Author: Isaac

There are endless complaints about the government here. There’s a good reason for that, the government is rife with cronyism and corruption. The general sentiment seems to be that if only they had a good person in power, everything would be just fine. I am going to ignore, for right now, the idea that the government should not only be in charge of fixing things, but of running everything. No one seems to understand that this government is exactly what you can expect when you wish for what everyone here wishes for. Almost to a person, the Yemenis see a powerful, centralized government being controlled by a strong man as the ideal. The government should be in charge of the economy, be in charge of handing out jobs, and of course be in charge of upholding sharia law. It should be headed by a strong man that has the power to make different factions bend to his will. Many people actively dream of having a king…

In theory, if you got the right guy, a benevolent, enlightened, wise man to run a government like that, it wouldn’t be so bad. I still don’t think it would be ideal, but it wouldn’t be as bad as it is now. Of course, there is never anyone like that running a government. Why not? Surely there are people that fit that description in the world, how come they are never elected to be benevolent dictator? The reason of course is that people that crave power are drawn to positions that offer power. The people that crave power have the stomach to do what they need to in order to get that power. A good person would never have a chance in competition with people like that. When you invest a leader with almost total control, you can expect the person that eventually occupies that post is more power hungry than benevolent. You can also expect that person to take full advantage of his position once he attains it.

The are countless examples of this anywhere where the myth of the powerful leader heading the perfect government exists. The Arabic nations are an easy list of examples, but South America and Central America are just as guilty. You’ll notice what all of those places seem to have in common, underperforming economies and human rights abuses. The founders of the US knew what they were doing when they put the different branches of government into opposition. By limiting the power of the executive, legislative, and judicial, we have been able to benefit from the power struggle between them over all these years.

One thing I have learned from being in Yemen is that we need to watch out for politicians promising to “fix” whatever problems we have. You can be assured that whatever they say is only being said in order to be elected. It is their quest for office that motivates them. Thankfully, a president has limited impact on sweeping changes in the US (with the exception of foreign policy), so most of his promises amount to little more than pandering. What we need is a candidate that will tell us to solve our own problems, stop looking to the government to fix everything. That candidate will never get very far because people want to believe in the Philosopher King in government instead of facing up to the real motivations behind the quest for power.

Since I’ll be leaving in June, I need to get rid of the stuff in my apartment. I had heard that there was a newish student here that planned on being here on a long term basis. He expressed some interest in buying some of my stuff, so he came over. I thought he’d be interested in the apartment, but it turns out he has big plans. He is going to rent a 4 bedroom place and furnish it. He then plans to sublet the place over the next 7-8 years. I think he’s nuts. He’s been here all of one month, doesn’t really know Arabic, and he’s planning on staying here for 7-8 years. Not only that, he’s planning on sinking money into an apartment with the idea of making money on it, in Yemen mind you…

Never mind the lunacy of wanting to be here that long, how about the idea that he’s going to make money on real estate here. There’s every indication that this place will melt down over the next 8 years, but we’ll ignore that. If it was a pretty straightforward business of renting the house out at a profit, why isn’t the landlord doing it? My guess is that once this American gets the place spiffed up, the rent will magically go up…

Another thing to keep in mind is that once you are renting, the landlords usually assume that any problems you have (water, plumbing, electricity, etc.) are your problem. They do not help or try to fix things. It is very common for the landlord to ask for money to make the place ready to move into. I have had many friends look at places and tell the landlord that they would live there IF the bathroom were fixed, the kitchen repaired, etc. The landlord says, great! Give me $400 and I’ll do it… It’s a very strange arrangement.

Anyway, this guy I was talking to tonight was all of 22 or 23 and he figured that he had his whole 8 year stay here all planned out. I think his best case scenario is that he does what he wants and everything works out until the revolution comes. Then he’s SOL…

It has been raining off and on for the past three days. It’s nice to have humidity in the air again, I don’t feel like a mummy every morning. The old city was built around a natural riverbed, called the saila, so when it rains the water naturally runs down to it. It was paved just recently, I think about 10 years ago or so, paid for by the American taxpayer… When it’s not raining, the saila is one of the main roads in the old city. It connects several big streets and so it’s pretty useful to get around on. Of course when it rains, it is impassable. All of the rain that hits the old city flows into it. I have seen the water rise up to 8 feet in the saila.

With all of that water flowing downhill, the rain acts as a natural street cleaner. This entire area is always covered by various amounts of dust. If we get a small amount of rain, everything is covered in a slick film of silt. When it rains really hard, or it keeps up for several days, a lot of that dust gets swept away. It is the only time you will ever see the streets clean. As you get towards the saila, there is a bit of an accumulation of mud. The saila itself is as muddy as the York river. Children play in it despite God only knows what is in there and the sometimes swift current. I guess it’s the only time they really get to play in the water. Still, not only does the rain wash away the dust, it washes away everything else that is on the streets as well. Take my word for it, the streets here are pretty nasty. A day or two after the rain stops and most of the water has evaporated leaving the sailia a muddy mess, it is disgusting. The sailia smells like a sewer. People here still just walk through it in their sandals. I’m just waiting for the next Yemeni to lecture me about how western toilets are so unsanitary…

