Mr. Hakel Visits the Embassy

Blog 16 July 19, 2010
Short entry today. Two visits, one to United States Embassy and the second to the “Fulbright House”.
The visit to the embassy was to meet with representatives of USAID. They are the federal agency that administers programs and funds spent by the United States taxpayers to improve the lives of Jordanians. My impression was very favorable. Our country is doing good work in this country and I’m proud of our work.
The first hour was spent with George Kalal, who is the team leader for USAIDs efforts in political and legal reform. George is Jordanian and did an excellent job of explaining not only the successes of our government here, but also the remaining challenges. He was generally complimentary to the King who appears to be a reform-minded individual. The slow pace of change was laid more at the feet of the bureaucracy and the powerful ministers of this and that. One of the success stories has to do with a request of USAID from the Jordanian Parliament. They asked for assistance in obtaining an electronic voting system for legislative votes. Our country was willing to help grasping the power of such a system to bring more transparency to legislative votes. Prior to the electronic voting system’s implementation votes were held in secret. Imagine the reaction in our country if our legislators’ votes were kept in secret. Members of the Jordanian Parliament wanted to get rid of the system, but the system remains.
Our second speaker was the team leader for USAIDs efforts to aid Jordanian education. These efforts are on as small a level as paying for two bookmobiles to operate in Jordan to large scale efforts such as the building of 28 new schools in different parts of the country.
Before I describe the stop at the Fulbright house I want to mention what a visit to an American Embassy in a Middle Eastern country entails. Our bus first approached the embassy from the West and we were stopped by a Jordanian manned security checkpoint who told us to come from the East. We hopped back on the bus and made our way around. As we stepped off the bus we went through the low concrete barriers we use in construction areas back home. This was the first perimeter. The second perimeter took us through a couple of metal turnstiles. The kind your older brother used to stop with his hand trapping you between the rows of bars. Between the two we went through our first metal detector. As we stepped back outside I managed to snap a picture. As far as I know, it is the only picture of the embassy any of us got, because at the third perimeter our cameras, cell phones etc. were confiscated for the duration of our visit. (My theory on the picture was that since they hadn’t already confiscated my camera or told me not to take pictures, it must be alright…) The third level of security was also interesting because we each entered the building where this was taking place individually. Here our bags were screened with a machine. My watch, which I just bought yesterday, caused some interest because it happened to be lying in my bag in a straight line, which made it look like some kind of stick. They rescanned it at a different angle and let me keep it. All the security was being done by a private security firm. It appeared that even the gray/black camouflaged F-150 truck with the gigantic machine gun, with the soldier standing behind it was a member of this security company. Blackwater comes to mind.
After receiving a ticket to retrieve my cameras, it was through another turnstile and we were through the high wall surrounding the embassy. Only two heavy blast doors and one more metal detector and we were in. Our host welcomed us to “Fortress America”.
In contrast the Fulbright House only had one local police officer with one relatively small submachine gun in front of it. The door was secured, but no security checks. We were ushered downstairs to the library where several hundred well worn paperbacks from fiction to Islamic study were available for checkout. We were immediately served pizza and soda for lunch and spent the next hour and a half talking with the Executive Director of the Jordanian-American Fulbright Commision, Alain McNamara.
He was an absolutely charming man, would have been even without the pizza, he described Fulbright’s mission in Jordan with exchanges going both directions. My trip has been funded by this commission to the tune of the better part of a hundred thousand dollars. Our host continued with an interesting disscussion of other funding possibilities for those interested.

I talked to Heidi on the phone today for the first time. That was great.

I miss you all, too, and can’t wait to be able to share in a more personal fashion some of my experiences. If you are going to be in my Social Studies class this year, you’re going to be my captive audience!

Salaam,
Mr. Hakel/Dad/Lane