The Arab revolt is spreading to Jordan. In several cities, people are demonstrating for more freedom, more money, against corruption - and demand a new government. Only one has nothing to fear: King Abdullah is regarded as irreplaceable. Mohammed Sneider is on a roundabout in the center of Irbid, a small town an hour's drive north of Jordan's capital Amman, and holding a sign: we want change.
"To fire the prime minister was a good decision," says Sneider. "But it is not enough." So far there have been no demonstrations in Irbid, but that should change now. Together with twenty other activists Mohammed Sneider has gone to Irbid, to respond to the Arab spring in the provinces.
They sang on the bus, the International in Arabic, now they chanted: ". Where is our money we want back the money that you've bagged" "Dscha'een" is the loose coalition of teachers, workers, retired soldiers, left, and students, it means we come. Since the beginning of the year in Jordan to demonstrate against the government and its privatization policy.
There are not many people who are demonstrating, sometimes a hundred, at most a few thousand. But it is the first time that the country out of the company formed an opposition, which protested against the conditions in the country. The demonstrations have nothing to do with the toothless parties that will give the monarchy a democratic facade, and nothing with the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood.
While trying to hijack the protest movement, but it is not particularly successful there. "People want social and political rights, not an Islamic solution," says one of the demonstrators. "In the past 15 years, the government has privatized the public sector and modernizing the country, but there were no social and political reforms." Many people were laid off, a small group of association sparkled with the government businessmen became rich.
So here they protest for everything: against corruption, for sharper tenancy, for higher wages, more freedom and more political participation. Even for a constitutional amendment that would curtail the rights of the king. "We want to choose our Prime Minister," they shout. And right after that: "Long live His Majesty King Abdullah II" One can in Jordan currently being against everything, just not against the king.
But they also do not want. The king is seen as a stabilizer in an inter-Bedouin clan, Jordanians and Palestinians divided country. Police attack for fear of riots not stop passers-by to photograph them amazed. Demonstrations, yet unannounced, to something it was not before. Even a couple of policemen standing around them, they look a little insecure beneath her spiked helmets, but they make a bow to the protesters and begin to redirect the traffic.
Only a couple of secret agents prowl and want to know how hot because the demonstrators. "The policemen afraid to intervene before that, they want to provoke riots," says Sneider. The 34-year-old is the leader of the union of day laborers, and he became a hero in Jordan. 30,000 days were laborers are still a few years ago, now there are only about half as many, some have fixed contracts, partly because of protests Sneider, others were dismissed.
For almost five years Sneider fights for the rights of workers, although they are employed by the state, but only with daily contracts. Around 200 € Sneider has earned in the month, with no social and health insurance. He was for the water pumps in Madaba responsible, south of Amman, employed by the Ministry of Agriculture.
He comes from a Bedouin family, a simple man with big, rough hands of workers. But in Madaba, 200 € to life too little. The prices in Jordan have increased rapidly in recent years, the capital of Amman is one of the most expensive in the Middle East. "I now live without fear" It started with a strike on Labor Day in 2006.
Mohammed Sneider went with twelve other before the Agriculture Ministry, they demanded higher pay and fixed contracts. Two months later, he called on the next protest, 68 workers joined them. Sneider wanted to go, but then he asked the then Prime Minister Maaruf al-Bakhit to talk, and he promised to raise wages by about one euro per day.
He also promised fixed contracts. But after a few months, the king fired the prime minister. The new prime minister felt no longer bound to the promise. Sneider went back on the road, he organized strikes in front of Parliament, sit-ins in front of the villa of the prime minister, he spent the night in front of the palace of the king.
He was often detained, sometimes for a night, last for ten days. His job he has now also verln. But he says the protest had been correct. "My life and that of many others has improved. I now live without fear." Meanwhile, he studied agriculture, focusing on environmental protection, and he hosts a weekly radio show on an independent channel, "the voice of the workers" they say.
