Jordan Class Day Four Email

All,

Class was nothing special, but still interesting. We talked about Roman and Islamic architecture and our teacher was much calmer and more lenient with us because tomorrow is Friday, the Muslim day of prayer and rest (our Sunday). After school we went with our teacher to Mount Nebo, the mountain where this fellow named Moses or some such supposedly got his first glimpse of the "Holy Land." After that it was all downhill (no pun intended), and people have been fighting over it ever since, and for the silliest of reasons...Anyway, it was actually quite breathtaking. We had an Arabic guide, like we do every time , and he explained everything quite well. We also visited a church in Madaba, a primarily Christian town- The Church of Saint George. We attempted to visit some Mosques (sing- Masjid/ pl- Masajid), but we weren't allowed to enter. There are a few that are open to non-Muslims, and hopefully we will visit one of those. Not a huge deal as I have seen a mosque in Morocco, but would be good for everyone else to have the opportunity.

One of the girl's and I (Jen/Inas, the one from the desert training pictures) had a small adventure last night shopping for supplies at a local super market.


I didn't have a chance to send the above yesterday...

Just woke up and discovered that two of the girls (Jen and another girl) have been throwing up non-stop since the middle of the night, one of the guys has a rather unpleasant case of Montezuma's Revenge (Asahal in Arabic which means a case of the "easies). Also another guy was sick yesterday, but no throwing up and no "easies." Thus far I am doing ok. Slight change of plans. We were going to visit Petra today, then Wadi Rum (Valley of the Moon), a beautiful stretch of desert to the south. Instead will wait until tomorrow so everyone will be able to go (or we will all be sick...). I might seize the opportunity to explore Amman a bit, and to finish my homework. These things happen during travel. I once had the old ashal on a 35 hour bus trip from Golmud, China to Lhasa, Tibet, along with headache, fever, etc. F-un. I think it was dysentery, but I will never know for sure.

-Joel

Jordan Class Day Three Email

All,

If anything, today's class exceeded even my rather generous expectations, and, with the exception of our visit from Laila Al-Atrash, was even more interesting than yesterday. We had the same teacher, Ustatha Suhail, and the subject was the Arab family, in particular Bedouin customs and the phenomenon of people moving from the countryside to the cities and their effects on the family structure. This teacher is perhaps the best I have had. She speaks clearly and calmly and I can say with all honesty that I understand 100% of what she says. There is no English, even for word definitions, which is hugely beneficial.

The Arab view of the bedouins is a romantic one, perhaps best compared to Americans nostalgia for the "Old West." That wild sense of adventure, lawlessness and freedom, all but lost now in this modern age of urban sprawl and the choking fumes of diesel engines. It is the last faint stirrings of the pride and honor of a nomadic people now relegated to a sedentary existence of business suits and fast food restaurants. Hearing it explained in such a moving way by one who truly feels this passion, it is easy to see the attraction. In truth the whole of the Bedouin's code was tied to survival in the harsh environment of the desert. I will not bore you with the details, but the lesson was definitely entertaining and informational.

After class ended at noon, we accompanied our teacher (the one who came with us ffrom the US) to his hometown, where we enjoyed a wonderful traditional meal prepared by his mother. Only about 5% of the population is Christian and my teacher's family is among them (not terribly important, but...). After this we shared a class of mint tea (Shai Na'Na') with his father and his father's brother (and a rather lovely cousin, who served us the tea..yeah, yeah, sue me...). His father drove us back to Amman in his school bus. Though TV does nothing for me whatsoever and I have not watched it for some eleven years or so, looking out of the window of a bus is a fine substitute. Little gives me the same sense of inner peace than simply sitting on a bus watching the world pass by, tucked away in the great crush of my fellow human beings, secure beneath an impenetrable cloak of anonymity (this sounded better in my head on the bus..I will fix it later).

Below is a link to Laila Al-Atrash's sight. She is the author we met yesterday. Sorry this is not terribly well written. I am extremely tired and still have forty odd (very odd) pages of Arabic to attempt to read, in addition to some other homework.

Laila Al-Atrash

Take care all,

Joel

Jordan Class Day Two Email

All,

Today was rather interesting, and our teacher proved to be a welcome change of pace. She was calm and more focused on teaching than on drilling us on the previous night's reading. Our subject was honour killings and while she certainly considered them deplorable and not in anyway in keeping with Islam, she is definitely conservative in her views. She did not support unjustified honour killings, but there was an implicit message that a girl truly guilty of "dishonouring the family ( i.e. committing adultery), might very well warrant such an action, or at the very least some sort of legal response. It was interesting to be privy to this point of view. The entire idea of Sharif (Family Honor) is foreign. The word Sheriff comes from this word. The root means to oversee.

To balance it out, we had a meeting with the journalist, Laila Al-Atrash, I mentioned before. She is definitely an outspoken proponent of women's rights, and she had some wonderful insights into the issue from an Arab perspective. She was a broadcaster in Qatar for many years, and writes a column in Dustur (a Jordanian Paper) on women's rights. Needless to say we agreed on quite a few things (everything actually), including sharing a rather a dim view of American foreign policy (blaming it quite justly for many problems in the Middle East), a near outright condemnation of globalization (which she likened to a form of economic domination and certainly not a solution for the world's problems), and the fact that the true method of achieving change in the Middle East (or anywhere) is through education of the young. When asked by one student what she would do to help realize women's rights were she the Wazir (minister- Vizer in Farsi) of Education of Jordan she replied that she would distribute books on equality and understanding to various schools (to be included in the curriculum), and make them widely available. Possibly the best answer ever to that question. During speaking hour I always get (from one of our teachers) "If you were the King of Saudi Arabia, what would you do to achieve world peace?" To which I usually reply, "Ummm..."

