Jordan as seen by a Telecom expert

I had the chance to work with a telecommunications expert from Sweden ...when he had to go back to Sweden I asked him what did he think of Jordan, he told me that he will forward an email he send to a friend of his...There you go:

Amman, Jordan

Amman is a very mountainous city, built on 7 hills. It’s a modern city which has grown very fast to a population of more than 2 million inhabitants. Public transport is poor. Driving is an adventure. The better-off people live in very large houses and apartments compared to Europe. Nice architecture, houses are built of sandstone, which is cheep, as well as labor. A lot of workers come from neighbor countries, e.g. Egypt, and Syria. Most upper and middle class people have maids, mostly from Asia, plus gardeners to look after the apartment blocks. Land and house prices have raised a lot over the last few years, partly due to the Iraqi immigrants. The immigration from Iraq has now been restricted after that about a million refugees came because of the war.

The difference between rich and poor is noticeable; there are slum areas in the outskirts of Amman. Large Palestinian refuge camps can be seen also in many places in the country side.

People are extremely kind and helpful, especially to foreigners. Many people speak English.

Wherever you go in the country there are rich historic places. I’ve seen John the Baptist place, where Jesus Josefsson was baptized; Mount Nebo where God pointed out the Promised Land to Moses (Mose Backe); Petra, a fantastic place made by nature; Jerash, an old Roman city and several other ancient places.

I have been sitting in the Dead Sea, lived Bedouin life with desert safari and sleeping in tent, been guided through a huge development project in Aqaba where they build hotels, apartments and houses for a growing tourism. They are also building a golf course. By the way, I once played golf on sand and putting on browns outside Amman. I’ve played bridge a few times in a club in Amman

The food is nice and rich of fruit and vegetables. Alcohol is expensive. Petrol is cheep, but electricity and water is expensive. Fresh water is a scarce resource; Jordan is the fourth poorest water country in the world. The river Jordan is continuously decreasing in size and the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth (about 400 meters below sea level) gets lower, people in Syria, Israel, Palestine and Jordan use too much water private and for agriculture. A large project is under way, to lead water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, and get electric power and purify the salt water to get fresh water.

9 people i have been

1- The shy kid who was attached to the teacher

2- The boy who broke all his toys while trying to "fix" them ... other things at home had there share of fixing as well.

3- After I ran out of toys I created a hobby of collecting empty cement sacks and burning them " I used to BBQ hot dogs on like that"

4- After I got caught by the guard, and he told my parents I got a hobby... that was tennis, and Joking

5- I became the slapped by reality boy!!!... or you can say a heavy metal fan... and my Jokes became better, plus in some parts reality can be a wonderful thing

6- I became the ambitious university student that worked hard to have a ore competitive value over othe fresh graduates.

7- I was welcomed by reality , Hard work is a must, stress is something I got used to, No pain no gain so stand!... got bored of jokes so I started to make jokes that no one would understand

8- People around me got used to my jokes, so I made a blog and I'm going through a "9" phase...I hope is shall end soon.

9- I became a filthy rich man ...but also a very modest person who loves charity work to avoid taxes... a man can only hope :) !!

9 stupid things we all did!!!

1- You believed that a certain pen brought good luck in exams

2-You waited a long time for your 5 minutes of fame and screwed it up

3- You walked fast to the kitchen and realized that you have no idea why you went there in the first place

4- You felt bad in a good day or good in a bad day

5- You acted disgusted from a type of food that you have never even tried

6- You made an ugly first impression with someone and became best friends

7- You had stomach ache and ate something you know for sure will make things worse

8- You didn't tell you parents that you are sick so you can go out

9- You invented a technique so you won't forget your keys, mobile and wallet, but you ended up forgetting to apply the technique!!!

The Secret to Being Happy!!!... if you want

To be a happy person you shall evaluate what you have first, maybe after all you are happy but you just don't know it!

Then If the answer is no , you must change something , the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Thanks to Rami who provided me with the ultimate happiness Diagram...

Tales of mere existance!!!

Reality is cold, boring, but who thought that reality can also be funny, Tales of mere existence has showed that this might happen with a little bit of creativity! ... Enjoy :)

This one is about how we find thing to do just we we have something important to do:



and here is another one ... enjoy



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9 Fairytales that would be ruined if technology Existed

This Post was inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Movie -a good one actually- There was a part where Sherlock Holmes talks about controlling a machine remotely by sending a wave command ... "This is the future ... Mr. Holmes said" I smiled and went wild with my thoughts...

