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AMMAN — Art enthusiasts of all ages on Saturday took part in a collage workshop held at local gallery Jacaranda Images, under the title “Collage of Home and Memories”.

Aimed at providing aspiring artists with a chance to explore collage techniques to create artwork celebrating experimentation and creative process, the activity was conducted in the framework of Jordanian artist’s Ahmed El Khalidi’s solo exhibition “Swapped at Birth”, running through May 17. 

“We wanted to have people experiment with different papers, techniques and ideas to create and innovative collages to talk about their story and their home, all the while learning about colour, composition, texture, shape and execution,” said Barbara Rowell, owner of Jacaranda, adding “El Khalidi’s show is part of this year’s Image Festival Amman, which is centred around the theme of ‘HOME’.”

“Through photography and graphics, ‘Swapped At Birth’ explored the differences and similarities of the artist's original home Jordan and his new home Australia. We thought his use of collages and superposition of images could inspire the public in creating their own version of home on paper,” she told The Jordan Times.

El Khalidi delivered a talk about the creative and personal story behind his photo collage exhibition, saying “With 'Swapped at Birth', I have layered images, textures and abstract symbols to create collages to record my personal story memories of what 'home' means to me now. This work shows that home for me can be a physical or a psychological place that changes due to our circumstances, as a place of belonging, but also can be a place of displacement and confusion.”

"Our memories, such as our early childhood, may be filled with gaps, unreliable and they can fade or get lost. I draw on these remnants from Kuwait and Jordan for my work along with the new images that are embedded from Australia. I like to play with photos and language to explore the importance of those memories through words, sentences and visual short stories,” he continued. 

Participants in the workshop, which was free of charge, were provided with a variety of material which they were invited to use to explore what symbols and images represent their idea of "Home". 

“Art is a language shared between us all, individuals and cultures, and with collage you can layer images, texture and abstract symbols to create a picture that records your personal story,” Rowell explained, expressing that “this is an artistic journey into self-expression and creative thinking about yourself, identity and surrounding where anyone is free to explore various combinations of materials”.

Provided with the initial colour palettes, aspiring artists started mixing colours to create their very personal background to a combination of imagery composed on the page following their inner instincts. 

Through collage and layering, they had a firsthand experience of texture rubbings and transfers using a variety of available tools.

The exhibition and the workshop were organised with the support of the Australian embassy in Amman, as part of the Jabal Amman Cultural Week, held to celebrate Jabal Amman’s heritage, vibrant present and future as the heart of the capital and the meeting point of diverse cultural activities, according to its organisers.

AMMAN — Seeing the 80 young girls supporting each other outside of the bus that brought them from various parts of Jordan to take part in a race honouring his late daughter Nina Breklemans was “the most powerful tribute to her legacy”, Nico Breklemans said on Saturday. 

Him and his wife Gail came from the United States to attend the capstone race of the five week running Camp for Girls conducted at Al Hussein Park to honour the memory of Nina Breklemans, a passionate American runner and Arabic scholar who passed away in 2015.

“Nina absolutely loved the Arab world and its language. She studied Arabic for years before moving to Egypt and Jordan for her studies,” Nina’s childhood friend and president of the Nina Breklemans Foundation, Mary Grace Pellegrini, told The Jordan Times at the end of the 1.5km race.

“During her time here, she won several running championships including the Dead Sea Ultra Marathon in 2014, and got involved in the running community, where she made a lot of close friends. She also volunteered with Reclaim Childhood, seeking to improve the lives of refugees and young women through sports,” Pellegrini continued, noting that “this is what pushed Nina to apply for a Fulbright fellowship to research the experience of female distance runners in Jordan”. 

The Nina Breklemans foundation was formally established as an NGO in 2016, aiming to “continue Nina's dream of fostering sports opportunities for young women in the Middle East by supporting running programmes in Jordan to encourage healthy living, women’s empowerment and altruistic values”, according to its president.

