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.

We started the day by listening to Jeremy Mark, who is the IMF Director’s deputy, jetlag-gedly explaining how things work at the IMF. I realized how ignorant I am in economy related issues. It was a grade above Martian for me. I could pick up a few things though, I would highlight what I found most interesting throughout the post.

I learnt : The IMF works as a shareholding bank, a simpler form of modern bank. Wealthier nations have more influence because they have more contribution, so the USA is the most influential country, it has 18% of the votes, next in line comes Germany and Japan and they hold 5% and 6% of the votes.

Of course, we had to discuss Dominique Strauss-Khan scandal. For those who don’t know it, he was picked out in a police lineup by the maid who says the Frenchman attacked her in a swank New York City hotel, a few weeks ago. This scandal had very negative influence on the image of the IMF.

I learnt: 25% of the IMF work goes into technically supporting the different members’ government. This means helping them in setting their own economic policies.

I learnt: The IMF has imposed unbearable conditions on countries that needed lending as collateral . These conditions were insensitive to local communities, poverty levels, social impact, basically, did not necessarily have the countries’ best interest in mind. That is why it is so unpopular.

In an answer to the importance of participative democracy when deciding the projects that should be implemented in any country, Jeremy explained that when a county becomes a member in the IMF, it has to surrender some of its sovereignty to the IMF in return of the money. The problem was that in the eighties and nineties, it was bureaucrats in grey suites, sitting in their fancy offices in Washington who made the decisions on behalf of member countries, even though they were not the most experts in those particular countries. They never took into account the impact of their decisions on the local societies. IMF claims that they have leant… did they really?

Educated citizenry is the essence of everything. Even though the policies that get discussed and created in Washington are very far from the streets and average citizens anywhere in the  world, they have real impact on what people would consume as food in developed countries for example. So, we should be aware of what policies get created there.

I will leave the post here for the time being, and come back to update it later. It has been  great to hear the other side of the story.

Concepcion, also known as connie or Conchita decided to express her personal trauma by living there at Lafayette Square until “God decides when”. She started her protest, which has been going for more than 20 years now after doing her best to resolve a family issue.

According to Wikipedia she was married to an Italian business man when she was 21, however her marriage ended in a bitter divorce, where she ended up by losing everything including her husband, her job, her house and her daughter. She felt betrayed by the system that she deemed unjust and tried for years to reverse the court ruling, however failed miserably. One day, this traumatized mother, after she could not take it anymore, went to the White House and simply stood there. Connie, has never saw her daughter ever since. I wonder if the daughter knows about her and how she feels about her.

Connie has survived imprisonment,  torture, extreme weather conditions, the aggravation of extremists and the annoyance of crazy individuals. She also survived the harsh demands of the police officers who guard the area.  They do not allow her to sleep lying down! The only way she can sleep is sitting upright, this might explain why her back  arches outwards in a strange angle.    and She survives on the charity of random people by selling certain stones that she colours herself in support of the Palestinian cause. When I asked her if she has any Palestinian roots (I mean, come on!) she said “I am Palestinian by heart”.

This woman from Spain has brought attention to the Palestinian cause for millions and millions of tourists and passerby for more than 20 years. She has carried on the longest continuous act of political protest in the United States.

God bless her. A heart broken mother with an amazing willpower to fight.

I must admit that I was worried at the beginning, I thought that the band will not give the concert a lot of attention, since it was in Istanbul, it started raining just as the show was about to start and of course there was the question of the empty stadium at the beginning.  

How wrong I was!

Let me take a step back and give some background…

U2 played their first ever show in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday 6^th of September 2010. It was part of the 360° Tour. The tour is an ongoing worldwide tour, launched last year in support of the group’s 2009 album “No Line on the Horizon.” The tour is named after the 360-degree stage that they use in their tour and which costs around 26 million dollars every time they mantle and dismantle it! Basically, every few days!

