Jordan
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Just Peachy in Jordan
In Jordan, my mother’s garden has a peach tree that doesn’t stop giving at this time of the year. She hands out bags of peaches to neighbors and relatives and anyone who passes by on the street. She makes peach jam with whatever peaches she can save, and still she mourns the peaches that fall Continue reading
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Jordan: “Yes, I don’t know”
“Where can I get a Blackberry battery?” I asked in the Nokia shop. The two men working in the shop both pointed and said, “That way.” They were both pointing in different directions. It didn’t result in a “jinx” moment where they both looked at each other, laughed and then agreed on a direction. Nope, Continue reading
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The Right To Drive Well
I support jailed Saudi Manal Al Sharif’s right to drive. I support her right to join the men on the roads in her country, a country that has one of the highest car accident fatalities in the world, like most of the countries in the region. See, having spent big chunks of my life in Continue reading
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Tor’s Palestinian Photographs: 1967 and 1977
Today my friend and photographer Tor Eigland sent me two of his photographs as his way of remembering 63 years of the Palestinian Naqba (Catastrophe). Tor is Norwegian and he’s covered events around the world since the 1960s, but his most amazing stuff is of the Middle East (aside from his photo of Castro on Continue reading
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What Arabs Talk About At Dinner
On a recent work trip to Kuwait, my American colleague started chuckling while he listened to my Syrian cousin and me arguing about the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Is this what sitting down to dinner with family sounds like in the Middle East?” he asked. Yep. Pretty much always unless there is a divorce Continue reading
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Cue the Camels and the Donkeys…and the Cool Cats
It’s time that we get our Middle East animals straight. The other day when I was watching men on camels and horseback charge through Tahrir Square in Cairo, whipping demonstrators, I felt like I was witnessing a bad Hollywood remake of Ben Hur or any other “cue the camels” movie depicting battle in the Holy Continue reading
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Recipe From The Night Counter: Kibbeh
For all special occasions, Fatima prides herself on the kibbeh she makes. That makes her like many women in the Middle East who have mastered the art of this rather complex food. In my family, like so many extended families, no party is ever complete without a platter of my Aunt Suad’s kibbeh, which is Continue reading
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Busted on Possession of Zaatar
I just watched a news story from Australia in which a Lebanese Australian called the confiscation of his mother-in-law’s zaatar by Sydney airport customs officials “a tragedy” and “a disaster” and when he still couldn’t convince the officials to release the vacuum packed zaatar, he told them he wanted to speak to a member of Continue reading
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NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST
I’m opposed to making lofty new year’s resolutions–aside from the token and easily forgettable “I’ll try to eat less chocolate”—as they sometime trivializes a dream. But I’m happy to make resolutions for others, kind of like the UN. Here are my new year’s resolutions for the Middle East, and I know they’re laced with loftiness Continue reading
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Alternative Tourism in Jordan
A couple of my friends from Abu Dhabi, all Americans, went to Jordan this week, and because I am in Jordan so often, they wanted my opinion of what to do—especially with their first two days in Amman. My best advice for tourists stuck in Amman is to leave, as it is the only part Continue reading
Alia Yunis 