere I am rounding up. It is my way of being engaged with my environment.
I do try an remain objective as best as I can. With the Palestinian posts I am forced by nature to take a position, one that I feel is respective of that blogosphere. With the start of these Jordanian posts and this specific one in particular, I provided readers with links to both sides of each ‘controversy’ and I don’t believe I took a position in that matter.
If you have any qualms or specific concerns you would like to address to me personally or perhaps require further clarification, feel free to email me or drop a comment on my blog.
Thank you again for taking the time to comment.
Salam
7 out of the 42 links in the posts are directed to your personal blog.
Excuse me for thinking, is the Black-iris, all that is going on in Jordan?
I think and I’m a very close follower of the Jordanian blogospher that you have left out so many things (and that’s human of course), but if you have noticed some of the links have nothing but a single picture, some have not so interesting ideas. Even if they’re talking about “Zorabeh” and come from someone like Roba, there are plenty of blogs that had more valuable content, and were worthy of addition or even mentioning and if you’re interested I can give you a full list
Tell me that you were fair and balanced and I will believe you. Tell me you had no personal interests here, and I will believe you.
One thing I would have loved to see here, is my effort to promote rationalism when people decide they want to rally for a matter, the same term (cool) was later used by N@simjo. I just didn’t feel like having a heads on collision on the Dibbin case
At any rate, you’re free to write whatever you like, but when you have such a broad title and restrict the Jordanian blogosphere to these few, expect someone to shout … BS!
Qwaider, thank you for your reply. Just as a side note, it would be appreciated if you avoid any use of profanity on this site.
As the author of the post I am inevitably subjective simply because selected posts will tend to be what I feel is a topic that was interesting based on certain x-factor criteria and what I feel will be interesting to many. I’m sorry you did not like Roba’s post but I felt it was a revealing aspect of our culture and I think others enjoyed it as well. This is where the subjectivity and points of view are involved.
I cannot possibly read every post on the Jordanian blogosphere and I wish I could because I know there are many deserving posts out there. But I try and include as many bloggers as possible within the time limits I have to do so.
Also, every week is different. It all depends on the week and what bloggers have to offer. Moreover, this first post was meant to be a broad look at February before getting into posts that are a bit more comprehensive due to their more frequent and thus more expanded nature.
If you have any links to posts you feel are worthy feel free to email them to me at nasnas27 at hotmail dot com throughout the week and I will take a look and take them into consideration.
Lastly, I do not know what you meant earlier by saying “the little brush we had” and what that has to do with this post. I thought you might clarify that in your second comment but you didn’t.
In any case thank you for your input. I will take it into consideration.
salam
Thanks for making that clear .. Much appreciated.