Laith Zraikat

On Friday I went on a ride with the Jordan Cycling Club. Destination: Mount Nebo.

The organizing team- headed by Saad Darwazeh- were very kind and well prepared to help any of the participants along the way. They provided us with professional mountain bikes, helmets, and all the liquids we can drink 

It was 7:30 am. Our meeting point was Safeway -7th circle. From there we drove to Zaytoonah University. I was amazed but not surprised at the number of bikes they prepared for us. We got to try out the bikes and helmets for size and comfort and each one chose what suited them the best. After everyone was satisfied with their gear we got a quick briefing from Saad about the ride where he outlined the order in which we will be riding, and some rules and regulations to follow while riding and in case of emergency.

We then started out down a level road adjacent to the university heading in the Direction of Madaba. The road was smooth, paved with little ups and downs –which was also the case most of the way to a village in Madaba called "Granada".

Into the first 3 kilometers, my bike ran into a technical problem; the chain had gone loose. I tried to fix it but couldn't. However, I didn’t worry because Nader –from the organizing team- and the pickup truck carrying about 6 extra bikes were right behind the group. They stopped, gave me a new bike, and I was on my way again 

Along the way, there were some resting points where we regrouped, talked, laughed and were briefed on the next stretch of the ride. One of the stops was Grenada where the group split into two: one headed by Saad and one headed by Nader. The Saad group were to continue to Mount Nebo, while the Nader group were to continue the circle and go back to the starting point. Although it was my first time and I was really tired, I didn’t like the idea of going back so I decided to continue to Mount Nebo with the "Pros" 

I was so glad I went to Mount Nebo. The scenery along the way was great, and it was more challenging than the first part of the ride. The way back was even more challenging and fun, but I had to give up and hitch a ride on the pickup truck after covering 40 kilometers in total … not bad for a first time. Inshalla next time I will go all the way 

By far the best part of this experience is that we did all of this and were back around 12:00 noon -Most people spend this part of Friday morning sleeping. This is by far the best thing you can do between 7:30 and 12:00 on a Friday morning. I strongly encourage everyone to at least try it.

Jordan Cycling Club blog is: http://cyclingjordan.jeeran.com/
e-mail: ptc[at]go[dot]com[dot]jo


Some pictures I took along the way:

www.flickr.com

While we can’t fight alongside them for many reasons, this does not mean we should sit and not do anything. BloggersForLebanon.org is an effort by a group of online communities aimed at rallying support across the Arab web for the Lebanese people. The primary objective is to collect in-kind donations which will go to the Jordan River Foundation and from there to the Lebanese people.

Please donate if you can. If you can’t you can still give by helping promote this effort.

Not too long  ago in Lebanon, Israel was made to withdraw by force. This is a testimony that "What was taken by force can only be taken back by force", and a testimony to the ability of the Lebanese resistance in driving them out again.

Let us hope we can help ease their suffering and prolong their endurance until they achieve victory over the Zionist state.

Thank you.

I take a taxi to work most of the time, so I have to put up with a lot of inconveniences like loud music, hearing the driver go on an on about his problems, and often times, hearing him curse at other drivers and then telling me how he is way above this job and that he's doing it as part time while he's on vacation in Jordan from his real job in "Amreeka" (USA).

All that is a part of life and it can actually be amusing sometimes. However, one inconvenience is totally not acceptable to me; Smoking.

Smoking is the kind of habit that everyone agrees is harmful to those doing it and to people around them. Health, hygiene, money, .etc it's bad for everything.

Today I took a taxi to the office, and as soon as I got in, the driver took out a cigarette and was about to light it. I asked him politely if he can postpone it will I got out –my ride is no more than 5-7 minutes on a work day depending on traffic- and today being a weekend, it meant he'd have to wait less than 5 minutes .The  guy smiled and started to mumble. We had already started moving and this conversation took place:

Taxi:
"well, I already took it out…"

LZ:
"My ride is very short. You'll only have to wait 5 minutes.

T:
"I'm trying to quit and I take only a few cigarettes a day at specific times."

LZ:
"If you're trying to quit, then you should be happy I'm asking you not to smoke."

T:
"No, this way my schedule gets messed up and I smoke more."

LZ:
"Ok then I don’t mind getting out right here if you still insist on smoking it."

T:
"I really set my mind on smoking it now so it will be hard not to."

