jordan pulse -

By Prof. Ali Hayasat

In recent days, Jordanian, Saudi, and Palestinian media have been competing over the “nationality” of chemist Omar Yaghi, who recently won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry — each side trying to claim him as a new badge of national pride. This debate reveals more than it hides: we are not seeking the essence of creativity, but symbolic ownership of it. While we ask “what is his nationality?”, the advanced world asks “how can we an environment that produces a thousand Yaghis?”

Creativity does not stem from nationality, ethnicity, or a passport. It grows from a free, supportive educational and research environment that respects curiosity and allows trial and error. Yaghi, like many Arab innovators, is a product of the system that nurtured his intellect — not the borders he was born within. The universities that opened their labs and the institutions that respected his mind made him what he is — not symbolic patriotism or slogans.

While the world races toward clean energy, AI, and space exploration, we in Jordan are still preoccupied with endless discussions about “traditions and customs” at weddings and funerals. The problem is not in refining social behaviour, but in the direction of our collective thinking. Others focus their dialogues on research, education, and innovation — we focus on appearances, not substance. Their discussions build the future; ours preserve the past.

The real difference between us and societies that produce Nobel laureates is not individual intelligence, but the structure of collective thought. Elsewhere, the conversation revolves around “how to improve universities, motivate students, and fund innovation.” Here, we spend weeks debating celebratory gunfire, the number of mansafs at weddings and funerals, and the size of tribal delegations — social rituals that drain our energy without adding value. There, minds are steered toward the future; here, they are employed in maintaining the past.

So when a creative mind like Omar Yaghi emerges from our region, our first instinct is to ask: Which tribe? Which city? Which nationality? — instead of How did you succeed, and how can we replicate it in Jordan? With this mindset, our innovators will remain exceptions — celebrated briefly, then forgotten.

It is time to move from symbolic pride to real progress — from discussing traditions to building an environment that produces knowledge. Societies that scientists don’t just celebrate individuals; they establish systems that make creativity a habit, not an accident. When we reach that point, we won’t argue over “Yaghi’s origins,” because we’ll be too busy creating new Yaghis — not claiming the honour of their ancestry.