Comments on: A Country in Denial

By: Gilly

Gilly — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:28:58 +0000

I see King Abdullah is having a break today on his motor cycle…with some of his friends…saw the pics in the newspaper

By: Global Voices Online » Jordan: Country in Denial

Global Voices Online » Jordan: Country in Denial — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 21:55:55 +0000

[...] Tololy, from Jordan, is angry her country has rejected a Human Rights Watch report on Jordan as baseless. “Some times I wish there was a huge creature who could slap Jordan on the face and wake us all up,” she writes. time savedwww.globalvoicesonline.org Share This [...]

By: Markus

Markus — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:40:57 +0000

Jordan is doing well when it comes to the rights of the minorities, I agree, however with regards to the rights of the majority…now thats a whole different animal alltogether……..

By: Tololy

Tololy — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:14:17 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Sarah, a Qualified Industrial Zone is a location equipped to host factories and
other industrial facilities of companies that outsource their manufacturing
activities to Jordan.
Most of the people working in QIZs are not Jordanian but from Southeast
Asia, they live in sub-mediocre conditions, are not compensated
well enough, and in general you could say they’re abused in that sense. QIZs in
Jordan
offer many facilitations to investors, but more work has to be done to protect
the rights of workers.

Imad, thanks for your comments, don’t worry about the long responses :)

The report did not mention minorities I believe. As the people who read this
blog already know, my mother is Circassian and I know many Circassians, Chechens,
and Christians as my friends. It’s true that they don’t feel any tangible
discrimination in our laws against them, although I can only be sure of this
only to a certain degree.

The right of assembly and demonstrations needs to be worked on. I think in Jordan many
obstacles in the name of bureaucracy can and do prevent many demonstrations
from taking place.

And about the refugees, well, it’s simple. Our government cashed in to receive
them, then let them in by the hundred thousands, and now we simply HAVE TO
share our resources with them. In that sense, they should enjoy some rights
that they do not enjoy so far.

About the four representatives who were jailed after attending the
funeral of Zarqawi, I guess if the government did not make a big deal out of it
and let it slide then it would not have amounted to anything. I think the govt
was trying to flex its anti-terror muscles in the media, and score some points
against the Islamic Action Front. It all worked, too.

By: المشكلجي

المشكلجي — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:04:01 +0000

أصحوا يا عالم ياناس علي المصايب وعلي الفساد ألي ضارب أطنابوا،وبكفي هبل

By: المشكلجي

المشكلجي — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:50:48 +0000

<a href = "http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2rY1exZG5m">طيب يا عماد خدلك هالمحاضره من توجان فيصل قدمتها في جامعه شيكاخوا ،هذا لفصل الاول</a>

<a href = "http://www.garageband.com/mp3player?|pe1|WdjZPXLrvP2rY1exZG5n">وخودلك الفصل الثاني يا عماد،أكبس وسمع</a>

By: المشكلجي

المشكلجي — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:26:18 +0000

قبل أسبوعين أجتمعت مع شخص كان يزورالاردن يشتغل سائق علي لموزين في مدينه سان فرانسيسكوا في ولايه كاليفورنيا ومن خلال الحديث تطرق الي رحلات الملك والحاشيه أكد لي بئن مصاريف خدمه الوموزين خلال يومن قدكلفت الشعب الاردني 40 الف دولار…أين هذا الاعلام ألاردني،هل سيغطون مصاريف الحاشيه ؟؟؟؟ والتكلفه التي دفعه هذا الشعب المسكين والمغلوب علي أمره ؟الجواب معروف عند الجميع

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:38:03 +0000

Hi Imad,

Why is that any other their business? don’t we have enough ‘refugees’ ? who is paying for their schooling?

I’m not certain but I believe that without recognition of them as refugees, that international aid agenicies are limited in what they can provide. It’s a tough call for Jordan - recognizing them as refugees opens the doors for aid agencies to assist, but it would give them certain rights (as refugees) that they don’t have now.

As to why they feel it’s their business… it’s because, that’s what they do. It is "Human Rights Watch", after all :)

I personally think HRW and other human righst groups over-step their bounds pretty regularly, which diminishes the value of their reports when they have genuine human rights violations to report, but it is good to have groups like this who don’t have any political affiliations to act as watchdogs.

By: Hareega

Hareega — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:50:16 +0000

Imad,

I might agree with you that not every violation of human rights according to HRW is necessarily a human right violation. However I think we have some problems with human rights in Jordan. It’s not as bad as many people claim it to be, but there’s a problem and we have to address it. A lot of officials are getting away with their corruption and stealing fortunes from the people’s own money and nobofy is questioning them because they’re afraid of imprisonment and harrassment by the government.

By: Imad

Imad — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:57:19 +0000

Hareega, I do not like Bill O’reilly or any right-wing nut but the same time I don’t care for left-wing bleeding heart liberals either…Human right Watch and many so called NGOs have no business interfering in our sovernty. Now they are asking the US government and congress to tie US aid to ‘Human rights"…

…… On December 17, 2007, Human Rights Watch released its report, “Shutting Out the Critics,” which detailed violations of the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of association in Jordan. Since then, the new government of Prime Minister Nader al-Dahabi withdrew a dangerous draft law regulating non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and promised to amend the law on public gatherings and, with the input of NGOs, draft a new law.

Here is as link to the full article…

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/01/30/jordan17962.htm

My question is when were people prevented from assembly and public gathering? Did they bother counting how many demostrations were out last year? non of those by the way are for "Jordan" cause. or is it becasue you have to have a "Permit" I live in Chicago, the hearl of the USA , the land of the free and you have to get a police permit if you want to demonstrate…

Or this…..

The Jordanian government in a welcome step has pledged to provide public health care and education to Iraqis living in Jordan regardless of their legal status, but continues to refuse to recognize them as refugees, Human Rights Watch said today.

Why is that any othe their business? don’t we have enough ‘refugees’ ? who is paying for their schooling?

or this…..

Human Rights Watch made recent headlines by criticizing the Jordanian government for arresting elected officials who praised Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, at ceremonies held in response to his death…

Did HRW ask the Jordanian people how they feel about this subject?

P.S: sorry for the long response :)