Sneider is one of those who have launched the new protests in life, encouraged by the revolution in Tunisia and the protests in Egypt. They hope now to change something in their own country. Jordan is not a police state like Egypt and Tunisia as no kleptocracy, but the call for freedom and a better life is also arrived here.
Most journalists censor themselves, in public, many have not dared to criticize the government. Youth unemployment is officially at 14 percent, in truth, it is probably twice as high. A quarter of the population is poor. A teacher earns just 400 €, 150 € a secretary - see the graph: When the protests in Jordan on 7 Began in January, was also Sneider with it.
The first demonstration organized in the Alliance Dscha'een Thiban, a small city with no government institutions. It should be a test to see how the police would react. She did not respond. have been in the week after that they called for protests in six cities, but in Amman were 5,000 people across the country there are 20 000.
"Ordinary people who want a better life," says Sneider. There are peaceful protests, and even take their rubbish with the demonstrators. The police sometimes even share water and juice. But for Jordan, this land of balance and dialogue, that's a lot of trouble. The old Premier replaces the new King Abdullah II, responded.
Frantically, he travels around the country and meet with clan leaders and farmers, and promises to help spread support. On his orders, the government on two emergency packages, subsidies for bread and gasoline, for 425 million dollars. In addition, the salaries of civil servants and soldiers to be increased.
Then, on Tuesday, came the, which says no one would have expected: The King set the government. He has done this before, but never under pressure from his people. It is the first major success of the demonstrators, the dismissal of the government was one of their main demands. The old Premier Samir Rifai was unpopular, he has promoted the privatization campaign and to enrich themselves with you, his friends and his relatives have benefited supposed to be good.
Then the king of the previous prime minister as the new head of government has made. Maaruf Bakhit al-Abdullah was charged with a reform agenda that includes a new electoral law and social reforms. Details he has avoided so as always, this is the strategy of the king. So he can claim success for themselves and failure to deport the Prime Minister.
"I do not know what to make of it," Sneider says he wants to give the new prime minister now a few weeks to propose reforms. "I hope he remembers his old promise." For safety reasons, he says, but she wanted to continue to demonstrate.
"To fire the prime minister was a good decision," says Sneider. "But it is not enough." So far there have been no demonstrations in Irbid, but that should change now. Together with twenty other activists Mohammed Sneider has gone to Irbid, to respond to the Arab spring in the provinces.
They sang on the bus, the International in Arabic, now they chanted: ". Where is our money we want back the money that you've bagged" "Dscha'een" is the loose coalition of teachers, workers, retired soldiers, left, and students, it means we come. Since the beginning of the year in Jordan to demonstrate against the government and its privatization policy.
There are not many people who are demonstrating, sometimes a hundred, at most a few thousand. But it is the first time that the country out of the company formed an opposition, which protested against the conditions in the country. The demonstrations have nothing to do with the toothless parties that will give the monarchy a democratic facade, and nothing with the Islamic Muslim Brotherhood.
While trying to hijack the protest movement, but it is not particularly successful there. "People want social and political rights, not an Islamic solution," says one of the demonstrators. "In the past 15 years, the government has privatized the public sector and modernizing the country, but there were no social and political reforms." Many people were laid off, a small group of association sparkled with the government businessmen became rich.
So here they protest for everything: against corruption, for sharper tenancy, for higher wages, more freedom and more political participation. Even for a constitutional amendment that would curtail the rights of the king. "We want to choose our Prime Minister," they shout. And right after that: "Long live His Majesty King Abdullah II" One can in Jordan currently being against everything, just not against the king.
But they also do not want. The king is seen as a stabilizer in an inter-Bedouin clan, Jordanians and Palestinians divided country. Police attack for fear of riots not stop passers-by to photograph them amazed. Demonstrations, yet unannounced, to something it was not before. Even a couple of policemen standing around them, they look a little insecure beneath her spiked helmets, but they make a bow to the protesters and begin to redirect the traffic.
