Deadly Sunset

This is a nice snapshot of the sunset over the Dead Sea taken yesterday. Just across the water where one can just barely see some landmass is Israel. Amidst the chaos over the other side, one could not feel any apprehension of whatsoever on this side over the longstanding Middle East issue, at least not that I could see openly. Indeed Jordan has managed to position herself to be the mediator and playing almost neutral role on the issues, at the same time getting precious aid and supports from US and the Arab world. The country itself is small in terms of population – 6 millions – but even without oil or other real resource apart from agriculture, phosphate and potash industry, the economy seems to be doing well.

The influence from the King on the development of the country is quite obvious. One example is the number of policemen on the road controlling and checking the speed limit. On the Desert motorway and the Dead Sea route, one could find a police patrol every 5 km. We were told that the King was so incensed with the high accident rates in Jordan, some 7000 were killed in the past 10 years, that he imposed strict policing of the roads round the clock. If caught the fines are heavy. If one exceed even by 1 km of the official speed limit, the fine is 25 Jordan Dollars which is about BD60. If the speed was exceeding by 40 km, the fine is JD250 which is about BD600! It seems to work.