Petra!

July 21st was the birthday of Micah and Nathan my two oldest sons, and my first visit to Petra. I wish that they could have been there with me to explore this fascinating place. Petra is an unbelievable site. It is large and difficult to explore, but worth the effort.


At the entrance one is greeted by three kings. :-)




There is some commercialism outside of the entrance since the movie from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was filmed there.



http://www.indianajones.de/indy3/texte/petra.php Use your cursor to move 360 degrees around the entrance near the Treasury.






The Treasury appears at the entrance. It is stunning in size and design.


Explanation of Petra by Chris Tuttle by clicking the above link - Petra

Trip to Tafila Technical University and Wadi Dana Reserve

On the 19th, we took a trip South to Tafilia University where we met with the President. Late that afternoon we moved on to Wadi Dana reserve to spend the night and visit the village. Tafila is only 1 1/2 years old as a university. It was previously a community college, but has been upgraded to a four-year school as part of the nation's efforts to upgrade the educational level of its citizens. The president, Dr. Sultan Abu-Orabi, mentioned that he might be visiting Austin to visit with friends, and I invited him to visit St. Edward's. He is a graduate of the Univesity of Michigan in Chemistry.






We next visited Wadi Dana village a very scenic area in the Wadi Dana reserve. This picture from the village showed the herding of goats through the town's center.

Jerash, Ajloun Castle, and Reserve

July 19th marked a trip to Jerash http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerash and Ajloun Castle http://nabataea.net/ajloun.html. Jerash is one of the best sites of the Roman Empire that remain. This is picture of the central columns.







These columns avoided the fate of many ancient ruins that were destroyed by earthquakes because their design allows them to float and move. There were many ruins in Jordan that were destroyed by earthquakes around 740 C.E. The fingers here show that the columns are constantly in motion by the wind or even our pushing on them.





The view from Aljoun Castle.

Educational System and QIZ

On the 18th, we had a presentation by Zohre Allawzi and Hayat Al-Bow on the educational system in Jordan. Jordanian education is dominated by the Jordanian Secondary School Certificate Examination (Tawjihi). The Tawjihi is extremely stress producing because it determines what colleges you may attend and what majors you may take. Engineering is considered the highest level, so many students who score highest are tracked into engineering whether they are interested or not. There is tremendous family and social pressure to do well on the Tawjihi. The exam has been criticized because of the pressure it produces, and its emphasis on memorization. Critical thinking is not part of the equation.
The education is extremely centralized. There is an effort by the Jordaian Education Initiative to improve the system. Colleges have only existed in Jordan since the 1960s. They have relied over the years to sending their students overseas. King Hussein and King Abdullah were both educated in England.

We visited a textile factory that was participating in a Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ). It made suits and clothing for many global corporations, such as, Lands End, Hagar, etc. The factory that we visited was El Zay. www.elzay.com

July 17th Lectures

After a brief discussion of colloquial Arabic, we had lectures from several experts in the areas of Human Rights in Jordan, Iraq, and environmental issues. We began with a presentation by H.E. Shaher Bak on Human Rights. He served 46 years in the Jordanian government including ambassador to Spain. He is now director of the National Centre of Human Rights http://www.nchr.org.jo/ They serve as sort of an ombudsman and auditor of human rights for Jordan. They receive complaints, investigate, and lobby for change. They have taken positions to raise civil rights, political rights, economic, social, and cultural rights. A person can be arrested on the suspicion that they might commit a crime. They are trying to outlaw the use of torture. When I asked if press reports about the use of Jordan for rendition of suspected terrorists from the United States were accurate, he said that they had heard the reports, but they have been unable to verify or deny them.

