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tip What are the signs of a police state? Can a citizen see and feel these signs? What does one do change the reality in a police state?
 
 

Posted by alma on 19.06.2008
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Clarification:
Posted on 25.09.2008
 
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Comments tagged with "Police State"
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Posted by Nadine on 03.11.2008
 

Nope Alma, you are in fact not alone.  My monkey blog has been in cyber ICU for about 4 days now, waiting for the Google/GoDaddy resuscitation team to arrive. Their promise of 3 days expired, and no sign of a life line yet.  I fear they are looking for me using Arab street directions... which sux, coz that means they won't find me.  Imagine Google asking 'fein beit il ird il3arabi?' We're not very animal friendly, and not into monkeys it seems. 

Sorry abt the bad links and errors!  

Waiting.....

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Posted by alma on 03.11.2008
 

Am i the only one who gets "server error" when trying to go to the links in Nadine's post?

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Posted by Nadine on 22.09.2008
 

This seemed like a sign of a police state.

So does this

Resulting in this.

Plant a tree.

 

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Posted by alma on 05.08.2008
 

vituperate vy-TOO-puh-rate, -TYOO-, vi-, verb:

To find fault with; to scold; to overwhelm with wordy abuse; to censure severely or abusively; to rate. From dictionary.com

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Posted by alma on 31.07.2008
 

i think that citizens are able to tell when they are living in a police state; when the legal system is not clear and cases get murky without any obvious reason, when the police hit young men in the street for simply not carrying their identification cards, when there are wide red lines that they are not allowed to cross, when there is no freedom of assembly, no freedom of press, when at the border they are stopped to be searched for the books they are carrying, when they watch their backs, and keep their heads down- all these are examples of a police state.

There is no need for the police or military to be occupying the street for people to know they live in a police state. The police are hardly ever present in the street to instill a sense of safety; they are there to stress the presence of a government, a big brother that is watching you.

What do we do to state that we know where we live, that we do not like it, and that will change it?

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Posted by Salma on 01.07.2008
 

I just read the latest Human Rights Watch letter to the Jordanian government urging them to "withdraw the current draft laws on charitable societies (NGO Law) and public gatherings (Assembly Law) from consideration of the House of Deputies and the House of Senators respectively because they are in clear violation of international human rights standards." to read more go to:

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/30/jordan19225.htm

 

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Posted by SXTZ on 01.07.2008
 

Okay not defend the state here but to answer the question of the military presence at the circles and at strategic points, so here we go.

The presence of armed forces is to lull us into a sense of security (they usually appear when some foreign dignitary arrives in Amman) and to appear a safe country to those observing from outside.

Lest we forget we had som explosions and that made the state clamp down even more on civil liberties. And the security needed to enforce the regimes plans are in some twisted way also an employment strategy, so it does have a bit of good with it, not much though but a bit.

Also the idea of independent and idividual thought is frowned upon we must all think alike and be alike... One word for that... Zombies! :-)

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Posted by alma on 01.07.2008
 

Fat chance for that!

Jerash Festival has become Jordan Festival in case you forgot you are in Jordan. All sporting arenas and parks are named after the kings and queens in case you forget where you are. Their pictures are everywhere in case you forget where you are.

You are in Jordan, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Dare you forget!

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Posted by Ghassan on 01.07.2008
 

to keep reminding you where you are in case it happened and you forgot :)

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Posted by alma on 01.07.2008
 

This is why i think that those of us who can say or do something, even if minimally, should do it. Not to endanger one's self, but to act.

Last year the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan published a survey saying that 78% of Jordanians thought/felt that the space for freedoms has shrunk from the year before. So, we know that the majority are feeling similarly to what we are feeling. We do not even know what is the roof of freedoms, or lack there of, in Jordan. Maybe we should start finding that out.

Also, i must admit that seeing those tankers in the streets and jeeps with machine guns and heavily armed army personnel does not sit well with me. Why do they do that?

 

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Posted by Ghassan on 01.07.2008
 

100% agree with you alma.. being a west amman women can give you some privileges, if it was a middle age man from zarqa or east amman..the scenario would be totally different..

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Posted by alma on 30.06.2008
 

Razano; i understand your point on not giving them information as easily as they'd like to have it, but, that does not mean they will not continue to stop you, eventually, you too will get too tired of being chased, stopped, interrogated, and harassed.

Most people, especially men, would be stopped and beaten for the smallest of issues; i.e. not carried their national identification cards, which we have to carry even if we are walking to the store to by chocolate.

i feel privileged that i can argue with the police, tell them i disapprove, i am a woman and from Jordan. Even when heavily harassed and threatened to be taken to jail, at the end of it all, i am not taken to jail, not yet at least. But what about the rest of the population, those who mostly say yes sir, of course sidie, etc.?

These are difficult times and we are wedged between religious fundamentalism, conservatism, and the government with its police backing it up.

i think any small action is a form of resistance; if we write something, say something, argue slightly, do not stop for random searches, and increase our own awareness of the realities around us. All these are forms of change.

