I was informed that I was to meet with him on Sunday.  Every delegation was too meet with their own representative at the IMF, and since my delegation is made up of one person, I ended up meeting with him and his team alone. I was later joint by Nancy Fashho. A young lawyer from Amman who works with human rights. They all were very charming and impressive, and they generously accepted to take a photo with us.

It was an interesting meeting to say the least; it was definitely very informative and I did learn a couple of things, even though, I still think that economics is Martian!  I had the opportunity to introduce Ruwwad’s comprehensive model and talk about its achievement and its mandate.  I also had the chance to talk about 7iber and its role in giving the chance to people in expressing their opinions and feelings, especially in the Arab Spring.

This post will be very incoherent and probably everyone who is interested knows the information here, but, I still found it intriguing.  I will add some of what I learnt in snippets.  They are not distributed in any particular order, but only by the order of which I learnt them during the meeting.

Here we start

The role of IMF in Jordan is advisory, they do two checks in Jordan, a small one in May and a thorough one in December. When they come to Jordan they interact with the Minister of Finance,  the head of the Central bank and other ministers. They meet with donors, delegations and they definitely meet with the Department of Statistics. (They love the Department of Statistics!)

 

They find dealing with constant change of governments in Jordan to be challenging, because the agendas change from one minister to the other. They think that corruption is an issue, however, it is hard to uncover at their level, because their money goes into the central bank to sustain the currency and they keep a close eye on it.

 

They come to a county only when it is in crisis mode and reached a point where no one would lend it money, such as Greece a few months back, or Jordan in 89. However, whenever a country borrows money from the IMF, it surrenders some of its sovereignty to the bank. They place tough conditions on the country because physical collateral is deemed inappropriate, and sometimes these conditions do not take into consideration the effect on citizens. For example subsidizing bread in Jordan or taxes for example…  They claimed they have nothing to do with politics, except when it affects the economy.

Ok here is an interesting thought. Basically, the IMF does not believe in Food subsidies. Their studies believe that cheap fuel and food prices induce waste and overconsumption, it can lead to damaging the environment, inefficient investment choices and competitiveness problems.  However worse is that they encourage wasteful activities such as smuggling, black markets and corruption.  My first instint was when your house in made of glass, you don’t throw stones at people’s houses. Thank God, I never said this, because when I learnt that Energy consumption in the UAE is 50% more than in USA! It was staggering!

By the way, the constant increase in fuel prices since 2005 was part of one of these conditions. Fuel prices followed international prices by 2008. In order to mitigate any problems, the Jordanian government increased minimum wages, one-time bonus to government employees  and low income pensioners and increased allocations to the National Aid Fund.  It may seem that these conditions make sense, but people in Jordan suffered by these measures. No report in the world can show the suffering of  people in the winter, when parents watch their children while the imprint of cold scars them for life. I guess people in the IMF, who wear their elegant suites and sit in their fancy offices do not see this.

Anyway, this year and under social pressure, the government suspended the automatic fuel price adjustment and reduced taxes on gasoline, diesel and kerosene.

The unemployment rate in Jordan is quite high, particularly among young people and graduates. The outlook does not look bright as long as the GDP growth is very low. It is at 2.5 and is expected to   pick up modestly to 3% in 2012 as business confidence grows.  From their perspective, unemployment rate is high in the region is general because of high labor force growth, skill mismatches, labor market rigidities, large public sector and high reservation wages. The problem is particularly high among females.

The labor force participation rate  is much lower than in any other region in the world! It is below 50%, while in East Asis for example it is at 70%.

Fiscal and external sustainability in 2012 and beyond in Jordan will remain reliant on external grant support.- I guess we still need  support, especially that some of our main income generating pillars such as Tourism has suffered this year with the Arab Spring

 

They laughed when we asked about the GCC . They said that it will largely depend on the arrangement we will go, but the devil is in the details. They though it will be a long process, but hopeully will bring prosperity to Jordan.

I also asked him, how the average citizen can interact with them, especially that it seems that their policy making is very far from any average system around the world. He answered that when they will come to Jordan in December, they would like to interact with youth groups, if anyone is interested.

