In the latest issue of the Yemen times
, there is an article about a guy (and his family) who is threatening to commit suicide in front of the capital if something isn’t done about his situation. What terrible thing has happened to him? He went to school with the President’s son, keep in mind that in most Arab countries president is code for “king”. There isn’t much doubt that the son will inherit the presidency, with fair and free elections no doubt… Anyway, the son apparently told him that he would get him a job with the national airline and a place to stay. Neither have materialized in 3 or 4 years. So this guy writes his former classmate and the Yemen times saying that he will kill himself if something isn’t done soon to alleviate his suffering. He also has the temerity to complain about corruption in the judicial system concerning some sort of inheritance issue. Where does someone get the balls to complain about corruption while at the same time threaten to kill oneself if his personal contact in the government doesn’t come through for him? The sad thing is that it really doesn’t surprise me, I can imagine most of the people that I’ve met here think like that (minus the killing oneself part). Why isn’t the government doing something for me? Corruption is out of hand, if I could only figure out how to make it work for me… I don’t know what is more frustrating, the hypocrisy, or the infantilism shown by people towards the government. At some point people have to realize that
A) They are not 4 years old anymore and should not whine about not getting handouts (current 4 year olds are excepted from this of course) and
B) Even if the government were to do something for them, they would inevitably screw it up and/or make someone else worse off.
Things do suck here, I understand. I understand about being desperate and asking for help. But to go to the organization (?) that has the greatest responsibility for making this place awful for help seems really backwards to me. Here, one has to succeed despite the government, if you succeed because of it, you’re just taking money from someone else and putting it in your pocket. The same could be said for any government but here it is much worse. The corruption is so transparent here, it is easy to see the money go from your pocket into someone else, sometimes it’s done right in front of you. If this society is to succeed, they will have to do what every other successful society does, value and expect to stand on one’s own two feet and not depend on the government. Of course the government is not about to get out of the way, the prince has to ascend to the throne one day….
Isaac
yemen middle east economics corruption