JORDAN YOU FEEL THE WINNER WITH THE HURT LOCKER Girato soprattutto ad Est di Amman e nei quartieri della capitale maggiormente frequented by immigrants Iraqis, The Hurt Locker, won six Academy Awards 2010 yesterday.
Filming took place over two months in 2007 were just one example of many sets that are alternating in the year in Jordan, where the film market is emerging and growing, showing an increasing professionalism of Jordanian .
'Hurt Locker' bags for six Oscars in win Kingdom un modello. The New York Times, 24 febbraio 2010 (da mall.lampnet.com)
Titolo originale: Sidewalks, and an Identity, Sprout in Jordan’s Capital – Scelto e tradotto da Fabrizio Bottini
AMMAN, Giordania — Magari è un po’ esagerato definirlo un miracolo, ma l’amministrazione di questa antica città distesa su sette colli bruciati dal sole è riuscita in qualcosa che sinora pareva proprio impossibile. Ha costruito dei marciapiedi su cui è facile camminare. Ma non è tutto, a Ammansi è riusciti anche fare qualcosa d’altro! Ci sono le panchine. Non solo nei parchi, ma proprio lì, su quei nuovi, levigati marciapiedi, che non si interrompono bruscamente e senza motivo. Marciapiedi e panchine, sono cose facili da liquidare come comodità aggiunte, orpelli urbani non indispensabili. Cosa che sarebbe particolarmente vera qui, se si considera quante altre cose sono necessarie: più lavoro, più scuole, più sanità.
Ma basta parlare con chi ha pensato questi marciapiedi, queste panchine, per iniziare a guardare gli ubiqui oggetti come potenti mezzi di intervento sociale, in grado di abbattere il muro che si erge fra ricchi e poveri, di contribuire allo sviluppo di una identità spaziale, locale, di un senso di appartenenza.
“Credo che abbiano reso la gente un po’ più felice” says Omar al-Deeb, 68, grew up in the poor district of Amman East
Deeb sells shoes and sandals in a district where crowded houses, shops, mosques and churches, all clinging to the hillside, linked by narrow, winding streets . His workshop is a plastic chair in the corner of the streets and Bader Al Taj, right next to one of the latest urban planning, a walkway with benches and trees. A road that was once clogged with cars, has become a place where families of this area, which once felt neglected by the administration, can sit down somewhere.
"Like everyone," said Ahmed Sosa, 38, owner of a store of dried fruit not far from the new square was opened by a few days. 
This is not extemporaneous projects, a bench here and there, but a great plan for all of Amman, with the aim to bring some 'order in a city whose roots date back to 8500 BC and in its current home to 2.5 million people, 3 million in summer. The general plan of Amman also has a slogan: "The Living City is organized, it has a soul." A subtle way to describe what Amman does not want to be, and that is Dubai.
"We risk the dubaificazione" said Gerry Post, president and founder dell'Amman Canadian Institute for Urban Development, group of architects, planners, researchers, mostly Jordanians, consisting of the Mayor Omar Maaniper restore, rather than reinvent, Amman. Maani
When he took office four years ago, there were plans to build sixteen towers of steel and glass along the main street of Amman, which would have prevented all of the sight of white houses spread over the hills. The highest would be 80 floors. So not only would put a strain on all facilities, but what worried that more planners, they would build islands of privilege for the very wealthy. The transformations are so
been redistributed to three areas at low altitude around the city, protecting is the skyline, the urban identity, that the longed investment.
"I do not want that there are two cities in one," said Rami F. Daher, strategist and architect of some of the finest urban transformation projects and ambitious. According
Daher, counted the benches, and sidewalks.
"The most important things are the articulation and social justice," said, speaking more engaged politically and town planner.
of Jordan's political system makes it difficult to change things. As in many other cases in the Arab world, under a thin veneer of democracy there is a very centralized power, in this case the monarchy. The planner sees a chance to empower citizens in the transformation of the space that is around them, asking first how they want to live. We do investigations, and Post has qualified staff to arrange meetings.
"What is lacking in the city is the sense of citizenship," says Post. "We have to create it, along with good administration."
Jordan has always been growing for immigration flows: Circassians, Armenians, Lebanese, Palestinians. And then the Jordanians from small villages who move to Amman, helping to make it an economic, political and cultural. But even after many generations, they explain that it is rare to hear someone who believes in Amman. So it's a difficult task, to build a habit so ingrained changing urban identity.
But on this front, there have been some small victories.
"For a girl is considered unsuitable wander aimlessly down the street or are sitting on the sidewalk," said Reem al-Hambali, 20 twenties, sitting in the bright winter sun on the first square created. "All they look at you and ask: what does a girl there? Rather stay here and everything is OK We are is normal. "
Wakalat Street Experience shows, however, some pitfalls of the transformation. That road was the exclusive realm of the rich who live shopping in the west of Amman, and shopkeepers had no interest in more egalitarian spaces. What we were interested only credit cards.
At that shopkeepers did not want to know that we have between the feet of young people from very modest means. Annoyed customers. They complained, the administration immediately took away the benches.
Another major project, a street about a mile to the west of the city was turning into an exclusive area of \u200b\u200bwealth and privilege, and that is called via Arcbaleno.
did not happen.
Daher was allowed to close the street to traffic to redo the pavement, slow down the cars, improve the general appearance and to ensure that the traffic passes noisy on the new rough surface. Above all, remember Daher, sidewalks were suitable for walking.
There were some problems. The British Council, which is on the road for years, would not alter in any way the enclosure wall in front of its facade, similar to that of a prison. He did a school. The stores were back to allow the passage of pedestrians and installing benches.
People like it, via Rainbow. Mingle people who come here from all areas of Amman. Some complained of too much foot traffic, other product prices and rents increased. But as Rainbow seems reborn.
"It's different, but better," said Samar al-Sarayreh, 17, sitting with his sister in n vantage point of the city. "When I come here, there are fewer cars, space to sit and relax a bit 'outside the home. A public space for everyone. "
the wording of the article has also helped Mona El-Naggar.
here Inglese version
