The video below shows what some might describe as the simple Yemeni under who’s name almost everything done or on behalf of. Here, he speaks for himself. A lament that is performed in a style and composition very unique to Yemen. The translation may not do it proper justice, but the message is disarming in its simplicity and directness. There is sadness, resignation, sarcasm, wit, and a belief that, in the end, there is something called Justice.
Get out of our Way
Chorus:
Get Out! Get Out! Get out of Our Way, The Jar of Beans is for Us. The Jar of Beans is for Us.
And the Liver and Kidneys are for You, the Liver and Kidneys are for You
The Tall and Lithe Women are for You, and the Short and the Ugly Ones are for Us.
The Tall and Lithe Women are for You, and the Short and the Ugly Ones are for Us.
The 4×4’s are for You, The 4×4’s are for You
And Donkeys and Asses are for US
Chorus repeats
The Flats and Villas are for You, And the Cardboard Boxes are for Us
The Flats and Villas are for You, And the Cardboard Boxes are for Us
And you filled your Pockets, and You filled your Pockets on the back of Our Toil and Sweat
Chorus Repeats
The Chandeliers are Yours, and the Gas Lamps are Ours
The Chandeliers are Yours, and the Gas Lamps are Ours
And you filled your pockets on the back of Our Toil and Sweat
Chorus Repeats
If this is Your Nature and Disposition, May God Disperse Your Unity*
If this is Your Nature and Disposition, May God Disperse Your Unity*
And May God preserve us in Our Weakness, For Perdition (Hell) is surely Yours.
And May God preserve us in Our Weakness, For Perdition (Hell) is surely Yours.
Yemen. Was it a revolution? Or was it a revolution that got hijacked by a coup? Or was it a revolution that was trying to overthrow a coup? Or was it even, and my bets are on this one, a controlled coup?
He did say that ruling Yemen is like dancing on the heads of serpents and he saved his masterpiece of a dance for the finale of the Yemeni Revolution. I remember a tweet that mentioned someone seeing Saleh at the hospital absorbed with following AJ on T.V. The tweet tried to give the impression that he was watching it in a state of despair which I would bet he wasn’t. Saleh was busy watching, assessing, and reacting. Learning from the mistakes of others. Adapting.
Ben Ali lost his nerve, and in a panicked TV appearance, apologised and assured the Tunisians that he “understood them” that there wont be anymore “presidents for life”. He lost his nerve, then his composure, then any bit of respect he might have retained, then finally, lost his country.. In what felt like minutes, he then headed for the nearest airport to the good old Saudi Arabia. So the lesson learnt here, as Bell Pottinger might have pointed out to Saleh, is a) never admit guilt b) don’t cede any ground.
Hosni Mubarak must have decided he wasn’t going to look that undignified. He wasn’t going to sneak out of the country with a suitcase full of money while his wife dragged a sack full of gold bullion. He decided that he will give an impression of acknowledging the grievances of his people: He will not stand for another election. He had no intention of passing the throne to his son. He stopped short of resigning and got ready to ride it out. What made Hosni’s position untenable was his army. The moment they made it clear that they were ‘neutral’ and would protect the square, Hosni the military man knew he had to go. Whether he resigned out of choice or nudged out by the junta no one knows. Egypt was sufficiently civic for the military establishment to think twice about backing ONE man fighting for political survival. Perhaps they decided to ‘allow’ him to take the fall rather than politizing the military establishment and bringing it down with him. Saleh didn’t have that problem thanks to his own wisdom and strategic foresight in placing his immediate family in key military positions. After all, blood is thicker than water isn’t it? It is not as if the family will ask him to step down. His downfall would be theirs. So by now he had witnessed 2 scenarios and was getting a feel of what works and what doesnt.
