Riots and Rockets

So, as I'm sure everyone has heard, things are heating up here in Jordan, and next door in Israel-Palestine. I just want to say that I'm alright, we all are. We are currently under "house arrest", meaning we can't go anywhere outside our neighborhood (meaning we can be in our apartments and the other people's apartments, and the places in between), and we can't go anywhere alone. We get alerts from the Embassy about protests and whatnot, and its gotten to the point where we don't really need them except to know the details of whatever has been planned, we know what they'll advise us to do without reading the email....it is kind of funny, but also kind of sad.

We haven't seen any riots/protests where we are, but, most of them are happening downtown, which is the opposite direction of where we are. But, Amman is a big city, and the protests have become more random, and are liable to start anywhere there can be a large amount of people. Things have been different this time around, since normally, Jordanian protests are always peaceful, and don't go on for long periods of time. That isn't the case this time. There have been deaths and injuries this time, it was inevitable that they would escalate to this. The protests are throughout the whole country, in almost all of the capitals of  the provinces. One night, things got to the point where they were burning pictures of the King, and calling for his removal. That NEVER happens. These protests have been going on since last week. 

So, what exactly is everyone getting worked up about? The government has been subsidizing basic services (such as gas) for a long time, and that's why things have been cheap over here. However, the country is going bankrupt, there isn't any money, so they can't continue to subsidize gas. The people don't seem to realize that they had been subsidizing gas at all, and just think it's a major tax increase. Well, the price of gas (which they need for their homes) has skyrocketed, over night. My roommates and I had to buy a new thing of gas for our stove. The first time we bought one, a month or two ago, it was about 6-7JD, well, we just bought a second one (of course we didn't realize the gas prices were going up, and the weather was bad so no one was out selling gas) either the day the prices rose or the day after, and it was 11 or 12 JD. In most places, the price increase was by 54-ish%. Yeah, it kind of hurt. And we're just college kids. We aren't the already poor families, who are struggling. What doesn't help matters is that winter started last week. No, seriously, it started, as in people could say the exact day summer weather would be gone. It actually rained for about two days straight, and the temperatures have dropped significantly, and without the benefit of insulated buildings, we feel the cold outside and inside. So, this price hike happens the week winter starts, so everyone seriously needs the gas. 

The government tried to raise the prices back in September, but the people began protesting and threw a fit so the government backed off. Unfortunately, they now are so desperate that they really can't afford to give in to the people's demands. If anything, they should've done a more gradual price increase over the course of several months. Now, I'm not siding with the protestors. They really need to grow up and quit acting like toddlers throwing a tantrum. They don't take the time to find out why the government is doing what it is, they just know that they don't like it, so they go make a ton of noise and trouble until the government gives in. They don't think, they just act like children, and get upset if people don't pay attention to them. They don't act like rational people, they're very impulsive. What doesn't help is that there was already political unrest. Everyone knows there is corruption in the government, and they want to get rid of the corrupt people, but they don't have to power to get them out, so they want the election law changed, and the King can't completely do that, otherwise the corrupt people (who are the most powerful ones, but a minority) will replace the King with someone they want. So, the Muslim Brotherhood, who has been gradually gaining control of other Middle Eastern countries, are trying to worm their way into the government, so they can get rid of the King, and take over. Which would be a really bad thing for the rest of the world. So, it's a difficult situation any way you look at it.

On top of this, Israel and Hamas are at it again. They don't get along on a good day, but they haven't had any major confrontations in awhile. Hamas controls Gaza, and they fired missiles at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, none of them have hit the target cities, but they have gotten close. This is the first time that anyone has had missiles with a long enough range to have a chance of hitting Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. The missiles fired at Jerusalem were way off, and instead hit around Bethlehem. Several of the missiles fired at Tel Aviv have gone into the Mediterranean Sea. Anyway, in response, Israel has been hitting Gaza with missiles as well. Thus far there have been fatalities of 27 Palestinians and 3 Israelis (at least the last time I looked that's what the count was). Hamas has fired over 500 rockets at Israel and Israel has fired over 200. Israel has also mobilized more than 30,000 reserve troops (at least that's what a couple articles said). 

One of the problems? In Israel's Constitution, there is a clause that says whenever Israel is attacked, they will attack the aggressors with equal or greater force (generally greater). There also is a clause that makes it so the Constitution cannot be changed. So, they really aren't going to back down. I'm not completely sure what triggered this attack, but I do know that it comes at a very inconvenient time. We're supposed to go to Israel in 3 weeks. Well, the BYU administration hasn't nixed the trip, so unless something major happens (er, more major), we will still get to go, but we will be limited in where we can go and what we can do.  

Dil put a couple things on our Facebook page to reassure us, and to let us know what BYU security has said:

BYU Security has written me to ask me to remind you to FREQUENTLY email your parents and other loved ones assuring them you are OK despite what they are reading in the press. The rockets that fell near Bethlehem yesterday are just a hop, skip and a jump away from Amman, so they are rightfully worried that #1 we are in range and #2 those firing the missiles seem to be super incompetent when it comes to targeting.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865566952/BYU-Jerusalem-Center-students-safe-as-bombs-fall.html?pg=2

So, I'm doing alright, I'm alive, starting to become bored out of my mind, but that's better than being majorly (or even minorly) injured, right?