Jordan's Workforce: You've Got a Long Way to Go, Baby

It is very important for Jordan to remain a happy place. As the saying goes, "Kill a man's father, and he'll forgive you after 10 years; keep him hungry and he'll never forgive you." Jordan is the opium of displaced Palestinians: they have more rights and freedoms here than in any other Arab country. In Jordan, they can have a cushy income, get on with their lives, and almost feel at home. As such, Jordan's economy is borne by US aid and its political system is one of the best among all Arab countries. This is by necessity: were migrant Palestinians to remain disgruntled, they would likely give Israel a huge headache. However, the constant influx of US aid gives people the wrong impression. Jordan's workforce needs some serious improvements if the local economy is going to progress. Jordan's workforce suffers from the culture of 3eib, poor education and skills, and lacks service-orientation.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the culture of 3eib (which can be approximately translated as, "shame", but is not as strong) has strong roots in Jordan. A few generations ago, most Jordanians were bedouins or farmers. Earning a livelihood meant tending your animals, caring for your land, or trading. Actually working for someone was for servants. This attitude remains today and impedes people's willingness to participate in jobs that they see as below them. If you ride an airport taxi, the driver will most likely not help you loading your luggage into the vehicle. Rather, he'll just watch you do it on your own. God forbid that you would think less of him for actually helping you out. Without doubt, these drivers help women and the elderly, because they see that as chivalrous. Similarly, neighbours and friends will help one out. However, when there is no romantic (and I mean this word in its general sense) motive -- when helping out is just a part of one's job -- it doesn't happen. One can't help noticing in Jordan that the majority of manual and skilled labour is done by Egyptian workers. It's not that all Jordanians have higher-paying jobs, or even jobs at all. Rather, they simply refuse to do labour for someone else. Unemployment is more noble in their eyes than an honest day's work. Another example of the culture of 3eib is where women will refuse to do certain tasks because it is unbefitting of them. Ask a woman at work to help carry her own keyboard and mouse from one desk to another and you'll likely just get ignored. Women aren't to carry anything in this culture. OK, so let me get this straight: women are supposed to be paid and respected on par with men, but are allowed to refuse tasks that they are able to perform because they're not culturally acceptable? If a woman wants to live her romantic ideals, she can stay home and have her father or husband support her.

Jordan's education reminds me of what I faced in the United States: people would graduate from university with a degree in computer science and not be able to program to save their lives. (Yes, I realize that the US boasts many of the best universities in the world, but it is also possible for a complete dolt to graduate from an American university. There are no national standards for university degrees.) You'd be hard-pressed to find a world-renowned Jordanian intellectual or company. Compare this to neighbouring Egypt who, in the past century produced the likes of: John Atalla (who, despite his name, is a Muslim), Taher Elgamal, Naguib Mahfouz, Ahmed Zewail, and Mohamed Elbaradei. All of these people received their undergraduate education in Egypt. Impoverished Egypt also boasts the strongest local (as opposed to imported) technical talent in the Arab world: not only did Sakhr emerge from Egypt, but Google, Microsoft, IBM, and Cisco all set up in Egypt. On the religious front, Jordan's official state radio for the Ministry of Endowments is dominated by Egyptian speakers, scholars, and reciters. It also hosts a Syrian scholar and a number of Saudi reciters. Jordanian scholars and reciters do have presence on state radio, but are almost a minority in their own country. On the level of artisans, don't expect much in Jordan. If you want a truly fine piece of Arabic clothing or art, it's not going to be produced locally. I had an exquisite jubba hand-made for me in Egypt about ten years ago for which I paid approximately 600 Egyptian pounds. Regardless of how much I'd be willing to pay, I wouldn't be able to get such an article in Jordan: the skills simply don't exist. The same goes for metallurgy and calligraphy: look to Egypt, Syria, Turkey, or Iraq.

Finally, and this is connected to the culture of 3eib, Jordan's service industry is in shambles. As a simple example, I took my wife on boat rides in Aqaba and Alexandria. There is no comparison. In Alexandria, we were greeted by a smiling, smartly-dressed skipper and boarded the boat off a pier. The skipper gave us his back so that my wife could remove her face veil while I photographed her against the backdrop of the Mediterranean sea. In Aqaba, we had to walk through sand and water to board the boat. However, the worst part was when the shabbily-dressed, grumpy skipper got into a yelling match with his peers for charging us too little. Now I realize that Egypt has been a tourist destination for the past five millennia but what's particularly amusing is how much Jordan pushed for Petra to be one of the new, commercially-funded, Seven Wonders of the World before developing its service industry properly.