Never underestimate the power of single people buying themselves stuff.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reported its highest individual sales day ever on Singles Day, an informal holiday dedicated to people who aren’t in relationships.
Singles Day is on 11/11 (see all those “1”s? they symbolize being alone) and has become in recent years a bigger Chinese shopping day than Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Alibaba was a pioneer in offering discounts on the holiday, and their sales are promoted with a live TV show advertising the discounts available on the website.
Barcelona’s previous home league defeat came on 10 September 2016
Barcelona lost a home league match for the first time in two years as the Spanish champions were beaten by Real Betis’s expert display at the Nou Camp.
Junior Firpo gave Betis a deserved lead after 20 minutes, before veteran Joaquin made it two before the break.
Lionel Messi scored a penalty in reply but a Marc-Andre ter Stegen error saw Giovani lo Celso add a third for Betis.
Arturo Vidal’s tap-in gave Barca hope, but Sergio Canales got the away side’s fourth, before a Messi consolation.
Ernesto Valverde’s side remain at the top of La Liga, one point ahead of Atletico Madrid and Alaves.
The hosts had Ivan Rakitic sent off for a second yellow card with eight minutes left when trailing 3-2 and were powerless to match a determined and clinical Betis side, despite Messi’s two goals on his return from a fractured arm suffered three weeks ago.
Barca’s previous home league defeat came on 10 September 2016, when they lost 2-1 to Alaves.
Betis had lost on their past eight visits to the Nou Camp and had not won there for more than 20 years.
But they came away with three points that lifts them up to 12th in the table courtesy of an impressive display built on adventurous counter-attacking and smart play in possession.
Quique Setien’s side went into this game having scored only eight goals in 11 matches, the lowest return in La Liga.
Here they mustered eight shots on goal to Barca’s five and scored from half of those.
Ter Stegen did let a Lo Celso strike slip through his gloves immediately after Messi had scored Barca’s first from the penalty spot, which slowed the home side’s momentum.
But nothing should be taken away from Betis, who more than deserved this victory which keeps Barca’s rivals for the title within touching distance.
Easily fits in your home • Good selection of games • Excellent controls
Price is steep for four games • Smaller size can be a bit awkward for three people
At $299 and 63 pounds, you won’t find a cheaper or lighter way to give your home a taste of an authentic ’80s arcade.
When I was a kid, I always thought that owning an arcade cabinet was a sign that you’ve made it. Having a large appliance solely dedicated to playing games meant you had enough disposable income to afford such an unnecessary (but fun!) toy, and enough space to house such a cumbersome object.
Arcade1Up is looking to change that equation. Instead of a massive, expensive cabinet, it sells a smaller, but faithfully reproduced, arcade cabinet with your favorite games pre-installed — for cheap. It looks nice and, at $299, could be the gaming centerpiece you never realized you wanted.
An arcade at home
Arcade1Up has several arcade cabinets to choose from, and each one comes with different cabinet art and a unique set of games and artwork that’s meant to evoke an ’80s-arcade feel. I chose the Rampage-themed cabinet for its variety of multiplayer games, even though the art on the side of the unit was just OK. Rampage comes pre-loaded (of course), along with three other classics: Gauntlet, Defender, and Joust.
There are four games in the console, but we know which one is the star.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
If that list of games doesn’t do much for you, there are plenty of other options to choose from. There’s even a 12-in-1 Atari cabinet available at select retailers for even more variety.
Yes, of course you can find a playable version of these games at a much lower price. If you’re inclined, you can have all of these games and more using a Raspberry Pi ($35) and system emulators for minimal cost. That option is a little more involved technically, since you’d also need a monitor and joysticks, but it’s a popular one for a casual trip down memory lane.
What you get with Arcade1Up is accessibility at an “affordable” price. Each cabinet comes in a flat package, not unlike a piece of IKEA furniture. While the review unit I received was already assembled, the company provides videos and guides to help if yours isn’t. Each step is clear, and there are no confusing components or similar parts that can lead to frustration.
