Intercity Public Transportation in mess

Been a while since i have blogged about public transportation in jordan, and since i've blogged in general due to the fact that i was pretty busy lately, as well as out of the country.

Intercity public transportation has been in a mess lately across jordan, and i am not claiming it was perfect, but at least it was doing the job.

During this summer, things seemed to be going towards a mess in the sector due to several facts. and some of the solutions were causing problems in other parts of the sector, and so on.

Probably this mess was quite an effect on the public due to the fact that it happened on major lines connecting the capital Amman with the major jordanian cities around it. along with the general usual mess that occurred after petrol prices went high again, leaving the PTRC un-handling the case properly like before and causing a mess among the sector's operators and users.

Users of Major lines connecting the capital Amman to Irbid, Salt and Zarqa have been suffering lately. It all started when Irbid-Amman's big buses started a strike by the end of last june along with a strike for the Amman-Irbid white cabs asking for their fairs to be increased after the raise in gasoline prices.
The Big Buses drivers and owners had this strike for the 4th or 5th time, asking again & again to have their operations combined with the small coaster buses, which are, despite being individually owned, operating under a single-owned phantom line operator called "3aroos el Shamal Transport", a company that doesn't own a single bus! More about the coaster/big bus battle can be found here. The strike continued till several days before ramadan, after no solution was found by the PTRC.

On the other hand, 2 other Major lines, Zarqa-UJ-Sweileh and Salt-Raghadan, which are also licensed to big companies that, probably own buses, but sub-contract the operation to individuals driving them, without the needs to care about their maintenance and quality of operation [details available in this response of mine], have been facing trouble after most of their buses are not even willing to start and run any more. this forced the PTRC to find substitutes for operation on those 2 hot lines that work almost 24/7. and from where could those substitutes be but from other lines! on Salt-Raghadan line for example substitutes were some big Irbid-Amman buses (yup, those on strike, but only with a Wasta!), and big Jerash-Amman buses leaving the small town of jerash almost disconnected from the capital with only 2 small buses operating on this line!

While on the other hand, on the Zarqa line, the substitute were buses from the CMTC, which still has some of its lines in the capital Amman badly operated!

Anyway, the transportation between zarqa and Amman was enhanced, or tried to be, by a 60 years old 20km/h running train, operating during ramadan twice a day, by a trip from Zarqa towards Amman at 7.30 AM in the morning and a trip back at 3.30 PM. a nice idea after the death of the Amman-Zarqa light railway project, esp that as declared that the train carts are rehabilitated and air conditioned even. but unfortunately, the announcements of this service didnt exceed some short press releases in the newspapers, resulting in only 6 passengers at its 1st day of operation.

Taxi Al-Momayaz .. not so Momayaz!?

Been a while since i did some public transportation blogging , ha!? Don't worry .. still here, monitoring :)

In the last several months or so, we had witnessed some Kuwaiti investments in the public transportation sector, that were unfortunately rapidly hit by the global economic crisis as others. 1st was the Amman-Zarqa light railway project , that until now, not just only didn't get to see light, but is still in a “tendering mode!” , that is after the 1st investor (Pakistani – Chinese – Jordanian alliance of a constructor contractor , steel manufacturer and real estate office respectively ) was rejected after it exceeded the time limit of assuring the needed money twice. The 2nd company taking over this BOT project was a strong Kuwaiti – Spanish alliance that applied their strength in rising up the projects expenses, but also failed twice in assuring the needed money, and thus the project was withdrawn from it by the government, resulting in having a case raised up in an international court, where the government is currently paying this alliance back!

Anyway, On the other hand, the Kuwaitis came up taking a license last year for Al-Momayaz Taxi, to be a quality taxi service with high standards, availability, on demand service, and quality. Especially after the PTRC's failure and what was to be called “The beige taxi” few years back, which happened to be nothing more or less than the yellow ones, and are still roaming our streets just like the yellow cabs.

So, the crisis came, and the modifications started in Al-Momayaz tender! 1st from the time of starting (which was a couple of months late), to the number of cars to start with (the actual start was less than 50 cabs), the type of cars (From 200 Toyota Camrys and 200 Mercedes E200 to 300 Toyota Corollas and 100 Mercedes E200), until the changes in tariffs and making the Mercedes tariff start from 1 JD, though gas prices were much higher and time of contracting!

