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AMMAN — The National Energy Research Centre (NERC) and the Royal Scientific Society (RSS) have signed agreements to enhance energy efficiency and renewable energy use in 58 public schools, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

NERC said the initiative comes in line with His Majesty King Abdullah’s directives of utilising solar energy to warm schools located in the colder areas across the Kingdom to ensure a comfortable school environment.

NERC was the advisory party of the agreement, as the centre prepared the tender documents and evaluated offers before assigning contractors to execute the project, Petra said, adding that the centre conducted detailed studies on each school at the early stages of the project. 

AMMAN — "It is not every day that you have an opportunity to change the world. By representing their university at the upcoming Hult Prize Jordan, young Jordanians now have the chance to show the world that their institution is dedicated to creating a sustainable impact," said Salahaldeen Alazaizeh, University of Jordan’s (UJ) campus director.

The world’s largest student competition and crowd-sourcing platform for the creation of new social businesses, the Hult Prize is coming to Jordan’s King Hussein Business Park between May 3-5 to give young Jordanians the chance to seize $150,000 in seed funding for their innovative projects.

“Hult Prize Nationals leverages in-country university students to solve global challenges with a dedicated local accelerator and a prize to be awarded to the winning startup,” a Hult Prize statement said in an e-mail sent to The Jordan Times.

One of the world’s foremost platform for the launch of sustainable and impact centred startups emerging from universities through a $1 million grant, the prize also includes national competitions in a number of countries including Jordan in 2017, India, Ecuador, Tunisia, Lebanon and Rwanda, among others.

“The idea of having a branch in Jordan started from the founder Ahmad Ashkar who believes that Jordanian youth have one the biggest potential in the region and maybe the world to have successful social entrepreneurs and successful startups that can be involved in the Hult Prize journey of leading a generation to change the world,” said Mohammed Sammour, head of campuses at Hult Prize Jordan.

“In 2017, we had almost 1,000 participants with more than 230 teams from 12 universities across Jordan including UJ, the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Yarmouk University, Hashemite University and the German Jordanian University [GJU], among others," he told The Jordan Times.

The 36 selected teams are scheduled to compete in front of 12 judges who are experts in energy, businessmen and corporate representatives, according to Sammour. 

“We are living in a time where economic disparities between the rich and the poor are greater than ever… in a world where war and conflict are the standard not the exception. While we have advanced technologically as a society and global interconnectivity has made us more empathetic — we have collectively failed to rise up and take action against these global atrocities even though we are more equipped today than any other generation before us to solve them,” said Ahmad Ashkar, Hult Prize CEO.

“The Prize aims to inspire, activate, build and fund startup solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. We focus on moving good intentions into action as well as raising awareness to the opportunities that exist to serve the world’s less fortunate through lasting, sustainable business,” he continued.

“Since I started working as head of campuses, it has been a very rich experience to see how motivated the Jordanian youth are and witness their desire to make something different in their life,” Sammour highlighted, recalled his constant amazement at “the great quality of ideas Jordanian students have” during his tours to the various campuses.

“What makes the Hult Prize really different is that we look for early-stage entrepreneurs; any student with an idea can apply and take a place in this journey. By time, and after the training and the networking events, those teams can improve their ideas and start building them as real startups,” the head of campuses said.

For Ammar Budair, a GJU student who participated in the previous edition, “I believe that the Hult prize presents a medium for passionate entrepreneurial students like us to turn our dreams into reality.”

In parallel, some 15 Jordanian teams travelled over the world to compete in Hult Prize Regionals finals in Melbourne, Nairobi, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, London, etc. "I believe the exposure the teams had during this experience has taught them a lot, which is why we are expecting very strong finals here in the Nationals,” Sammour emphasised.

First launched in 2009, this year's challenge, which has been announced by former US president Bill Clinton, focuses on the theme of “harnessing the power of energy to transform the lives of 10 million people by 2025”, calling for solutions in the fields of connectivity, education, health, mobility, water or agriculture.

AMMAN — Thousands of visitors had the chance to travel through nearly 20 countries, celebrating their cultural heritage at the 2018 International Heritage Exhibition, which concluded on Thursday.

The three-day exhibition, organised annually by the University of Jordan's Foreign Students Office under the Deanship of Students Affairs, witnessed the attendance of several ambassadors, cultural attaches, diplomatic bodies, and visitors from various Arab and foreign communities in Amman, according to organisers.