It’s intuitive with just two side panels, one floor panel, four interior panels, a marquee, 17-inch LCD monitor, control deck, logo panel, and back panel.
If you wanted to forego all instructional help, which is never a smart idea, you’d probably get by with minimal frustration. For additional guidance, the panels have notches where some items slide into. In addition to the main assembly video, Arcade1Up also has more specific assembly videos if you get stuck.
The monitor can be tricky to install, but Arcade1Up’s videos really help.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
Once assembled, you now have a cabinet that measures 45.8 x 23 x 19 inches and weighs around 63 pounds. It’s smaller than I envisioned, but it’s definitely not small. Once assembled, I can totally picture it fitting comfortably in many living rooms or bedrooms without dominating the space.
Adults will need to take a seat while playing games on the device. It’s just too short for most people to stand in front of like most real arcade cabinets, but Arcade 1Up does sell a riser that adds an extra 12 inches to the cabinet if you’re tall and determined to stand in front of this thing. You could DIY it with a simple wooden box if you don’t want to spend $49.99. They also sell a stool, but I found a normal chair works fine.
Arcade quality and frustration
I chose the Rampage cabinet because it offered several fun multiplayer options. I mean, what’s the point of having an arcade cabinet if if you can’t share the experience with friends? There are three joysticks to control George, otherwise known as totally not King Kong, Lizzie, or definitely-not Godzilla, and Ralph the giant wolf. You smash buildings, grab humans, and avoid taking damage. Someone should really make a movie about this.
The console provides a fun experience with friends, but it can get cramped hovering shoulder-to-shoulder with your pals. I recommend the two friends on the side standing a bit further away from the cabinet so the middle friend isn’t squished.
Gauntlet is a fantasy hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. You choose between playing an elf, warrior, valkyrie, or wizard to defeat enemies and progress through a series of mazes. Each character has its own strength — the elf is fast while the warrior has high attack, for example — so your choice can affect your ability to clear each level.
Joust is a great way to waste hours. You’re a knight on a flying ostrich tasked with taking down enemies riding flying vultures with a lance. You guide the knight using the joystick while tapping the button lets you fly, hover, or glide down to the ground. The goal is to defeat the enemies by having your joust land above theirs.
The game lineup.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
Defender is a particularly fun side-scrolling space shooter. You control a ship against an increasingly large swarm of alien ships, but you’re not stuck moving straight ahead. You can turn your ship around and fly to the left of the screen. There are a lot of buttons, which requires some good hand-eye coordination.
Each of these games feels true enough to its arcade counterpart. There’s a satisfying mechanical click and clack as you move the joystick or repeatedly tap a button. The control panel feels sturdy and capable of withstanding intense sessions with several moments of frustration.
You need to be incredibly precise with Rampage or Joust. There were times when I was wondering why George wasn’t climbing a building before I realized I was moving my joystick up and to the left, not straight up. Additionally, I could have sworn that I was out of the way from a thrown dynamite stick. The same goes with Joust where my ostrich was definitely above the other bird, but I lost that round. My imagination? Maybe, but things like this happened often enough that they stuck out.
Modern games are a bit more forgiving, but it’s that razor-thin margin of error that makes the games so thrilling. You’ll want to return to Rampage, Defender, Joust, or Gauntlet because you were this close to advancing to the next level. Or you finally figured out the pattern.
The art on the side of the cabinet isn’t that great.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
It’s that temptation that victory is just around the corner that compels you to put another quarter into the machine. Luckily, you don’t need quarters to keep playing at home. Out of all the games, I found myself playing Joust the least. It’s a fun distraction and acts as a palate cleanser before jumping back into the other games. It does offer multiplayer, however, which boosts its playability.
I was a bit disappointed with Gauntlet. It’s a fun game and there’s nothing inherently wrong with the port. But, the original supported up to four players. The Arcade1Up port supports just two players, which is still fun but not as brilliantly chaotic as having four people huddled around one cabinet. Also, there are three joysticks on the console — why can’t the game at least support three players? A two-player game also limits your in-game firepower.