I always get excited to see one of our promising youth. However, the moment I said hello it hit me that something was not right. To start with Sami was not supposed to be in the street that hour of the day. It was 11 AM, he was supposed to be at school. “sami, keefak?” I asked. He answered smiling, “good”. “Why aren’t you at school?” He showed me his left hand “well” he said, “I am going to the hospital”. The smile immediately left my face. His finger was in a weird position,  I asked unthinkingly “is it broken?”  He said “yes, my Arabic language teacher broke it!”

Nothing could have prepared me for that moment. I felt the anger forming in my stomach. “why? What happened?” I asked very seriously now. “He was angry at one of my class mates. He asked me to put my book on the desk. I turned my head to remove it from the bag. At that moment I saw my pen at my neighbor’s desk, I took it. Before I blinked, he hit me.”

I looked at sami, who was explaining to me a perfectly disturbing story with an embarrassed smile, feeling that he was the guilty party. It was a critical moment; a moment when one of our youth could learn that he mattered, that what happened to him was, as a matter of fact, important. Sami is the product of an educational system that strips children of their dignity.  Teachers peel off the first layer of children’s dignity because their mothers did not go beyond 6^th grade. They peel off the rest slowly over twelve years of pain because they have the wrong origins or religions, because they come from the wrong backgrounds, because the teachers themselves are not happy with their paycheck, because they are not pleased with their socio economic status.  The result is a broken generation that suffers of severe low self esteem.

I decided that I needed to do something, this was a rare opportunity that was presented to me for a purpose. I took Sami to my office and called the school.

One the supervisors picked up the phone. I told him that I had a child whose finger is broken because his teacher hit him. The supervisor said “oh, yeah, I saw him half an hours ago” I asked “and what did you do about it?” he answered  “I asked him what was wrong and he told me he fell and broke his finger.”  Sami explained to me later that the teacher was around therefore, he was afraid to say anything in front of him.

“Why didn’t you take him to a healthcare center to take a look at the injury?” I asked and he answered “Lady, I have 800 kids, I don’t have the energy or the time to run after each one of them!”

 This sentence summed it all up. It represented everything that is wrong with our educational system, actually it was a manifestation of the era of degradation that our world has sunk into… We are simply too selfish to care. It said it all… I could not remember last time I felt this angry… I decided to do the undoable… I pulled a string.

I called the most important person that I knew, explained to her what the situation was and begged her to do something about it… luckily, my wasta’s heart is in the right place…

To cut a long story short, a few hours later, Sami’s mother called me, she wanted to thank me, now that she was informed of all the details…She told me that the whole staff went to visit the family’s house to drink a cup of coffee… a “atwa” of sorts… Aparently my wasta managed to put them in their places. They felt they needed to do something to redeem themselves… or maybe they simply thought that Sami’s family knows people and therefore should not be touched…

 I laughed!

I am so terribly amused by the whole thing. I wonder what would have happened if I did not talk to sami, I wonder how many Samis are out there in Jordan… I wonder why the system fails…

 Why didn’t I believe in the system? Why did I need to call my wasta?

 Let me briefly mention another story here, hopefully it will shed the light to why we don’t believe in the system.  

A couple of years ago, we had a problem with one of the schools. It had snakes living in the walls. A colleague contacted the Ministry of Education. They sent an angry inspector. She took him around and showed him the size of our predicament… he asked one question.. “did the snake ever bite any child?” he asked…”No” answered a baffled teacher… “Then this is not a priority!”

I would only say  thank God for new media… at least today an inspector would think 5 times before he dares say something this horrid!

• كان الإعتصام بإدارة مجموعة من شباب الجامعات، و بدأ الناس ينضمون لهم. بعكس ما ادعاه رئيس الوزارة المحترم. لا أحد يحب التعصب. أتمنى ان لا تكون اللحية دلاله على ان الشحص اخوان مسلمين، لأنه في عمري اللحية تعتبر كول! .