Anyway, Me personally, as a seeker for quality, didnt have any problem getting into a silver colored Corolla, just like other Corolla cabs roaming around the Jordanian streets and paying extra money just for the sake of quality, quality to be represented with several added value services starting from polite and well trained drivers, with no “sorry that's not my way” excuses, to GPS tracking for the cars, requesting cabs by phone (also assisted by the GPS tracking system to let operators choose the closest car to your location), specified tariffs regardless of the time or destination, and even electronic payment.

When things come to the ground, you can obviously find that those from Al-Momayaz Taxi care about the image, the cars are always clean and tidy from inside and outside as well as their drivers, who are well selected and are professional as well as polite ones. Momayaz Taxi are also making sure to have stationaries at several luxurious hotels and commercial centers around town. But , is that all that is needed by such a service !?

Well, when it comes to the riding experience, Al-Momayaz taxi has new kinds of taxi counters (still not as supposed to be and not up to European standards), but good enough to be clear and give you a receipt with your trip details. And you'd pay just as the counter says, with no extra amounts of money for certain areas like yellow cabs would sometimes do when you tell them you want to go to a place they don't prefer. And al-momayaz drivers accept to stop and wait for you to drop by a shop or something during the trip without any problems, much not like the yellow cab drivers. But when it comes to late night hours (after midnight mainly), several experiences showed up that we still do have the after midnight problem of not sticking to the counter even in the Al-Momayaz Taxi! Either by having the driver telling you short and to the point that this would cost you an X amount of money without running the counter, or even pretending that they forgot to run the counter or close it “By mistake” during the trip!

Now the amount of money asked by them after midnight can be even less than yellow cabs at this time of the night, and pretty equal to how much the counter would count, the only difference is that the driver would get the money for his own pocket, and not for the company's.... when asking the drivers why would they do that, they all answer the same complaining from the Kuwaiti company's administration and their low wages (which is 250 JDs plus commissions by the way). Not that much for a driver who has been driving for at least 3-4 years! And what kind of QOS would come when you give your employees such low wages! It would have been more convenient for the Kuwaitis to give more wages for their drivers than having ads on small dirty and unclear ads boards on the middle of the road!

Last but not least, when it comes to phone requesting the cab, the call center is simply rubbish! I've never, ever been answered until now by the customer service operators! It simply keeps ringing and ringing with no answer even in day time. Now the call center is divided into both, an automated taxi request (which weirdly is not always active !! as sometimes the phone just starts ringing at the operator after you hear a voice that the call is recorded for quality measurement), and a vocal one that keeps ringing with no answer as mentioned earlier. As for the automated request, the menu is kind of boring, with some nonsense questions like (press 1 to have a home taxi request or 2 for an office taxi request). And the fact that the automated request prevents you from specifying a time that is less than 30 mins ahead from your call.

Last but not least, i observed that request operators speak with the drivers regarding the requests through the phone (the tracking device is over GSM and has a phone as well), using a headset, and once i even noticed that the operator has assigned a request to the taxi i was riding with despite the taxi was occupied with my order. The driver was telling the operator that he didn't receive the request and that he is occupied already, a very meaningful conversation that showed up that the tracking system they are using is not that of a magnificent one as it didn't show the taxi was occupied for the operator, nor sent the request correctly.

Taxi Al-Momayaz is a good service to have, but it can be much more better even!

Earth Hour in Jordan, the unclear message!

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

How Jordanian Radio stations stand against the web revolution!

How Jordanian Radio stations stand against the web revolution!

This question is raised and discussed in today's episode of my radio segment, as well next week's. Broadcasted monday morning , at 10.30 AM throughout the show "Eye on Media" on Radio Al-Balad 92.4 FM

The episodes will be also available through my blog later in the week.

I need to know your opinions about the Jordanian radio stations websites. what do you think about them, who's hot, and who's not on the web! other than the airwaves, and are they up to the competition against 1000s of radio stations on the web?

JEA's laziness campaign will not support Gaza!

The Jordanian Engineers Association (JEA) has been announcing in the local newspapers and through SMSes to its members to have a 1 hour of no work between the hours of 12-1 PM, as solidarity for Gaza! as they call it!

How will laziness support Gaza!!!!!!!!!
Everything can be a support for Gaza except for this! since when being lazy and not working became a way to win a war! or to support the people of Gaza!

