Moving Apart Through Efficiency & Literacy

"Speak to a live person now" on a website means, "pick up a plastic device, put it close to your head, hear the other other person's disembodied voice and reply." It doesn't actually mean, "Speak to a live person." Here in Jordan, speaking to a live person really means speaking to them, face-to-face. Trying to get things done over the phone is very often frustrating and ineffective. After a short conversation on the phone, the person on the other end will likely tell you to come over to discuss the matter in person. You will go all the way there to discover something that you could have been told over the phone. If you're frustrated by this inefficiency, people here just won't get it. Do you consider saying, "Good morning" inefficient? It's the same thing to them. As for posting all the necessary information onto a checklist onto a website, it is virtually non-existent here.

In the West, speaking to a live person is often considered a backup: companies and government offices try to encourage you to read their websites, navigate their voicemail system, submit a ticket, and do just about anything before speaking to someone. Time is money. Labour is expensive. Furthermore, we all know that it's mainly our moms who call in for support because they can't figure out how the website works or where to get the necessary information. The reason why us computer-savvy users don't call in is because we are more computer literate. Thus, there are two issues that push Western society towards disconnected communication: efficiency and literacy.

While there are certainly a great deal of people-oriented individuals in the West, business (including government offices) are run in a task-oriented manner. It appears that Jordan (and I can't comment on countries I haven't lived in, but I doubt this is limited to Jordan) hasn't yet grasped task-orientation as the way to go about business. People don't really have any appreciation for time. Once I requested to meet my daughter's school principal. The secretary gave me a time to come by. I got leave from work and came to the school, prepared to discuss some issues. I was told that she was in a meeting and should try back in another hour. I was confused: were they not aware that I took time out of my schedule and got leave from work to come here? Were they not aware that they had told me to come at this time? Did they think I sat around all day waiting for something to do so that I could pop in at any old time according to their whims? The ladies in the office just kind of stared at me. (I must have provided a conversation piece later that day about stressed out foreigners.) Another time, the secretary of my other daughter's school asked me for a certified copy of her passport. I told her a certified copy would mean that I had to take time off of work twice (once to deliver the passport and once to pick it up) as well as 40 JD. She told me, "OK, so just bring a photocopy." If a photocopy would do, then why did she ask for a certified copy? Yet another time I went to go pick up a free cellphone that I was owed as part of my calling plan. It took me over 30 minutes of my work day to get there and around 2.50 JD. I told the man behind the counter I wanted the free phone. He told me, "They're not in. Try back tomorrow." A young lady asked me what I was looking for and I told her. She pulled out the boxed phone and gave it to me.

One shouldn't be under the impression that Jordanians are inconsiderate. It's not that they don't respect your time. Rather, they don't respect anyone's time, even their own. A friend told me that a worker came from Zarqa to Amman to work on his house. When he found the man outside his door, he asked, "Why didn't you call? What if I wasn't here?" The man said, "That's OK. I would have waited." On a number of occasions, my Jordanian in-laws have appeared at my door for a visit without calling. If we're not around, they visit someone else in the area. Sometimes they return home without visiting us because we were out. These are people who really take, "It's the journey, not the destination" as a way of life.

While the efficiency of results-orientation is what drives disconnected communication, it's literacy that makes it possible. The reason why Mom needs to call customer support is because she isn't computer literate. Even before computer proliferation, government offices in Western countries had printed out sheets with checklists of what was needed for a passport, driver's license, etc. While formalized law (including fiqh) is no stranger to Muslim heartlands, it has remained the realm of the specialized. The ability to think clearly through requirements, carefully write them out and read them with comprehension does not yet exist among Jordanian people by and large. Clear writing as well as reading with comprehension are the basics of literacy, as they reflect the ultimate goal of education: clear thinking. The lack of widespread literacy in Jordan is yet another indication that the educational system has quite a way to go.