The newer parts of the city do not have any natural riverbed. It doesn’t rain here very often, but it does rain and that water does have to go somewhere. It looks as though no one ever gave that any thought when they built the roads. They aren’t crowned, the slopes are all over the place, and there certainly isn’t any storm sewer system, the water just falls and then it flows downhill until it stops. So certain areas can have as much as 4 to 5 inches of standing water. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that a lot of these places are at major intersections and on major roads. The water does evaporate pretty quickly, but it still takes a day or two for those places to be dry again. With the Yemenis’ penchant for littering and dumping all sorts of stuff, it gets pretty nasty. The fish souk is particularly fragrant these days… This does give a possible explanation as to why almost all of the speed bumps have a gap in them. The speed bumps act as a dam for the water, so they put a gap in it to allow the water to flow. That makes a lot more sense than giving the motorcycles a way to avoid the speed bumps…

The other thing that I have noticed since the rains have started are the mosquitos. Being from a rather swampy part of Gloucester county, I’m well acquainted with mosquitos. The ones here are particularly potent, I itch like crazy from their bites. I am also getting eaten alive at night. None of my windows have functional screens, I have yet to see any windows in Yemen that can keep bugs out. Since all of the sheets here seem to be made of synthetics (mine are at least), I broil under them. If I throw them off, I get bitten. I’ve had to resort to going to bed fully dressed in a long sleeved t-shirt and sweat pants and no covers. My hands and feet are still getting bitten, but it’s better.

When I go back home, I’ll be walking into the teeth of a Virginia summer. The weather itself will be much worse back home. It gets hotter and it is more humid in VA. On the other hand, it’s pretty easy to avoid those things by going inside. There are fewer weather problems here, but you can’t get away from the ones that are here…

I mentioned in another blog post about how people complain about things here and not really understand some of the big reasons there are problems. Keep in mind that what they are complaining about is how they are suffering in comparison to other people. I am very skeptical of the idea that things were ever much better here than they are now. Certainly, from an economic point of view, I can’t see this current government being much worse than the caliphate that was here before. Granted, in many ways they are no better, but I think that they are not any worse. In the meantime, other countries (like the US) have surged ahead in productivity, and therefore their standard of living has gotten much better. What Yemenis want is to keep up with the prosperity of the west. Like I said before, deep changes have to happen in the culture for that to happen. They still have essentially the same culture as they had under the caliphate. It is an either/or situation, you can’t live the same way you did 50 years ago and expect to have big changes in the overall economy.

I think this is pretty obvious with examples like Yemen, but the same thing can be applied to the US as well. There are certain states like Michigan, New York, Ohio, and West Virginia to name a few that have not, and are not, adapting to new economic realities. If they want to change their unemployment figures, population loss, or any other big economic thing, they are going to have to make some changes. For right now, they are doing the same old same old and SURPRISE! they aren’t getting the results that they want. Times are different now, if you want to do better, you have to change.

I am at the end of my wits, but I can’t say that I hate this place. The problem, as it always is, is just one of my expectations. When I came here, I told everyone that I wanted to experience the culture and live in a place that isn’t the US for a while. That was all true, but I’ll let you in on a little secret, almost every westerner that comes here also has the idea that they will make a difference, that they can help in some way. I didn’t expect to turn the country around, but I did harbor fantasies of perhaps turning around a few people. If enough people pursue individual success, things will start to change. The economy could get better and with any luck they would put pressure on the government to stay out of the way.

Well, like most people that come over here with the idea of “making a difference,” I have been incredibly frustrated. Whether you are trying to get some ideas about the economy across (like myself), trying to help with women’s issues, trying to tackle the water problem, the qat problem, or anything else, the thought inevitably comes into your mind, “What is wrong with these people?”

Now, let me say that I am perfectly willing to tolerate cultural differences, as long as people are happy with the consequences of those attitudes. What I and so many other people get frustrated about is that the people want things both ways. They want everything to be the same, except, you know, different… When people here complain about something (and there is plenty to complain about), they never seem to connect the dots. I have had many conversations about how rich the US is and most Yemenis are pretty jealous. But the thought of working 40 hours a week or more is out of the question. The thought of taking a single hour for lunch is out of the question. The thought of not chewing qat for three hours a day is out of the question. The idea of not throwing away a month’s worth of productivity during Ramadan is out of the question. And of course the idea of allowing half your population (the women) into the work force is unthinkable, but they want to be just like the US economically…

It’s the same for any other thing that people complain about here. They don’t like something, but they have a total blind spot for the solution. I really wouldn’t mind so much if they said, “Well, we can’t do that because of our cultural norms, and our culture is more important than the benefit that you described.” OK, that’s fair enough, some things are worth more than others to different people. But of course no one says anything like that. Usually, they will either deny that there is something in the culture holding them back, or they simply don’t see how it is relevant.

And this is with the stuff that they complain about. There are plenty of people trying to change things here that the Yemenis, as a whole, do not see as a problem. If you think that women having equal rights (including FGM issues), reducing the population growth, or qat are problems, you’re looking at being massively frustrated. Here’s the thing, there has to be a critical mass of people that both understand the problem and care enough to do something for any progress to have any traction. No one can come here and “change” anything for the better. All you can really do is educate people about the problems and possible alternatives and hope that they eventually come around. Look at Iraq if you want to see a worst case scenario of people who “know better” coming in and attempting to change things. Oh things change all right, but not for the better. Until the bulk of people jump on the bandwagon, nothing will be accomplished.

I do like to think that even if the good intentions of the students here do not pan out like we fantasize we still have a positive impact. Especially the women that come over here. I think that the more independent, successful women that Yemenis see, the better. I hope beyond hope that I’ve impressed some things on my students that may trickle down to other people. Leading by example as opposed to by force is always the best way to effect change IMO. I’m not sure which is more frustrating though…