You can learn a lot about a country by the headlines in the national newspaper, in this case from reading the Friday 3rd of September edition of The Jordan Times.
The main focus is on the Palestinian and Israeli peach talks. Some of the headlines read:
Leaders face tough choices as peace process resumes;
All eyes are upon us;
Palestinian negotiators real target of Hamas attack;
Mixing middle east diplomacy and mid-term (US) elections;
Palestinian strategy towards independence; and
Islamists, professional associations decry peace talks
and the Editor is entitled ‘To make Peace a reality’
I guess these are predictable, given the region, but it is obvious that peace here is key to stability for a number parts of the world.
Two other challenges which we all face are youth unemployment and what to do about CO2.
Give us jobs, say Somali pirates
Export restriction stand to hurt industry – this about restrictions on exports of cucumber and zuchhinies because of hot weather, Russia has a similar problem with wheat, no exports until the local population is feed!
Obama struggles with urgent task of fixing economy – as the US economy is 70% related to the comsummer, nothing will improve until the 10% unemployment comes down, which must be a disaster for those directly effected.
Climate aid reaches $30 billion – a central quote ‘its (.. the aid ..), is horribly confused’ rings in my ears.
Disasters show ‘screaming’ need for action – UN climate chief.
Red Cross aid workers face anger in Pakistan – one doubts the floods are related to climate change, but the worlds response seems lax at best. But who would know, remember the frog in a pot of slowly heating water.
There is also a familar ‘Arab society looks down on artists’, which is a common complaint as far as I know.
Afganistan also figures, and on a slightly lighter note in the Business pages there is a quote from the Finance Minister ‘We gave assurances to people that their deposits are not lost’ and then is added, ‘will not be lost’ – hmmmmmmm!
Stock exchanges or using the French word Bourse, are considered shining lights of a western style economy. One headline grabed my eye
Yemen hopes to draw investment by setting up bourse authority.
and, the Amman Stock Exchange rose 0.61% yesterday.
Sport is still important, but does not run for pages, in Amman only one page is allocated to cover the deads of the Jordanian U-19 & U-16 football teams, and there is bit of US sport.
Finally, Jordanians, I am pleased to say have a great sense of humour, as I think this small supermarkets sign indicates – remember it is Ramadan!
To make Australians welcome there are a few gum trees around, this is one of pair down town.
And, here are a couple more views of Amman at dusk, which is by far the best time of day.
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