Procrastinet

Amman, Jordan - 11/11/04: Secrets and Lies

filed under: Despatches

A continuing series of periodic Procrastinet Despatches from Amman, Jordan. By Nicholas Seeley.

People like to talk about Islamic fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism as if they are totally different phenomena, that have nothing in common. Perhaps this last election is teaching us otherwise.

In Jordan, the Royal Family often has to walk a fine line to maintain control of their fractious population. The factions within Jordan - Palestinians and Hashemites, American ex-pats and Islamists - and the difficult neighbors - Israel, Syria, Iraq - all think they have a stake in how Jordan is run. If any of these groups get out of control, the good government and relative economic prosperity that Jordanians enjoy could collapse.

Here's the kicker – in Jordan, political "parties" per se are illegal, so the only groups (other than the Royal Family itself) that are organized to engage in issue-based political action are the religious ones. That means an even more disproportionate slice of political pie is going to the hard-core islamists – or, as some Jordanian Muslims who-shall-remain-nameless call them, the "weirdy beardies."

Powerful as King Abdullah is, he can't really afford to offend the wierdies -- or, more specifically, he cannot give them reason to protest the influence of the West on Jordan, or ammunition against western culture. That means strict censorship on the part of the government.

Which is why the whole idea of "Satanism," which was kind of a 70's phase in the US, is still such a big deal here. People get in trouble for practicing devil worship, and the reason is, "Satanism" is an easy excuse the fundamentalists can latch onto to turn people against all things western. There are certain bands whose music you can't play on the radio, because some imam might connect them with the devil. It's all about reputation, a DJ friend told me – you can't play Metallica, or Ozzy, or Megadeth, because the wierdies know those names are associated with "Satan." On the other hand, you can play all the Robert Johnson you want... go fig.

Which brings us to the topic of secret police. Every country around here has one, which makes you wonder why they bother calling them secret.

Several years back, Amman apparently had a tiny, but interesting heavy metal scene – people were starting bands in their garages, imitating Metallica, and gigging around Amman. Then, overnight, the mukhabarat swooped in and shut them down: they rounded everyone up, questioned them, questioned their friends, threw a bunch of people in jail, and pretty much scared the shit out of everyone.

I recently met an Australian Journo on bus who had just come back from working in Syria, and he started complaining to me about the lack of art and culture in Amman, as compared to Damascus.

It makes sense, when you think about it. Abdullah walks a tightrope every day. Assad has no such problem. Syria still runs on the Stalinist model the Soviets set them up with in the 50's, and the one rule is, no one fucks with Assad.

This Aussi told me about a foreigner he knew who had just arrived in Syria. The man was approached on the street by a stranger who asked what he thought of the Syrian government.

"I have no opinion," the foreigner said. Immediately he was whisked away and made to disappear for days while he was interrogated by the secret police. Before he was released an official came to him with this instruction:

"The next time someone asks you what you think of the government, you'll damn well have an opinion, and a good one!"

The thing about Jordan's mukhabarat, is that they are monolithic, modern, and incredibly effective. The kingdom has a single security agency – probably the same one King Hussein inherited from his grandfather. All information is centralized: they know where everyone is, all the time. If they want to squash a scene, or crush a party, they can do it overnight.

One other friend once explained to me why there is no terrorism in Jordan: "If you're sitting in your house, alone, with the curtains closed, and you even think about it – you'll hear a knock on your door."

That whole "freedom vs. security" tradeoff idea gets interesting when it really works. On the one hand, it seems like everyone I know here has been tossed in jail and interrogated at some point. On the other hand, they haven't been blown up yet. There really is less freedom – but you also really are getting a degree of security in the tradeoff.

In Syria, on the other hand, the security apparatus is all post-Soviet, set up by paranoid KGB triple agents. There are a dozen agencies, with different sources and functions, and the left hand seldom knows what the right hand is doing.

So, ironically, Syrians have more freedom to speak than Jordanians in some ways; and less in others. Jordan crushes any speech it deems might offend one of it's powerful interests, which means almost everything. Syria has one rule, and you know it already: Don't fuck with Assad. But, in Syria, you can get away with a lot, as long as you don't catch the eye of the wrong agent. In Jordan, you can get away with exactly what they let you get away with.

The Aussi and I both got off the bus near the big sports stadium, where I was going to a rehearsal.

"I swore I would never live anywhere near the sports stadium in any third-world city," he muttered. "When shit goes down, that's the first place they round you up and take." It's one of those developing-world truisms; there's a fine line between murder and football.

The Aussi waved his arms around at all the big Sports City apartments where the middle-class foreigners live. "They don't get it," he says, "Just because they have Kentucky Fried Chicken, they think they're in New York. This is the Middle East, people."

So it is.

- Nicholas Seeley, 11/11/04

Posted by rjt at November 11, 2004 10:06 AM