Arab cultural capitals, taking a stand, changing the game

The Arab Cultural Capital for 2009 is Jerusalem. This 10+year UNESCO* program respected the fact that in 2006 Arab cultural ministers voted for Al Quds, which as you can imagine irked the Israeli government who actively objected to it, but UNESCO said it would/could not overturn the decision by these Arab ministers. A couple years went by.

The cultural calender for this occasion was slated to kick off in Jerusalem in January, but due to the Gaza war was postponed for a while. Until now. Festivities are back on the calendar and artists, cultural workers, residents and visitors will engage in a year long program.

And I can't help but wonder....

What if Jerusalemites, Palestinians and the Arab ministers who voted it in took a stand and said, "stop - this is wrong, we want Gaza to be the cultural capital of the year instead of us".

Jerusalem can say, "Gaza is our surrogate choice".

Yes, I know Gaza is not a capital city. However, in light of its recent annihilation, I think of Gaza today as the capital city of Israel's crimes of war against humanity as the world watched.

And what better way to make a statement, create a lot of noise, and rewrite the rules, than for artists and creative industry workers to take a stand towards changing the game.

Imagine.



* According to UNESCO, the Cultural Capitals Program aims "to provide the Arab countries with a framework within which to develop their cultural heritage, preserving the past but placing particular emphasis on the future, opening the Arab world to new influences and technologies while safeguarding the integrity of Arab heritage. It should especially promote contemporary literary, artistic, scientific and intellectual Arab culture."

The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told

A Funded by You production :)


Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by e-mail. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920’s jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as “The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told.” synopsis via Sita Sings the Blues

Directed by
Nina Paley

"I hereby give Sita Sings the Blues to you. Like all culture, it belongs to you already, but I am making it explicit with a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License. Please distribute, copy, share, archive, and show Sita Sings the Blues. From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

You don't need my permission to copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix Sita Sings the Blues. Conventional wisdom urges me to demand payment for every use of the film, but then how would people without money get to see it? How widely would the film be disseminated if it were limited by permission and fees? Control offers a false sense of security. The only real security I have is trusting you, trusting culture, and trusting freedom...." continue reading Nina's note.

Watch Sita Sings the Blues


Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 US License

Quantum leap for emerging filmmakers

A couple nights ago people crammed into the auditorium at the Hussein Cultural Center and stood against the walls and sat on the floor for the first screening of Fadi Haddad's short film, HIGH HEELS. I love crowded screenings, and I love the energy infused into first time audiences to such an event -they are always in disbelief that there are so many people interested in independent films by emerging filmmakers, and are surprised by the talent and the work shared.

The story of HIGH HEELS, written and directed by Fadi Haddad, is set around the wake of Nawal's departed husband. All characters have dysfunctional personal lives but put up the act that everything is going well. Nawal, a social snob finds out her husband left her nothing but an empty bank account, traces of a mistress and a mobile phone she can't unlock. Nawal, played by Mouna Moussa, projects her complexes onto her daughter, played by Phaedra Dahdaleh, who is raising a four-year old alone far from the husband who abandoned her, not letting on to society her true story. What would Nawal do if her dead husband's young mistress suddenly shows up at the funeral? The story spirals out of control when the mischief of Lara Sawalha explodes into the scene. See trailer.

The script was well cast with an eclectic mix - Feryal Haddad & Lara Sawalha were great! Beautiful art direction, and camera that lends to good storytelling by Samer Nimri. I felt the choice of music was overbearing most of the time though. The lyrics of Soap Kills were too distracting from the performances who did a good job and did not need the over dramatic music at times when I would've rather had a quieter background. The production was tight - the good planning and careful production choices showed - something the determined and tough Nadia Eliewat ensured as producer with a super talented crew.

Fadi, your best so far and in a whole new league. Very much looking forward to your next.
Lara, still my absolute favorite Jordanian actress - big time.
Phaedra, give up your day job, the camera loves you!
Mrs. Haddad, you rock!
Nadia, I'm lucky to know you.

Thank you to everyone involved for bringing us 20 minutes of good local entertainment.

10,000 is not just a number

In a 1993 study at the Berlin Academy of Music, Dr. Anders Ericsson found that by age 20 top level violinists had practiced 10,000 hours.

Buddhist monks who have meditated for over 10,000 hours score off the scale for compassion.

It takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become a chess grand master.

"Around the world, people typically talk of 10,000 hours of training to win an Olympic medal", emphasises Marty Toomey the high performance manager.

Malcolm Gladwell talks about the 10,000 hour rule in his book Outliers where he observes that the key to success in any field is a matter of practicing a specific task for at least 10,000 hours.

Greatness is about performance and focused attention on something over and over and over - for about 10,000 hours.

Then 10,000 is about mastery.

So when Yusuf Mansur set the goal of 10,000 steps towards a creative economy in Jordan, he wasn't kidding. It's not an exaggeration nor is it haphazard. Getting to remarkable is committed hard work. It's not easy and it's not overnight. It's a relentless, determined and deliberate effort towards a goal. And the goal of UrdunMubdi3 is about removing 10,000 small obstacles between where we are today and the creative Jordan we deserve.

Don't forget to blog about Jordan today - it's not an initiative, it's an ongoing conversation with a live pulse.

What is a creative Jordan?

When discussing the need to evolve towards a creative economy, I'm often met with uncertainty in meaning, and a reaction that says: "so you think that Jordanians should be concerned with art and culture, and become writers and dancers and filmmakers?"

To a certain degree yes, but there's a lot more to that which I posted here on UrdunMubdi3. And there's no absolute definition, so your thoughts, contributions, questions and challenges are needed so that we figure out the opportunity ahead and how it works for us.

Idiot-proofing the streets

Why did the Jordanian cross the street?

Two seconds before I clicked the pic, this sensible citizen was perched on the railing about to get off on the other side, where he landed elegantly on a flushed edge, and as you can see unhooked his bag and crossed the street....to get to the other side, of course!

A few meters behind him down the street - busy Mecca Street/Amman, across from the Social Security building right there in the back, is a pedestrian bridge. A few meters down that, is yet another pedestrian bridge!

So... how does the city develop to include kamikaze-idiots-with-their-common-sense-gene-mutated, and everyone else?


Massive mural perhaps?

Life is for loving

I'm in love with life. Love that's absolute. Love that shakes me to the core. Gets me singing out loud in the street (and no I can't carry a tune). Makes me devour words, smells and tastes. Loving life makes me skip when many are shuffling.

Never quit on life. Disrupt. Change everything. Take a back seat when you need to. Go crazy. Get angry. Show it. Just don't give up. Coz when you least expect it, life makes your heart smile.

Life is the best kind of love. Simply!