Eighty young girls aged between eight and 14 years old on Saturday morning took part in the final race, after attending weekly trainings throughout the month of April.

“The Running Camp was not only about athletics, but also about teaching these girls the values that Nina cherished, such as honesty, solidarity and integrity in sports,” said Sophie Zinser, a volunteer at this year’s event and a Fulbright fellow herself, adding “we spent five weeks coaching these girls about self esteem, healthy living and good character traits”.

“We had speakers talking about motivation, fitness, or opportunities through sports etc., and the girls would write a journal with feedback and thoughts on the sessions,” she recalled, stressing “it really made an impact on their lives and their behaviours”.

She cited some young girls who “had never run before” while others “were already quite experienced”. “It didn’t matter as what we tried to foster at the camp was a sense of solidarity, kindness to others and goal setting by talking about the example of Nina,” Zinser highlighted, voicing her happiness to see girls support and mentor each other through the race.

“It is not about who wins anymore. At the beginning, they saw that as a competition, but, as we cheered for them this morning, it was clear that they only felt pride and happiness in completing the race anyhow, not about who finished first,” remarked Qais, a Syrian refugee who volunteered at the race. 

“When I see so many girls from all parts of Jordan and from so many nationalities [participants included refugees from Sudan, Palestine, Syria…] bond over what my daughter lived for, I am so grateful and proud,” said an emotional Gail Breklemans, adding “this is the third consecutive year we come to see this race in Jordan, and it is an amazing testimony to our daughter’s legacy.”

After the race, the young runners listened to speeches by Nina's family and friends, organisers and coaches who supported them throughout their training. They received hats and water bottles from Run Jordan, whose director, Lina El-Kurd, knew Nina from her time racing in Jordan. 

Supported by Fulbright, the Nina Brekelmans Memorial Foundation, Reclaim Childhood, and the US embassy in Jordan, the race included young girls from Mafraq, Zarqa and Amman Governorates. 

“Even though it is still a small scale race and I know that Nina would have been able to gather many more people, it is a first step in carrying out her ambition of expanding opportunities for women and girls through sports in the Middle East,” Pellegrini concluded. 

AMMAN — A thrilling technical presentation of LiFi, the latest trend in wireless communication technology, last Wednesday took place in Amman, by the representatives of French leading startup Oledcomm, one of the four European companies working in the avant-garde, promising field.

The LiFi acronym stands for "Light Fidelity", as compared to WiFi, which stands for "Wireless Fidelity". Whereas data travels over radio waves in WiFi, it is carried over light waves in LiFi; these are still electromagnetic waves, but not in the radio frequencies range, according to web sources.

Oledcomm engineer Bastien Bechadergue spoke about the new technology, explaining its main characteristics and advantages, before carrying out a live demonstration by placing a laptop computer under a LiFi enabled desk lamp, and running a Youtube video through this connection. One of the main benefits of LiFi is safety, he stressed, precisely because it does not use radio waves. In addition to increased safety, LiFi also brings with speed, stability and extremely low latency (the network’s reaction time to a signal) given that "the lower, the better".

Therefore, LiFi does not create interferences and is not affected by any. Whereas the international community is still unsure about the hazards of radio waves and WiFi, LiFi on the other hand is absolutely safe, Bechadergue underlined, adding that it is also more secure when it comes to preserving and protecting data, a matter that has now become the major concern of all those working in the IT field and those using technology.

LiFi will prove to be an ideal solution in places where WiFi’s less than perfect security and the radio interferences it may generate are not welcome, which includes, for example, aboard airplanes.

“LiFi is meant to help desaturate the radio waves, not to replace WiFi," said Ingrid Canal, Oledcomm’s marketing director, who also explained the technology behind GeoLiFi, a specific aspect of LiFi. She mentioned that the city of Palaiseau in France has implemented LiFi in a pioneering project, and that Paris’ underground authority is planning to do the same very soon. 

Lifi large scale implementation is still at its beginning and is expected to become a widely used technology by the year 2020. 

