Ammon News - Randa Habib’s Corner

Have you noticed how angry we have become? It is amazing how people in the country changed in the past few years.

I remember when I used to proudly tell my friends abroad about the good manners and politeness of Jordanians, in all situations.

I used to go on and on about how Jordanian motorists would give you right of way when you drive, even if you are not on a priority lane, about cars that would stop to let an old woman cross the street or about the fact that people never use bad words.

Yes, I was proud of that and bragged about how Jordanians displayed good manners.

But today I can’t help noticing how things changed.

A driver giving right of way? In dreams! In fact one would be lucky to reach his destination without having palpitations, frustration, anger or even a fight because of all the violations on the road, which cost many people their lives every year.

As for the politeness, I am sure many people still have it, but unfortunately many others have bad manners and use bad language, which is alien to our tradition. They are the result of severe anger and frustration, bottled up for different reasons.

It’s true that we are passing through economic and political hardships. The region is in permanent turmoil and people are frustrated with the lack of progress on the peace front. But this should not make us forget what made this country so special.

Being angry at each others, losing our temper, using bad language, ignoring all the principles that we were taught by our elderly cannot be a solution.

Let's try to behave the way we used to in order to become again the polite, well mannered and organised people we used to be.