Stupid!

Russians seem to be interested in attracting us! Media Wise

The new russian TV, Russia Today, seem to be really interested in the arabic public, and specifically the jordanian, and attracting them to their arabic channel that has been on the air for several months now.

The station has been advertising in local newspapers, and last week i've mentioned they installed this booth in City Mall, where they even have some young girls, "Not Russian, nor half russian ... Unfortunately ;)" trying "with not even half of the russian dare-full-ness" to let the people know more about the channel.

I've never seen until now such a direct promotion for any TV station in jordan, yet. What do you think about it. Russian's Are Rush-in or what :)

Lubna "Al-Koshieh" decleared dead!

For those who don't know, and maybe never been to zarqa to know, Lubna Al-Koshieh (لبنى الكوشية) or (لبنى السريعة) is most probably the most dangerous woman in Jordan. and is famous in zarqa (mainly the inside zarqa bus terminal) for getting money from shops and people by force using knifes, and is also famous for beating up alot of gangsters in zarqa.

Lubna was declared dead yesterday after a fight.

The question that was always raised, forgetting the fact that her case was caused by a family destruction:
Why, and how she was always free! regardless of what she was doing.

Here is also a video i found on youtube for lubna during a wedding, another way for her to collect money:

"Jordan Business" ignoring my response on last month's story

It was "interesting enough", as much as disappointing, how non of the points i mentioned in my response on Jordan Business's Magazine last month's cover story were neither commented by any of the magazine's staff to whom the response was sent, nor mentioned and not even commented in this month's edition of the magazine.

If you never tried public transportation, and can't move your self out of that car, just SHUT UP! we dont need your "Rich thoughts" if you consider public transportation for the "lower class".

Physically speaking, the bus riders are in a higher lever than car drivers by the way.

Does the TRC care only about licensing!

Thats an Open Question after the fact that Ministry of Trade announced it WILL NOT allow Mobile companies to charge 1 piaster/ SMS report as its illegal, while ALL the 3 GSM Mobile companies, Umniah, Zain and Orange simply kept ignoring that and CHARGING that extra piaster starting October 29th!

interesting is the fact that no comment from the TRC is out yet on this! and the companies are still charging

Can they, the TRC, tell us, the mobile telecom users, whats their point of view from this! will the TRC get our money back!? will it 1st of all try to stop the telecom companies from getting this piaster, as the companies are still getting it!

Responding on Jordan Business Magazine's public transportation Cover Story

This month's Jordan Business magazine had an interesting Cover Story about Public Transportation by Zaina Steityeh. That went to tackle several domains in the public transportation. But i felt like commenting on the parts talking about urban public transportation in Amman.

1st of all, I would like to talk a bit about the GAM taking over the control of public transportation in Amman. Which is indeed a move in the right way, as traffic and transportation have been always connected together from an urban point of view, and where-ever you go in this world, you'd always find urban public transportation always in the hand of the city municipalities, both as a regulator and operator, something which is not yet implemented in Amman, despite the fact that the GAM has 13% of the CMTC, the biggest operators in the capital Amman, but they don't really have so-called “weight” in that, and on the contrary, the owners of the CMTC are using that for their benefit, just like when the CMTC tried to convince the GAM to do a “special recommendation” to the licensing department to let them accept the 15 Convema buses (Convema is a non existing brand by the way), which were produced at the free zone by a sister company owned as well by Abu Khader Group, without having ABS (which is a requirement for licensing buses) nor any other minimal safety requirements, and which were put on the black-list by the licensing department. Unfortunately, the buses were licensed accordingly and are operating for a while now. And maybe this story would justify the unnamed source that told the story writer, quoting: “When it's separate, the regulatory body doesn't have a direct link to the bottom line of the operation and will, therefore, not be tempted to take shortcuts, overlook safety precautions or take cost-cutting measures at the expense of the final consumer. Out citizen”.

Anyway, fortunately, this was the only bad effect we have witnessed until the moment from the GAM taking over the regulation of Public Transportation in Amman. On the other hand, we have witnessed a lot of efficiency in planning, especially in the fact that the GAM got convinced that traffic problems should be solved by having a better organized, managed, and attractive urban public transportation (something i have been saying since 2005 anyway!), and that the GAM is willing finally to have a multi-dimensional public transportation, by creating a new backbone of BRT and LRT services. As well as efficiency in other minor things, like re-pricing, when the fuel prices went up, in comparison with the PTRC for example.

