Hello again,
I decided that I would post some stories I have heard about political issues in Jordan. This first story is a bit sad. One of my Jordanian friends has a little boy who is about three years old. The child came down with a virus and became dehydrated. Being the good father that he is, my Jordanian friend took his child to the hospital. Unfortunately, there was no room at the hospital and they turned this father and child away. Syrian and other refugee groups have crowded Jordan's hospitals to the point where people, especially Jordanians, are not able to receive great health care. My friend made a few phone calls and grabbed a bed for his kid, but it was a hassle. I'm glad to say that they are both feeling better now. The refugees take alot of Jordan's services and resources. This is another reason, besides the mass killing of people, that action should be done to stop the Civil War in Syria. Also, perhaps other countries should help Jordan out with the refugees, whether it be financial or take some people and provide them with a better life. In this situation, the refugees and the Jordanians both lose. We should aim to help both sides.
Also, another person that I know was talking about the parliament elections today. He said that north of 50% of Jordanians are unsatisfied with the recent constitutional ammendments that the King has proposed as well as the current parliament. Apparently back in the day, 1989, Jordan allowed the three votes per man system. Each person was allowed to vote for three different people to fill the three seats in their section of parliament. People normally voted according to this system: the first seat was selected based off of tribe, the second base off of kindness and the third based off of political party. This gave the Muslim Brotherhood, a very popular Islamist group in Jordan even today, an advantage and a large number of seats in parliament. In an effort to curb this, the King instituted a one vote one man policy. Each person could only get one vote no matter how many seats were in their part of parliament. This limited the number of Muslim Brotherhood party members who got seats in parliament. I don't remember what happened next, but somehow the King tried to lower the number of seats the Muslim Brotherhood could get in Jordan again. This lead to the Muslim Brotherhood boycotting the current election. Apparently the largest party after the Muslim Brotherhood, I forget the name again, just resigned for parliament today claiming that the election was fixed. This is possible because they had very few seats and this would not be usual for a group that would have had much of the popular vote. However, as an American, I know the popular vote does not mean anything in an election :). Apparently other groups and members of parliament are considering resigning again because they are not happy with the constitution and the election. This friend told me that he thinks that this parliament will not last long at all, perhaps months.
These are some of the stories I have heard so far that lead me to believe that reform is necessary in Jordan. People are not having their needs met and do not feel like they are represented, whether things were fixed or not.
I decided that I would post some stories I have heard about political issues in Jordan. This first story is a bit sad. One of my Jordanian friends has a little boy who is about three years old. The child came down with a virus and became dehydrated. Being the good father that he is, my Jordanian friend took his child to the hospital. Unfortunately, there was no room at the hospital and they turned this father and child away. Syrian and other refugee groups have crowded Jordan's hospitals to the point where people, especially Jordanians, are not able to receive great health care. My friend made a few phone calls and grabbed a bed for his kid, but it was a hassle. I'm glad to say that they are both feeling better now. The refugees take alot of Jordan's services and resources. This is another reason, besides the mass killing of people, that action should be done to stop the Civil War in Syria. Also, perhaps other countries should help Jordan out with the refugees, whether it be financial or take some people and provide them with a better life. In this situation, the refugees and the Jordanians both lose. We should aim to help both sides.
Also, another person that I know was talking about the parliament elections today. He said that north of 50% of Jordanians are unsatisfied with the recent constitutional ammendments that the King has proposed as well as the current parliament. Apparently back in the day, 1989, Jordan allowed the three votes per man system. Each person was allowed to vote for three different people to fill the three seats in their section of parliament. People normally voted according to this system: the first seat was selected based off of tribe, the second base off of kindness and the third based off of political party. This gave the Muslim Brotherhood, a very popular Islamist group in Jordan even today, an advantage and a large number of seats in parliament. In an effort to curb this, the King instituted a one vote one man policy. Each person could only get one vote no matter how many seats were in their part of parliament. This limited the number of Muslim Brotherhood party members who got seats in parliament. I don't remember what happened next, but somehow the King tried to lower the number of seats the Muslim Brotherhood could get in Jordan again. This lead to the Muslim Brotherhood boycotting the current election. Apparently the largest party after the Muslim Brotherhood, I forget the name again, just resigned for parliament today claiming that the election was fixed. This is possible because they had very few seats and this would not be usual for a group that would have had much of the popular vote. However, as an American, I know the popular vote does not mean anything in an election :). Apparently other groups and members of parliament are considering resigning again because they are not happy with the constitution and the election. This friend told me that he thinks that this parliament will not last long at all, perhaps months.
These are some of the stories I have heard so far that lead me to believe that reform is necessary in Jordan. People are not having their needs met and do not feel like they are represented, whether things were fixed or not.
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