My Kafia

(photo by wasapninjordan)

‘wasapninjordan’ is wearing the ‘terror scarf’ and boycotting Dunkin Donuts in protest.

wasapninjordan

(photo by wasapninjordan)

A poll initiated by the Jordan Center for Social Research and financed by the Freedom House about violence towards women in Jordan found that 60% of women are abused. ‘According to the survey, 45.5 percent of abuse incidents are carried out by husbands, while incidents by fathers and brothers account for 22.7 and 15.7 percent respectively. According to the survey, 45.5 percent of abuse incidents are carried out by husbands, while incidents by fathers and brothers account for 22.7 and 15.7 percent respectively.’

Firstly wrong is wrong; lets be very clear about this. It’s not about taking sides.

Secondly a poll initiated by an organizations such as Freedom House which claims to be an independent international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that advocates democracy, political freedom and human rights. The fact that an independent, impartial organization advocates one idea over another, in my opinion no longer becomes impartial. Further to this the organisation has very close ties with the American administration with Eleanor Roosevelt (American First lady during 1943-1945) as its founder and Freedom House receives 80% of its budget from the U.S government. Hence any finding in my opinion is flawed.

Finally the above points in no way shies away from the discussion of abuse towards women. Unfortunately the world over has to deal with this issue. This is a world wide issue and not an issue that is related to a particular people who hold certain religious views. This is a worldwide problem that requires solutions to the problem. World Health Organization (WHO) reports that in 2002 30% of ‘women are physically abused by their partners or ex-partners at 30 percent in the United Kingdom, and 22 percent in the United States.’

This article is not here to deny that abuse towards women does not exist in Jordan. It does but exists throughout the world. It requires serious and open discussions about this issue. Let’s work to change the ideas that people carry that push them to carry out these backward actions.

Let’s have a debate but let it be honest.

wasapninordan

Man sleeps on a donkey cart which is his home and his livelihood in Pakistan.

(photo by wasapninjordan)

I am a writer and a moderator for expatfocus.com. The aim of expatfocus.com is ‘to make life easier for anyone moving or living abroad by being the most comprehensive information and support resource for expatriates on the Web today.’

I read an interesting article on the blog of expatfocus.com and I had to write a piece on it after reading the blog. The blog talks about an article published in the British newspaper ‘the telegraph’ last month. The author of the blog then raises some interesting points about integrity and about ‘doing the right thing.’

The original article is talking about the mentality of local Italians and the mentality of cheating and “Everyone does it. Why shouldn’t I?” The article discusses how a doctor encourages a patient to cheat the system to raise extra money for a holiday and another example where the ‘head of the traffic police in Rome was found to have parked illegally using an out-of-date disabled parking sticker.’

Here are my thoughts on this.

I have been very fortunate to travel to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan in the recent past. I experienced this “Everyone does it. Why shouldn’t I?” attitude of looking after number one. I was conned by an elderly taxi driver of almost triple of the agreed price and in another occasion I haggled my price of a good to 70% less then the starting price and still wondered if I was bring conned.

Deception, conning, and lying exists throughout the world and it is wrong where ever it is carried out. In my opinion there are two types of deception; one is out of necessity and I don’t mean the necessity due to addiction but necessity due to survival. Deceiving people or conning tourists due to the economic situation of the particular country; in those parts of the world people deceive because they have to, because without it they will not be able to put food on the table that feeds the family. For example the average salary for a policeman in Pakistan has risen from 3000 rupees per month (£22pm) to 9000 rupees per month (£66pm) which is still about 15000 rupees less then what is required to sustain an agreeable living without being categorised as poor. Pakistan was labelled as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. In my opinion this type of deception is somewhat understandable although I would never do it and it is wrong out of principle.

The second type of deception, lying and conning is out of want; the greed of human beings pushing them to want more and more. The want to own a second home, or to buy a better car or simply to own more then your neighbour. It is this type of deception that I cannot understand? Where a perfectly economically stable person deceives another without need but is motivated by want.