I paid him 25 piasters for the ride and got out. It took me a minute to catch another taxi. On the way I started thinking… How can a man who is in his 40's behave that way? If only for the sake of preserving his dignity, he should have forced himself not to smoke.

Normally I don't look down at people whom are not as fortunate in life –Mostly taxi drivers are looked down at in Jordan- because the reasons may not be something that they can control. But this guy, I could totally understand why he will never amount to anything more than what he is right now.

I look at smoking as a form of slavery which is fooling people into thinking that it will give them something positive. Just like hundreds of years ago the African people were promised a better life in the new world, not knowing they would be sold as slaves once they go there.

Those slaves were forced to work in exchange for nothing. Their actions and behavior were subject to their masters' wishes. Even their lives could be ended if their master wished.

Being forced to give your life's earnings to the tobacco companies, restricting your freedom, not having enough control and needing expert assistance in order to break free of tobacco addiction, and having your life and the lives of people around you at the mercy of your toxic habit,… all these add up to a form of slavery.
 
Slavery of the body has been abolished in almost all parts of the world, but it the slavery of the mind which we must abolish now.

We have laws that ban smoking in public places and in public transportation, but they are not applied. I hope there comes a time when tobacco trading is outlawed altogether… maybe not soon, but it has to start somewhere.

Finally, in the words of  Mr. T: "I pity the fool"
 

I don't like writing about politics, but I do –however- write about mind boggling stupidity when I see it because it simply drives me nuts.

First of all let me say that it is because of scum like Mohammad Abu Fares that the people of this country –Jordan- have stopped believing that there is hope in having a parliament which truly represents their cause.

Instead of working day and night for the poor Jordanian people and addressing issues like rise of living costs, crappy roads, corrupt officials, and the ethical downhill that is dragging our society down a bottomless pit, this idiot thinks he has done his duty towards his country and now has some free time to try and change the way 5 million people think.

This unknown and his pack of hooligans are just a sorry bunch of attention seekers who did not have enough intelligence to pick a smarter way to rise into the ranks of the "known".

It is a disgrace to all Muslims that those idiots and their masters continue to abuse the name of Islam. They should not be allowed to continue doing so, and if the people put them where they are today, then the people should be able to throw them into the dumpsters of history where they belong.

I have one question for those boys: Do you think your children are proud of what you did? Ask them and see if their eyes can convince you.

Finally, I guess this is what we call "Natural Selection" where the weak and stupid eventually never last long.

p.s. I loved Batir's message to Abu Fares.

More about their stupidity:

• Jordanians Protest And More Rantings On The IAF
• BoyCott the IAF
• WANTED. Muhammed Abu-Fares, Ibrahim Al-Mashwakhy, Ja'far Al-Howraney and Ali Abu Al-Sukkar
  

I am auctioning my Sony 7.2MP digital cam because I am upgrading to a more professional one with better zoom and more manual functions. I've had a lot of fun with this one. took about 2200 pictures since I got it.

To participate, just add a comment to this post with your bidding price. Please include a valid e-mail address. Serious buyers only please!

Specs:

• 7.2 Mega Pixel
• 2" LCD
• Carl Zeiss lens
• 1* 32MB memory stick
• 1* 256MB memory stick Pro
• 3x Optical & 2x digital zoom
• check this link for more info.

Reserve price: 319 JOD

Auction ends: Thursday 8th of June

Other Info:

• The cam is in EXCELLENT condition.
• No scratches at all.
• All software, manuals, cable, battery & charger included. Original packageing.
• Case included.
  
• Auction only applicable to buyers from Jordan.

Shipping:

It is the responsibility of the winning bidder to pick up the item once the auction has ended. I will contact the winner to arrange pickup.

Image:

These were taken without a tripod and blended manually using photoshop.

Green fields in Al-Yarmouk: (3 shots)

enlarge: 2000*760, 3836*1458

Green fields in Al-Yarmouk: (3 shots)

enlarge: 2000*738, 4056*1496

Al-Yarmouk Battlefield: (5 shots)

enlarge: 3000*519, 6480*1050

"It's a great business model. Let's turn the country into a giant hotel and market it as such..." These were my thoughts as I read about HRW's call for Jordan to accommodate the 100+ refugees stranded on the Iraqi border.
 
