So I'm a big advocate of learning through music, videos, movies, commercials, etc. I think they are the most effective way to learn about an issue because they're visual/melodical and it's much easier for the average person to connect with this type of media opposed to reading a 20 page article. So I'm sharing what I've been connecting with and learning from lately.
The first two music videos are for the World Cup that's coming up in July. Now soccer isn't taken very seriously in the US but think of this like the Super Bowl. All the commercials, all the hyper....X100! If you think the Super Bowl is big, wait until you're in a country that's into soccer. Everyone's live revolves around major soccer games and outside life comes to a halt when important games are on. So with the coming of the World Cup there's been a lot of media hype. What I find interesting about this is that the World Cup is inclusive of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East and at least the 1st video by K'ann tries to be inclusive and create a sense of unity. I think it's also important to consider that Coca-Cola is funding all of these ads and musical endevors...so maybe take it with a grain of salt condsidering Coca-Cola is an American company. Non the less, I love the K'ann video and get chils every time I listen to the song. It reminds me of Invictus (a movie and poem) which I highly recommend everyone should see/read! "I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my destiny".
The 2nd video by Akon (an American hip hop artist from Senegal) sings mostly about uniting Africa which is a task in itself given the diversity and conflict across the continent. But soccer is just one of those things that brings people together regardless of nationality.
The last video is not World Cup related. This is a public service announcement about terrorism. In the US we have public service announcements about drug and alcohol use, maybe teen pregnancy...in Jordan it's about terrorism. The slogan behind this campaign is that "Terrorism has no religion" which refers to a really important idea. Terrorism has absolutly no foundation in Islam and is a radical misinterpretation, just like there are misinterpretations in any religion- Christiany, Judism, etc. I'm actually not a fan of this ad but it's interesting none the less.
K'ann Video
Akon Video
Terroism Public Service Announcement
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Research and Tying Up Loose Ends
This last month in Jordan has been completely free of classes and structured events. But we all have to conduct an individual study project (ISP) which is full blown research and I've never done full blown research! I'm used to short research papers that take about a week and require reading a few articles. And I much prefer reading other people's brilliant ideas opposed to coming up with my own. I suppose I tend to second guess myself and how much I have to offer in terms of new ideas and innovative thinking- I feel like its all been done before.
The full title of my research project (just finished within the last 6 hours) is Addressing Women's Issues: A Portriat of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and Ministry Gender Divisions. I know this topic may not appeal to everyone so bear with my rant...this is something I'm passionate about! Women in Jordan experience a far amount of inequality and discrimination. Granted it’s not as bad as some 3rd world countries but its not as good as the US (but the US has its own gender issues that still exist). Jordan is in the middle in terms of women's empowerment. For example, the parliament requires that 6 women be included in government but women are not actively being elected by the Jordanian public, they're just appointed by the King. There are no Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Condeleezza Rices here. A woman with a Masters degree will only be permitted to do the same job as a man with an Undergrad degree and there is little job mobility for women even if they're educated. You can get fired if you get pregnant because companies don't want to pay for maternity leave. Women are still having 5-8 children, one child a year because many traditional communities emphasize that a women's sole purpose is in the home and caring for a family. So Jordan as a modernizing country working towards democracy has acknowledged that these trends and practices are wrong. One thing that makes this whole situation more challenging is that 85% of Jordanian laws treat men and women equally. Equality is enacted in the government but it hasn't trickled down to the community based level. Social traditions are still the norm despite laws and policies. My research is based on how the government and NGOs are approaching these issues and attempting to fix them. NGOs are always the obvious way to go when addressing any kind of social change. And the JNCW is a strong organization that is tackling a lot of projects to help women. One of their main programs is to go into rural areas and having conferences encouraging women to run for election- how to run a campaign, addressing the media, how to act in Parliament. There are so many little cultural limitations. For example, even if a women is elected and there's a meeting in Parliament, she's not suppose to raise her voice when talking about her issues or platform. The JNCW encourages women to be assertive and yell if they need to even if it goes against the norm.
Many of the Ministries in Jordan have a gender division- the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labor, etc. Gender divisions are the government's way of pin pointing women's issues in specific areas such as education and labor. The Ministry of Labor for example is running programs to encourage women to generate their own income so that they are not so dependent on men and possibly tied into abusive relationships because of a lack of income. These divisions are all running great programs but they are often put on the back burner and not considered a priority in the whole scheme of things.
