An American in Jordan

Back in December I wrote about how Amlak, the real estate advertising company, took one of my pictures from online and used it without payment or permission on the front page of their weekly advertisement magazine.  In essence, they stole from me.

Many of you spoke up about your disgust for their poor business practices in this situation.  Some of you even suggested that I sue them.  At that time, I wasn’t sure how to pursue the matter but I never forgot about it.

A few months later, one of our mutual blogging friends (who will remain nameless to protect her identity) began working for Amlak.  While in her new role, she was privy to certain information, including the fact that Amlak were embarrassed for being outed and were upset about any negative publicity my article was creating.

They asked our blogger friend to contact me about the situation and she did.  She explained that the graphic designer who had used the image in the publication had been fired and the head of the design department had been seriously reprimanded.  She also informed me that Amlak would like to extend a personal apology and compensate me for the image.

But how much should I request in compensation?  I contacted a friend who’s husband is a professional photographer in Jordan.  He has experience in these matters and he suggested that I request a substantial amount of money as reparation.  After all, he explained, Amlak should know better; they have plenty of money to acquire images legally; they chose my image out of thousands of prosects; and if they had asked in the first place without stealing the image, they could have purchased it for quite a bargain.

I was impressed by the figure that my photographer friend had suggested, but I decided to seek further council just to have a clearer idea of how to proceed.  I contacted a friend whose sister is an intellectual properties lawyer in Amman.  In other words, this lawyer’s entire job is to sue people who violate copyright laws.  Her advice?  Ask as much as I want in this case because I will surely win.

So I contacted my lawyer in Amman.  I told him about what the others had recommended and asked his opinion.  He advised me to cut my asking settlement in half (still a substantial amount) and present that offer to Amlak.

In the meantime, the higher ups at Amlak still had not personally called me.  Instead, they drug our mutual blogger friend into the middle of it, asking her to do the negotiation for them.  We talked several times on the phone and we were both learly uncomfortable with the position that Amlak had put us in.  I had no argument personally with her and she didn’t even work for Amlak back when this situation happened!

In the end, Amlak didn’t take the initiative to make things right.  Rather they continued to deal with me through my friend, forcing her into the middle of a situation that she shouldn’t have had to deal with.  Their counter offer was so insulting that she didn’t even deliver it to me out of embarrassment.

I am disappointed in the Amlak company, their lack of honor and business ethics. I guess I expected more professionalism from the company leadership, but my expectations have gone unfounded. And if they want to steal my work and then insult me by offering me practically nothing in return, then they can anticipate a fight.

The price to park at Queen Alia International Airport just tripled over the last month. The charge for parking (if I recall correctly) used to be thirty piasters per half hour. But the new charge is one dinar for every hour or increment of an hour.

So you want to park for five minutes? One dinar. Fifty-five minutes? One dinar. One hour and five minutes? Cha-ching, two dinars.

As far as I can tell, none of the parking services have improved. There’s the same lackluster security monitoring ignoring the parking lots. And there’s still the overcrowding and the double parking. So in essence, it’s the same crappy experience, only now we get to pay triple the price for it.

The Jordan Times is reporting that Jordan’s Internet prices are among the highest in the region due to the imposed 16 percent sales tax. In fact, Jordan ranks second only to Morocco, which applies a 20 percent sales tax on Internet.

According to the article…

The National ICT Strategy, launched in July 2007, seeks to increase the number of people who use the Internet up to 50 per cent from the current 11 per cent.

To realise this objective, there is a need to reduce Internet service prices and sales tax down to 5 per cent, the [Information and Communications Technology Minister Bassem Roussan] stressed.

So while (and if) the goverment gets around to slashing the sales tax, Internet service providers also need to boost the speeds (I have never, ever received the advertised 2MB/s!) and remove download caps. I’d say it’s about time to move Jordan’s Internet services into the 21st century. And I’m talking to you, Orange!

When I read the article in the Jordan Times on March 24 entitled Drive to fight smoking in public places awaits funding, I was a bit incredulous. After all, with all the civil servants hanging around in this city, you’d think that writing a ticket for someone smoking in a hospital waiting room would be a pretty simple thing. Paper, pen, two minutes: that’s all it takes. (Actually, I believe the police are too busy trying to keep me from taking pictures to enforce actual laws, but I digress.)

