Jun 3, 2009

Why are Jordanians angry people

I will tell you why , let me tell you how i came to figure out 1st , I've been noticing a gradual change in my mood and temper since i got here,around two weeks period now ,the coolness and relaxation in public places i came to enjoy in Thailand is gradually fading ,and I've been thinking about it ,and been noticing stuff :

1st thing ; we don't say thank you enough :
In Thailand ,when you get into any kind of shop ,or even stop at a street food cart you're greeted "welcome" ,and after you ordered and paid the seller they'd say "Thank you" when they take the money from you, and then when they return the cash or hand you your bags ! however big or small the shop is ,everyone would do the same .with time -believe it or not- ,coming into a shop becomes a relaxing thing . WHERE IN JORDAN : you get into the shop,no one gives a damn ,you say "Marhaba" or "Salamo alaykom" and I'd say you have 4:1 chance of being ignored too.you order your stuff (or get them yourself) and go to the cashier , there is a big chance he'll be sacking it up and calculating while he is not even looking at you,talking to some other guy or on the phone,or even worse sitting on his chair laying back at the wall reaching his arms full length to do everything without moving an inch ,you hand him the bloody money ,he gives you the bloody change;still not looking at your graceful face ,YOU say "Thank you" or Shukran,and this one has a 6:1 chance of being ignored . believe it or not ,its starting to make me hostile towards all sellers ,its just not a nice feeling ! .

2nd thing ; Taxi drivers are self-proclaimed Gods .
I don't drive and i don't own a car ,i take taxis ! when you wave to one of them ,they slow down,ask you through the window (while still moving) "WHERE TO?" you tell him "somewhere" and he hits the gas and keep going .just like that.best case scenario he'd tell you -cuz he is a self-proclaimed God- "no no,not going there" and then hits the gas pedal .
Assuming he wants to take you where you want to go,you have to go with the way he wants to go,cuz he knows better,remember,he is God he knows better .hell,one of them insisted i unbuckle my seat belt cuz he thought i was picking on him and/or making fun of him !! what are these people !!! okay 90% of them,i admit I've been in couple of cabs with real nice clean buckled up drivers with clean nice cars who made me feel like human again . you have to encounter one of the prior kind of drivers and trust me your mood is fucked up for the rest of the day . did i mention they never have change ?or somehow its always 5 piasters short ! W.T.F.

3rd thing ; No where is clean,and everyone smokes everywhere .
now you may wonder (if you haven't lived in a city where everywhere is clean and people don't smoke everywhere) you may wonder how does that effect ones mood ,IT DOES . when the streets are clean,when the parks are clean,when people don't smoke indoors ,or in cars ,you feel good about your community and therefore yourself ,when the whole nation act like that IT DOES make a difference, yes i wasn't really happy with Thai's very strict self commitment to following rules in general,especially when it came to smoking ,but later when i got used to it ,geeeez does that make you feel like a civilized person living in a civilized place !

4th thing ; we don't line up .
Whenever you're anywhere where there is anything that requires people to line up..guess what...you never see the magical line happening ,you see half circles of people over each other's asses and backs each trying to reach their arms as far as they go to get done 1st ...whether its a concert's ticket at Jara Market or the close by bakery ,its always the same scene ,a scene that flashes images of movies such as The Gladiator in your mind walking toward it for some reason .

the list goes on and on .its fucking annoying and depressing ,its sad and fucked up ,we are fucked up,thats why we are angry people ,because we don't know better,and we don't know anything else .

29 comments:

mab3oos said...

and people were on my ass for being mab3oos.
إيييه شو غلييز
مهو من هالقرف إللي إسمه عرب

Yazid said...

100% especially about the smoking part :S it annoys the shit out of me :S and the Taxi with that belt :S eno enta ahanto ennak telbas 7zam el 2man :D yel3an 3ardhom !

MommaBean said...

Welcome Home! I agree 1000%. Thank You. Very Much. (See I say thank you.)

Rula A. said...

I know how it feels.. inta kunt mit3awed 3ala nizam mu3ayan w kunt mirtaa7 3alee w 7ases ino howe isa7 w now everything had changed.. so it's kinda hard to re-deal with things..
Unfortunately the worst part is that ur coolness & relaxation r fading away :S
yalla u'll manage to re-adjust :)
w aham ishi keep on smiling :D

Anonymous said...

The smoking, it always makes me so irritated, I realized that I need to get out of this country soon. I need some new air

NasEr said...

mab3oos I was one of these people and i owe you an apology . lol

Yazid see,you ended your comment with a curse ,thats what I'm talking about .

