That brought to my mind a question that F. asked me once to make a point mind you, if you want to buy a shirt and you have two choices one made in France and one made in Tunis for the same price, which one will you buy? The question kept me puzzled because I really could not give an answer without being dishonest to him or to myself.  It also brought to my mind my cousin N. who came back to Jordan after he earned an MBA with this passion to buy local products such as CJC clothing and carpets made by Bedouins… he argues that the shirts are not exactly Hugo Boss but this is the way we build the economy in our nation! He asked me to look at the tag of any piece of clothing I buy anywhere in the west to see where it is made and my shock was when I started doing this that these items are made everywhere but the west! Including in JORDAN! That was a T-shirt I bought in Spain few years ago!

I took my conversation to Y. who is an Industrial Engineer. He told me there is one problem. In Saudi and Egypt the only good products are those that follow strict western standards, because unfortunately in other cases, the industries don’t bother to follow standards. They might start on the right track, but once people start spending money, the quality goes immediately down because they start cutting corners!  Is it because we don’t care about consumers? Is it corruption? Is it lack of professionalism? Or is it a desire to make quick money? Just one look at the restaurants in Amman… there is a reason why only some survive while the others keep changing.

With our self esteem, our brand sensitivity and awareness and with all this booming economy in Jordan, who needs to buy local brands??  The sad truth is that our brands stand NO chance in this fierce global competition. One of my uncles’ wives in Spain worked in Zarah factories for a while… the stories she used to bring about the competence of the working women in the factories was a mixture of horror and amusement… do we even imagine and those who make Zarah’s clothing are even remotely more efficient or more competent than our own women?!
Anyway…….It made me wonder if we could ever learn to trust our own initiatives and maybe the magic word to solve our own problem is indeed… self esteem!