• كان المعتصمين خليط من جميع الأطياف و المنابت. و ان ما يقال ان الإنقسام كان فلسطيني\اردني غير صحيح. كان هناك مسلمين، و مسيحييين، يساريين و يمينيين، شباب اردنيين من جميع الأصول تمثيل عشائري، ارمن، شركس….فيحبطني انه هناك عناصر تحاول خلق نزعات و فتنة في وقت يجب ان نوحد صفوفنا لنتأكد من ان مستقبل الأردن واضح لأولادنا في ظل الأطماع الإقليمية لإسرائيل و في ظل نزاع البقاء على الماء و الذي يهددنا بكابوس قريب.

بدأ الإعتصام بأدب و باحترام، و كان الشباب منظمين بأغاني وطنية و دبكات. كان جميعهم ينادي بحياة الملك و يطالبون باصلاحات. بدأت المشاكل عند انضمام البلطجية كانوا يسبون مسبات سيئة جدا على المتظاهرين. و بدأوا برشق الحجارة و الحق انه عناصر الأمن لم تتدخل و لم تؤذي. بالعكس كانت هناك محاولات مساعدة

المشكلة بدات عندما قررت قوات الدرك الإنضمام الى البلطجية الذين كانوا يصلون للميدان بالرغم من اغلاق جميع المنافذ و عدم السماح لأحد بالدخول. بدل الدفاع عن الشباب المعتصمين الذين كانوا يمارسون حقوقهم الدستورية بشكل حضاري(بالرغم اني اعتقد انه الأعتصام عطل مسيرة دوار الداخلية، وهو عصب مهم في عمان، من الممكن ان اختيار المكان لم يكن موفق). كان هناك هدف واحد للدرك وهو فض الاعتصام.  هل كان هناك تواطوء من قبال الأمن مع البلطجية؟

• انا لست متأكدة و لكن بدأ عندي تشكك ان البلطجية لم تكن حركة عشوائية. بل وراءها اشخاص معينين يستفيدون من الإنقسام الأردني. لأنه من المستحيل ان ينظم هؤلاء انفسهم بهذه الطريقة بدون منظم وراءهم. و اتساءل اذا كانت الحكومة وراءها؟ و اذا لم تكن الحكومة فمن اذا. اعتقد ان السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه هو من المستفيد من ابقاء الوضع كما هو؟ و خاصة ان الملك بنفسه يدعم و يشجع الإصلاح؟

• الأردنيون أمام القانون سواء لا تمييز بينهم في الحقوق والواجبات وإن اختلفوا في العرق أو اللغة

• . تكفل الدولة العمل والتعليم ضمن حدود إمكانياتها وتكفل الطمأنينة وتكافؤ الفرص لجميع الأردنيين

مش رح احكي عن سبب كون هذي الثورة كثير مهمة لأنه انحكى بالموضوع كفاية. و لكن بحب احكي عن متطلبات شباب الأردن من الحكومة الجديدة وخاصة في المرحلة الحرجة و المهمه اللي نحنا فيها

• إعادة الانتخابات! (هي شوي كانت سياسية) بس قالوا انه بالنسبة لإلهم الانتخابات الماضية ما كانت نزيهة و خاصة انه هم ما كانوا فاهمين شو قصة الدوائر الوهمية، و مافهموا ليش اتطبق قانون الصوت الواحد لما كل الناس قالوا انه مش مناسب. و طبعا أكدوا انه هم مش فاهمين شو الفرق ما بين قانون الصوت الواحد و قوانين الانتخابات الثانية. و هذا بياخدنا للنقطة الثانية و اللي كمان كانت سياسية بطبعها

• طلب الشباب بحركة توعية سياسيه للشباب. و خاصة انه هناك وزارة تسمى بوزارة التنمية السياسيه و هم أكدوا انهم ما بعرفوا شي عنها. ووضحوا انه الشباب هم الغالبية العظمى من مواطنين الأردن. و هم بيشعروا انه في حركة تجهيل صريحة و هذا بيأثر على مستقبل السياسه في الأردن

• إبعاد التدخل الأمني عن الجامعات! اتركونا نختار مجالسنا بأنفسنا، اتركونا نتعلم من اسس السياسة الأمنه في الجامعات.