The “No Smoking” signs are already in place. The law is already in place. Why do we need funding for campaigns when the most effective campaign is word of mouth? Just start enforcing the law and it should take care of itself.

Apparently I’m not the only one who views this issue with absurdity. I was pleased to read the following opinion in today’s Jordan Times:

I was amazed to read the article “Drive to fight smoking in public places awaits funding” (The Jordan Times, March 24, 2008) and I am still trying to make some sense out it.

Let me see if I got this right. There is a Public Health Law in place (we know it exists), there are articles in the law banning smoking in public places (we know that too), yet we are seeking some $300,000 in funding (apparently we somehow qualified for that) from the Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use, to finance a campaign to raise public awareness, and we have a national committee to do all that for us?

Am I the only one missing the point here? Have we, in Jordan, perfected the art of seeking funds, grants or loans to the extent that we easily convince donors to fund useless campaigns that simply absolve some of our officials of their lax attitudes in implementing laws?

If we can hold doctors and nurses in our public health services accountable for dereliction of duty or negligence, why can’t we hold public servants in the relevant government department accountable for not implementing our Public Health Law, which is in effect a dereliction of duty?

It is certainly not the public’s awareness that needs to be raised here; it is the awareness of the officials entrusted with enforcing our Public Health Law to the letter, and for that we do not need any funding.

If anything, I think that the department responsible for enforcing the Public Health Law should be penalised for negligence and complacency and asked to contribute $300,000 to the Bloomberg Global Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use instead.

And just in case we have hordes of public servants sitting around all day doing nothing but dreaming up ways of securing funding for wasteful campaigns and projects, I have heard that an international fund is seeking qualification applications to fund public awareness against spitting in the streets and tossing garbage out of cars while driving and turning over garbage containers in front of residential buildings. I suppose we can easily get qualified for at least a million dollar grant for that.

Vatche Dakessian,
Amman

Several weeks ago, my HP wireless printer broke.  It is less than a year old and still under warranty, so I took the receipt back to PC Zone to see what could be done.  PC Zone referred me to Emitac (Emirates Technology Co.) in Jordan, as they are the official HP/Acer service center.

So I boxed up the entire printer, complete with cords, manuals, hardware and software, and dragged it down to the Jordan Trade Center on Queen Rania Street.  Once I arrived and explained the situation, they pulled the printer out of the box and told me that they would have a technician look at it and call me in two days.  I asked whether they needed any other contents in the box, but they assured me that they didn’t.

Four days pass with no word.  I was getting ready to leave for Thailand the next day and had loads of work to do, but I took a break and called Emitac to determine the status of my printer.  When I finally connected with a customer care representative, she informed me that they needed the electrical cord for the printer before they could work on it.  I was a bit perturbed, because I had originally brought the cord in and was assured that it was not needed.  I didn’t question that assurance because 1) they should know what they are doing and 2) they are an official service center so they should have the extra parts needed for repair, etc., including electrical cords.  The customer care representative asked whether I could bring the cord in that day, but I couldn’t due to my schedule.

Eight days later, I return from Thailand and take the cord in to Emitac.  They assure me that they’ll call me in a couple days about the printer status.

I was busy with a conference for the next eleven days, but still no word from Emitac.  The conference ended on a Thursday evening and Emitac is closed on Friday, so I couldn’t check on the status immediately.

Fast forward a couple more days.  I’m behind in my work due to traveling and conferences, so I take a couple days to dig out from under my inbox.  I finally called Emitac today and the customer care representative informed me that the printer still hadn’t been looked at and would need another 2-4 weeks before it could be serviced.

That’s when I lost it.  I started arguing with the girl and telling her that this situation was ridiculous!  They’ve already had my printer for nearly four weeks and now they’re telling me it may be another four weeks before I get it back!  What kind of customer service is that?  Since when did it take two months to fix a printer?  I demanded that they either fix the printer immediately or provide me with a brand new one of the same make and model.

I just received a phone call from the girl at Emitac.  She had just spoken with her manager and informed me that I could come in and pick up my printer on Sunday.  It’s about time.