Defender is a difficult game as its laid out and requires both hands to be extremely active. To take away some of that frustration, I had a friend control the buttons on the right while I focused on steering the ship. All told, it was fun trip down memory lane.
The cost of nostalgia
What you’re paying for with Arcade1Up is the craftsmanship of the cabinet, the satisfying mechanical click of the joystick and buttons, and an accessible, nostalgic experience.
There’s room for three players on the Arcade1Up cabinet.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
It’s a similar logic behind the NES Classic, Super NES Classic, and the upcoming PlayStation Classic. You’re paying a premium for games you’ve probably purchased multiple times across several console generations.
But, there’s just something that clicks. The games you grew up with can now be easily reproduced, usually on better, smaller, or more efficient hardware. Throw in a roster of decent games and some modern updates, and it’s easy to see why nostalgia has been such a smash hit for Nintendo. There’s a reason why Sony jumped into the retro console business and why Atari is trying to mount another comeback.
Are retro consoles a fad? Probably, but it’s a harmless one that’s not diluting the quality of Nintendo’s and Sony’s main consoles. No one is pining for a retro CD-i or Atari Lynx, but there will be many buyers for the rumored N64 Classic, a hypothetical PS2 Classic or Dreamcast Classic.
The art gives a very authentic arcade feel.
Image: CHARLES POLADIAN/MASHABLE
However, those are all tiny in size compared to the Arcade1Up cabinet. You can usually find a place for a console in your home pretty easily, but the same can’t be said for an arcade cabinet. Some may have scoffed at the $79.99 Super NES Classic as being too pricey for nostalgia. Add an additional $200 and it becomes just a bit harder to justify.
Game selection is another obstacle. Emulation and ROMs have led to unlimited choice. With a little technical know-how, you can put together something that runs far more games than the Arcade1Up, and for about the same amount of money or less (copyright concerns aside).
With the Arcade1Up cabinet, you can get as many as 12 games, with the 12-in-1 Atari bundle, or as few as two games, with the Galaga/Galaxian cabinet. The other cabinets feature four games. For the Street Fighter cabinet, you get three iterations of the genre-defining Street Fighter II. It’s really for folks who have a strong relationship with specific games.
But, even considering its limitations, there’s something satisfying about Arcade1Up. At a pretty reasonable $299, it’s one of the easiest and cheapest ways to put an arcade cabinet in your home. If you’re a casual gamer looking to have fun or a parent who wants to show their children the glory days of games past, you’ll find a lot to like with Arcade1Up.
The UN chief has said the world today has several of the ingredients that led to the failure of the peace that followed World War I, in comments marking the 100th anniversary of the end of that conflict, as the leaders of France and Germany warned about the dangers of nationalism.
Without referring to Donald Trump by name, all three of them on Sunday railed against the US president’s world view and the dangers of disregarding international norms as they spoke at the start of the Paris Peace Forum in the French capital.
“As I see it, several elements today have many parallels with both the start of the 20th century and the 1930s, giving us grounds to fear that an unpredictable chain of events could ensue,” Antonio Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, said.
As we mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, may we draw from its lessons and strengthen international cooperation to face the tests and threats of today and tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/ldrnHSNGuW
For her part, Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, expressed her “concern” that “blinkered nationalist views may gain ground once again”.
Merkel warned that the benefits of international cooperation, “the peaceful balancing of interests, even the European peace project – people are calling them into question again.”
Her comments came shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron made similar remarks, seemingly aimed at Trump who in a recent speech called himself a nationalist.
During his 20-minute speech, Macron called nationalism “the exact opposite” of the patriotism shown by soldiers.
“Nationalism is a betrayal,” he said.
“By saying our interests come first and others don’t matter we are erasing what makes a nation precious, what makes it live, what makes it great and most importantly of all, its moral values,” he told those in attendance, which included Trump among others.
“Let us build our hopes rather than playing our fears against each other.”
