A conversation with the universe - and then roll up our sleeves and do some real work!

Samar laughs nervously when my response is, "its genetic, we have to be reengineered, it's not about how do we fix it anymore, it's about how do we break it down and rebuild it". Our chat usually trails off and she gets uncomforable.

There's a certain fear and havoc created and exercised by some entity/authority, who is really in the business of producing panic, amesia and anesthesia.

The other day through meeting up with people I've worked with in the past but havent spent any time with in years, I was asked a million and one questions about what I've been doing, where I'm going and what gives. We talked, and talked, and talked. Suddenly on the way home, I realized that I've spent the last year recreating so many things, tearing down and rebuilding, fine tuning my system and life and immediate world. And wow, what a great feeling.

And I keep asking, how have things/systems/mannerisms been put together? Isn't it time we took them apart? And then recreate them in more productive and powerful ways for people - any people - not for states, nor governments, nor politics, nor consultants, nor powers, nor....

It's a good time to loudly reject fear. Reject authority that has forgotten how to think and feel. Reject the status quo. Reject 'no'.

It's a good time to say yes. Yes, of course we can. We can rewrite the manual. We can recreate ourselves into listening people who want to care and deliver upon it. Yes to being different. Yes to rebellion. Yes to rejecting no.

Yes to a restless pulse. Yes to unique. Yes to breaking every rule that doesnt make sense to me - which by the way, was created by mankind - us. The rule book - by people for people - worked for a given situation at a given time. Things have changed. It's time to break it down and rebuild it.

No to fear and the manufacturing of anesthesia, amnesia and panic.

A grumpy print journalist keeps repeating, "the internet, bloggers and these random sites are destroying true journalism". And I ask, what the heck does that really mean?

Yes to hope. Yes to dream crazy. Yes to being in love with anything and anyone - even if I've only known it, him or her for five minutes. Yes to loving, and yes it does make the world go round.

It's time to open all our senses. To explore. To challenge. To experiment.

Yes, it is a beautiful time to be alive!

What do you think we should do for the Hussein Cultural Center?

That's a question I got from someone shyly saying something or another thru my mobile phone a couple days ago. I asked, "who are you again, and what do you do?" She was calling from a consulting firm who work on organizational restructuring. I asked another question, "who have you done such work for?". The shy answer in my ear, "NGOs". And again, I asked, "do you have experience in working with culture and art spaces?" A barely audible "no". You can imagine my next barrage of words....and the abrupt way in which that call ended, as the wimpering voice turned to fearful, wishing she never clicked dial-a-blunt, as I gruffly said, "well that's the damn problem, isn't it!"

A couple of hours later that day I got an email from the boss of the consulting firm that included:

..... In the process of our engagement we are getting input from the many stakeholders that use/will use/could use/ would like to use/ do not use the center. In short we are engaging the stakeholders. The reasoning is that the center does not have an identity and we are trying to get input so as to reflect on a possible identity from which to start developing the strategic effort that will lead to a restructured center......

My lengthy email resonse was devoid of niceties and got straight to the point:

......In a nutshell, and from my warped corner of the world, the HCC should hire a curator type person to run it. Someone who can program 365 days of space, activities and events into this building. Forget identity. We can never impose cultural or artistic identity on a building. That will come organically and as a result of usage, from the people who work it, use it, hang out in it and form the content that they create and share within it’s walls. In terms of function, it should have some basics:
- a small, useful library with multimedia resources from all around the world
- a comprehensive culture and art library of everything that is art from Jordan (there’s a difference between Jordanian and from Jordan) - this should not become a house of folklore. It should be about live culture – traditional or contemporary.
- free wireless internet access, everywhere
music
- a good, low cost but high standard coffee shop (because F&B is a fact of life and encourages a footprint)
- workshop spaces to lend and/or rent out on short term basis
- an annual (or at least quarterly) calendar of events that includes events, activities, training, workshops, seminars, and simply fun stuff to do, etc
- office space for only a skeleton staff who do hands on work within the function of the program curated – everyone else needs to move out.
- real art on the walls and installations where possible
designated smoking areas – or remove the no smoking signs and just smoke everywhere since no one respects signage
- a regular, comprehensive and widely circulated newsletter in both print and email to share what’s on - outreach
relationships with other cultural/art spaces and schools to collaborate with and engage with their communities – outreach
- a website communicating everything in a timely accurate way - outreach
- clean bathrooms – always
- a couple of screens in the public halls that are constantly displaying artistic works and when relevant are screening what’s going on in the theatre
- a retail store that sells mainly local cultural/art products (every music CD, short/long film, book, photo, pottery, etc) publishers and producers should know that they can sell and benefit from placing their products in this store. If they’re not making things to sell, they will start. This store needs to be run by someone with taste, with the authority to go out and find material. What doesn’t move off the shelf, should never be allowed back in.
- Instead of creatives sitting at Starbucks for 8 hours daily, holding creative meetings and the sort, they should be at the HCC, in the hallways casually or within a space formally. The HCC should be a creative hangout. I know this is dangerous in this city where people are used to idling around uselessly under the pretext that they are ‘artists’, but with the right person managing the HCC and empowered to do so assertively, the right community can and will no doubt be nurtured within those walls.
- Color scheme that is powerful (I know it’s recently been painted, but the choice of colors is wrong – any serious expert will attest to that)
- And all this should extend from the main HCC building to the middle courtyard, outside, space, etc. - having the Music Conservatory there is a good move, but so much more needs to go in and converge.

