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#41
07-06-2004, 09:21 PM
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Quote:
 [/b][/quote]When you go to Getty images and search for rania’s pic’s you will find out that only *three* photographers (most of the time) are allowed to take pic’s of rania and Abdullah. Description says that picture is given out by rania’s office or royal palace. |
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#43
07-06-2004, 09:42 PM
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Thank you for your explanation, but I'm still not certain what you mean by this comment or where you are going with it? Do you mean that because it's the same 2-3 photographers taking pictures of Rania at official events they are doing a poor job by not depicting Rania in the best light? Or that they are doing the opposite, and doing a good job by showing Rania helping Jordanians? |
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#44
07-06-2004, 09:47 PM
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Quote:
Do you mean that because it's the same 2-3 photographers taking pictures of Rania at official events they are doing a poor job by not depicting Rania in the best light? Or that they are doing the opposite, and doing a good job by showing Rania helping Jordanians? [/b][/quote] The point is that the paparazzi not always run to the rania to get a picture, she run to them. Rania seems to me that she is desperate to get attention. Why would she give pic’s to the photo agency?  |
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#46
07-06-2004, 09:53 PM
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More excess on their part. |
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#47
07-06-2004, 09:54 PM
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It look likes the Princess Diana epidemic has seeped into the Hashemites. Di also manipulated the paparazzi, posing certian ways, wearing certain clothes, or having her friends drop hints so that she could grab their attention. This was her way of remaining in the headlines; even though she would "complain" that the press were a headache for her. She loved the attention! Now, Rania? It's a chame.
Di is now getting attention she didn't want. Her so called friends and servants are letting everything hang out. Rania may find herself in the same boat: friends, confidantes, servants throwing all her dirty laundry to wind. |
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#49
07-06-2004, 10:00 PM
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As I was making my above post and now after reading bluetortuga's post about the "Diana syndrome," it made me wonder this: Do people think that perhaps Rania is insecure in her role and has low self-esteem and thus feels the need to have a stable of photographers capture her every move, and to dress in the most expensive clothes, and to have all eyes on her everywhere she goes? Also, the need to push out Queen Noor who was well liked, or at least hard working in her role as the former Queen of Jordan?
It seems to me that these are indicators of an individual who is insecure in her position, unsure of how to tackle the problems before her, someone who lacks confidence in herself and her abilities. Perhaps Rania has an inferiority complex? I must admit that I am not too familiar with the Queens who preceeded Queen Noor and how well they handled their roles, but from what I do know about Queen Noor, she seems to have left big shoes to fill, and perhaps Rania is uncertain in how to go about filling out even half of Noor's shoes? It seems that Rania feels she has a lot to prove to herself, Abdullah, Noor, the Jordanian government and people, that she is capable of this role. And part of her confidence is perhaps manifested in the expensive clothes? I am very curious to know what others think of my little "theory." |
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#50
07-06-2004, 10:01 PM
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The only friends and confidants that talk about KA and QR are those that they ask to... when they interview them, there is always some 'friend' that talks about how modern they are... or recalls a tidbit of them as 'youngsters'.... like the one that said she was walking down the streets with Rania - while still in college - and a photographer wanted to take them off to Europe to become models...... or that KA loves to cook at his house and invite friends over.... or the cousin that seems to be in every interview talking about KA and QR's partnership..... those are the kinds of stories their 'friends' tell...
Diana used to have an assistant that gave the press detailed lists of which designer she was wearing, what she was there to promote, etc.... she did manipulate the press... and then the press couldn't get enough of her... |
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#51
07-06-2004, 10:15 PM
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I don't know much about Queen Zein... she did have a lot of influence over KH and was a real force behind the throne and in the Family..
