European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 23, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 or. A Wal " svs i jux -. Vhf a "4/ v. ? a j i like the Freedom. I like the peace. I want to die in this Black tent says Sheik Ahmad Hamad Al Gulsam of Jordan by John Rice associated Pressa Way of life 6,000 years old is fading away in the arabian desert As nomadic bedouin tribesmen Settle Down. Today s ships of the desert Are trucks not camels. It is dying and it s a shame says Sheik Mohammed Trad Al Shaalan leaning against a Pillow in a Woven tent open to a sprawling Vista of the Barren jordanian desert near Al Feida. Al Shaalan is a Leader of the Wallah tribe which has roamed for hundreds of years across land now divided by the Borders of Syria Iraq Jordan and saudi Arabia. Of some 200,000 Wallah clansmen i would say less than 5 percent Are still moving even less than that the Sheik says. Al Shaalan says perhaps a third of them Are partly nomadic the women or children living in town while the husband lives in a tent and follows the herds of goats and sheep. As Al Shaalan Speaks about 100 camels slowly Glide by in the distance led by a Wallah tribesman. Al Shabaan s own four wheel drive vehicle with custom wheel rims is parked beside the tent not far from the Perch of two tethered Hunting Falcons. The Camel has become More a status Symbol than a necessity. Today trucks kick up plumes of dust Over the hard floored jordanian desert Miles from any roads. They carry water livestock and tents from one site to another making it easier for bedouins to reach their herds from fixed campsites or villages Many of which have sprung up around Wells and schools provided by governments throughout the Region. Greater mobility and government services have encouraged the bedouins to Settle As have a Long drought and the problems of crossing Borders. As people Are Able to travel farther they Don t have to move As much in terms of their residences says Don Henry a University of Tulsa Pale oncologist who has lived among modern Day bedouins in Jordan while studying their ancestors. Women always like to get away from the hardship of living in a tent and moving every Day or every week and having to collect branches for cooking fires Al Shaalan says. They prefer to be living in a House with electricity and Gas ovens and to have bread coming from the  do Khader a bedouin woman in the Hills South of Amman agrees. Of lord How i love the Cement House she says. I m rid of the  about two in five jordanians were nomadic bedouins in the 1920s and 1930s. Today the government estimates that less than one in 20 still follows the old Way of life. I think what you re seeing is the last of the Mohi cans says Kamel Abu Jaber a University of Jordan political scientist who led a Survey of bedouins in the late 1970s. It never crossed my mind to leave the tent and live in a House says Sheik Ahmad Hamadi Al Gulsam. I like the Freedom. I like the peace. I want to die in this Black  but like Many bedouins Al Gulsam says he keeps his children in a nearby town where they can go to school. Two have already graduated and joined the army a favored occupation for a martial people who once treated raiding As a sort of sport. Inside his Black Goat hair tent the Sheik offers visitors the cardamom spiced bedouin Coffee and repeated cups of sugary Tea from pots kept steaming on the fragrant bed of coals before him. A pet cat stalks out from behind a Bamboo screen that sets off the women s quarters within. The sound of Small children giggling and chatting drifts through the Reeds. Al Shaalan in addition to his tent has a House in Remote Ai Feida and sends his children to school in Amman where he says they Are closer to health care and other services. Al Shaalan himself studied management at Biscayne College in Miami a Catholic school since renamed St. Thomas University. Henry says nomadic herders broke away into the desert from Small farming settlements in Jordan some 6,000 years ago although it is unclear if those ancient people were the same As today s bedouins. Even so he says it s just uncanny the number of parallels you see Between 6,000-year-old Camps and the ones you see occupied  camels arrived at perhaps 2,000 to 1,500 b.c., making it possible for the nomads to Range farther into the arid expanses of Arabia. Scholars say the bedouins have developed a Complex and sophisticated culture while living beyond the reach of governments. Their complicated system of unwritten Laws based on intensely Felt Honor and hospitality operates even today alongside formal Laws. Crimes such As murder or rape once could Lead to bloodshed and often today still require restitution to the victim an element often missing in Western Law. Al Shaalan says the offenders also might be banished from the tribe a stiff penalty in a society where identity is based on the clan. For lesser crimes a Man would be disgraced not be presented with a cup of Coffee in a group like this. His sister would not be married to a dignified person Shaalan says. But the Sheik says the old ways Are eroding As bedouins Settle. Living in a City has made people lose a great Deal of their dignity generosity truth in  have acquired the bad habits of the City Shaalan complains. In the City people Are becoming very Busy so generosity is lost. You can t just come to a tent and enter and whoever is there serves you food and  Al Shaalan compares bedouin Virtues to those of Rural americans. I really Felt As if i was in a bedouin society when i was in Oregon in the country when i was in Tennessee close to the Smokey mountains he says. When i went to the big cities i Felt like i was in a  bedouin values even weakened continue to permeate Arab society. Hospitality is prize. Families Are tight and behaviour is bound by codes of Honor. Consensus is preferred to majority Rule. I m fairly convinced that being bedouin is not a Way of life at All. Its a political ideology says William Lancaster a British anthropologist who spent several years living with the Wallah. Monday january 23, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 13