Got 45 minutes to go and after a long day I’m just out of it and can’t really finish what I had in my hands and don’t have anything to read (unless you count that thing about risk analysis) so I thought why not blog a bit:

I see dark clouds ahead

Been looking over the numbers and keeping up with the news and digging info about a certain 90’s latin country and a certain 1989 event and so far things seem to be really grim. Looking and tracing the numbers and hearing the announcements from goverment official seemed like a damn broken track that has been stuck there since 1999. We need to reduce the deficit and we need to increase taxes and the fact of the matter is that we lost track of what it means to have an economic plan after the restructuring that was done by the IMF.

The situation that we are facing right now is we are meeting a slow down in the economy, a dead real estate market and a global deflationary environment with an expansion of budget and inflationary internal market. What this will do is that people are going to tighten their budgets even more and incidentally make the economy struggle even more.

So given the current situation where the governments expenses constitute almost 2/3 of the economy, a need to expand our internal and external debt and some of our public debts need to be paid as well, we face a very familiar scenario. We have maintained a consistant trade deficit and the only reason we are able to sustain is because our GDP was growning … but sadly the growth rate is decreasing rapidly and in the current gloomy economic enviroment across the globe it is harder than ever to attract invesments.

So unless someone realizes the need to address the dire straits we are going through with a decent plan that doesn’t know involve random and whimsical lifting and applying of subsidies and taxes we will get trapped and fall flat on our faces soon.

I understand that limit the government’s expenditures or its employees privileges is hard, and we barely have any state owned industries to sell any more, and reducing the mushrooming privileged employment and salaries is completely out of the question i would suggest a couple of simple things to start with when reforming.

First segregate the tax investigation bureau from the entire force, and make the knowledge of the investigation schedules with a limited number of people or even better make it administered electronically.

The second is to create a whistle blower hot-line that will allow people to call in their tax evasion and other money making tips for further investigation in lieu for a cash reward if they do … lets say 10% of the amount seized.  I bet you if you do those two things tax collection will become much more profitable than it is nowadays. ( I whistles medicalized Blue specialized eye sight *whistles whistle* )

I’m just kidding of course and our economic outlook is certainly sunny O tamam il tamam.

Nothing to do these days

It has been surprisingly stiffing in Amman these days, and there haven’t been many activities to do around town lately and even though we had a guest stay with us this week for three days the highlight of the week was a yummy halloumi and strawberry salad that i made for us on monday.

Anyone have any leads for anything interesting going around town this weekend? something other than damn c-rated American hip hop bands ? or was that last weekend ?

Pat Robertson got a thing for natural disasters, I think they tickle his prickliness. He keeps on talking about them as if they are actually  spiteful and retributive acts of god.

This is the guy that warned Orlando, dover, New Orleasn, NY and the USA at large of “earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.”

Usually the attacks are squared at anyone or anything with a liberal agenda.

The perplexing thing now is that it extends now to anyone who has fought colonialism. Basically what he is talking about is how the Haitians brought the horrible and destructive earthquake the devastated the poor country on themselves because they made a pack with the devil to achieve independence from the french …. psshh “everyone knows that!” he exclaimed dismissively.

paraphrasing Hitchens:  Pat are so full of shit my friend that if i gave you an enema you’ll be able to walk through a pinhole. But saddly he’s not too off about what he said

Summary: Haiti was forced to pay France for its freedom. When they couldn’t afford the ransom, France (and other countries, including the United States) helpfully offered high-interest loans. By 1900, 80% of Haiti’s annual budget went to paying off its “reparation” debt. They didn’t make the last payment until 1947. Just 10 years later, dictator François Duvalier took over the country and promptly bankrupted it, taking out more high-interest loans to pay for his corrupt lifestyle. The Duvalier family, with the blind-eye financial assistance of Western countries, killed 10s of thousands of Haitians, until the Haitian people overthrew them in 1986. Today, Haiti is still paying off the debt of an oppressive dictator no one would help them get rid of for 30 years.

The rest of the world refuses to forgive this debt.

Image by zawtowers via Flickr

A Jordanian court has ruled that Internet sites should adhere to the print & publications(Media) laws that governs the work of print media. As a consequence all the penalties that are extended by this law will be applicable to anyone that is posting anything on the internet.

The reasoning for this stems from the argument that the wording of the print & publications law defines print as ” any publication that is used to document meanings, words or ideas in any method”

The case that opened this topic is of one Ahmad Salameh, former [...] Continue Reading…

Back in April of last year there was this video showing Sheikh Issa bin Zayed Al Nayhan torturing a grain dealer with bullets, electric prods, nailed wood boards, testicular fires, whipping and even an SUV run over and it was all caught on TAPE ! So a court in UAE finally ruled on the case.

Now its no surprise that he would haven’t been acquitted, but the defense that Issa put forward is the real story here. Apparently he was not in control of himself (I want a medical doctors opinion on that) because he was drugged by two extortionist [...] Continue Reading…

Last night I was driving back and they started playing a song that I haven’t heard in ages on the radio, Rasputin by Boney M!
This song just brings back so many memories, cause like one of the first bands I remember liking as a kid were Boney M and ABBA (you think that would infer something ) and I still am fond of both bands bands to this day. It’s just such a joyful music that i never really paid much attention to the lyrics. This performance in the video is so hilarious and totally awesome !
But yesterday was [...] Continue Reading…

I was reading Anne Applebaum’s op-ed article in WaPo and fell upon this epiphany that she had:
The case of Bayrak and her ilk also suggests the need for another kind of anti-terrorism strategy. Too often, we still consider public diplomacy to be a sort of public relations activity, the “promotion” of American values. Instead, we should think about it as an argument. The Bayraks and Balawis of this world are engaged in constant debates — in Internet chat rooms, in the halls of publishing houses, in mosques. Are they hearing enough counterarguments? Are we helping the people who make [...] Continue Reading…

There might be non-fans for “the Life of Brian” but the relevant part  of this video is @3:50.

There is an idea that has been percolating in my head for a while now but it still didn’t reach fruition of any sort and didn’t have the perseverance to follow it to where it might take me but that part of the video above epitomize it.

The idea of how individualistic are we? how society shapes our individualism and our perception of it and how can this process be manipulated. Sounds like a brain fart eh ?

I’m curious about how much can [...] Continue Reading…

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BamBam

I won’t claim to be the expert about how women view themselves from within Islam but at least I do interact and discuss the issue with them. Actually my mother’s viewpoint is the one that I get to hear the most and the one that i like the most
I can summarize it in a single phrase that she repeats often. “those sheiks got nothing on their mind but women, their issues and how corrupting women are. If they paid just as much attention to anything else we would be way better off”. This is and off itself is [...] Continue Reading…

You know I’m not a big tree hugger, i understand the situation when it comes to climate change (atleast in layman’s terms) and i understand the need for a change in our habits and the level of consumption. Actually in my opinion probably the biggest stride to make the human race more green is to vilify consumerism … and hopefully stupidity and youth along the way.
BUT the there is one thing i really love about the green revolution. It’s a prospect and nothing substantial, but i hope from the bottom of my heart that it will become a reality [...] Continue Reading…