Thank you, King Abdullah of Jordan

Thank you, King Abdullah of Jordan for standing up for the free word of the youth, for taking it upon yourself to preserve our right to free expression. For the first time since you became King of Jordan, I feel that you have finally addressed something that really concerns me, and it looks like we, the youth, and yourself are stuck on the same side of this hard fight - and not against each other.

Who are we fighting against? The stagnation that prevents us from moving forward at our potential pace. The stagnation preserved by dictators along and across all levels of governance: the patriarchy, the tribalism, the nepotism, the inefficiency, the corruption and the ignorance hiding behind "loyalty" to god, the king and the nation. Those who put up your picture in their offices and restrain modernity and regress society in your name, and ours, throughout the establishment. 

Just a few examples: bloggers invited for "a coffee" with state security personnel, demonstrators called traitors and faced with "anti-reformists" holding your pictures and our flag, a school system that teaches us to obey and memorize, not to think for ourselves and arise. Officials close to you and further apart employ relatives to keep the system stagnant, and prevent you, and us, from achieving the desirable change. Meanwhile, brainwashed ignorants troll around online and offline social networks to accuse reformists of "betrayal" as they hail your name and our nation.

To allow our freedom of expression, and your own, to prosper - we have to work to tear down this ignorance, enlighten ourselves and those around us that democracy is not a foreign conspiracy, but is a responsibility that we have to take upon ourselves.

It is, however, disappointing that this very ignorance is broadly represented in so called national dialogue committee, which is supposed to steer the reform agenda in the near future.  The committee is made up of those who stand between you, us, and reform: Old men who do not understand the ways of the new modern world or who did not achieve any change when they had the chance. Only two women among a horde of such men is supposed to represent a society where women outnumber men.

We need to stop empowering bureaucrats, if we are to become the role model that we have promised the world and ourselves to become. We need to empower the society. We need to stop feeling that we are at the bottom of the world, that we are unable to change, that "nothing will ever improve". We all need to become the stakeholders of change that you, and we aspire to become.

We still believe, in all honesty, that you mean well. Thank you for your initiative.
We will surely make good use of it, and remain many steps ahead the oppressors, as we have always been since we started blogging.