Overall, both NGOs and the Ministry gender divisions are limited by funding and social traditions. A program may be run in a rural area but it is not successful because it goes against the social norms. So this means the issues have to be broken down to a micro, community based level which is even more challenging. My overall recommendations for these organizations was to break down their work to a community based level or grassroots that really gets down and dirty with small communities and their (mis)perceptions of the role of women in Jordanian society. As always, this is much easier said than done but in my opinion this is really the way you change the world. The government can only do so much in terms of laws and policy making. To really change negative traditions you need to connect and relate to small, local communities. From personal experience, this is the most frustrating way to go about change but also the most rewarding when everything pans out.
Thank you for listening to my rant, ana khulas (I'm done). If anyone would like to read my whole research paper please let me know, I'd be more than happy to share it with you!
The full title of my research project (just finished within the last 6 hours) is Addressing Women's Issues: A Portriat of the Jordanian National Commission for Women and Ministry Gender Divisions. I know this topic may not appeal to everyone so bear with my rant...this is something I'm passionate about! Women in Jordan experience a far amount of inequality and discrimination. Granted it’s not as bad as some 3rd world countries but its not as good as the US (but the US has its own gender issues that still exist). Jordan is in the middle in terms of women's empowerment. For example, the parliament requires that 6 women be included in government but women are not actively being elected by the Jordanian public, they're just appointed by the King. There are no Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Condeleezza Rices here. A woman with a Masters degree will only be permitted to do the same job as a man with an Undergrad degree and there is little job mobility for women even if they're educated. You can get fired if you get pregnant because companies don't want to pay for maternity leave. Women are still having 5-8 children, one child a year because many traditional communities emphasize that a women's sole purpose is in the home and caring for a family. So Jordan as a modernizing country working towards democracy has acknowledged that these trends and practices are wrong. One thing that makes this whole situation more challenging is that 85% of Jordanian laws treat men and women equally. Equality is enacted in the government but it hasn't trickled down to the community based level. Social traditions are still the norm despite laws and policies. My research is based on how the government and NGOs are approaching these issues and attempting to fix them. NGOs are always the obvious way to go when addressing any kind of social change. And the JNCW is a strong organization that is tackling a lot of projects to help women. One of their main programs is to go into rural areas and having conferences encouraging women to run for election- how to run a campaign, addressing the media, how to act in Parliament. There are so many little cultural limitations. For example, even if a women is elected and there's a meeting in Parliament, she's not suppose to raise her voice when talking about her issues or platform. The JNCW encourages women to be assertive and yell if they need to even if it goes against the norm.
Many of the Ministries in Jordan have a gender division- the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Planning, Ministry of Labor, etc. Gender divisions are the government's way of pin pointing women's issues in specific areas such as education and labor. The Ministry of Labor for example is running programs to encourage women to generate their own income so that they are not so dependent on men and possibly tied into abusive relationships because of a lack of income. These divisions are all running great programs but they are often put on the back burner and not considered a priority in the whole scheme of things.
Overall, both NGOs and the Ministry gender divisions are limited by funding and social traditions. A program may be run in a rural area but it is not successful because it goes against the social norms. So this means the issues have to be broken down to a micro, community based level which is even more challenging. My overall recommendations for these organizations was to break down their work to a community based level or grassroots that really gets down and dirty with small communities and their (mis)perceptions of the role of women in Jordanian society. As always, this is much easier said than done but in my opinion this is really the way you change the world. The government can only do so much in terms of laws and policy making. To really change negative traditions you need to connect and relate to small, local communities. From personal experience, this is the most frustrating way to go about change but also the most rewarding when everything pans out.
Thank you for listening to my rant, ana khulas (I'm done). If anyone would like to read my whole research paper please let me know, I'd be more than happy to share it with you!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Goin' South
I apologize that it's been so long since my last blog post, things have been pretty busy since Egypt.
We've finished up classes and I had all my finals in Arabic and finished up all my papers for our Modernization and Social Change seminar. As a little end of classes break we travelled to the south of Jordan. The main cities are Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba.
Petra was really cool. Based on guidebooks, I was under the impression that Petra was just one main building carved into rock (it's a common image I'm sure you've all seen). I was surprised to discover that Petra is a whole ancient city of carved buildings and tombs. The city was carved hundreds of years ago and the builders started carving from the top down so there was no need for scaffolding. At the top of the city is a mosque and there are 1,000 steps going up to the mosque. I decided to be lazy and rode a donkey up the hill. I had a very interesting "donkey driver". He said he doesn't agree with Islam (which is extremely uncommon and I have never heard anyone in Jordan say this) and he wants to have the religion on his passport changed from Islam to Christianity. He said this wouldn't be a problem but I can't imagine changing the religion on your passport is easy. I'm not even sure if religion is listed on Jordanian passports so I took this conversation with a grain of salt as interesting as it was. Coming back down the hill I had a bit of a fall. I'm grateful that I didn't walk up because the walk down was challenging enough. I landed pretty hard on my shin onto the rock. No serious injurious but I think this is the biggest bruise I've had to date.