The high-tech presentation was organised by Oledcomm’s partner in Jordan, Intrah, with the attendance of several Jordanian IT specialists, representatives from Orange and Zain, officers from the Public Security Department, and members of the local media, among others.

AMMAN — The Joint Jordanian-Qatari Business Council has stressed the necessity of developing trade relations between the two brotherly countries, overcoming difficulties and enhancing the potential for stimulating trade exchange, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Friday.

During a meeting held on Thursday on the sidelines of the Qatari economic delegation's visit to Jordan, the council underlined the need to encourage mutual participation of industrial and commercial institutions and companies in the specialised exhibitions held in both countries.

The Council pointed out to the importance of exchanging expertise and opening new electronic channels to exchange information, strengthen logistics services, increase trade exchange volume, offer investment opportunities in storage, industry, logistics, and solve maritime transport and export impediments.

In this regard, the Council urged the Qatari private sector to expand its investments in the Kingdom and discussed the establishment of joint investment projects in Jordan the serving the two countries, especially in vital sectors such as medical tourism, food and pharmaceutical industries, agriculture, alternative and solar energy, and ICT.

The Council also called for benefiting from mutual experiences in innovation, entrepreneurship, technical and administrative competencies, education and scientific research, among others.

Regarding future cooperation mechanism, its members emphasised the need for a long-term work strategy that identifies viable economic sectors that benefit both parties.

President of the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sheikh Khalifa Bin Jassim praised the "distinguished relations" between the two countries' business sectors, stressing the important role played by the Business Council in boosting bilateral economic ties.

He also called for activating mutual visits in order to achieve more economic and trade cooperation between the two parties.

AMMAN — Jordan has endured a great suffering on behalf of the international community due to the Syrian crisis and the influx of over 1.4 million Syrian refugees to the Kingdom, where the water per capita share fell to less than 88 million cubic metres per year, Minister of Water and Irrigation Ali Ghezawi said.

During a meeting with a delegation of Spanish senators, headed by Senate President Pío García-Escudero, Ghezawi noted that Jordan has drained most of its renewable and non-renewable sources of water in order to meet the needs of citizens and refugees, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He pointed to the high costs of water and energy transfer, which exceed 50 per cent in the water sector, expressing hope for further Spanish support to reduce the cost of water production and transport and assist Jordan in the field of water desalination.

The delegation praised Jordan's efforts to cope with the increasing water burdens, voicing satisfaction over the quality of the Jordanian-Spanish cooperation, especially in the field of water.

The delegation stressed Spain's readiness to provide expertise to improve the control of water systems and support a number of projects in the Kingdom.

Also on Saturday, Energy Minister Saleh Kharabsheh met García-Escudero and called on Spanish companies to benefit from investment opportunities in the Kingdom's energy sector.

Kharabsheh stressed the importance of developing partnerships with the Spanish private sector to boost investments in the Jordanian energy sector as part of the national strategy that seeks to enhance domestic energy sources' contribution to the total energy mix and energy sources diversification.

The delegation expressed interest in the sector's latest developments and praised the Jordanian experience in the field of renewable energy.

AMMAN — Electricity theft cases in the first four months of 2018 declined by 13 per cent, compared with the same period of 2017, thanks to strict measures against violators, Farouq Hiyari, chief commissioner of the Energy and Minerals Regulatory Commission (EMRC), said on Saturday. 

In an EMRC statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Hiyari noted that the number of cases between January and April totalled 7,441 cases, compared with 8,554 cases in the same period of 2017, down by 23 per cent of the overall 9,685 cases in 2016.

He stressed that EMRC's procedures, in terms of legislation and field campaigns, contributed to reducing power theft, as EMRC intensified its campaigns, in cooperation with electricity distribution companies and security departments, to include Fridays and public holidays  in addition to campaigns out of official working hours.

The chief commissioner said that the 7,441 cases were discovered through 99,848 inspection campaigns that resulted in 624 cases referred to the court.

