Fairuz did not sing about traffic!
She sang about the waiting that goes unanswered — about people in the rain with umbrellas, and others whom no one waits for even on clear days!
Jawad Al-Anani — former Deputy Prime Minister — stood at a cultural forum, looked at the Jordanian citizen, and told him: Austerity!
In economists' language: rationalization, efficiency, redistribution. But the meaning is the same — you are the problem!
And you — whose salary does not suffice until the 25th day of the month — are now asked to "cut back"!
The question is not: What will you cut?
The question is: What is even left to cut?!
Here, there is no austerity!
Austerity is a decision that belongs to those who have a surplus. The Jordanian has no surplus — the Jordanian is consumed!
He is consumed in his daily crossroad — standing twenty-five minutes on the sidewalk in the sun waiting for a bus that does not come, unseen by anyone. And Jawad Al-Anani sits in his car for twenty-five minutes and sees it as a "national waste"!
Twenty-five minutes in an air-conditioned car seemed a crisis worthy of the forum. A hundred years on the sidewalk — unseen!
He is consumed by his salary — his salary fails to last till the end of the month, and then he is blamed for the failure!
He is consumed by an impossible choice — between medicine for his child or the school fee, and then he is told: You make poor choices!
This is not bad luck. This is by design!
A design that says: You're spending more than you should. And not: We're taking more than we ought to!
A design that shifts the fault from structure to behavior — from system to habit — from failure in management to mistakes in consumption!
This is the major trick — and it is as old as the authority itself!
Is the cigarette the problem?! Is the mobile phone a burden?! Is the crossroad a model of national waste?!
Really?!
Let's look at the figures!
Twenty-six independent bodies are draining two billion and six hundred million dinars from the treasury annually — two-thirds of it salaries and privileges, and their deficit alone is eight hundred and ten million! There were fifty-seven bodies, then they were "merged" — and no one knows where the difference went! Jobs are created to manage people not to streamline work! Contracts are written in a language that makes waste legal! Bonuses are distributed as allegiance rather than as entitlement!
And the Audit Bureau documented seventeen thousand two hundred eighty-six violations in the use of government vehicles — across ninety entities — in just twelve months!
Did a single violation stop after the report?!
No!
Because the report creates a facade! And the forum produces a cultural cover! And the citizen produces silence!
And the silence here is not cowardice — the silence here is the tax of those who have no podium!
Jawad Al-Anani is not stupid!
The smart man does not overlook. He knows where the money goes. He is part of the system that has drawn these rules for decades!
When he stands to ask the citizen to "be austere" — he is not giving economic advice. He is providing a moral justification for the drain!
He tells you: You're responsible! You who smoke an extra cigarette! You who buy a new phone! You who stand at the crossroad causing congestion!
And he knows that your cigarette is worth less than a thousandth of an allowance of an employee in a body that has produced nothing for seven years!
And there is only one flaw in this whole equation:
Those who own the shade — write the definition of the sun!
And those who own the air conditioner — write the definition of waste!
And those who have never stood on a sidewalk in their lives — write the definition of waiting!
But choosing where to shine the camera — that itself is the policy! Shine it on the citizen and everyone stays busy watching him! Shine it on the bodies and you'll anger those who built the bodies to please them!
And so — it goes unchallenged!
And there's a sentence Al-Anani said between two sentences, it passed like air — and it's the heaviest of all in the lecture:
"Jordan will enter the crisis, whether Iran wins or America wins!"
Read it again. Slowly!
Whether Iran wins — or America wins!
This sentence means only one thing: the decision is not here!
The table is not here! The battle is not here! The future is not here!
Jordan is not a player — it is a battlefield! And the Jordanian is not an element in a national equation — he is a collateral expense counted in the margins!
The region is being rewritten now — economic draining, slow demolition, dismembering, creating repelling conditions! The ongoing wars have not finished the plan of displacement from Gaza and the West Bank — but might be its prelude! The plan is scheduled and slightly postponed, its operations proceeding gradually — waiting for the open fronts to calm down so it can shift from soft to organized!
And the Jordanian is asked only to endure — without being asked! Without being consulted! Without being told: Why?!
When a person reaches a stage where surviving is an achievement — they are no longer living! They are just postponing collapse!
And when the economic, security, and emotional drain accumulates — no salary suffices, no hope appears, no affordable housing, no dignity maintained, no answer heard, no end to waiting — displacement doesn't need military orders!
It just needs everything to continue as it is! To continue holding its cultural forum sessions! And to continue Al-Anani distributing advice! And to continue the bodies draining billions! And to continue blaming the citizen for his cigarette!
This is not austerity — this is draining under a cultural guise!
True austerity's definition is simple — and therefore, it is never applied!
To start from the top not the bottom! To affect those untouched not those already exhausted! To open the file not to shift it to the shelf! To start from the floor where the person who wrote the report then closed his door, turned on his air conditioner, and waited!
But this kind of austerity is not spoken of in forums!
Because it angers those sitting in the front row!
And therefore — we will never see it!
For seventy-seven years, the Jordanian has memorized the cycle as he memorizes his son's name: report! referral! shelf! The shelf never fills — because it is never opened!
And the citizen stands on the sidewalk! Waiting for a job that doesn't come! Waiting for dignity that is not granted! Waiting for an answer to a question that was never asked!
And now — don't ask me: What's the solution?!
The one who accurately describes the anatomy of the tumor on the surgery table is not asked to perform the operation himself!
All he's required to do is: not to stay silent! not to mumble! not to turn his diagnosis into a post that is forgotten after two hours!
And not to let anyone — whether a former Deputy Prime Minister, or a current Minister, or a future Prime Minister — tell him to "austerity!" without someone responding:
You — when will you cut back?!
I've been searching for a hundred years for an address — I don't know to whom!
A whole country standing at a crossroad! Waiting! Nobody waits for him! And nobody asks why he doesn't walk anymore!
How many people were at the crossroad waiting for others!
And I — on clear days — nobody waited for me!
That's why I stopped waiting. I wrote!
So this sentence will not pass without an answer again:
The Jordanian does not practice austerity — he is consumed!
