How Much Do We Really Need?

Farah at Georgetown lists The Story of Stuff by website on her Facebook profile.
A couple on holiday were asked what gifts they bought for their kids from their Jordan trip. The lady replied, "Oh, nothing. We're anti-consumerism".
Since meeting him last year, Gerry tells me first hand stories about the culture and philosophy of squatting, freegans and dumpster diving.
Tkiyet Um Ali works towards a Jordan that is free of hunger by 2015, challenged by the current 770,000 people living below the poverty line here.
There are 1 in 6 people on Earth who live as squatters says Robert Neuwirth author of Shadow Cities. He keeps this blog and gave this fascinating TED Talk back in 2005, estimating there will be 3 billion people by 2050 living in these shanty communities - these neighborhoods that are the cities of the future.



Over the past 7 years, I've been living a life leaning more and more towards minimalism. I had been choking from the stuff hoarded over the years and finally realized how useless it is to me and that in fact it makes me feel bad, and how useful it can be to someone else, so a lot of it is gone. I'm over the obsessive attachment to things - the most difficult hurdle, so that's good I suppose. I'm even over my need to collect the books I buy. Instead, every time I finish reading one, I think of someone I can pass it to who I know may like reading it and say they don't have to return it to me and might want to pass it forward. I've got a long way to go before claiming a truly responsible lifestyle. But I feel it's becoming more and more a natural part of me and that it actually works. And I am not less of a fabulous ;) person for wanting a frugal lifestyle, so it's a good journey to be on.

Are you a hoarder, what stuff are you attached to?
What do you do with leftover food and what does your waste weigh?
Do you separate your trash so that the usable is picked up by scavengers and dumpster divers?
What does your favorite restaurant do with their leftovers?
What do you know about squatter culture?
Does it matter?
Do you care?

I'm a Lunatic

(used without permission)

Full moon.
Explosive energy.
Perceptiveness at its sharpest.
Ebb and flow of temperament.
Madness.

Do you become a bit luney with the full moon?

Yes, I do! More than just a little bit.

Open Call: Palestine

What do you want to co-author today?

Blinding Silence

The saddest blog post I've read in Jordan in the last 5 years.

This makes me want to cry. It makes me wonder if we believe in our aspirational claims. It makes me ache for the world we are consciously handing over to a 20something, intelligent, positive, responsible mind. It makes me question why a young person should remain hopeful.

We’re caught in a ridiculous downward spiral of fear. It seems we’ve lost common sense.

Do we really want a new generation of journalists, writers, creators, thinkers, poets to blaze a trail of real change and transform their future? Right now is not a good time for the eternal optimist in me to answer yes because of this:

In. Re.trac.tion. BlackIris. Wrote....

This post. Is carefully worded. Because words. Still matter.
They put you in a small room. Very small. No cell phone. No keys. Just walls. They send a soldier every now and then. He pretends to be your friend. He asks stupid questions. You give him stBlogger: ArabianMonkeyTales - Edit Post "Blinding Silence"upid answers. They wait for you to get scared. They make you wait. They make you wait. They make you wait. And so you wait. Continue reading.

Related
Marwan's case, Jordanian justice?
All in the family

Stories Are The Conversations of Change

Tomorrow, May 10th is Pangea Day. The wish come true of filmmaker Jehane Noujaim at TED 06. A global film gathering that brings people together speaking the language of visual storytelling - conversations that infuse a different way of learning, thinking, believing, working and loving, on this journey of change.

I'm holding a screening in Beidha/Petra with Arab TeleMedia at the Ammarin Bedouin Camp that's being set up by Waves. If you're in the south of Jordan and would like to join a local community and the Pangea live broadcast (9pm-1am Jordan time, 6-10pm GMT), please feel free to stop by. It's an open screening around the camp site free to all by a crackling fire, lots of tea, and the company of the wonderful Ammarins. If you'd like to spend the night at the camp, please contact them directly for accommodation arrangements and rates.

We will gather at the camp around 7pm.

7:30 to 9pm - intro to & screening of the film TORFA - a documentary by Maggie Kabariti. Torfa bint Sabbah Al Ammarin is a nomadic bedouin living in the Sharah mountains. Last year Maggie spent a couple of weeks with Torfa and shares the life of this beautiful soul in her film. The Ammarin community will watch Maggie's film for the first time where she'll spend time chatting with us about it, listening to and engagin in the community conversation.

9pm to 1am - we will join the live broadcast where 24 shorts will be screened and people from all over the world will join in sharing their thoughts, wishes and experiences. The live program is subtitled in Arabic, English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish. "Can film change the world?" TED's Chris Anderson asks "No. But the people who watch them can."

Want to watch? For the Middle East, the Pangea Day TV broadcast is on Star World thru ART. You can also access special Pangea Day videos and content on your video-enabled mobile at mobile.pangeaday.org. Capture images and video of your own Pangea Day experience and share with the world at www.ovi.com/pangeaday. Some digital cinemas around the world are also screening the live broadcast. And of course online with a good broadband connection.

We'll be here May 10th :D

UPDATE
Check out more pix of our night

My 4 Ps

Poetic
Possibility
Practical
Polyamorous

The System That Urges You To Screw It

New law* may force private tutoring business to go underground.
That is today's headline!

*An amendment to the Education Law that is!

The same education system that fails us every single day while claiming reform. The system that fails to equip beautiful minds for life. The system that is disconnected from reality and the demands of the job market.

The amendment says no to tutoring in off campus cultural centers and tutors - you will be forbidden to learn on your own after school in these places. You will be forced to rot in the existing edu system, and if you need after school help, stay on campus, pay a tiny fee to the system and the people who are already failing you but claim they can tutor you well after class.

I'm stunned - a law that forbids you to learn in public cultural centers off campus! WTF?! What are you afraid of?

Meanwhile, some of the best learning we do is out of class/campus with people who are driven to mentor, enlighten and explore with hungry minds.

A few weeks ago I was listening to this talk on inspiring education by Dave Eggers - his Once Upon a School TED wish. That same week Howard Rodman, a wonderful writer and educator facebooked pix of his 826LA experience.

Maybe the good folks at the Edu Ministry need some inspirational tutoring themselves... something to let the light in.

Or maybe they should just get out of the way!

Do you want kids to learn a heap of stuff? Or do you want them to learn how to learn?

Do Schools Kill Creativity? - Ken Robinson TEDTalk