My colleague Laurie Brand sent me this regarding my post about the strike at the paper (I cite with her permission): "The employees at al_Rai and the Jordan Times are in no way protesting royal involvement. To the contrary, I read a quote this morning saying that they wanted to get back to work to loyally serve the Hashemites, or some such nonsense. This is about forces inside the regime trying to bring down the current prime minister, Abdallah Nsour. It is quite new as a means of mukhabarat and other dinosaurs putting pressure on a sitting prime minister, but that is what it is about. They still all love H.M. Abdallah...You may have seen this morning that the strike is over and that the employees got everything they wanted apparently. . I found the quote I wanted, it is from an article from Monday's JT: 'On Sunday, the statement by JPF employees said the sit-in was intended to “reform Al Rai by restoring its historic role in serving Jordanians and the Hashemite Throne and not the government of Abdullah Ensour”.'
Feel free to use the links above, as well as the priceless quote. If you want something to go along with it, you could use this:
It seems clear that there was a confluence of interests among some in using these protests for better working and editorial conditions as part of what has been an ongoing attempt to try to oust the current PM Abdallah Nsour. But the quote is just another example of the way "politics" works in the kingdom: regardless of who he is, the PM always takes the fall when people or marakiz qiwa are unhappy with policies. As if the PM has any significant power separable from the throne... "
Feel free to use the links above, as well as the priceless quote. If you want something to go along with it, you could use this:
It seems clear that there was a confluence of interests among some in using these protests for better working and editorial conditions as part of what has been an ongoing attempt to try to oust the current PM Abdallah Nsour. But the quote is just another example of the way "politics" works in the kingdom: regardless of who he is, the PM always takes the fall when people or marakiz qiwa are unhappy with policies. As if the PM has any significant power separable from the throne... "
