Got 45 minutes to go and after a long day I’m just out of it and can’t really finish what I had in my hands and don’t have anything to read (unless you count that thing about risk analysis) so I thought why not blog a bit:

I see dark clouds ahead

Been looking over the numbers and keeping up with the news and digging info about a certain 90’s latin country and a certain 1989 event and so far things seem to be really grim. Looking and tracing the numbers and hearing the announcements from goverment official seemed like a damn broken track that has been stuck there since 1999. We need to reduce the deficit and we need to increase taxes and the fact of the matter is that we lost track of what it means to have an economic plan after the restructuring that was done by the IMF.

The situation that we are facing right now is we are meeting a slow down in the economy, a dead real estate market and a global deflationary environment with an expansion of budget and inflationary internal market. What this will do is that people are going to tighten their budgets even more and incidentally make the economy struggle even more.

So given the current situation where the governments expenses constitute almost 2/3 of the economy, a need to expand our internal and external debt and some of our public debts need to be paid as well, we face a very familiar scenario. We have maintained a consistant trade deficit and the only reason we are able to sustain is because our GDP was growning … but sadly the growth rate is decreasing rapidly and in the current gloomy economic enviroment across the globe it is harder than ever to attract invesments.

So unless someone realizes the need to address the dire straits we are going through with a decent plan that doesn’t know involve random and whimsical lifting and applying of subsidies and taxes we will get trapped and fall flat on our faces soon.

I understand that limit the government’s expenditures or its employees privileges is hard, and we barely have any state owned industries to sell any more, and reducing the mushrooming privileged employment and salaries is completely out of the question i would suggest a couple of simple things to start with when reforming.

First segregate the tax investigation bureau from the entire force, and make the knowledge of the investigation schedules with a limited number of people or even better make it administered electronically.

The second is to create a whistle blower hot-line that will allow people to call in their tax evasion and other money making tips for further investigation in lieu for a cash reward if they do … lets say 10% of the amount seized.  I bet you if you do those two things tax collection will become much more profitable than it is nowadays. ( I whistles medicalized Blue specialized eye sight *whistles whistle* )

I’m just kidding of course and our economic outlook is certainly sunny O tamam il tamam.

Nothing to do these days

It has been surprisingly stiffing in Amman these days, and there haven’t been many activities to do around town lately and even though we had a guest stay with us this week for three days the highlight of the week was a yummy halloumi and strawberry salad that i made for us on monday.

Anyone have any leads for anything interesting going around town this weekend? something other than damn c-rated American hip hop bands ? or was that last weekend ?

Pat Robertson got a thing for natural disasters, I think they tickle his prickliness. He keeps on talking about them as if they are actually  spiteful and retributive acts of god.

This is the guy that warned Orlando, dover, New Orleasn, NY and the USA at large of “earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.”

Usually the attacks are squared at anyone or anything with a liberal agenda.

The perplexing thing now is that it extends now to anyone who has fought colonialism. Basically what he is talking about is how the Haitians brought the horrible and destructive earthquake the devastated the poor country on themselves because they made a pack with the devil to achieve independence from the french …. psshh “everyone knows that!” he exclaimed dismissively.

paraphrasing Hitchens:  Pat are so full of shit my friend that if i gave you an enema you’ll be able to walk through a pinhole. But saddly he’s not too off about what he said

Summary: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn’t afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget went to paying off its “reparation” debt. They didn’t make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

A Jordanian court has ruled that Internet sites should adhere to the print & publications(Media) laws that governs the work of print media. As a consequence all the penalties that are extended by this law will be applicable to anyone that is posting anything on the internet.

The reasoning for this stems from the argument that the wording of the print & publications law defines print as ” any publication that is used to document meanings, words or ideas in any method”

The case that opened this topic is of one Ahmad Salameh, former chief of Al-Hilal newspaper and journalist

who claimed that he had been slandered by Ammon and Rum news sites. I didn’t read of any proof provided of what harm was caused to Mr.Salameh other than the words that where used by the sites.

Now I’m sure that those words really hurt his feelings. I feel for him, I really do…

Either way the consequence of this ruling is the following, ready boys and girls of the blogging and internet age?

