Rose tinted glasses?

I just started a new job, working for an amazing NGO here, I have only been here for a week, so I still don't know that much about how it works and what it does. But I have been learning quite a bit, and the most amazing thing for me right now is the field work. I have been to a Women's centre in Madaba and to three different villages in Mafra'. I went to visit the pockets of poverty-for those of you who don't know that that is, it is a project set up by the Ministry of Planning, where they have mapped out the areas in the Kingdom that suffer the most poverty and then bring in different NGOs to come and help resolve some of the issues faces the people.
What this NGO is trying to do in these areas is quite amazing, its to train that people that whatever their needs are the government has a responsibility towards us as its citizens. We pay taxes and thus they have to provide services. I have always thought that one of the things that is a real issues for us here in the Middle East, is the fact that our civil society seems to be taking over some of the duties of the government, providing schools, health centres, etc.. What we as a people need to do is to start asking, no, demanding that our government steps up. And it should not be because we are from a certain family, tribe, or town...we should not base our requests on the fact that we are 'Jordanian-Jordanian' or 'Palestinian-Jordanian'...but purely that we are citizens and under the law in this country our government has to provide these things.
But what was really amazing for me, is the complete culture shock...I have been living in Jordan-or to be more correct Amman-for 5 years before I went to university in the UK, but what I realised is that I am not really Jordanian...or to be more accurate I have no idea what the majority of Jordanians have to deal with on a daily basis.
I have been to schools where they flood in winter from the sewage, where teachers still hit-with sticks and on the bottom of the feet-where they do not have curtains-so it gets really hot in summer and really cold in winter-where the windows can't be opened, so if the door is closed the class-room becomes stuffy. I have been to health centres where they don't have enough doctors, equipment, or what is even worse, the equipment but no one who knows how to use them. A lot of this is based on the fact that our teachers and doctors are going to the Gulf where they are being paid more money, and have better facilities, where they have more of a chance to climb the ladder and in the end provide money for their families back in Jordan.
I guess this all sounds really depressing...and it is...but what was amazing is that the idea that I had that Jordanian are passive people, who don't know how to stand up for themselves, has been trashed...people have great ideas, and they are motivated to try and change things, they want to do that...they want to improve their lives, and the lives of their families...they just need more access to the policy-makers, the people who decide where the money goes. I guess our role as a civil society is to provide that access, and our role as part of the elite is to go out and work in these things, even on a voluntary basis...to understand what people really need and what issues they are facing and then to try to force a change. We are the ones who have access to the decision-makers, we have the money, the time, the education, to bring the voices of these people to the top, to force the top to listen to understand and most importantly to change.
I am not calling for a revolution, I am only calling for us to become more active in our country, to really work for the better of the whole, not because that is the 'morally' right thing to do, but because if we can make this change then it will effect all our lives, our country will be able to compete with the rest of the world economically, and we as a people will feel proud. This pride should not be based on just well I am from here so I am proud, but it should be based on the fact that our country can be wonderful, for everyone not just for the 5% at the top.
Am I to much of an idealist, looking at the world through rose tinted glasses, and will thus at some point fall flat on my face, maybe, but to be honest I am willing to take that risk!