• وضع كوته لتوظيف شباب الأردن في مشاريع الاستثمارات الأجنبية. لنحاول ان نعطي فرص العمل للشباب الأردنيين و خاصة في الوظائف العليا. لماذا نحتاج مستشارين اجانب و نحن لدينا خبرات محلية؟

• محاولة أن نطبق فكرة انه لا أحد فوق القانون. و هذا لا يحدث إلا بالقضاء على الواسطة و التأكيد على الشفافية. و محاسبة المسئولين في جميع أماكنهم، و مهما كانت مناصبهم

• ارحمونا في موضوع المواصلات. أعطوا خصم لطلاب الجامعات

• يجب أن يكون قبول الجامعات مبني على التنافس و ليس على التمييز. يجب إلغاء جميع المكرمات. لماذا أبناء المعلمين آو الجيش أحق من أبناء الأطباء او المهندسين او حتى عمال النظافة. كل منا يخدم الوطن بطريقته. و الوطن يحتاجنا كلنا حتى يستمر. فإما أن تكون المكرمات للجميع أو يجب فتح الباب للتنافس النزيه للجميع.

• لنفعَل موضوع التعليم المهني. يمكن على وزارة التعليم العالي اعطاء نفس الإهتمام لتعليم الكليات كما تعطي لتعليم الجامعات. نحن نهمش من العديد من الفرص و هذا يخلق الإحباط لفئة الفقراء الذين لا يستطيعون تحمل تكاليف الجامعات الخاصة و التي دخلوها لأنه نظام التعليم قائم على التمييز

“I am not creative, I just have access to a lot of creativity” ~ Mais Gamoh, one of the most creative young women I came across.

I have been trying to write this post for a while, but was not sure what I wanted to say exactly. Since I traveled to Spain, I wondered why the “taste” in Spain is nicer than in Amman… and by taste, I mean furniture, clothing, jewelry…etc. I know that the answer might seem intuitive for a lot of people, but it was not for me.

A few days ago, I came across this picture at some weekly newspaper, and since I am in the process of furniture shopping it caught my attention… I am one of those who don’t mind looking around before deciding to buy something that would stay with me for a long time. (by the way I hate shopping)

I am not sure what brain came up with this embodiment of chic!

Even though there are more furniture shops in Amman than I care to count, only a selected few have nice things. Unfortunately, they are super expensive. Majority of the shops that have affordable furniture, Like the one in the picture, sell furniture that looks cheap in the best cases and hideous in the worst.  Most of them show similar color themes and designs. Never a variety of tastes. These designs become so familiar that after a while, people would actually like them.  At that sad moment they become the standard.

Shop owners claim that they import or manufacture things based on the local taste, but I think it is the opposite; people buy what is available and affordable, and in our case, shop owners impose their own taste on everyone else.

The same happened when I was in the process of buying the engagement ring.

I visited the gold market in Swefieh. I wanted the most basic style. I did not worry much then because I thought that what i was looking for was the standard ring.

I was wrong.

The market was flooded with this one particular style. A thick ring that has 3 to 4 different shades of gold, each one with a different hew.  I called it the noble ring!

Let’s just say that I did not like it.

I decided to go to Jabal Hussein to look for “simple”…  Jabal Hussein was worse… basically what was available was an inferior version of the noble ring!

Khalas, along the way someone had decided that this was going to be the trend for rings in fall 2010 and everyone else followed suit. Nothing and I mean NOTHING else could be found.  We, eventually, ended up going to one of the big gold stores at Um othainah and bought a simple ring for a slightly more expensive price because “simple” was not in.

I bet that every woman who got engaged at that point is wearing this particular ring. Not because it is brilliant, nor because they love it… but because it was the only thing that was available then.

I leave you with another picture of what is available in the market, note that prices have increased when furniture became a bit more creative(i.e. differnt colours and shapes were introduced…)… no comment on the taste. 

It would be nice to have more choices in the more affordable bracket.

 Part of this post part is of a reseearch that I published in venture Magazine in July 2007 (I think). The article is called out of Sync. I have chosen parts of it for today’s post.This article was heavely edited… so don’t be surprisedif it looks professional!

            The question of labour rights is something that has been constantly on my mind lately. Mostly because I have recently joint the labour force in Jordan… well obviously I am not in the blue collar sector. I have a highly respectable position at a highly respectable sector. However being one of  millions of people who earn their living by doing actual work,  makes me wonder what the situation is in the blue collar sector if this is how it is in the white collar sector.