The stage looked like a gigantic space ship, the light show and the messages shown throughout the show were magnificent. Nevertheless, the band did not allow us (the audience) to be distracted by all that dazzling show because the music was GREAT!

Bono sang 24 songs, by the end I was thinking to myself Allah ya3teeh il 3afieh! I can’t believe that his voice could go on till the end.

The songs they played were the following

1. Return Of The Stingray Guitar
2. Beautiful Day / Always Forever Now (snippet)
3. New Year’s Day
4. Get On Your Boots
5. Magnificent
6. Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet)
7. Elevation
8. Until The End Of The World
9. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
10. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
11. In A Little While
12. Miss Sarajevo
13. City Of Blinding Lights
14. Vertigo
15. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Discothèque (snippet) / John I’m Only Dancing (snippet)
16. Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
17. Mothers Of The Disappeared
18. Yiğidim Aslanım Burda Yatıyor
19. Walk On / You’ll Never Walk Alone (snippet)

encore(s):

1. One
2. Amazing Grace (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
3. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
4. With Or Without You
5. Moment of Surrender

Politics

As we all know, politics have always been part of U2’s concerts. Our breaths were held in anticipation of the cause that Brono was going to support.  The one thing we can say about Turkey is that the political situation there is not simple or straight forward!

Before the show, the band visited with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, partied in the city and hiked across Istanbul’s Bosphorus Bridge. RTT and Hurriyet news have reported on  Bono’s visit before the concert.

Obviously, Bono mentioned the visit and the walk on the bridge that connects Europe to Asia, and even though he did not particularly mention Erdogan on stage, he received a strong boo  from the crowd once he thanked someone called “Egemen Bagis” for helping them cross the Bosphauros bridge on foot. The name did not mean anything to us, but after the concert I googled him to know that he is State Minister and chief negotiator. Sounded like he is not very popular.

Bono was smart; he said “ok, I will not name politicians anymore. Is it Ok to talk about the bridge?” the crowds applauded and he said “it is a beautiful bridge!” He then talked about the importance of the bridge because it connects the secular and the religious, east and west, past and future…

The interesting part was that he dedicated “ Mothers of the Disappeared” to someone called Fehmi Tosun, whose family was there that evening. We had no idea who he was, but then we realized that he was a Kurdish activist who disappeared in 1995 while in custody. Bono had mentioned Fehmi on the cover o f the 1997 album “pop”.  At that moment a Turkish politician called Zilfu Livaneli came on stage to sing some heartbreaking turkish song. The song was popular in the funerals of activist and journalists who were killed by the State in the 1990s.  EVERYONE was singing along.  Zulfu is a protest singer and a  famous columnist.

On the screen, the band showed pictures of Sukaina Mohamedi Ashtiani;  she is an Iranian Azeri woman who has been convicted of murder and adultery. She has been on death row in Iran since 2006. Her controversial case became internationally known in 2010 after high profile reports that she was convicted for the crime of adultery and sentenced to execution by stoning.

He also showed bits of a speech done by Desmond Tutu  to introduce the NGO One. Which is supported heavily by U2.

By the way by the time we left there were 50,000 people attending the concert with us!

All in all, it was a great great concert. 

I must warn you guys that i am writing this with the most difficulty. To start with, I am staying at a farm in the middle of nowhere. Secondly, Internet is a rare commodity in these areas and thirdly the keyboard i am using is a veteran from World warI. God bless it, for still working.  Fourthy, EVERYTHIN is in Spanish! So today my spelling mistakes must be forgiven!

The farm is a heavenly heavenly HEAVENLY spot! It stands on a flat spot and is surrounded by miles of green meadows. Ohh it belongs to my grandmother. It is nice to spend time with the family… they are all the same, but a bit bolder and bit greyer..

