keep yer panties on, IPO--we're not evacuatin' yet.

My host family hasn’t turned off Al Jazeera for about a week. Ziad, who I’ve never heard say anything mean, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, was watching the brutality against the protesters and said, with an expression of disgust: “I hope Hosni Mubarak dies.”

We are holding our friends in Egypt in the light. King Abdullah has ordered Royal Jordanian airlines to get every Jordanian citizen out of Egypt on His Majesty’s dime—they’re running six flights a day between Cairo and Amman—and thousands of Jordanians without tickets or money are flooding the airport. Reema, my Arabic teacher, told us worriedly that her SIT students from the last session had gone to Egypt after leaving Jordan. Even closer to home, my friend Lainie, who was studying in Cairo, was recently evacuated to Paris.

I hope that the courage of the protesters results in the reforms they need. Mubarak keeps making concessions but that only shows that he is willing to compromise—a bad sign for him. It’s been what, a week? There’s no reason to believe that the people will stand down—unless they lose the military. It all depends on the military now. If they are ordered to stop the protests—

And in Jordan? I asked Ziad if he thinks Jordan could go the same route as Egypt and he shook his head emphatically and said, “Not Abdullah, not Rania. Everybody loves them.”

I’m not so confident anymore—I’m holding my breath. The King appointed a new Prime Minister this week, but he is quite moderate and the Islamic Action Front has already said that protests will continue until they see the changes they want. These include changes to the election laws, which would require a constitutional amendment—right now the King appoints the Prime Minister, but the people are clamoring to vote for the position. According to the Jordanian constitution, the King is “the head of state, without responsibilities or liabilities.” This clause inclines me to agree with Bruce when he says that Jordan’s label as a constitutional monarchy is a sham. A change to the election laws could change it into a real constitutional monarchy.

We had a tense discussion last Saturday with Bruce when Leila said: “Bruce, I think we’re all wondering—if the protests in Jordan turned violent, what would happen to the program?”

Luckily for us, Bruce has had experience evacuating Earlham student groups from violent middle eastern countries—in the years Bruce led it, the Jerusalem program had to be evacuated more than once to Cyprus. (Part of why the Jerusalem program doesn’t run any more. I don’t know who to credit this joke to (Eric? Simon? Bill?) but someone lightened the mood by saying, “You know Bruce, many middle eastern countries would probably pay you to, you know, not lead programs here anymore. To like, stay away.”)

So Cyprus it would be, though it probably (hopefully) won’t come to that.

But despite whatever is or may be happening in Jordan, right now all eyes are on Egypt. I can only hope that the US will remember that their alliance with the Egyptian government should mean an obligation first to the people of Egypt who chose (or should have chosen) it. Mark Warner will be hearing from me as soon as his office opens.