Old demons are rising again. New ideologies are manipulating religions, and history is threatening to repeat its tragedies. Let us vow once more as nations to ensure peace is the utmost priority, above all else, because we know what it cost. https://t.co/skJ6K5SDO1
The French president also called on his fellow leaders to not forget the lessons of the past.
“Ruining this hope with a fascination for isolation, violence or domination would be a mistake for which future generations would rightly find us responsible,” Macron said.
In a speech at the Suresnes military cemetery in the western Paris suburb, Trump paid tribute to US soldiers who took part in World War I.
The US president said he and other officials were “gathered at this hallowed resting place to pay tribute to brave Americans” who died a century ago, as well as to the French troops with whom they fought.
Centenary
Sunday’s speeches were part of a string of events to commemorate the signing of an armistice on November 11, 1918, to end World War I.
That conflict erupted in 1914 after a teenage Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, igniting a conflict that was contemporaneously described as “the war to end all wars”.
In the four years of fighting, remembered for brutal trench warfare and the first large-scale use of gas as a weapon, France, British, Russia and the US had the main opposed a German-led coalition that also included the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires.
More than 70 million military personnel were mobilised and an estimated 10 million lost their lives.
Sweden celebrate Anna Anvegard’s close-range strike that put the visitors 2-0 ahead
England Women lost on home soil for the first time since 2015 as Sweden put a dampener on the day Steph Houghton won her 100th cap.
Sofia Jakobsson curled Sweden into the lead in Sunday’s friendly in Rotherham, before Anna Anvegard’s close-range finish made it 2-0.
Caroline Seger also hit the post in an impressive first half from the Swedes.
Jordan Nobbs and Nikita Parris saw penalty appeals turned down as England pushed forward, but the hosts could not overcome a stubborn Swedish defence.
The defeat was Phil Neville’s second loss as head coach, and first at home, and saw the Lionesses end 2018 with seven wins, three draws and two losses from his 12 games in charge.
Up against a Swedish side ranked ninth in the world, England – who sit third in Fifa’s rankings – were beaten at home for the first time since a 1-0 loss to the USA at Stadium MK in February 2015.
Robust and well-organised Sweden, who won silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, gave the hosts a masterclass in defending at times, on a day when two moments of relatively uncharacteristically sloppy play at the back cost the Lionesses.
England dominated after the break, as they tried to get back in the game, but substitute Toni Duggan’s fizzing effort was saved and the Women’s Super League’s new record scorer Parris headed wide at the far post.
Swedes spoil skipper Houghton’s special day
England skipper Steph Houghton poses for some selfies with England fans at the New York Stadium
It was not the celebration many of the lively 9,561 fans at Rotherham’s New York Stadium were hoping to see on the day Houghton reached 100 senior international appearances.
The Manchester City centre-back has been a stalwart for the Lionesses since she won her first cap against Russia in March 2007.
Her tenure as captain has seen the side reach consecutive semi-finals at major tournaments, including a third-placed finish at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
On 99 caps before this week, she had been left out of Thursday’s 3-0 win in Austria by Neville, who wanted the 30-year-old to enjoy reaching her century milestone on home soil.
As thousands of firefighters battled uncontrolled flames in both Northern and Southern California on Saturday, President Trump tweeted out an ill-informed, distorted message about the cause of these deadly autumn infernos.
But the firefighting community quickly rebutted the president’s rash claims, wherein he blamed “gross mismanagement of the forests,” while also threatening to cut federal support to fire management efforts.
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
As firefighters, fire researchers, and climate scientists largely agree, mismanaged forests — which generally means wooded areas that haven’t been allowed to naturally burn and reduce vulnerable vegetation — are just one part of a complex, growing wildfire problem in the U.S. Rather, today’s historic wildfire woes are a confluence of weather events, human-building, climate change, and mismanaged forests.
As the Pasadena Fire Association pointed out on Twitter, “Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong.”
