Archive for July, 2006

July 18, 2006

Men in the sun

July 18th 2006 Posted to

I woke up yesterday to the news of the sinking ship that had on board 51 illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean.  I held my breath, expecting the worse…  they are dead because no one could save them.  But they were under the mercy of God,  a fishing boat was around and was able to fit them in. I took a deep breath.

I had to hold my breath again… the nearest land, which is Malta refused not only to receive them but they also refused to receive the legal fishing boat that saved, because Malta has more immigrants than they can deal with, and they are under strict rules by the EU in dealing with this emerging xenophobia.

So these immigrants are stuck in the sea under the sun, without food, without water and without hope!

I left quickly to reach the German embassy to apply for visas for the students participating in exchange porogram that Lina and I are organizing in Muenster Germany… Our biggest challenge so far has been the visa. However challenges are going up and down like the stock market with the changes in the political climate.  We had all the papers organized and ready,  but we could not even get someone to give us an appointment and for days we went back to stand in line with the tens of people standing under the suffocating sun in jabal Amman waiting to be looked at, some of them have been coming back for weeks and have been sent home day after day.

We obviously had a different case as we are a group of students who are going for 15 days to have fun, while these tens of people mostly Iraqis are waiting in line to immigrate to start a life, as they are suffering in their country and they can’t find jobs, and they can’t afford sending their children to private schools.

We finally were able to get an appointment due to Lina’s insitence  and resourcefullness and because we got the German hosting comapny to call the embassy from Germany, and we were not only in, but we were treated with priority as well.

In the waiting hall, I saw an iraqi woman crying her heart out, begging the officer to allow her the visa,  saying her husband is sick and he needs her and he is there. It was distrurbing to see such a dignified woman begging. I saw a man screaming his heart out at another officer in desperation telling them that they have taken 5000 JD that he deosn’t have.  

It was a  very stressful day emotionally as I was waiting hour after in the waiting hall and realizing that I probably was the luckiest one there, as everyone has a story and some of them are reaaly dramatic that might involve life and death situations..

Immigration has risen as a political problem relatively recently. It was inherited as a third world problem after the de-colonization in the sixties…. because colonialism had this dream of creating nicely organized nations where the same people live in the same places, forgetting that human beings move by nature and so the concept of  bournadaries appeared. Charles Tilly claimes that the refugees are a problem that appears because of wars and problems created and kept alive by the first world…

The result are these people I saw today waiting in the sun hoping for a better and brighter future.

This remindes me of Ghassan Kanafani men in the sun… the only thing I would say about this book, if you are already depressed don’t read it…when I did, I stayed home for a whole week, unable to deal with the harshness of this world.

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July 12, 2006

I am in the newspaper

July 12th 2006 Posted to

I know it is really childish to be excited about this, but I was really super excited when i read my name in the news paper today! I was quoted about the conference my organization had yesterday.

 The article is in Jordan Times and it is called Project seeks to get more women into the workforce.  Basically the project aims at empowering women and get them to be more involved in the developing the economy in Jordan and in Gaza.

We were dashing last week from the printary to the hotel and from the translators to the office.  The phone… that perfectly dreadful machine just did not stop ringing for weeks! I do not often spend a nuit blanche, but the day before the conference, the night was so blanch that I did not see a moment of darkness! I woke up at 3:00 Am literally after fifteen minutes of falling asleep because i was filling the badges with the names, and the only time i could do this was at 2:00 am with the support of my parents who were unable to sleep being even more worried than I was! so they took the task of cutting the names into squares while i was stuffing the badges.  When I started laughing hysterically at my father’s jokes, I knew that it was time to try and get some sleep, and fifteen minutes later, I was hearing the phone ringing… only the phone was not! It was my subconscious that was completely contaminated with the sound of the bloody phone!  The conference went really well, many people showed up and it was very interactive, women from different socio economic backgrounds were invited, the decision makers, very achieving women, who are dedicating their lives for the good of the other women.  However these other women are only an idea, they are not real, no one speaks to them, no one knows what their needs really are. The only way was to put both worlds together.  Invite those women who are the target of all these developing schemes and plans. 

I was very proud of my ladies, who showed up very dignified, and spoke very eloquently, and said really nice things about the project and its effects on their lives as witnesses. 

I was too nervous during the whole event to enjoy it… I was really happy waking up today, knowing that it has passed in peace.  But, as a matter of fact, the people who had wven a better night than I are my parents, who were on the edge for weeks… worried than no one will show up, or that we will start jumping like hens and rabbits during the conference… 

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