Jordan’s Young Crown Prince Represents Hope, But Future May Be Bleak for His Generation

Despite efforts by the Jordanian monarchy to establish Crown Prince Hussein as a young leader who can modernize the country and empower its young population, nearly half of all young Jordanians are unemployed, and many see no hope for change. Jordan’s failing public sector has also left the state with limited funding for health and education, and efforts to slow public hiring and cut subsidies have eroded the social contract that kept citizens compliant. Though the recent royal wedding generated momentary excitement, it also highlighted the vast gulf between the prince’s life of privilege and the daily struggles of most Jordanians his age. Among these are Jaser Alharasis, who founded a programme teaching robotics in failing public schools despite the absence of bankruptcy laws and social enterprise regulations in Jordan; Saif al-Bazaiah, who struggles to make ends meet as an unemployed youth in a country where the divide between the wealthy and the impoverished is starkly visible; an anonymous Arabic teacher who lamented that now it’s terrifying. The pressures are getting tighter and tighter, in a country where the government has cracked down on teachers’ spirited protests for better pay; and Mariam Hudaib, an aid worker who earned her job through fluency in English and sharp research skills but is among the nearly half of all young Jordanians who want to leave.