When you first arrive in the airport, you are met by a frowning immigration officer who will ask you from where you arrived. You will then have to wait for half an hour for your bags, while being suffocated with the fumes of cigarettes inside the airport. There is no one who respects the law. If you take a taxi, the driver's foremost objective would be to rip you off. The meter in the cab is for decorative purposes and has no real meaning – just like tooth brushes and deodorants.

Tourism sites are almost empty with the exception of goats which are grazing there. If a female tourist committed the mistake of wearing a short, all hell will break lose. People drive like animals. There are no clear maps for Amman and it is therefore impractical for a tourist to rent a car. Most tourists visit Jordan in summer. However, most places don't have air-conditioning, so the tourists literally melt from the heat. Tourism sites have become places where tourists are ripped off and beaches have become dumping grounds. Congratulations on selecting Petra a new wonder.

The bad exclusive coverage by Jordan Television for the the historic night in which Petra was selected among the world's seven wonders proves the need to lift our heads from the sand immediately and reevaluate the “national media celebration” so that it doesn't pass without comment. The coverage was weak and has a lot of grave errors. It was celebrated with a show of shallow performances described as “national arts.” A lot will not like what I am writing now. It is not directed to any one personally but to a series of accumulative mistakes in the way national celebrations are designed and executed to look like unconvincing festivals. They in fact have resulted in negative reactions from Jordanians, who now have access to international cultural events and coverage. The normal practice in national celebrations is focusing on one aspect of culture and arts and that is singing – and it isn't singing with class, but a low level of singing which is used under the pretext that it is “national singing” and under the excuse that they are supporting “national artists” while neglecting all the other types of culture.

On that night, the intellectual Jordanians were not present. The experts in the Nabati history were no where to be seen – as were the poets, artists, dramatists and academics. Those who have spent long days under the sun studying the history of Petra were not there, the Nabati poets were not there and those who presented cultural creations of Petra were not there. The only people present were those who spent hours on their songs.