Despite that, we are still facing another kind of duplicability in the sector which wasn't mentioned in the article, when it comes to short routes that start from Amman, cross a big part of Amman, and head towards end of routes outside it. As those routes serve a lot of people moving inside Amman, while they are still in the hand of PTRC, and people have no other choice but use those means of transport. Simple examples are the Zarqa buses which are the only ones serving areas like Tabarbour and Marka when trying to head to/from there towards University of Jordan and Western Amman. As well as Raghadan-Salt and Raghadan-Baqaa routes. So we are having routes on main corridors in Amman, serving quite big numbers of people, and are still regulated by the PTRC. Ironically, some of those routes are even served for example by the CMTC which the GAM has a share of 13%!

Moving forward in the article towards the “Diffused Ownership” section. Diffused Ownership might be a headache and problem causer in the sector in general, something i totally agree, especially when it comes to poor routes that link some towns/cities to more remote areas, but the experience showed that companies ownership of routes is not that much better when it comes to urban public transportation. To be more precise, no single company handling urban (or part-urban) public transportation is doing it well, a part from the CMTC (which i will be talking about later), there are also other companies operating their routes in bad manners, with very “rubbished” and unmannered-unmaintained buses, quite very good examples are the very famous Raghadan-Salt buses which are owned by a company called: “Abu Rajouh & Abu Haswa & Co”, Yes! despite being medium sized buses, or so-called “Coaster” buses, those notably dirty, unmaintained, and always with a black cloud coming out of their exhausts buses on this route are ALL owned by a company that cares only to push their vehicles to the limit in order to raise their income! Similar examples are “Ahmad Abul S'oud & Hamad Abu Zaid Co” famous for operating in eastern Amman areas, as well as the very famous rubbished Zarqa buses moving towards most of Amman's areas owned by “Armouti, Ghweiri, & Sawalha Co”. As well as several others. All of those are not owned by individual bus owners, but all of us are having problems with them as bus users, especially when it comes to buses maintenance and safety, as well as quality of service, and non-commitment to routes in some cases, and lets totally forget about schedules and peak hours jams! Thus, I guess that the GAM and PTRC should 1st solve us our problems with those “Fat ownerships” that care only about rapid profit, then start saying Diffused ownership is a problem. And I would have liked it if Zaina Steityeh came down out of her car to the streets, and try some of those operators bad service, and compare it for example to quality bus services provided by a lot of organized Individual Bus owners, just like those operating on routes like Sweileh-Wadi Al-Seer, and Sweileh-Dakhelieh Circle. Routes on which individual bus drivers and owners have agreed on organized service and queuing (with frequencies that reach 1 bus/minute in peak times even!), and routes on which over 90% of the buses are always clean and tidy, and routes like the 2nd mentioned where buses operate up late to 11 PM and beyond 12 midnight in holidays!

I agree, however, with Mr Qudah's point when it comes to Diffused Ownerships in the trucking sector, and i guess that the Ministry of Transport should encourage small and medium projects in this sector to try eliminating diffused ownerships in it. Good models to follow are the ones in Turkey & Eastern European countries, where small & medium companies with 10-15 trucks have a range of operation that reach the shores of the Atlantic! I don't want to get deeper into this at the moment though.

Last but not least, I want to comment on the information mentioned about the CMTC, mainly by its CEO, Mr Moayad Tarawneh, who, with all respect, is either so stupid to know what is really going on in that company behind him, or think that we are all so stupid to know what is going in there in that company by the company's owners he is facading!

What kind of effect does “Diffused Ownership” has on CMTC bad management of operation, as almost at any time in the day, you can find buses of their company roaming empty, to i don't know where, and their drivers refusing to stop and carryout people! (Oh! Or is it that the GAM is paying half of the raise in diesel prices, so to hell with the GAM's money!). And how does “Diffused Ownership” effect the messiness and non existence of scheduled services, and the miserable situation of their buses! And how does “Diffused Ownership” effect a route such as “Raghadan-Sweileh” that they tried to start, with buses leaving once every 40-50 minutes, and that start operating after the end of morning jam at around 9 AM and stop operating before 5 PM!

