Girls are dancing in skimpy bikinis and young people are drinking beers as techno blasts from a stereo system on two neighboring yachts. Sounds like the French Riviera or maybe even South Beach, Miami. And yet, I, as the only American on the boat feel incredibly uncomfortable. Because this is not the French Riviera, it is the port of Aqaba in a very conservative area in southern Jordan.
The yachts themselves are anchored directly in front of the public beach. The public beach is where the rest of Jordan comes to enjoy picnics on a less-than-spotless beach and women clothed from head to toe take an occasional dip in the water.
Two cultures are clashing within this small homogenous country. The poor and the devout are confronted with a culture that is completely foreign to them, west Ammanis. Areas like the affluent neighborhood of Abdoun are filled with a generation of Jordanians who are isolated from the poverty and religiosity that is growing up around them. A west Ammani acquaintance of mine claimed that the majority of Jordanian women today do not wear the hijab. When, in actuality, well over two-thirds of the women in the country wear a headscarf. It is easy to be out of touch when one lives in Abdoun.
Surrounded by Mercedes, BMWs, Hummers and beautiful young women sipping lattes and wearing the latest European fashions, one has to remind themselves that they are in Amman.
Jordan is a great place to do business these days, relatively speaking. With major conflicts to the east and to the west and with Syria and Lebanon’s less than stable economic viability, Jordan has become a peaceful crossroads in the midst of chaos. It has become a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees flooding in to escape the terror unfolding in their own countries.
Since the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, thousands of refugees have flooded into Jordan. The first wave of Iraqis to arrive were those with the wealth and the connections to be able to leave. Iraqi businessmen began running their enterprises from the safe confines of Jordan and buying up property in Amman. While the permissions to buy real estate in Jordan were once achingly bureaucratic, a permit can now be acquired in less than 10 days. The Department of Land and Surveys estimates that 67 percent of all real estate bought by non-Jordanians in 2005 was purchased by Iraqis.
The economy is certainly booming in the small kingdom of Jordan.for a handful of people. For the majority, times are harder than they ever have been. The cost of living in the country is claimed to be higher now than Dubai, Jordan’s oil-rich Gulf neighbor. Jordan’s capital and port city, Amman and Aqaba, are growing by leaps and bounds but most of these advancements have yet to make an impact on those who are living well below the poverty line, currently encompassing over a third of the population. As a result of such drastic land speculation, rent has nearly doubled and sometimes, tripled in many areas leaving poorer Jordanians high and dry. By 2010, rent-control will be abolished in Amman sending thousands of families into destitution if nothing is done to compensate them.
In addition, subsidies from fuel to food, which were the only factor keeping most Jordanian families above water, are quickly being eliminated.
However, this scenario is familiar in third world countries who are trying to industrialize and boost their economy. The middle class vanishes and the poor bear the brunt of the rapid transformation and a few lucky souls continue to build their empire. Soon fortresses are built around their mansions to provide security from the impoverished masses. Crime and corruption is also booming in Jordan, paralleling the rapid economic transformation. Policemen pull people over and ask for bribes frequently.
The insignificant amount of these bribes demonstrates that it has become a matter of survival and not of frivolous greed.
However, Jordan is a geo-politically strategic country in a turbulent Middle East. No nation within the Middle East and in the West can afford to let stability and security slip in Jordan. It is a small nation where traditional ties and tribal customs are still important in much of the country. The heart and soul of the nation is, of course, loyalty to the monarchy. Even in hard times such as these, most areas are still unflinchingly loyal to the Hashemite dynasty. However, there are pockets of discontent, and any recent visitor cannot help but wonder how long this loyalty will last as more young men are forced to delay marriage, more educated young people remain unemployed (now about 30 percent of the workforce), as limited resources are stretched dreadfully thin, and as people actually start to go hungry.
As a Jordanian, I was always so proud of the sense of community that Jordan fostered. Growing up, I never felt as though there was a truly immense gap in the community. I never saw children sleeping in the streets, the way I did in Cairo but the similarities between Cairo and Amman are growing.
King Abdullah has already constructed numerous housing projects around the country for the poor. But how long will this band-aid remedy last for entrenched problems with the country’s rapid development? In the eye of the storm, could Jordan become a breeding ground for unrest, however latent it may be and what would that mean for the region? It is unlikely that a full-scale revolution will take place in Jordan but there is no doubt that those with a stake in the country’s stability must pay close attention to the needs and the fears of the sha’ab (the people) before it is too late.
Natasha Hamarneh-Hall is a Jordanian-American who has conducted extensive research on the political climate and socio-economic development of the Middle East. She recently completed a Fulbright fellowship analyzing educational development in rural areas of Jordan and the widening gap between cities and Bedouin communities. She is a graduate from the University of Virginia.