Lesson #2: Thank the Lord in all His Wisdom and pat yourself on the back for being smart enough to ensure that critical military and security apparatus are essentially a ‘family affair’√
Lesson #3 Is Yemen sufficiently civic, urban, or cohesive enough to unite and pose an actual threat? It isn’t. Keep it that way. √
Now all eyes turned to Gaddafi. Gaddafi must have considered the two that preceded him: If empty apologies and meaningless conciliatory overtures didn’t work. Then the threat of all out military might, might. He offered no compromise. After all he ruled over a country with minimal governmental and tribal considerations, in a country with a higher standard of living, 1000’s of miles of harsh landscape AND he was sure he had a lot of support. Of course, he didn’t take into account that his ex-enemies turned new friends, would revert to ex-friends now new enemies status. He did not see that one coming. Another little gem for Saleh: Be aware of the external and trust no one. Even if its a piece of paper promising immunity and all the money you can eat.
From Bashar, he learned that unrelenting BRUTALITYand the impression of unresponsiveness attracts the wrong kind of attention. (Add to that the new world of instant exposee citizen journalism). Its important to be intelligent about it. So for all the 10 months of stalling, Saleh somehow managed to looking like he was doing anything but waiting. He was always ‘communicating’, and ‘promising’, and ‘revising’ etc etc. Always mentioning the constitution, the fact that he was elected, that Yemen is the only democracy, the threat of AQAP, and the Iranian-backed Houthis, and the Israelis, and Free Masons, the machavillian West. It was talk. keep talking. doesnt matter what you say just don’t stop. keep them mesmirised and staring at your lips. Which we did. For 10 months.
I could never become a dictator. I’m too lazy and not ruthless enough to go around assassinating whatever is between me and that chair. So the hard slog necessary at the beginning is enough to turn me off. However, let’s imagine I somehow managed to be a dictator. Let’s say my Dad passed it on to me years ago and now, 33 years later, for instance, Im comfortable, Im relaxed, I’ve got a routine, the kids are in good schools, etc etc. and some guy in TUNISIA sets himself on fire and the dominos start falling in my direction. what would I do that is different to Saleh?
If I was a dictator, with a legacy to pass on to my children, I would be very concerned. Not for me you understand, but for my children, their wives and husbands and their children. At the age of 67, I would probably view “Alsulta” as “Maghram” not “Maghnam”. A liability, a burden of a responsibility, not a prize or an assett. I would be looking forward putting my dancing shoes away, setting the snakes free, and enjoying the rest of my life with the grandchildren, in a tomato field somewhere (ANYWHERE frankly), with orange peel in my mouth. . After all, look what they did to Gaddafi and his children. Look at what they did with Hosni’s children. Looking at it from that angle, and with family being important to me, I would be more concerned with my childrens’ rights and well being. I would rather put my trust in preserving myself and progeny then ceding what took years to establish, then hand it on a silver plate to just ANYBODY. It’s not a charity.
Like Saleh, I would be absolutely aghast at the perfidy of those youths. Since when did my youth, my children, my people DO politics? We are a traditional qat chewing society, where children are meant to be seen and not heard. Where our priceless women should be protecting their complexion from the heat of the noon sun, preferably in the kitchen, not not going out on street carnivals. Our Young ones are always respectful and differential to their elders. We were all happy till Bouzizi came along. After 33 years I think I would have grown to know my people very well: They are very gentle. very accommodating. More than happy with their lot in life. As long as they have enough money for essentials, daily needs, and Qat, they were quite satisfied. We did our thing, they did theirs. Everyone happy, so what is the fucking problem now? My first inclination would be to blame an outside conspiracy, as you do, not because I believe that but its standard protocol. Not because I am looking for a coat hanger but because, hands on heart, MY PEOPLE DO NOT ACT LIKE THIS (normally). I would say something like: “Alshabab mugharar bihim” “The youth are being manipulated and taken for a ride” And I wouldnt be lying either, especially since my best pal from the barracks days has betrayed me JUST because I’m grooming my son for the job, and took half the army with him, and especially when all the opportunists have come out of the wood work under the cloak of supporting the Youth. Personally I would have grudgingly let them protest until its past their bed time and I wouldn’t bat an eye.. That’s democracy for you.. Peaceful protests are fine. The odd petition, A tear jerker of a poem, Im a sucker for a good slogan (Shi3arat, how can the Arab world live without them), the odd hunger strike.. I can work with that.. I can live with that.
