People in glass houses…

SLEEPLESS IN AMMAN takes aim at some ungracious tweets towards Queen Rania of Jordan – and argues those who criticize Jordan should concentrate on getting their own houses in order. People in glass houses, she suggests, shouldn’t throw stones…

" Yes Jordan is a poor country, true we do have corruption and unemployment, but we don’t have people arrested left and right and tortured, we have leaders, working for a better Jordan, for today and for the future, we have a democratically elected government for God’s sake, so who the hell is Hossam el-Hamalawy to tell our Queen to start palace-hunting in Jeddah huh? What about Egypt? And their corruption, if anyone is next in line after Tunisia, Egypt should be the first on the list, in my point of view at least, so the least I could say to such a person is, before you go attacking the leaders of other counties, how about you try to fix your corrupt country first?"

A Tunisian blogger says 'our time is now', and speaks of how she can now relate to her children 'a heroic story I knew and experienced'

We had our ups and downs during French, Italian, and British colonization and Arab-Israel war. Mostly humiliations and defeats but we had our victorious moments. We will never forget the battle of Algiers or the Libyan hero Omar Mukhtar , or may be the 1973 war. But what happened after 1973? I was born in 1973, since then Arabs are walking head down. We were told we are weak and we were accused of being terrorists and Jews haters.

When I have children I don’t want to read them bedtime stories form 1001 nights or Kalīla wa Dimna. I want to tell them a heroic story that I knew and experienced; one that happened during my life time. I want to tell them how excited and happy I was during the events of this story. I want to tell them the story in detail, try to make them visualize every single scene the way I watched it on Al-Jazeera*.

"To the non-Jordanian reader who is wondering what the big deal is (as if 2,200 trees being cut down anywhere wasn’t a big deal enough), it should be noted that we live in a country that is less than 1% forested and every single tree is of utmost value. Unfortunately, our education system and our general society teaches us very little about respecting wildlife, the environment or trees, and many of us can be found cutting down trees, littering around them, and even breaking off their branches if we should be standing anywhere next to them with nothing better to do. We have roughly the same relationship with water as we are one of the poorest countries in the world when it comes to water resources, yet we are likely one of the most wasteful populations. We are taught and brought up to be this way. It’s in our behavioral DNA."

Don't be a quitter says HNING, enjoy the mundane:

"If you look at anybody's success or failure, remember that they too have gone through those moments of crushing doubt; when nobody appreciated them waking up in the morning (every freezing and foulmouthed day), when nobody sent credit for not quitting for another day even in the absence of clear purpose, when the world forgot and existence became a mere, troublesome angst".

An interesting little graphic on actually supporting a cause… and using a laptop.