Leaving Jordan

I suppose I'll need a new blog.

I've not had the motivation or inspiration --and perhaps just plain not had the time-- to write here in over two months.

We wanted it to be much earlier - last week - but long story, and October is the month for returning to the USA ... we'll see what the Department of State does with me, and what job opportunities come up in Central Asia. As has been the case for the past few months now, everything is really too up in the air to bother sharing with anyone unwilling to hear daily updates and speculations.

Ramadan is being lived, the fourth time around, as a bourgeiose expat, taking taxis at midnight from 5-star hotel to 5-star hotel looking for a drink, moving during the course of the first week from a schedule of sleeping midnight - 7am to sleeping 6am - 1pm, because eating and drinking is illegal outside and in August in Amman this makes going for a run, or even out grocery shopping, in daylight rather unappealing.

Arnoux and I are on a kick of watching gay community and gay rights themed films, having really good substantive talks about all kinds of things (but mostly development aid, hee), and just returned from a camping trip in Wadi Dana.

Pictures, and most all of my social interactions, can be seen on Facebook.

That's all for now. Back to Angels in America and scheming ways to cajole my only set of students for the moment -- three 17-year-old boys hoping to take the SAT on October 10 without prior knowledge of the words "incessant" or "scamper" ... I told them to play lots of freerice (www.freerice.com), and will bring them some New York Times to revel in tomorrow.

In one breath...

In the past week I've been to Damascus and turned 24 and read To Kill A Mockingbird for the first time ever and welcomed a new roommate, an American guy here for two months from Johns Hopkins, making three 24-year-olds in the house; legitimately called "guns!" more than once during a round of the left/left merge jet fighter game on bikes at sports city (i'm getting better), had a frustration meltdown or two, woken up to a mystery single lightning crash, laughed until it hurt and kept going until I scared my friend, gone dancing Ladie's Night, finished off the NesCafe, helped Valentina kill a roach by saying 'morire, bastardo!' and vowed to remember her by repeating such when killing cockroaches from now til forever (we have a whole nest of them in the back of the fridge, it seems, so I'll be able to practice), derived silly amounts of happiness from having a line to hang laundry on in the sunshine, lost and found my sunglasses, attempted to provoke three major catfights, the stories of which are increasingly hilarious when told by He who is the Territory I was marking - oh fun - did pretty well for myself in an all-out 100-meter sprint, had a dinner party at Abby's and resolved to get serious about My Kitchen and Cooking all over again, managed to have hopes of being a UPR trainer in Erbil inflated and dashed several times over by UNOPS, and re-translated a press release about the Network of Arab Human Right Trainers from Arabic.

I have not, however, been able to keep up with my part-time job... ie, the one I earn some actual monetary compensation for - and if prudent should probably not be blogging any of this, even in detail (but the truth is I miss you) and I can't wait to come home to Chicago June 27-July 7.

More later when work is done.
(& we wish the same to you)

Meeting to Watch Obama's Speech

Does anyone know of a place other than this? Or have a contact who could convince them to put on a TV in English as well? My friends and I would love to gather with people other than, well, ourselves to watch and discuss afterward. Now that the time has been changed from today (Wednesday) to Thursday, June 4th at 12:45pm Amman time, I'm thinking I should just open up my own home for a reception ... hmmmm. Input welcome.

The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy
cordially invites you to view and discuss
U.S. President Barack Obama’s
speech to the Muslim World live from Cairo

on Thursday, June 4th
at 12:45 p.m.
at the American Language Center (ALC) (map attached)

RSVP: 590-6579

P.S. The speech will be in Arabic. Light snacks and drinks will be available

Amnesty International Publishes 2009 "State of the World's Human Rights" Report

Amnesty International has published its annual report titled "State of the World's Human Rights." With the report's release, "Amnesty International is calling for a New Global Deal on human rights, because of a human rights investment gap by world leaders."

Emphasizing the connection between economic crisis and increased repression of basic freedoms in many countries around the world, Amnesty's Secretary General Irene Khan writes about the need for a new kind of global leadership of both economic and political systems which work for the benefit of all and not a select few. The many faces of inequality and forms of insecurity cataloged in the report, she says, show the urgent need for governments to purposefully invest in human rights as their citizens "demand dignity for the prisoners of poverty."

Jordan appears in the report several times, first in a discussion of the nearly 2 million refugees who have fled Iraq, "mainly to Syria and Jordan." In the section dedicated to Violence Against Women, Jordan is cited for honor crimes and migrant domestic worker abuses over the past year, and in the regional overview of the Middle East and North Africa it is included in a list of 12 countries from which Amnesty has received substantive reports of torture.

On pages 191-194 of the document in English, the human rights situation in Jordan is examined under the following subtitles: counter-terror and security; justice system – administrative detention; torture and other ill-treatment; unfair trials – state security court; freedom of expression, association, and assembly; violence and discrimination against women; migrant's rights – domestic workers; refugees and asylum seekers; death penalty.

The full document is available to read online or download as a .pdf in Arabic, English, and five other languages from http://thereport.amnesty.org/en/download.

What's in a name?

My brain was caught rambling when I burst into choking laughter at the dinner table a few days ago.

What if we went back to naming children with virtues and values?

...This is my friend Democracy and his girlfriend Independence.

Seventeenth century Englishmen enjoyed giving their children names that extolled the virtues that they held in such great esteem, says a vituperous student columnist at Columbia. ("..your child’s destiny lies in their name. Don’t believe it? How many Supreme Court Justices are named Jayden?") He imagines the names Merit-Scholar and Robotic, even branching out to imagine this trend spreading to other cultures ("Somalians might appreciate names like 'food.'")

:)