Queen Dina was Queen for less that 2 years.... Princess Muna was usually in the background.. When Queen Noor ascended the throne - she was coming in after the death of the very beautiful and very loved Queen Alia... Queen Alia from what I have read was the daughter of a Jordanian Ambassador who was credited by the first King Abdullah of being 'one of the founding fathers of Jordan'.. Many of the programs Queen Noor is famous for starting - according to Princess Haya's former official website were all ideas and projects started by her late Mother.. Queen Alia was said to have been adored by her people because she was very in touch with them - often going on visits and working to better Jordan. She was not visibly independent because she never wanted to upstage her husband.. she felt that the Queen's role was behind the scene and didn't believe in seeking publicity for her work... she died in a helicopter crash after visiting a hospital that was in severe need of help.. despite the fact there was terrible weather and her husband asked her to postpone the visit - she went because the people needed a hospital...... Queen Noor had tremendous shoes to fit because by then Queen Alia was like a much Loved Legend.. but I don't think she ever tried to cover up what Alia meant to KH and to Jordan... she seemed to try and make her own way... I don't know if QR is insecure... actually she seems really, really confident... an insecure person wouldn't chalk up criticism to 'jealousy'... she does or did have big shoes to fill - but she is Palestinian and Muslim from a well connected Family - so she came in with bigger advantages than Queen Noor.. she dresses that way because she likes it... she lives that way because she likes it... she can so she does... she thinks highly of herself and has said that KA is not intimidated by her.... |
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#52
07-06-2004, 10:37 PM
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History of Queen Alia : Queen Noor's Predecessor: (info from Princess Haya's site Team Harmony)......
"The Toukan family originally came from Nablus, it was Baha Uddin Toukan’s father who moved his family to Salt, north of Amman where he started his political career as a Major. He was referred to by King Abdullah the first “as one of the founding father’s of my Kingdom” because of his devotion and hard work. Baha Uddin Toukan was nominated first secretary in the government, and he was at the head of the English speaking delegation that went to Britain with King Abdullah to negotiate the Independence of Jordan, formerly TransJordan, and sign the agreement under which the country will be known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. After he was appointed as Jordan’s first General Council to Jerusalem, he was then posted as Jordan’s Ambassador to Egypt and then to Turkey. In Turkey, Hanan Toukan,Baha Uddin Toukan’s wife, gave birth to her youngest son, “Abdullah”. Notably this child was born during King Abdullah’s official trip to Turkey, and the King named him himself. He was the last child to be named by King Abdullah I, who died shortly after at Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son, King Talal. King Talal kept Baha Uddin Toukan as his Ambassador to Turkey. A year later, when King Hussein was crowned, the Toukan family was asked to come back to Amman, and King Hussein named Baha Uddin as Deputy to the Foreign Ministry. He served at the Foreign Ministry for one year before he was assigned as Jordan’s Ambassador to London for three years. Following this post in London, he was appointed as Jordan’s first Ambassador to the United Nations. Afterwards, he returned with his family to Jordan, where he spent six years before he was reassigned as Jordan’s Ambassador to Rome for five and a half years. His last post abroad was Jordan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, for a second time. Then he returned to Jordan to be elected Senator three times, before retiring in the mid 1980’s. Hanan Toukan, nee Hashem, came from a great Naboulsi family as well. The Hashems were the descendents of Jaafar Al Tayar. Hanan was the niece of “Ibrahim Basha Hashem” who wrote the constitution of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and served as Prime Minister of the country several times. It was the late King Hussein, who said, "She was a Queen before I ever married, bred and brought up by her own family to be a true Queen of this land." It was in Cairo on the 25th of December 1948 that Alia Baha Uddin Toukan was born, her father being the Jordanian Ambassador to Egypt. Alia was one year old when King Hussein first saw her. The King was thirteen years old and was on his way to attend Victoria College in Egypt. He used to spend the school holidays and most of the weekends at the Ambassador’s residence where, as he told me later, he used to play with my mother and help my Grandmother Hanan Toukan babysitting her! Alia moved with her family from one country to another as her father changed his Diplomatic appointments throughout her childhood. She attended different schools and consequently learned several languages and made many friends. As the Toukan family settled in Rome for five years, she attended the University of Loyola in Rome where she studied Political Science and graduated with a degree before moving back to Jordan. There, at a wedding of the “Maadi” family, my