Of the total, EMRC discovered 3,597 cases, electricity distribution companies spotted 2,729, while public security and Gendarmerie departments' personnel revealed 1,115 power thefts, Hiyari noted.

He added that rulings were issued in 638 cases in the first four months of 2018, distributed between 228 cases that were filed by the Jordanian Electric Power Company (JEPCO), 283 filed by the Irbid District Electricity Company (IDECO) and 127 by the Electricity Distribution Company (EDCO).

Courts are still investigating 624 cases, 177 of which were filed by JEPCO, 383 by IDECO and 64 by EDCO, according to Hiyari.

JEPCO is responsible for providing power to the central region that comprises the governorates of Amman, Zarqa, Madaba and Balqa, while IDECO supplies the northern governorates of Irbid, Jerash, Ajloun and Mafraq. The southern governorates of Aqaba, Tafileh, Maan and Karak receive power from EDCO.

If convicted, suspects in electricity theft cases face imprisonment from six months to two years, or a fine between JD2,000 and JD10,000, or both penalties.

Under the law, all those who intentionally vandalise, destroy or hinder the work of power facilities or cause them any damages shall face imprisonment terms between one to three years or a fine ranging between JD2,000 and JD100,000 or both penalties. Penalty can be stiffened if the violation causes danger to the public safety.

AMMAN — “Journalists across the entire Arab region are looking up to Jordan as an example of press freedom. Yet, several challenges are still to overcome,” executive board chairman of the International Press Institute (IPI) John Yearwood told The Jordan Times during his visit to the Kingdom this weekend. 

In September 2017, the press freedom network expressed concern over the Jordanian authorities' move to muzzle Amman-based Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) and “the threat that the action represents to civil society organisations in the country”.

Daoud Kuttab, member of IPI’s Executive Board, questioned the motive behind the move, saying that “while on the surface, the accusations against CDFJ appear to be technical in nature, there is a suspicion that the motivation and the public nature of the action seem to be political”.

Earlier in the year, IPI director of press freedom programmes, Scott Griffen, criticised the measures taken against Al Jazeera by several countries in the region including Jordan, noting that “the closure of Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and the blocking of its websites by other countries has the unfortunate consequence of depriving citizens of different viewpoints and of everyone’s right to information”. 

Asked about the most urgent challenges to be addressed in the Kingdom, Yearwood pointed to the need for a revision of the Cyber Crimes Law, stressing that “while some Jordanian journalists can publish a story on print media with nothing happening to them, professionals using electronic news might face 15 days of detention for the publication of the same material”. 

Yearwood also highlighted the concentration of media present in the Kingdom, noting “when private media start looking like public media, it is because the government is getting too aggressively into the ownership of the different outlets, and the government’s finger shall be removed from the scale”. 

However, the journalist conceded that “Jordan still wants to get it right”, elaborating on the result of the dialogues held by IPI with several government officials.

“It is still a work in progress but we are optimistic,” Yearwood said, noting that “IPI’s goal now is to keep an eye on what happens on the ground, and we are always open to dialogue in order to ensure that the laws protect everyone and that governments honour them”. 

The journalist noted: “Jordan has enjoyed press freedom for a very long time and the Arab Spring might have even led a little bit more sunshine into it," noting, however, that "in many other cases, its effect went against the media. Countries like Egypt are doing a terrible job in adhering to their constitution’s provisions and the  rights of journalists”.  

Citing the case of Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Hussein imprisonment in Egypt, Yearwood claimed: “Egypt is still under terrible oppression from the media and, if this country is to be considered one that respects the freedom of its citizens, they shall honour their constitutional calls for the freedom of the press”.  

“When it comes to cyber security laws, we have heard governments stating that they are trying to protect their citizens against terrorism, but instead, what they are doing is using an opportunity to stifle dissent from the public and the press,” he added, stressing “this is a very critical area in which we would like to see the governments exert more efforts”.

Yearwood, nonetheless, showed optimism about the future of global media, saying “it is still a great time to be a journalist, as the online space is bringing more and more organisations on board.”