They have chicken and horses and dogs…in a nearby farm ( a few kilometers away) they have cows and pigs! We have to be quiet around pigs because they are sensetive. Around, you smell the smell of earth, mixed with shit and farmenting plants… Seriously,  What more chic was I hoping for?

I am so relaxed, I forgot all about the work, and the stress of serving 170  studnets on a daily basis… I now believe that Heaven must be a place where no phone nor computers  exist. I hope they have different ways of communication there. I am hoping telepathy?

By theway, I realized how spoilt we are in Amman, we are living in a bubble of materialism, consumption and services  that we forgot how to enjoy the simple pleasures of life… such as cleaning, and cooking and living…simply living.

Anyway, I  need to log off, my daily buisness is to get the frech eggs. It is almost time for breakfast  So  will try to write as often as i can.

One last thing… i have never seen so much water in one place (put aside big rivers and seas…) but in a home I mean. There is a small stream running in the farm!

Hens are calling so till later.

We are staying off Hamra street. I love the café trotoires, I love the taste of liberalism in the the streets and I love the sense of culture and freedom (ohh, except for Starbucks… I am not sure how the lebanese allowed starbuck to be open in the heart of Beirut.)   It would be great if Abdali will look like this (although it will take years and years to feel  natural and organic), one thing for sure, Abdali will be an attraction to the Middle class of Amman.

Over the next few days, I intend to see much more of Beirut… I will write a proper post about it then; hopefully with pictures…

I am afraid, this is all for today.

Inspired by Nas

 I was in Egypt last week.  And even though my love to Cairo is as big as the pyramids, I was disappointed at how Egypt received the Algerian team.  Not only did they beat them up, but thousands of people spent their night honking and beeping around the hotel in which the Algerian team spent the night… They made sure the team stayed up all night without a moment of sleep.

Truthfully, we, as Arabs, never handled our football lightly… I came across a piece written by Mahmoud Darwish in his book “The memory of forgetfulness”… Beirut was under siege… the Arab street was silent… but … the referee cheated in a football game in which Algeria was playing, and the whole Arab world took the streets in angry demonstration.

The piece saddened me… it is nostalgic… brought fuzzy feeling in my heart… nostalgia to a reality that only exists in my mind…. I know that tonight millions of Arabs are watching the game… just like did in that day when the referee cheated.

 In Darwish’s  words:

 محمود درويش من كتاب ذاكرة النسيان

 ” و لكنني لا أغضب، كما يغضب غيري، من المظاهرات العربية الصاخبة التي خرجت تحتج على حكم منحاز في مباريات كرة القدم. لا لأن كرة القدم تلهب الحماسة أكثر من هذا الصمود الطويل في بيروت، بل لأن المكبوت العربي، المتعدد المصادر، قد عثر على نقطة الإنفجار في المتاح العربي. ووجد فرصة التعبير الممكن عن غضب مزمن في حرب لا تهدد الوطن ماديا،في حرب معنويات تنتهي الى هدنة اكيدة بعد 45 دقيقة، يعيد خلالها المتحاربون، توزيع صفوفهم، و تعديل خططهم الهجوميةو الدفاعية، و يتزودون الى ما يحتاجون اليه من ذخية معنوية، و نجدة شعبية، ثم يعودون الى القتالتحت اشراف قوات دولية لا تسمح باستخدام الأسلحة المحرمة دوليا.”

 ”و لأني احب كرة القدم، لم أغضب كما غضب غيري من المفارقة. لا مظاهرة واحدة يثيرها حصار بيروت، بينما تثير كرة القدم  هذه المظاهرات أثناء حصار بيروت. لم لا؟ أن كرة القدم هي ساحة التعبير التي يوفرها تواطؤ الحاكم و المحكوم في زنزانة الديمقراطية العربية المهددة بخنق سجنائها و سجانيها معا. هي فسحة تنفس تتيح للوطن ان يلتئم حول مشترك ما، حول شىء ما, تضبط فيه حدود الأطراف و شروط العلاقة. .