In January Tala reported that google sent a delegation to Jordan university to discuss the possibility of a new regional office. This month, Google posted 3 Job Positions in the (Middle East) region. These are under a separate category from job listings for its existing offices in Egypt and UAE. The open positions are: Site Director, Software Engineer, and Tech Lead Manager. The Site Director listing includes the wording (fit well in an informal startup environment) which implies a new site. Fluency in Arabic is required for two of the positions, and recommended for the third which eliminates the possibility of a European office.

Posts advertising the opening have appeared across the net on employment sites like Bayt, Monster, and blogs like Jazzarah and even Jordanblogs . Many are attributed to Executive Google Recruiter Nabil Khatib listed in (Linkedin) and (ZoomInfo). One posting dated last week appears on Jordan’s own Linux User Group. It indicates that Google is “strongly leaning toward a location in Amman, Jordan”.

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One of the new words I learned when I started working in Amman is (Asfeen). My colleagues define it as (anyone who says something negative about another employee to their supervisor). Personally I would qualify that definition to (anyone who complains to the employee’s supervisor without first trying to work out the problem directly with the employee).

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I was born in Jerusalem. My father was born in Hebron, and my mother in Nablus. I lived half my 31 years in Ramallah. My full name is Hani Yaser Amer Ali Ismaeil Obaid. The Ali Ismaeil part repeats 13 times. The last Ali-Ismaeil-Ali trio moved to Dubai a few years back. I have family in Egypt, UAE, Germany, England, Canada, and America. I have more aunts and uncles than i could ever count, but it is easy to count the 4 that still live in Palestine. As for myself, I now consider Jordan home. Are we destined to scatter ?

I tried to recount below some random memories related to my somewhat sheltered childhood under the occupation, and subsequently. They’re disjointed, and ordered by recollection.

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The following is a mixture of science, fiction, voodoo and an over-active imagination.

Natural Selection is the term Darwin proposed to describe the idea that favorable inherited (genetic) traits would become more common after several generations, because the unfavorable traits would make it less likely to survive. Keep in mind that the definition of favorable varies based on your location, and its “stress factors”. Basicaly anything that can affect survival (too much sun, not enough water, etc…)

Can the principals of natural selection be applied to modern day humans ? Research published in the past few years has not only found evidence of very recent natural selection in the human genome, but several studies even suggested geographic origin (African, Asian, or European) can be linked to both the rate of selection, and the type of genes that are undergoing changes.

However, such research is restricted to biological traits. Humans are too socially complex to be judged based only on their genetic makeup. What about other inherited social, cultural, and geographic traits that greatly influence our survival, quality of life, and even our frequency of reproduction ?

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Yesterday, 3 colleagues and I were on lunch break and headed for a restaurant. It was 1PM and too hot for my taste. On the way, we saw a horse tied to a tree. The horse seemed to be looking directly at us. For a moment I could have sworn it said: Help!

Nearly 45 minutes later, we came back:

Hani: The horse is still there, poor thing.
S: That’s not a horse it’s a mule (Ba3′el).
Hani: Who works harder, the mule or us?
S: We do. It’s out enjoying the fresh air, it will only have to go for a stroll.
Hani: Are you seriously envying a mule ?
W: Hey, at most they’ll whip its ass a couple of times.
H: Well, at least they could put it with a female mule (ba3′leh).
S: Mules are produced when a donkey rides a horse, they can’t mate.
W: They’re sterile.
Hani: (Thinking: where does one learn about donkey mating rituals, my youth has been wasted)
Hani: Damn, not only does it have to stand there tied up in the sun, it can’t have sex, and you were envying it!
W: It doesn’t have a penis! Why are we discussing mule penises! Who brought up this subject?
(all laughing)

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