Egypt nears military coup. USS warships in Suez Canal!

[Henny]

Walk Like An Egyptian Video Original

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

Henny, do you see this as having a major impact in Jordan?

[Henny]

Henny, do you see this as having a major impact in Jordan?

XO, I really don't know anymore. The mood and atmosphere keeps changing. But what I saw last night - rather what I heard last night as I thought it a good night to stick close to home - made me nervous. People. Celebrating. Everywhere. It expanded from an Embassy party to neighborhoods across the country. The mood is one of "look what ordinary people can do."

But Jordan is way different. So many different interests - there is no united cause like in Egypt. So if things went bad here, the country would likely go into a civil war. I also see Jordan as ripe for serious negative Islamist influence - the kind that would make people wish for the Muslim Brotherhood in power.

Worse, this past week I started to see news with complaints against the royal family which had never happened before. People had seem satisifed with the King, but wanted to be able to vote the Prime Minister into office rather than appoint him. Now the tone might be changing - I'm not sure how widespread it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pnJ2KmSSoE&feature=player_embedded#at=33

[Henny]

One other thing - a major difference in Jordan is that the youth haven't been involved in demonstrations so far - thus far it has been middle-aged men. The success of the Egyptian revolution might change that and tell the truth, I would much rather have the youth behind something like that - bright eyed and idealistic.

[Xavier_Onassis]

So the King appoints the Prime Minister? That does not sound too democratic. The usual way of getting a PM is the people elect the Parliament and the delegates get together and choose a PM.In the UK, the parties decide who their candidate for PM is and then they hold the election. In Spain they form coalitions. The King of Spain and the Queen are supposed to approve the PM, but they always do that and it would cause a major scene if they did not.

I suppose Jordan is divided among Jordanians and Palestinians, and there are no doubt divisions among each of those two groups. The idea of unifying religion and the ruler originated in Egypt,and seems to me to be the worst single idea that humans have ever devised, as the message is "don't mess with the government or we will get you even after we kill you." It always seemed to me that Pharaoh in the Bible story surely was as devout to his gods as Moses was to his, but that did not make it into the Bible, and there is no mention of the Exodus of a bazillion people anywhere in Egypt, or at least none has been found.

[Henny]

So the King appoints the Prime Minister? That does not sound too democratic. The usual way of getting a PM is the people elect the Parliament and the delegates get together and choose a PM.In the UK, the parties decide who their candidate for PM is and then they hold the election. In Spain they form coalitions. The King of Spain and the Queen are supposed to approve the PM, but they always do that and it would cause a major scene if they did not.

I suppose Jordan is divided among Jordanians and Palestinians, and there are no doubt divisions among each of those two groups. The idea of unifying religion and the ruler originated in Egypt,and seems to me to be the worst single idea that humans have ever devised, as the message is "don't mess with the government or we will get you even after we kill you." It always seemed to me that Pharaoh in the Bible story surely was as devout to his gods as Moses was to his, but that did not make it into the Bible, and there is no mention of the Exodus of a bazillion people anywhere in Egypt, or at least none has been found.

Yes - the PM is appointed. And there have been 8 of them since Abdullah took the throne. The PM is known to be the punching bag for the people - a major part of his purpose to stand there and take abuse when the people get frustrated. (I'm quite serious.) So when the last PM was sacked a couple of weeks ago, even though the people demanded it, everyone knew it was only symbolic.

There is an elected parliament, but the new election law, promising reforms, in reality was yet more gerrymandering and vote rigging so that the result came out the "right way."

The people have been tolerating this for a long time, because they recognize that the King serves the purpose of providing stability for the country against all of the unstable forces in the region.

On the other hand, L?se majest? is alive and well in Jordan. The penalty is 3 years prison for saying one bad word about the King or his family, and some months ago we saw this play out for a young man who said something about the King in MSN Messenger chat. He, and the person he was chatting with - both college kids - are now in prison serving their terms. (Which means that our online activity is being watched as well.) And on that note and just for the record, I think that the King is awesome.