Wrong is wrong and we should not accept any wrong and we should always try to do the right thing but at the same time let us try to understand that sometimes, although the action may appear to be the same, its motives are different. Hence I think there is a difference between the two types of deceptions although the action is the same and they are both WRONG.

wasapninjordan

Israeli wall

Question: When is a fence not a fence?

Answer: When it is 8.5 meters long and made from concrete.

I grew up in the world of terraced dwellings in the UK where every house has a fence on the neighboring side. I know the difference between a fence and a wall. What I see in Israel (occupied Palestine) is NOT a fence but a prison just like the world had created in Germany to separate the Capitalist West and Communist East.

wasapninjordan

A friend of mine emailed me link of two interviews (debates) which were aired in the UK. The interviewer is Mr. George Galloway; A UK parliamentarian. The discussion is about Palestine. At first I was hesitant to listen to the link because I am not a big fan of Mr. Galloway. However if you listen to the debate and the points being made, I think the truth becomes very clear.

Speaking to a Zionist: Part 1

Speaking to a Zionist: Part 2

Disclaimer: I do not support or agree with the style Mr. Galloway has taken. I am not a supporter of Mr. Galloway politically and I am not a supporter of his ‘Respect Party’. I will however support his points for the plight of the Palestinian people.

1. Jew from any country in the world is guaranteed citizenship in Israel, while the Palestinians who have been there for centuries are oppressed and persecuted.

2. Did you know that instead of sewing an insignia on clothing to distinguish race (like the Germans did to the Jews before WW2), Palestinian license plates in Israel are color coded to distinguish Jews from non-Jews?

3. Did you know that East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights are all considered by the entire world community, including the United States and the United Nations, to be occupied territory and NOT part of the State of Israel?

4. Did you know that Israel allots 85% of the water resources for Jews, and the remaining 15% is divided among all Palestinians in the territories? For example in Hebron, 85% of the water is set aside for about 400 Jewish settlers, while the remaining 15% is distributed among Hebron’s 120, 000 Palestinians?

5. Did you know that the United States awards Israel $5 billion in aid each year from American tax dollars?

6. Did you know that US aid to Israel ($1.8 billion annually in military aid alone) exceeds the aid the US grants to the entire African continent? This aid is used both to buy American weaponry and to buy arms made in Israel.

7. Did you know that Israel is awaiting an additional $4 billion worth of American military hardware, including new F-16s and Apache and Blackhawk helicopters? As Israel’s main ally and supporter internationally, the United States is committed to maintaining the Zionist state’s “qualitative edge” in weapons over its neighbours.

8. Did you know that the U.S. administration has notified Congress on numerous occasions that Israel has violated the rules on how US-supplied weapons are used? (In 1978, 1979 and 1982 during fighting in Lebanon, and once after Israel’s bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981.)

9. Did you know that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections from its sites?

10. Did you know that high-ranking military officers in the Israeli Defence Forces have admitted publicly that unarmed prisoners of war have been summarily executed by the Israeli forces?

11. Did you know that Israel blew up an American diplomatic facility in Egypt and attacked a US warship in international waters (the USS Liberty), killing 33 and wounding 177 American sailors and the US did nothing about it? (Imagine if an Muslim/Arab country like Iraq did this!)

12. Did you know that Israel stands in defiance of 69 United Nations Security Council Resolutions?

13. Did you know that Palestinian refugees make up the largest portion of the refugee population in the world?

14. Did you know that the right of self-determination is guaranteed to every human being under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [December, 1948], yet Palestinians were/are expected to negotiate for this right under the Oslo Accords?

Answering this criticism, the author of the Declaration, Lord Balfour, said:

Zionism may fail…this is an adventure…Are we never to have adventures? Are we never to try new experiments?…I do not think I need dwell upon this imaginary wrong which the Jewish Home is going to inflict upon the local Arabs. (Lord Balfour 21^st June 1922 – House of Lords)

Lord Sydenham replied that the Zionist experiment would fail, but the harm done by dumping down an alien population upon an Arab country – Arab all round in the hinterland – may never be remedied … What we have done is, by concessions, not to the Jewish people but to a Zionist extreme section, to start a running sore in the East, and no one can tell how far the sore will extend.

House of Lords, 21 June 1922