Father saw my Mother again after many years. She and her family arrived late at the wedding. My Father was already seated, next to His Royal Highness Sharif Zeid Bin Shaker. As she came in, he turned to ask him who she was. Sharif Zeid answered him, “That’s Alia Toukan! Baha’s daughter.” He went over to her and told her that just the thought he was, not long ago, playing with her when she was only one year old at the Jordanian Embassy in Cairo made him feel so old! As they were chatting, he was asked to open the buffet. He asked her, in turn, if she would join him. She agreed and they opened the buffet together. That incident was the start of their re-aquaintence. They kept in touch and their friendship developed throughout her father’s next appointment to New York. In NY, she attended Hunter College and graduated with a Masters Degree in Business and Public Relations, and a minor degree in Psychology. Her dream at that time was to be a diplomat like her father. That was a dream that would come true in a way, but perhaps not the way she thought it would. After the return of the Toukan family from New York to Amman, Alia started work in “Alia Airlines” in the Public Relations Department. She had worked there for two months, when King Hussein requested her to organise the Water Ski Championships in Aqaba, which was sponsored by “Alia Airlines” (note Alia Airlines is named after King Hussein’s eldest daughter HRH Princess Alia Bint Al Hussein.) Alia, my mother, took control and organized the whole event, together with Simon Khoury,the Lebanese World Champion in Water Skiing. He was a good friend of my father, and was based in Aqaba. Six months later, King Hussein was engaged to Alia Baha Uddin Toukan. After a four-month engagement period they were married, on the 24th of December 1971,one day before my mother’s birthday. December would be our lucky month especially that HRH Prince Ali was also born in December (1975). So we have three consecutive days of celebrations in December: the 23rd, Ali’s birthday; the 24th, my parents wedding anniversary and the 25th, my mother’s birthday. It was an on going joke in our house that it was lucky my father, Abir, and I had birthdays in other months just to find a reason for celebration at a different time of the year. I (Princess Haya) asked her many times, "Mama how to become Queen? Can I become a Queen like you when I grow up?" She would laugh, "You are a queen to your father and to me, and one day you will be a queen to the man you love, and who loves you back Inshallah. But remember titles mean nothing; it's only what you have inside that means everything." Abir was my mother’s first child. My mother was four months pregnant with me when she adopted Abir. I found an interview explaining the circumstances that led to Abir becoming my older sister… “It all started.” She said, “When I had problems with my wisdom teeth in July and could not join His Majesty on his visit to London. In the King Hussein Medical Centre were I had my teeth removed the nurses told me about a little girl who survived a tragic accident. She and her father were her family’s only survivors when their home, on the edge of Amman airport, was destroyed by a Soviet Topilov aircraft that crashed on it. Her mother, brothers and sisters were all killed in the accident. It was a miracle that she survived. When they took her out from under the rubble and the aeroplane itself they thought she was also dead. The poor girl was lying there for four hours when they realized that she was alive. They took her to hospital. She was all covered with sand and dust so they had to clean her up first. When I first saw her she was still very sick.” Mama spoke to Abir’s father. He told her that he could not bring up Abir by himself and he was going to put her in an orphanage. My mother asked him if she could take care of her. He agreed and was so touched that he cried on her shoulder for two hours, in the hospital. Mama fell in love with Abir straightaway. At her request specialists flew in from around the world to try and save her life. “She would not respond, no matter what they did.” “They thought she would never survive, but she has a strong heart…. I don’t know… I just carried her in my arms until the day she started to get better, and I was able to take her home. I promised myself not to let anything hurt her again. When His Majesty came home from London, he found me crying with relief, and holding a baby in my arms. His Majesty and I have had her sleeping in our bed, trying to give her our strength, and hoping that our love will keep her alive. She had been very sick for the first five weeks, she had measles and pneumonia. Then she started to improve slowly. Now she is stable, and she has her own bedroom next to ours, the same bedroom we prepared for the baby that I am expecting.” When asked if Abir would move to another bedroom once the baby is born, she answered “Of course not, God blessed us with our first child, and that child is Abir. Her sister or brother will be brought up loving her as if she was my own flesh and blood. She will never be taken away from me.” In another interview with my mother she was asked about my impending birth and how she felt about having her first child, her answer was “I already had my first child.” When my mother died, Abir and I took shifts holding Ali at night. Sometimes I would wake up in those days, which were