Our right to a breath of a fresh air

Car-free day once a month

When it all begun…

Before it even hit us, when it was only in the news COVID-19 was a nightmare for me- don’t get me wrong; it still is. But every time I heard of it I ran out of breath, I felt that my lungs are getting tighter and tighter and I couldn’t catch my breath anymore. Growing up with hygiene first militant mother, germs and viruses were my worst enemy since 1989. Although where I grew up we were rocking the COVID-19 trends of washing grocery bags and attacking everything and everyone with sanitizers since as long as I remember, but frankly dealing with the new lifestyle was too much even for me. Little did we know that my mom’s hygiene routine will become our ordinary basic life activity - ON A MASS PUBLIC LEVEL!

Then in one moonless night, things got worse and started to escalate rapidly here in Jordan. Wise decisions were made instantly; social distancing was on, quarantine, curfew and complete lock downs took place and panic hit the fan! We all made wrong decisions of over stocking the wrong options and our lives turned from all natural and organic to cans and long life goods. Nevertheless, when we had more time with ourselves, we got better… we discovered the little chefs residing inside us, we walked walked and walked, bicycles were out and we finally met our neighbors! We finally heard the birds, discovered the roads  and saw how pretty Amman is in spring. The natural resort life reached me even when I’m living in the middle of the city! Oh man, it felt so good and I felt so clean like never before.

That being said, once life is back to its old normal, wouldn’t you want to do that all over again? Wouldn’t you love to give our beloved environmentally unfriendly cars a break? Teach your little ones how to ride their bicycles in a car-free road, walk to your friend’s house, have your daily workout in the beautiful streets of Amman, smell the fresh air and run freely to discover more roads? I personally do. In many countries (Examples: Paris and Italy) they have that lucky day once a month! Sign the petition if you’d like to live that car-free day once a month here in Amman during spring and summer and let’s see if we can make it happen! Let’s all make it happen! Let’s fight air pollution at least once a month! One step towards preserving our natural existence -  Baby steps they say…

Follow the link to sign the petition: http://chng.it/YSCfXXWVLj

Let's help each other in making our city cleaner and brighter.

NOTE: This Petition will be sent to the Greater Amman Municipality, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Transport.

Ala Khalil

Editied by the brilliant: Dalia Alborno