           I have several thoughts that I would like to share in the coming few months,  but today I would like to start at a very safe place: the culture of shame.

           I am one of those who don’t believe in the culture of shame. I add my voice to those who claim that this is an expression invented by the government to cover their failure to solve concrete problems, such as unemployment, low wages and human rights violations; and what better exit  than blame the people?

Picture taken from my window

Decoding the “Culture of Shame”

           In a study conducted by the Ministry of Labour a few years, the disconnect between available Jordanian jobseekers and vacant jobs is addressed partly as a logistical challenge, and partly an entrenched social reality.

            “This mismatch comes from the geographical distance between job opportunities and job seekers,” said Ghada Salem, (She was an economic researcher at the Ministry of Labour, as well as a Procurement Officer at the World Bank when this article was originally wrote). The research also shows that the general impression is that the productivity of Jordanians is lower than the productivity of foreign workers. Not only that, but that Jordanians have higher expectations from job opportunities in terms of benefits and positions. “Sometimes even if there are opportunities, it is difficult to find Jordanians who are willing to take up these jobs, partly because of their expectations and partly because of the culture,” said Salem.

           In one of the projects that I managed a few years ago; I was faced with a situation that almost  made me fall in the trap of believing in the culture of shame. The project was  a 24-month experimental initiative aiming to link unemployed women with work opportunities through helping them understand their own skills using the portfolio of competences model.  

            The project hasn’t been simple. Local training coordinator Mrs. Ibdah from Wadi Al Rayan in Northern Ghor told Venture, “These women do not want to work. Don’t waste your breath on them.”

           The program had administered an eight week skills training to 30 women for jobs in local textile factories in Irbid, and I couldn’t understand why the women declined jobs after completing training. “They all were very excited about the possibility of steady income less than a week ago,” Ibdah  said. “Now that we have found them opportunities in the textile industry, most of them used their male kin as an excuse for not working in the factories.”

            The negative perception of working in factories is not uncommon; as research conducted by the Economic Research Unit at the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) of the University of Jordan showed that Jordanians refuse to work at a number of jobs.  69 percent of the unemployed in Jordan refuse to work as agricultural workers, 82 percent refuse to work in construction, 79 percent as building guards, 71 percent as messengers for companies and 75 percent would not work as waiters.

           Whilst these attitudes may seem arbitrary, the research shows that a clear majority of the unemployed males would accept these jobs (with the exception of cleaning) at a salary of 200JD per month. The study suggests that the primary aversion of these jobs is not the commonly referenced Jordanian “culture of shame,” but the meagre financial returns associated with these sectors.

           This is one important explanation for the challenges presented by the women of Wadi Al Rayan. After internal research, participants admitted that some of their reluctance to work is related to transportation fees that they have to bear in order to travel to their work places in Irbid. “I will take home about 100 JDs after all the deductions, the bus from al Wadi to Irbid costs around 120 Piasters everyday. This leaves me with about 70 JD at the end of the month,” said Mrs. Khateeb, one of the target women. “It is just not worth it.”

Insecurity Kills the Economy

          Low wages alone don’t tell the whole story. Poor benefits, a perceived lack of stability and difficult working conditions also drive a wedge between Jordanians and growth industry jobs. Many unemployed simply don’t have faith in the private sector’s ability to provide for them and their families.

            Construction is such an example. Despite the fact that 23.8 percent of the labour force is in construction, Jordanian participation has declined almost 50 percent between 1987 and 2003, due to unattractive salaries and working conditions. Today, the vast majority of those currently working in this sector are non-Jordanians.

           According to a study by the European Training Foundation, the overwhelming majority of business enterprises in Jordan are small: 94 percent have four or fewer workers. And few small companies can match the benefits of being employed in the public sector. “I can be sacked any time in the private sector, but in the public sector, I have both the stability and the benefits,” said Mahmoud Abdallah, an unemployed young man from Irbid.

            Insecurity is one of the most prominent reasons cited by the Wadi Al Rayan target women. In order to take a job in the Irbid factories, the women needed to surrender a significant portion of their guaranteed National Aid income. In the end, this proved unattractive.

