15 October 2006

Three things I hate right now

Life is not really worth living if you can't rant occasionally, so here are three things that have bothered me at some point during the last few days.

1-Customer Service is non-existant:

I wanted to mail a package from the local post office a few days ago, only to find out that the local post office doesn't have a package/parcel service. One might question the efficiency of this technique when one considers that all you need to provide this service is to be able to weigh the damn things and take down the information needed with a pen. Of course, in a bid to ease the workload of people employed in the services sector, someone very wise decided that this was too much work for them, and that it should only be handled by people in the main branches. Genius!

This morning, I went to exchange an article of clothing from a clothing store, and as soon as I walked through the wide-open door, the security guard comes up to me saying: "Sorry, closed."
Exactly how difficult would it be to actually close the door or have a sign up that said the shop was closed when you can see all the employees walking about? Frustrating.

2-Cops are wankers when they're bored:

On my way back home from a relative's house where I've been spending time for the last seven months almost every day, two guys from Preventative Security (Amn Wiqa2i) decide to pull me over to harass me over the air freshener hanging from my rear-view mirror; it's shaped like Palestine, and that, apparently is against the law. I had a ten minute conversation with the two of them which involved me asking about what law actually forbade this (they skirted the question) and how my being a Jordanian living in Jordan means I cannot have an Arab identity (I also alluded to the fact that this was instilled into me by the government-approved textbooks I learned at school). When they asked me what I did and found out that I'm a journalist, they both backed off and offered me coffee. What dickheads.

What was the point of that whole exercise? What did they glean? Is there really such a law? Because I can't find it anywhere! It was a pure case of harassment. Don't these guys know how to pick up a book rather than harass people?

3-Why do people become aggressive, stupid, licentious bastards in Ramadan?

This is supposed to be the month of forgiveness, good deeds, piety and just plain being good to your fellow man (and woman). Instead, people drive like fuckers, they try to swindle you at every possible opportunity, and they try to get away with doing the bare minimum of work under the pretext of fasting. What's the deal?

This is called a self-reinforcing delusion: People think fasting is misery so they act miserable, and they also want to one-up the others who are fasting, and finally, you get a cumulative effect of everyone being unpleasant just to show off the fact that they're fasting.

I'm not a religious person by any means, but do you really think god accepts pious deeds when they don't come of pure intent? Would god accept repentance if one does not truly repent in one's heart? How can people claim to be fasting for god when all they're doing is depriving themselves of food, drink and cigarettes? Where's the spiritual aspect? What good is the former if you ignore the latter and spend your days being nasty to people, shirking responsibilities, cheating people and ogling women?

Please tell me if I'm wrong.

03 October 2006

I want to invent a new word: israeli, adj

israeli, adj and adv:
1-Describing an act, usually in a political, moral, or conflict context, of extreme hypocricy

2- Utterly devoid of any morality.

E.g. The French operation that resulted in the sinking of the Greenpeace boat "Rainbow Warrior" was an act of israeli impudence.

-I can run you over with my car on purpose and claim you threw yourself onto it; urgo, I am israeli bad.

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It has struck me over the years how extremely hypocritical, devoid of morals, and downright rude Israeli political attitude is. It makes no apologies about this fact, but acts as if no matter what it justifies is always justified. I would compare Israeli political rhetoric to a thug with a bloody knife stabbing an old woman in a wheel chair while saying she was a terrorist about to run him over.

Another genius comparison was a cartoon I saw years ago, where an Israeli (israeli?) soldier was stending over the bodies of a dead dove and a Palestinian boy still holding an olive branch, saying "He was threatening me with his big stick and his bird of prey."

Yet, sadly, such is the power of Israeli rhetoric that many people around the world believe it. it's sickening how you can shoot a peace activist in an orange vest in the head, claim they were an armed militant in fatigues and a balaklava, and get away with community service and probably a commendation from a senior officer. Heck, you'd probably go teach at a military academy. Professor of Israeli Army Ethics. Perhaps the Israelis claimed that god had long ago prmised them the words Israeli Army, claim the Ethics were trying to drive them into the sea, and expel them en masse.

Very israeli of them.