Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Book review: Our Last Best Chance

As I have probably mentioned before, my husband is originally a Jordanian citizen.  (of course, it's more complicated than that, but I'll go into that if I ever talk about national identity)  We try to get to Jordan about every other year to visit family and I love to explore the country.  Jordan is a wonderful country to visit- and a rather new one (in the modern sense), which people sometimes forget.  It's capital, Amman, just celebrated it's 100th birthday last year- yay!! (for more information about Jordan, check our their tourism page and my page here)

King Abdullah II is the King of Jordan and the head of the Hashemites- the family who rules over Jordan.  Remember Lawrence of Arabia?  That's ALL about the Hashemites!  And, if you remember the story, they are from Arabia, the Mecca region (called the Hejaz).  Which, bring us more or less back to how Jordan is a rather new country... (and how national identity is very interesting)

So, King Abdullah II has written an autobiography of his first 10 years as King of Jordan.  His father, King Hussein, wrote a similar book after he was king for 10 years (Uneasy Lies the Head), which was the inspiration for this book.  (I'm reading that now)  King Abdullah's book, Our Last Best Chance, is like two books - an autobiography and the King's thoughts on foreign policy in the region (specifically the Palestinians).

Now, I'm all for learning about both of those topics, but in one book, it didn't mesh well.  I loved the first part of the book- it was interesting, entertaining and made you really feel close to the King as both a leader and individual.  It was interesting to hear him talk about his family's history from a personal point of view and also to share stories of many difficult times he had as the son of the King, a boarding student and military training.  I felt like we got this inside view in how things worked and the personal impact of policies and this governmental structure. So, love, love, LOVE this first part.

Then, he became King and almost straight away the style of writing changed to a more formal and political format.  Granted, I understand this.  He is in power- he can't really piss off everyone that he works with on a daily basis.  But, it was too bad because so much of the pleasure of reading the book was lost due to the new, formal format.

So, in the second part of the book, things are more formal.  THEN, he starts talking about issues... but they are not really about Jordan!  I mean, they are about Jordan, but they are also about Palestine and Israel and Iraq and Syria, etc, etc, etc.  He starts with those things closer to Jordan- security over the Iraq war and following mess; security over the drug trade; security over the attacks on the hotels (THAT was shocking, I must tell you.  We open the Washington Post and my husband's friend and family are on the front page...).  He talks about the economy and what he has done.  But, the closer we get to the second part of the 2000s, the more the focus changes.

Certainly you see how the region is so interconnected- particularly a country like Jordan with rather limited resources and a dependency on others for things like water- and you see how much an issue Palestine is to the Hashemites- as direct decedents of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh)- and to protect the Holy Sites, but these are not issues so specific to Jordan that they deserve the last third of this book!  I wish most of this part was edited down to perhaps 2 chapters- at the MOST.  They are very important- just not to this book.  If he wants to talk about this more, I think it could be it's own book and certainly an interesting one given his family's life long involvement and defense of the Holy Sites and help with the refugees.

I would have LOVED to see King Abdullah talk about:

  • Water control/access in Jordan (and certainly that's an issue for the whole region and one that the U.S. in even involved in)
  • Tariffs on imported items (gas comes to mind right now, but other items like cars) (Granted- at the start of the King part he did talk about the economy a good amount, but then it seemed to lose out on focus to the other items.  But, he did a pretty good job of showing what he has done in regards to trade agreements and such)
  • Having such a large part of the citizens working abroad (Gulf and other places) (Ok, I just tried to find a stat and couldn't so maybe I just know so many like this...)
  • Having the population so diverse (Palestinians, Jordanians, Bedouins (Jordanians), Chechens, Iraqis, Armenians, Expats from Europe/US)  (again, he sort of address this, but not enough in the way I see it...)
  • Education and education reform 
  • Infrastructure (water, gas, heat-in schools, etc)
  • Technology (I see so many ads about this and how they are trying to bring it to Jordan- what is the long term goal?)
  • ANY comments on Parliament and the PMs!  There was almost NOTHING on this which is either a very telling comment on how the King views Parliament or is THAT much of a can of worms to discuss.  It NEEDS to be discussed
I highly recommend everyone to read Our Last Best Chance- it gives great insight into the King and I think helps you feel connected to him.  Just be aware of that second part of the book and take this as an opportunity to read up more about the things he discusses and those he DOESN'T discuss!  



(King Abdullah- let me work for you... Your people love you and just want to make Jordan a better country for everyone! :))


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