My Picture Finally ...

for anyone who reads my posts, the first idea might occur to him/her that i'm a gloomy over-criticizing guy with no bright side to look at. Excuse me, but I beg to differ, soy un hombre muy gracioso, I’m a very happy dude, super cheerful dude, don’t believe me? Check out the following Picture, taken at work :)

What the hell is happening!?

I’ve been facing an internal struggle for the past two weeks to write or not to write this post, there is a serious problem out there, and it really pisses me off. Obviously I decided to write the damn post, out of self remedy, nothing more.

Two weeks ago, me and 2 other friends left the cinema, we went to our usual place and ate some sandwiches, spend sometime talking and after a while decided to go home, nice story isn’t it!? Anyways we were walking home enjoying the amazing night breeze when we were stopped by a policeman who asked us about our destination and some other questions which I don’t recall. Now in these situations an internal struggle fires up, between the rational part of you that says “ok, let me be friendly, answer these stupid questions and get over with so I can go in my way”, and the other part that insists that the Jordanian constitution stated that the personal freedom is sacred, and people must fight for their right. The first part won at that moment, we answered the questions, were very cooperative and went on our way.

A couple of steps later, maybe 100 meters later, another policeman stopped us for questioning, this time the other part won. He asked “where have you been”, bluntly I answered “well why do you care where have we been?”, a short conversation went around between us; “you don’t have the right”, “I have the right” kind of talk, in the end he demanded we show him our IDs, I don’t know why but we did - and here is the posts actual topic-, as soon as he saw my last name, he said “Abbadi? Shame on you, you should be the most cooperative of the three!!”. This sentence “you should be the most cooperative of the three!!” what the hell is that supposed to mean!!!?

I’m not talking now about the constitutional rights, lets a admit a small fact, we were walking near the Royal hotel, in a street full of embassies, and quite near to a Royal palace, it was 1:30 AM, and two of us were carrying Laptops and a digital camera, we were really suspicious, and the police man had every right to stop us and question us, its his duty. I reviewed the Jordanian laws, and frankly he had the right to stop us.

My note is his remark, is it because I’m Jordanian from a Jordanian origin and my friends are from a Palestinian origin, I should be more “yes sir” because Jordanian-Jordanians are more loyal to the country and Palestinian-Jordanians are not, and the more “Yes Sir”s I do the more loyal I am!!?

This is what this police man was thinking when he asked me that question, in his mind there is a small equation:

All Jordanian-Jordanians are loyal to their country
All Palestinian-Jordanians are not loyal to their country
Loyalty is measured by how much you like the police officers
Liking the police officers means, you can’t wait to see them and doing whatever they ask

I’ve been facing such mentality all my life, and I’m sick of it, and I’m sicker of it right now, especially when it comes out bluntly from a police officer.

This is discrimination and it is really deep in our community, I’m used to face it in school and university, but to hear it come out of a “law enforcement” officer it is more bitter and alarming.

What happened to us? My grandfather used to go every Friday to pray in Jerusalem, my father as a kid used to work in Ramallah! Palestinian workers used to come and help my grandfather in our land when it’s harvest time, it was all casual, we were all brothers and sisters, no one thought of discriminating between the two/one people! Could a few political mistakes from both parties do such a deep crack? Some people might say that the Jordanian army killed relatives of theirs, and other might say that Palestinian rebels killed their relatives! No one really knows who started this shit and no one knows whose to blame in it, but I know some facts, it happened 35 years ago, it is shaking the foundation of our community and surely the only one benefiting from it is the enemy of our country (whoever, whatever that may be)

It should stop, it should end, and it should die.

And quoting Dogbert (Dilbert’s dog) “Out .. Out, Out you demons of stupidity”!

Me Happy..

I'm so happy, new law about smoking in public!
i hate smoking and i'm glad to see that officials are doing something about it.
read the full story here. thumbs up!

but still, we need more culture and manners not laws and restrictions.

Gillet 7aya

Really it’s Gillet 7aya!! For non Arabic speaking people, I’m not sure if there is an exact English translation but it’s a term that means rudeness combined with misbehavior!

What brought that into my mind, is couple of scenes I saw last night, actually I see it around the hour, but yesterday it was just over the top.

On a red traffic light a man with a fancy car, opens the windows and just throws out on the street what it seems to be an empty cigarette pack. With no worry on his mind he just throws it onto the street! While I was thinking of going to him, pick up the empty cigarette pack and just throw in his face and give him a peace of my mind, the traffic lights turns green and he goes.

Another scene, same night, we leave the cinema after watching Mission Impossible III (excellent movie by the way). We go to get some “Shawirma” from Reem, a tradition that we’ve been doing for a while now, anyways standing in front of the crowded place, some guys were finishing their sandwiches, as soon as they finished they throw their sandwich leftovers, paper, plastic bags and don’t know what else on the floor, they get in their car and just drive away, the garbage can was less than 2 meters away from them. True Gillet 7aya.

The scene was so disgusting that some guy and I had to collect the garbage and put it in the really-close bin.

What are people thinking!!? I don’t know how Amman managed to be one of the cleanest capitals in the region and maybe the world, with such mentality and culture that its citizens hold!! We don’t need laws and restrictions to have a better life we just need some culture and respect, not to mention manners.

Headbanging experience revisited!

I'm back, managed to steal some time from my lengthy tasks and list of TO Dos to gather my thoughts and fulfill the promise I made couple of days ago.

Regarding the rock concert held last Friday, it was bad, really bad for the following reasons:

1. Unprofessional organization, ticket guy didn’t show up and every body had to be marked with a nice X on his wrist, plus the concert was supposed to start at 4 and started much later.


2. lack of a good sound engineer made the sound really bad, the mixers and speakers were not well placed, and sound settings were all randomly set (or this is how it sounded).


3. Stage was really small, and equipment wiring was all over the stage making the musicians trip on them.


4. The most important issue is that the playing really sucked, I just can’t explain it but it all seemed wrong. And the problem of local bands that they bring anybody and make him/her a vocalist; I’ve never heard a really good vocalist in Jordan except maybe Ivan of Virgin Killer.


5. Bands stage behavior could be improved, for instance the bassist or guitarist should face the audience not the drummer behind him. The bands and front men/women should have some charisma and should know how to attract the audience’s attention I swear, during the performances people were talking and laughing, they were not following the music at all.

These are some of the things I can remember about the concert, if I remember something else I’ll tell you.

Everything mentioned here could be fixed and really soon, all it needs is some dedication; organizers could work harder to get proper sponsorship, big music stores and musical instrument stores and radio stations are very good candidates.

Bands themselves could work harder and rehearse all day and night for such event, and remember Heavy Metal is music and art not just people dressed in black screaming all over and acting crazy, bands should be real artists who work hard for their music not seeking to jam around and be “cool”.

Headbanging experience...

The other day i went with few friends to some local rock concert, it SUCKED!!
my friend mozzy prepared a huge list of things that were wrong in the concert, instead he realized its not worth it to say anything. the only thing that was OK about the concert is that it was for charity.

i was Headbanging all the time!! yes headbanging my head against a post crying to make them stop!