Thinking about Iraq

I admit to not following Iraqi politics nor the security situation there very closely. Here in Jordan there are enough politics to follow (what is the King doing, what’s happening with the innumerable subsidies – fuel, bread, fodder, why Jordan doesn’t like Syria.) But this weekend, Dan and I were both paying close attention to fighting in Iraq.

I think it is hard to follow war coverage – it all ends up sounding alike “x soldiers died, x dozens of Iraqis died” and it is all happening in different cities and at different times. And even though Iraq borders Jordan, the war is there and it is not here at all – and we have never feared that it would be here – it is not Jordan’s war.

A friend of ours has been serving this past year in Baghdad. Throughout the year, he has been in Amman many times and we got to hear when the attacks were frequent and near the embassy in Baghdad (last summer) and when things were quiet and Iraqis were heading back to markets and life inside the Green Zone was as normal as life there can be. And indeed it had been quiet in the Green (or International) Zone for several months until this weekend.

Our friend was in Amman this weekend (on his way back from R&R) and I was organizing the travel of a government official who is about to start a tour in Baghdad. We all spent the weekend tracking events in Baghdad to find out if our friend and my official would be able to travel back to Baghdad. Employees are sleeping in the embassy because it is a safer building than the temporary housing. We took our friend to the grocery store to stock up on Woolite and snacks to bring into the embassy there, since employees haven’t been allowed to return to their housing to get clean clothes.

For the past six months, a Jordanian economist who works in my office has been working in Baghdad. This weekend after a Jordanian driver who was also working in the Baghdad embassy was injured (and a contractor was killed), my colleague decided it was time to come back to Amman.

I’m not sure there is a point or epilogue to this post. But Baghdad has been in my thoughts this weekend. We wish our friend and colleagues safe travels and a safe stay.

Spring is missing

The high today and yesterday was in the 90’s. We had been told by so many people how beautiful spring in Jordan is – little did we know that Spring is also fleeting. Talking to Jordanians – they absolutely HATE the cold (cold being 50s) and much prefer 90s. It is indeed pretty out – hillsides that are brown most of the year are now green, there are some blossoming fruit trees and the geraniums in our yard have perked up some.

This weekend, we went up to Damascus and stayed with a friend who works in the Embassy there. As before, we loved Damascus’s French-influenced food and ate quiche and crepes for breakfast. Unlike before, however, our main goal on this trip was shopping and indeed we left with three beautiful rugs and placed an order for a damascene chest. Damascene furniture is very distinctive with varying amounts of inlaid mother-of-pearl and lots of carving. Pictures of all to come…

After the busy-ness of last week’s visit, I am now getting caught up on the other half of my job which is researching and writing about Jordan’s economy. I had a very fun meeting with the guy, Mr, Marwan, who is in charge of Amman’s street numbering and naming commission. He was enthusiastic about his work, which now is focused on making sure streets have one name and all buildings on the street have a single, unique number. He said when the project started the main street in Amman Zahran Street, literally had 50 buildings that were “#2 Zahran Street” because of some crazy numbering system developed by a Polish consultant in the 70s. His office has been busy installing big blue numbers on buildings and just this week they started installing green street signs on poles (they look JUST like the Sesame Street logo – except they are bi-lingual). The signs will replace the street signs that look like this that are too often on low walls behind bushes.

He said the opted for “Arabic” numbers (the kind Americans use) rather than “Hindi” numbers the kind Jordanians have historically used to help tourists out. He said they considered having both but it doubled the cost. It re-affirms my belief that in 10 years, Jordan will have entirely dropped its use of Hindi numbers – since now many businesses already use just Arabic number.

Mr Marwan admitted however that the biggest barrier to his project is the fact that NO ONE actually uses their street address and no one knows the names (and definitely not the numbers) of places that they go. I think we have mentioned before that while we have an address “7 Bor Saed,” whenever we have a party we send out a map full of landmarks (the Sheraton, a bank, a mosque) with no street names on it (we are part of the problem). We also have never had a cab ride where we could use our address instead it is always “Go to this circle. Turn right. Turn left at the bank. Turn right. Stop.”

Fistfights in Jerusalem

I had already felt like I led a good visit but to know that I can also claim "no fistfights in Amman" adds to my confidence.


March 19, 2008, 7:32 am
Frenzy During McCain Photo-Op
By Michael Cooper
JERUSALEM — Pandemonium broke out here Wednesday when Senator John McCain made the traditional pilgrimage to the Western Wall.
Photographers got into fistfights with security officials, and Mr. McCain and his traveling companions — Senator Joseph I. Lieberman and Senator Lindsey Graham — found themselves in the middle of a pushing, shoving mob of photographers, soldiers, police officers, and tourists.
There did not appear to be any injuries, but several pairs of sunglasses were damaged in the mini-melee, which drew astonished stares from an assortment of tourists and Yeshiva students.
The frenzy was set off when many photographers complained that they were unable to get the photo that the photo-op was designed for: a shot of Mr. McCain placing a note into a crack in the wall. The women photographers, who had to stand in separate area, shouted that Mr. Lieberman was blocking their shots. Many of the men were blocked by security forces and other journalists.

Earlier in the day Mr. McCain met with Tzipi Livni, the foreign. Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the Likud Party, who praised Mr. McCain for recognizing the threat posed by Iran. Mr. McCain said that he telephoned Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
The scene at the Wall took on a surreal feel at time. One man, dressed all in white, shouted several times in accented English to no one in particular: “The next president of the United States, Mr. John McCain.” Later, when Mr. McCain emerged from a tour of the tunnels that go toward the old city, another onlooker shouted, “Imus sends his regards!”
“Imus?” Mr. McCain said, laughing.

