Jordan braces for major protest

[No Elephants]

Turkey has launched attacks into Syria, allegedly in retaliation. (Apparently, no one in the Middle East ever makes an offensive attack. It's always "only" in retaliation. And the retaliators always want the moral high ground, even if the retaliation is a thousand times more damagin than the alleged original attack.)

Now Jordan seems to be unraveling despite claims by the King that he has made reforms. (He was on the Daily Show only a week or two ago, while in town for the UN.)

Seems as though the wheels are coming off the Middle East. We have always loved us some Middle Eastern brutal dictators and supported them because they provided "stability" in a part of the world we care about so very much.

What price those who lived in their countries had to pay all day, every day, for our love of stability in the part of the world in which they lived was none of our business, emphasis on business.

Jordan braces for major protest

Published: Oct. 5, 2012 at 3:00 AM

AMMAN, Jordan, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Jordan braced for a major protest in Amman Friday that the Muslim Brotherhood said would demand real reforms, a day after King Abdullah dissolved Parliament.

The "Friday to Rescue the Nation" march -- which the Brotherhood's Islamic Action Front political arm said would have more than 50,000 people -- would protest economic hardship and demand reforms that create a less centralized government and ensure more opposition seats in Parliament, the IAF said.

It would also insist on the right to elect the prime minister, who is currently appointed by the king.

An IAF representative told CNN protesters would gather outside King Hussein Mosque in downtown Amman after Friday noontime prayers and march to downtown's Palm Square, site of previous protests, some of which became violent.

Government spokesman Samih al-Maitah told reporters the king's decision to dissolve Parliament and call early elections was part of his promised reforms.

<snip>


Eighty-nine members of Jordan's 120-seat Parliament signed a motion of no confidence against the government of Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh Sept. 2 over rising fuel prices and "because of recent appointments in top posts based on nepotism," the official Petra news agency reported.

<snip>

There should be democratic election law reform and "real" changes to Jordan's constitution, he said.

<snip>

Abdullah promised in June 2011 the government would in the future be elected, not appointed. But his statement then did not specify any timetable for the change.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/10/05/Jordan-braces-for-major-protest/UPI-39771349420400/#ixzz28Q6luDbH

[Enthusiast]

1. I understand there are also big time

rumblings coming from Iran. Holy crap! Is all this coming about because of social media? This popular uprising has no historical parallel, in terms of scope, possibly outside the Russian and French revolutions.

[No Elephants]

2. The American Revolution was the first.

If anything makes us exceptional, it is that it occured to us to declare independence from our monarch.

IMO, what also makes us exceptional is that we have been extraordinarily passive for so long.

I guess the illusion of controlling your destiny by voting Republicrat or Demlican or some such has the power to lull millions of people for centuries.


Besides, if we tried anything like that here, I have little doubt that the internet would go down relatively quickly.