A JORDANIAN TRAGEDY

Pictured here is Jordan's most famous boxer, Mohammed Abu Khadija. The guy is massive, intimidating, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. He grew up in the Baqa'a Palestinian refugee camp just north of Amman. It is one of the most densely populated patches of ground on earth and a very rough place. Khadija quickly rose to become Jordan's most promising boxer, training under an Iraqi coach who defected just before the first gulf war. His career highpoint came when he qualified for the 2004 Olympics in Greece. To make extra money Khadija worked as a security guard at a particularly rough coffee shop inside the camp (like the one pictured below). A few weeks before he was set to leave for the Olympics a gang of seven men entered the coffee shop and stabbed Khadija several times. He fought back and ended up killing two of them with only his hands. In the US this would clearly be self-defense, but here in Jordan he spent over a year in jail awaiting trial. He was found innocent, but by the time he was released the Olympics were over and he was too old to qualify for the 2008 games. He is now the head boxing coach for country of Jordan. Walking with him through the camp was like walking around Philadelphia with Rocky.

THE ONLY SHOT THAT WORKED

My friend Sultan graciously let me use his daughter Zaina for this shoot for Family Flavours magazine. The only problem was, all he told her was that "Uncle" Brian wants to take your photo, so she put together two different fashion outfits and rushed her dad over to my house. When she arrived and discovered how boring a proper photo shoot is, she was less than thrilled. I pumped her full of chocolates and praise, but she still had the saddest face in all the pictures. I made her a deal to take only three more shots, which she counted down with me, and I believe the picture used in the ad was the last one. Afterwords I asked her to put on one of her fashion outfits and her disposition immediately changed and I took the bottom shot. Kids!

DESPERATION INSPIRES ART

I purchased this painting yesterday from a store in Amman. It is by an Iraqi artist who recently received the rare privilege of being able to emigrate to Sweden. I've made it a point when I travel to buy a piece of art from all the countries I visit. My one requirement is that the painting must encapsulate my impression of the place. It has taken me a while to find this particular painting. You go into a store here and everything is camels and bustling street markets. This has not been my overriding impression of the Middle East. This man sits smoking a desperate cigarette, full of longing, yet lacking almost all hope for the future. Yet there remains the candle, and he clings to that as people here cling to the idea that things will get better one day. Unfortunately I hear a lot about Barack Obama making everything better, and very little about Jordanians making things better. I suppose a monarchy kills ambition the same as anti-depressants and pot do back in the States. Nevertheless, I find hope in this painting. The artist must have painted it when things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, and then fate intervened. Now he's in Sweden, perhaps a bit guilty, and certainly struggling for inspiration.