MommaBean i really have a tremendous appreciation for your strength to have been able to last here and not go nuts,yet !!! but have these things alter your mood in general ?

Lolita hell no,readjust ? I'm not readjusting ,me against the odds :) I promised myself I'm bringing every good thing i've seen abroad back home,starting with myself and friends.

Tha2ir i hear there is a new law to be enforced soon about banning smoking in restaurants ,I'm hoping everyone will just do it cuz they know its the right thing to do but maybe this is how it should be with us,fines as a starter .and yea get out on vacation n come back ,u'll miss Jordan's air with all its smoke :)

Sandra said...

LOL Naser I loved this khasa #1 ya3ni you described the situation to a T...this is how I was treated by DOCTORS in one of the hospitals when I was there not to mention the smoking ya3ni even in the hospital?? come onnnnnn...

sad thing is enno here in the states you walk into some of the 3araby shops and you see that some have brought this attitude over with them

Anonymous said...

بوافق لدرجة بس الفرب مش أحسن ,يعني التزامهم مش نابع من أدب أو قناعة بس من إجبار حتى لو بدا اختياري ,يعني مثال عادة الشوارع النظيفة عندهم مش لأنهم نظاف بس لأنه في دفع مصاري على أي تسبب بتوسيخ .
طبعا ما عم أعمم :)

NasEr said...

Sandra 7a22ek 3alaina el mohem 3alajooke :D . the smoking though i have to say its a LITTLE BIT better now but its still way too much .most of the Arabs i met in Thailand brought all the bad habits with them,and gave themselves the liberty of worsening it too ,sometimes when i was asked if i was Arab (in the Arab area,by Arabs) i'd answer no i'm from Greece !!


Anonymous بعرفش عن "الغرب" أنا كنت في "الشرق الأدنى" و هناك الناس بلبسو حزام الأمان حتى لو الساعة 3 الصبح و بكبوش زبالة بأي مكان حتى لو فش غيرهم...أنا حكيت يمكن بتأثير من ديانتهم برضو (البوذية) اللي أهم إشي فيها إنك ما تئذي حدا\إشي .. بس شو ما كان معظمهم بلتزم لإنو هيك هم صارو مش عشان المخالفات

Daglees said...

I agree it's dirty all over Amman, this city is incredibly dusty and stinks of bad coffee and cigarettes, and the citizens are specially dirty. Maybe you Jordanians could start showering daily, normal people do that.

Anonymous said...

To Alucard:

Obviously You misunderstood this post. You must be mistaking Jordan from where you are from. It is a well-known fact that MAJORITY of Jordanians are very clean and normal citizens. Unfortunately these citizens live in a country that lack water resources which has always been a VERY BIG issue that they have always been faced with and through no fault of their own. Just because people smoke and drink "stinky coffee" does not reflect they are not "normal" individuals! GET A LIFE!

Anonymous said...

To Alucard

P.S. Of course Amman is dusty! Have you not taken note of its' geographical location? Shame on you for being so ignorant!

kinzi said...

NasEr, heh-heh, hamdililah assalaaameh!

Bastaghrabni ma3 cool 3al 7aki hayki. Badaha7akni, enti.

Ni7na minkooooon al a-kaal-eeeeya ila ra7 nghayar al mooooshakle watan-na

:) ooo shukaraaan

Hareega said...

We are angry because w edon't have freedom. When we cannot express our thoughts for one million reasons we get super angry.

Anonymous said...

and you, especially you, you don't say "Dear" enough :P

NasEr said...

Alucard Amman might be dusty,look around genius its all mountains ,we Jordanians would'nt trade it for any other dust-free air anywhere else .I don't know where you've been but people aren't dirty maybe you're hanging around the wrong crowds ! on a side note , people can't afford to shower daily most of the time ,there won't be enough water for the rest of the week but still its not as bad as you're thinking !!!

Anonymous(es) welcome on board .

Kinzi :DDDDDDDDD you made me smile in the mists of a not-so-lovely day, lol @ "ma3 cool" :DD yes yes ma3 cool,and yes we'll change things and shake it around ,"Be the change you want to see in the world",thats what i do.wa 3afwan,wa ahla w sahla,w thx allah ysallmek :DDD

Hareega that too ! guess if i brought that up I'd be an anti-Jordan-Jordanian ,are you ?