First of all the list of No’s. If you do any of those you’ll subject to a fine that’s between JOD 15,000 – 25,000:

Anything that goes again national responsibility

Anything that goes against Human rights

Anything the goes against islamic and arabic sensibilities

Anything that would harm the King and the royal Family

Anything concerning the Jordanian armed forces or security apparatus unless otherwise authorized

Anything ridiculing any of the religions or sects recognize by the constitution

Anything that harms the national unity and incites on committing crimes

Anything that ridicules, disses or slanders heads of Arabic, Islamic, or friendly states, or disturbs Jordanian relationships with other countries

Anything that promoted deviancy and corrupts morals

Any False information or gossips that harm public interest, Government institutions or those who work in it.

Any information related to the secret session of the national council

Any non-disclosed government documents

Anything that would shake the confidence people have in the national currency

Second: the head of a publication (i.e. everyone on Web 2.0 is a publisher FYI) is the owner of everything published in their publication. That means that internet sites take responsibility for those damn trolls and it’s really easy to frame someone by just trolling their site.

Third: Anonymous publications are banned, every publication should include the REAL name of it’s author and his address. Avatars, anonymous blogging, guest commentators and anyone else who does not include their address is not allowed. Now think with me how smart it will be to post your home address when commenting on the internet ?

The upside to all of this that the law stipulates that the only thing that Jordan can do to foreign publications that break this law is bar their import to Jordan. so the worst, logically, thing that could happen is that they block your site…Way to go if you want to improve Jordanian IT industry. Practically you might have just maimed a whole sector of IT because everyone will be scared to host their websites locally ! Never Mind about any of the social networking sites like watwet who are now being held responsible for everything any of their users say on their service.

Imagine if Yahoo or Google was held responsible for anything their users will say on their networks, how crippling will that be to innovation?

So thank you so much Mr. Ahmad Salameh for bringing this on us.

The really funny part of this is that today there was another news item about media freedoms which talked about how unfair they were and how they didn’t reflect the reality in the kingdom … OOPS

Back in April of last year there was this video showing Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nayhan torturing a grain dealer with bullets, electric prods, nailed wood boards, testicular fires, whipping and even an SUV run over and it was all caught on TAPE ! So a court in UAE finally ruled on the case.

Now its no surprise that he would haven’t been acquitted, but the defense that Issa put forward is the real story here. Apparently he was not in control of himself (I want a medical doctors opinion on that) because he was drugged by two extortionist and each of those extortionists has been sentenced for 5 years.

Now how the hell is that even logical? Did we become so careless that we even stopped bothering to polish up our lies?

Thats the same damn government that holds people in custody for carrying prescribed drug.

Anyways here’s the video, but we warned that it’s graphic!

Last night I was driving back and they started playing a song that I haven’t heard in ages on the radio, Rasputin by Boney M!

This song just brings back so many memories, cause like one of the first bands I remember liking as a kid were Boney M and ABBA (you think that would infer something ) and I still am fond of both bands bands to this day. It’s just such a joyful music that i never really paid much attention to the lyrics. This performance in the video is so hilarious and totally awesome !

But yesterday was different the lyrics were piercing and gave me a totally new appreciation to the song. Now I’m adamant about if I ever end up teaching the Russian Revolution I’ll totally let the kids listen to this song!

“But to Moscow’s chicks he was such a dear…”

Enjoy!

I was reading Anne Applebaum’s op-ed article in WaPo and fell upon this epiphany that she had:

The case of Bayrak and her ilk also suggests the need for another kind of anti-terrorism strategy. Too often, we still consider public diplomacy to be a sort of public relations activity, the “promotion” of American values. Instead, we should think about it as an argument. The Bayraks and Balawis of this world are engaged in constant debates — in Internet chat rooms, in the halls of publishing houses, in mosques. Are they hearing enough counterarguments? Are we helping the people who make the counterarguments? I suspect that they don’t and I’m certain that we aren’t — nearly a decade after Sept. 11 — and that has to change. Intellectuals may wear glasses and read books, but neither prevents them from throwing bombs — or from strapping them inside their underwear.

