Lights off,AC off,Laptop on Battery mode, just the network line in to work and listen to the rockout on Spin Jordan :D .. its Earth Hour!
This is the way i contributed for the past 60 minutes for Earth Hours 2009 while being at work in a dark 4 walls no windows room in which i'm writing this at the moment.. Earth Hour 2009 in which Jordan had participated this year, with lights going off in several main streets, like: Gardens, Thaqafe, Mecca Street, Zahran, Istiklal, Queen Alia, and others. As well as all the main squares in the capital Amman, and all the official governmental offices & ministries (which are already closed at this time, especially in a weekend!). In addition to a candles walk toward wild jordan in Jabal Amman...all backed by the Ministry of Environment and the GAM.
So fine so far, but the unfine thing, is how much propaganda people do about it and about the objectives behind that...! from what i've seen until now and witnessed, i officially declare that the objectives of this initiative didn't reach for most Jordanians, particularly ammanites in my witnesses case!!!!
That is, because i, as well as several colleagues of mine, we have witnessed a lot of people chitchating on the street, even just minutes before earlier around 8 PM, that all the government will CUT OFF the electricity today at 8.30 PM in the whole Amman!!! this is what people got from it! Yes! Without caring to know why, what, how! Or even if they got the message correctly!
That even included the guys in the company in which i work, and whom have sent an IT Department guy to turn off all our severs resources!!!! until we have convinced him not to! After we cleared out the message to him and his manager via phone.
Now thats a big question mark! Is the mass media in our country weak enough, or are the people just propagandists, or both!!! in all cases, this is something that needs to be solved!
Anyway, more about earth hour from fellow jordanian bloggers:
Naseem Tarawneh
Farah Nimri
Eman
2 comments:
Earth Hour 2008: Call to Action Jordan movement brought the city’s first Earth Hour to Amman where many jordanian residents eagerly participated with people turning off their lights between 8 and 9pm on March 29,2008.
Candlelight could be seen flickering in apartments located near the city centre, and several families throughout the city hosted Earth Hour events at private residences.
Earth Hour 2009: At 8:30 pm on the 28March millions of people around the world used the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.
Where did the Lights Go Off? Anyone couls get involved and individuals around the world shut the lights off in their homes and businesses. In addition, major participation on six continents.
Jordan was also planned to turn off lights at all public buildings and many main roads on Saturday for one hour on the occasion of the Earth Hour at the aim of increasing awareness on environment to save power and alleviate carbon emission. Minister of Environment Khalid Irani told The Jordan Times on Sunday, noting that as certain street lamps and public agencies will go dark, Amman residents are requested to join the event voluntarily.
Several families and private businesses did actualy host Earth Hour events at private residences, cafés and restaurants where candlight are going to be visible glowing in the dark.
As members of the WWF we are proud to have introduced the Earth Hour phenomena to Jordan!
During Earth Hour, we were asking people to turn off all nonessential lights for one hour – no lights that affect public safety since the aim is for everyone to enjoy Earth Hour in a safe and energy efficient environment.
As for Amman streets that were planned to turn off lights:
- Rainbow Street - Jabal Amman
- Street of Culture - Shmeisani
- Omar Matar Street, opposite - Ras Al Ain
- Wasfi Al Tal Street
- Zahran Street, between the 5th and 6th circles
- The street from Jamal Abdul Nasser Square (Interior Ministry) to Zeid Ben Shaker Square (Sports City)
- Greater Amman Municipality’s main square
However, in Jordan, the Municipality decided just to turn off the street lamp in the stated streets no more.
We encouraged as many people to turn off the lights as possible through the use of the media. Yet, civil action in Jordan remains a new concept.
The Call to Action Jordan movement, a non-profit collaboration of independent activists with the GCC and the EDN established 2 years ago, aims to tackle the lack of public awareness to environmental issues we are facing in Jordan: educate, mobilize and inspire personal/community action.
If you are interested, you could check our campaigns on our website:
http://call2actjo.ning.com/
Change needs time. I think that there wasn't enough advertising for the campaign and the purpose of it. I personally knew about it yesterday. and there was no mentioning of it in the official Amman city blog. but I'm sure that these things will be better in the next year.
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