"We'll give Aqaba 7 stars, Amman 5 stars, Irbid and Jerash 4 stars, Mafraq, Maan, Karak and Tafileh 3 stars, and Rweshed and Al-Jafr 2 stars. This way, we can accomodate refugees of all income levels, and get the UN to pay for those who can't afford it." No pun intended to cities that got less than 4 stars :)

Instead of commending Jordan on its amazing track record and receiving refugees of many conflicts, HRW have the arrogance to criticize us as if we have no human rights of our own.
 
Those refugees have a right to settle down, but what better place than their own country? Or is Jordan supposed to be a sport and take the burden off of Israel and the US? It is in the best interest of those countries that HRW step in, stand up for those people, point the finger at Jordan, and blind the world from their true cause.
 
If HRW were really concerned about human rights, those refugees wouldnt be in Iraq in the first place, but we don't see any pressure exerted on the Israel to take back the millions scattered around the world.

Their hypocrisy leads me to think of them as hired mouths that go off whenever it serves the interest of their masters. The US government stopped paying for hotel accommodations for its own Katrina refugees, but we don’t hear HRW loud-mouthing them.
 
I am glad someone finally has the guts to stand up to this bull****. Jordan has done more that its fair share of being a giant "hotel" for people made homeless because of western world policies.

Last night was Jordan Planet's December meetup which attracted more than 20 people. I got a chance to meet new people, and get to know better those I had met in my first meetup. The meeting was in-formal, everybody just talked about whatever they wanted, but the spirit of blogging was evedident in the air.

I went to the meeting with Khalidah, and we decided to go a bit early in case we got lost on the way. Fortunately the directions to Canvas –the meeting place- were very easy to follow, and we were the first to arrive. This gave me a chance to look around the place, as I don’t usually get to do that when I got to places for the first time. The interesting thing about it is that It did not feel like I was in a restaurant, but rather in my home dining room. The place felt very cozy, especially with the rain pouring outside the windows. Ten minutes after we arrived came Roba, Lina and Rami. Three very interesting people. We got a chance to get to know each other until more people arrived.

Rami is a Jordanian journalist living and studying in Sweden, and currently on what you would consider a business trip to Jordan. He is doing some research for his university about blogging in Jordan and the impact it will have on law makers and the press association in the country. He also wrote a very nice piece titled "the Internet as a Communication Medium for Development" in which he argues that developing nations are quickly gaining pace as producers of information and knowledge, the same way that the traditional Information producer-consumer relationship is shifting because of the Internet.

Lina is working on her graduation project at the University of Jordan (my uni!) and wishes she could have 30-hour days so she can go to uni, work on her project and blog! Roba… Well, Roba is very interesting because it seemed like every single person in the meeting recognized her right away. That’s in addition to the fact that she is the first "Roba" I met who spells her name with an "O".

Next to arrive -I think- was Mariam. Mariam has her own NGO in London. And among the things she does is organize youth exchange programs for people aged 18-26 (I'm 27, does that mean I'm not a youth anymore??!)

After that everyone else started arriving, Issam and Abeer, Nader and Mira, Laith Majali, Ahmad Humeid, Jad Madi, Naseem Tamimi, Ammar Ibrahim, Tamer Al-Nasser….. forgive me if I can't remember the rest.

The meeting took off with everyone introducing themselves. The interesting part was when each had to say why they got into blogging. We had all kinds of reasons, some to express themselves, some just to experiment, but for Ammar, it was plain jealousy of Ahmad Humeid's blog. The meeting was also given a special taste because it brought together representatives from Arab blogging services.

Why did I tell this long story? To let you get into the atmosphere of a Jordan Planet meetup, and to help you understand how I think of Jordan Planet.

What is Jordan Planet?... I see it as a phenomenon the like of which was only witnessed back in the early days of NETS Online, where meetings starting online were carried into the real world in similar meetups. There were more than 20 people last night, and It's very hard to think that without Jordan Planet, a lot of them would have never met.

There is more than enough talk these days about blogging, but not nearly enough about communities like Jordan Planet, what it has done for many many people, and the impact it will have on the lives of more to come. In my opinion, this last meetup was a testimony to the successful mission that the founders of Jordan Planet have carried out. You should be proud guys.

I took some pictures in the meeting, but I'd like to keep it simple and post the best one:

CNN breaking news:
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/09/jordan.blast.reut/index.html

I feel its not a coincidence that this date was chosen by whoever did this.

It is discomforting that there were 3 explosions, and not just one, but its even more discomforting to know that those people have more confidence now that they have succeeded in breaking Jordan's peace and quiet.