Arabic Press

Ad-dustour’s Mohannad Mubaideen said that monitoring and inspection teams from the Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan shut down 34 food establishments and suspended the work of 176 others during 3,632 inspection tours, according to the administration.

During the field visits in Ramadan across the Kingdom, health inspectors destroyed 123,837 kilogrammes of food, including meat and fish, in addition to 10,585 liters of juice deemed unfit for human consumption.

The administration also issued 2,217 warnings, while referred 210 businesses to court for committing violations including selling expired commodities among others. The writer said that this is no more than an introduction of the JFDA’s work, highlighting that the administration’s ongoing progress is not linked to a certain manager, but represents all predecessor-successor leaderships’ activities and achievements.

The JFDA is carrying out a big mission, as it continues its work despite certain attempts to spoiling citizens’ food and medications, while others love to feed the people rotten food, but the administration is on the lookout for corrupts who attempt to tamper with people’s food, he concluded.  

Al Ghad’s Maher Abu Tair said that this government, and no other government, could do anything for Jordanians who will lose their jobs abroad and will return home during the next two months.

Jordan at the official level is busy with issues related to the treasury, borrowing money that surpassed JD1.25 billion, to cover financing expenditures, while during the coming period it may borrow more to cover the deficit.

Governments around the world have resorted to offering bonds, borrowing from local or foreign banks, or requested aid and loans. When more than half a million Jordanians returned from the Arab Gulf states, after the 1990 Gulf War, the governments did nothing for them, on the contrary, they paid their cars' customs, while some of them recovered after receiving war compensation.

There is an expectation that 20 per cent of Jordanians abroad will return, that means the return of 200,000 out of one million, this number may decrease and may increase, but preparations must take place during June, July and August for two scenarios of the return of Jordanians oversees.

The first should consider the return of the whole family, including the breadwinner, while the second the return of the families leaving abroad the main breadwinner.

We did not hear from the government a single word related to this issue, he said, calling on the government to stop raising morale in an exaggerated way and change the tone of the official speech to prepare the public for the upcoming changes. 

Ad-Dustour’s Issa Khazaleh said that in terms of the evolution of educational institutions, nowadays, technology has influenced education, mainly due to the invention of the internet. However, the reliance of many schools and universities on technology remains limited, as traditional education remains prevalent.

After COVID-19 conquered the world, people have changed many living concepts and behaviours, Khazaleh said, highlighting that education is one of the first arenas to see such change as school and university attendance is suspended and learning is done remotely.

However, the infrastructure reality in Jordanian universities has posed great challenges to teachers, administrations and students alike, as teachers do not have syllabuses that suit the new teaching mediums, nor do all students have computers or internet access, the writer said.

He argued that Jordan is not ready for the abrupt push into online education for seven reasons, the first being the lack of or unreliable internet connection in many rural or remote areas in the Kingdom.

The second reason is that not all students or teachers have or can have computers, and the third is the added difficulty of providing more than one device for one family, he added.

The fourth reason is that not all teachers are trained on using the new teaching platforms, while the fifth is that, similarly, not all students are trained to use the new technology, Khazaleh said.

He said that the sixth reason is that all syllabuses must be modified in line with remote education, and the seventh is the difficulty of applying remote teaching to students below the sixth grade as they need a social educational environment.

Al Ghad’s Fahd Kheitan said that Minister of Health Saad Jaber, and Minister of State for Media Affairs Amjad Adaileh have been in the forefront of the COVID-19 scene, not only by virtue of their ministerial posts, but for their balanced performances that brought Jordanians reassurance and the government credibility.

In addition to Jaber and Adaileh, another duo has taken centre stage during the crisis, whose roles are as important as the two ministers’, he said.

Kheitan highlighted that the duo is no other than director of operations at the Coronavirus Crisis Cell Brig. Gen. Mazen Faraiah and Spokesperson for the National Anti-Pandemic Committee Nazir Obaidat.

The writer said that Faraiah is a senior officer in the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army, who in light of his line of work did not have any public presence, and that Obaidat is a renowned medical consultant.

He said that the crisis pushed the two men quickly to the forefront and burdened them with heavy tasks, as Faraiah took over the Crisis Cell through military assignment and Obaidat has been responsible for explaining the medical details that govern Jordan’s COVID-19 decisions to the public.