At any rate, it was a wholly interesting, if laid back, day. Tomorrow we have the same calm teacher. Thursday we have psycho teacher again. I think she might actually resort to rapping the old ruler across our knuckles for wrong answers. It is beneficial though (I keep telling myself).

We finished off the day with a small adventure to the sports track. My friend Inas (from the desert training photos) is a dedicated runner and so I was going to accompany her and finish my homework while she ran. Unfortunately, it was closed, but the security guy bought us a cup of coffee and we talked to him for a bit in Arabic. The adventure part was crossing the road on the way back. All for now, take care.

Joel

Jordan Class Day One Email

All,

Well, I am pretty much established here in Jordan and more or less adjusted to the time difference. We had our first class yeasterday, and let's just say the teacher was a tad intense, but a rather remarkable teacher. The lessons are entirely in Arabic, and she moves extremely fast (but is quite understandable), so it is impossible even to pause to think before answering. We are supposed to read 40 pages a night of rather difficult Arabic to prepare for the next days lesson, but this is impossible unless we wish to forgo sleep altogether.

The trip in was quite nice, if long, with a seven hour layover in Frankfurt. This was nice as I was able to see Marlena, the German girl I met in Africa last year, and will probably see again on the way out. There were a few rough moments at the beginning of the trip when we first arrived in Jordan. Some of the senior guys were somewhat paranoid and one (my roomate) seems to have allowed his new rank to go to his head. They attempted to put us on a rather short lease. Had to flex the muscles a tad and bitch quite a bit, but they pretty much leave us alone now. We had some briefings which said pretty much what I already knew, that it is not particiularly dangerous.

We have been existing primarily on Shwarma sandwiches and fries, but last night a few of us went to a really nice restaurant and had some hummus, baba ganoush and heaping plates of mansaf (bedouin dish consisting of rice with lamb). Of course using the language is awesome, and the dialect among the more educated people is close to Modern Standard Arabic. The less educated are simply impossible to understand. There is a considerable Iraqi refuge population here (700,000), and most of the population is actually Palestinian.

We also went to Jerash yesterday, which has possibly the best preserved Roman ruins I have seen (lots if pics), better than Volubilis in Morocco, but without the wonderful mosaics. Today's subject is honour killings and we are going to talk with a reporter and women's rights activist, which for me should be the highlight of the trip. I hope to pick her brain a bit about working in that field in the future.

Take care everyone.

Joel

Superbad actually pretty good...

Though this is hardly the type of movie I am accustomed to watching, I thought that it had garnered enough satisfactory reviews to peak my curiosity and merit a viewing. Despite the vulgarity of much of its subject matter and its lowbrow humor, both of which will generally put me off a movie, the film works. I attribute this to the adroitness of the director and the charisma of the young stars. It has heart and an underlying intelligence, attributes generally missing in films of this genre. The crude exchanges of one-upmanship between the two leads (and their foil Fogell) is particularly entertaining, and there are some wonderful one-liners, often improvised by the actors from my understanding. Though it is at times a tad over the top, it is evenly paced and balances the ridiculous and really, really ridiculous with amazing delicacy. Only rarely does it drag, and even then not enough to lose its audience.

Make no mistake, this is a film based on gags, and on subjects which incur gagging, but they are carried out with enough panache and ingenuity that they do not end up seeming forced and out of place. In other hands this film would have failed miserably, as such films have so many, many times (in fact you can probably count the good films of this type on one hand). Keep in mind also that this is not a rave review of a four star movie. This is simply a highly entertaining two hours, and much better than much of what passes for comedic entertainment these days.

While it is not as good as Dazed as Confused or American Graffiti, or probably even Summer School for that matter, all similarly themed movies, it is certainly one of the most accurate depictions of high school awkwardness I have ever seen. If you are like me, and registered somewhat underneath the social radar during high school, this film will conjure fond and not so fond memories. If you were not this fortunate then you will likely still find it enjoyable, and can take comfort in that the film probably does not contain any words you will need to waste time looking up. Though the clothing and style of speech have changed somewhat since the eighties, nerdiness remains an immutable part of the high school experience, and rarely has it looked this hip.

Meaning of Agnosticism Revealed at Last

While I no longer consider myself an agnostic, having fully embraced my atheism quite impenitently at this stage of the game, it still fills me with equal parts disgust and irritation when I overhear people of faith misusing the term agnostic. It would seem, for whatever reason, that these individuals are simply unable to fathom even the remote possibility of an honest declaration of utter skepticism. How many times have I heard it assumed, by some misguided believer or other, that agnostics do actually believe in some “higher power,” and that they are simply not certain which higher power or of the details involved. Agnosticism means nothing of the sort. It means, quite simply, that one is wholly uncertain as to whether or not God, gods, or any other form of higher power exist.

From Wikipedia:
Agnosticism (from the Greek "a," meaning "without," and Gnosticism or "gnosis," meaning knowledge). is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims—particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of God, gods, deities, or even ultimate reality—is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently unknowable due to the nature of subjective experience.

Agnostics claim either that it is not possible to have absolute or certain knowledge of the existence or nonexistence of God or gods; or, alternatively, that while individual certainty may be possible, they personally have no knowledge. Agnosticism in both cases involves some form of skepticism.

It’s that simple- “I don’t know.“ Not only does this not imply some automatic, vague form of belief, it does not even allow for it. Any other definition is incorrect. So, please, for my sanity. For the sake of logic. For the preservation of the language. For whatever reason you care to entertain. If you are reading this, and are of a disposition to utilize this word incorrectly, to unite the world in implicit fellowship under the banner of shared delusion, I beg you, refrain. The agnostics of the world are quite comfortable with uncertainty.