OUTBURSTS

It's been a wee full of outbursts and unacceptable public behaviors.
Here's a little preview:

1- The biggest one was a Republican Congressman from South Carolina named Joe Wilson (a.k.a douchebag) yelling at Oabam "you lie" during his speach. Nancy Pelosi, the lady sitting behind Obama, looked pretty upset and she looked like a school teacher who wanted to know who the hell was screaming so she'd bring him and kick his butt in front of everyone. Actually that's what she's trying to do today.



2- Serena Williams was playing in the semi-finals of the US open. She was doubled faulted by the line referee. She got really upset and started yelling at her, " "I swear to God I'm f-ing going to take this f-ing ball and shove it down your motherf-ing throat, you hear that? I swear to God."

The line referee complained to the main referee who gave that point to the opponent (Clistjers). That was the match point for Clistjers so she won the game and Serena was knocked out.


3- A 20-year old singer , Taylor Swift, won an award at the MTV award ceremony. While accepting the award Kanye West, uninvited, went on the stage and suggested that Beyonce deserved that award. Obama himself actually commented off-the-record on him next day with one word that described Kanye well: jackass.



and of course, you start getting jokes next day. Serena Williams is picking up that Congressman as her doubles partner. Kanye telling Patrick Swayze, "Listen I'm gonna let you die but Michael JAckson's death was the best this year".

And here's a nice mix of outbursts!

Gangs of Amman

Congratulations. We have our own gangs now. They're locally made and they serve local customers, now at Jabal Al-Natheef. Al-Jazeera is reporting (check here, in Arabic) on them.

You may think you know what a gang is, but think again. It's not just a bunch of outlaws who steal and maybe kill.

A gang OCCUPIES a neighborhood. It claims it as its own territory. Every store in that neighborhood has to pay a certain amount of money every month to the gang otherwise the store will be destroyed or worse, the owner can get seriously hurt. Nobody messes up with that gang. As the gang gets stronger, it will prohibit whoever they want from opening business there. Then it will disallow other people from walking there at night if they didn't want them to. Remember, it's their own territory.

Other outlaws living nearby will get jealous, and they will form their own gang, and start to take money from local stores. Those gangs get bigger. And because they want more territory, they will start looking at other neighborhoods aiming for expanding that territory. They may clash with other gangs and it can get bloody.

What does a gang need to form? Weapons, which are readily available in Jordan. They also need low-life people, and there's plenty of them. Poverty and unemployment definitely nourishes such environment.

Who can stop gangs? Policemen. But they're not doing anything here, for different possible reasons. First, the problem is widespread (yet), and as long as people are not taking the streets they won't do anything about it. Secondly, it's limited to pour areas, and most people who really have the authority to fight those gangs do not live there or even know anyone who lives there. Another possibility, is that those gangs are heavily-armed, dangerous ones, and the police is hoping for them to dissolve one way or another by... I don't know..... better education and opening a new mosque in the neighborhood?

Yes, Amman is becoming a big city, a scary one too.