“Despite the constant itching on my skin, I already feel the benefit of the mud on my skin,” Veronica, a lawyer from Florence told The Media Line as she slathered on more mud. “I am privileged to be among those who can say they swam in the Dead Sea.”

Jordanian tourism officials see the goopy stuff and other Dead Sea projected spa hotel offerings as just the right prescription to cure the ailing tourism industry, which contributes 15% of Jordan’s Gross Domestic Product, according to Finance Ministry figures.

Counting on its long periods of sun and wide array of spa hotels, the government launched an aggressive campaign this year to draw tourists and attract investors. As part of that campaign, it has been organizing several international conferences in the region to market the area and bring in business.

To that end, last month the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea were full of visitors participating in the World Economic Forum held in Jordan, an event which draws thousands of businessmen and decision makers from around the world.

Occupancy of the 2200 rooms available peaked at 75 percent in April and 100% in May, the Jordan Tourism Board reported. Total investment in Dead Sea area tourism projects is expected to surpass $3 billion by year’s end and would provide 10,000 jobs, the figures showed.

Jordan’s Social Security Corporation (SSC), a pension fund valued at $6 billion, is investing in the Dead Sea. The government hopes to attract investors from the Gulf States and other parts of the Arab world.

Last month, King Abdullah inaugurated the $140 million Crown Plaza Hotel, owned by the SSC, which runs a second five-star hotel in the Dead Sea area.

Tourism Ministry officials hope the promotional campaign will stem the influence of the Arab states’ revolutions and political instability in the region. Those two events drove tourists away and led to many cancellations over the past two years.

Hotel owners are also seeking to draw tourists by offering competitive prices in a cut-throat market where the players include Israel, Dubai, Lebanon and Turkey, according to Yassar al Majali, chairman of Jordan’s Hotel Owners Association. Catering to markets like skin care treatment are a real draw to the region, obviously.

Prices offered at the Dead Sea are 50% less than other hotels in the region, including Dubai and Lebanon.

“Tourists pay $250, while other hotels in Dubai and Lebanon charge at least $500,” Majali told The Media Line.

The Dead Sea, which is full of minerals including bromide, has proved successful in treating skin conditions including psoriasis.

On a recent afternoon, Suzanna, 55, waited patiently for treatment for arthritis that has plagued her for the past two decades. She sat in a wheelchair in the lobby of a Dead Sea hotel, waiting to enter a clinic that overlooks the sparkling waters.

Every year she comes to the Dead Sea clinic for massage therapy aimed at relieving her pain.

“I visit Jordan regularly to get treatment for arthritis. Treatment in the Dead Sea area is proving popular in Europe,” she told The Media Line.

Not even the searing heat and humidity can keep her away. “It is hot and humid, but the place offers a unique feeling of comfort difficult to explain,” she added before being ushered into a massage room.

Nader Amr, director of sales at the Dead Sea Spa, said studies showed that the black mud on the banks of the Sea contains unique properties that helps treat the ski and works as an anti-aging agent, among other benefits.

“The investments are good for everybody as they employ locals and attract more tourists to the region. We expect the number of visitors to rise because there is only one Dead Sea in the world,” said Amr.

Thousands of tourists flock to the Dead Sea to either pamper themselves with five-star treatment, seek unique cures for various ailments, or take part in international conferences on the shores of the lowest point on earth.

The government has been granting investors incentives to build resorts by providing them with cheap land to facilitate the building of top-of-the-line resorts along the Dead Sea shores, an official SSC source said.

In May the Jordanian government approved a mega-project worth $250 million that an Egyptian firm will build. This planned theme park project will include hotels, villas and residential complexes to cater to well-off locals and investors from the Gulf.

For now, however, it’s visitors like Veronica and Suzanna, that are keeping the Dead Sea hotels afloat. The two said they plan to come back to the Dead Sea as often as they can.

This story is reprinted from the Middle East News Source – The Media Line.; Image of Dead Sea, Jordan from Shutterstock

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Abdul Rahman, an eight-year-old refugee from Syria, rummages through a trash container along the side road of north Amman’s bustling Sweileh neighborhood. His sparkling green eyes stare out from his dirty, emaciated face. His bony legs appear from under torn blue trousers. The pint-sized child separates soda cans and scrap metal. “One bag for cola cans and a second for toys and old gadgets,” he explains.

Rahman’s six-year-old brother Ahmed tries to hide from the scorching sun, finding relief in the shade provided by the container.”I work with my brother for a man who sells scrap metal from a truck,” Abdul Rahman tells The Media Line. “We travel everywhere from the morning until late in the afternoon,” he says, wiping the sweat off his forehead.

“I live with my mother and four brothers. I take care of them,” he says proudly.

In a nearby barbershop, Jehad, an eight-year-old Syrian boy, works in a less demanding job, sweeping the floor and washing customers’ hair.

While working conditions for the boys differ, they share the same plight. Along with thousands of others they have been forced out of school to help put bread on the table.

Barbershop owner Ali says he is doing the boy a favor by employing him.

“We have dozens of poor Syrians who cannot pay their rent, let alone find food. More Syrian children are joining the labor market,” he tells The Media Line.

Officials from the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF) say they assist more than 300,000 refugee children in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey, providing drinkable water, adequate sanitation, education, and protection from verbal and sexual abuse.

