Procrastinet

Hi Nicholas! I know you but you don't remember me. I am one of the folks who had made your acquaintance in Amman. I have finally found the time to read your blog. While you are a nice guy, I am not sure your perception of reality is not tainted by your fertile imagination. You don't write reports, you write plays in which you are the protagonist. Jordan is your theater and the US is your audience. But not for long. I think you are desperate for a place where you can nurse your insecurities and inadequacies by nurture your feelings of superiority over others you believe are inferior to you. You could not have made it back in the US so you take refuge in a far away country and you complain about how much smarter you are from the rest of them. I have known many such as yourself, a very insecure kid and a refurbished orientalist. Come on Nicholas. Take a deap breath...get into the next plane heading out of Amman to NY and just do something with your life instead of badmouthing and mocking the folk who open up their homes and friendships to you. You are no Lawrence of Arabia nor will there be any in the future. you are just an angry kid who needs to be in a place where you can be angry all the time without repercussions.

i guess it's none of my business to get involved in this, but i couldn't help saying something. muna - you seem to have absorbed every negative thing that nick has said in his entries and none of the positive. i've never been to jordan but from whatever limited insight i've gained from reading this blog, my impression of its people is far from bad. frankly, nick is a much harsher critic of americans and their failings than anything. also, people who want to nurse their feelings of superiority without having any aspect of their worldview questioned are the people who *stay* in their apartments in nyc. surely making an effort to go to new places and experience other cultures and peoples before forming your opinions is preferable to that? (i say from my apartment in central ohio.) if you dislike the practice of intentionally belittling others in front of an audience, as you claim to, maybe you should have tried to have a dialogue with nick about your thoughts in person or over email, instead of by using this means, or at least this tone.

Nice going Laura. So not only we get mocked in public, we get lectured for presenting our counter point of view on the same forum and to the same audience. I am not sure I like this double standard. But we are no strangers to your double standards.

Muna -

As a matter of fact, Muna, I do remember you, and, after giving your critique the full 30 seconds of consideration it deserves, I have this to say:

Blow me.

No one said this was the New York Times; just another immature american spouting off about his neuroses. You don't like it, start your own blog.

Wait a minute...

This isn't the New York Times?

Well what the FRIG have I been publishing this for, then?! Oh, that's right, to make friends and influence people.

No, that's not it.

Oh, right: because I happen to like this particular immature American and how he spouts off about his neuroses.

On one grudgingly substantive note: I think readers will notice that, over the course of Nick's Despatches, he has never abused anyone individually and treats the people he talks about with great - if acerbic - respect. Cultures maybe not so much (his own or anybody's), but people get treated quite kindly.

Okay, except maybe for that "blow me" thing.

OK, so Procrastinet isn't the NYT. But it's not just Nick spouting off about his neuroses. Or, more to the point, if it was about nothing it wouldn't be worth reading. It's journalism. For a guy like myself it's a nice way to learn a little about Jordan or whever Nick happens to be. As such the value is diminished if critiques are falling on deaf ears. But all we've got going here is mud-slinging without anything new on the subject of the original post.

Muna is certainly right that Nick's an outsider who's only been in Jordan a little while. I have no way of knowing if Nick's totally misrepresenting reality and opposing viewpoints would be nice to hear. But Nick's got a shared cultural experience with his US audience which provides a reference point and makes it easier for us to weigh what he says. So, while acknowledging the long history of westerners going to other countries and reporting back patronizing, exoticized bull, I think it'd be wrong to say that Nick's goals have no value or are untennable. Afterall, look at Alexis de Tocqueville.

While there is a certain amount of truth in Muni's statement, I agree with Laura that his criticisms would find a better reception had they been made face to face.

Muni's criticisms are valid until he starts putting Nick on the couch, talking about his "insecurities" and "feelings of superiority over others you believe are inferior to you."

Having interacted with Nick for many years, I would suggest that Nick's "feelings of superiority" are quite accurate: he is, quite simply, superior to most of the inhabitants of this world. He is guided by principle, and acts according to those lights, even when it's against his own best interests. He refuses the aid and support of those who love him because they don't agree with his politics or lifestyle. They love him anyway.

Throughout most of his life I've thought of Nick as the next best thing to the Second Coming. And I have no doubt that he will, when he is confident of "being his own man," return to the USA where he can best lobby for his ideas. Unless he gets himself killed by being in the right place at the wrong time.