The Road to Zarqa

Sometimes you would swear that human is the cheapest asset in this country. No body cares what do you eat or what do you drink. The fat cats in Jordan may feed you any thing, as long as its not their own flesh…I mean cats’ meat!!!

As you may know that Zarqa is a very deprived and poor town, and it has a story to tell about how it has become a hot bed for death. The Road to Zarqa is a dangerous journey and not everyone can make it. Death is everywhere and sometimes the town export its different products of death to neighbouring towns.

On the Road to Zarqa you will come across crazy drivers who have a dogmatic belief in reaching their destination and hit the bus station before the clock’s pointers meet each other over the figure which indicates the one-hour long journey. The kamikaze drivers are ready to sacrifice everything even you as a passenger just comply with their dogma.

However, the journey can’t be of much interest if it comes to this only, thus on the Road to Zarqa you will pass by a huge landfill, which I have never seen myself in my life but I know it is huge because of the smell coming out of it after they lit it. So, while you are sitting in the bus scared to death and holding your breath, you would think to yourself may be I can relief myself now and take a breathe while we are stopping at this traffic light, or you may gasp at the scene of “missed crash”, then you have committed the fatal mistake; you have inhaled the smoke coming out from the burning garbage in the landfill!.

Once you are in Zarqa you will feel that the atmosphere is condensed, sticky and hot and you barely can breathe. The good news that this is all because of the oil refinery which sends continuously its fumes to the air, I am not sure if Jordan is signed to the Kyoto agreement, so that it warms it up and pollute it. All what you can do there is to inhale and inhale and inhale endlessly, there is no other place to escape to unless you want to escape the town!!

Are you hungry?? You can have food with Salmonella from this kebab shop(top) which is called “Alzarqawi”, it sounds familiar isn’t it?? Well…it is another recipe of death Zarqa’s can offer you to make your day.
By the way, do you remember the man who killed the British tourist in Amman? He is also from Zarqa!! I wonder what this town has to offer us in the future!

Now, you passed the Road to Zarqa, you sniffed garbage’s smoke, you filled your lungs with petroleum fumes, you had Salmonella sandwiches, and thinking of having a cup of tea. Zarqa has to offer you the finest water quality in Jordan, it’s a water full of protein and undigested undissolved nutritious elements.

Actually tea in Zarqa is considered a snack!! I remember when I was at university in 1998-1999 that most of the students who come from Zarqa didn’t turn up for a week. For people who don’t know what happened, it is simple…the water was polluted with parasites and, in broad English, Shit!!! Most of the students at that time suffered from bugs and Hepatitis. It's still going on up to now, however people have learnt how to develop immunity.

This how it is in this town which is less than an hour drive from Amman. Can all these things happening in Zarqa be a wakening alarm to our sleeping-snory government!!

Ps. The second cartoon is about the polluted Zarqa creek. You can notice the Red Potty in the corner.