Background: For most of its history since independence from British administration in 1946, Jordan was ruled by King HUSSEIN (1953-99). A pragmatic ruler, he successfully navigated competing pressures from the major powers (US, USSR, and UK), various Arab states, Israel, and a large internal Palestinian population, despite several wars and coup attempts. In 1989 he reinstituted parliamentary elections and gradual political liberalization; in 1994 he signed a formal peace treaty with Israel. King ABDALLAH II - the eldest son of King HUSSEIN and Princess MUNA - assumed the throne following his father's death in February 1999. Since then, he has consolidated his power and undertaken an aggressive economic reform program. Jordan acceded to the World Trade Organization in 2000, and began to participate in the European Free Trade Association in 2001. After a two-year delay, parliamentary and municipal elections took place in the summer of 2003. The Prime Minister and government appointed in April 2005 declared they would build upon the previous government's achievements to respect political and human rights and improve living standards.
June 20th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman The serviced taxi ride from Damascus to Amman was looking to be a disaster. Picture a big-bellied driver, a big-bellied Jordanian riding shotgun, and me in the back riding thigh-to-thigh with two Jord ... 1 photos[full story]
June 12th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman My last day in Syria was spent having one last wander around the souq and eating lots of ice cream and taking a few last pictures.
Went to get the bus to Jordan and was then swayed to get a service ... [full story]
May 31st 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman This last week has been pretty rough. This will probably be my last entry. Things with my dad are up and down. He is just kind of hanging in there. So, I am not sure what will happen. I am still recov ... [full story]
May 29th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman As some of you might have noticed, I am not actually sure how many people check this daily, I have not written in about 3 days. In the early morning on the 26th I received a call from my aunt. My dad ... [full story]
May 26th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman nothing really happened today. we had paper #2 due at 6:00pm so, most of the day was spent staying in doing that. alot of us were finished by like 12 or 1. we ate lunch some people went to the mall, i ... [full story]
May 25th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman Petra is a beautiful place! Here is a website about Petra, if you would like some more info on it http://www.visitjordan.com/majorattractions/Petra/tabid/63/Default.aspx. We were not there for very lo ... [full story]
May 24th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman Yesterday we went to the Dead Sea! It was really cool. For some of those who do not know much about it I will tell you. For starters it is the lowest point on the earth I believe. The neatest thing ab ... [full story]
May 20th 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman Today I arrived to Jordan by bus from Damascus. It was fairly uneventful at the border which was nice.
I had lunch with a Irish guy named Steve that I met at my hostel who is going to work for an N ... [full story]
May 21st 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman So, today is not really much different than yesterday. I will say it was best to stay in most of the day, it reached about 92 degrees. I don't feel it is that bad though, there really is not much humi ... [full story]
May 21st 2008Middle East » Jordan » North » Amman So, I actually had this blog this afternoon, my time, and then the internet went down and I lost it:) So, I will start over by telling you about my day yesterday. We went to two mosques yesterday. One ... [full story]
Map of Jordan
Jordan's Flag