1- If the the 40 thieves applied a voice recognition security system on the Sesame Gate, Ali Baba would have never been able to open it... and thus one story goes down.

2- Cinderella and her prince would have to meet on facebook where he shall send her an event invitation, she says "I can't" he asks "why?" and comes to the rescue!!!.


3- Snow white's step mom's mirror would never stand a chance in front of the new LED TV .... "LED TV on the wall ... who is the clearest of them all?!".


4- What would you like more.... a windy Magic carpet or a first class plane ticket?... goodbye Aladdin!!!.


5- Alice would have been watching TV and trying hard to look like a superstar instead of eating mushrooms and hallucinating!... poor Girl!


6- The sleeping beauty would have never been awaken since her Status is always "Appear Offline".


7- All the three little pigs would have built sandstone Houses because they know it's the strongest from strategy games!


8- The beast would be a programming guru and the beauty would have 3000+ followers on twitter... zero chance for them to meet!


9- Jack would have never got on that bean tree because when he call his mom on her cell phone to ask her if he shall do the trade or not.. she ill tell him to cut the crap and come home!

This was Amman!

This was taken from an article in Arabic language written by Ibrahim Jaber Ibrahim, I hope you enjoy this collage of memories about Amman ... please note that i did few changes to the original text to make sure the meaning remains the same ... Enjoy

This is for who knew Amman 40 years ago or maybe more, back then ... our names sounded prettier, Women where more feminine,The smell of cooked Okra used to sneak out from the windows of houses and the "Jovial " watch on the wrist of an old man was the house's newest and most expensive gadget.

Back then , Rain drops were more enriched with water, and the 8:00 pm news were less saturated with blood, the taste of sunshine in our mouths was better and the road to "Al Musdar" was less crowded with Trucks carrying furniture, Back then when school girls hid there femininity on the pages of there science notebooks .

At that time , Sameera tawfik's dimples where the most obscene scene on TV, The bus ride was for only 2 Piasters , Daily magazines used to publish all the names of the students who passed the general high school exam "tawjihi". There was a time in Amman when the gutter used to collect rain water in barrels and story writers used to publish gathered story collections.

Back then when wedding sweets were distributed in thin glass cups called "matbakaniat", and at dawn when the housewife used to pass a glass of tea from behind the door to the garbage man who wiped away the sweat on his forehead and enjoyed the shadow of a nearby wall while sipping the tea.

There was a time when "Northern Shouna" was the end of the world, "Think and Win" was the most important TV competition show, and we never knew that there was a fruit that has the same name of the shoe cleaner "KIWI" we also never imagined that one day we will pull the telephone from its roots and put it in out pockets.

Qdamah - roasted hommous- was given as a prescription for stomach ache and kids used to kiss the hand of their neighbor on the morning of feast.

Back then... when the Chinese soccer shoes where on the top of the wish list of good students, "news of the week" for its owner "Abdulhafeez Mohammed" the most important and the boldest newspaper ever, Germany was the land of dreams and the photo of the singer Sabah on the back of the hand mirror hung against the wall.

When people woke up on the sound of "Mazen al Qubbaj" or "Samra Abdulmajeed" and at noon they heard "Kawthar Nashashibi" ,and waiting impatiently for "Ibraheen Al Samman" in the evening.

The local TV station used to close everyday just like any shop or restaurant , The "Ahli" entertainment city was the place where all rich people used to go to,A trip to Swaileh needed preparation for 2 days and The Jordanian University was a lonely one.

When the red "Bic" pens were the only way to express the burning love emotions before mobile Phone were even invented, when book stores used to sell special paper for letters that had flower drawings and the real flowers were only sold at Jabal Amman, The high class neighborhood , and when passports were made in hand writing.



People used to travel to Syria by train , it was a shame for a man to wear a shirt with short sleeves, Most of houses had Iron baking ovens,where mothers used to bake bread every morning... Hearing the bills of the sheep was the sign that the Shepperd who sells milk is in the neighborhood and the widowed neighbor used to sit all day long against the outside wall carrying her grief with one hand on her cheek.

People used to congratulate and give condolences to each other with a large sac of sugar, mothers used to bathe their kids using plastic gallons and bread sticks was the right gift to bring when visiting an ill person.

Internet was beyond our imagination, If you talked about eye contacts to someone you would be considered an atheist worthy of death, and if you show people you messenger you would have had followers thinking you are some sort of super hero.

There was a time where days were appealing and the cold weather made the kids hands turn red, life was more cold, more poor but it was always green, and we dare too ask ... why do the apples have a different taste?