JORDAN: As hunger increases, so does anger

Hunger ate away at his pride and honor.

Abdullah Eid Hadid, 74, has found that his retirement salary isn't nearly enough to make ends meet in these hard times, especially not in Jordan, where prices are skyrocketing.

"In 2007, we suffered," he said, the creases of age surrounding his eyes like cracks in the desert. "But 2008 is breaking our back. This country is becoming like an ocean. The big fish are eating the little fish."

The anger was palpable among all those interviewed for today's front-page article about how food prices were fueling resentment and extremism in the Middle East as well as undermining U.S. goals for the region. But Hadid's story was perhaps the saddest. He'd given his life and youth to protect Jordan as a policeman and a soldier, first donning a military uniform at age 14. He defended his country during its wars of the past decades.

JORDAN: Country for sale?

 

Some Jordanians are steaming mad over plans to sell off huge swaths of the country to private investors abroad.

On Sunday the Jordanian government announced plans to sell its Red Sea port of Aqaba to a group of United Arab Emirates investors for $5 billion. The government is also selling the King Hussein Hospital and its surrounding properties for $2 billion to the Emirates. The capital of Amman also plans to sell a large piece of property in the heart of the city to a Lebanese bigwig for $1.5 billion.

The government says it's trimming down in an era of smaller government. But critics say these deals lack transparency and that the government is raking in dough it will never share with ordinary Jordanians, who are feeling the crush of rising fuel and food costs.

Making matters worse, the property sell-offs are to foreigners (albeit fellow Arabs). 

Zaki Bani Rsheid, the outspoken leader of the opposition Islamic Action Front, said an earful about the situation to AFP:

These projects are not designed to benefit the poor, but only wealthy and influential Jordanians, People's patience has limits, and I think that in the coming days there will be an explosion, a very big explosion, and nobody can predict its repercussions and/or results.

— Borzou Daragahi in Beirut

Photo: The Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

JORDAN: Queen Rania on YouTube quest

Queen Rania, the glamorous monarch of Jordan, is trying to become the queen of YouTube.

She’s using the video website to reach out people around the world. Last week, she launched a black and white video on YouTube asking young people to join in a global dialogue to dismantle misconceptions about Muslims and the Arab world.

"In a world where it's so easy to connect to one another, we still remain very much disconnected. There's a whole world of wonder out there that we cannot appreciate with stereotypes," the queen says in the video, below.

In the video, Rania urges the viewers to send her their opinions and the stereotypes they hold about Arabs and Muslims. She said she wants people "to know the real Arab world unedited, unscripted and unfiltered."

JORDAN: Guns galore at Middle East weapons fair

The specter of conflicts in the Middle East intensifying and widening worries many countries in the region. But some Arab nations are showing a growing interest in acquiring or selling sophisticated weapons as suggested by the wide participation in an international exhibition for military hardware, held in Jordan over the last few days.

The event, Special Operations Forces Exhibition and Conference (SOFEX) 2008 was a muscular display of tanks, armored vehicles, high-tech surveillance equipment, gunboats, machine guns, etc.

Check out the first minute or two of the promotional video for the event and you'll get the idea.

MIDDLE EAST: McCain stumbles in Amman

Sen. John McCain has long presented himself as a seasoned statesman and foreign policy expert, someone with the wisdom and experience to guide the U.S. through troubled times.

That's why the media and his rivals pounced on him when he got a fundamental question regarding the violence in Iraq wrong.

McCain, standing before the Roman ruins in the Jordanian capital, said Iran was training and equipping Al Qaeda militants wreaking havoc in Iraq:

Well, it’s common knowledge and has been reported in the media that Al Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran. That’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.

The U.S. military accuses Iran, a country of Shiite Persians, of supporting fellow Shiite groups in Iraq. Sunni Arab Al Qaeda fighters mostly come from U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, underscoring the complex overlays of violence and politics that bedevil an easy solution to the Iraq conflict. After Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman whispered in his ear, McCain corrected himself.

SYRIA: Avoiding an Arab League fiasco

Once again, Syria is proving to be the "black sheep" of the Arab world.

After years of waiting, it's finally Damascus' turn to shine as host of the annual Arab League Summit. But now come worries that Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and Jordan, might ruin the party.

The so-called "moderate Arab states," backed by the U.S., want to punish Syria for trying to regain control over its smaller neighbor, Lebanon. For the past three months, Saudis have blamed Syrians for repeatedly blocking the election of a Lebanese president.

MIDDLE EAST: No place for preaching

The Muslim Middle East tolerates religious minorities practicing their rituals to some extent. But the tolerance doesn't extend to  so-called "infidels" attempting to convert "good Muslims"  to another faith. Missionary activities are illegal in many Muslim countries, as illustrated by several recent controversies.

In Jordan, last week, authorities expelled a group of Christians accused of trying to convert  Bedouins from Islam. The eight foreign missionaries were allegedly distributing fliers that promote Christianity and were acting under the cover of charity work.

This comes amid reports by Compass Direct News, an organization that documents the persecution of Christians in the world, that Jordan has deported expatriate Christian families over the last year partly for "working with local churches or studying at a Christian seminary." The kingdom has dismissed these reports as unfounded.

In Algeria, a Catholic priest was sentenced to a year in prison a few weeks ago. He was accused of praying with a group of Cameroonian immigrants outside an institution authorized for religious worship. The sentence, which was later suspended, came under a 2-year-old law prohibiting proselytizing, which is viewed by authorities as a growing threat.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: Palestinian Christians pray during a mass service at the Latin Holy Family Church in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Credit: AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen

Winter weather in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, etc.

For once, it isn't just terrorist attacks and political intrigue making headlines in the Middle East, but a subject everybody can relate to: the weather. The whole area seems to be more at the mercy of a rare snowstorm than any political crisis.

In Jerusalem, the snowy weather almost overshadowed a government report on Israel's 2006 war on Lebanon. Large parts of the Holy City were covered in white, causing schools and stores to shut and children to engage in snowball fights. Public transportation was grounded.

In Amman, even adults gave in to the rare pleasure of pelting each other with snowballs after almost a foot of snow blanketed the city. Here, too, vital business also came to a standstill. News reports said that flights were grounded for a few hours Thursday at the Jordanian capital's international airport, where de-icing machines worked frantically to clear planes for takeoff.

Lebanon's central areas were cut off from its coastal cities. Snow blocked roads leading to the Bekaa Valley and covered most of the country's mountain villages. The snowstorm crippled an already poorly performing power system, increasing the long hours of electricity outtages in many areas.

The mountains surrounding Damascus were also blanketed in snow and many roads in Syria's rural areas were blocked.

— Raed Rafei in Beirut

Photo: A Syrian family enjoys the snowfall in the capital, Damascus. A wave of cold weather and snow storms is hitting the Middle East, closing mountain roads and hindering traffic in some regions in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. Credit: LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images

JORDAN: Islamists lose elections

Preliminary results from Jordan's elections Tuesday showed Islamists losing more than half of their parliamentary seats and those aligned with King Abdullah II winning big, according to Reuters.

The results were no big surprise for most observers, who saw the election as rigged to give the king's secular and Islamic opponents, like the Islamic Action Front, little chance at mounting a credible opposition. The Front's total dropped from the 17 seats it won in 2003 to seven.

The big loss for the Islamic Action Front comes as the party split between hard-liners who wanted to boycott the election altogether and moderates who wanted to give it a chance. The results may boost the hardline position.