"The event seeks to foster cultural understanding among different nations and bring people together to celebrate their national heritage," Director of the Foreign Students' Office Loai Qaddah told The Jordan Times, adding "there are 5,200 foreign students in the university who constitute 14 per cent of the total number of enrolled students and they have the right to demonstrate and celebrate their cultural identity with their peers."

Each participating team displayed a uniquely designed corner reflecting their national identity, where students dressed in their country's traditional outfits showcased foods, folklore and music from their respective countries.

Photos and models of famous archaeological sites, geographical maps and historical books were also on display.

"The event gave us the opportunity to show a different aspect of our country as many people associate Iraq with war, deaths and conflicts, but we could share here the beautiful cultural side of it," a representative of the Iraqi corner said.

The Algerian representative, who described her country as "the one million and a half martyrs' country" was enthusiastic to share her nation's history and the story of achieving independence. 

Other representatives shared success stories and biographies of important political and scientific figures who "made a change in their countries' history".

"I was introduced to countries that I had never heard of and learnt new words from other languages and dialects. I made new friendships with people from all over the world," said Leen Ibrahim, one of the visitors, adding "these countries are no longer just names that I see on the map, but an amazing culture and great people whom I respect and value."

"I left the event with so many pictures taken from various places around the world and special souvenirs from every country," Suha Ali, another visitor, added.  

The Tunisian representative praised the event, expressing hopes to see similar activities being conducted on a larger scale to include all expatriate communities in the Kingdom and not only students.

The participating countries included Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Singapore, Ghana, Macedonia, Indonesia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Senegal, Brunei, Thailand, China and Jordan. 

AMMAN — Children from public schools are acquiring the responsibility of recycling and self hygiene through the “School Preservation, Maintenance and Hygiene Practices Awareness Campaign,” a nationwide project implemented by the Canadian organisation Right To Play (RTP) in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Launched in Amman’s girls schools Abu Alanda and Al Manara, and two Jerash boys schools in September 2017, the project uses entertaining games and art competitions to sensitise young children and their entourage to the importance of recycling and environment protection.

“No child ever becomes responsible for his/her environment by being lectured by a higher authority; instead, they need to take realisation of the benefits such behaviours can create for them, and gain a personal motivation for developing such practices,” RTP Jordan project officer, Odai Zobaidi told The Jordan Times.

The project recently began alongside RTP’s existing programmes aimed at educating and empowering local communities through sports and play to overcome the effects of poverty and conflict in disadvantaged communities, according to Zobaidi who stressed “we believe that the power of play can transform a child’s life. We provide students with the tools they need to protect themselves from disease, encouraging them to resolve the issues they face with tools that are easily accessible and can make a difference in their life.”

“We noticed that, despite previous efforts to rehabilitate classrooms to enhance the students’ well-being and learning environment, schools continue to grapple with vandalism and deterioration of infrastructure due to poor social cohesion and a weak sense of ownership and belonging,” Zobaidi explained, underscoring the need to develop children’s responsible sense of ownership through play-based school management activities, student awareness sessions and student-led initiatives.

RTP has been working with principals, teachers and students’ parliament to help them identify the most pressing issues in their schools before submitting proposals for a positive change they wish to see in their local area. Requests included need for clean drinking water taps at schools, outdoor playing areas and shaded outdoor learning spaces.

“We focus on initiatives that incorporate wash concepts, maintenance, up-cycling, health and beautification activities,” Zobaidi said, noting that RTP has launched various competitions to enhance students’ involvement in the project.

“We challenge students to maintain the cleanest classrooms and enter up-cycling art competitions, which is a great way to let them see how useful and beautiful recycling can be,” he continued, recalling children’s pride and amazement at their creations made out of plastic bottles’ caps.

Suzan Daraiseh, a teacher at one of the schools, expressed her appreciation for the project, saying “Right To Play helped us understand that teaching and learning could be fun. I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to join the project and learn new methods in teaching.”

Another teacher, Aisha Al Afagani commented: “Our journey and adventure together gave us great joy as we found entertaining ways to acquire many concepts that were unknown to us. We learned how to take advantage of simple things and turn them into creative works of art,” voicing her hope to see the project sustain throug the years.

