And for good news…

September 10, 2007 at 3:09 pm · Filed under Amman, Geek Culture & Tech

“9 Miserable Days” was the title of Jordanian blogger Who Sane’s post, where he told an unfortunate personal story involving the mysterious disappearance of his father, leading his family to expect the worse. With his cell phone turned off, it took nearly nine days to find him. Who-Sane’s father had spent a total of nine days at the (public) Prince Hamzah Hospital where he was subjected to the massive unprofessionalism that left him sick, bed-ridden, unfed, unbathed and cut off from the world. The hospital is still new yet it took several visits and inquiries during the comprehensive search to discover that no one on the staff had really bothered to check if Who-Sane’s father was actually a patient there before denying his existence. Thankfully his father was transferred to another hospital where he is currently recovering but in the process, Who-Sane’s story inspired the biggest mobilization of the Jordanian blogosphere to date.
Over 50 Jordanian bloggers discussed the issue on their own blogs, trackbacking to the original post and building enough momentum to reach the local media via Jordanian blogger and journalist Batir Wardam. Soon after, the newly-appointed Minister of Health gave direct orders to form an investigation team.The story and its outcome is a milestone for the Jordanian blogosphere, marking the first time that the local media and blogs have entwined to produce actual tangible results. 

[Via 7iber]

Update:  Dr. Salah Al Mawajdeh, the Jordanian Minister of Health, visited Who-Sane’s dad
at the hospital, on behalf of His Majesty King Abdullah II. During his visit, Dr. Al Mawajdeh assured his father that a rigorous
investigation is currently in place to identify those who committed the
mistakes and punish them. Read Who-Sane’s story here.






  • Lynn

    This comment has nothing to do with your post. I just want to ask you a question. On Sunshine’s blog (Iraqi girl) http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/ she said this : “About what we’ve done for the Jordanians, we supplied them with electricity and oil for years, for free.. scholarships, salary for every Jordanian student, they used to take the Iraqi places in university, they should be thankful, not mean ..”

    I think that she has probably been mislead, she’s young. I was curious what you thought/know as a Jordanian.

  • Karneebeh

    Roba, wait a sec. There is no happy ending to this story.

    The 50 Jordanian bloggers all managed to get the attention of the Ministry of Health which sent an envoy to find holes in the victim’s story and to shame him and his son and to question their patriotism (not for exposing their incompetence and negligence, but simply for telling his own personal ordeal.).

    We have heard of no consequences in terms of changes to the management of hospital. not one newspaper followed up on the story. Only Batir’s “opinion” peace was published in Addustor.

    We heard of no attempt to settle with the victims even symbolically be it a personal visit by the minister of health or a formal letter of apology to the victim.

    Those who wronged our friend Who-sane and almost killed his father still roam free and had to suffer no consequences. and they will repeat this nightmare again and again, and the victims next time will be a Jordanian who will chalk it up to the traditional Qada’o'Qadar (God’s Will)

    This is hardly a successful campaign. If any, this is proof that no matter what we say and do, the outcome of such campaigns could either backfire (health official shaming the victim) or there is no outcome.

    Sorry to rain on your parade. But on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being successful outcome. The score is hardly 1.

    Remember the video of the sad, poor little newborn girl with a rare disease and how the nurses were filming her while she is crying from the sever pain of their rough handling. of course the baby dies days later, and no one heard anything about the the nurses being disciplined.

    Fact is, nothing will ever happen.

    This is an improvement-proof government. This is a shame-proof official culture.

    This culture can be summed up in two guiding principles:

    1) Citizens is always wrong. They just don’t know it yet.

    2) Government is always right. Eventually Citizen will come back to his senses and realize this and be grateful.

  • Seema M

    Lynn, yes, we have been terrible hosts. the Iraqis in Jordan deserve better. but remember the role of the Jordanian government in exploiting them and in poising the atmosphere.

    This is how it happened. The poor Iraqi refugees come to jordan and bring billions of dollars with them to invest in Jordan.

    The regime collects their money, and instead of supporting Jordanians by reducing taxis or increasing subsidies to fuel or education, the opposite happens. There is an inflation explosion. Rent goes up, subsidies are reduced or lifted altogether, education costs skyrocket, life becomes unbearable for most Jordanians.

    All the while, government folks split the tax and custom revenues collected from the massive Iraqi investments.

    The local press and media as keeps mum on the government’s part pocketing the money but never fails to remind us the Iraqis are behind the inflation.

    As a Jordanian who can do nothing to change anything, all I can say to my Iraqi friends: I am so so so so so sorry for the way you have been exploited. I wish if I can do anything to make their lives comfortable here. But as you can see, we can’t protect our sick parents from our local health care officials.

    We are all victims of a predator system.

  • http://blog.haniobaid.com Hani Obaid

    Karneebeh, I was disheartened when I found out the lead investigator was berating the victim’s son, and questioning his patriotism, rather than concentrating on fact-finding.

    People are unfortunately only impressed by the number of dead (think of the recent Shawerma ban). They don’t realize that the fact that this incident occured in itself indicates very poor standards. The quickest way to sympathise is to think “What if it was my father”.

    Nevertheless, Jordan is a small world, and having 50 bloggers declare their support, an “opinion piece” in one of the 3 largest papers in the country, and any response at all from the ministry of health is in itself remarkable.

  • http://hareega.blogspot.com Hareega

    you’re very optimistic Roba, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
    Even if those responsible for the negligence were punished, I won’t call it a happy ending, that would barely make a happy beginning

  • http://www.kinziblogs.wordpress.com kinzi

    Karneebah, I would give it a 3, because w/o blogging the momentum of information transfer woudl have been non-existent. If 200 people read my post about it, (and I am not one of the biggee bloggers) imagine how this information was disseminated if 50 bloggers posted it.

    Exposing depravity is the first step toward doing something about it. The citizenry will not go back to the old ways.

    About those nurses, a commenter on my blog said his uncle works for that hospital in KSA. The uncle said the women were fired. Did you hear something different? The commenter may have fabricated the story, but it could be true.

  • A Jordanian Rifraf

    “Exposing depravity is the first step toward doing something about it. ”

    Pssssssssst…Kinzi……this is Jordan no USA.

    there are no mechanism for accountability for the privileged or for changing the system in jordan.

    only the weak is held accountable.

    only one man can change the system.

    the rest of us are cows to be milked, so the few privileged ones can drink it.

    it’s that simple.

    so please, hold off on the victory speech and the fireworks.

    this camping did not even make a dent. it only put the victim under closer state scrutiny. next time he snoozes, he looses.

  • http://www.kinziblogs.wordpress.com kinzi

    Jordanian Rifraf, ok, maybe I am an unduly optimistic American. I will hold my fireworks for now, but I’m into celebrating small victories. AND, as one blogger mentioned, this could be the beginning of the end of blogger freedom.

    BUT, having lived here a long time, working with victims of sexual abuse, I am seeing huge strides of real change in this area: awareness, treatment, prevention. If that taboo can fall, so can self-serving milkers.

    The one problem with your view here, is that it can easily be an excuse for not moving forward to do what you can to facilitate change. I don’t expect fireworks from you, but I hope you will use your sphere of influence to get the cows off the milking machine.