I was digging in the Abu-Mahjoob cartoon archives and came up with this one that was unpublished which I’ve never seen. I’ll do a rough translation for the non-Arabic readers. It’s basically a cautionary warning to “visitors” coming to Jordan, and by visitors Emad Hajjaj is talking about our fellow Arabs who either vacation in Jordan for 4 months of the year or have moved to Jordan since the Iraq war (typically all from the Gulf region). It’s funny I guess because despite being all Arabs we all come from different societies that approach things differently; the common things.
(from top right to left)
1- A red traffic light and not an electric pole!!
2- A respectable citizen who has feelings; not an Indian worker!!
3- A residence consisting of families and not a night club!!
4- A virtuous woman waiting for the bus and nothing else!!!
5- A Taxi driver’s opinions are personal points of view and do not necessarily reflect the general belief!!
6- Try using one of these expressions and notice the difference!! (thank you, if you please, sorry, salam)
Thinking about all this today I think it’s a good idea if everyone (including citizens) start practicing these rules.
LOL, yeah this is a very true one… many visitors come to Jordan just to hook up with whores and making troubles, and the Police are always with the visitors, and they give exceptions,which is very wrong.
by the way, I like the design of ur site 🙂
Yeah…and many Jordanians look forward to vizitors just to rob them, once they sense you’re a vizitor they multiply prices x20, they put a big warm welcome smile on thier faces just to steal even your underware!!! a taxi driver would drive you all over the city, and deliberately drive into traffic jams just to take you to a point which was initially only 2km away from where he picked you up, just in order to fare you 15 jds instead of 1.50… shame on you!
Sounds reasonable enough. But shouldn’t the visitors also expect something in return? Hmm, like descent customer service when they kindly request something and pay tons of money for it? Or that the drivers go easy on the horns before the light even turns green b/c most of us who don’t live in Jordan don’t have the same immunity to those sounds? That women should be able to walk in the street between the hours of 9 am and 10 pm without being harassed 4898745 times? Just some thoughts as I prepare myself for the trip to the mothaland 🙂
Abed. Hamdan: thanks!
Sapphire: that’s true but it has nothing to with anything other than making a living. Even when people wern’t visiting Jordan 15 years ago, I would get ripped off in taxis when I didn’t know the roads. It’s the cost of doing business I suppose. Perhaps if they earned more than a few jds a day…and not to mention that rarely have I been to a country where a taxi driver didn’t rip me off. And in any case most of these people have their own cars (which drive up gas prices, pollution, congestion etc)
moi: well everyone suffers from lack of decent customer service, be they Jordanians or non-Jordanians. We pay for the same services. And honking horns in jordan is actually nothing compared to other Arab countries. And I’ve never seen gulf women being harassed by Jordanians, especially when, mashallah, we have our own population of women to be harassed. 😀
I think the way Jordanian girls dress is the problem!!! Because when someone coming from a place he doesnâ??t see females and see them is person here in the streets and dressed (undressed)!! That will ring a bell for him
So letâ??s not only blame them!!
Anyway I love you Abu Mahjoob character
Haytham, I admit some of the girls can be a distraction but how they dress and how they present themselves is their problem. bottom line is, a self-respecting man will either lower his gaze and move on or be respectful enough not to ogle women who are probably some one’s sisters.