Noura LOL :DDDD well i say it when needed in formalities ,but if you're a dear you'd know without me having to just put it out there :D

catch22 said...

ur talking about cultural characteristics , Jordanians are hot-blooded compared to Thai ppl who are mild tempered and with slanted eyes and features that make them look frozen in a perpetual smile though they have big ego issues , high value of self esteem ," Since the "ego" of the Thai is so important, it naturally follows that the Thai have the "avoidance mechanism" to fend off unnecessary clashes."

did my homework of course..:p

http://www.thaiwebsites.com/egoorientation.asp

another example are the Egyptians , they say all the niceties , thank u ya fandem , ya basha n all the stuff i can't remember.. it oozes hypocrisy

quite an angry post Naser :D

NasEr said...

Yes catch22.when i like someone i criticize them,you apparently has another mentality which i call justifying mentality, in Arabic
كائن تبريري
However accurate or wrong what you mentioned may be,i still don't understand how can you deny all what i posted and gave it a genetic excuse (LOL),maybe you should mingle a bit more with Jordanians and then see if you'd still give excuses.

NasEr said...

and welcome to smokes blow catch22!!

freedom said...

speacialy the thnx things
hard to say

NasEr said...

freedom welcome to smokes blow ;
why is it hard to say ? do you mean you can't say it easily or you mean "everyone else" ?

Daglees said...

You're crazy if you think I hang out with these stinking people, surely I don't but they're all over as the common Jordanian will shower only on Fridays. Seriously, there is water, if you shower daily your showers won't need more than 5 minutes, that's just an excuse you use to cover the fact Jordanians are lazy and won't bother to take a shower during the week. Shame.

NasEr said...

Alucard you can't really say people shower or take a bath only on Fridays you don't know that, you also can't say that all people can take shower daily ,do you have a clue about the water problem in Jordan ? do you have a clue about the financial situation for most of Jordanians and how tight the budgets are ?
i find your comments coming from hatred to the people ,no matter what I'm gonna say you're gonna give me another smart answer.

Daglees said...

Average soap bar = 0.35jd
Monthly water bill = ~15jd

Anonymous said...

I visited Jordan in winter time, my son got cancer and you probably know why, smoking yes smoking...every one around him smokes....his Mom...his uncles....his friends...his teachers! and poor boy he never touched it and he hates it yet he got cancer because of second hand smoke...people come to visit they smoke...Myself I never smoked and I hate it. Not to repeat what all has said where ever you go you will see and smell the smoke.
As for cleanness, I rented a furnished apartment in Jabal Alhusain...I see the Baladiyah workers sweeping the filthy street in the morning, and the whole street now empty of rubbish and garbage it didn't take an hour and the whole street was dirty again, people hates to see it clean, big garbage containers are empty yet the garbage bags all around it...as if its just a landmark for garbage and its not to used for containing garbage...all of this made me depressed and nervous all during my stay...not to mention the rude dangerous drivers, they drive as if they own the street with complete ignoring of traffic safety and rules...I usually come and missing my country, but only it takes couple of weeks to become so depressed, and relieved when I leave...the problem is the people and their mentalities...and its sad that you cannot wait till you leave you country...this is just little of what I see every time I come to visit...I love my country...but I hate the mentality of my people...sorry and sad to say that

Daglees said...

Yeah Anon, you said it all. I'm very sorry to hear about your son, cancer is an epidemic in Jordan but no one is talking about it.

The air in this country is filthy, much like the mentality of its people. It really amazes me how they manage to survive every day life with their empty skulls.

Anonymous said...

First of all thank you for ur observations, I can tell frankly why all this things happen, because simply the goverments not just in jordan but all over the Arab World want us to be like that, so they can show the whole world that u c how dirty r they? and how uncivilized r they? so the goverments can explain to the west it right to rule us, and i think all of u ppl saw the Egyptian revolution and it shows how Egyptians are organized, educated, and peacful, not just for jokes, so when we have this democracy in the countries u will c a different type of ppl, when the goverment stop pushing the ppl to the limits, i assure u that u will see them happy, and very thankful and graceful for everybody, and for instance u can`t also keep beating somebody and if he said " A5 " U WILL say : C u said to me a5, so look to the reasons and then to the results.

Anonymous said...

Jordanians have high salaries and big positions more than any other nationalities in one of the Gulf countries and they are the number one thrives (remember arabtic)

Anonymous said...

Really annoyed with myself. I should have read this article before joining my company in KSA while knowing that my boss is a jordanian.
Always shouting, posing that he is superior to everyone and worst of all, always after people's job.

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