Chapter 44 Jordan's humorous smile

It is no doubt a feat for a large river to flow through the desert, but it is bound to cause trouble sooner or later. The way it gathers civilizations is too concentrated, and the green it brings to the earth is too narrow, so the competition for it must far exceed the energy it can provide.Just like an elder who is struggling to start a business, even though he is sick in bed, he doesn't know how to satisfy his children and grandchildren who are staring at him. I'm talking about the Jordan River. Today we left Israel for Jordan. We first drove north on the West Bank of the Jordan River, and then drove south on the East Bank of the Jordan River after passing the border. We saw the entire river valley.There are so many gun holes in the watchtowers, staring at the almost dry river, it is really pitiful to think about human beings.

It was exactly the same theme as when civilization was first established thousands of years ago, except that the river was much more prosperous than it is now, and the competition was not as fierce as it is now.Now, behind the gun holes that stare at it, there are still the eyes of the whole world hiding.Crossing the border was very slow, six hours, about the same as when entering Israel from Egypt, which was expected.There are a lot of garbage bins neatly set up at the Israeli side of the border. Every 20 minutes, a few policewomen come out, patrol among the garbage bins, and go through them one by one at a very fast speed. They are checking Bombs; the pass on the Jordan side is also clean, but there is no trash can. To throw trash into their office, it is stuffed into a metal cylinder with a small opening in full view, which is also to guard against time bombs.In fact, it is just a river crossing and a bridge crossing, but it has to be so tense. The preciousness and danger of the river water can be glimpsed.

Ever since we entered Egypt, we have seen the horror of thirst, the weight of drops.The Nile River is a little bit bigger. Look at Israel and Jordan, don’t they rely on the slight moistness and light greenness of the Jordan Valley to make a big fuss about the national economy and people’s livelihood?Israel still has several relatively large ports in the Mediterranean Sea, while Jordan is 80% barren land with only one port leading to the Red Sea at the southern end. The lifeline of the country is a single road along the Jordan River Valley. It is hard to imagine.Sometimes when we see a clump of green grass by the roadside, we stop and bend down, arguing about which species it belongs to, but no one dares to pull out a clump to take a closer look, because it is not easy to live.

We stood up and rubbed our hands, laughing at ourselves as citizens of Dahe culture, and we don’t know how to cherish them on weekdays. We cherish the thick fog that shrouds the river in the morning, and the reeds swaying in the autumn wind in the evening. Traveling south along the east bank of the Jordan River, you can still see some villages in the valley area at the beginning, and soon you will climb up to the mountains.It is completely sandy and rocky, with no soil to be seen, but still trying to plant a lot of trees. Of course, this kind of tree is not a rare species. It is really hard to imagine what the people around them depend on for a living.Occasionally there are small towns and villages that look similar to the ones we often see along the way, only a little cleaner.

Tolstoy said that happy families are all alike, but unhappy families are different.This principle is not suitable for the scenes of the countries along the way. What we see is that all the poverty is the same, and when we step into the affluence, there are all kinds of varieties.This is not surprising. Poverty becomes truly unfortunate because it loses the possibility of multiple choices, so it must be monotonous; and the so-called happiness means having the right to choose freely, so they are different. I think Jordan doesn't have much right to choose. All natural conditions are obvious, and the cloud of territorial disputes hangs over it. At most, it can only choose a little dignity in poverty.There are too many unfair things in the world, some countries you need to always look up to, and some countries you can only always sympathize with.

However, these thoughts soon stopped, because the sight in front of him became more and more surprising.It should be approaching Amman soon. There are more and more houses, but there is an incredible cleanliness.This kind of cleanliness means that there is no rubbish on the street and the walls are not broken. In fact, it is far more than that. It should include the harmonious tone of all the scenery and the rhythm of the buildings along the road. From the overall layout to the small decoration details, it seems that there is a The giant hands that have seen the world have taken care of it again and again, and this process has been repeated for a long time.

I am sure that all travelers who come to Amman for the first time will not believe their eyes, because no matter whether they come from the air or by land, they can clearly see how desperate the desert around them is, how can it suddenly become so eye-catching? There are no slogans, no publicity, everything is contained in a low-key, which makes people a little angry, because they don't even give a smug expression, as if such a decent existence is a kind of nature, and it has been here for two years. ten thousand years. I think the most enviable thing about a politician is the moment that surprises all outsiders.I saw a picture on the wall of King Hussein who had just passed away.There is a humorous smile in the corners of the finely wrinkled eyes. The connotation of this smile is being interpreted by the quiet street.

November 3, 1999, Amman, Jordan, overnight at Arwad Hotel