Flies and Journalistic Integrity

To catch everyone up on life in Amman, let’s play three truths and a lie. Which of these is true, and which a lie?

1. I got a load of free toiletries from the empty apartment of a friend who just left Jordan for the States. This means I can shower again.
2. I ate Iraqi food for three hours and then vomited on the table of my hosts.
3. I went to Ghore Safi in southern Jordan with a big business farmer who showed me his tomato fields, his nicely bagged chicken shit, and then kept telling me “I want to show you my banana.”
4. I tried to interview a guy, but he wouldn’t answer my questions because he was sure that by “I study geography” I meant “I am in the CIA and Mossad at the same time.”

Life here is a mix of abject boringness at work mixed with interesting things I have managed to arrange for myself. Everything was true above except that I didn’t vomit on my hosts. I just felt full for the next 4 hours.

I have been speaking to officials on both sides of the housefly issue. The main concern is figuring out what makes these houseflies breed and how to prevent them from spreading all over the region of Safi in Jordan and Tamar, across the border, in Israel. The problem is that when you talk about a cross-border science issue, the scientists don't agree.

In this case, the Israelis think the flies they have all summer come from Jordan exclusively. Some of the Jordanians think the Israelis' flies are coming from rotting piles of vegetables and untreated sewage on the Israeli side. The American scientists pin the blame on both (how diplomatic). Meanwhile, no one has given me a concrete study that would corroborate their thoughts. So it's a big game of 'he said, she said' for now.

The other issue I have is my lack of Arabic, which translates into cultural distance as well. I went down to Safi to speak with the governor of the region and representatives from the Ministry of Health and the Jordan Valley Authority about the houseflies.

First of all, about ten people were in the meeting room. Only four had anything to do with the topic at hand. This made for many useless interjections that meant nothing and wasted time.

When we finally got down to business, the officials said the flies come from chicken manure fertilizer, open trash, outdoor toilets, and farm animals. No one has a realistic plan to deal with any of this.

On the Israeli side, they all speak fluent English, can quickly cite figures, and can lay out smooth diplomatic statements one after another. It makes it really easy to give them more credit for their story. This is how journalistic bias starts! With flies!