The next night we camped in Wadi Rum which is as "desert" as you can get. We went for Jeep rides through the desert and watched the sunset. There's something very spiritual and enlightening about being in the desert. I hiked up a few sand dunes which is more difficult than it looks...this resulted in sore calfs. The night ended with a great view of the stars and a campfire. Camping is not always my first choice but this was a great experience and I survived.
Next was Aqaba which is on the coast of the Red Sea and a nice resort town. A little bit like Ocean City minus the tacky boardwalk. Soon after getting there we went snorkeling which again was another interesting experience. It took me a little while to get the hang of breathing through my mouth for prolonged periods of time. But the coral was beautiful and the fish were very colorful. I didn't realize how close the coral was to the surface and at one point I kicked the coral. This left a set of weird looking scratches on my foot which is just now starting to go away. Later that night I did a little shopping a market where there was minimal harassment and very nice shopkeepers!
We ended our southern travels at the Dana Nature Reserve which is a protected area in Jordan. The environment was totally different then the desert in Wadi Rum which was amazing given that they're only 2 hours away. Dana had lots of stone and greenery and a much milder climate. There was a little hiking in Dana, I chose to do some of the easier hikes. One included a few other students and some of the academic staff. Ahmed is the assistant director and has a very tough, almost mob like aura about him. He makes sure everything runs smoothly with the program, renews our visas and acts as a "bodyguard" on our trips outside of Amman. Us students often construct stories about his job on the side as a drug lord and his mob activities (these are all just stories of course). On this hike we all found a nice place to sit and suddenly Ahmed goes philosophical on us and asks if we can have a 10 minute moment of silence to relax and collect our thoughts. As difficult as it was to be silent for 10 minutes with a group of giggly girls, it was nice to see that side of Ahmed. That night we camped out again and played a great game of charades. My shining triumph was guessing "neo-liberalism" within 3o seconds and acting out "phenomenon" successfully.
After Dana we headed back to Amman. We don't have any classes this last month and we have the whole month free. However we don't have complete freetime. We're all required to do an independent research project on the topic of our choice. My next post will be about my research and any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Egypt
I have concluded that I have a love/hate relationship with Egypt. When I was younger I went through an Egypt phase which included lots of books on mummies and secretly wanting to be Cleopatra. So going into my week long trip to Egypt, my expectations were high.
Our group arrives outside our hotel in a big tour bus and I take my first steps into Cairo!! Venturing out of the hotel later that night, a man offers to sell me hash (drugs), asks if he can pay me for sex and a few other vulgar comments. Now my initial reaction is to retaliate, stand up for myself and put this guy in his place. Unfortunately that doesn't fly in Cairo and actually can make the situation worse. The best way to handle things is to not make eye and ignore them. But this leaves me feeling even more powerless and taken advantage of because I can't stand up for myself. Similar situations like this happened throughout most of the trip and I'm still thinking about how to best handle them. The consistent stream of harassment got very wearing and frustrating for me. It's frustrating that women are treated like objects for men's entertainment and that some of the men in Cairo are so blatant about this objectification. Now I don't mean to say all the men were like this. I had some nice conversations with cab drivers and made friends with some shop owners in the market. But with such a bad initial impression of men in Cairo it was difficult for me to stay open minded and not generalize.
Most of the week consisted of seeming tourist sites and having a few free evenings. We visited the pyramids and the Sphinx which did fulfill all my childhood dreams. It was really amazing to touch something that is so old and has survived so much time- I felt like I was touching history. The best part was riding a camel! My camel was named Mickey Mouse and a little boy led me around the desert. You get on the camel while its sitting and when it stands up to walk it can get pretty wobbly. I managed to climb onto the camel and make it into a walking position all while wearing a long skirt! Yes, I am very proud of this accomplishment.
Two days were spent exploring Coptic and Islamic Cairo. These two days were filled with lots of old mosques and Orthodox churches. Again, it was just amazing to see something that is so old and well constructed without the advanced technology we have today. One day we took the train to Alexandria which I like much better than Cairo. It’s right along the Mediterranean and has a lot of activity without being overwhelming. I got to see the catacombs, Bibliotheca Alexandria and the Citadel.
