Global Voices Online

From the Jordanian Blogosphere

Roba Al Assi · 17:11

The Jordanian blogsphere sends its condolences and is praying for the victims and the families of victims of the devastating earthquake that occurred in Pakistan.

Jordanian blogging portal Jordan Planet is now also covering the blogs of expatriates living in Jordan, one of who is Dr. Marcy Newman, who in her last post writes about her experience crossing the borders of Israel and into Palestine. Another expatriate blogger, Schiavoni blogs about her surprise about Ramadan, “I guess I didn't really believe that a culture where 15 minutes means an hour, people would really be strict enough to refrain from eating, drinking or smoking anything.”

As for the usual serving of blogs, the Jordanian cultural front is singing this week. Jad Madi reports on the Jerash chariots, saying that they make Jerash the only place in the world where Roman army, gladiators and chariot racing performances can be experienced in a genuine Roman setting. How fascinating! Nasim Tamimi, on the other hand, is happy that the Royal Film Commission is now screening movies outside of the Jordanian capital of Amman, and Roba Assi has pictures of the first Andy Warhol exhibition taking place in Amman this month, along with the works of burgeoning Jordanian artist Hala Awad.

Stateside, Natasha Tynes, meanwhile reports about a “unique musical outing… enthralling us with their compositions that mesh jazz elements with Arabic melodies” in a live performance by Arabic band Shusmo, who performed in downtown DC, and she also wonders where Jordanian movies are in the Arab Film Festival taking place in the same city.

“Artwork by Jordanian artist Hala Awad” by Roba

On a more local facet, Mira Shnoudi is protesting about how interior designers in Jordan don't have their own organization, and Ahmad Humeid has a post about the billboard that vanished, saying , “Has anyone here heard of freedom of expression?”

Khalaf continues the talk about Ramadan from last week with a very interesting post pondering the question, “How conservative is too conservative?” Isam Bayazidi says he is not surprised about the recent headlines saying that Jordanian diesel is against Jordanian standards for diesel, and Naseem Tarawneh writes saying, “the next big conflict is not about land or oil, it’s going to be water, or lack thereof.” Meanwhile, Natasha Tynes is outraged at the fact that latest honor killing case resulted in no more than six months in prison for the 26-year-old shepherd, a sentence which Haitham Sabbah also see as a pass to kill although no Islamic rule justify this light sentence. Haitham Sabbah also wonders if lawmakers will raise shields to protect bloggers, and he posts about the first Arabic homosexual magazine, Barra.

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Steppin' into the Turkish Blogosphere

Deborah Ann Dilley · 11:39

Last week's roundup of the Turkish Blogs was well received in the Turkish Blogosphere, even spawning a Turkish translation of the post on the website Blog Kardesligi. Not only was there a translation on Blog Kardesligi but a comment on the Global Voices project (in Turkish) as well. Other Turkish sites that mentioned the Global Voices post were Metrobloggling: Istanbul and Ignore Me if You Can. Plus, I have received many notes of thanks about the posts as well. I am very flattered and I hope that I can do justice to the Turkish Blogs now and in the future.

So, let's get down to business…. Item one: Another wonderful food orientated website called Portakal Agaci (Orange Tree), while it is in Turkish, it is a wonderful website with pictures to die for!

Onto issues of Turkey's Entrance into formal negoiations with the European Union, which we dealt with in last week's installment. The blog Mavi Boncuk, which focuses on posting articles and information relating to Turkey, its present and its past, recently posted an article about Turkey's talks with the European Union. The article questions the motives of now wanting to join the European Union, and questions the effectiveness of joining a political entity that is getting as large as it is. Since, I can not paraphase as eloquently as the article itself, here is a snippit:

This putative transnational behemoth is the natural consequence of the series of decisions, taken for the most lofty of motives, that culminated in this week's final pressing of the red button on Turkey. And therefore it is this monster-sized EU that we need to start thinking about and planning for. Becoming almost as large as the USAIf we now wonder how on earth to manage a union with almost as many states as the USA without the trappings of a federal superstate, then this is a question that we should have asked a long time ago. But it is surely naïve and simplistic to imagine that a union of 40 countries, the majority of them lying east of the old Iron Curtain, can simply become a version of the old western EU15 writ large. For better or worse that union, comfy and coherent, is gone forever.

Another issue facing the EU and Turkey is the issue of the bird flu, which tops the EU Agenda for this week. Metin from Talk Turkey posts about the bird flu and it's recent discovery in 2 villages in Turkey, leading to the birds being destroyed. He postulates that while the news is still relatively new, that we are sure to hear more about this in the future as the pandemic progresses. Yildiz, from the self-titled blog Yildiz (Turkish) writes about the hysteria over the bird flu and it's recent discovery in Turkey and Romania. What I find endearing about this particular post is the tongue-in-cheek photo posted alongside of it of three white baby ducks.

For next week, I plan to cover some of the many Turkish poetry blogs, as poetry is a long held traditional art in Turkey; and we will cover the news/events as well and hopefully some podcasting!

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