UNICEF media chief in Amman Samir Badran says a lack of resources and a daily increase in the number of Syrian asylum seekers are other obstacles in determining the scope of the problem and finding ways to deal with this burgeoning new reality.

“We are working closely with officials from the Jordanian labor and social development ministries on the issue of Syrian children in the labor market. Our concern is that children are working under difficult conditions that could be very risky for them,” Badran told The Media Line.

Jordan is home to 400,000 Syrian refugees, with about a quarter of them living in the Za’atari refugee camp. As the security situation in Syria worsens, up to 4,000 Syrians are fleeing to Jordan daily.

Badran admitted that the number of children in the Jordanian labor market would only increase.

“Children should be studying, not working. We expect to see more Syrian children in the labor market. The onus is on owners of small businesses not to abuse them,” he added.

The Jordanian government last week announced it was intensifying its inspection efforts to flush out illegal workers.

Jordanian labor ministry officials said they noticed a high number of children working, especially in small businesses.

Ministry of labor inspector Kamel Samee said child labor in Jordan is widespread. He said children are working in car repair workshops, small factories, shops, in Jordan Valley farms or selling gum at traffic lights. Reports by refugees and locals about the situation suggest that sexual abuse of children has been added to the misery of displacement and personal tragedies.

Abdul Rahman says he wants to study, but admits his family needs his help. “I have not gone to school in a year. I miss my school and playing with my friends,” he told The Media Line before returning to sifting through the trash container.

This is reprinted from the Middle East News Source, The Media Line Image of Asian boy with e-waste via art-es-ana

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As Syria continues to be swept up in violence, Syrian farmers are smuggling their livestock (and themselves) into Jordan to sell the cattle before they can be killed in bombing raids. Traders near Jordan’s border with Syria estimate that tens of thousands of sheep have been smuggled across the border since the fighting began almost 18 months ago. Since Syrian law strictly prohibits shipping the sheep out of Syria, herders are forced to circumvent the law.

Jordanian security sources told The Media Line that Jordanian businessmen, often with ties to the security establishment, are seizing the opportunity to buy the livestock at prices far below market value, and then sell them at much higher prices.

Once the cattle arrives in Jordan, they are received by middlemen who sell them to businessmen in the nearby cities of Ramtha and Mafraq at nearly one-third of their value in the Syrian market and less than half their value in the Jordanian market, say businessmen involved in this newly growing trade.

“This is a great business, but you need to be lucky and know the right people inside Syria to connect you to herders,” Jamal Swerki, a businessman from Amman told The Media Line.

In his black pickup truck, Swerki drives along the 60-mile border almost every day looking for bargains.

He says Syrians are unable to graze their cattle in Jordan both because of the high cost of fodder and the government’s refusal to issue work permits to Syrian herders. So after crossing the border into Jordan, they are forced to sell at almost any price.

“This is a golden opportunity for people with ready cash and a place to keep the cattle,” said Sweirki, anticipating profits would triple as the year calendar heads towards Al-Adha holidays, when Muslims slaughter a sheep or a cow as a sacrifice, giving either the meat or its value to the poor.

Activists say Syrian herders in areas such as Dera’a, Deir Al-Zour, Idlib, Aleppo and Homs face a choice of losing their cattle to theft and indiscriminate shelling; or herding them across the border to Jordan. Most choose the latter despite landmine fields planted by Syrian forces to prevent cross border smuggling. They say thousands of sheep and cows are crossing into Jordan on a daily basis.

“These areas are a battle ground between Syrian rebels and government forces and often residents are the ones to pay price of this conflict,” a Syrian activist from Mezerib, a small town in the lush Yarmouk valley told The Media Line. He declined to give his name.

On a recent evening, Syrian farmer Abu Ziad herded nearly 6,000 sheep and goats across the northern border with Jordan, risking being arrested or shot at by Syrian border guards hoping to sell the animals in Jordan.

“I worked all my life to take care of my cattle. My brothers and I have lost many sheep and goats during the past few weeks,” Abu Zaid told The Media Line. “I had to sell them on the cheap or I would have lost it all.” Abu Zaid is one of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees living in the Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border. Refugees have complained of difficult conditions in the camp.

Syrian rebels say government forces have punished local communities which support them by killing off sheep and cows. Footage showing entire herds being killed by Syrian government troops is circulating on the Internet. Jordanian businessmen pay $100 -$150 per goat and $300- $400 for a sheep, and sell the meat for $6 per pound. So far, meat prices in Jordan have remained steady despite the growing supply.

Government forces also accuse rebels of raiding farms and stealing cattle in order to sell them in Jordan and buy bullets and guns.”

“No one is giving rebels money to buy weapons or bullets, they are using all possible means to collect cash, including theft from the local community,” said Abu Zaid.

Meanwhile, some have more serious concerns about the future of Syria and the long term impact of the lack of security. They are worried that the phenomenon is the beginning of an exodus of Syrian wealth to other countries; and fear a repetition of what happened in Iraq, when the flight of cattle was the first stage in a process that led to Iraq’s antiquities being sold-off on the world market. Eventually, they say, intellectuals left Iraq, leaving the country in ruins. Iraq is still struggling to rebuild today, years after the war ended.

This story is republished from the Middle East News Source, The Media Line

Image of cow on target from Shutterstock

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