Perspective, Plastic...

My wife and youngest just spent a week here visiting so had a fun week.  It was a bit surreal - am off on this isolated military deployment and all of a sudden they were here in my life.  It was a good time and besides experiencing a bit of Qatar, we spent a few days in Jordan.  But, I will NOT bore you with vacation pictures or stories - not the intent of the blog.  But, it did raise some other thoughts and issues.  First, even my daughter noticed that in Qatar, the people doing most of the work are not from Qatar, whereas in Jordan they are likely Jordanians.  Lots of oil money does that.

It also gave me a couple of thoughts on perspective.  It is good to meet with people from a different part of the world and just note their different views of things.  Of course, it is easy to get opinions on US politics, but as stated, I will not go there.  So, here are two interesting perspectives.

One - we stayed at the Dead Sea Marriott resort.  The Dead Sea is shared by Israel and Jordan, and from the Jordan side you can see Israel - the sea isn't that wide.  Our driver pointed this out, but he noted the other side as Palestine - NOT Israel.  Jordan happens to be home to a lot of refugees from the original Palestine, and much of the world recognizes Palestine as a state (but not North America, Australia, and Western Europe)

Two - I am good friends with a Jordanian - he is my company's consultant in the country so I have seen him many times over the last five years and know him pretty well.  We happened to discuss the current situation in the Middle East and the recent attacks on the Saudi oil facilities.  I happen to hold the US opinion - shared by much of Europe - that Iran was directly responsible for the attacks.  However, when discussing it, my friend brought it up and from the discussion he clearly believes that the Houthi rebels in Yemen were responsible.  I didn't push the issue.

The other part of the title...

 

We spent a lot of time driving in Jordan - from the airport to the Dead Sea, then to Petra in the south, then Wadi Rum farther south, then back to Petra, then up to Amman... then to the airport.  All in all, at least 12 hours riding - and much of it was 'new road' (not retracing our steps).  I spent a lot of time staring out the van window, and over all of the that driving I never went more than a few seconds without seeing some sort of garbage on the side of road.   Typically, plastic bottles or plastic bags - though the occasional aluminum can or cardboard / paper item. But thousands and thousands of plastic bottles - from the most desolate road in the middle of the desert to crowded roads.  It made me think of this commercial from my youth...  I do recall lots of trash along our roads in the 1970s, so there is hope...

Just a side note about this commercial - though widely praised, it turned out there was a dark secret behind it.  It was funded by a group called 'Keep America Beautiful' that was actually sponsored by packaging and beverage companies and it was their ploy to shift responsibility for litter to the individual.  You may recall that disposable packaging really picked up steam in the 1970s and they did not want their business impacted!   Oh, and the 'Native American' was actually an Italian American actor.