Focusing on public schools in governorates that are highly populated with Syrian refugees, the project is scheduled to expand to schools in Amman, Jerash, Irbid and Zarqa. 

AMMAN — HRH Princess Muna, president of the Jordan Nursing Council, and patron for nursing and midwifery in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, on Thursday attended a candlelight vigil to celebrate the graduation of the 17th class of the Princess Muna College for Nursing.

During the ceremony, the princess lighted candles to honour the graduates, who took the oath of carrying the noble message of nursing and provide nursing services professionally, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Royal Medical Services (RMS) Director Maj. Gen. Muin Habashneh presented Princess Muna with the college's honourary shield in appreciation of her efforts to improve nursing. Senior Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army officers attended the ceremony. 

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday sent a cable to King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands congratulating him on the occasion of the Netherlands King's Day (Koningsdag), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In the cable, King Abdullah voiced his keenness to develop bilateral cooperation at all levels.

Also on Thursday, His Majesty sent similar cables to President of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio, President of Togo Faure Gnassingbé and President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. King Abdullah wished the presidents and people of their countries prosperity and progress.   

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs Jamal Sarayreh on Thursday said that Jordan, in line with His Majesty King Abdullah's directives, believes in the importance of supporting Iraq's stability and reconstruction, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Deputising for the Prime Minister, Sarayreh said at the opening of the conference "Supporting Iraq's Economy, Reconstruction and Health" that the progress of reconstruction, in the world in general and Iraq in particular, is faced by many challenges including deaths, bloodsheds, destruction and intellectual extremism.

The present conference seeks to discuss remedy plans to support Iraq and grant it the maximum number of funding opportunities, he said. Representative of the Iraqi government Qasem Hattab praised Jordan's support to Iraq and stressed its importance in fostering the reconstruction efforts. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Thursday inaugurated the Qweirah solar energy station, the biggest photovoltaic energy station nationwide, with a capacity of 103 megawatts and a cost of $120 million financed by a grant from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).

Mulki and Adel Hosani, director of the operations department in the government-owned ADFD, toured the station's facilities and listened to a briefing on the Aqaba station, whose production of electricity is sufficient to provide 51,000 residential units with their electricity needs, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

At the inauguration ceremony, Energy Minister Saleh Kharabsheh said that the energy sector used to be "a burden" for the national economy, noting that the government prepared a comprehensive strategy for the sector which included lowering the energy bill through relying on local energy resources.

Kharabsheh noted that this is one of many schemes that generate some 700 megawatts and contribute to around 8 per cent of the total energy needs, adding that contracted projects that will be operational by 2020 will generate some 2,000 megawatts, constituting 20 per cent of the Kingdom's needs in 2020.

Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Chief Commissioner Nasser Shraideh expressed hope that the project will meet the zone's growing electricity needs, especially as ASEZA will start establishing three industrial estates in early 2019. 

Hosani said that the ADFD has implemented 31 projects in Jordan over the past years, contributing to the Kingdom's sustainable development. He added that the Qweirah project highlights the "advanced level of partnership" between the fund and the government. 

The contractor supervising the scheme presented a briefing on the station which is established on a 3,000-dunum plot of land and was constructed by a consortium of an Emirati and a Spanish company. 

Construction started in August, 2016 with the participation of 85 per cent of local contractors, and 15 per cent of international ones.

The Qweirah station was connected to the national grid through a central station especially built by the National Electric Power Company for this project, according to Petra.

AMMAN — The Senate on Thursday insisted on its amendments to the medical and health accountability and the higher council for the youth draft laws.

If any of the Houses of Parliament insists on its amendments for the second time, then, constitutionally, the senators and MPs have to meet in a joint session to resolve the disputed matter in a two-thirds vote.

Both chambers agreed to hold the session on Monday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The Senate, during its Thursday session, approved amendments to the 2017 land registration fees and the 2018 state cases management, as referred from the Lower Chamber. 

Senate President Faisal Fayez referred to a meeting he held on Wednesday with Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh, in the presence of presidents of the health committees at both Houses, where they discussed disputed articles in the medical and health accountability draft law.

Fayez said that attendees reached understandings on the issues in dispute that are related to technical  matters and do not affect the essence of the law, calling on members of both Chambers to approve these understandings, prior to endorsing them in the joint session.