So how would I react if, from the side of my presidential pool, I heard the chants of IRHAL IRHAL (leave, leave) after 33 years of solid non stop dancing on heads of snakes… Initially it would be: ” Arhal? laysh beit abukum?” which doesnt translate very well in english. I would think it rude, impolite, not very neighbourly. I would be understanding of course, all those young men with no jobs and/or responsibilites, standing around with time on their hands dreaming/philosophising of democracy. I would however, help them out a bit and tell them what I, as a dictator, already know. Democracy is an abstract thought. Democracy doesn’t put food on the table. Democracy doesn’t create jobs, look at China. Even the Americans know its about the Economy, Stupid. Look at the Saudis, arent they happy in their subsidised existence. I wouldnt mind being reborn a Saudi as long as im not reborn a Saudi Woman., and no democracy in sight. Having shown these protestors that Democracy is a red herring, I would then proceed to blame all my failings on three key areas: geography, the weather, and my subjects lack of hobbies. It is not my fault we are running out of petrol, blame our geographic location. It is not my fault it doesnt rain enough to restore the water tables around the country, blame global warming. And if you my people, had any other hobbies other than making babies, we wouldnt have reached 25,000,000 with all that entails in terms of lack of jobs, lack of resources, housing, lack of food.. That’s how I personally would have handled it, but I’m not a professional dictator.
I will admit that the day I saw my former best buddy from the barracks days go on TV, side with those spotty teenagers, AND take a big chunk of the army with him.. I didnt know if I should laugh or cry.. My first reaction is to walk to the bedroom safe and throw a fist full of dollars in his face .. im sure that thats what its all about.. I mean its a joke right? All of a sudden he’s playing Che ? No. He wants my son’s future job, let’s face it. And trying to inherit me, while I’m still alive, and to divide the cake while im still alive is GILIT ADAB .. So I would have shove a couple of millions in his greasy paw, and sort it out later.. After Friday prayers..
So when I go to the mosque I sweated millions of dollars to build and wake up in Saudi Arabia with a shard of wood in my abdomen, forgive me for concluding that there is a problem. This isn’t funny anymore it’s getting rather personal, and it isn’t Silmiya. This is a coup. This would probably delight me because it hands over a perfect excuse that Ben Ali, Mubarak, and Gaddafi didn’t have.. I can tell the world with a strong element of truth that what is happening here isn’t Arab Spring Cleaning at all.. its a coup. A coup from a crook with a history as long and as dirty as my own. The difference between him and me is that you know me.. You know the product and the brand.. why take chances.. The Americans agree.. the Saudis are nodding their heads.. Naturally in the world of politics we are either friends or potential friends (as the americans would say).
As a client dictator, I have bosses I am answerable to. In my case the USA and the KSA. They may not like me but they are used to me. And there is nobody else to replace me with which is a big bonus. I know that I have them breathing down my neck but I also know that through gritted teeth they are begging me to give them something. ANYTHING. Anything that would give them a reason to extend my contract. Out of breath with the latest operation, and out of ideas, and completely out of my comfort zone, I think I would resort to PR.. Even though dabbling in Black Magic and dark arts is forbidden in Islam, I step on my principles, pick up the phone and book an appointment with Bell Pottinger, specialists in propping, sorry, assisting, Middle Eastern Dictatorships in their transition to Democracy. Sweet.
After the initial consultation, we sit down for a proper talk, no bull. My PR wizard sums it up like this..
