Aqaba, Jordon
Once a stop on the spice routes. Boxes of apartments huddled low, crouching together. The atmosphere is thin and I can see far into the distance. The sharp desert mountains lying against each other present a study of browns and beiges. Although this is my first time here, part of me feels as though I am coming home to the desert. Completely different and yet it reminds me of home. As though making up for the simple colors of the desert, the sky is at its best. Bigger than any sky I have seen before. A cloudless brilliant blue, its color matches the line of Red Sea cutting through the rocks. The desert is stunning but the sky dominates.
Feeling full, excited, in awe, and guilty over lying to people who are nothing but friendly to me. I’m not supposed to say that I am from America, for the next 2 days I am from Canada. I don’t know if I will personally ever understand hating someone just based on their nationality. Logically it makes sense—they have had horrible things done in this region and, directly or indirectly, my country is responsible for most of it. But I can’t completely understand blaming one person for the evil deeds of others or even making generalizations about that person. Blaming or hating a country enough to take it out violently on individuals. I like to think that most people differentiate between a government’s policies and its people. The threat is the few individuals who don’t make that differentiation. Those people don’t wear signs though, and I am left lying to everyone.
50% of Jordanians are Palestinians (refugees who fled or were forced out of their homeland). Those who came in 1948 are full Jordanians with full citizenship rights. Those who came after 1967 hold Jordanian passports but are not citizens.
Thoughts on the Palestinian refugee camp Hattin in Amman: After walking through the camp (with armed escort), visiting some schools and a private residence, we split up into different groups for cultural activities. I went to the women’s center and talked with teenage girls. They don’t live in utter poverty the way images of refugee camps portray (honestly I saw people in worse conditions in South Africa, Vietnam and Sri Lanka). I’m not saying that there aren’t serious improvements that need to be made, but basic necessities like running water, food, clothing, housing and education are there. The upsetting thing about the refugee camp isn’t the conditions the people live in. It’s the fact that they are there at all. They want to go back to their homeland in Israel and aren’t allowed to. Part of the Jordanian Constitution says “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” It was posted in the school we visited (which is actually run by the UN and has a higher quality of education than some of the public schools in Amman). Most of the people in this camp were actually born in Jordan and have never even seen their homeland, yet they still want to go back. They still think of Palestine as home and Jordan as a place they are staying until they are allowed to go home. I realize that there are many, many sides to this issue, but visiting the camp was heartbreaking because it really does seem like such a simple thing to let people go home. Different groups did performances in a big hall—a Palestinian dance, Arabic songs, Japanese dances and a Japanese rock band even came all the way from Japan to put on a concert. It is so nice to relate to people on a personal level. To just joke around and laugh and not worry about politics or serious conversations. I think Dr. W was right in that the way to spread peace is to make friends all over the world. On western TV, Palestinians are always portrayed very simply as terrorists. CNN never shows the young boys playing soccer, the teenage girls worried about homework and painting their toenails. And CNN never shows the pain of wanting to go home.
Once a stop on the spice routes. Boxes of apartments huddled low, crouching together. The atmosphere is thin and I can see far into the distance. The sharp desert mountains lying against each other present a study of browns and beiges. Although this is my first time here, part of me feels as though I am coming home to the desert. Completely different and yet it reminds me of home. As though making up for the simple colors of the desert, the sky is at its best. Bigger than any sky I have seen before. A cloudless brilliant blue, its color matches the line of Red Sea cutting through the rocks. The desert is stunning but the sky dominates.
Feeling full, excited, in awe, and guilty over lying to people who are nothing but friendly to me. I’m not supposed to say that I am from America, for the next 2 days I am from Canada. I don’t know if I will personally ever understand hating someone just based on their nationality. Logically it makes sense—they have had horrible things done in this region and, directly or indirectly, my country is responsible for most of it. But I can’t completely understand blaming one person for the evil deeds of others or even making generalizations about that person. Blaming or hating a country enough to take it out violently on individuals. I like to think that most people differentiate between a government’s policies and its people. The threat is the few individuals who don’t make that differentiation. Those people don’t wear signs though, and I am left lying to everyone.
50% of Jordanians are Palestinians (refugees who fled or were forced out of their homeland). Those who came in 1948 are full Jordanians with full citizenship rights. Those who came after 1967 hold Jordanian passports but are not citizens.
Thoughts on the Palestinian refugee camp Hattin in Amman: After walking through the camp (with armed escort), visiting some schools and a private residence, we split up into different groups for cultural activities. I went to the women’s center and talked with teenage girls. They don’t live in utter poverty the way images of refugee camps portray (honestly I saw people in worse conditions in South Africa, Vietnam and Sri Lanka). I’m not saying that there aren’t serious improvements that need to be made, but basic necessities like running water, food, clothing, housing and education are there. The upsetting thing about the refugee camp isn’t the conditions the people live in. It’s the fact that they are there at all. They want to go back to their homeland in Israel and aren’t allowed to. Part of the Jordanian Constitution says “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.” It was posted in the school we visited (which is actually run by the UN and has a higher quality of education than some of the public schools in Amman). Most of the people in this camp were actually born in Jordan and have never even seen their homeland, yet they still want to go back. They still think of Palestine as home and Jordan as a place they are staying until they are allowed to go home. I realize that there are many, many sides to this issue, but visiting the camp was heartbreaking because it really does seem like such a simple thing to let people go home. Different groups did performances in a big hall—a Palestinian dance, Arabic songs, Japanese dances and a Japanese rock band even came all the way from Japan to put on a concert. It is so nice to relate to people on a personal level. To just joke around and laugh and not worry about politics or serious conversations. I think Dr. W was right in that the way to spread peace is to make friends all over the world. On western TV, Palestinians are always portrayed very simply as terrorists. CNN never shows the young boys playing soccer, the teenage girls worried about homework and painting their toenails. And CNN never shows the pain of wanting to go home.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home