Mr. President, with all due respect, you are wrong. The fires in So. Cal are urban interface fires and have NOTHING to do with forest management. Come to SoCal and learn the facts & help the victims. Scott Austin, Pres IAFF 809. @IAFFNewsDeskhttps://t.co/d3jY0SeosF
In Southern California, where the Woolsey Fire (as of Nov. 10 at 8:30 p.m.) had burned over 83,000 acres and forced Hollywood stars and wildlife alike to flee to the beaches, mismanaged forests are not to blame. The affected areas aren’t overgrown pine forests, but grasslands and other coastal or near-coastal shrublands, known as chaparral.
There’s nothing to log here, noted Crystal Kolden, a former wildland firefighter and associate professor in forest rangeland and fire sciences at the University of Idaho, countered on Twitter.
Right. I’m sure that there is a long list of logging companies waiting to log chaparral shrublands and oak woodlands and grasslands. The most destructive and deadly fires in CA are NOT in forests. This is grossly irresponsible and uninformed. https://t.co/mjndBhCboA
A continuing problem in Southern California, like in many Western areas, is that populations have expanded into dry areas that naturally burn, known as the urban-wildlife interface. Deadly fires often burn through these communities, as they’ve repeatedly done in California — jumping major freeways and torching suburban homes.
This requires local and political solutions, such as intelligently reducing dry vegetation near these communities, or building fire-resistant homes, fire scientist Michael Gollner explained on Friday.
Exacerbating matters, fires everywhere are now burning more land, burning for longer, and becoming more destructive — and climate change is a potent contributor. Simply put, hotter climes suck moisture out of the land, leaving profoundly dried out, tinder-ready grasslands and forests.
Although fire season should be winding down in California, a vast swath of the state is still experiencing record dryness — notably in Northern California where the Camp Fire burned people to death in their vehicles.
“This is a big deal,” U.S. Forest Service meteorologist Brenda Belongie, referring the record dryness, said Friday.
Wildfires are largely stoked by weather and gusty winds, but solving the growing problem doesn’t have a quick forest management fix, as the president contends.
For that reason, amid new fires that have killed at least 23 people, the firefighting community has found the president’s ignorant fire-messaging to be repugnant. The International Association of Firefighters, of note, offered the Commander-in-Chief some stark words:
Firefighters understand the complexity and influences of today’s flames. But their mission now is to help subdue the blazes, so firefighters haven’t tolerated President Trump’s wrong-headed, oversimplified message.
As the International Association of Firefighters said: “To minimize the crucial, life-saving work being done and to make crass suggestions such as cutting off funding during a time of crisis shows a troubling lack of real comprehension about the disaster at hand and the dangerous job our fire fighters do.”
On October 29, governor of Tanzania’s largest city Dar-es-Salaam, Paul Makonda, announced that he formed an anti-gay unit to hunt down “suspected” homosexuals. Makonda is an ardent Christian and close ally of Tanzanian President John Magufuli, a traditionalist who believes “even cows disapprove of” homosexuality.
The Tanzanian government distanced itself from Makonda’s latest anti-gay witch-hunt a full five days after it made headlines in local media, by stating that his planned crackdown “is not part of official policy”. However, the government’s belated attempt to denounce Makonda’s actions hardly diminishes the Magufuli administration’s long-running and brutal campaign against homosexuality and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals.
Tanzania is not the only African country which has recently started cracking down on LGBTI communities. Egypt, Kenya and Malawi have also targeted LGBTI individuals in recent years. Homosexuality is illegal in 34 African countries and a crime punishable by death in Mauritania, Sudan, Northern Nigeria and Southern Somalia.
African leaders often cite culture and Christianity as reasons for outlawing homosexuality. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has called gays “disgusting” and labelled homosexuality “a western import”. Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto has also made his rejection of the LGBTI community public by saying, “We will not allow homosexuality in our society as it violates our religious and cultural beliefs.”
Playing politics with colonial-era policies
But is homosexuality really a western import to Africa as Museveni claims? And does violent suppression of the LGBTI community really reflect “African values”?