like a long nightmare and we only slept when sleep was kind enough to come, only to find her sitting over me blinking her tired red eyes from crying and lack of sleep. I would ask her “What are you doing up? Why aren’t you sleeping?” She would hug me and say “Mama watched over me, and I am going to watch over you forever, the same way she did to me.” Abir has grown into a beautiful young woman who would have made my mother proud of her. She is incredibly intelligent, witty and one of the most tender and thoughtful people I have ever known. Her heart is so full of love and affection. She has spent much of her time helping orphans, whom she says were not so fortunate as she was. She completed a Masters Degree in counseling and now works with children and young people dealing with their recruitments for Scholarships in American Universities. I smiled when I read how Abir fought for her own life when she was only six months old. Reading about it in my mother’s own words made me understand one thing that had always amazed me, about Abir. She is never bitter and does not dwell over her losses. She is always grateful for what God gave her. She lost her own mother, then mine, then Maureen our Nanny, then my father, and yet she always smiles, and thanks God for what she has. My mother would have been proud to see how much dignity and compassion her first child has even after all the unhappiness fate has thrown her way. Ali was “the light of his mother’s eyes”. I don’t really remember his birth, except that it was in winter. Since the day he was born my mother never let go of him. She found arms to hold us all, but she had a special love for Ali. I remember the day she died, Ali was trying hard to stand up on his feet, without quite managing it. She spent the last hours before she left in the helicopter to Tafileh Hospital with Ali. We were all sitting outside Baba’s office, and for hours she held him and helped him stand. Finally, for a few seconds, he managed to find his balance with her protective arms ready to catch him. The last thing she said to Ali echoed in my mind for years “Oh my Darling Ali, now that you can stand on your own feet, I can leave you for a while.” My mother left home later on that afternoon on board a helicopter, despite my father’s warnings about the bad weather. It got worse though, it got a lot worse. Wind, thunder and lightening always remind me of that night, but the storm that night was by far the worst I have ever seen. My mother insisted on going because she read an article in the newspaper describing the bad condition the hospital was in, and how desperate the people were over there for help. She visited the hospital which was really in a terrible state and was so touched she had tears in her eyes. I have watched the video of her last visit many times since. Her helicopter crashed on the way back home. My mother was Queen of Jordan for five and a half years. I was not able to find many interviews of her over the years, because of a simple belief she had. She used to tell me that she was Queen only because she was my father’s wife. She would do her best to be a Mother for the Nation, but that Nation was my Father. She appeared publicly only with him, and never gave interviews unless he was by her side, or with his permission. Most of the interviews I have found were concerning the statements she gave when she adopted my sister Abir, or gave birth to my brother Prince Ali, and myself. Her work was practically all nationally based, except for the Arab Woman’s Forum. She was mainly interested in children related issues including child development in the country; health care and hospital administration and upgrading the medical facilities in the country. It was one of her dreams, a dream she ended up dying for, to make Jordan the most advanced country in relation to medical health in the Middle East. Through her, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman donated the funds necessary for the New Heart Centre in the King Hussein Medical Centre. Today this Centre is still one of the leading medical institutions in the country. When my mother passed away, my father renamed the Center after her to be known thereafter as “The Queen Alia Heart Centre”. In harmony with the Arab Woman’s Forum, my mother believed very much in actual work rather than appearances. She did much research and built several libraries in the country. In addition to the numerous benefits of libraries, she wanted to create employment to help women from poor backgrounds to become self-sufficient. That type of employment was particularly suitable for Jordanian women. She also started a huge movement of arts and crafts and a cultural reawakening, that would also provide women with income, as well as help to preserve the Jordanians traditions. Furthermore, she hoped that the charitable organisations in the country would produce these handicrafts and provide themselves with a steady income rather than rely on donations. The year before she died she started working on three projects. The first was stemming from the cultural drive that she had started and included “The Haya Art Centre for Child Development”. It is a cultural centre built entirely from funds donated by Iran and based on an idea initiated by Nabil Swalha. She came up with the idea of organising an art festival that would link Arab artists and people creating handicrafts together in Jordan