Only a couple of secret agents prowl and want to know how hot because the demonstrators. "The policemen afraid to intervene before that, they want to provoke riots," says Sneider. The 34-year-old is the leader of the union of day laborers, and he became a hero in Jordan. 30,000 days were laborers are still a few years ago, now there are only about half as many, some have fixed contracts, partly because of protests Sneider, others were dismissed.
For almost five years Sneider fights for the rights of workers, although they are employed by the state, but only with daily contracts. Around 200 € Sneider has earned in the month, with no social and health insurance. He was for the water pumps in Madaba responsible, south of Amman, employed by the Ministry of Agriculture.
He comes from a Bedouin family, a simple man with big, rough hands of workers. But in Madaba, 200 € to life too little. The prices in Jordan have increased rapidly in recent years, the capital of Amman is one of the most expensive in the Middle East. "I now live without fear" It started with a strike on Labor Day in 2006.
Mohammed Sneider went with twelve other before the Agriculture Ministry, they demanded higher pay and fixed contracts. Two months later, he called on the next protest, 68 workers joined them. Sneider wanted to go, but then he asked the then Prime Minister Maaruf al-Bakhit to talk, and he promised to raise wages by about one euro per day.
He also promised fixed contracts. But after a few months, the king fired the prime minister. The new prime minister felt no longer bound to the promise. Sneider went back on the road, he organized strikes in front of Parliament, sit-ins in front of the villa of the prime minister, he spent the night in front of the palace of the king.
He was often detained, sometimes for a night, last for ten days. His job he has now also verln. But he says the protest had been correct. "My life and that of many others has improved. I now live without fear." Meanwhile, he studied agriculture, focusing on environmental protection, and he hosts a weekly radio show on an independent channel, "the voice of the workers" they say.
Sneider is one of those who have launched the new protests in life, encouraged by the revolution in Tunisia and the protests in Egypt. They hope now to change something in their own country. Jordan is not a police state like Egypt and Tunisia as no kleptocracy, but the call for freedom and a better life is also arrived here.
Most journalists censor themselves, in public, many have not dared to criticize the government. Youth unemployment is officially at 14 percent, in truth, it is probably twice as high. A quarter of the population is poor. A teacher earns just 400 €, 150 € a secretary - see the graph: When the protests in Jordan on 7 Began in January, was also Sneider with it.
The first demonstration organized in the Alliance Dscha'een Thiban, a small city with no government institutions. It should be a test to see how the police would react. She did not respond. have been in the week after that they called for protests in six cities, but in Amman were 5,000 people across the country there are 20 000.
"Ordinary people who want a better life," says Sneider. There are peaceful protests, and even take their rubbish with the demonstrators. The police sometimes even share water and juice. But for Jordan, this land of balance and dialogue, that's a lot of trouble. The old Premier replaces the new King Abdullah II, responded.
Frantically, he travels around the country and meet with clan leaders and farmers, and promises to help spread support. On his orders, the government on two emergency packages, subsidies for bread and gasoline, for 425 million dollars. In addition, the salaries of civil servants and soldiers to be increased.
Then, on Tuesday, came the, which says no one would have expected: The King set the government. He has done this before, but never under pressure from his people. It is the first major success of the demonstrators, the dismissal of the government was one of their main demands. The old Premier Samir Rifai was unpopular, he has promoted the privatization campaign and to enrich themselves with you, his friends and his relatives have benefited supposed to be good.
Then the king of the previous prime minister as the new head of government has made. Maaruf Bakhit al-Abdullah was charged with a reform agenda that includes a new electoral law and social reforms. Details he has avoided so as always, this is the strategy of the king. So he can claim success for themselves and failure to deport the Prime Minister.
"I do not know what to make of it," Sneider says he wants to give the new prime minister now a few weeks to propose reforms. "I hope he remembers his old promise." For safety reasons, he says, but she wanted to continue to demonstrate.
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