1st of all, the system they bough with over 1.5 million dollars, which is a combination of fleet tracking and electronic smart-card fare-collection system. Is already late for over 1 year and 4 months now. And its not up and running yet! And wont even be entirely up! As it will be limited to the electronic smart-card fare-collection part, without the fleet tracking part! Noting that over 130 buses (the ones inherited from Asia Transport Co.) were already running a very efficient smart card fare-collection system, with re-chargeable RFID cards, POS charging units, & card validators in all those buses. All of that ever since 2001, and i was my self a heavy user of those as well as tens of thousands others, including my 4 years campus life! So, it wasn't something “we were just dreaming of”, and the CMTC could have just extended the already existing investment by adding more POS and bus validators in their fleet! While when it comes to the fleet tracking part, which i am repeating again IS NOT RUNNING, just in the summer of 2007, the CMTC were offered a “Public Transportation Information System” that enabled entire real-time fleet tracking, automated and dynamic bus scheduling, automated remote control, and Dynamic real time Passenger Information in bus stations and through mobile and internet service, all at less than 30% of the costs they bought this system & up within 4 months, and was REFUSED by the company owners “The Abu Khader's”, claiming that the turkish 1.5 million $ system will be up and no-time, and that they are not in need of all those “extra features”!

Interesting, isn't it!

While on the other hand, since the CMTC are paying 3500 Euro/each digital bus display, can they at least properly turn them ON! The screens installed on their new buses are very unsuitable in shiny conditions, are MOSTLY turned OFF! Malfunctioned! Or simply showing a WRONG ROUTE other than the ones the bus is operating on! While the Yellow displays installed in older buses (Mostly on the ones inherited from Asia Transport Co) are way much better, though they are sometimes malfunctioned or simply turned off!

Thus, the CMTC's investment is wasted as pure as that! Absolutely everything Mr Tarawneh claimed in this interview to be exclusively done by the CMTC is done in a wrong way! I wonder if Mr Tarawneh ever tried even to spend a whole day on his fleet to see how easily can his white shirt capture the dirt in the bus, how some buses have rain dripping from their ceiling in winter, how he can be late at work because his oldest 1999 buses “that he thinks are still pretty new” move in a speed of 25 KMs/h while he is standing near the backseat of the bus with half of the bus's fumes spreading inside the bus, how he would have his head hitting in the ceiling of the bus's door while trying to hope off the new 2008 Mercedes buses which were built by Elba with wrong dimensions and standards, how he can wait in front of his office in Mecca Street waiting for a bus that almost never comes, or a bus that just goes under the Al-Kilo intersection in the tunnel ignoring the masses waiting regularly at the bus stop from where the bus should actually pass, or try to squeeze in between the students in a full bus going From or To the Hashemite University! That his company is serving!
Or even at least spend a day at the so-called maintenance centers where “Consumed Motor Oils” from other AK Automotive centers are used as fresh oil for CMTC's buses.

& can he just name me the so-claimed 42 routes the CMTC is operating! & tell us which are actually running, and which are just fake-outs on the paper!!

Again, its either that he is stupid, or thinks we are stupid, both cases, he is just an employee and a facade that hides out the company owners. & I mentioned also that he made a couple of mistakes in his interview, 1st, the GAM owns 13% of the CMTC and not 20%, the 2nd is the fact that the CMTC is a so-called “consortium” of 3 companies and not 4! which are Al-Thelal (owned by Abu Khader Automotive), Al-Tawfeek (which was also bought by Al-Thelal about a month before the creation of the CMTC), and Asia Transport Co., whose owner withdrew from the company awhile ago because of loads of managerial problems in the way the Abu Khader's where leading the CMTC. So mainly its a takeover not a consortium.

I would have wished if the story owner, Zaina Steityeh, would have investigated more on what is really going on in the streets and on the ground when it comes to urban public transportation, instead of having just some rosy statements for some people that, maybe, never tried to use urban public transportation inside Amman! & maybe even tried to have several rides her self!

Anyway, thank you for the interesting cover story, without it i might not had even wrote this long response that is almost as long as the story it self :)

Conclusion: Will Jordan Ever Get the Public Transportation System it Deserves?
I hope so, but nothing on the ground so far!

BRT in Amman

Yes, its confirmed, both BRT(Bus Rapid Transit) & LRT (Light Railway Transit) will be forming the new backbone of urban public transportation in the capital Amman. and not as was mentioned before in the article published in Alrai about a month ago, and which i have commented on in a post right then.

