Essay on Jordan: Cultural Patterns and Economic Activity

Jordan was established as a constitutional monarchy in 1946 after it gained inde­pendence from Britain which controlled the territory as a mandate after World War I. When Israel was created in 1948, the area west of the River Jordan (known com­monly as the “West Bank”), was controlled by it, but Israel occupied it after 1967.

In 1988, Jordan renounced claims to the West Bank. Thus constituted, Jordan has a territory of 34,342 sq. miles (88,946 sq km) and a population of 4.6 million. Jor­dan has a coastline of 12 miles (19 km) on the Gulf of Aqaba, where the country’s only port (Aqaba) is located.

Jordan is a small nation with meager natural resources and is beset with several pressing political problem—all the more so because the country has provided a ha­ven for thousands of Arab refugees who fled from their homes as a result of the Arab-Israeli wars. From the beginning, the country has depended upon foreign aid and has maintained friendly relations with the West despite strong internal and out­side pressures.

Foreign aid has benefited the country in its development programs. Aid has come largely from the United Kingdom, the U.S., and, since the 1967 war with Israel, from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Since the 1970s, the country has successfully implemented plans for economic and social development with a view to reducing the need for out­side aid.

The country is primarily a desert and semi-desert that occupies more than eighty percent of the country’s surface, largely in the eastern and southern parts. The desert is rocky and bare and made up of volcanic materials of sandstone and granite. The up­lands lie east of the Jordan River with altitudes between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (60C and 900 meters) increasing to the south.

In the northern uplands there are several val­leys and some perennial streams. The Jordan Valley is part of the great African rift-valley system and lies some 1,312 feet or 430 meters below sea level at the Dead Sea, which is the lowest point on the earth’s surface. The Jordan River flowing southward drains the waters of the Sea of Galilee, and the Yarmuk River and streams of the uplands into the Dead Sea.

Climatically, the country belongs to the Mediterranean type in the west to the desert type in the east and south. The proximity of the Mediterranean Sea modi­fies, to an extent, the otherwise generally arid climate. The prevailing winds are westerly to southwesterly, but the dry, hot, dusty winds (known as khamsin) from the Arabian Peninsula, frequently bring uncomfortable weather.

Average tempera­tures range between 46° and 78°F (80° and 26°C) in the capital at Amman, while the port of Aqaba in the far south experiences greater seasonal ranges (between 60° and 90°F). The average rainfall in the uplands east of the Jordan River totals about 15 inches (375 mm) annually, and that drops down to 8 inches in the valley and less than 2 inches in the desert areas of the south.

Cultural Patterns:

Ninety-nine per­cent of the population is Arabic, half of which are Palestinians, either from Pales­tine or the West Bank, who fled their homelands and took refuge in Jordan. Circassians, Armenians, Turks, and Kurds combined make up for the remaining 1 percent. Most native Jordanians belong to the several Bedouin tribes (King Hussein
belongs to one of them) who support the King.

Palestinian refugee settlers perhaps now outnumber the native Bedouins, and occasionally are a source of the nation’s political and economic problems. Most Palestinians are employed and hold Jorda­nian citizenship; a few thousand live in refugee camps and receive aid from the United Nations.

Ninety-three percent of the popula­tion belongs to the Sunnite Muslim tradition, and five percent is Christian. The Christian groups include Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics, Syrian Or­thodox, and some Protestants. The Druzes (an Ismaili Shiite sect) number a few hun­dreds. The Armenians, Druze, Baha’i, Turkmen, and Circassians each number a few hundred and form small non-Arab communities.

Economic Activity:

The Jordanian economy has changed dramatically during the last three decades. Although agricul­ture is still an important occupation, only 6.5 percent of the labor force is engaged in it and it accounted for only 8 percent of the country’s gross product in 1995. Only 4.5 percent of the land is under cultivation; forests cover less than 1 percent, whereas 86 percent of the country’s surface is a wasteland.

Pastureland is limited and is overgrazed so as to barely support the na­tion’s livestock. The government has made some attempts to enlarge the pasturage area by digging artesian wells in several parts of the country. Wheat and barley are the main crops of the uplands where there is some rainfall.

Irrigated land in the Jor­dan Valley produces citrus and other fruits (such as grapes) and vegetables (including tomatoes and cucumbers); some of it is even exported to other Arab countries. Livestock is raised by Bedouins in the de­sert. Sheep and goats are the most important livestock, although other live­stock like cattle, camels, and horses are also raised. There is some fishing in the Gulf of Aqaba.

Mineral resources include deposits of phosphates, potash, limestone, marble and salt. Gypsum, copper, uranium, and some shale oil have also been discovered. A little over 10 percent of the labor force is en­gaged in mining and manufacturing, which collectively accounts for nearly a quarter of the value of domestic production.

Most of Jordan’s manufacturing consists of ex­traction of phosphates, petroleum refining, cement production, and the production of a variety of consumer goods and processed foods, that are mostly concentrated around the capital, Amman (population: close to a million in 1998).

Amman is linked with Syria in the north and Saudi Arabia in the south by a railroad and road­ways. The seaport of Aqaba in the south at the Gulf of Aqaba and the West Bank and Jerusalem in the west is also connected to Amman by a roadway. The Royal Jorda­nian Airline links Jordan to the outside world.

The expansion of the Jordanian econ­omy, especially the export of phosphates and the regional transit trade with Iraq during the 1980s and 1990s, has substan­tially boosted the growth of the port of Aqaba. Food items, including cereals, min­eral fuels, machinery, clothing and textiles are the major imports. Phosphate fertiliz­ers, cement, fruits and vegetables, and synthetic fibers, are the main exports.

The U.S.A., Iraq, the European countries, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and India are the chief trading partners. Tourism is an important industry that pumps about half a billion
dollars into the country’s economy; an­other half a billion comes from Jordanian nationals living abroad.

The economy has shown remarkable resilience and growth after losing a third of its domestic income in 1967 when it lost West Bank territory, but revenues increased due to the growth of its trade with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War when Iraq sought and obtained access to Jordan’s port of Aqaba.

Again, the economy slumped during the Persian Gulf Crisis (1990-1991) when Iraq agreed to the United Nations’ trade sanctions against Iraq; but recovered after 1991 when many Palestinians brought much capital back into the country after they were expelled from Kuwait. Jordan’s future depends largely on foreign aid and its policy at good relations with the West is most likely to continue.