Jordan makes best of it despite regional turmoil

摘要

In the pleasant city of Amman, the restaurants are full, the streets are clean and the people are calm. But many of the tourists who bring in much of the country's much-needed foreign exchange have been scared away by George W Bush's war on terror; who wants to visit Petra when you might get hit by a missile from a passing US or Israeli plane? Even so, many aid workers have sought the comparative calm in Jordan, away from the bombers and Saddam Hussain supporters who continue to destabilise Iraq. But even though people in Jordan act normally, they know that things could change in a heartbeat. "We are sitting on a volcano," says one Jordanian UN official. Even in the office of deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry Mohammad al Halaiqa, he openly admits that long-term planning counts for nothing in this region. "The economy is doing fine," he says. "But we are living between two fires. You cannot make five or 10-year plans in such a climate. Now with the Israelis' strikes against Syria, the situation there will only get worse."