Photos from the Wadi Rum Desert Marathon
Wadi Rum Marathon
Images by Bedouin Heritage Project
The Wadi Rum Marathon is an endurance horse race through the desert’s surrounding the Wadi Rum Protected Zone. The event was reborn thanks to the contribution of Sheik Al-Maktoum of the Emirates and has been essential in recreating the horse culture of local bedouin. This year’s race was a qualifying event for international competition and covered 80km in total over three heats.
While Al-Maktoum was not in attendance this year, dignataries from Jordan and around the world were present to cheer on the riders and horses, alike. Governed by an international community of animal rights specialists, controls are made at regular interviews ensuring the horses are coping well with the often difficult conditions. Any horse not found to be in perfect health is disqualified imediately and checks were conducted between every heat.
Commencing at 6am and finishing by noon, the race is a perfect excuse for admiring the changing light and temperature of the late fall desert.
Breeding camels: a lesson on traditions, economics and love
A bedouin herding his camels.
Sabbah is breeding camels, in addition to his activity as a tourist guide.
He first tried to keep camels in the village, close to his house, but that didn’t allow him to set up a real herd. So he had to keep them in a fence, on the outskirts of the village, down Jebel Rum. There, the herd could grow and the camels could go out in the desert every day, coming back to their fence every night.
I was heading with him to the camel fence on a November afternoon. They were out in the desert and Sabbah had to bring them back for the night. Driving the jeep, he started to tell me why he was breeding camels. Read more
Cultural Diversity and Global Sustainability
UNESCO and the world’s foundations have come to understand that current measures provide short term fixes, generally, and a more long term approach to solving the world’s various problems is required.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; Teach a man to fish and he will feed his whole village!”
Cross-cultural understanding – French
Dans les villes et les quartiers européens, la diversité humaine se traduit parfois par des tensions génératrices de violence au lieu d’une cohabitation harmonieuse.
Polémiques sur le port du voile, craintes liées au terrorisme et à l’extrémisme religieux font quasi quotidiennement partie du discours médiatique, alimentant un fossé entre les communautés. Ce phénomène nourrit sans doute une approche très approximative de la connaissance de « l’autre », de part et d’autre.
Bedouin Fire: music from the desert
BHP has released a first track, “Dancing Around the Fire”, from the upcoming Ep of recordings made live in the desert around the evening campfire. Salim Ali Lafi Zelabieh leads the melody on the Aoud while his family and friends dance and sing to the rythms of the drum.
open source video, online video platform, video solutionThe music is authentic in it’s style and ambience with comments, jokes and laughing intertwined with poetry set to traditional melodies. The music has been set to photos from the desert, with sunset leading into a night by the fire…singing, dancing and laughing.
The Jordanian Royal family 1952-present
“The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with representative government. The reigning monarch is the head of state, the chief executive and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The King exercised his executive authority through the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers (Cabinet).” (Jordanian Government Website 2009)
By the time of his death in February 1999, King Hussein (who became king in 1952)was well on his way to becoming one of the great peacemakers in history. From his frantic efforts at diplomacy to avert the 1991 Gulf War to his peace agreement with Israel in 1994, the articulate king came to be seen as a beacon of moderateness and stability in a region known for its volatility. He had three other siblings being Prince Muhammad, Prince Hassan, and Princess Basma. Hussein went on to marry four times, sired eleven children and adopted one daughter. Read more
The Sedentarization of the Bedouin People
At the beginning of the 1970s a modernisation and urbanization process was exercised on the Bedouin which profoundly influenced their way of life and hence was detrimental to their traditions. This process involved housing the Bedouin in purpose built urban centres based on western planning models.
In reality, it is since the 50’s that some sort of modernising process has been inflicted upon the Bedouin people of Jordan involving detribalisation and sedentarization, through state sponsored agricultural projects and education.
Rum Village itself is an example of this production of cheap housing, mirroring the typical Jordanian suburb built during the 1970s, which was constructed around the Desert Patrol fort, the school and the rest house. Read more
Is there a choice for Wadi Rum’s Unesco bid?
Photo: Paola Biondi
Over the past few weeks, much has been said about the latest bid by archaeologists, government officials and tourism experts to have Wadi Rum admitted to a prestigious group of natural heritage sites named UNESCO. There can be little question that the protected zone’s unique landscapes, natural rock formations, flora and fauna justify warrant inclusion on the list.
That it remains in question whether the bid should be a single site application or mixed site, including cultural and environmental importance, is surprising. Read more
The smell of home.
Experienced real estate agents know that every culture has its own odor that reminds us of home. In America, home sellers are told to stew apples before potential buyers arrive; in Italy, braising onions has the same effect. These are the scents that take us back to our childhood and help create our sense of comfort, safety and belonging. They are some of the most basic aspects of cultural identity.
In trying to understand any ethnicity, our olfactory senses have great importance…and yet they are invariably ignored by the tools used to represent culture: photos, video, recording, text and art. As foreign entrants, how can we identify and capture this most essential genome in the cultural DNA?
Welcome to Jordan, please close your eyes! Read more
Jordan: The Essentials
- Jordan is bordered by the middle Eastern Countries of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia and is made up of 3 regions; the Jordan Valley, the East Bank Plateau and the desert, which contributes to 80% of this makeup. Its population amounts to 6,198,677 (July 2008 est.). Arabic is spoken and most speak English, the latter, to some, is considered to be a second language. And with regard to religion, Islam is the most predominant.
- The country is ruled by His Majesty King Abdullah II. He successfully continues his father’s, Hussein, peacemaking through diplomacy. The country’s constitution formed in 1951 is that of parliamentary government with a limited monarchy. The large Palestinian representation in government and in population has had Jordan on the fringes of civil war many times.
- The majority of Jordan’s population is of Bedouin origin. Some are nomads but most have settled and combine the two lifestyles to some degree. However, although government infrastructures and services are present and available to the Bedouin, some are happy to rely on the traditions that have served them well enough in the past. Read more