“People have never been hungrier for real news, and, at the same time, we have never seen such fantastic journalism happening in the industry,” the journalist concluded, expressing hopes for the state of press freedom "to be improved overtime despite the challenges”. 

AMMAN — The accuracy of the term "post-Islamism" and the evolution and nature of the phenomenon were explored by Islamic movements experts and other stakeholders at an Amman-hosted regional conference titled "Post Political Islam: Conditions, Contexts and Perspectives". 

The two-day meeting, which concluded on Thursday, was organised by the Centre for Strategic Studies and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, and attracted the participation of speakers from Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, France and Jordan.

In his remarks at the opening session, Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Musa Maaytah said that there has been "an urgent need" to address the topic, exchange views and share experiences on the issue, at a time when nations envision a shared living in peace in civil states founded on the principles of citizenship and the rule of law.

He called on Islamist groups to embrace civil statehood genuinely, in realistic and practical terms, rather than as a tactic. "They should draw a line between their role as preachers of Islam [or Da'wa] and that of politicians," he said.   

Tim Petschulat, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung's resident director in Jordan and Iraq, said that sound governance requires that all needs of all components of society be met and means found to properly engage them all.

“We, as a foundation, would like to see Jordan develop towards a civil and democratic state according to what His Majesty King Abdullah promoted in his discussion papers. And, in order to achieve that, it is important to understand the society and its changes, thus the need to discuss political Islam as an important part of society,” he stated.

Petschulat told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of the gathering that the political streams in Jordan and the Middle East are "dealing with new developments", pointed to the need to explore these changes and learn from each others' experiences to check whether political Islam is actually changing and the era of post-political Islam is truly there, or whether it is merely a term coined by the West.

In Baghdad, Iraq, for example, things have changed since July 2017, when the Shiites and Sunnis united in the fight against Daesh, which had imposed its strict version of an Islamic state, he continued.

Some participants viewed post-Islamism as a result of the failure of political Islam, while others saw it as the outcome of the evolution of party movements of political Islam or of other Islamic phenomena. A third trend portrayed it as a phase not belonging to political Islam. 

Hassan Barari, associated professor of political science at the University of Jordan, said that the term post-Islamism appeared in the 1990s when several Islamic movements started to revisit, and consequently change, their discourses, and strived to be more involved in society.

An expert and author on Islamic movements, Hassan Abu Hanieh tackled the general framework of political Islam and its circumstances and the controversies surrounding the term, stressing that political Islam groups do accept a secular state and separation between Da’wa and politics. 

The pundit also underlined a new trend among Islamists, one that accepts to safeguard women’s and minorities' rights and believes in democracy, pluralism and in Islamists' ability to overcome differences to finally achieve society’s stability and prosperity.

AMMAN — The value of shares bought by non-Jordanian investors in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) in April reached JD19.9 million, constituting 17.5 per cent of the total trade value, ASE statistics showed on Friday.

The value of shares sold by non-Jordanians in April stood at JD20.9 million, marking a JD1million decline in the net non-Jordanian investment at ASE compared with a JD5.1million increase in the same month of 2017, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In the January-April period, non-Jordanians bought shares worth JD99.1 million, equivalent to 19.9 per cent of the total trade volume, while they sold shares worth JD15.2 million.

Arab investors’ purchases totalled some JD49 million, while non-Arabs’ purchases amounted to JD50 million, according to the ASE data.

AMMAN — Participants at the 12th Arab conference for Space Sciences and Astronomy and the 7th Islamic Astronomy conference called for contacting the Arab League and Arab space agencies to establish a pan-Arab space agency.

The recommendation came during the concluding session of the event, which began on Tuesday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Attendees also recommended establishing space and astronomy agencies in the Arab world tasked with developing relevant sciences.

On the sidelines of the conference, Iraqi Hamid Nuaimi was reelected as president of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences and Jordanian Awni Khasawneh as secretary general.