Category: Yemen

I was looking for the Turkish airlines office on Hadda street from a dabob. The driver was speaking in the worst dialect that I have ever heard. I couldn’t understand a thing he was telling me and he couldn’t understand me. Damn this proper Arabic! Anyway, he was trying to explain something to me when a kid (12-16 years old, its so hard to tell the age of people here) jumped infront of the dabob. BAM! The driver slammed on the brakes, but he still hit him full on. The kid managed to turn slightly, but he still bounced off the dabob in a rather frightening way. The driver started to yell (I still couldn’t understand a word) and the kid popped up and started to yell back. I estimate that we were going about 35mph when he hit the brakes, so he hit him going about 10-15 mph. Like I said, it was pretty scary. The hitee was grasping his side as he was giving the driver what-for, I’m sure that he had at least cracked some ribs if not broken a few. After yelling for a while, the driver sped off down the road, visibly shaken. I really thought it was the kid’s fault and attempted explain it to him, but we quickly got back into the “What?” mode of conversation.

The kicker for me was that as scary as it was, no one seems to think it’s a big deal. “Yeah, that happens sometimes..” is the typical response. WHAT? That kid could have been killed, just falling to the pavement like that is dangerous let alone being HIT BY A MINI BUS! I can’t believe how casual people are treating this. On the other hand, I have talked to several people that have witnessed fatal accidents. I’ve never seen one of those actually happen, just the aftermath. Traffic is scary here, thank God it’s usually slow…

When I first came here, I had been talking to a guy from Yemen via IM. He wanted me to bring him a used laptop since there aren’t any reasonably priced ones here. It wasn’t much money, something like $400, and I figured that if he didn’t have the money I could always sell it myself. So I brought it over for him. Not surprisingly, he didn’t have all the money, he had $250. He had done some things for me so I figured that I’d just give it to him and just kissed that money goodbye despite the fact that he “swore” that he’d repay me. The next month he came around asking to “borrow” more money. That got me really hot, I told him that he should ask for money from people that he didn’t already owe money to. I then told him that I didn’t want to see him again until he had my money. I still figured that the money was gone, but at least now I also figured that I wouldn’t see him again, lesson learned.

Well, last night he calls me up and tells me that he has my money! He came by and gave it to me. I am still blown away that he paid me back. Good on you Sufian, I know that’s a significant chunk of change for people here (about 37% of the “average” annual income over here) and I’m very happy that he was able to sort out whatever he had to. He’s still a bad credit risk in my book, but at least he’s an honest guy.

Yesterday, I learned the phrase that means “vacuum cleaner” in Arabic. My teacher thought a second and then asked me what the English phrase meant. I explained that it was a cleaner that used a vacuum to suck up the dirt. I then had to explain what a vacuum was. I said that is was a space with absolutely nothing in it. “So it is air?” he asked. No, no air, no nothing. He really didn’t get it. I then said that it was like outer space, that he understood. But he still didn’t understand how that worked in a vacuum cleaner. I asked him what would happen to the air in the space shuttle if you opened a window in space. He didn’t know… Seriously, he had no idea, he had never heard of a siphon (and I didn’t use that word, I explained what it did) and he had no idea how water came up through the taps. Pumps were a total mystery to him, I guess he thinks they are magic. This is a graduate of a Yemeni college. I knew this stuff by 4th grade, 5th max. He also didn’t understand how people could eat a poisonous snake and not die. He was amazed to find out that the poison is in a discrete sac.

I’ll say this, his knowledge of both Arabic and English grammar is very good. If I had to guess, his knowledge about science would be about on a 3d grade level, and I wonder if his math skills are above a 7th grade level. Like I said, this is a college graduate, talking to people on the street can be really painful sometimes. The level of ignorance here is appalling and it is easily the thing I dislike the most about this place.

There are a lot of obstacles in the way of a Yemeni that wants an education of course. Poverty is the number one problem. Teachers with what we would consider a mid high school education are another. In some areas of the country, there are so few schools, and so many students that there can be upwards of 200 kids in a class! The problem is only going to get worse. Yemen has one of the largest population growth rates in the world, over half the population is under the age of 16. With that many people getting that little education, this place will be in a world of trouble in 10 years and I don’t see any way around it…

There is a water crisis looming for Yemen. They are running out of water very quickly. All of the fresh water in Yemen is from underground or rainwater, there are no rivers or lakes here. At the current rate of consumption, it is estimated that Sana’a (the capital) will be out of water by 2015. The recent headline in the Yemen Times states that increased urbanization is threatening Yemen’s water supply. Of course when you look at the accompanying chart, it is shown that agriculture is responsible for consuming 93% of Yemen’s water. Of that, 30%-40% is quat production. To make matters worse, Yemen’s irrigation methods (when they exist at all) are really inefficient. It is estimated that they waste 40%-60% of the water they use in farming.