Dr. Nawal El Tell made a most interesting presentation about the Impact of Iraq War on Jordan. Iraq and Jordan developed a state of interdependency which had helped the economy of both countries. Jordan received Iraqi oil since it does not have any. Iraq was Jordan's most reliable ally in the region since both had Suni leadership and Iraq was a counter to Iran. It is important to Jordan that a united sovereign Iraq comes out of the current situation. It needs to be moderate and tolerant of both shiia and sunni factions. There are estimated to be about 1 million Iraqis in Jordan. They are mostly those with money. They have impacted real estate prices in Jordan by doubling them in the last three years. There are security concerns for Jordan, and they are not allowing Iraqis between the ages of 18-35.
The Arab system collapsed after Kuwait invasion and is very weak. Syria is weak militarily. This has allowed Iran to interfere. The elections in Iraq actually split people rather than unified them. To stabilize Iraq ten times the number of troops are needed. After the decision to invade, the biggest mistake was to disband the Iraqi army. The army was integrated with both Shiia and Sunis. The structure of the army had them working together and unifying the country.
Surveys of Jordan people indicate that most people believe that cause of the war was first Israel and second oil. http://www.css-jordan.org/

Yehya Khalid gave us an overview of environmental issues in Jordan. Jordan is kind of a melting pot of species from three continents. The Rift Valley is a major bird migratory route. The overwhelming environmental issue for Jordan is water. It is in the top ten poorest countries in terms of water. There is a plan to create a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea which environmentalist seem to be very skeptical of its wisdom. There are many conflicts on the use of the Jordan River between Israel and Jordan. It sounds similar to the U.S.-Mexico disputes over the Rio Grande.
In December, they will create an environmental police force which is something that has been contemplated in Texas.

Lectures & Excursion July 16

July 16th began with Arabic lesson and lectures on USAID assistance in Jordan and a youth and women's program. USAID assistance is governed by priorities set Washington. It also is not very efficient because it requires that items and purchases be made through U.S. companies. This results in a U.S. company getting the funds who in turn hires Jordanians to do work. The U.S. company then is an overhead cost as a middle man. In contrast money sent to Israel has no strings attached as to what are the priorties. Israel can use the money to strengthen the Israeli companies and the Israeli economy directly. The difference on this issue may be explained by a recent article by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/mear01_.html.

In the afternoon, we visited the University of Balqaa in Salt. They showed us an impressive display of Arab and Islamic art.

This is a huge reproduction of a beautiful piece from a Jerusleum mosque that had been destroyed by fire. The picture does not do it justice in terms of scale or detailed work. It is put together without any fasteners or glue.

Visit to the Al Khatib Family

On July 14th, we were assigned to visit with the family we had met at the earlier BBQ. Lil and I visited the Al Khatib family. Walid and his son, Mohammed picked us up at the hotel, and took us to their home on Friday afternoon. The family has had experience with Americans serving as a host family for American and Dutch foreign exchange students.

From left: me, Amar, Tamara, Mohammed, and Walid

Amar is a retired school counselor. Tamara just graduated with her bachelor's degree in accounting. Mohammed is an energetic 15 year old with a great sense of humor. Walid is an agricultural engineer who works for the Jordanian government.


They served us some wonderful Arabic food and answered our questions about their family. They have a wonderful apartment with a nice balconey. We smoked the argeela pipe.
Mohammed watches a lot of American movies on television. He had watched five movies on the day we visited.



Mohammed and Tamara pose. She had recently gone through graduation. She had a slumber party the night before with much singing and dancing.

This is a very warm family who are fun to be with. They laugh often with affection for each other.

Mt. Nebo, Madaba, & Dead Sea

On July 13th, we set off to the East. Our first stop was Mt. Nebo.
This a crucifix at Mt. Nebo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nebo_(Jordan)

We visited a workshop in Madaba that makes mosaics.

The famous map from St. George's Church in Madaba. This church was built on top of a Byzantinian church. The mosaic was a very accurate layout of the known world of the time.

http://www.atlastours.net/jordan/madaba_map.html

We move on to the Dead Sea from Madaba.