Apparently, the reporter from Al-Rai got the whole thing wrong! and as i was told & confirmed by mr Ayman Smadi from The GAM, a BRT will be made on the University of Jordan route, and not a tramway.

Both, BRT & LRT, will move the entire urban public transportation infrastructure in Amman to another level, and more even, to a multi-leveled one, with having BRT & LRT creating the backbone of this infrastructure on the main corridors in the capital.

As for BRT, for those who don't really know about it. BRT, or Bus Rapid Transit, is a very big and long bus service, operating on their own street, in parallel with the ordinary street, assuring rapid, comfortable, and frequency-based Quality of Service. away from the messiness and traffic jams on the on the street.

One very successful experience is istanbul's BRT, branded as MetroBus.





Here is also a video showing you the difference of speed between the BRT and the regular traffic.


Istanbul's New BRT System in Action from EMBARQ Network on Vimeo.

Thanks also to fayez who pointed out a piece of news in today's alghad newspaper confirming BRT's implementation.

JO Magazine turns 5!

5 years of variety and dynamism
5 years of professional journalism
5 years of all kinds of topics, ranging from the Amman bombings to Drugs, from Night life and Night clubs in Amman to Honor crimes, from The Alternative Music movement in Jordan to Porn Cinemas in downtown Amman ... all covered in JO.
5 years of english-written magazines in Jordan (since JO was the 1st!)
5 years of the most serious magazine in Jordan, yet the most hyper dynamic.
5 years of the jordanian magazine that just makes you proud as a jordanian!

Yes, JO Magazine, turning 5 with their 61st issue this month, is a magazine that I'd like to follow up each and every month. And despite the fact that i sometimes (rarely) might not buy it, but like to follow it up. Simply because its a realistic magazine, and its probably the only English written magazine in Jordan that is not oriented towards the elite rich people in Jordan, and rather tackles all sorts of topics from the dynamic Jordanian society, with its goods and bads, and is just an overall looking window of journalism towards all sorts of political, social, economical, cultural, and even taboo issues in jordan. With an alternative professional vision, and many times different than what some people would imagine.

JO is also a good tool for representing Jordan! For example, in a technological conference i participated in here in jordan, I had the chance to meet a peer from the Czech republic, whom i gave JO Magazine. Later that year when i was at the Czech republic, and when discussing several issues about jordan with him, some information i was telling him were replied by him: “I know, I read it in the magazine you gave me, JO Magazine :)”. its realistic, its not telling the people reading it that we are Living Very Well, nor that we are enjoying Luxury in the Jordan Business, but it indeed shows the realistic view of jordan, and all sort of Jordanians more than a venture pulp in a nox :)

and maybe thats why Jordanian bloggers have always discussed about JO Magazine in their posts, and thus later came, as a logical result in JO's journalistic policy, their care in the Jordanian blogosphere in several features as well as their “Super Highway” monthly section.

re-STAR-ting The Star

The weekly jordanian newspaper, The Star, had recently had an "extreme makeover" resulting in a very dynamic and attractive new english weekly. in a fully colored Tabloid format.

The Star, issued by Addustour media, is the only weekly broadsheet newspaper published in jordan, and it started in 1993, with an inherited history from "The Jerusalem Star" which was published in Jerusalem ever since 1966 through the 1980s.

The Tabloid format made it able to have more topics around and about, since the small page sizes enable having more concentrated context, and more topics and page to review in the newspaper. and less empty talks to fill in blank spaces in certain pages.

the newspaper, whose price increased also to be 0.5 JD, worths it as its more of a ... call it, weekly magazine (Addustour's press can give almost that quality). Also faced an online make over, with a simpler and neater website on www.star.com.jo

Don't forget to check it out tomorrow morning and every monday morning, it worths it!

McDonalds UJ reopens, with Free Internet :)

After the fire incident that happened with McDonalds, University of Jordan branch last march. McDonalds seemed to renovate the entire place and make some major changes in it.

Last week, the branch has reopened its doors, and with new added values for its customers, especially taking into consideration the place where this branch is located and the concentration of students in the area. So they have installed several PCs with Free internet :) also, Free wireless will be available soon.