The obvious thing to do is to work on increasing irrigation efficiency. If you can get back 45% of your water supply by making changes in agriculture, you would think they would do it. That doesn’t seem to be the way that officials are thinking though. They are really playing up the water drying up doomsday scenario. I’m not really sure what their plan is. Some officials have come right out and said that people will simply have to live somewhere else. While that isn’t what people want to hear, it certainly makes a lot of sense. Since the government has zero control over who has access to water and how much they use (everyone just drills wells), even my favorite method of rationing, by price, won’t work. The folks on the government might have already figured out that it doesn’t matter what they do, people will keep using it until its gone.

A not so obvious reason why there is so much water used for agriculture is what the government has done to promote it. Years ago (I’m not sure of the exact date), the president banned (or at least made incredibly expensive) the importation of fruits and vegetables. This had the desired effect of kick starting the agriculture industry here in Yemen. They boast that Yemen now is an exporter of fruits and vegetables and an important part of the economy. No one seems to have wondered why they weren’t in the past… It turns out that agriculture isn’t as well suited to Yemen as it is to other places in the world, you have to use a lot of very precious water here to get crops. If Yemen had allowed the importation of fruits and vegetables, the local growers would not use nearly as much water and they might have been able to stave off the current crisis. I have a feeling that when the water shortages hit the hardest, agriculture will naturally feel the brunt of it. The water will be too brackish to water crops and they will have to go back to importing their food. In the end, it will have the same effect as if the agriculture industry had not been propped up for all of these years, but it will be devastating to the economy and there will be mass migrations and refugee problems. The moral? Governments should not screw around with artificially protecting/subsidizing industries, REALLY bad things can happen…

I just went to a juice stand and got a pomegranate/orange juice mix. Oh my God, it is the most amazing thing EVER! They squeeze the fruit right in front of you, the pomegranate juice is a really nice raspberry color, it’s much sweeter and lighter than the stuff you can buy in the states. Mix it with some fresh squeezed orange juice and it is truly the elixir of life. This juice is an excellent reason to come to Yemen, If all you did was go back and forth from your hotel room and this juice stand for this juice, it would be a great vacation. Seriously, it is a revelation, if you are ever here this time of the year, you MUST try this stuff!!!

I’ll have to go back home to write everything.. I spent about half of today’s class discussing the Iraq situation. My teacher, like so many other people over here, assumes that the US is getting all sorts of money and oil from Iraq. I told him that the US is spending TRILLIONS of dollars and not getting anything out of it. We are not benefitting from it at all. Of course he asked the obvious question of “Then why are you there?” I did not have a good answer….

Did you know that many people here are rooting for Hillary Clinton? Do you know why? One of the really obscure Republican candidates announced his idea that we should threaten to use nuclear weapons on Mecca and Medina if a terrorist uses them on the US. Of course here people think that if he is elected he will immediately commence bombing. I really wish that people would just shut up. Why even mention the possibility of blowing up Mecca and Medina, it can only cause trouble.

I have lots more but I don’t have time right now, if things go well, I should have a bunch of new posts tomorrow…

I do love Yemeni grapes. I picked up a kilo of the most beautiful looking grapes last night. I’m referring to them as Macintosh grapes since they have the identical coloration, a soft red blending into that green grape color. Anyway, yum yum! I’ve also managed to figure out what the difference is between the cashews here and back home (other than price). Unfortunately, those of you not from the Gloucester, VA area probably won’t understand. You know how Whitley’s peanuts taste different than Planter’s? Well, these are the same way, they have more crunch and just taste fresher. Now the next item on the agenda is how to tell when a pomegranate is ripe, any ideas?

… and that explains the odd music I’ve been hearing. He has discovered BBC worldwide and I fear that I’ll be subjected to it all day long. Don’t get me wrong, it could be much worse, but like all Yemenis, he likes it really loud. I don’t actually know which house this is coming from, it is echoing up and down the alley. Why does he need it so freaking loud? It starts with the news around 8AM, why anyone would blast the news is beyond me. Then the music starts and it’s all rock/pop from the mid 60’s till the mid 70’s. Some standouts so far today have been “Suspicious Minds” by the King and “Wild Thing” by the Troggs. With any luck the novelty will wear off soon and he’ll go back to normal listening volumes.

