Karak tourism welcoming party

[Nadine Toukan]

Waking up to this image in the news today was fantastic.

So, why are the PM and US ambassador going to a tourism event in Karak? What is the context and relevance of their presence?

I'm guessing it may be a USAID funded tourism project, so it's PR driven. Tick it off the checklist and smile for the photo opp.

Here's the thing, if any foreign mission deserves to celebrate anything in Karak, it's the Japanese and JICA. They've invested a lot of human resources, expertise, money and time there doing some great work since 1999. The Japanese seem to be more soulful and sincere I suppose.

In my humble opinion, some foreign diplomats in Jordan have been making some pretty stupid decisions over the last couple years, and insist on getting involved in conversations and activities that are out of context and/or where they don't/shouldn't belong in this day and age. And of course our gang are happy to remain spineless, standardless and callous. Diplomacy and our policies towards foreign missions in Jordan, as well as our own (political, cultural and economic) diplomatic presence in the 51 embassies around the world need a massive and fundamental rethink. Is our foreign ministry planning to release the snooze button anytime soon?

In the guise of diplomacy, beware of orientalism 2.0.

 

[Thabit Alomari]

If you ask an individual from the local community in Karak or Petra about USAID, defiantly, he/she well open their mouth ! Simply, local community in Jordan are detached from the tourism process, as well as the benefits of the tourism industry.

About 15 years ago, JICA funded a project in Jordan - the Jordanian National Museum. Currently, the project does not exist and the fund is vanished. Jordan has over 100,000 registered attraction destinations without national museum!!             

Many NGO's have hidden agendas including USAD and JICA. Maybe it's smart idea if Jordanians use the NGO's funds and invest properly in order to develop our community.