I also suggested that the firm engage useful 'groups' of people in such a dialog - as I felt the content of the one-on-one with a non-expert interviewer would be lost in translation.

The response I got back included a screen cocophony of "80-20" something or another, which I read over a few times and truly could not understand. So I concluded that nothing was really being said, but the collection of phrases were intended to impress.

So I simply replied:

Since HCC is a public sector space that aims to engage the general public, how transparent is your work process able to be? Are you willing to put up a blog that enables you to communicate intent to the interested/target community and also collect a wider/diverse “racing-through” of input?

Hopefully for your approach, the interviewer has some kind of culture curating background knows the local, regional, international space and understands culture creation and consumption trends, and has enough awareness and asks the right questions; and that the appropriate interviewees are short-listed.

Hopefully you are also willing to not insist on imposing an ‘identity’ on a building and can appreciate that identity is organic and can only evolve thru function, product and usage – and is created over time as a result of what people do. If only it came in a business plan and a sticky slogan – we would’ve gotten it right in many sectors a long time ago. But alas, we still fumble with various iterations of buzz word combos and text book strategies that are void of a pulse.

Never-the-less, one of the most hopeful human constants is our inherent need for inquiry and dialog – because to know is to keep asking....

Fear, Faith & Bad Education

At 8 something this morning the cabbie was telling me two horror stories. One was about a private school bus that ran over one of its own high school kids and killed him. The other was about a bunch of kids from a public school on a school outing in a public park where one kid got struck by a high voltage power line in the park that killed him!

We got on the subject of school and classroom environments and teachers. He told me about his 4th grade daughter's English teacher who scolded her and humiliated her! The kid corrected her teacher when she pronouncing 'hawk' as 'howek'. The teacher dragged the kid thru the dirt and threatened to punish her and flunk her if she ever spoke out and contradicted or corrected her again! When little Yasmin came home, she told her father what happened that day at school. The dad, fearing his daughter would suffer in school at the hands of this teacher, encouraged his daughter not to speak up and out again. He told Yasmin to just let it go next time.

I told him he should've mentored his kid to rebel and refuse to sit thru this English class ever again. I told him Yasmin should reject the threat, yell out! I said she should SCREAM on the top of her lungs and DEMAND the best education and the most amazing teachers! It's her absolute RIGHT!

We owe Yasmin the best education there is - to empower her to be a wonderful human being. We owe her a learning space where she can spread her wings and fly! We owe her absolute SAFETY to question, explore and dream. We owe her a place where she can learn to challenge and take risks - SAFELY.

He said that's the power of faith. He said not everyone has it. Not everyone can do it. He said when fear becomes almost genetically implanted, it's hard to shed it.

So, our homework is to find ways to CRUSH FEAR, and to provide QUALITY spaces for young beautiful minds with teachers who inspire and always make them feel safe - homes and home-makers of learning where they grow to challenge and amaze! Education needs a revolution in action and not just words in a boardroom. Act!

Early morning, heavy talk - Intellectual Property

An early morning meeting took me to the National Library to chat with the Director General on piracy and how they can help new content creators protect their rights. He called for this meeting after he heard that I brought up piracy in Jordan at a Euromed Audiovisual conference along the Berlinale last month. Between the National Library and the AVC- Audiovisual Commission, they seem to be somewhat disturbed that I said Jordan licenses stores who carry 100% pirated products. It's the truth though. Up until a year ago, I had a huge issue with piracy. I've recently learned to rewire my attitude towards this. I still don't know how far is right and wrong. I don't know what stand to take.

Piracy is the only way some people learned the skills that are now their livelihood. Our universities provide students with photocopied books. Pirated movies are the only way some people get to see films from around the world given our lethargic cinema programmers and the biased elitist locations of these entertainment centers. There is not a single cinema in east Amman. Porn cinemas have been operating througout downtown Amman for as long as I can remember inspite of censorship. I don't have a clear right or wrong with the given situation.

