These
colorful pipes are a part of a store display
in the bustling city of Amman.
|
The
King and I
By
Peter Greenberg '72
Photos by Robert Landau
And
then, one day, King Hussein insisted they meet immediately,
and alone. That's when his father told him of his
plan. "It's a shock when somebody says, you know,
'I want you to have this responsibility.' I said,
'Well sir, this is something that I never wanted;
it wasn't something that I ever aspired to.' And he
said, 'That's probably one of the main reasons why
it's got to be you.' "
Shortly
after that conversation, Hussein died.
Abdullah's
life was forever changed. "I had a wife and three
children, and all of a sudden, I had a family of 4
million. And the tremendous responsibility of the
burden was hard to swallow."
But this thoroughly modern monarch has risen to the
task. He understands the challenges, and he confronts
them every day with boundless energy and determination.
Unlike
Saudi Arabia and Iraq, Jordan has no oil. Its economy
depends to a great extent on tourism, which has been
virtually nonexistent since 1998 due to conflicts
in the surrounding region. Perhaps that explains why
last year, at my suggestion, the king became my special
tour guide, and for five days we rode camels, raced
Harleys, and climbed mountains together. We went scuba
diving in the Red Sea, and His Majesty flew me all
over the country in his Blackhawk helicopter —
all for a one-hour Travel
Channel special, "Jordan: The Royal Tour."
It marked the first time in television history that
a ruling monarch had ever hosted a show of this kind.
We visited Petra, a UN World Heritage Site. (These
sites are found in 118 countries and include landmarks
such as the Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon.)
Though this city in Jordan's southern desert was lost
for a thousand years, it's become a popular attraction,
and parts of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade were filmed there. A truly magical place
with buildings carved from sandstone cliffs, Petra's
early morning and late afternoon light transforms
the location into a mystical, seductive experience.
While there, we camped with Bedouins in the desert
and rode with the desert police on camels. (Caution:
camels are mean, angry animals that spit — not
my favorite experience. Let's just say I don't enjoy
the process of riding camels. In this case, I enjoyed
having ridden them.)
back,
1, 2,
3, 4, next
On Wisconsin home
