3rd Day in Jordan.

Trip News:

Yesterday at the citadel in Amman, a short taxi ride from the hotel. Amman last night with the three quarter moon rising over the hills of the city. From this angle, Amman holds very little charm, square blocks of concrete and a grey stucco finish. Bleak almost Soviet style architect. None of the grace of the Ottoman period It was a backwaters city until the founding of modern Jordan in one of those post WWI rwanglings that was to give the Arab states full independence.

The Roman ampitheater on the hillside. The seven hills of Jordan, bleak and arid, looking more like a provincial capital. Too short of a time to make any assessment and real connection with Jordanians, as a tourist, there is a formality, I am the tourist and they are the local. Even with a modicum of Arabic I can leap over that threshold more easily than most, but my accent is Yemen with a weird inflection of Moroccan. When I told a guy I learned Arabic in Yemen he said, "Then why do you speak with a Moroccan accent?"

I was almost offended, but not. Like my French some years ago was a heavy Moroccan accent and such that when I spoke to Moroccans in France some thought I was trying to "rap like a home boy.

Anyway, the real juice of Jordan, is the Dead Sea, Jaresh the Old Roman city, and the stunning Petra. Part of me is feeling guilty that I am not in Egypt with the Gaza marches, but even as a leftist, I am a leftist to my own drummer. Yes, I do want to spend time and help draw attention to Gaza, but I want to do it on my own terms and what feels comfortable to me. Even though I like the politics of the left more, I hold the right and left with equal wariness. A healthy skepticism is my most sincere form of religion.

Political News
The news and the conversation about Palestine is in the air. The evening news from the BBC brings the brazen new of the Israeli's continued occupation and 700 new settlements in Jerusalem they declare a "special case." The special case is that the houses are on Palestinian land and it has been seized to make way for Israeli homes.

The moral outrage is seen in my new artwork that this genocide is inspiring. As Picasso spoke in Guernica, I in my way will speak. I will tell you more of the museum of Extinct Races: Special Exhibit The people who lived in the area West of the Jordan River before the Rightful Owners Returned After a two Thousand Year Absence.

After all, who doesn't hate the Palestinians? The Saudis are indifferent at best and are caught between the fear that their paper lion kingdom, the so called guardianship of Mecca is only sustained by oil and patronizing the Wahhabi zealots, and that it is unwilling to do anything truly substantial to help their Palestinian "brothers."

More to come. Listening, talking to people about life politics, love the area, like the language, even my stumbling attempts.

More to come