Odd article in N Y Times on Jordan

This article was in the NYTimes yesterday. It seems like an advertisement for expatriates to come live in Jordan. It seemed a little weird to me - since it contained no news and wasn't really a travel article. In a testament to how small Amman is - we know one of the people quoted.


In Jordan, a Blend of Cultures
By JON GORVETT
AMMAN, Jordan

With Iraq to the east, Syria to the north, Israel to the west and Saudi Arabia to the south, Jordan is in the eye of the Middle Eastern storm. Despite its proximity to conflict, Amman, the capital, is a very peaceful place where people come to do business, leaving their disputes at the border.
“It’s a very livable city,” said Robert Pingeon, a New Yorker who moved to Amman in 2006 with his wife, Emily Lodge. Both work for an energy consultancy that has projects in Iraq and throughout the Middle East.

“The climate is wonderful,” Mr. Pingeon said. “It’s one of the highest cities in the Middle East, making it cooler during summer. It’s also a great place to get to other places — Beirut, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv — they’re all only a short distance away.”
Ms. Lodge, who is originally from Boston, agreed. “The beauty of the desert and the archaeological sites around here is exceptional,” she said. “There’s also a great generosity and openness about the people.” The city is close to archaeological destinations like the “rose-red city” of Petra and the well-preserved Roman compound of Jerash.

The couple own a 310-square-meter (3,337-square-foot) apartment, which also has a 60-square-meter (645-square-foot) penthouse one floor up. Its 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) terrace has a panoramic view of the city from three sides of the building. “It’s like the Fourth of July up here most nights,” Mr. Pingeon said, “as you can see fireworks going off all over Amman for weddings and celebrations.”

The apartment has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with an additional bedroom and bath in the penthouse.

The Jordanian capital spreads out across a series of hills. In the past few years many new buildings have increased the height of the skyline, although there are still very few skyscrapers in this city of around 1.2 million inhabitants.

At its core is the Citadel, which has a Roman temple and amphitheater, surrounded by Ottoman-era stone houses. Farther out, a series of numbered traffic circles are used to define neighborhoods. The city also has eastern and western districts, the latter being the more affluent.

The staff members of embassies, aid groups and international and nongovernment organizations own or rent much of Amman’s housing. With many neighboring countries considered unsafe or politically sensitive, Amman is the natural place for the United Nations, the Red Cross/Red Crescent and many other aid groups and international organizations to put their regional headquarters. The United States maintains one of its largest embassies here. In addition, Amman’s reputation as a safe haven is attracting many Palestinian, and now Iraqi, refugees.
Foreigners are allowed to buy property in Jordan if the internal security department gives permission, which generally is not difficult for Westerners to obtain. However, a law designed to discourage speculation prohibits resale for the first three years of ownership.

Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s apartment is close to the Fourth Circle and the Abdoun district of West Amman, which is popular among diplomats and expatriate executives as well as locals. (Other such areas include Jebal Amman and Dabouq.)

Residential sales prices in all areas of the city increased in the last few years. According to Nirvana Ilich, head of rentals for Abdoun Real Estate, a leading property agency, “a 200-square-meter apartment in Abdoun, which was selling for 500 Jordanian dinars a square meter two years ago, would now go for at least 1,000 dinars a square meter.” (A dollar is worth dinars.) A 2,152-square-foot apartment, which sold for $66.45 per square foot two years ago, would now sell for twice that amount. Apartments like Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge’s could sell for 500,000 dinars, or $710,732, she said.

“Rentals, too, have shot up,” Ms. Ilich added. “In fact, many foreigners are starting to buy here because the rentals are so high.” A 100-square-meter (1,076-square-foot) apartment she recently rented out near the American Embassy in Abdoun went for about $1,500 a month, she said. (Higher-end apartments are often priced in dollars.)

The blend of cultures has contributed greatly to the city’s artistic scene — something that was a help when Mr. Pingeon and Ms. Lodge began decorating their apartment. In relying on local artists and designers, they created a home that combines a wide range of influences.
“In Amman, we are at a crossroads,” Ms. Lodge said. “We are in the Middle East, between the Mediterranean and Indian worlds, the African and Asian. This has been a meeting place of cultures since before the Bible.”

The apartment reflects that idea. In its large entrance hall, Fortuny silk lampshades from Italy cast light on Persian carpets. There are chairs made from wooden wheat threshers by a local Palestinian designer; there are Iraqi fabrics, Western color schemes and modernist furniture, all blending together.

There is a similar mix in the home of Adnan Habboo and Aysar Akrawi, an Iraqi-American couple who live in a 557-square meter (6,000-square-foot) apartment, also near the Fourth Circle, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms.

In their living room, a finely worked Hand of Fatima, a Muslim symbol, stands next to a statuette inscribed with sacred Jewish texts. In another corner is a Syrian painting of the Virgin and Child with the names of Muslim prophets inscribed in its corners.

“If someone asked me about moving to Amman, I’d say don’t hesitate,” Mr. Habboo said. “Don’t give it a moment’s thought. It’s a place that gives you a beautiful blend of tradition and more liberal cosmopolitanism.”

Mr. Habboo and Ms. Akrawi both grew up in Baghdad, leaving Iraq in 1974 and eventually moving to the United States, where they lived in Chicago and New York. Their daughter is still in New York, working for National Geographic magazine.

Both of them are staunch supporters of monarchy, the Jordanian form of government. “It gives the country an extra degree of political stability,” Mr. Habboo said, referring to King Abdullah, whose government is friendly to the West and to other Arab nations.

Most expatriates in Amman say fears about political stability and security in the Arab world seem very exaggerated when it comes to Jordan. “I actually think it’s very safe here,” said Barbara Porter, director of the American Center of Oriental Research, who has lived in the region for many years.

“As a woman too, I’ve felt totally accepted here from the beginning,” Ms. Porter said. “There are many women in positions of power in Jordan, too. I haven’t encountered any problems for being an American here either.”

Yet life in Amman isn’t without its difficulties. “All of Jordan has a problem with scarce water,” Mr. Habboo said. “Each district of the city has water piped in once a week, which you learn to live with, storing it for use on the other days.”

Sometimes the city can be a shade too tranquil. “The most common complaint about Amman from Westerners is that it’s dull,” Ms. Akrawi said. “They say it’s too quiet. I’d say that while Lebanon might be the Italy of the Middle East, Jordan is the Switzerland. Yet that is changing, too, and there are many more clubs and nightlife spots these days.”

Still, “as an American working with Arabs in the Arab world, it is a wonderful experience living here,” said Ms. Lodge, who is a granddaughter of the war-era United States ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. “Given its history and mix, it is a place with multiple layers of meaning, where people are respectful of different faiths. When you look at it closely, at the crossroads, you can see a common heritage reflected here, rather than a place of differences.”