Musings from the Merse
Monday, June 19, 2006
OZYMANDIAS
I hope a previous post does not give the impression that I am not too impressed with some of the fine buildings in Amman-my favourite diplomatic posting working amongst some of my favourite people. Buildings since my time-the King Hussein Mosque, the Motor Museum and the Wild Jordan headquarters for the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, are world class design and striking by any standard. The impression given by a superficial look at Amman is that this is boom town, capital of a wealthy country, modern Middle East at its most prosperous and dynamic. Some one told me in my previous incarnation that there were 1000 millionaires in the Abdoun/Jebel Amman area, residing in sumptious mini-palaces (and some not to0 mini) and as a Brit Gov representative I had great difficulty in persauding HMG that Jordan was in fact a comparatively poor country with rural poverty and enormous disparities between Abdoun and Wadi Araba' worthy of our support.
Our small aid programme has now gone and those from other First World Donors are under threat. Partly due I fear to the image of Jordan as presented by the bustling city centre and the affluent suburbs-not many foreign visitors go to admire South Amman of Jebel Hussein or some of the 'camps' on the outskirts. There is desperate poverty in the city but invisible to the casual visitor and to many, I suspect, of the Corps Diplomatique.
I am not suggesting that the erection of fine buildings are abandoned so as to correct the image of the 'real' Jordan but I do earnestly urge a look at government priorities. There is wealth in Jordan, abundantly so, but it is confined into too few hands and the disparaties between rich and poor are grotesque. And I wonder if the best memorial to the well beloved and much mourned King Hussein might not have been such a massive mosque, distinctive and beautiful as it is but an equally massive crash programme for the alleviation of rural poverty and the upgrading of educational and health standards out side the capital. Much money is pouring into the country as a safe haven from neighbouring problems and it is a great pity that it seems mostly directed towards real estate and ostentatious ego trips in glass and concrete.
Jordan is very short of water. Yet grandiose new hotels rise out of the ground relentlessly as if the Tigris and Euphrates, were flowing through the streets of Amman , harnessed to flush every loo, fill every bath, flood every swimming pool and wash every visiting Saudis state of the art Roller orBMW.
No Water? Ozymandias come back. All is forgiven
I hope a previous post does not give the impression that I am not too impressed with some of the fine buildings in Amman-my favourite diplomatic posting working amongst some of my favourite people. Buildings since my time-the King Hussein Mosque, the Motor Museum and the Wild Jordan headquarters for the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature, are world class design and striking by any standard. The impression given by a superficial look at Amman is that this is boom town, capital of a wealthy country, modern Middle East at its most prosperous and dynamic. Some one told me in my previous incarnation that there were 1000 millionaires in the Abdoun/Jebel Amman area, residing in sumptious mini-palaces (and some not to0 mini) and as a Brit Gov representative I had great difficulty in persauding HMG that Jordan was in fact a comparatively poor country with rural poverty and enormous disparities between Abdoun and Wadi Araba' worthy of our support.
Our small aid programme has now gone and those from other First World Donors are under threat. Partly due I fear to the image of Jordan as presented by the bustling city centre and the affluent suburbs-not many foreign visitors go to admire South Amman of Jebel Hussein or some of the 'camps' on the outskirts. There is desperate poverty in the city but invisible to the casual visitor and to many, I suspect, of the Corps Diplomatique.
I am not suggesting that the erection of fine buildings are abandoned so as to correct the image of the 'real' Jordan but I do earnestly urge a look at government priorities. There is wealth in Jordan, abundantly so, but it is confined into too few hands and the disparaties between rich and poor are grotesque. And I wonder if the best memorial to the well beloved and much mourned King Hussein might not have been such a massive mosque, distinctive and beautiful as it is but an equally massive crash programme for the alleviation of rural poverty and the upgrading of educational and health standards out side the capital. Much money is pouring into the country as a safe haven from neighbouring problems and it is a great pity that it seems mostly directed towards real estate and ostentatious ego trips in glass and concrete.
Jordan is very short of water. Yet grandiose new hotels rise out of the ground relentlessly as if the Tigris and Euphrates, were flowing through the streets of Amman , harnessed to flush every loo, fill every bath, flood every swimming pool and wash every visiting Saudis state of the art Roller orBMW.
No Water? Ozymandias come back. All is forgiven
Comments:
I do hope our 'HMG' takes up your plea - if not from you then from whom? 'Oh woe is we' if we cannot pause and ponder this mad dash to reform and invest ad nauseum, a la pax americana. I just hope my kids make it to the finishing line, hatta wa agahl intact!
Keep the faith! It will be ok. I was quite impressed by the article on water resources in to day's Jo Times. But it is alatming that Disi and its irreplaceable fossil water is to be such a major source of water for Amman. Desalination good, reverse osmosis (Red Dead) numero uno but Disi-hands off I say \
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