Amman FastWalk is becoming one of the latest trends in Amman, as the number of participants is rapidly increasing, I tried it only once to be honest but i had lots of notes that i kind of shared with the organizer Mowaffaq Maraqa in my "fast" walking chit chat with him.
It all started when I heard that the number of walkers is going beyond 500, I didn't believe it at first, until I went there last Wednesday and checked it myself, I was really shocked that walkers were around 800 and my first impression was oh my god this is too much this is dangerous!! I kind of came up with a funny conclusion as "Ammanies" are so much into "show off" and trends, I concluded this is all because its called "FastWalk", if it was called "mashi saree3 [arabic translation]" no one would even know about it, just like the other trend: "Cycling", when it was called "lo3ob 3al baskalait" it was not a preferred activity by many, as it was kind of "vulgar" or something, but now it's "Cycling" so it's different, people would wonder how come you don't go Cycling and how come you don't have Cycling Photo Albums on your Facebook! the use of English fancy names is how "Ammanies" get tempted.
Back to FastWalk, when it first started i was a bit upset of the huge number crossing streets, as we made couple of traffic jams on main streets, one old Jordanian man who was sitting in some bus waiting us to cross the street was shocked enough to get heart attack and he asked me: "where are you all coming from? where are you all heading? [3ammo wain bagyeen ento? wain ray7een?]" I just could not answer that wise old man, People was kind of freaking out while watching this huge number of people walking down their houses, and I don't blame them at all, i might act the same if i saw 1000 people walking in the street, i would think there's a fight or something. another incident happened when couple of women stopped their car asking me: "what are you doing? I was like: Walking, they asked: is it like a university/school event or what? I said no it's open for all", I don't know why everyone was asking me such questions, and policemen were making fun and kidding with me, maybe because i was the only one who had a "Shmagh Mhaddab" on!! (so all of you walkers can recognize me now LOL).
As I previously mentioned, I had a "Fast" walking chit chat with the organizer Mowaffaq Maraqa at the end of the track, and it went as follows:
Q. Do you mind writing a review of FastWalk on my (1000+ visitor a day) Jordanian Blog with criticism flavor?
A. Nice, no I don't mind
Q. When was your first FastWalk event?
A. 3 years ago
Q. Really? I recently heard of it! how and when did it get famous?
A. we were only 20 - 30 walkers, but early this year Al Jazeerah Channel made a report of the activity and after that numbers got rapidly increasing.
Q. What is your main objective of this activity?
A. Changing culture, making Fast Walking more of a habit, and gathering all social levels together, rich and poor.
Q. Do you see any negative sides of this event, have you ever faced a trouble during FastWalk?
A. No
Finally, I would list Pros and Cons I noticed, plus couple of suggestions to maintain Pros and avoid Cons below:
Amman FastWalk pros: healthy activity for participants, trying to inject more discipline and systematic behaviors in Jordanian Culture, gathering multiple Social Levels of the Jordanian Community in one activity.
Amman FastWalk cons: creating traffic jams especially in main streets, gathering such huge amount of people in the street is dangerous as it will be easy for trouble makers to do their business, people living safely in their homes would freak out when seeing huge number of people walking beside them!
How can we maintain pros and avoid cons? by controlling the number of walkers to be 200 at max, all should be organized and systematized so they don't slowly walk and scatter in the streets, or you can even categorize them as per their ages!! as i don't see any need to gather 1000+ walkers in order to achieve FastWalk objectives, controlling the number of participants will inject health and discipline into Jordanian Community without causing troubles or making it easier to troubles to happen. so all objectives of FastWalk would be achieved, and drawbacks would be avoided. besides, controlling the number of walkers would help you decide how many organizers or volunteers you would need, leaving it open will only make it harder to organize and easier for troubles to occur. [if you see any need or benefit of gathering 1000+ walkers, pros and cons, please share them with us]