Senators want the draft law to include the word human in the article that bans cloning to become "human cloning", oblige service providers to document their procedures in the service recipient's file, and substitute the "unlicensed medicine" phrase with "allowed medicines".

Senators also rejected removing resuscitation devices from patients when their breath stops, and insist that these devices can be removed only when heart or brain functions stop completely according to accurate medical standards and when doctors decide that such a condition is irreversible.

Deputies' version for this article prohibited the removal of resuscitation devices unless the heart or breath stops completely or if all brain functions stop completely, according to medical standards and when doctors decide that such a condition is irreversible.

In case of medical mistakes and holding doctors accountable, senators insist on halting penalty after a court verdict is issued and conciliation is reached, while deputies' version is to halt "implementing the penalty".

As for amendments to the higher council for the youth draft law, senators insisted on their decision, which accords with a government proposal to establish a "fund for supporting the youth and sports" at the Youth Ministry to succeed the national fund for supporting the youth and sports. 

The new fund will be tasked with collecting necessary financial resources for the youth and sports and distributing them according to standards set by the fund's administrative committee that will be chaired by the minister of youth. 

AMMAN — Media experts on Thursday said Jordan's progress in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index was a "positive step", as the government pledged continued support to media freedoms.

The experts pointed out that there are "no serious media violations", saying that the country's ranking can improve further if some measures are taken to facilitate the work of media professionals and ensure better access to information.

Jordan ranked 132th out of 180 countries in the 2018 index, gaining six positions compared to 2017.

Regionally, Kuwait ranked 105th globally, followed by Qatar, 125th, Oman, 127th, and the UAE, which seized the 128th place. Jordan was followed by Iraq which came in the 160th place, Egypt, 161st, and Saudi Arabia, 169th place.

"This is a very positive progress, but we can even have a better ranking," Chief Editor of Al Rai daily Tareq Momani told The Jordan Times, adding that "if government agencies provide easier access to information to media professionals, it would help boost the country's ranking and enhance the overall press freedoms”.

"No major violations such as kidnapping or killing of journalists were recorded in Jordan; we just need to get rid of bureaucracy at some public agencies which would directly enhance our position," Momani said.

Nidal Mansour, president of the Amman-based Centre for Defending Freedom of Journalists, echoed similar remarks.

"Because there are no major violations, Jordan's ranking can improve but the authorities need to refrain from some practices such as banning media from covering some events," Mansour stated.

In 2017, the centre reported some 30 violations when authorities banned media professionals from covering the story related to the release of Ahmad Dagamseh, a soldier who killed seven Israeli girls in 1997 and was released by authorities after serving 20 years in prison. 

The centre also reported some 40 cases of media professionals being banned from moving freely to cover the decentralisation and municipal elections.

Minister of State for Media Affairs Mohammad Momani hailed the progress shown in the report, saying: "This is good news for Jordan…we have always been supportive of more press freedoms and we will continue to do so."

"We will also continue to provide information to media and ensure that they have easy access to the data they need, which we believe will facilitate their work and role," Momani told The Jordan Times.

Stressing that the government is constantly assessing the situation to make further improvements, the minister voiced pride in the performance of Jordanian media as he stressed on the need to abide by the ethics of professional journalism. 

Globally, the Kingdom scored 41.71 in the 2018 ranking, improving from its 2017 score of 43.24.

Regarding the country's press environment, the media watchdog noted that Jordan’s media "take care to observe the red lines set by the authorities", stressing that journalists are subject to "close surveillance by the intelligence services" and must be affiliated to the state-controlled Jordanian Press Association. 

"The authorities have stepped up control especially over the Internet since 2012, when the press and publications law was overhauled. Hundreds of websites have been blocked since 2013, mostly on the grounds that they have no licence," Reporters Without Borders said on their website.

Under the 2015 cyber crime law, articles published in online newspapers and posts by citizen-journalists on social networks can be punishable by jail sentences and constitute grounds for pre-trial detention. 

"Security grounds are often used to prosecute and sometimes jail journalists under an extremely vague terrorism law," the index noted, claiming that gag orders issued by the media commission restrict the public debate and limit journalists’ access to information on sensitive issues.

The report also indicated that Jordan took part in the Saudi-led "diplomatic offensive" against Qatar in 2017, closing Al Jazeera’s Amman bureau.