I was talking to my teacher this morning and a local house caught my eye. I had seen this place before, it has, inexplicably, a lot of trash on its roof. I asked him why and he told me the same thing that another teacher had told me, “It’s Yemen!” After we laughed a little, I asked him why there really was so much trash all over the place, didn’t people care about how Yemen looks? I actually cringed when he told what he thought was the reason, it’s because the government doesn’t do enough cleaning/enforcement. I tried the best I could to explain that the reason that there is less trash in other places isn’t because of the government, people just don’t like it. He casually threw out the idea that Sana’a wasn’t that dirty (he’s obviously never been anywhere else), so I used some other villages to press my point. He just shrugged his shoulders…
We did talk a little bit about Yemen’s government, what a mess. There is, of course, the president. There is also a “government” headed up by a prime minister. This is where all of the ministers of various departments are (electricity, culture, etc.). Unlike other countries that have a prime minister, this entire government is appointed by the president. Wait, it gets better… There is a parliament that is elected, this is where the opposition parties try to exercise some power. There is also a smaller body that works with the parliament called the Shura council. From what I understand, they are supposed to act in an advisory role to parliament, guiding them in matters of constitutionality and religious law. No law passed can go against generally accepted Sharia law. This council doesn’t get to vote on anything, but they wield considerable influence over parliament. The Shura council is appointed by… the president of course!
And I thought Bush had too much power! The president effectively has almost total control, and that’s not good. My teacher then informed me that most of the Arab countries (that aren’t monarchies) have a similar system. Gah, no wonder this area is such a mess…