Yemenis must get over this…

There have been a number of protests and sit ins across the country this past week in order to highlight some ongoing problems. All the usual suspects were there, poverty, hunger, water shortages, child labor, refugee issues, etc. The common theme across all of them is the the government should do something. It even goes further than that, they all have as an understood axiom that all things flow through the government, the only reason they do not have what they need is because the government does not give it to them.

I hope that it’s obvious what the problem is with that world view. The government can indeed give some things to some people, but only by taking them away from someone else. If the Yemenis want their economy to grow, they will have to start looking at themselves. What the sit ins should be about is the corruption, interference and cronyism that is preventing Yemen from clawing itself into a decent position. The government doesn’t want to correct people’s views on where prosperity comes from because then the people would start demanding that the government should get the hell out of the way…

On the other hand, the president did have a rather refreshing take on the water shortages in Ta’izz. People have been demanding that something be “done” to help alleviate the water problem. The president’s response, “Water comes from the sky, not from the government.” It is both astoundingly obvious and bound to go right past most of the people. There have already been op-ed pieces lambasting the president for this stance. Of course no one has any solutions to offer, if there isn’t any water, there isn’t any water. For once, I think I agree with the president on something…