Category: Yemen

A Yemeni friend of mine was just informed that he will be married on Jan. 10th. He’s about 23 or so and he’s a little upset. This is the traditional way of getting married here in Yemen, your parents tell you when they have found someone for you and all of the details are worked out between the families. Here in Sana’a, the bride and groom don’t really get to meet or get to know each other before the wedding. My friend’s problem is that he hangs out with a lot of westerners and had come to believe that he’d be able to pick out his own bride. His father gave him three months to pick out a woman. That’s actually pretty liberal, but my friend just isn’t ready to get married, so he didn’t pick anyone. His younger brother is getting married, I think that’s why the father is in such a rush. Weddings with multiple grooms are very popular, it keeps the costs down, I think his father wants to do a two-fer… Anyway, when he didn’t find a woman, his father picked one. The option of rebelling is apparently out of the question. From an American’s point of view, this seems like a picture perfect example of what to rebel against, but my friend made it clear that it wasn’t an option. I guess it’s a Yemeni thing, I wouldn’t understand….

By all accounts, the woman is decent enough, but he’s more than a little worried about marrying a complete stranger. It’s funny, I had always heard how awful arranged marriages were for the women, but I had never heard from a guy about it before. It sounds like it sucks all the way around. “Our customs suck!” was my friends lament. I can only assume that a lot of these arranged marriages work out well enough, why else would they continue generation to generation if they are hated so much? There is the issue of financial dealings between the families, but I’d like to think that the kids’ well being is put in front of any money considerations. Still, in an area this poor, I can imagine that a beautiful daughter could be quite an asset. I think I like our system better…

When I got my books for teaching, I also got a couple of cassettes to go along with the lessons. Wow, I hadn’t really used a cassette deck since the mid 80’s… It is, by far, the most common method of recording and playback here. I think I even saw the same walkman copy that I owned back in ’82 in one of the stores. I went to the Sony store the other day and it was like being in Sam Goodies back in the day, loads of blank cassettes for sale. Anyway, it took me 15 minutes of fast forwarding and rewinding to figure out that I had the wrong cassette for the book. What a pain, give me digital media any day!

It seems to be cooler now than it was a year ago. Last year, I only wore a jacket 2 or 3 times in total. I have already started to wear it regularly. I also have found myself cold at night even with a blanket. I’m not sure if it’s actually colder or if I’ve acclimated to the weather here and become a local. I’m guessing that the temperature drops into the mid 40’s at night. My Brazilian friend Giane once mentioned that the coldest that she had ever been was in Rio despite the fact that she now lives in DC. That was because the houses in Rio were made to be cool and they didn’t have any heating. So when it got a little chilly, it was as cold inside as outside. I think there’s a similar thing going on here. The houses are built to stay cool for a long time. The walls are a foot and a half thick and made of stone or other masonry. During the day, the sun is pretty hot but if you go into the shade you can really feel the difference. I might actually bring back some sweaters from home since all I have is a hooded sweatshirt and a jacket right now. I wonder how I’ll be when I go back home in December!

Hamdillila! The anti-corruption group actually did something! When details of the nuclear power deal came to light (see here) the anti-corruption authority requested all documents from the minister of electricity dealing with it. A month went by and the minister did not deliver the documents for review (surprise!) the board asked the prime minister to halt all dealings with the company (powered corporation) that was going to do the deal. The head of the anti-corruption board expressed surprise that the minister didn’t hand over all of the documents. If he really was surprised, he would have been the only one. In any sort of functioning government, there would be an intense investigation into the minister’s actions. Im willing to bet that since the corruption seems to have been avoided, nothing else will be done.

A British company is starting to do a study on the possibility of installing wind power in the southwest part of the country. It would generate 5 megawatts of energy (as opposed to the 100 each nuclear plant was supposed to make), but wind power has zero complications here. I hope they are able to make it happen, there’s a lot of places in this country that have no power at all, every little bit helps…

I got here last Nov. 1. The time has really flown by. I’ve actually been in this country for about 9 2/3 months, the rest of the time I was home, in China, Malta, or Greece. I’ve done a little over 6 months of class, 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I didn’t have any class during Ramadan or Eid, and I’ve done various little trips around the place. There were also a considerable number of sick days early on and maybe an equal number of days that I just didn’t feel like going to class. My Arabic is decent, I’m pretty happy with how far I’ve come. I can say what I need to say, and I’m starting to read the newspapers. My weakest skill is in listening. I can tune in on a person, but it takes me several minutes. In the meantime, I have no idea what they are saying. Even then, dialect is totally foreign to me, and unless people are talking proper fusa I have a lot of difficulty. That doesn’t bother me much really. As long as I can get my ideas across, read and write, I’m happy.

I should find out about the hours I can work at the school this coming week. If all goes well, I’ll be able to stay another year and get my Arabic to the point that I want. I’ve found an apartment that I can move into in January, it’s quite nice… well by old city Sana’a it is. And it’s only $100 a month! If the school thing doesn’t work out (and I’ve got back ups in case this particular school doesn’t pan out) I guess I’ll be back in the states before too long. I’ve got enough money to stay for a couple of months in the new year. that’ll give me enough time to use up the hours I’ve paid for at the school. Inshalla, I’ll be able to stay the entire next year and then come back with a real marketable skill:-)

I went to the Russian club on Halloween night. This is the infamous club located in “tourist city”, a walled compound that caters to expats. The Russian club offers alcohol, dancing, the occasional BLT (not last night though), and there are even prostitutes there. There are other prostitutes in other parts of the city as well, but these didn’t wear full nikab (hijab over the hair, veil, balto)… We got there a little early and the place was pretty empty. I felt like I was an off duty Soviet officer stationed in Estonia in 1983. I could almost imagine that Andropov was still in power and Reagan was saber rattling across the Atlantic. That impression left pretty quickly once the place started to fill up with Europeans and Americans. From then on out it was just another bar…

I don’t really like those types of places, there’s lots of drinking and smoking and deafening music. I was convinced to go by Tami. SIGH, I’ve been in Yemen so long that my resistance to women asking me to do something has really been worn down. This was the first time that I had ever been in a place and didn’t recognize the majority of the music. They were playing stuff that was aimed at the 20 something, nostalgic dance music from their adolescence, I felt a little old. Still, it was interesting to see the most haraam place in Sana’a, it was worth going to once.

