Category: Yemen

Before Ramadan, there was a lot of worry about the ongoing power problems. Yemen does not have the generating capacity to supply all of the energy demanded. Eventually, they will build new power plants (they want nuclear, God help us), but for now we have rolling blackouts. The government claimed that they would be buying more power from “neighboring” countries for Ramadan, but it asked people “not to use too much electricity.” I am a little dubious about the buying more power claim, as least for Sana’a power generating plants in KSA or Oman are a long ways away, and there’s a lot nothing at all in between them in Yemen. Asking people to conserve never works, we all know that. Unfortunately, one of Yemen’s many problems prevents them from doing what they should. In a functioning market, if the demand outstrips supply, you just raise the price until there is just enough supply to meet demand. This works, it makes sure that there aren’t any shortages and the profit is high enough that there is a powerful incentive to create more of the commodity in short supply. The usual complaint, that the poor will suffer more than anyone else isn’t too much of a problem here in Yemen. Everyone cooks on gas, and the poor here have very little to power with electricity… The problem here is the electrical utility does not seem to have to ability to cut people off for not paying bills. There are many reports of people owing vast sums of money to the electrical company, but if you know the right people, your electricity keeps coming. The other problem is obvious with just a look around Sana’a. The wiring here is a mess. People routinely tie into main power lines whenever they need electricity. It doesn’t seem likely that the power company really has any idea who is using the electricity. The first step in solving Yemen’s power issues is to clean up the distribution. If they know who is getting the power and they have the ability to turn off the power for nonpayment, I think we’d see a big improvement. Instead, everyone is holding out for Yemen’s nuclear power plants to come along. I really hope they don’t come into being, I can’t imagine many things more dangerous than this government with uranium…

There are some people criticizing a recent report from the US about religious freedom here in Yemen. The Yemenis point to the fact that you can practice any religion you want here. In fact, down in Aden there are 3 Catholic churches, an Anglican church, and a hindu(!) temple. The report points out that there aren’t any churches in the former North Yemen, including Sana’a. The thing that really gets people here is that the report criticized Yemen for making conversion from Islam and proselytizing muslims illegal. I’m pretty sure that converting from Islam is a capital offense, it is by Sharia law certainly. People here have various lame excuses like, “But no one is coerced into becoming a muslim here,” which may be true enough, but God help anyone here that grew up muslim and finds Jesus somehow… All of the defenses basically boil down to, “But we have the correct religion…”Seriously, how can people defend this? I know, it’s in the Koran. I’m sorry, but anyone with any critical reasoning skills can see what a transparent power play this is. Christians gave this up a long time ago. They now have what I believe to be the “correct” view, “Do whatever you like, but you better choose well cause God’s got the final say…” To me, this is the essence of religious freedom, you choose, and you (like everyone) will eventually pay for whatever bad decisions you make throughout life. Why can’t they leave religious “justice” up to God?

The trip back was nothing special, with the exception of having the pleasure of sitting next to a Yemeni while he ate a previously saved meal. As soon as we took off and the sun had set (it’s ramadan) he took out an older airline food meal and started to eat. He did so with his hands of course, and there was food everywhere. Thank God out trays were touching, it was the only thing saving me from a lap full of food… I’ve read almost 500 pages of Nicholas Nickalby since yesterday. i’ll probably finish it tomorrow. It’s a good story, but nothing like his “deep” works. It’s fun, I’m glad I bought it…

I have not heard or seen the new Osama Bin Laden tape, but I have read a little bit about the reaction to it. Apparently he has endorsed the Democratic party in the upcoming US elections! The tape is filled with anti-capitalist sentiments and argues that the state has a very important part to play in religion. He does a little name dropping as well, he suggests that Americans read Noam Chomsky in order to see where he is coming from. The political blogs are having a field day with this. The “right wing” ones are saying, “See, we told you those lefties are no good! They are doing what Osama Bin Laden wants!” The ones on the left are of course trying to distance themselves from his message, but I haven’t heard any of them trying to distance themselves from Noam… I have even seen a serious thought that the Bush administration cooked the whole thing up in order to discredit the Dems. You know things are hitting a little too close when you have to resort to conspiracy theories in order to explain away something…

I do think that there is a close parallel with Osama and vast swaths of the American political system. Osama’s big thing is that the “right” people need to be in power so that they can tell everyone how they should live. He would do it through (his) religious views, both the left and the part of the right that ascribes to this world view would do it through their view of morality. Weather it is the war on terror, the war on drugs, abortion, global warming, universal health care, or whatever other causes there are out there, there are many politicians (and people that vote for them) that want to dictate the decisions we face in many different areas. Granted, political parties here do not try to kill people in order to get their way, but I still worry a bit. Beware of any chosen few that feel the need to impose their view on everyone else, nothing good can come from them…

