Wael, ask who is, salve in my humble opinion, stuff one of the most creative minds in Jordan today, created something I just found brilliant. If a picture can speak a thousand words, the following is an ethos. And I post it here because it begs to be seen over and over again.
via: sha3teely
Way to go Wael….his creativity inspired us way back in 1993 when we were little students in the school….and I am really proud I knew him since then…
Keep up Wael 🙂
What a brilliant concept 🙂
Basil: you wouldn’t happened to be Basil Mouhammad would you?
Nice sentiment, but simply against human nature!
Everyone is hardwired to be proud of who he is, that’s a fact, but what makes matters worse in Jordan is that we are too obsessed with this idea.
Maybe in a couple of generations it will sort itself out….But I wouldn’t bet on it.
Once again, a misconception about the situation in Jordan, we as Jordanians don’t lack an identity, made in the name of a newly created “nation”, on the contrary we lack the basic understanding and acceptance to what citizenship is and what loyalty means.
The cartoon make it sound like all the characters are coming from different ethnicities and background and calling them to form one new united nation.
when we talk about citizens from the west side of the river or the east sides we don’t come from different backgrounds and worries. this notion cant be more wrong, i come from one family that borders has split it over four countries, Jordan, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. What we share as a bigger family and all the families in the area is much more than worries and bad memories (!!!) we share a way of life, history, unity of fate, language, culture, and future. and this goes absloutely the same for everyone living in our region, including all “immigrants” who became part of our land and fate even before the Kingdom saw the light.
So, no, we don’t need a new nation, we belong to nation, we have a culture, we have a language, we have one future that is tied directly to the future of the region countries as a whole, we dont live on mars and we are not a group of odd people who came out of no where to form a country running away from their old countries worries and bad memories. we are part of a bigger cause and fair case and we dont need yet to ignore it to move on and become something.
what we need is the simple accepting that who just got the nationality yesterday is a an equal citizen to who has all his grandfathers buried here. and that needs a constitutional state, a whole based regime and way of living, politically speaking, not culturally speaking.
I love the idea. It gave us “hope” and a feeling for “change”. We admire Wael and have recently interview him on our site. Check it at http://www.jocr8.com/interview/10
Thank you Nas for the post, I really appreciate it
its cute but a bit melodramatic i thought .. ino jordan is not the US wala hiye lebanon .. but a good idea nonetheless .. although i for one dont believe tribalism can ever be eliminated in jordan for many reasons
Layla: reading your comment was pretty much an exact articulation of the message this caricature is sending. it’s not about creating a new nation, but a new understanding and a new definition of citizenship and nationality, especially in that tribal sense.
wael: 3a rasi wallah
mo: but are we talking about the elimination of tribalism or a redefinition of it, to create a more all-inclusive one? this is something that can not only happen, but has been happening and continues to happen today.
inshala
To put it lesser words, Be proud of your roots but NEVER think that you are BETTER than anyone else just because you belong to this tribe or that family.
I loved it!
Brilliant wael!
i found it extremly irritating, a wish-washy sentimental drivel which we dont need (oooh lets hold hands and light a candle and build for our grandchildren bla bla), this is a real country dealing with real issues of racism and lack of meritocracy, not a united colours of bennetton Ad or a Band Aid concert….waste of time , 2al “ma bntkhala 3an ba3ad” 2al, half of the country is in dubai and the other half have a plan B to Canada if the slightest thing happens…
Hey , I thin one of them is my cousin and the other is my other cousin , and some are my nephews , and the most related one to me is that Jordanian from Chinese roots I think he knows more aobut me than any of my first hand cousins …
One way or another , this country has to reach the stars…
I’m Palestinian/Jordanian. Why the hell should I stop using the Palestinian part and just say Jordanian, this is a joke.
You shouldn’t stop using it , you should set your priorities right , this is what this whole thing is all about , the life we are facing is better jointly than individually , using any kind of categorization will weaken our marsh to the STARS 😉 or behind them ….
Why don’t you tell that to the ones responsible to make me go to the Jerusalem Passport section when I renew my Jordanian passport.
That is a governmental thing , we are talking about the people . They are the government and we are the Future House of People
The point is that , if we have enough political awareness we would understand that all the governmental Thoughts can be controlled by a perfectly clear Political party , if we can go through the democratic steps we will be having the right to question the minister of internal affairs , that is if he was of the Political party that won the elections …
I am not being pinkish with my dreams but it really ought to start somewhere to be able to change things , we can’t keep depending on the Governments of Person , where every prime Minister brings his own people to the ministry let it be one clear and organized political party that can make a difference… You can even be black if we applied democracy right 😉 , and logically we may find some difficulties with the old school MEN of Honor. But don’t we always have that in every innovation we do?
Sweet concept. Let’s apply it. Let’s start by taking the big “P” off my Jordanian ID and Passport, labeling me as a Jordanian from Palestine versus a member of “one nation”.
No one wants to be excluded, we all want to belong.
DO you really think that BIG (p) resembles your Palestenian ID??? man this is as way beyond the consperacy theory … Let’s think about changing not focusing on old schooled fashion behavior…
I have no idea what that means?!
I’m American and my mom is Jordanian and she was able to somehow get me a Jordanian apssport and ID card and they both have a national number and document number that start with a P for Palestinian origin of my mom.
Segregating where we come from before becoming Jordanian by embedding your origin in your permanent national number is a lot of things, none of which go with “one nation” lol
For Palestinians to stop calming their roots means whenever Israel needs to expel more Arabs, all it has to do is wait for 60 years and the problem will go away. it behooves every Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, and above all every Arab of Palestinian origin to NEVER abandon their claims to the return even if there is no intention of returning. Jews do it, and NY is full of Jews who have no plans to live in Israel but they will fight for this racist right tooth and nail even when they know they are doing it at the expense of non-jews. For Arabs to pressure Palestinians to give up their roots will send the wrong message to Israel that it can always relay on its Arab neighbors to voluntarily fix its mess by simply pressuring Palestinians to abandon their claims. To punish the Palestinians for keeping their just cause alive means also to reward Israel for committing ethnic cleansing and to encourage it to commit more ethnic cleansing in the future whenever Jews feel threatened by the growth of Arab population in historic Palestine. So fellow Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, if you want more expelled Palestinian Arabs at your door steps, make peace with Israel that is not conditioned on the right of return. That will embolden not only Israel, but will encourage every violent ethnic group to copy Israel’s model. And why not. If we can abrogate the right of return for Palestinian Arabs, surly the world should tolerate the abrogation of the right of return for other Arabs in other parts of the world. That means Arabs will be expelled from Kurdistan, Chad, Southern Sudan, and from every region that holds grudges against us for one reason or another. To punish expelled Arabs from identifying with their roots is to reward and invite more ethnic cleansing. We need enlightened Arab policy makers who understand the risks involved in all the peace initiatives being proposed to end the Arab israeli conflict or the Iraqi conflict or the Sudan conflict and the consequences of those initiatives that exclude the right of return on Arabs on the edges of the Arab world.