The annual book fair is going on at the Yemen Expo Center. It’s an interesting affair. Vendors have come in from all over the gulf area. Saudi, Kuwaiti, and Emeratian, plus maybe some from other places as well. The book selection was noticeably different than what I’ve seen in the west. Most of the place was filled with textbooks and religious writings. There were a fair number of children’s vendors as well. There was a heavy concentration on learning English in many booths, and there were even some English titles available. Oddly enough, I saw at least 3 booths filled with medical models, various types of internal anatomy and what looked like CPR dummies. I have no idea what they were doing there.

I had to buy some stuff of course. I can’t be around that many books and not buy anything. I got a couple Qran recitation cds, I got my requisite Qran (I can’t be in a Yemeni book fair and not get a Qran) and a few English titles. My Qran is pretty nice, although I did see some nicer ones. They have running commentaries alongside the suras. I decided not to get one of those since I don’t know my commentators at all.

The English titles they had available were impressive. They were for people studying English, the English speaking population isn’t big enough to support a dedicated market. A local asked me, in broken English, if I could make a suggestion for him. He explained that he was studying English and was midway through his course. He showed me a book called “The great cave” or something like that. It was sealed so I couldn’t get a feel for the content, but it looked like a “young adult” book. I would guess the target age was 11-13 years old in the states. Then he showed me the other book he was thinking about getting, “A Tale of Two Cities.” Hmmm, I like to encourage people to read the classics, but he was having trouble asking me which book I thought he should get. As diplomatically as possible, I told him that Dickens uses an older style of English and that it might be a little difficult for him.

They didn’t just have Dickens there either. They had a slew of Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, Austen, and a few more. I picked up a copy of “Dubliners,” a book that I would be astounded if any Yemeni could understand. My favorite purchase had to be D.H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love.” I have never read any of his stuff before, and I have no idea if I’ll like it. I bought the book because of the delicious irony of finding what must be an incredibly haraam work at the Yemen book fair. Maybe this is a book about innocent love, but the title and the author’s reputation makes me think that’s unlikely. Anyway, I’ve got some new things to read, things that I would never have thought of finding here…

tags technorati : yemen books english

My teacher started today with a discussion about William Shakespeare. I can’t remember how we got on the topic, he might have brought it up. Anyway, after I talked for a while about how we studied him in high school and which plays I had seen and/or read, he told me about a popular theory here. There are some that believe that Bill’s ancestors came from Yemen! The evidence? C’mon, Sheik-spear? Seriously, some people believe that before Islam showed up, people dispersed from Yemen all over the world, including William’s ancestors. I asked to make sure I was understanding this right, that his family members would hold on to the name “Sheik-something” for a 1000 years. “Right!” Right….

My teacher and I had another interesting chat today. The concept of interest came up for some reason and I asked him how Islamic banks get around the prohibition on usury. Turns out that is a sore subject with him. The way he explained it, if you give the bank money and you earn a certain percent interest on it, that is harram (forbidden). But if you give the money to the bank and they agree to give you a certain amount more back after they complete a transaction, that is OK by Islamic bank standards because it is directly tied to another transaction. My teacher feels (quite correctly I think) that it doesn’t matter, the bank customer is earning interest in both cases and so it should be harram in both cases.

We then started talking about banks in the US. He was blown away by the idea that I rarely handled actual cash back home. I had direct deposit and I used an ATM card for most transactions. “But it’s just numbers, how do you know that you have the money?” That sounds like a strange question, but coming from someone in a cash economy, it’s a logical one. “If you wanted a million dollars in cash, could you get it from your bank?” Needless to say, the concept of fractional reserve banking was incomprehensible to him. To be fair, a lot of Americans have never heard of this and get a little nervous when they find out that the bank doesn’t actually have all of it’s money in cash. It was a challenge trying to differentiate between M1 and M2 in Arabic, I’m not sure if I suceeded… The concept of bank runs came up and so I tried to explain the great depression, bank runs, the FDIC, etc. All in all, it was quite a work out for my Arabic, and I was told a fair number of new words.

The upshot of all of this is that not so many people keep their money, or at least a large part of their money in a bank here. Either they worry about religious obligations, or they just do not trust the banks. There is no insurance here, and without earning interest, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to put their money in a bank. People that have a lot of money and are worried about the prohibition on earning interest simply invest their money in land and businesses. I get the feeling that a lot of the people with money aren’t so worried about religious problems with earning interest, maybe that’s why they are rich, and the rest of the country is pretty poor. If there isn’t a good reason to save your money (i.e. making money off of it) then there is a powerful incentive to simply spend it all. It’s almost impossible to create any wealth at all if there isn’t much saving going on. The straightforward prohibition helps explain a lot of the poverty in this part of the world. Money should be able to work for you without you having to monitor every single aspect of your investments. But what can they do? It’s a very explicit command, there isn’t any wiggle room. It sucks that they have to choose between adhering to their religion and following a sound method of wealth creation.