Mideast Diaries

This is one of those days where it drives me absolutely crazy to be in the Arab world.  It’s all these small things.  Like, I got in late last night after reporting all day and there were these security guards in the hotel lobby who wanted to x-ray everything.  They made me take my shoes off and my glasses and dump out my bag of radio equipment and they were just such dicks about everything.  I threw a fit and said I’m just trying to go to sleep and I’m obviously not a threat.  I don’t even know what they were doing, what they were thinking. (more…)

I’ve been getting so many emails from friends in the states and Europe telling me about how they’re going to rallies against the war and hoping the rallies will be big. I have to say that sitting here, it just seems strange to be completely against the war. The biggest influence on my inability to just be against the war is that every single Iraqi I speak with is desperately for this war. (more…)

My brother shipped me some DVDs so I would have something to watch other than the horrible American sitcoms on TV here, like Reba, Ned & Stacey, and The Single Guy. Here’s how international shipments work in Jordan. He sent it Airborne Express, and it arrived from LA in two days. Then Customs wouldn’t release it until I gave them something like $150, which is almost the full value of the DVDs. I complained about this and they said they’d put it through an appeals process which took a few days, but finally they agreed to release the DVDs for $30. So, the guy who works for Airborne Express here called me up and said he was bringing them by. When he arrived, he just had these paper forms and no DVDs. He said the DVDs are in the censorship office and won’t be released until they are deemed safe to be watched in Jordan. That would take several days. He told me, today, to go and pick them up. I asked where, he said the censorship office is on the Third Circle. (more…)

I haven’t heard the Arab response to the Columbia disaster, but I’m looking forward to it. I can guarantee this is what I’ll hear tomorrow: the Israelis arranged it to get sympathy. Bush arranged it to get sympathy. This might sound horrible to say, but I’m telling you, this is what people will tell me tomorrow. I was actually at the big rally against America, against the war, when the Columbia disaster happened. Nobody knew it happened there, at least nobody mentioned it. They were screaming, “Saddam, Saddam, bomb Tel Aviv.” And “We are With Hamas.” (more…)