             Dr. Ahmad Kafawen (was the general manager of the National Aid Fund at the time) explained that a household of five or more receives a monthly allowance JD156.  If the head of the family starts working, this allowance will be decreased by the amount of the monthly salary. This means that if a woman heads a family, she will actually take home less money—after transportation costs—than if she stayed at home. Furthermore, there is a clear government policy that if a woman refuses a job opportunity, she would lose her national aid anyway. The result is that most women do not attempt to look for jobs. 

             Perhaps this helps explain the appeal of the public sector and the Armed Forces. The jobs are considered very stable, and the benefits offered are attractive; including social security, retirement plans and health insurance, for both the worker’s nuclear family and parents.

               “Young men work at the factories temporarily, they stay around till they get a job in the public sector, and they take them, even if the payment is less,” said Mohamed Injadat, General Manager of a textile factory in one of the QIZs in Al-Ghor. “They feel that jobs at the public sector are more secure.”

 Domestic Disturbance

              The vast majority of domestic helpers in Jordan are non-Jordanians. According to a new report by the Ministry of Labour’s information and studies department, the number of legal domestic helpers in the country is just over 38,000, of which some 18,000 are Indonesians, 11,000 from Philippines, 8,000 Sri Lankans and 350 Egyptians. Jordanians avoid this growth sector for many reasons, but most prominent are deep-seated concerns about working conditions. (I wonder how relevant is the resistance from several countries, such as India, SriLanka, Philppines… etc to send domestoc workers to Jordan related to the working conditions? I think, this was coming eventually)

             As current Jordanian labour law excludes domestic workers, plentiful circumstantial evidence suggests that they are rife for mistreatment. Article Three of the National Labour Law states that “servants who are working for houses, their gardens, their cooks…and those of similar capacity,” are excluded, explains Mr. Amjad Wishah, Director of Migrant Workers Directorate. 

            He says the exemption aims to preserve the private nature of the home: “It is difficult to send inspectors to supervise the labour in private houses. However, we are aware of the problems that rise from the current situation; we are working on a mechanism to include them in the law while respecting the home’s privacy.”

            The exemption has understandable impacts on Jordanians’ willingness to be domestic workers, says Assem Rababa’a, Head of Aballah, a human rights organization advocateing for Arab rights in Israel. “The nature of work, which requires women to sleep at the employer’s house, long hours, low financial returns and the fear of abuse are all reasons why Jordanians don’t allow their daughters to work in this sector.”

             Faced with low salaries, the home governments of domestic workers in Jordan are stepping in. The Philippines Ministry of Labour has increased the pay scale of domestic workers to $400 a month effective March 2007. Louisa Reyes, a Welfare Officer at the Embassy of Philippines in Amman, pointed out that when the salaries were first increased, the government hoped that families who could afford a larger salary would be more educated, thus decreasing the likelihood of abuse of Filipina workers. 

           Physical, psychological and verbal abuse is alarmingly common, according to Reyes. “Of the complaints we get [from domestic workers], 40 to 50 percent …are about physical abuse. And another 10 to 15 percent are about sexual abuse.”

                 To investigate the life of a foreign domestic worker is to delve into unpleasant stories. The Embassy hears complaints that live-in domestic workers are rarely allowed to leave the house, visit their friends or go for a walk. It’s not unheard of in Jordan that they are even locked up in empty apartments. In some cases, families (and/or employment agencies) go as far as confiscating the domestic worker’s passport, further hindering their ability to defend themselves.

Clever Can Go a Long Way

           The labour crisis in Jordan is forcing organizations to find innovative solutions. One example comes from the NGO community. In response to the difficulties presented by the Labour law exemption, one project is training Jordanian women to be domestic workers, but avoiding private homes altogether. Izdihar, funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, focuses on professional office cleaning. By avoiding domestic settings, the project faces the “culture of shame” that hinders the free movement of women from conservative areas and implying disrespect for manual and blue-collar work.