With all the chaos of Cairo there was a redeeming experience- Hana Hulili. This is a really old market which offers touristy thinks but also beautiful scarves, jewelry, clothes…basically everything a shopper could want. What makes it great is that you haggle for everything! There is a certain skill to pushing for the cheapest price, not giving in and being able to walk away if you don’t get what you want. It’s a good sound to hear shop owners yelling for you to come back as you’re walking away.
Now I’m back in Amman and classes start up again tomorrow. Cairo has made Amman look like a calm city and I appreciate this much more now.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Back to basics...the Badia
Ohh the Badia. This is not a lamenting "ohh" this is an oh there are too many stories to write type of "ohh". For 4 days I lived in a small village about 15 mintues south of the Syrian border. I stayed with a host family who had four amazing children- Aya (2), Ayat (4), Raheem (9) and Muhammad (12). During my time there I had to keep my head covered, wear a thobe (long dress), stand up when men entered the room and help with cleaning and cooking. I slept in a house but many families in the winter live in a tent because it's warmer than the house. Also there is a lot of tradition behind tents and being close to the desert.
I'm am not usually very good with children and am not very patient when it comes to little ones but I was blessed with great host brothers and sisters. The food was amazing and meals are eaten differently than in the US. Usually there is only one big meal a day. I had Mal Grouba, Rashoof and Mansif (I have no idea what ingredients are in these dishes) and they were all amazing. The meal is served on a big, round platter and everyone sits around the platter on the floor and digs in. There is a lot of sitting and lounging on the floor. Instead of chairs, there are mats and pillows on the floor.
My host father's great grandmother is still alive and I got to meet her. She is 100 years old and I was amazed that she is still able to get up and down from the coushins on the floor. There was a little bit of an awkward situation because she doesn't speak English and is very hard of hearing and my Arabic is limited. She ALWAYS wanted me to come and sit next to her and kept asking questions that I never understood. I still wanted to make a connections so I thought about what my grandma might do in that situation. So even though I didn't understand her I just did a lot of hand holding and smiling and tryed to send good love vibes. At the end of the 4 hour visit my host dad said that the great grandmother thinks I am a very special person and that she is glad she met me.
Now for horrific story #2...worse than the shower experience. One day I went to visit the girl's school in the village. The father just dropped me off at the school and I was shown around by teachers and swarmed by girls. I went to a few English classes and somehow got roped into teaching 3 English classes. In one class of 6th graders I was attempting to teach the five senses when I got flooded with a sea of questions. "What is your name?" So I write my name in Arabic on the blackboard and they all cheer and clap like. "How old are you?" "What does Katie mean?" "What are your parent's names?" "Do you like Jordan?" "Jordan or America better?" "What is America like?" "Do you love Islam?" "Am I pretty?" "Do you pray?" I was getting flustered with all the questions and had way too many young girls crowding me and suddenly they decide that they want me to sing. They are all yelling for me to sing and waiting and I completely freeze. It gets to the point of an awkward silence and I cannot for the life of me think of any songs what so ever! I realize that I am not going to be able to get out of this situation so I start racking my brain for songs. This whole time I'm thinking "Katie!! You are a musician, you remember the lyrics to tons of songs, you have 15 days worth of music on your iTunes! Why can't you think of anything!?!" Then I have a breakthrough but unfortunatly the breakthrough consists of "Jesus Loves You" and the Theme from the Brady Bunch. Now Jordan in 80% Muslim so Jesus Loves You is ruled out and I am left with the Brady Bunch. In a cracked, nervous voice I started singing the story of a lovely lady who was bring up three very lovely girls...and then I can't even remember the rest of the words so I start making things up and just singing along to the tune and it was horrible!! I was hoping that the girls would be excited with any performance but this was not the case. They clapped after I wrote my name but there was no clapping after my singing. This is still a little painful to think about. And now it's time for a shower.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Making Connections
Over the years I've realized I have many interests and these interests are not always directly related. However, on occasion, the different things I am passionate about connect and that's always exciting for me. Today this happened twice!!
Throughout my college years I've started to realize how important a sense of identity (individual, group, national, etc.), community and ownership are in creating stable societies. ALL the time I learn about unstable communities, governments, social structures, corruption, failing economies...all the bad things going on in the world. But I frequently come across an equally strong push against these "bad things" and these movements never cease to inspire me. It's because of these movements against a destructive "norm" that I keep plugging along even when times get tough.
