the environmental movement:

in southern jordan, most of the small towns are self sufficient in terms of electricity, most have their own system of wind mills. i think this is because in the end, for them, it is less expensive. it is interesting the contrast, because while we would tout this as amazingly green and efficient (and i am not saying it isn't) for them it is just economical.

to be fair, jordan does have a lot of wind. perhaps more wind than the average american city. perhaps more than the windy city itself? i have to admit i have never been there.

in the middle 0f the eastern deserts, there is a funny little sign along a one lane highway that points off to the right and says the "green research institute of jordan." irony #1, it is in the middle of the freaking desert. irony # 2, a tiny little road leads to a tiny little white building surrounded by a barbed wire fence. i do wonder what they do there.

on the highway that goes east from amman towards saudi and iraq, about half an hour out of the city, in the desert, there is a huge compound with sand colored walls and camoflauge tanks sitting outside of it. apparently it is a camp where american soldiers train iraqi police forces, and apparently it is not supposed to exist. you know, officially. i think this is why the walls are desert colored.

it is 40 degrees celsius here every day without wind and i do not know what that is in celsius but it is very hot. usually when i tell jordanians about the site we are digging and that it is sort of just a mound of stone tools in the middle of the eastern deserts, they scoff a bit and say, oh, well, thats not really archaeology.

i am spending the summer in jordan, about 56 km from the iraqi border and 82 km from the saudi border. i am digging an epipaleolithic site and doing some lithic analysis, and reading the one jordanian newspaper that is published in english. the question i most often get asked by jordanians (orjust non americans) is "hilary or obama." the town i am staying in was once an oasis (by once i mean twenty years ago) but now most of the groundwater has been pumped out to amman, jordan's capital city, which is right now building its first two skyscrapers, incidentally they are two matching towers. i would think that it would be a complete disconnect from the world out here in the desert, but as it turns out, most people have satellite tvs.