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Om at leve i, elske og dog forlade Jordan
Den jordanske journalist Rami Abdelrahman har skrevet et længere indlæg om, hvorfor han ikke har tænkt sig at flytte tilbage til Jordan fra Sverige, hvor han bor nu.
Indlægget er interessant, fordi det på mange måder illustrerer, hvad der er galt med den arabiske verden i dag: For lidt frihed til forskellighed, for lidt åbenhed, for megen propaganda og kryben for magthaverne.
Anyway, med Ramis egne ord, under overskriften Live Jordan, love Jordan, but leave Jordan:
My mother today made a plea for me to come back to Amman, saying back in Jordan I had the perfect job and the perfect life. I had to think about this all day, recalling all the prons and cons of living in Jordan, and unfairly comparing it with living in Sweden.Well, dette uddrag kan vel ikke helt gøre indlægget retfærdighed, så læs bare det hele, hvis du synes.
In Jordan I used to work as a freelance journalist, with 80% of my work sold for The Jordan Times, my job paid well, and I ended up working within two meters of King Abdullah and Queen Rania, covering almost everything they do. I never had a wasta, and I wasn't born with a golden spoon in my mouth, I had to fight a long way to get there. However, this work opportunity revealed to me something, that if a journalist refuses to be a mouth-piece for government (and US government) propaganda, then he/she does not stand a chance in getting a raise or a promotion. Accepting to be a professional lier, means you can travel the world on first class tickets, drive top-notch cars, sleep in 5 star suites and shop only at Emporio Armani. Otherwise, journalists have to sell their souls to PR agencies, writing press releases for companies, and then going back to their newspapers, recieve the same press releases by fax and 'make stories' out of them. Dear mother, I really prefer my dignity.
(...)
I do miss the courtesy, generousity and hospitality of Jordanians, how people help others and how easy it is to get things done, I really miss how cheap things are in Jordan, and how life is cheap, nice and easy if you want to go rastafarian in Jordan. But, I can not play the music I like to play in Jordan, simply because any music with a little bit of distortion is immediately labelled as satanic and as a threat to humanity, even national security. I do not miss the security guards on the way down to the dead sea, who stop you at least 2 times for a full-car check up, not to mention the policemen who stop you at any given point just to ponder rudly at your girlfriends' breasts.
I do not miss a majority of the society who knows everything, and knows what is best for you, and that is mostly in the realm of religious beliefs. God here and god there, he's everywhere! I do not miss that I am the enemy of god and society, if I take off my shirt and show off my tattoo, or just say what I have in my mind. I do not miss people's intensity, the male-oriented ideologies, the close-mindedness, the blind belief in aljazeera and i do not miss nancy ajram.
(...)
I do miss the desert, the dry weather, the beautiful scenery, the magical starry night skies, petra, dana, aqaba, the woods in ajlun, taking a walk in old amman, cruising down the king's highway, camping in wadi rum, escaping to dahab/sharm, how amman looks like its candle lit at night, the breeze in the evening moving the olive trees... But, dear mother, please understand there's a whole wide world to explore.
(...)
I have a lot more to enjoy and experience in Sweden, where people are very civilised, very peaceful, very simple, and very open-minded and the nature is breath-takingly picturesque everywhere you look.
Dear mother, it is really a wonderful experience, being a stranger among strangers, and quite a dreadful one, being a stranger at home. Please understand, I am not coming back, but I will visit you sooner or later.
Indlægget rører ved nogle af de samme problemer ved/i den islamiske verden i dag, som jeg selv var inde på for et stykke tid siden - et spørgsmål om, hvordan kulturen skal og kan forholde sig til den moderne (ikke mindst kommunikations-) teknologis udfordringer, hvilket i parantes bemærket også har givet anledning til en vis turbulens i vor egen del af verden - som det bl.a. fremgår af den danske "nationalkonservative" fløj, som den f.eks. giver sig udtryk i skrigosfæren.