Today that inspiration came through a song and a New York Times article on city planning in Amman. Now music and city planning are seemingly two very different things but in this case they indirectly touch on the same issue- Palestinian immigrants. Orange Sky by Alex Murdoch was written in support of Palestine and Palestinian immigrants make up a good amount of the population in Jordan. The article on city planning in Amman highlights some of the achievements in the city but also the challenges it faces. The government has had a difficult time creating a sense of community and ownership because there are so many immigrants, both Palestinian and Iraqi. Even though Palestinian families have lived in Amman for generations, they don't identify as being from Amman, they're from the West Bank.
So how do you go about creating community and unity without discouraging unique and valuable national identities? Food for thought and something I haven't figured out yet.
Orange Sky- Alex Murdoch
New York Times article
Throughout my college years I've started to realize how important a sense of identity (individual, group, national, etc.), community and ownership are in creating stable societies. ALL the time I learn about unstable communities, governments, social structures, corruption, failing economies...all the bad things going on in the world. But I frequently come across an equally strong push against these "bad things" and these movements never cease to inspire me. It's because of these movements against a destructive "norm" that I keep plugging along even when times get tough.
Today that inspiration came through a song and a New York Times article on city planning in Amman. Now music and city planning are seemingly two very different things but in this case they indirectly touch on the same issue- Palestinian immigrants. Orange Sky by Alex Murdoch was written in support of Palestine and Palestinian immigrants make up a good amount of the population in Jordan. The article on city planning in Amman highlights some of the achievements in the city but also the challenges it faces. The government has had a difficult time creating a sense of community and ownership because there are so many immigrants, both Palestinian and Iraqi. Even though Palestinian families have lived in Amman for generations, they don't identify as being from Amman, they're from the West Bank.
So how do you go about creating community and unity without discouraging unique and valuable national identities? Food for thought and something I haven't figured out yet.
Orange Sky- Alex Murdoch
New York Times article
Off to the Badia
These next few days will be quite an adventure. We're going to the Badia which is a more rural area in Jordan. As I understand it, the Badia can be towns or more mobile societies. But "Badia" means the start of settlements or the population that began the settlements. So most of the older families living in Badia towns were nomadic and have settled down in one location. Most Bedouin tribes were nomadic and in the 1960's there was a government push for the tribes to settle down in one place...resulting in the Badia.
We're not going as a group...I will be by myself in the village of Um Alquteen in the northern Badia. All the students are assigned to their own village. I'll be with another host family named Falf al Adaamat. All I know is that the father is a school teacher. The first part of the adventure will entail getting to Um Alquteen. I know I can get myself to the Amman bus station (Raghadan) and then I find the bus for Mafraq which is a town in northern Amman. Then from Mafraq, I give the bus driver my written directions to Um Alquteen and my family's house. According to our teachers, our bus drivers should know where exactly our houses are and should drop us off there or point us in the write direction. Hopefully I'll get there. Inshallah (God willing)
I'm not quite sure what to expect in the Badia. Secretly I'm hoping to be living in a tent in the desert, riding camels, herding sheep and drinking tea by a fire while the town elders tell of their nomadic adventures. More realistically I'll be in a lower income area, sitting around a space heater listening to mothers, sisters and aunts gossiping about who's marrying who. Because of gender roles girls don't usually go sheep herding, so most likely I will be spending 5 days inside. I'm praying and thinking about how to get the most out of this time even though it may not be my first choice. No doubt though that God will take care of things and I'll have a meaningful, memorable experience.
We're not going as a group...I will be by myself in the village of Um Alquteen in the northern Badia. All the students are assigned to their own village. I'll be with another host family named Falf al Adaamat. All I know is that the father is a school teacher. The first part of the adventure will entail getting to Um Alquteen. I know I can get myself to the Amman bus station (Raghadan) and then I find the bus for Mafraq which is a town in northern Amman. Then from Mafraq, I give the bus driver my written directions to Um Alquteen and my family's house. According to our teachers, our bus drivers should know where exactly our houses are and should drop us off there or point us in the write direction. Hopefully I'll get there. Inshallah (God willing)
I'm not quite sure what to expect in the Badia. Secretly I'm hoping to be living in a tent in the desert, riding camels, herding sheep and drinking tea by a fire while the town elders tell of their nomadic adventures. More realistically I'll be in a lower income area, sitting around a space heater listening to mothers, sisters and aunts gossiping about who's marrying who. Because of gender roles girls don't usually go sheep herding, so most likely I will be spending 5 days inside. I'm praying and thinking about how to get the most out of this time even though it may not be my first choice. No doubt though that God will take care of things and I'll have a meaningful, memorable experience.
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