Jordanian Suicide, Jordanian Humor: if Jon Stewart were Palestinian………..
“The rate of suicide in Jordan has nearly doubled in the past three years. According to official figures, there has been an 87 per cent increase in deaths by suicide. This figure may be even higher as cultural norms and the fact that suicide is forbidden in Islam, cause many families to hide the real cause of death. Rising unemployment, an increasing gap between the rich and the poor and the social stigma of psychological disorder are said to be behind the wave of suicides. But Jordanian authorities refuse to admit that the situation has reached crisis point and this troubles social researchers who believe suicide has long been a neglected area of study. Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports from Jordan..….”
It is tempting to say that it is the humor, stupid.
Something is rotten in Jordan. Suicides up, imported foreign housemaids killed or maimed by employers. Cases of rape on the rise (many more probably unreported).
It is not just the economy or the tribal culture that are responsible. I think it goes deeper than that: it has to do with the serious lack of a sense of humor among Jordanians. A humorous person would never commit suicide because he or she would see a humorous side of any problem. Take the Egyptians: they have been historically the most humorous of the Arab peoples; in fact they have been the ONLY humorous Arabs for some time. One rarely hears or reads of suicides in Egypt. But that also may change as the Mubarak regime passes its thirty years of Emergency Rule power, and as the dictator’s son replaces the decrepit father in office. Any people would be excused if they start losing their sense of humor under these circumstances: Egyptians had the best humor under King Farouk, President Gamal Abdel Nasser (those were optimistic days of hope), and they maintained it even under the dour Anwar Sadat.
But this Mubarak alliance of the dictatorship with the Egyptian robber barons of the plutocracy are wearing that famous sense of humor thin. Soon Cairo and Alexandria will be as humorless as Riyadh and Abu Dhabi or any other Persian Gulf city. My fellow Gulfies are among the least humorous of Arabs, practically anal, but not as bad as the Jordanians. I am tempted to throw in Palestinians and Algerians and Libyans, who are also chronically comically-challenged: if Jon Stewart were Palestinian instead of Jewish, the Daily Report would be DOA.
But I digress: we were talking about Jordan (the least humorous Arab country) not Egypt (still the most humorous Arab country).
Cheers
mhg
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