              Izdihar attracts unskilled women, trains them for 4 months and then certifies them. “We are starting training course number twelve,” said Nawal Khalil, the Project Coordinator. “85 percent of our trainees find jobs, mostly in hospitals and hotels, however families still do not allow their daughters to work in houses,” she said. Once these women were given favourable wages, social security and health insurance, resistance from their families faded.

              The Greater Amman Municipality found an ingenious solution to workers’ reluctance to work in the sanitary sector. Mr. Ali al-Askar, Deputy Manager for the District Affairs at the Municipality pointed out that the Municipality needed new strategies to encourage Jordanians to work in the sector. First, the city changed the job title for sanitation workers, from Cleaning Officer to National Officer. By locating employees’ regular routes neighbourhoods other than their own removed much of the stigma of their work. These changes, coupled with a small increase in salaries and monthly productivity awards dealt with a major taboo. 

            Mr. al-Askar said that the Municipality does not have exact figures, but he says the shortage in the number of sanitation workers has eased.

            GAM’s successes don’t discount the notion that big initiatives may be required in other sectors. With efficient implementation, the impact of the Ministry of Labor’s new plan to recruit 30,000 unskilled workers—via the Army—for training in the construction sector could make waves throughout the industry. The plan calls for trainees to receive all the benefits afforded to military personnel during the project’s duration.

              This will provide Jordanian unemployed youth with the sense of security they search for, when they are seeking employment, and in the long term, they will have more benefits if they stayed with the armed forces,” said Shawkat Ababneh, the Deputy Manager for the National Training and Employment Center.

Source:  Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) of the University of Jordan

Getting e exposed to the taxi experience in the last few weeks reminded me of the agony that led to buying the car in the first place.

On Wednesday, I was running late for the 7iber event that was created around the Tachtical tech film,  was about to start and I had the film with me. I truly needed to be there on time. I had to use a taxi…

The next two paragraphs are truly unimportant. They state the conversation with the taxi driver. So you can simply skip them if you are not in the mood for details.

Destiny sent this strange fellow my way… an old dirty dude, who started a strange conversation with me. He started talking about a woman that he knew… it seemed to me that he was obsessed with her. He was telling me how she uses his services every now and then, and how much she loved and trusted him. He explained her pattern in detail. She visited “her uncle” every now and then with a whisky bottle… she went at 11 and then called the taxi to pick her at 3 or 4 AM. Sometimes, she called him “uncle” and sometimes “cousin”.

One day, she got pregnant with her absent husband who lives in the states, and when her time came to give birth, she was alone. But Mr. Taxi came to the rescue…Sadly the baby died, but Mr. Taxi was too smart… he noticed that baby looked like the man she called her uncle!

Mr. Taxi went on and on piling a detail upon a detail, using bad words and descriptive adjectives… I did not feel safe being in that taxi, but felt less safe asking him to stop. What if I offended him by asking him to stop? What if I implanted an idea by asking to stop?…many what ifs raced through my head. The guy was clearly mentally unstable… and the only option I felt I had then was to humor him and listen to his disgusting tale about his prostitute.

When we stop a taxi, we are, practically, getting in the car with a perfect stranger. Someone we don’t know anything about, we can’t predict his moods, his ethics, his next move. I am not saying that we should know public transportation drivers on a personal level… but in the case of a taxi, it is two people in a car alone.

When in a taxi, no one knows where you are. It is not like you are using the services of a registered company, if you disappear, the people in the office will know where to find you. It is not like you can complain to some sort of an office if this guy did or said something inappropriate… because, usually a taxi is operated by a guy and his brother in law, or in the best case with his cousin…ya3ni, if a taxi driver killed someone for example, they would be the people he would call to hide the body. (To use an extreme scenario example of course).

So all that makes me wonder if taxi drivers are the safest transportations mode, especially for women?
By the way lack of reliable and safe transportation was named as the number one deterrent for women job seekers  in a study that was conducted by a project I managed a few years ago. I expected any reason, but not this one.

Using public transportation is extremely expensive… women who make the minimum wage spend most of their salary on taxis and buses… especially in rural areas and in the suburbs where public transportation does not make it. But things do not stop there;Fathers, husbands and brothers do not feel that it is safe for their women folk to get in cars with perfect strangers. honestly… i don’t blame them… i don’t feel safe myself.