Is it just me, or there is a big spike in begging in the streets of Amman ? I just took 3 minutes walk, from office, to super market, back to the office, and I was stopped and interrupted by: One Young Man who need 1JD to get back to Gwaismeh (Meskeen, Magtoo3, and can only use taxis it seems), 2 ladies ( separately) – each with a baby- asking me for money to feed the baby, and last, one lady without a baby (maybe it is not her turn to use the baby today).
If there is one thing that I believe in more than Open Source, then it is that those beggars are big manipulative liars, every and each one of them, no exclusions.. and they come in different packages:
- This-is-my-first-time-asking-for-money needing money for transportation type
- Feed my baby (using own or rented baby)
- I lost a leg, or can’t walk type (there is this one in Shmaisani that I see in the same place for years, near the bird park)
- knock-knock-give-me-food-at-Iftar-time-in-Ramadan type
- and so on
There are many other derivatives and mixtures of the above basic-types.. it can differ according to location, such as in front of a mosque, or near the burier places at funeral times, and so on.. and they are all big “thin” liars.. call me cruel, but I would never give a penny to any of them. If one is to help, then there are trusted organization, that take donations, and take the extra effort of checking the illegibility of those asking for money, and it is those organization that should be given money regularly, and not those pretending to wipe your windshield at a traffic light.
Allah ywafegko, don’t give money to any of those..
PS. to check the street I got 4 beggars in less than 100 meters, it is near the fifth circle, in front of the Sheraton.. Near Hotels .. mm.. interesting coincident ..
Jordan, News & Politics
If there is one thing I hate the most when chatting to someone, that is IF THEY HAVE THE CAPS KEY ON, AND NOT NOTICE HOW ANOYING IT IS. But I never those of having a campaign to ask hardware vendors to remove Caps Lock from the keyboard. But Someone did. CapsOff is a group created to campaign for this noble cause, which remind me of another noble cause of Banning the use of Comic Sans. Such causes makes me feel that the world is in good shape. Keep it up, and let’s have a Caps-free Comic-free computing.
Internet & Technology
I know I haven’t written for a while, but I found a certain piece of news about a new blog for Ahmedi Nejad the Iranian president. It seems that the blog was announced in official news agencies. Now I must admit that the Iranian blog movement had always fascinated me. What amazes me is how it was “embraced” by the government in Iran in a way that no other country did. I even read earlier last year that the ministry of culture organized a “Blog Awards”.. imagine this, it is amazing..
The way I see it, it is the smartest middle-eastern country when it comes to dealing with blogs.. instead of “blocking” it, and making it a taboo, they made it “pro-government”.. so the “anti-government” voices in the blogosphere will just fade in the waves blogs that are pro-gov. Now that’s smart.. The number of blogs in Iran today are in the 100s of thousands last I heard from my friend Hoder when he was in Amman. Now, I am not sure if the Iranian experience on blogs could be implemented in other countries, and infact I am not sure I want it to.. So far we are enjoying the government ignorance, blindness, or dismissal of blogs, it gave us a space that we might not have if they paid attention…
So let them stay away o ghanilo..
Blogging, News & Politics