Extensive research on African sexual practices demonstrates that homosexual relationships have been prevalent in Africa long before the arrival of colonial powers. These studies show that Africans, just like people all over the world, have always had a range of sexualities and sexual identities. Moreover, research indicates homosexuality was not only practised, but also accepted as normal by communities in Southern Africa.
Many anti-homosexuality laws found in Africa today were actually promulgated by colonial governments and supported by the growing influence of Catholic and Protestant evangelism and an increasingly conservative and rigid interpretation of Islam.
More recently, there has been a phenomenal upsurge in “missionarism” and a significant increase in the number of Pentecostal churches across Africa. Sadly, most Pentecostal and traditional churches promote a fundamentalist reading of the Bible that rejects homosexuality.
As religious organisations gained immeasurable popularity over the years, religious leaders also accumulated substantial influence over politicians. Backed by millions of faithful followers, they have become influential power brokers in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
In a continent afflicted with extreme poverty, economic inequality and hotly contested electoral spaces, policymakers have jumped onto the opportunity of gaining electoral expediency and popularity by simply aligning themselves with religious values and popular religious movements. This allowed religious leaders in Africa to lobby effectively for conservative agendas, including anti-gay policies. This type of religious anti-gay lobbying is particularly rife in Kenya and Uganda.
While religious leaders used their influence over politicians to further their anti-LGBTI agendas, politicians used anti-gay policies and discourses to hide their failings and make their oppressive and anti-democratic methods more palatable to their deeply religious constituents. For example, Museveni’s long and bloody clampdown on political dissent has run parallel with a sustained suppression of LGBTI rights, which helped him sustain the support of country’s prominent religious leaders and their followers.
By targeting LGBTI communities and infusing their sexuality with religious suggestions of grotesque madness and immorality, African leaders seek to deflect attention from their political failings and crimes. And, by peddling the myth that “homosexuality is a western construct”, they are trying to strengthen the belief that western actors are behind all of Africa’s problems, including a litany of homegrown economic disasters.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a failed African politician
African politicians often try to subdue and control peoples robbed of decent livelihoods by promoting pseudo religious and nationalistic values that give them a proud identity, meaningful communal character and comfortable assurance.
Communities deprived of a crucial say in important political matters by dubious and despotic governments can be tricked into a false sense of control and power when they are encouraged to name and supposedly shame individuals wrongfully adjudged to be different and immoral.
It is a sick, mad and twisted political strategy, but it works. Such “us versus them” narratives, usually based on distorted readings of history, religious teachings and cultural values, allow politicians and religious leaders to manipulate and subdue desperately underprivileged masses.
But homophobia, and the vicious and exclusionary social dynamic that promotes it, does not belong in Africa. It is contrary to our African way of life and culture.
It is time for Africa to embrace different sexual identities and sexual practices in a fresh, mature and progressive manner. Former Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a passionate advocate of LGBTI rights and human rights and an anti-apartheid icon, showed the right path long ago when he condemned church groups using religion as a justification for anti-gay violence and discrimination.
“I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this,” Tutu said.
Africans should follow the archbishop’s lead.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Kate McKinnon has claimed another victim on Saturday Night Live: Liev Schreiber.
The guest host put up a good fight, but once McKinnon got going — she was raving about her ghostly encounter as she straddled across two chairs and smashed her butt against Schreiber’s — it was all over.
He never stood a chance. Schreiber broke character and giggled his way through the rest of the sketch. Another classic McKinnon-induced SNL break.
One of the daughters, aged five, is still missing 48 hours later. Another one, an eight-year-old, was rescued and is currently in critical condition at the hospital.
Overall, at least 12 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the flooding, while thousands of tourists were evacuated more from the ancient city of Petra and other popular tourist destinations.
Health officials at al-Nadeem hospital in Madaba, some 30km south of the capital, Amman, told al Jazeera that the cause of death of all 11 victims brought there was drowning.