So I guess in several days, we will be on the map of the world wide "McWireless" and its also not a McInternet cafe like this one in Sweden, where they charge 1$ for 30 Minutes (will, this was back in 2003)

The new arrangement in the store is pretty nice as well, though i didnt like the big LCD thingy with Rotana Clip on it... I felt it a sort of a copy cat!

Smart move McDonalds Jordan, and i'd for sure prefer a McWireless than a McDoos Mr moey :D

Photos from Diana Krall's Last night in Amman

Just awesome :)
A. W. E. S. O. M. E.

everything, the setup, the place overlooking all Amman, the big meteorite crossing Amman's sky at 8.15 PM before it started, the performance, the music, the voice, the breeze, Diana's respect to the call of prayers and her pause of performance for that (which i have never seen in any arab artists performances). everything , everything, everything :)

Some photos from Reuters Pictures via DayLife says it all. (Click on Photos for sources)







and last but not least , a photo of the audience, in which i was missed by only 1 seat ... 1 seat and i could have been on photo from Reuters :(



More Here by Naseem Tarawneh
More "REAL" photos here as well

My 1st ever independence day outside Jordan

Tomorrow is the 25th of May, Jordan's independence day.

I'm currently off for vacation and some personal arrangements in Romania. and i will be missing, for the 1st time in my life, spending the independence day home in jordan.

Happy Independence day Jordan!

Jerash Festival Stopped!

Yes, Unfortunately, the great festival that made stars all around arabia, and the only festival in jordan that had the possibility to get international. was just turned off ... just like that!

I know the festival was going bad lately, but instead of developing it....

Then the 25th , silver, festival ... was the last!

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0% taxes on Energy reduction products.. including Hybrid Vehichles

Last thursday, the government announced reducing all the custom taxes and VAT on all the products oriented for reducing energy consumption. Be it solar panels, solar ACs and fridges, consumption reduction light bulbs, energy control panels, isolation construction materials, and .... Hybrid Cars & Vehicles :)

Finally, We'll be seeing more Toyota Prius cars in jordan other than The Minister of environment's car. actually, there is a good set of hybrid cars in the market out there.

Not only this, but how about some hybrid ran urban public transportation. other than thus urban buses are the top of the top brands, this will assure a flat rate for urban public transportation regardless of fuel prices.

Flat rates = stability
stability is an attraction
=> 100% attractive for the people in my opinion.

So there's MAN bus getting things done with Siemens for such a bus.


& Mercedes Benz is releasing its Hybrid Citaro G in less than a year from now.


a Part from the neat European technology, GM had already did it in the states, and over 1700 Hybrid Buses are driving the urban US streets nowadays.

GM debuted the hybrid technology for transit buses in 2003. Demand has been rising steadily each year. Later this month the 1,000 th GM-Allison hybrid-powered bus will be delivered to the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.

More about GM Hybrid Buses here

Queen Rania's channel on Youtube

Check the channel here, it already had over 47000 hits & over 160 comments on the video and almost 100 on the channel (Very interesting ones if i might say!)

This is what i call Web 2.0 :)

its amazing how this is having a big buzz on the bl og os ph ere :) ) ) Even before the written and audio media.... and hey, forget about the visual one!

Good Morning your majesty I know you read our Jordanian blogosphere

Jailing 5 Journalists ... @ 1 shot!

اصدرت محكمة البداية ثلاثة احكام بالسجن لمدة ثلاثة اشهر في ثلاث قضايا مطبوعات لكل من الزملاء طاهر العدوان رئيس تحرير صحيفة العرب اليوم واسامة الشريف رئيس التحرير السابق لصحيفة الدستور والصحفي فايز اللوزي والصحفية سحر القاسم والكاتب عبدالهادي المجالي

[source]

The 1st case was against Addustour, its journalist and chief.
The 2nd case was against Al-Arab Al-Youm, its journalist and chief.
Those 2 were because of discussing a court decision and criticizing it.

and the 3rd is against AbdulHadi Rajee Al-Majalee, for an publishing and electronic article about Besher Al-Khasawneh, ex-head of the Jordan Media Center.

Both cases are interesting, the 1st 2 happening after the kings call for not jailing any journalist for discussing a public case. that is, during his Majesty's speech from the Throne inaugurating the 15th Parliament.

While the 2nd being the 2nd case in no time dependent on "stuff" written on an online media! after AmmanNet's case.

More here