So last week I went up to the norther Badia (semi-desert) area near the town of Mafraq to speak to a couple of charity programs there. This is one of the poorest areas of Jordan, and is a stark contrast to Um Uthayna, abdoun, and shmeisani which are the wealthy residential and embassy districts of Amman where I live and spend much of my time. There are few jobs in the northern badia, and many towns there used to rely on income from smuggling various goods, such as cigarettes and goats across the nearby border with Iraq. Since the occupation, however, the border has been closed, and that sort of informal economic activity has mostly stopped. Now, in the words of one woman I spoke to, there are no more opportunities, only dust and poverty. That woman lives in a housing project built by Islamic Relief about 15 years ago. What started out as a charitable endeavor has turned into an investment, since the company hired to build the apartment complex took the IR money, built the project, and then (presumably w/o Islamic Relief's knowledge) started charging the poorest of the poor (who moved in with a promise of free housing) rent and/or bogus maintenance fees. It was an interesting example that not all of the charitable sectors woes in Jordan can be blamed on oppressive US financial policies. Bad management, both malicious and simple incompetence, plagues many projects. Another example is the 10 million JDs (about 14 million USD) the National Aid Fund has invested in micro-finance projects in recent years. The vast majority (something like 96%) of these projects have failed due to lack of training/management skills. For these poorest people of Jordan, many families live on the income generated by, for example, one son who landed a job in the army, or on direct cash assistance from NAF, which does little to change the overall situation and doesn't provide any incentive for people to try to change that situation themselves.

So, mom, remember how I had initially been thinking about doing my ISP on Iraqi refugee children recently admitted by Royal decree into the public school system? for anyone who doesn't know, these refugee children have been allowed to enter the education system here regardless of legal status, putting a further strain on Jordan's overtaxed education systems. I was interested in seeing how they adapted, and what quality of education their are receiving. However, a friend from the program was interested in a similar topic, so I let him have it, as there were plenty of other fascinating things to study. Well it turns out that was a good decision, because after a couple of weeks of constantly dealing with bureaucracy, and waiting for approval, it became clear that the Government, specifically the ministry of education, was not keen on his project, and had decided not to to let it happen. As such, he was forced to switch topics and try to get his research done in the remaining two weeks. I actually ran into similar problems, and was told by the ministry of social development that I could not speak to government employees. I have made do with simply talking to Charities (I am studying the impact of the financial war on terror on charity work in Jordan). That has largely been sufficient, and I have been able to glean the government positions from other sources. That said, it has been an interesting experience of the challenges of field research.

So today is election day in Amman. These are the parliamentary elections, and the city is Abuzz with the excitement of democracy in action. Well sort of. There are so many candidates to choose from, and despite that each person has multiple representatives from their district, Jordan still used a 1 person 1 vote policy. This means that depending on the number of representatives per district, the power of any one persons vote is not equal to someone else in another district, a policy instituted (?) years ago to limit the power of the IAF (the political wing of the muslim brotherhood, and then only real opposition here in Jordan.) The IAF candidates have also been pre-approved by the government, and its number of seats limited to 20. (out of 110 i think). additionally, while voter turnout is said to be 50%, only about 10% of people vote for a candidate based on competence or platform, the rest vote primarily along the strong existing tribal ties, or for whichever candidate will give them 10 JD (about 14 dollars) for their support. This bribing is very open, and according to my friend who was at a polling station today, the money is openly exchanged, while the police do nothing, despite complaints by opposition party campaign workers. I was in a cab yesterday on the way to raghadan bus station (I spent yesterday up north doing research and interviews) and asked the driver about the elections. When i asked if he was planning on voting, he laughed and said "tomorrow is a day for sleep," referring to the fact that election day is also a holiday when few people work. Democracy in Action...

