Middle East Radio

Perhaps the most common thing one hears on the radio in Egpytian taxis, buses and internet cafes is Quran Radio - recitations from the Quran and other religious programming.

In Israel, the most popular radio station is Galgalatz - Israeli Army Radio. It's run by soldiers and is meant in part to alleviate the tedium of long bus rides. It's also quite fun. The word 'Galgalatz' is derived from the Hebrew acronym for IDF (Israeli Defense Forces).

Quran Radio Cairo

Galgalatz

The picture above is of a speaker at a friend's place in Jerusalem. Wrapped around the speaker is a headband taken from a Hamas member by my friend's roommate (a paratrooper in the IDF).

Chris McClure

The Closet

I've been staying with my friend Rory for a while in Jerusalem. His roommate - a paratrooper in the Israeli army - has been away so I've been staying in his room. I went into his closet looking for hangers and discovered an interesting assortment of things in there. I suppose it looks a lot like my closet except for all the bullets and the M-16 clip.

Chris McClure

Mercedes in the Middle East

If you get a taxi in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv it’s likely to be a white Mercedes-Benz - and a new one at that. It’s a nice way to travel as a tourist but one can’t help notice how few privately owned luxury cars there are on the road in Israel. Most people drive hatchbacks or other small European cars. This is not because of a lack of space – Israel, as part of its quasi-socialist economic system, imposes a 128% tax on European cars and 144% tax on Japanese cars. So how do cab drivers manage to drive such expensive cars? The rumor is that the German government gives them to the Israeli government as reparations for the holocaust and the Israeli government leases them cheaply as taxis. The taxis in turn are driven mostly by Israeli-Arabs.

On the streets of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Israel’s less affluent neighbor, the proportion of Mercedes, BMWs and Porsche SUVs on the streets rivals that of any North American city. Many of these (especially in Aqaba) have Saudi plates, but who is driving the rest? Don’t get me wrong – I think Mercedes are great and I hope to own one one day. Seeing so many on the roads of Jordan though, I couldn’t help but think of those infamous African dictators who spend a large percentage of their country’s GDP on custom fleets of Mercedes. Everyone seems to say, though, that Jordan is becoming more and more prosperous all the time. Perhaps all those luxury cars are a sign of progress.

Part of this progress might be due to the fact that Aqaba is a tax-free zone. On the other hand, this has created a problem with smuggling. I found out about this from the customs police who wanted to know why we were stopped on the side of the highway. Just as the taxi (a Mazda) I was taking to Petra began climbing the hills outside of Aqaba, smoke started pouring out of the hood and through the dashboard and I had to wait for quite a while before help arrived.

Chris McClure

Border Crossing

I was in Jordan for a few days and I had no guide book or any
information. Despite this, I tried to cross the border into Israel at
the Jordan River crossing late in the evening not knowing what
I would find on the other side or how I would get to Jerusalem. After
the Jordanian soldiers went through all my stuff (they were fascinated
by my Burt's Beeswax lip balm for some reason) I had to wait around
for a bus to take me (the only Westerner) across the border since you
can't cross on foot. The bus was broken though and it took a while to
fix it. At that point the bus driver came over and asked what my
nationality was - I said Canadian and he said "The border is closed for
you now - you have to try in the morning. I'd already officially exited
Jordan and there was no one around and no taxis or anything so waiting till
morning would mean sleeping outside in some deserted place so I insisted he let
me on the bus so I could try to get across. He let me on and after the
Israeli soldiers checked the bus three security people met me as I got
off (tourists are only allowed through there at certain times and this
wasn't one of them). They were asking me if I'd been to Syria or
Lebanon and all sorts of other questions while closely examining all
the stamps in my passport. Then they said "go inside and we'll try
to let you through but we might have to send you back." After the
Israelis went through all my stuff they reluctantly gave me a visa -
they were very suspicious because I'd just left the country a few days
earlier. So I got through and it was late and no one was around. I
was in the middle of nowhere and there were no buses or taxis or
anything to get me to a town. I asked the security people what I
could do and they said they couldn't help me. This was all a bit
stressful since I didn't know where I was or what to do. Eventually
someone gave me a ride into the next town. I was trying to get to
Rory's place in Jerusalem so I got off at the bus station in Beit
Shean, which was closed. I walked down the highway a bit and eventually
came to a guest house. By coincidence I'd actually stayed there a few years
earlier on a course for my MA so I was happy to stay there for the
night. The next day I got up and went to the bus station but didn't
have enough shekels for the bus to Jerusalem...no one around
spoke English and I couldn't find a bank machine. Eventually I got
to my Rory's place and we went out till 4AM. I got up this morning
and went to a cafe and had some breakfast and read Rory's paper on
Spinoza and Hobbes. I was supposed to see my other friend Alex here
too but he was called up for army reserve duty. After breakfast, I felt pretty good.