Berkley Center

“Elijah, but it’s so dangerous! You’ll be in the middle of three war zones and it’s such an unstable region!”

So went any number of conversations I had with many family members and friends in the months leading up to my semester abroad in Amman, Jordan. To be sure, I appreciate that these worries came from sincere concerns for my safety. However, as this semester draws to a close, and as I am still here to tell the tale, I can now offer a personal account to clarify these misunderstandings, which will hopefully be more comforting than my earlier reassurances of “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”

Over the past few months, I have identified four primary reasons for Jordan’s stability: 1) the strategic importance of maintaining its stability for both regional and global actors; 2) Jordanians’ beliefs in the legitimacy of the Hashemite Monarchy; 3) the available avenues for democratic expression; and 4) the existence of a slow, but sure reform process.

It is true that Jordan is situated between relatively volatile states, from the Syrian civil war to its north, the brutal rise of ISIS to its east, and the resurfacing of deadly tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Territories to its west. Yet, all these states have a vested interest in maintaining Jordan’s stability because the country serves both as a regional bridge for trade and a buffer zone. Global actors also seek Jordan’s stability because of its ability to facilitate regional peace negotiations and the significant role its intelligence network has played in assisting the West’s Global War on Terrorism.

To Americans, the very notion of a monarchy is illegitimate. We got rid of that in 1776, right? But to Jordanians, the roots of the Hashemite Family as descendants of the Prophet Mohammed offer a religious justification for its leadership. So when calls for reform emerge, few question the fundamental legitimacy of the monarchic system.

While the royal family is the sole exception, Jordanians are free to express their thoughts on any and all other aspects of the country—a necessary component of a stable political system.

Finally, no system boasting stability is truly complete without some avenue for self-improvement and reform. While indeed slow, such a process exists in Jordan and has been utilized on such occasions as the Arab Spring to address citizens’ concerns.

It was not just Jordan’s stability though that concerned my skeptics back home. Some believed I would find Arab culture itself difficult.

Indeed, my American mind has found Jordanian culture’s different organizational standards, seemingly-nonsensical conception of “on time,” and inconsistent scheduling to be frustrating at times. Is the library, which I called to confirm would be open and cabbed across town to get to, really suddenly closed for “cleaning” at 1:00 p.m. on a Tuesday?

And yet, I have come to appreciate that there is a certain beauty tucked beneath this frustration; an idea embodied well in the functioning of Amman’s public bus system.

I decided to try taking public buses a couple months ago both as a way to save money, but mostly for the adventure. And adventure it has been. Getting on the bus itself requires flagging down the driver who slows, but doesn’t stop the bus, running alongside the moving vehicle, and jumping aboard just before the driver accelerates again. Assuming you make it on, then comes the payment.

The first time I successfully made it onto a bus I did not have change to pay the 35 qirsh (about 50 cents) fare, so I handed the money collector a one-dinar bill (about $1.50) expecting change in return. He nodded, took the bill, and then kept on walking to the back of the bus. I assumed I had just been ripped off, but I was not about to make a fuss over 65 qirsh. To my surprise, though, the man came back a couple minutes later and handed me the change. It turns out the way the payment system works is that all the money is collected first and only then is change distributed. Passengers and the money collector are expected to trust one other to remember how much change is honestly owed.

There is no app saying when the next bus will arrive, no safety standards for boarding, and no guarantee to ensure proper change will be given, but somehow Amman’s public bus system works—and somehow so does the overall system.

To skeptics back home, come visit and see for yourselves. As I said before, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”