Me and Senator McCain

Dan and I joined the Foreign Service as a way to see cool stuff and other countries without the unpleasantness of the Peace Corps. That goal has been met in spades – we have had great fun touring Jordan and Duffy got to fly in a helicopter and ride in motorcades. Dan has made friends with people at the Jordan-Israel border crossing and knows a lot of prison wardens – which hasn’t come in handy yet but may.

In the long list of cool things that have happened since coming to Jordan, I was in charge of Senator McCain’s visit to Jordan yesterday. He was GREAT! Unbelievably funny and smart and accompanied by the equally likable Senators Lieberman and Graham. His visit also meant I got to see (but alas not meet) the King and Queen at their palace. Yes she really is very, very pretty.
Here’s me and Senator McCain at the hotel.

Here is a shot from the press conference that colleagues and I organized. During the few days between when his visit to Jordan was announced and his arrival, media interest in his trip grew and the number of journalists and cameramen in attendance jumped from an estimated 15 to about 50. Unfortunately US coverage focused on his mis-speaking - Jordanian coverage focused on the fact that he met with the King.

Daylight Savings Time

Jordan's daylight savings time doesn't start until the end of March so for the next couple of weeks we are only 6 hours ahead of DC. Last week, we also received a memo at work that said that Iraq will not be observing daylight savings time this year. It makes you wonder if with everything that is happening there daylight savings time seemed like too much of a hassle.

Aqaba and a Weekend Update

Aqaba - Jordan's only beach town (I don't think the Dead Sea counts because the Dead Sea is weird.)

I strongly recommend that everyone have work trips to beach towns. Last week, I went to Aqaba, which although still a pretty small place (population 90,000) is the site of a lot of investment. There are currently two large hotels (I stayed at the Intercontinental) – but another hotel is scheduled to open soon (they just need to remove the ship that got beached on its beach during a freak windstorm). Many more hotels are scheduled to open in the next few years but it will still be very small relative to Eilat which is quite literally right next door. After Aqaba, I went up to Wadi Rum, a desert national park where I joined a ceremony to honor locals who have taken some tourism classes (food handling, English, etc.) My picture was taken many times as I was given a tour of the handicraft shops run by local women’s cooperatives. Unfortunately, I can't find it actually posted anywhere.

I just had a minute to get caught up reading Megan’s blog and she included a description of what her weekend was like. It was exhausting. Here I will include our weekend as a comparison to show how easy life without children can be – okay easy for me – Dan keeps working a lot.

Thursday night – I (Duffy) get back from Aqaba. We have dinner at the Embassy “club.” Dan has the tuna melt and I had chicken wings. Thursday night is called “steak night” but it took me a while to realize – “the steaks are bad – why do we keep ordering them?” Dan had to go meet some people at the airport so he left and I stayed at the club chatting with colleagues and drinking the only cheap beer in the country (Jordan has a 300% tax on alcohol).

Friday - Dan goes to work for a few hours. Duffy attempts to make bagels. The resulting bread product tastes like a bagel – it is chewy and yummy but it doesn’t stay in a circle – so they become crescents – which is perhaps appropriate for bagels made in a Muslim country. Friday night we go to a friends’ house for dinner and afterwards we go home to discover that our neighbor in the building is having a party. There is music blaring – there are flashing purple, green and yellow lights but there are seemingly no guests. We can see into their yard from our balcony and there is no one there – they did put their typically noisy German shepherd away but the volume of the music forces us to sleep in the guest room. No doubt our maid Molly will think we are sleeping in separate beds.

Saturday – We sleep in. Eat bagels for breakfast (they are not nearly as delicious the second day). We watched a mediocre movie “Death at a Funeral” and got caught up on American Idol, which we are taping off of our AFN box. We both really like Jason. Dan also likes Michael – I think Michael is too old. We keep talking about switching to non-US military satellite television so that our Arabic will get better but then we couldn’t watch American Idol. We go out to a new coffee shop and I have strawberry juice and Dan has a banana milkshake. We read in the afternoon (Dan – a Thomas Friedman book about Lebanon; Duffy “Predictably Irrational” – a good Freakanomics knock-off). We go to other friends’ house for dinner – they are moving out of Jordan soon and want us to take their cheap champagne glasses (since they have to pay for their shipping and they have had to drink champagne out of white wine glasses at our last party because the champagne cocktails were popular and we probably had 40 guests.)

Castles in the Desert

Weekend at the Oasis

Dan here. The cold of winter is finally over, so we better hurry to see some desert castles before the oppressive summer heat arrives. This weekend, we drove to Eastern Jordan, taking all of the "this way to Iraq" highway exits, ending up in the Azraq Oasis, home to an ever-shrinking oasis, and Qasr Azraq, a 2000-year-old fortress that was home to Lawrence of Arabia for a time. I always try to maintain a poker face when tour guides mention Lawrence. Surely his presence helps market the castle, but many in the Middle East regard Lawrence as a duplicitous glory hog, yet another white man who organized the bumbling savages. I am concerned that showing undue interest is expected, and perceived (silently, with a gracious smile) as insulting.

Footpath through the reeds at a nearby wetlands conservation park

Duffy is really fond of this scraggly tree amongst the reeds

Some of the wetland footpath is actually a thousand-year-old Umayyad wall

Stables at Qasr Azraq

"Lawrence slept here" Duffy in the upstairs room where Lawrence stayed in 1917

From last week's trek to Umm Al Rasas

Some cleanup is needed before this UNESCO World Heritage Site is ready for prime time

Mysterious square tower at Umm Al Rasas, topped by living room with windows, but without stairs inside or out. Heavily damaged by earthquakes, we did not ascend the scaffolding, despite invitation from a freelance (not apparently licensed) tour guide.