once a year for a ten or fifteen days period. She thought at first of Petra as best venue for the festival. However, after assessing the means of transport and the capacity of the Red Rose City in relation to accommodation for a large number of people, she opted against it and decided the festival should be held in Jerash. That project was in its final stages when she died. Five years later, my Father asked HM Queen Noor to finish this project. The second project was in the medical field, and she working very hard on this project too. It was concerning people with hearing difficulties and speech impediments. She felt that much attention was given to the blind in the Arab world, but not enough to those with hearing deficiencies. She was in the final stages of her research when she passed away and had even made contact with the Italian government seeking help and donations of machines. After she died, her mother Hanan Toukan founded the Society in her daughter’s memory. It became one of the foremost Hearing and Speech institutions in the region. The third project she was working on was to create a fund for the purpose of helping the poor and needy in the country. Her aim was to make people self-sufficient and this fund would help people in Jordan, Jordanians and Palestinian Refugees alike, to find employment. With this project she hoped to build stable homes, provide centres of education for their children and help the existing charitable organisations in Jordan with their own fundraising. Again she died before she could make this a reality. After her death, my father asked his sister HRH Princess Basma by Royal Decree to take over this project and he named it “The Queen Alia Fund.” He told me once: a person never dies if we continue to help people in his memory after he is gone in the same way he did when he was alive. When you miss your mother remember that through this fund, she will always live in the spirit she deserves. Despite all her work, my Mother spent most of her time working from home. She did not have, nor did she want, an office in the Royal Court. Instead she would spend the afternoons with us, her friends coming in and out of the house. Most of the time wearing her favourite white T-shirt with big red letters on it saying, “I love King Hussein.”and a pair of red jeans that she still had from her days in Rome. Her hair was always lifted up away from her face, she wore no make up and she was always holding a pen in her hand. She had a nurse from the King Hussein Medical Centre, to help her in the early days. Then we had a babysitter called Maureen. Maureen became a member of the family but she tragically died only months after my mother in a motorcycle accident. For Abir, Ali, and I it felt like our second mother had died. When my mother used to come home from her visits, she would take charge of us. It meant whoever was looking after us had to leave for the rest of the day. The afternoons were ours. She cooked and took care of us and waited for baba to come home. The house echoed all the time with the sound of her laughter. She had a laugh that would make you laugh too, even when you did not know what she was laughing about. She loved jokes, and she was always playing tricks on people. She laughed even more when others played tricks on her. She loved sports, and she was very athletic. She played basketball, football and enjoyed skiing and water-skiing. she always told me, “Its ok to do sports like a boy, as long as you know how and when you need to be a lady , there is a time for everything.” I asked her many times, “Mama how to become Queen? Can I become a Queen like you when I grow up?” She would laugh, “You are a queen to your father and to me, and one day you will be a queen to the man you love, and who loves you back Inshallah. But remember titles mean nothing; it’s only what you have inside that means everything. It means your love for God, your country and your family. You must always be yourself, never pretend because you think you have a title. Your title is on a piece of paper, on a page of a history book, no more than that. If you respect yourself and other people respect you, that is all that counts. Every Jordanian is your brother or sister, and they are all Princes and Princesses to us because we love them like we love you.” Her answer was always the same, and it usually ended with a big kiss and a hug. "" |
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#53
07-07-2004, 12:23 AM
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I think that is definately the cause of some of her insecurities. I dont know if you meant the same thing. |
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#55
07-07-2004, 09:56 AM
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If anyone shouldn't have worn an "immodest" outfit, it is Abdullah, here: http://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/speci...pagina_7_6.html
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#56
07-09-2004, 09:43 PM
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Thank you QueenB for your summary of the wives of King Hussein and Queens of Jordan before Noor. Within more recent history, Queen Alia seems to be the most impressive of all the Queens, followed by Queen Noor in my opinon of those who worked hard to improve life in Jordan for everyone, rather than just themselves.
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