Sunday, August 14, 2005

جلعاد


Gel3ad is an area to the north west of Amman close to Maeen.
Two days ago, we were contracted by HP to Arabize their new iPAQ PDA (Personal digital assistant). To celebrate the event, we left the office and headed to Gal3ad! There is a nice horse back riding club called "Country riding club of Jordan" نادي الريف لركوب الخيل. It is in the middle of the hills, i never new that such thing existed in this area. We did not ride the horses, instead we played basket ball (half court available). I bet the location would be breath taking during spring time. Even if you do not ride, it is worth checking it out, especially during the afternoon


Thursday, August 11, 2005

Where else to go

They wanted to Go, so i took two days off (From work) and went with them to the city of "Is there any other alternative" Aqaba.

During the course of my life, i went many times, and must less frequently lately.
We stayed at the new InterCont. It is a nice Hotel and probably the best in Aqaba so far. They gave us "Parking Lot View" actually, it was the parking lot of the Hotel next door, Aqua Marina. The landscape is very nice, the pools and the beach, as well however, it still stands no chance when compared with Sharm El-Shiek. We negotiated 95++ rate per night, our friends next door were charged 100 ++ for no obvious reason (same room cateegory)

I once went to the Sharm for 350 JD, 6 days to Grand Hyyat.

At Aqaba City, limited choices of "eating out" places, even in the best places, you stand a chance of having 'not so good' food. If you want to go to the Souqq, all the locals are laid back nastily watching female tourist (Ammani girls definitely fit within this criteria) and it is not like Brad bitt giving you sweat eyes; i could tell u that all females in the group noticed it and got annoyed.

On the way back, we stopped by a new mall called City center. It is almost empty, poor air-conditioning in the hall ways; at the food corner, two places where open we had a meal at chili way or whatever, and the food was terrible. Generally, unpleasant experience.

in conclusion, Aqaba as a city has nothing to offer if marketed as a tourist attraction area, The Beach waters are shallow, barely any waves, the Port is close to the beach area and therefore, limiting its expansion. To do any kind of snorkeling or water diving activities, you need to depart the Hotel and go about 15Km south. Still, i think that the new InteCont. is very good.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Ammar Stock Exchange math or myth



Amman Stock exchange witnessed an amazing growth this year. I ll just give a few example and leave to you to decide

Today 8th of August closed at 7961, it has been fluctuating for the past two weeks between 7500 and 8200

The first example show the price change of Arab East Investments (Ticket = AEIV)
Two years ago the stock price was 0.85 JD, Three weeks back it hit 18 JD 2000% increase in just two years. Simply stated if you had a chance to invest 850 JD to buy 1000 Shares, you could have cashed 18000 JD three weeks ago (13000 JD today, still not bad at all)




Last Year Arab East Investment spun another company called Arab East for Real Estate investiment (Ticker = REAL). The price was set to 3.30 JD during the first day of trading by forces of demand and supply. Last week it was trading at a staggering value of 46 JD (Today it is trading at around 40 JD), surpassed by the Arab Bank only.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Is Amman really Clean?

When visitors come to Amman , they say Amman is clean, you look at it, yes it looks clean
If the workers (garbage collectors) go on strike, will it look clean. The definite answer is NO.
Just to get a feel, visit Swuified at 5 in the Morning.
I was once in Municipality of Greater Amman (MOGA), and the under secretary told me that MOGA spends 12 Million JD each year in salaries for individuals who clean the street. Mind you that is not for Garbage Collection for Garbage containers. This is a recurrent cost , every single year.

If the people of Amman are clean, then you save 12 Million a year. If they have the sense or responsibility not to litter, you save 12 Million a year. By the way the total yealy revenue sustained by MOGA stands at 120 Million JDs.

Then for Amman to really become clean, its people should become clean. How can this come about?

MOGA can spend the first 12 Million JD in campaigns (TV, Newspapers, Satellite etc ...), then a law can be passed to seriously fine those who litter.

This way, you do not have to spend 12 Million every day, and Amman will be genuinely clean without faking visitors

Saturday, August 06, 2005

IT General Secodary School graduates in Jordan!

The Ministry of Higher Education in Jordan has instructed Universities to Allow General Secondary School (Tawjihi) graduates Information Technology Stream to enroll in Engineering Departments. The Engineering Association warned on the other hand that it will not accept to register those Engineers in the association and as such, are not allowed to practice engineering in Jordan.

I do not understand the point of view of the Engineering Association which was explained in one of the news papers:

1) The regulation of the association indicates that Engineering Students must have finished Jordan Secondary School (Scientific or Industrial Streams) or equivalent (The equivalence must be certified by the ministry of higher education)

2) IT Stream students exposure to Math and Sciences in limited in Tawjihi, therefore, the association is concerned about its reputation when these student make it to the real life.

With all due respect, I do not think that these two points are critical or relevant. Engineering disciplines dictate certain prerequisites in both math and physics for the student to be able to continue studying Engineering,, whether these were covered in high school or not only affects how hard the student shall study,,, If the student manages to pass, then he/she is qualified.

I think It is not up to the Engineering Association to decide, rahter, it is for the University and the Student to decide, because in the first place, for , if the university is not tough enough and the student is not serious enought, it is their reputation which is on stake

Ammar

Thursday, August 04, 2005

CEO the Office boy and Taha Hussien

The CEO (being myself) entered the small kitchenette in our office, I found our young office boy indulged reading an old and dirty 500 page paperback torn book. I normally have short humorous chat with young Ala’a. I sometimes feel sorry for him as he works real hard while having a limited revenue. To be quite honest, this time I felt sorry for myself, the guy was reading the Al-Ayyam master piece for Taha Hussien http://www.sis.gov.eg/egyptinf/culture/html/thussein.htm
During the course of my life, I was aware of Al-ayyam because we had to read about for our school exams. Never me or anyone of my peers ever looked at it beyond a potential answer for some exam question. The bottom line is, I felt an immense urge to read the book. The CEO ended up borrowing the book from a person i tended not take seriously

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