Jordan Byte ... Politics 101

Introducing a two-parts article by my dear friend Hamza Al-Amoosh talking about the political spectrum in Jordan.

What a Great Start to his new born blog.

See : Part 1 , Part 2

Be sure to check it out.

Jordan Byte ... The End of The 1 JD DVDs ?

Just a bit of news I would like to share, I hope it's just a stunt.

I remember reading an article about "leaving the 1 JD shops alone" lately but I can't remember where.

But you all better get your stack for the year, just in case.

Movie Byte ... Captain Abu Raed : Will He Fly High ?

The first Jordanian Feature film in fifty years, Captain Abu Raed has been creating some echoes around the Jordanian media; newspapers and blogs, and some Arabic and international media for some time now. It's only natural that this film captures much attention in a country that recently started to discover its hunger for culture and art and its need for a cultural identity. But the question that wanders around in my head is: Is this buzz all good ? do we need to set the bar that high, and then hold hands and pray that the film makes the jump ?

There are numerous examples for films, some good and some not as much, that were killed by anticipation. I can remember Waterworld, The Da Vinci Code, and most recently a film that can be compared to our film; the first saudi feature film "Keef El-Hal". I admit they weren't top notch but the overflowing anticipation in international media had the bigger hand in all the negative reviews these films received after they hit theaters.

I know Amin Matalqa is a good director, I have seen more than a handful of his short films and I think he is really talented, but unfortunately that is not the only ingredient in the recipe for success. Success requires hard work, collaboration, creativity, experience, luck among others. I wish the film makers had put enough of that to match the expectations, but let's not make this harder for Amin by expecting a film of high-caliber, and let the movie speak and decide for itself, and more importantly let's all triumph, for we have reached Sundance, DIFF, and God-willingly The Globes and The Oscar, Who knows ?

Jordan Byte ... The Rift with Qatar coming to a closure ?

There is no denying that the meeting between King Abdullah II of Jordan and the Prime minister of Qatar in Amman yesterday along with new directives to the Jordanian Government for further cooperation with Qatar could be seen as a sign to the looming end of the drift in relations between the two countries. Problems which surfaced through recent years were mainly caused by Aljazeerah controversial shows, The Hamas issue and Qataris voting agianst Prince Zaid bin Raa’d in the preliminarily elections for the post of UN Secretary General last year.

As the issue of the UN Secretary General subsided, the tone in Aljazeerah programs faded and the implications of Hamas’s riots in Gaza on international scene which made Qatar reconsider their position towards Hamas; observers can see a new dawn in the relationships between the two states where more efforts are needed to resolve more important issues in the regions such as Iraq and Iran.

This can be good news for a lot of Jordanians living in Qatar where it is rumored that they are not being treated equally as the rest of Arab residents, not failing to mention that it re-opens the doors for Qatari businessmen to invest in Jordan.