The snow is on its way out so I thought I’d shift gears here on the Black Iris. Transitioning back to reality isn’t easy when snow is still the talk of the town, so here’s a selection of my delicious picks these past few days you might find interesting. Only the first two are about the weather, I promise.
– During the snowfall this past week in Jordan, a thief took the opportunity to rob the shoes of worshipers at a mosque, making them all walk home barefoot in the snow.
– Is the latest, rare snow blizzard in the Middle East an American geoengineering weapon?
– With only six ever being made, Arabs buy every armored Rolls-Royce Phantom. You don’t want to know the cost.
– More than $3 trillion is to be spent on theme parks in the Middle East over the next 20 years, while Dubai plans to build the longest arch bridge in the world, complete with an Opera Theater.
– What’s Israel planning to build? Why the first electric car network by 2011. It’s an ambitious effort to reduce the country’s dependency on Arab foreign oil.
– Robert Fisk writes a heart-wrenching story of an Iraqi family torn apart.
– Khaled Meshaal answers Foreign Policy’s questions. An interesting Q&A, especially his last answer.
– Science: Islam’s forgotten geniuses. A great story in the Telegraph to remind us of a great past and a pretty depressing present.
– Mideast fertility rates decline, but Jordan still has some of the highest birth rates in the region.
Good selections. Thanks for sharing.
The robert fisk piece is a must read. I wonder, do any of our “officials” bother to search for jordan news on google?
Thank you Nas for posting the Article by Robert Fisk,I listened to this story while I was driving to work on KPFA Radio the question is when are we going to stop those morons in the airport play with people lives,if the king and the queen of Jordan are reading your blog they must do something about what is happening to those innocent Iraqis and Iam really ashamed to call my self Jordanian right now.
Good news about the drop in fertility rates. When I was in Salt I was surprised to see some really well-equipped gyecology clinics funded by USAID.
About the last pick: did you know that the population of Jordan doubles every 17 years? Plaestine every 19 years… It’s pretty funny when you compare it to Russia: every 250 years! It’s pretty understandable, especially given that the poorer the family, the bigger. Why? They have much leisure time, nothing to do, it’s free, no taxes, no nothing, and as Salma Al-Masri said in that play: أصلا ما عاد ÙÙŠ Øرية غير ÙÙŠ هالشغلة
Sorry it’s not the population that doubles, it’s something else that has to do with birth rates but I can’t quite remember that piece of info, I heard it long time ago…