So it has been a busy week. Somehow I thought that ISP period would be way easier than normal classes, that i could just work at my own pace at something i am interested in. Instead, this whole unstructured time thing is harder than i thought. Jordanian hospitality, that turns even a simple introductory visit into a tea/coffee drinking extended conversation about just about anything turns what in the US could be a straight to the point interview into a 3 hour visit. While in the US we admire being to the point and going straight at an issue, here things are very different. First, if you want to get anything useful, it is important to develop a personal relationship and knowledge about the other person, in order to build trust. Hence, before i can get to my actual research subject, i usually know if the interviewee is married, if he has children, what tribe he is from, (or of palestinian descent) and vice versa. To go immediately to the topic would be the height of rudeness, and would get me nowhere. Another issue is that the Jordanian bureaucracy is incredibly cumberous. For example, I need a approval letter from the ministry of Social Development before i go on a trip north to speak with a couple Islamic Charities near Mafraq and in Irbid. It seems like a simple request, but at the earliest i will have the letter approved on Sunday, meaning something that was initially supposed to be taken care of with one quick visit has taken a week, which will be less time eventually to compile and analyze. So sorry, I'm done complaining. And all that aside, it is exciting to be working independently and setting up meetings and interviews, occasionally with very important people, some of whom have had a real impact on the course of this countries history.

Apologies for this recent hiatus in blog posts. We have been traveling alot to egypt and southern jordan in the last few weeks, and have until today been overwhelmed with arabic finals and presentations. Now, alhumdulilah all that is finished, and classes as such are over. Now we have a month of research ahead of us on our individual study projects. I specifically am looking at Islamic Charities in Jordan, specifically focusing on the impact of the War on Terror on those charities. According to my limited research, the oversight by the CIA and other american intelligence organizations has deeply effected the ability of Islamic NGOs operating in Jordan, as it as dried up much of the money that used to come from the Gulf (There was also an intersting court ruling back home recently on this issue) I have found an excellent advisor who works for a government program and seems to know everybody I need to interview. Now that classes are over, i will have enough time to start focusing on contributing to this blog regularly Inshallah. There is much still to write about.

So we are in Cairo for a week at the moment, doing lots of touristy things and generally having a bit of a break from work. We have seen the pyramids, mosques aplenty etc, but perhaps the most effecting experience was what we did today on our day off. A few of us took a cab to the city of the dead. It is an ancient cemetery that has become a city in and of itself, a part of cairo, yet very separate. The whole area is surrounded by high walls, and the people live among the graves, using the mosaleums as houses and the graves as tables. Cairo has a huge housing problem, one that is only growing as the population of 17 million grows, about a million of whom live in the city of the dead, called in arabic muqabara, meaning simply the cemetery. These are the poorest who have been pushed out even of cairo's other slums. That said, we felt very safe throughout our meandering walk. IT was even a welcome break from the constant and overpowering hassling from vendors and locals marketing just about everything that you find in the touristy sections of Cairo like Khan alkhalil. We were the only westerners around, and while the was a couple times when children followed us asking for money quite vociferously, they were often shooed away by the adults, who as often as not had a smile and a sabah alkhaier (good morning) (and unlike the rest of Cairo, not followed by some wily marketing scheme.) As we walked out, a driver pulled over and gave us a brief but heartfelt rant about how the rest of Cairenes and he governement don't know or care about this place, and he described it as a habs. We thought he was saying bread at first (hobz) and were confused, but realized later that habs meant prison.

I just got home from going to a mosque for evening prayer. We went with a friend of one of our Arabic teachers, as well as one of the home stay brothers of two of the guys from our group. We entered the mosque, having removed our shoes, and went downstairs to perform the ablution (cleaning ritual) that is required before going to pray, which basically consists of washing hands, face, arms, ears and feet three times each. Then we went back upstairs and sat in the back of the prayer room. It was quite beautiful, with high domed ceiling encircled with the 99 names of God and beneath that were elaborate, calligraphic verses of the Qur’an. Everyone prays towards the Mihrab, the ornate niche on the southern wall that faces Mecca, though of course we simply watched. The Imam is apparently a very good one, and his recitations were beautiful and full of emotion. At one point he broke down very briefly before continuing. After prayer we stayed a while and discussed the process and meanings of prayer with our two Muslim friends who brought us there, as well as chatting with the friendly, curious, and of course eminently hospitable Jordanians who came over to welcome the American visitors to their mosque (we don’t blend in very well.) This mirrors just about all of my experience with Jordanians, who, while they have deep, sincere beliefs and arguments, particularly with regards to american and Israeli government policies, are very eager to discuss the issues with us. And the idea that those policies, which have without a doubt caused hardship for the Jordanian people (60% of whom are Palestinian) who used to get 75% of their oil for free from Saddam should be an obstacle for friendship on an individual level is extremely rare, even towards the members of our group who are also US Marines.