One hour later, I walked out and headed downtown to my favorite pirate video store, bought 28 films for JD 25 and some knafeh.

Sometimes things just have to blow up for us to get clarity of thought. It's going to be a while till we figure out the how/what/why works for us.

And then there's Creative Commons. Both orgs above had never heard of this license, although Abu Ghazaleh Intellectual Property is working on porting it for the Middle East, and has been working on it for over a couple years now.

There's ceratinly a lot of learning that's need ahead. In the meantime, I've decided to take on an anarchist attitude towards this.

Innocence

So I'm at the coffeeshop, an interview with Scorsese blasting thru my iPod, while I'm wandering around exploring secondlife. Two young guys sit on the couch next to me. Another guy and girl join them. In less than 4 minutes their beautiful energy penetrated my system. They were bouncing out of their skin with excitement, challenging each others ideas, as they brainstormed for a plan to grow the vote for Petra to become one of the next wonders of the world.

They moved on from Petra to an endless list of initiatives they wanted to pitch to the rest of the youth group they belong to; from social responsibility to leadership to touring the 12 municipalities with community programs to engaging the Nobel Laureates in advocating the vote for Petra and the list kept going.

One wild thought after the other, they were unstoppable. Nothing was going to get in their way. No idea was unattainable. Nothing was impossible, and anything was possible.

Innocence is the best drug!

Going into pre-production next month: Captain Abu Raed for writer/director Amin Matalqa

It's happening. Amin's first feature, Captain Abu Raed is on the path to being made. With the financing locked in from a group of amazing Jordanian investors, Amin's team includes ExecProducers Isam Salfiti and David Pritchard, Producer Ken Kokin, Director of Photography isRay Peschke, LineProducer Karima Ladjimi, Co-Producer yours truly (it's my first feature too!), and many more amazing people that make up the crew and cast who are joining forces to bring this labor of love to life. I met Amin early 2004 and said, 'he's going to make the first Jordanian feature!" Sure enough, we go into production in May to bring to the world a beautiful story of hope from Amin and Jordan.

The story in Amin's words: "Captain Abu Raed is the story of a retiring airport janitor who never lived his dream to travel the world. Following the sudden loss of his beloved wife, and through his new-found friendship with the poor children in his neighborhood, he relives the excitement of dreaming by telling them fictional stories of his adventures around the world. They believe that he once was a pilot… an airline captain.

As Abu Raed gets more involved with two of the kids, he comes to discover the struggles surrounding their meager lives. Through a friendship with a young progressive female pilot, Abu Raed overcomes his own doubt and finds the courage to intervene and change the children’s lives. And in the process, he overcomes his own demons and inspires the kids and the young airline pilot to do more than dream…to live!"

Captain Abu Raed is the beautiful positive story and first time Jordanian feature for international cinematic release which to be proud of. This film and collaboration sets the stage for the endorsement of true commitment to growing a local film industry through a universal story set in Jordan, talented Jordanian writer/director, award winning US producers, and crew who are experienced and green from the US, Europe, North Africa and the Levant, with an amazing cast of adults and kids lead by an internationally acclaimed Jordanian actor, Jordanian funding, etc, etc. So in all, great ingredients and a beautiful model for success which carries the ‘produced in Jordan’ label.

Design is Everything! Zaha Hadid & Life.

I just stumbled over Zaha Hadid's plans for a stunning performing arts center in Abu Dhabi. A "cultural Xanadu for the Arab World" as the NYTimes calls it.

It's like being seduced by space.

Wetting of the senses that inspires us to express and share what matters to us.

To live and experience a place like this as part of daily existence is about a shift in mindstyle and lifestyle.

Can't wait to taste.

CSR Forum Day 2 - more from the curator

The role of business in society is crucial to tackling challenging issues and reform. Market economy cannot be sustained unless its practitioners act responsibly. Doing well while doing good!



This morning kicked off with just the right energy ingredient as HE Dr. Mohammad Halaiqa chaired a provokative session on public-private partnerships which lead some participants into sharing die hard honest opinions about how we have a very long way to go before we can begin to claim effective PPPs! Ghassan Nuqul infused the debate with fact after fact on specific issues and situations that provided proof of the challenge ahead of us all. He also reconfirmed the power and true dedication of his business group towards supporting social issues, something which has become an integral part of the modus operandi of Nuqul Group - leaders in Jordan and the Arab world and fully committed from the top down towards doing well and doing good, both as their internal philosphy and externally within society.


Full videos of the sessions here - some important and engaging talks. Watch, monitor and in a year let's evaluate what we tried to do, what we delivered, what we need to do next.