This is the view of the Dead Sea from the newly constructed Dea Sea Panoram Museum. It is 800-900 meters above sea level. The Dead Sea is 400 meters below sea level.

No one needs a float or life preserver on the Dead Sea.

Mukaiwer, Um Al Rassas, and Kurak

On July 12th, we set out for Mukaiwer by bus. This picture was taken at our stop with the Dead Sea in the distant background. This site was a Roman on the top of a hill/mountain.

From the left: Julie, Rana, Efrain, Lil, Me, Cindy, Jane, Will, Paul, Matt, and Darren. A great group of people from coast to coast and Puerto Rico.







We next moved to Um Al Rassas which was a large site that has been partially unearthed. The ruins of Um Al-Rassas lie near the Kings' Highway, 30 kilometers south east of Madaba, in a barren desert, no longer the lush fertile terrain it was during the Roman rule, as described by the Jewish historian of the time, Josephus. The biblical name of this town, Kastron Mepha'at, is mentioned in Joshua 13:18 and in Jeremiah 48:21.
The Roman fortress, originally a Nabatean city, is a square walled town with very high walls supported by towers. A 15-meter tower stands in the middle and has generated a much speculation on the purpose it served. http://www.jordanbeauty.com/UmAlrassas.html
The site had been destroyed by the earthquake from around 740 C.E. There were some beautiful mosaics found inside from an old Byztine church.




These Mosaics were very large and intricate telling about the times with elaborate symbolism.

Our next stop was Karak Castle. It was one of the Crusader castles. http://www.vkrp.org/studies/historical/town-castle/ The castles symbolize to Arabs from the area the violence and massacres carried out by the crusaders. The crusaders when they conqueored a town would kill everyone including children sometimes by decapitating everyone. To them an Arab life was worth less than a Christian's life. Some think they see parallels in Lebanon when one Israeli soldier is killed the response is that 100 Arabs must die. The legacy of the crusades is why there was such an uproar when President Bush talked of his invasion of Iraq as a crusade.

The castle is located on top of a mountain peak with deep valleys on all sides. There was a moat and drawbridge.

This shows how steep the sides the castle were for anyone approaching.

This country has a lot of police. This one specializes in policing tourists outside of Kurak.

The Signs of War

An Israeli girl on Monday writes a 'message’ in Hebrew on shells ready to be fired by mobile artillery unit towards Lebanon (AP photo by Sebastian Scheiner)

From Jordan Times 7-18-06

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/index.htm

Baqa’a Refugee Camp

There are ten refugee camps in Jordan. We visited one in Amman named Baqa'a. Statistics about the camp are contained at http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan/baqaa.html These stats show 80,000+ The camp director reported 90,000, but the numbers are difficult because of the flow of people in and out, and a number of people are classified as displaced persons who aren't refugees. Displaced persons are those people who have escaped from the West Bank who were already Jordanian citizens.

We were shown the best parts of the camp. Although, originally tents, concrete stuctures have been built on the spots. A family might have been given 10 meters. I went in one residence that was shared between a man and his brother. There were ten people residing in an area smaller than my hotel room. The man was suffering from depression. Since this was his past, present, and future, it is easy to understand why. I wonder how long can this go on? Will these camps still be here through this century?



A passing truck driver after asking where we were from yelled, "I love America, but not Bush."







These kids clamoured to pose for a picture. They love digital cameras because they can see themselves. I wonder if it confirms their existence and importance.



Information about all of the Jordanian camps http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/jordan.html
Some personal stories of people who have spent 50 years in a camp. http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/stories/56th_anniversary.html

I wonder if in human history if the world has produced temporary refugee camps that are permanent like the American Indian reservations. I guess when you take someone's land you put them in camps so they can't get their property back.
As current events continue to expand, we may have additional refugees and displaced persons in Jordan. I am reminded of the saying "That to continue to do the same thing when it doesn't work expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity."