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.

We don't need any reformers, we will do it ourselves.

I just posted this on the Facebook group: What do Jordanians need? (update, group was shut down the next day!)

Great news! I received a donor invitation to a meeting to finance a project to help social media activists in the Middle East get unbreakable tools and bring about more democratic change.

I have earlier posted on my blog that Jordan's political pandora's box is now open (read previous post here.) This means that, as many continue to observe and practice, what was taboo is now Friday breakfast family talk. Meanwhile, the government is stuck - it is stuck in the old way of thinking, of arranging things, of "reforming", and holding "dialog" with an opposition they have kept in regress since independence. They are missing the fact that young aspirations want to change the current forms of opposition just as much as they want to change the current form of governance.

They talk about "dialog" and stick to the old "dialog" proxies. Like Islamic Brotherhood, the Parliament, retired military personnels, and regressive family figures. And when they want to talk to students, they pick the Jordanian student council, which barely any student has ever heard of, let alone elected. The revolution is here, online, and since 2006 we, bloggers and social media researchers, have been saying... "Social media activists are always, always, many steps ahead of any authoritarian regime." Statistically, technically, and scientifically proven, now this has come out to the older generation as an undistortable truth.

What is happening in the Arab world comes from a huge generational gap in education, global access, connectivity and not least, aspirations. The kind of thing that goes beyond national borders, the reach of ministers, technocrats and bureaucrats, and the like. Then there is the digital gap, between the young and even the most advanced national communications bodies. Any blogger can spot authority visiting their blogs, or googling information about them, whereas authorities websites are painstakingly pathetic - an indication of their competence. Any blockage is breakable. And then there are global legions of human right defenders, hackers, etc who do not even know each other IRL or online, but are united in securing a better earth for all. 


Addressing "need" and addressing "want" is a distinctive difference. Governments offer to satisfy some "needs" and think that covers all aspirations. They totally miss the fact, that what we want, is beyond what we need. In fact, most of us don't need anything, but we want: nations where every individual, man or woman, is free to choose the course of their lives, and has the means to achieve it. 

Question is what do authorities need to do - reorganisation - the tools are out there, offered by the likes of Transparency International, UNDP, etc etc. But those offer the basics. What we aspire to, as Jordanian  or Arab youth, is beyond food, shelter, jobs, marriage, a means of transportation and some "dignity." We want to see the kind of social revolution that brings people of all orgins, all beliefs, and both sexes together in one hand, as equals - and to that end - they all have a common goal - to secure that equality. The kind of thing that was sparked really in Egypt - where social media "anarchists" inspired millions of offline people to come out of the "closet."

Down with the old ways of thinking. We do not need parliamentarians who want to give us "pizza and hamburgers" because we use "facebook and twitter" and call us all sorts of derogatory names. We do not want a government that is stuck in models that make the 1950s sound progressive. And we certainly do not need a leadership which cannot fix all this, nor one that decides whether and when we are "ready" for democratic change. We want to do it ourselves, we don't need anyone. 

It will take time, but we won't stand aside as fellow Arabs advance while we regress. Let alone the rest of the world - who finally is waking up to the fact that they too, have been decieved by our rulers - Jordanian officials are becoming an inside joke at European Foreign Ministries: "...everything is on track, like in Jordan, but you know how it is...". This is a revolution against authoritarian systems, from patriarchal homes to monarchical heredity... not from the top down, not from the bottom up, but flat! 


This has been my rant after learning that the new government in Jordan - which has not even promised any substantial reforms got a vote of confidence from a parliament that dissed protests and protestors (and voted almost unanimously to give confidence to the former corrupt government). Same same, but different, like they say in Bangkok.


Anyway, here's another view with much more influence and credibility.