The front page of the Yemen observer has the incredible headline of “Tribes clash over national Solidarity Council.” Just a little background, the Solidarity Council is a gathering of the various Sheiks across Yemen. In essence, it is a shadow government and it is stronger than the federal government in certain areas. Certainly, any law that is going to succeed will need the Sheiks cooperation. Predictably, a group of sheiks does not like the tribe that founded the council and so they have splintered off. The man that is leading this is the Sheik of one of the most powerful tribes in the north (the other powerful tribe in the north is the one that started this whole process) and refers to himself as the “Sheik of Sheiks” in Yemen. Well, can you believe that some other sheiks are objecting to him using this title? Surprise surprise. It’s all about as Arab as it gets, I can’t wait to see what happens, I should bring some popcorn…

Another story on the front page is titled, “Locusts invade Sana’a, become snack food.” There is a plague of locusts in Yemen right now. They’re causing all sorts of problems in the agricultural areas, but here they are considered a blessing. Everyone says that they are delicious, and they are considered halaal (Ok to eat). With so many people needing food, this is like manna from heaven. I dunno, in the words of a character from the film “Pulp Fiction”, “Sewer rats may taste like pumpkin pie but I wouldn’t know cause I won’t eat the MFer…” This weeks op-ed is actually a list of various recopies for locusts…

The Children’s parliament is continuing to demand that the government bring an end to child labor in Yemen. Most of the kids that work are on farms, here in the city they are mostly selling things. As usual, all sorts of laws are demanded that will “stop” this scourge. Many people are quite confused about what causes child labor to appear and disappear. Most people think that it is evil, greedy businesses that force children to work instead of going to school. The fact is that poverty is the driving force behind child labor. The kids that are working would rather eat than go to school, it’s all about alternatives… If they weren’t worried about starving, or losing their home/apartment, the parents would make sure they were in school. Get rid of the poverty and you get rid of child labor, new laws won’t do a damn thing about it.

The Yemen Times had a long article on how tobacco use should be considered haraam (forbidden by God) in Islam. Some of the arguments are pretty obscure, but the ones about not harming your health and not wasting your money seem pretty tight. I have heard some people, including my first teacher, that think along these lines, but the vast majority of people just shrug it off. Another interesting bit from the Qran that I had not heard before was about not disturbing other people. The article talked about smoke bothering other people. It sounds like a good argument, but I can assure you that the people here pay no attention to that particular bit from their holy book.

The last article was about the dwindling populations of nubian ibexes in Yemen. They are an endangered species that is fast disappearing. The way the article tells it, the decrease is due primarily to tourism hunting. The sad state of the Yemeni federal government pretty much ensures that whatever law they pass will be ineffective. There is a really inexpensive and effective way of preserving them, simply give all of the Ibexes to one of the local tribes. Better yet, give them to the sheik of one of the tribes. If something is owned, the owner has an incentive to take care of their possession. Conservation becomes part of the ownership. The tribe that owns it can control the amount of hunting and trapping and generate income from it. The key is to have lock solid property rights with no vaguness. The easier it is to identify the owner, the better this works. When no one owns the animals, it becomes a free for all. “If I don’t get them, then someone else will.” It is the classic tragedy of the commons scenario. Giving property rights to the animals has worked well in other places. African Elephants and certain types of trees in Africa (In Ghana I think) have benefitted from this. It is very effective. The owners (who are most assuredly armed) are very good about discouraging poachers and are even motivated to take some vet classes in order to care for the animals. It doesn’t cost anyone a cent and the animals can survive, what could be simpler?

My latest favorite government institutions and departments here:
The General Investment Authority, Public body of the Book, Ministry of Guidance and Endowments, and The minister of culture. Is it any wonder the economy here is terrible with so many government institutions sucking money out of it without creating any positive effects for the economy? They, like all frivolous government institutions are a net negative on the economy. The situation is similar in the US, the government is enormous, but we have a much stronger economy and can tolerate some inefficiencies. They need every bit of efficiency they can get here, maybe they should think about trimming the government a little?

Some folks from the American embassy came over yesterday to talk to the American students. Most of it was about keeping in touch with them. The security guy talked about things that they have done at the embassy Most of the time was spent discussing passport and visa issues. I was told that getting more pages in my passport was really simple and could be done in a day, whew! I’ll go down there on Sat. and get that taken care of. He also mentioned an interesting thing that I was not aware of, if a company sponsors your residency visa, you have to get permission from them to leave the country. That’s something to think about… I have not heard of any problems with the language schools, after all, none of them want to get a reputation for giving native English speakers a hard time. I think I’ll go down and talk to some of them next week and ask about possible jobs…