By Abdulillah

I am sorry but the constant whining in Jordan has got to stop. Its seems that you cannot pick up a paper or watch a TV channel now a-days and not find someone whining about this or that. These range from almost anything under the sun and in full disclosure I am one who has participated in this as well. I too have written articles pointing out the many faults of our beloved country and some of the policies and people whom I deem at fault This is not a strange behavior because we as a people have seen the fruits of others come to reality in the ability to voice our opinions openly, albeit with a bit of looking behind our shoulder. Now this is a far cry from some years back, when even posting an opinion piece would put you on the radar of those who deemed you a trouble maker and muck raker. Where you were told that in a firm stinging manner by those who hold power that you are too smart for your own good.

But strangely today, because we can post what we feel is right and speak openly about what ails our country that is all we do. Few of us whiners get up every day and act upon our whining complaints to correct what we can. Truth be told we want others to do it for us. We only want to act as educators for the ignorant who do not see what we believe they ought to, We tell them what we see is our countries faults and whom we feel is the person or policy that we deem so abhorrent to our logical senses. We want to be their guiding light through the maze of darkness that they are fumbling through. Worse off we bring people and ideas from overseas because somehow someway they must be smarter than we are and know how to fix our country better than we can.

We whiners do even worse than that; we tell those of us whom actually try and put their necks on the line, how they did it wrong, and how had they consulted us first, we could have led them to the correct methods. We relish in the fact that we can in hindsight break down each faulty step that they took and how they really should have done this or that. When they get angry with us and argue as to where were we when all this was going down, we tell them that had it not been for our wisdom they would still be in the dark ages, and then shoo them away as inferior to our lofty positions in arrogance.

I wonder at times who is really sacrificing and who is really just sitting waiting for things to happen. When all the battles are fought and all the sweat, blood and tears haven been split, we whiners are the first to jump up demanding our places of honor when we lifted not one finger or broke one bead of sweat for anything, because of course had it not been for our guiding hand none of this good fortune would have befallen us.

I am not saying we intellectuals and teachers do not have a role to play in our society, we have a role. We just need to stop the whining about things when they go wrong. Lets be more of a participant, then an “I told you so” person. If all we feel we can do is be teachers and guides, then let’s try to remember how a teacher acts. A teacher is someone who guides, knowing that they may not get each point across to each student, not because it is all the fault of the student but because they failed to communicate it in such a way that each one of them could understand.

That each teacher secretly prays that every-one of their students passes and becomes better than themselves, and that each student betters our society from their success. They know that whining about one or two student’s lack of effort does not help the rest, but as a whole they collectively can make it better.

So stop the whining please, teach and guide if you must, but please refrain from throwing it back into those people’s faces that try, but do not succeed the first time around. Look towards their efforts and hopefully some of their gains as just that, for all you did was pontificate your ideas and thoughts. Maybe one day, you will have the guts to stand up and be one of those that are counted and participated instead of an “I told you so”. God Bless Jordan and its People”