I have some respect for Anne but this is surprisingly naive of her to even suggest that. I was so moved by this article to the extent i was just about to pen an email to her but then i thought … meh better to rant over here instead.

“Are they hearing enough counterarguments?” The idea is not in the quantity of arguments to be made or heard by them. Those arguments are being made by many but as soon as they are labeled as foreign the whole argument would collapse since anti-western ideology doesn’t put much credence in any argument that is assisted and endorsed by their enemies.

It’s tough enough swatting the accusations of being brainwashed and manipulated by the west, it is even worse when you are labeled as a collaborator. The “innocent” suggestion of offering help will doom any counter argument.

On the other hand being a counter argument doesn’t necessitate that it would be in line with an  anti-terrorist agenda.

The topics and conversations that people like Balawi undertook were long reaching beyond a jihadists ideology that reached into all parts of social life and how Islam is integral to the heart and well being of that life. Does that mean anything? Well let me paint it in a slightly different hue, we have intellectuals in the Muslim world who are adopting creationism as ideology so that it would endow some legitimacy to science ! Evolution on the other hand didn’t even penetrate society to the extent of generating a conversation and is widely dismissed as a tool of colonial hegemony.

While its wonderful to get help of any sort but if you really want to help then make sure that there is no discernible link between the west and any of the counter arguments. The counter arguments that are being laid now, and have been laid in the past need to counter act half a century of thought that has flourished and existed on the fact that all other systems have failed.

The latest calls about infiltrating and profiling Muslims are furthering their agenda and strengthening their arguments by providing living proof that at the end that the impetus for world policy is a religious agenda rather than a purely secular one. So the best help that can be laid for people who try to provide a counter argument to the Islamists and the Jihadist is by staying away and making sure that your representatives and governments don’t adopt an anti-islamic rhetoric than only further exasperates the problem.

(more emotional that labored…. hence why it’s not a letter and is reduced to a rant)

There might be non-fans for “the Life of Brian” but the relevant part  of this video is @3:50.

There is an idea that has been percolating in my head for a while now but it still didn’t reach fruition of any sort and didn’t have the perseverance to follow it to where it might take me but that part of the video above epitomize it.

The idea of how individualistic are we? how society shapes our individualism and our perception of it and how can this process be manipulated. Sounds like a brain fart eh ?

I’m curious about how much can an individual be able to maintain a mentality that is not consistent with that of his social surrounding, and what are the mechanisms by which, over time, society narrows the gap between his personal ideology and society at large.

One of the first points that made this idea bud in my head was hearing how my parents and grand parents would talk about the urban life back in the 40’s and 50’s and pretty much all the way up into the 80’s. The picture painted of urban life back in those days is quite fascinating to me. The realities that they lived in in those days at the cosmopolitan centers of the middle east is what can only be described as a liberal and secular society that was defined by their freedoms rather than their limitations. Then learning about what they thought about life and what they did compared with their contemporary selves paints quite the contrast.

So hearing them describe some of the stuff they used to do such as going to mixed parties or wearing mini-skirts as “agendas” and “conspiracies” and how the world today is less religious and more liberal than the “good ol’ days” absolutely baffles me.

It’s even more surprising that they seem to just repeat that ethos without any inkling of realization, as if it was a subliminal message implanted in their psyche in their youth to forever progress the conservative agenda. Because when you stop them and ask them to compare things between nowadays and 1951 they will all admit how less religious and more liberal and intellectual the world was back then.

So how did they come to be that way? one of the interesting documentaries i’ve been keeping up with lately is Al Jazeera’s “the Islamists” which shines a fascinating light on the history of the movement with some anecdotal and personal memories from the early days of the movement (if it can be called as such)

That’s just one piece of the puzzle, with many others falling into place but my end game is something different, more of a mirage actually, and that is if you can recognize the elements that make a society move in one direction or another on the liberoconservative spectrum will you be able to reverse the process?

The other issue is that if society can shape an individuals ideology to what extent are we individuals? and how does it do it and can a person fight the conversion or does he need to remove himself from the environment to do so?

Regarding the last question a quick mind check of foreigners that lived in an arabic country contrasted with arabs that lived in a foreign (more specifically western) country will paint dark picture.