It’s one of the two tub versions. One tub does the washing, the other is just a spinner. They are quite a bit less expensive than the one tub models, why I don’t know. I would think that it would be more expensive to have two motors and tubs instead of just one. Anyway, no more hand washing! But there is a catch. The hoses aren’t long enough to reach the tap and the drain, so we have to use a bucket to load and drain. That’s not too bad I suppose. I have to do that with hand washing, but at least I don’t do the actual washing… The more complicated thing is that the machine is downstairs (It’s the only place with enough space) and the entire bottom floor is taken up by a muslim couple. This has happened before, this way the wife doesn’t have to stay covered the whole time, they can just close the door to that level. I was talking to the husband about the machine and he offered to do my laundry for me! I quickly figured out that he thought it would be the simplest arrangement, that way I wasn’t coming around checking on my laundry and generally being unexpected. Still, I feel kind of silly, the machine is supposed to make it a little easier, but now I’m not doing a damn thing! I should do something for him, but I’m not sure what…

My friend googled crises, and look at the only google ad that came up with that keyword. Now look at the url of the link…

Or they should be… click on my “recent pictures” tab on the right hand side… My friend Sophia wanted to wear a bunch of traditional Yemeni wedding outfits before she left. No one wears these now a days, but 50 or 60 years ago they still did. The brides were weighed down with tons of silver. She got to wear some vintage dresses and a bunch of old, Jewish jewelry. Taking these pictures was a lot of fun, and it’s great to see the old jewelry. Check them out!

I had some things planned. I was going to go to class and then right afterwards go with Sophia to finish up the jewelry shoot. 15 minutes before I went to class, my teacher called and told me that we were going to go to lunch instead with a bunch of other students and teachers. I absentmindedly said OK, but on the way I realized that it may go past the time I was due to meet Sophia and the rest of the people. I explained to the host that I needed to be back at the school by 3 O’clock. His response was that I should put whatever it was off till tomorrow because the lunch will go on much further than that. I was not pleased, and he was not pleased to find out that I was considering turning him down just because I had already made other plans with some other people. I wasn’t feeling great, so I was ready to start arguing. Do not get upset because I decline an invitation that is given to me 15 minutes in advance. Just because you have nothing to do with your time does not mean that I have nothing to do with my time. Do not expect me to stiff my friends so that I can go to lunch at a person’s house that I don’t even know… Luckily, my teacher saw that I was in no mood to take Yemeni guilt and offered to drive me back in time. I went, but I was still pissed that this guy thought so little of my time and so much of his. Unfortunately, I see this as a symptom of a larger, cultural problem of respecting other people’s time and lives. The blowing of horns in the middle of the night, the wedding parties (complete with firecrackers) starting at 11pm, the litter and trash everywhere, it all points back to them simply not thinking of how their actions affect other people. It can be really frustrating to an American.

My newish roommate hasn’t shown himself to be very prepared for this place. Tomorrow he will go on a UN sponsored trip to some mountainous areas down south. We had a power outage of course, so he was having difficulty packing. He asked to borrow my flash light. I said sure, I wasn’t using it. He goes into his room and comes right back out. “Hey, I’ve got some sort of problem with my ATM card and I can’t get any money out of it. I have 2000 riyals right now, could I borrow another 2000 riyals? I’ll pay you back on friday…” I was dumbfounded. OK, things happen and banking in Yemen from anywhere can be a bit of a pain. What surprised me was the fact that he was willing to go on a 4 day trip into the outlying areas of southern Yemen with the equivalent of 20 bucks in his pocket. Not only are credit cards useless out there, there are no ATM machines either. Everything is done with cash, how can you even think that 20 bucks will be enough? I tried to loan him another 8000, he would only take 7000. The boy doesn’t seem too with it, or incredibly naive, or maybe just really inexperienced. Maybe all three…

If you look for negatives, you’ll find them. After typing up my little rant on revenge (see below), I went to Tahreer to troll for some English newspapers and some juice. There’s a parking lot next to Tahreer, but it’s never used as one. Every time I go by there is either a pick-up game of soccer (or football to all you non-Americans) or there is a guy that rents out time on motor scooters and ATVs. It’s a strange thing, people pay some money and then they zoom around and around the lot. One end of the parking lot has the entrances onto the main road and the other side has a high wall. I noticed that the kids on the scooters were blowing the horn constantly. There is no reason to blow your horn as you approach a wall, it isn’t going anywhere. No, they are just exercising their annoying tendency to make as much noise as possible. Just then, I remembered something that happened today. As I came home from class, a guy was fiddling with his motorcycle by the house. A little kid came up and asked him something, the guy pointed at something and the kid proceeded to push the button. Needless to say, it was the horn.

Just as that oh so pleasant memory was sinking in a little kid came careening towards me. He was on one of those things that are half wagon half bicycle. It was empty, but just like many other kids on bikes he decided that it would be “fun” or perhaps “funny” to scare the westerner. Kids do this all the time, and it’s really annoying. So I didn’t move at all. He managed to come to a stop before hitting me and I gave him a look showing my distinct displeasure. I had almost hoped that he would hit me, almost. I muttered a little something under my breath (best not repeated) and threw his wagon part out of my way. He had a suitably scared look on his face as he biked away. Oh come on, I wasn’t going to do anything to him, he was probably all of 8 years old. I may be many things, but I don’t beat up kids…

It’s days like these that make me worry about my teaching gig coming up. I’m afraid I’ll come into class and start off with some new words for them like, “Myopic, selfishness, pig-headed, ignorant, egocentric, self-absorbed, and thoughtless.” I wouldn’t actually swear in class, that would be unprofessional. I just need to sit down and do my homework, and tomorrow I’ll make an effort to stick to the lesson…