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Posted by razano on 29.06.2008
 

I think the signs of a living in a police state, can be as easy to notice as those big hummers that carry machine guns in the middle of a round about, or along streets. Other signs are police cars a random locations that almost stop anyone just because they feel like it without probable cause. Police or others seeing a group of people gathering at a public space and dismantling them.

What can I do? Not give information to them easily, ask them questions back tell them that i know my rights.

Like this one time, during the early days of the war on Iraq in 2003, i stuck a paper at the back window of my car saying something about not liking the war, i forgot the exact words. Then this police car follows me from the 4 circle into the 5th and stops me. I go out of my car to talk to the policeman who tells me how I need to remove the sticker because "it provokes people" and I kept telling him to site the law that prohibits me from sticking out this sticker, he couldn't and so on. I went back to my car and drove off after he got tired of me. I think this policeman will always remember me!

 

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Posted by sheikh on 28.06.2008
 

Brilliant! Shalabieh

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Posted by Shalabieh on 28.06.2008
 

I guess the best non literal translation then would be face your fears dont you think Sheikh?

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Posted by sheikh on 28.06.2008
 

Sorry Kurt if my translation was not that good. All what it says is that don't be crippled by your fear, and don't fear it too much. Say that you have a fear from an exam, then you shouldn't be crippled by this fear. Just go and do the exam. I hope this clarifies the saying a bit better.

Neeless to say, I was commenting on the fear theory you were citing and I am not recommending any action when the state is police. :)

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Posted by kurt on 28.06.2008
 

Thank you for the translation. Would you please, explain what it means to "immerse" one's self in the fear? How does one immerse himself in the fear he has of a police state?

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Posted by sheikh on 22.06.2008
 

Now, you can read Arabic-based posts correctly. As for the post it self, all it says is: "If you fear something, immerse yourself in it".

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Posted by kurt on 21.06.2008
 

Hello. Would you please write that in English in addition to Arabic, I cannot read it well? Thank you.

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Posted by sheikh on 20.06.2008
 

Kurt, this reminds me of Ali bin Abu Taleb saying: "إذا خفت أمرا فقع فيه".

 

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Posted by kurt on 20.06.2008
 

In psychology there is a theory about fear that says "feel the fear and do it anyway."

I also think that living with the devil in fear of the unknown is not a way to live at all. We live only once, we should be free.

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Posted by Shalabieh on 20.06.2008
 

teh biggest sign of a police state is the fear real or otherwise instilled in people by the state. We are fearful of what we say, how we say it, what we do, where we say and do these things... FEAR!

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Posted by Ghassan on 20.06.2008
 

you're most welcome :)

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Posted by alma on 20.06.2008
 

Thank you for proving my point.

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Posted by Ghassan on 20.06.2008
 

Really.. well then, do expect bunch of men in a black van knocking on your doors at midnight! and they’ll take you into a place full with other smarty-pants..

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Posted by alma on 20.06.2008
 

 

Last night, i was coming home from dancing and the police stopped me. i asked if i had violated any traffic laws and they said no. i then asked why are they stopping me and the police officer said they were searching. i asked what they are searching for, he did not reply. i told him that this is harassment; government abuse of its citizens.

This to me is an example of a police state. When you do not know why you are stopped; searching for no reason. People drive like mad here, yet the police give tickets mainly for parking (easy money into the government's pocket). We do not have free media, we are afraid to say what we think openly, choosing an evil which we know rather than working for change in case that alternative is even worse, and seeking assistance from organization outside that will not understand what sort of change we need and bring us something insane like in Iraq.

Change takes time, generations worth of time. But the change is necessary and it is coming. Not in my life time, but in someone else’s life time.

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Posted by SXTZ on 19.06.2008
 

:-) Thanks for the correction :-) You shall henceforth be dubbed professor smarty-pants! :-)

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Posted by Ghassan on 19.06.2008
 

ok.. then use e.g. not i.e. the next time.. it makes all the difference

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Posted by SXTZ on 19.06.2008
 

No its not it was an example of a police state that is very overt, and you damn well know what I mean.

But we can also make a check list of things that make a police state and find similarities, but I sure as hell won't post it here. :-)

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Posted by Ghassan on 19.06.2008
 

so it's only in syria where you can't criticize the ruler.. interesting!

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Posted by SXTZ on 19.06.2008
 

Yes a citizen can see and feel it (i.e. Syria)

But sure signs are: When the government controls nearly all media by intimidation. When critique of the government is prohibited. When you are expected to believe propaganda blindly. When it can imprison journalists with impunity. When the priveledged can get away with Wasta! :-) And the list goes on and on.

How to change it. Not a good idea to even try better the devil you know than the one you don't. BUt if necessary, then external pressure by groups and organisations fromoutside (Human rights groups, U.N. WTF, or IMF) small baby steps needed because if you try and effect a quick change the whole situation can explode in your face!

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Posted by Ghassan on 19.06.2008
 

first sign obviously.. you can't criticize the ruler(s) openly ;)

 

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