Jordan Times
Sunday, July 4, 2004
Postal stamps to reflect Kingdom's history,
culture and civilisation
By Jumana Bississo
AMMAN — The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MoICT) has
completed the initial draft of Jordan's first postal stamp policy, MoICT
Secretary General Nadia Saeed announced late last week.
“Stamps are little icons that reflect our achievements and heritage, and they
also provide means to communicate Jordanian identity worldwide, with this in
mind we prepared the policy,” Saeed said in a statement.
In the hopes of revamping the postal service sector — a one-time offshoot of the
ministry — the policy aims to establish guidelines and principles to regulate
the issuing of stamps across the Kingdom, set the necessary criteria pertaining
to subject matter represented on the stamps, submit an annual issuance plan, as
well as increase public participation in the stamp-image overhaul, according to
Saeed.
The ministry has set up an official postal stamp website — www.stamps.gov.jo —
to encourage citizen participation and feedback on possible stamp designs and
images. Though still under construction, the website will be up and running in
one month, explained Sami Hammoudeh, head of postal policy at the ministry.
“We want Jordanians to take part in the process... to recapture the excitement
and importance of stamps that has been lost,” Saeed told journalists.
These “little icons” have a big task ahead of them, including branding Jordan,
demonstrating the country's progressive development, and fostering further
public interest in stamps in general, according to an MoICT statement.
“[Stamps] should remain true to Jordan, its culture and traditions. In order for
them to play a more prominent role in history, they will focus more on
story-telling Jordan's past,” Saeed said.
The task lies in the hands of the Postal Stamps Committee, formed by the MoICT.
The committee — headed by Saeed — comprises six prominent intellectuals, artists
and historians, including professor of archaeology and Islamic architecture
Ghazi Bisheh, architect Ammar Khammash, head of the Philatelic Department in
Jordan Post Company Muath Alem, designer and architect Maisa Bataineh,
archaeologist Mohammad Najjar, and photographer Zohrab Markarian.
The panel will evaluate and select the appropriate subject matter satisfying
policy objectives, and launch the first edition collection, ranging from Arabian
horses and mosaics to the Black Iris — which is the Kingdom's national flower —
and artwork by schoolchildren.
The Kingdom's new stamps will be issued in approximately three months' time but
the first edition collection will be made available at post offices in one
month. By early next year, the complete plan will be issued, according to Saeed.
“With more than two million domestic letters being mailed everyday out of
Jordan, stamps play an integral part in representing our Kingdom,” Hammoudeh
said.