Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Rumors or trial balloons?

The highly credible government spokesman, Nasser Joudeh, has categorically denied that the government is planning on selling the King Hussein medical center and the surrounding lands, including the new army headquarters. He said that these are simply untrue rumors, and called on people to ignore them. He also said that if the government planned on doing so, they will be transparent about it and let us know before hand. I think this would be a nice gesture, don’t you? I mean, if I had known about the Aqaba deal before hand, I might have sold my donkey and bought a couple of shares. I would appreciate a heads’ up next time, thank you very much.

So, who are the lying rumor mongers who started all of these untrue rumors?

Well, we can ask Rana Sabbagh and Jamil Nimri. Both of them reported on the issue, simultaneously, based on unnamed government sources. Nimri went slightly further and directly quoted the prime minister defending the sale of the KHMC.

So, Sabbagh and Nimri both woke up one morning, and by some cosmic fluke decided to fabricate statements by unnamed government officials that they want to sell the KHMC. So did an unnamed AFP reporter. What a strange coincidence.

But I agree with Joudeh. We shouldn’t believe those lying rumor mongers. We should trust our virtuous government. Joudeh said that too. He said that it was not allowed to question the government’s efforts to help the people. Who would dare do such a thing, any way?

Anyway, why would the government lying rumor mongers start such vicious untrue rumors? As far as I can tell, there may be two reasons. The first is to see how people might react to such a proposal. The second is to get people used to the idea. So they will let the issue simmer for a while, and soon enough people will accept the idea. A tried and true formula.

We will find out soon enough. In the mean time, we might try to figure out where the hell is Madouneh.

6 Comments:

At 8:47 PM, Blogger Mohanned said...

هو ظل فيها بلالين! أخر واحد فقع أيام الكباريتي..

 
At 12:29 AM, Blogger Tallouza said...

In George Orwell's 1984 he talks of DoubleThink which is defined as "the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them . . . . To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed..." In other words and in the context of this post, Judeh's briefings serve at nothing except to insult people's intelligence by expecting them to hide the sun with his finger [no pun intended.....or maybe a little :-)].

 
At 2:00 AM, Blogger Habchawi said...

Since this is going to happen regardless of what people think and nobody seems to know where the hell Madouneh is.
I have a suggestion, let’s move the KHMC to Karak or Ma’an, and move the army HQ to Mafraq. I bet this will be more beneficial than the billions the deal will bring.

 
At 9:36 AM, Blogger Khalaf said...

Mohanned: I think you are wrong there. All unpopular government decisions are preceded by a preparation period of constructive ambiguity. As I said, it is a tried and true formula.

Tallouza: I think Orwell is probably spinning in his grave.

Habchawi: If the KHMC is moved to a real city, somebody not in a position of influence and power might benefit. They can't let that happen.

 
At 10:48 PM, Blogger Mohanned said...

What I meant by that, it was long time ago since the government cared about the public opinion. But the strategy is still used as a way to prepare the public, not as a way to test the waters.

 
At 6:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Both Jamil Nimri and Rana Sabbagh were invited by the Prime Minister for a private dinner along with Fahd Khitan and Sameeh Ma'aytah. The meeting happened 10 days ago and Jamil Nimri was the first the quote the PM directly in his article about the land selling. Both Khitan and Ma'aytah kept silent which is strange taking into consideration their "ultra-nationalist" reputation while noth Nimri and Sabbagh are accused to be "liberal".

 

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