Sunday, January 30, 2011

T.D.I.H. - Jan 30

This is an auspicious day in Jordan. On this date in 1962, the current King of Jordan was born. Abdullah II bin al-Hussein was born to King Hussien's second wife, Antoinette Avril Gardiner, (known as HRH Princess Muna al-Hussein in Jordan) who was the daughter of a former British army officer. Forty-nine years later, King Abdullah's second son, and fourth child, was born on exactly the same date. Prince Hashem bin Al Abdullah is second in line to succeed his father to the throne.

When I was in high school in England, I represented Jordan at an international Model United Nations (M.U.N.) competition in Croydon, U.K. in 1983. I was the delegation leader, and I had two girls from my school on the delegation, Jackie Burrell and Claire Shipman. We ended up winning one of the best delegation rewards. In the course of a weekend I solved the Israeli-Palestinian problem (partition with the Swiss Guard as neutral enforcers) because Jordan was on the security council at the time, and I dominated it, plus we got almost every other delegation to co-sponsor it. Then in the General Assembly, an Iraqi delegate ( a Scandinavian prince in real life I was later told) sent a hate letter to the Israeli delegation written in human blood. The General Secretary banned him, so I organized and led a boycott by the Arab and unaligned nations. The General Secretary ended up almost begging me to come back.

No comments: