“The children, the children, I’ll not forget the children”…





Tourism Police & vendors at Treasury

Whenever my sister Chris and I get together for very long we usually find ourselves breaking into a chorus of the above title of this post (from “The King & I”).  There are many children in the neighborhood. The other night I went out to pick up some chicken and there were about 3-dozen under 10 playing in the street on our block (or the adjacent dirt soccer field). One of the primary issues that concerns managers at Petra Archaeological Park (PAP, or the Park), the Region Authority, Tourism Police, UNESCO and many others is underage vendors. Many start coming to the Park before they can walk, and drop-out of school in order to sell rocks chiseled from the resource PAP is setup to protect. They can make a JD (Jordanian Dinar) or two and help with the family’s finances. They start by selling rocks, postcards, and smiles. As they mature it is jewelry (often said to be Bedouin in origin, but from India or Pakistan), “donkey operator” or wife. None of them are authorized to operate in the Park, but laws also protect minors from most legal actions. We watch them have their wares confiscated by Rangers, but returned within 15-minutes. They are usually outgoing and friendly, but will point out that this is their country (yes, and one that has determined this activity is not in your best interest or that of the country: eco & heritage visitors don’t like being harassed and sadly we’ve watched some that were until they bought something). About 30% of them are members of families receiving social assistance payments (another 30% are families of park staff), so there is leverage to gain compliance to keep them in school. The “will” to do so is growing. In fact a military school was discussed this spring, and seems to be gaining traction: it could be a combo of those sincerely wanting the opportunities afforded by it, and those that might be walking-the-line of miscreant behavior and directed there by authorities.

New PM

As some of you may have been reading, Jordan has a new Prime Minister: Awn al-Khasawneh. The previous one resigned after ca. 8-months amidst allegations of foot-dragging re: change, conflicts-of-interest and corruption (“go figure”). The new PM, a former international jurist, is a longtime friend of King Abdullah's family (“go figure”) and has said he’ll have an open-door policy and talk with everyone: I’ve got my request in-the-Q. Shall we start a pool for when-it-happens?     http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/17/172308.html

www.deseretnews.com/article/700188865/Jordans-king-names-judge-as-new-prime-minister.html

Khazneh today

               When here earlier this year, “Arab Spring” sprung with youthful vigor and the assistance of social media led by Facebook. Of course that can have its disadvantages too; some of the reports coming out of this region were not witnessed 1^st-hand, but often 3^rd or 4^th. Many of us remember the communication exercise where a group of a dozen plus people sit in a circle and the lead whispers something like “Moses was a prophet”  and by the time we all took turns passing it on (whispering what we’d heard) we ended up with something like “bankers profit by child molestation.” Anyway, speaking of children…

Congress - A Group Of Baboons

By Frosty Wooldridge    8-22-11

The English language features an anthropomorphic collection of nouns for the various groups of animals. We call a bunch of cows a "herd." We call a group of geese a "gaggle." We call a bunch of fish a "school." We call a group of sheep a "flock."

However, less widely known is a "pride" of lions, a "murder" of crows, an "exaltation" of doves and, because they look so wise, a "parliament" of owls.

Finally, let's consider a group of baboons They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. What is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Answer: a congress!

Now you understand why our country continues its descent into the abyss of a failing civilization.

(as noted by one observer: the above is an affront to all self-respecting baboons)    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baboon