Among them was Zied al-Saraheen, a 24-year-old shepherd also from Mlaih who was out tending his flock of sheep, and Harith Naser al-Jbour, a civil defence officer who was swept away by the surging waters while trying to save others.
The 12th victim was from the southern city of Maan.
Rescue teams looking for the missing five-year-old girl in Mlaih[Al Jazeera]
The disaster hit as Jordan was still reeling from last month’s flash floods in the Dead Sea area which killed at least 21 people, including many schoolchildren.
According to the state-run Petra news agency, Prime Minister Omar al-Razzaz has been “following up in detailed and accurate manner” the situation in the aftermath of the latest flash floods from the National Center for Security and Crisis Management, a state-of-the-art “war room” created to manage national crises.
Last month, the al-Razzaz government was heavily criticised on social media and in the press for its “mishandling” and its “chaotic” response to the crisis. Two government ministers were forced to resign as a result.
‘Jordan not prepared’
Though flooding is not a new phenomenon in Jordan, the havoc it wrecked over the past few weeks and the large number of victims it caused has raised alarm among experts who warn of dire consequences if the government does not take a number of measures – including land use planning and infrastructure development – to prevent such tragedies.
The frequency of heavy downpours that quickly cause destructive flash floods has increased in recent decades, according to Jordanian water and climate experts.
They say this is directly tied to a chronic lack of urban planning and failed government policies that allowed cities and towns to spread over previously undeveloped land without taking into consideration neither the impact of the urban sprawl on the environment nor the country’s changing climate.
These disorganised expansions have resulted in the creation of “chaotic concrete jungles” that have covered up vast areas in Amman and other cities – land that in the past was absorbing rainfall and turning it into ground water.
Civil defence teams looking for missing persons in Madaba area [Al Jazeera]
Sara Abu Hammour, an Amman-based civil engineer and an environment expert, told Al Jazeera that while climate change affects Jordan like any other country, authorities have not undertaken proper land use planning that would have prepared it for the rising heat in the summer and the increased sudden heavy rainfall in the winter.
She added that the lack of appropriate planning to accommodate a rising population – amid the influx of millions of refugees from neighbouring countries in recent decades – has also strained the country’s infrastructure and created conditions that increase the likelihood of natural disasters.
“Without the open areas that soaked up rainfalls or the presence of modern sewer systems, heavy downpour turns into destructive flash floods,” said Hammour, who is the author of a 2013 scientific study about the impact of climate change in Jordan that proposed rainwater management solutions to prevent flooding.
“Jordan is simply not prepared for what nature has in store for it.”
Government failure
For Amer al-Bashir, a former deputy mayor in Amman and an architect, the recent floods should not have caught authorities off-guard
Citing past floods that hit the Amman region in the 1990s and Petra in the 1960s, he said the government had not learned the lessons from previous disasters due to the absence of proper records documenting previous occurrences of flooding.
“Lack of data”, he told Al Jazeera, “made the country vulnerable to destructive flash floods similar to those that took place in recent weeks.”
Al-Bashir argued that “part of the reasons for such destruction and the tragic loss of life, in addition to the lack of proper planning and natural disaster preparations, is the lack of coordination and communication between the various government agencies”.
Jordanian civil defence officers searching for survivors in Mlaih [Al Jazeera]
For his part, Tharwat al-Masalha, a former commissioner of the Petra region, pointed to the lack of geological and hydrological studies needed to help create mechanisms to identify where flash floods are more likely to occure.
He pointed to an-early warning system installed during his tenure at Petra Infrastructure Authority to guard against sudden flash floods – a tool, he said, that to his knowledge is not in use elsewhere in the country.
Al-Masalha said the particular location of Petra, an important archeological site surrounded by more than 1,600 metres of elevation, makes it susceptible to sudden flooding.
Because of its topography, he said, authorities “installed gages in the upstream areas that would send alarm signals to a control station should the level of rain reach a certain level”.
“The system”, he added, “kicked in and was the key factor in averting a catastrophic situation enabling the local authorities to evacuate about 4,000 foreign tourists from the path of flash floods.”
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