The columnist said that the twosome are yet to make one mistake, despite this being their first experience in the public arena, as Faraiah grants the crisis the seriousness, calculation and coordination it demands.

While Obaidat addresses COVID-19 developments with professionalism and without clashing with politicians and economists, whose interests might go against the National Anti-Pandemic Committee’s recommendations, Kheitan said.

Al Rai’s Issam Qadamani said that the injection of liquidity in an economy facing a recession is like drowning a sponge in water or like drying a wet sponge, where the result in the two cases is the same with a difference in the volume of the inflation.

The finance minister is biased to the expansion policy and already chose expenditure to face the recession, said the writer, adding that Jordan will witness an economic recession for two quarters, while solutions are merely limited to an expansionary financial policy.   

What the government has already done is preserving the incomes of individuals on the expense of companies and business owners, said the columnist, noting that in the recession, the government will have to support the continuity of companies.

The expansionary financial policy will serve as an alternative of the drop of stop role of the private sector, where the government has to seize the opportunity to implement structural reforms in the tax system and dependency on grants and loans to stimulate real investment, productivity and employment in a sustainable manner, said the writer. 

The government should not be happy with the temporary increase in food consumption, especially that the sector is the lowest in generating tax revenues, said the columnist, adding that the real problem that the government has to deal with is the drop in overall demand and decline in investment and their impacts on unemployment. 

The required austerity needs a political decision to sharply decrease the current expenditure, said the writer.

A country like the US can implement an expansionary financial policy so easily, especially that the process only needs orders to the printing press to print money, but when it comes to Jordan, it needs to refer to borrowing for expenditure, added the columnist.  

Al Ghad’s Maher Abu Tair said that Israel is deeply threatening the Jordanian interests and officials’ answers to questions about what they will do to stop these threats, they give different replies.

These answers talks about the Jordanian-US relations, Washington’s protection to Tel Aviv and the US’s control over several matters to pressure Jordan, mainly the economic conditions and the stability of the Kingdom amidst a turbulent region, said the writer.

Some say that escalating against Israel will reduce Jordan’s influence in sensitive issues related to Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque, and will lead Europe not to communicate with Amman that, the latter, adopts rational and diplomatic channels while administrating its foreign policy with the West in particular, added the columnist.

It is really unknown how Jordan will continue the same political campaign of communication with Europeans and others, while already aware that Israel does not care, said the writer. 

The output of annexing areas in the West Bank will ultimately lead to the end of the Palestinian state project, the collapse of the Palestinian National Authority, the cancellation of the right of return, localisation of refugees and creating a population problem that needs an alternative administration, said Abu Tair.

Jordan has wide expectations that His Majesty King Abdullah hinted at during his interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, where he said that the collapse of the Palestinian National Authority will create more chaos and extremism in the region, and Israel’s annexation of parts of the West Bank will lead to a big clash with Jordan, added the columnist. 

His Majesty’s remarks included dangerous hints that he said for the same time, mainly while he spoke about the clash and other options if the annexation happens, said the writer, wondering about these options that only include now the cancellation of the Wadi Araba agreement.

Observers and analysts do not expect reaching the limit of cancelling the agreement for considerations related to the Amman-Washington ties, from one side, and the political, security and economic costs of such a step, added the columnist.

Ad Dustour’s Lama Absah said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the change of the normal course of life have contributed to referring to technology in several sectors, such as education and business, where the “advanced” ICT infrastructure played a main role in the success of the experience.

Lately, talks referred to the Kingdom’s digital capability in the educational and health sectors and the ability to digitise several government institutions with direct contact with the public, said the writer, adding that it is also noticeable that Jordanians increased their reliance on digital wallets.

Yet, as times elapsed, other indicators showed that the Kingdom still lacks a lot to have a real digital economy that can keep pace with the human movement that constitutes the cornerstone and pillar of the economy, added the columnist.

At some point, work, education and health processes cannot continue remotely and there has to be one sort of direct communication, said the writer, noting that, for example, many teachers and students suffered from the e-learning method mainly because shifting to it was sudden and unplanned.

The COVID-19 crisis is a great opportunity for Jordan through preparing a realistic strategic plan that can facilitate the mission and be aware of the requirements that can eventually realise envisioned goals, added the columnist. 

Al Ghad’s Fahed Khitan said that it is scheduled that the Knesset on Wednesday will vote on Netanyahu-Gantz rotating premiership programme, in which Netanyahu will serve as a prime minister, giving the prime minister’s post to Gantz after 18 months.

The annexation of portions of West Bank lands and the Jordan Valley is an important part of the government’s programme, the writer said.

In the same day, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit occupied Jerusalem to attend this “dark historical moment”, he said, highlighting that there is a widespread belief among observers that Pompeo would declare his country’s support to start with the annexation measures, so that, the visit will be the launching ceremony of the so-called “deal of the century”, announced in Washington months ago.

According to Palestinian sources, the deal would take in up to 30 per cent of the occupied West Bank and 720,000 dunums of the Jordan Valley.

Commenting on the repercussions of such a step, Khitan said that Israel has prepared very well to this scenario, but  the collapse of the Palestinian Authority will become a very strong possibility, he said.

The Palestinian Authority does not have the ability to spark a new intifada, as its internal differences alongside the great rift between Fatah and Hamas that leave no room for field action.

A country by the size of Jordan and its capabilities cannot go far in this issue, especially in light of Arabs giving up on the Palestinian cause.

Everyone at this stage is engaged in addressing repercussions of the coronavirus. There are Arab countries competing to build close relations with Israel.

Egypt is exhausted by its economic crisis and is involved in a long war of attrition with terrorist groups funded by countries in the region.

Israel is not blind, it knows the capabilities of the Arab world at this stage, and knows in advance that it is able to implement its agenda with minimal losses. It has committed greater crimes in the past and did not pay the price, so what has changed to have fear about what might happen after the annexation!

Ad Dustour’s Mohammed Obaidat said that coronavirus cross-border pandemic, which mobilised the world’s armies and medical cadres, paralysed global economy and killed tens of thousands people, while others are waiting disastrous consequences, has various positive effects.

As concern over the spread of coronavirus grows, the virus demonstrated people’s need for spirituality and increased their faith. COVID-19 also has brought families, around the world, closer together, and enhanced social cohesion.

The crisis also restored confidence between civilians and the governments that handled the pandemic strictly to protect their lives.

At the political level, coronavirus will upend the global political and economic maps, he said, expecting, during the coming days, radical changes related to the dominance of the world’s superpowers and reshaping of the political alliances and highlighting the emergence of new players on the political arena. He added that the virus seems to be having positive effect on traffic, underlining the positive environmental consequences of the crisis.

He said that the pandemic has eradicated extremism, among other positive issues. COVID-19 has changed and will change various aspects of life, he said urging all stakeholders to turning the challenges of this virus into opportunities for people safety, as well as maximize the productivity to compensate what have been lost during the pandemic.

Al Ghad’s Shurouq Tumar said that after much waiting and many demands from Tawjihi students (high school seniors) and their families for measures from the Ministry of Education adequate enough to face this year’s exceptional challenges, the ministry came out with uncalculated decisions that affirmed the students’ frustrations.

Students anticipated decisions that would alleviate their stress after the suspension of schools attendance as an anti-COVID-19 measure.

However, they were instead shocked and upset by the ministry’s decision to issue a condensed exam schedule that cuts the usual exams period to five days, Tumar said.

The writer said that since the beginning of the crisis, Tawjihi students have suffered additional anxiety and confusion due to the ministry’s “slow and ambiguous” statements and arrangements that often attempted to reassure students without offering them actually reassuring information or announcements, which further fuelled their frustration.

She said that the ministry had recently announced its decision to omit the last unit of each subject material from its respective exam, by which the ministry admits that remote education in its current form cannot be considered an alternative to conventional education.

The columnist said that the ministry’s decision to omit the last units is a long-awaited demand, but it took the ministry so long to take it that students had already studied the full materials, which upset them for wasting their efforts that were doubled in light of remote learning.

Tumar said that the Ministry of Education today is required to reconsider its unfortunate decision to compress the Tawjihi exam schedule into 50 per cent of its usual period while it still has the time to do so.