Although some would be surprised, but the second thing I love about Amman (the first thing being the cultural scene) is it’s mixed population. There’s something religiously amazing about seeing non-Jordanian sub-societies and individuals melted within the Ammani population.

It’s exciting to hear other Arabic accents spoken by people I could never have guessed that they’re not Jordanian. Knowing that appearances no longer distinguish people despite of their different nationalities is, in my opinion, something worth celebrating =)

Living in the UAE for 13 years, I can say that one of very few things I liked about living there is that people came from all over the world, literally. They might have come for financial reasons, but the result is amazing. My closest friends over the years were Palestinian (Gazan) and Lebanese in grade school, Egyptian and Syrian in prep school, Sudanese, Palestinian and Emirati in high school and Palestinian and Emirati in college. And those were the close ones but you might have guessed that I grew up surrounded by a mixture of interesting people who came from Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq…you name the country, I had the chance to be around people who lived there, or at least their parents did and hence, they were the result of that country’s culture by their upraising.

Amman is becoming a host to many Arabs, sadly because of political reasons but that doesn’t mean we can’t look at the bright side of this one!

One of the positive outcomes of the situation we have is the transfer of knowledge and cultural exchange at an advanced stage of co-living. But what I strongly believe in, is that it helps us reach higher levels of tolerance and acceptance of the other. But then again, acceptance is a term many people use but seem to never really think about, otherwise no one would feel discriminated against one way or another. Some of us wouldn’t admit that they’re in fact racist, but deep down, they know they don’t approve of something such as an interracial marriage for example, even when the different “race” is really just a family who lives across the border.

I don’t want to talk about interracial marriages and how I personally view them as more successful (and definitely interesting) than normal inside marriages, but on a general note I truly believe that we’re meant to meet and learn from each other, celebrate beautiful differences and look for things that tie us all together…