Forget about the good old days. Like it or not, change is coming to the Middle East and North Africa whether you like it or not. Learn from the previous three. Learn to bend or you will snap. The key is compromise. The ILLUSION of compromise. In order for your regime and legacy to survive it must RE-INVENT itself.. That’s what the last three didn’t do.
To Do List:
Insure that your military and security apparatus REMAINS INTACT, loyal, and funded.
Insure that civilian casualties are kept to only the necessary minimum..
Insure a plethora of conflicting groups on the scene, especially ones that encourage SECTARIAN ISSUES, INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, SECESSIONIST, AND, IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING, ISLAMISTS.
The centrepiece of OUR coup is to resolve the issue of the opportunist opposition parties. 1. Sign the GCC deal. No problem if your militias are still intact. 2. Swallow the opposition by forming a national reconciliation government surrounded by your military and national security apparatus. (keep them on their toes) 3. Get the newly formed ‘government’ to invite you through the back door.. (After all, it is a reconciliation government after all)
Pardon everybody for past hamagat, or stupidities. leave it vague and open to interpretation. So that it actually encompasses even snipers…
create a labyrinthine complex judicial and bureaucratic ridden black hole for all the ‘victims’ with grievances like murdered relatives and friends etc. keep them busy for a few years while we ‘reconcile’
Create a file for all those ‘activists’ both internal and abroad. Invite them over for tea.
Understand that even though you might have lost the title of president. BUT now you have all the benefits without any of the responsibilities.. as long as your family militia is around, no one is going anywhere.
Effectively use this reconciliation period to shore up alliances, mend a few fences, redistribute the cake with the opposition but keeping the best part for you, and most of all START COOKING FOR THE NEXT ELECTIONS!!!
They have done everything by the textbook for over 7 months: Peaceful, persistent protests in a country where the dire necessity for, not just reform, but survival, would have excused a far more violent approach in a country as well armed as Yemen. I am not a politician, nor will I pretend to be one, and taking into account the sum total of political intervention in Yemen, I should be ashamed to be one. I should be ashamed to be an American, Saudi, or Yemeni politician today.
The American politician should be ashamed for putting the lives of 25 million human beings on one side of the scale and allowing them to be outweighed by every other consideration except the one that truly matters: The plight of the Yemeni people. It is inconceivable that it is beyond American imagination and capability to find a way of dealing with the AQAP issue while at the same time stand for the first time on the correct side of Yemeni history. It is impossible to believe that there is no other partner in the entire country of Yemen who will be not be willing or capable of replacing this war criminal in the highly prized and lucrative role of ‘staunch US ally against the War on Terrorism’. Is a partner even needed? Is it not enough to have the self-proclaimed right to drone bomb any part of Yemen with impunity?
It is obvious that Saudi Arabia has made it clear to the United States that it is taking over the Yemeni Arab Spring file. It is also clear that the United States obliged. and why wouldn’t they? The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has worked tirelessly for the last 40 years to deliver a stable, reasonably priced supply of oil to the United States and Europe: The blood that fuels the very existence of their economies. It re-invests a lot of this wealth back into many western economies and is also the biggest client in terms of arms sale. The price of the House of Saud’s loyalty is in actual fact very modest and one that Western governments find quite reasonable: There will be no interference of any kind with Saudi Arabia’s internal affairs as a kingdom or a regional power. So when Saudia Arabia tells the US and EU that your oil supply is under threat if Yemen goes unstable, the US and the EU will oblige. If Saudi Arabia tells the US and the EU: “Hands off Yemen because it is within our sphere of influence and we dont want an example of a successful revolution anywhere on the Arabian Peninsula because it might encourage something within our borders..” the US and the EU will oblige and they have done. For the last 7 months.
Saudi Arabia has laid seige to the Yemeni fight for the basic right to take back their country with the GCC innitiative. When I say the right to take back their country I don’t mean that in an idealistic or ideological way, this is a fight for existence. For bread. An attempt to put the country on a track away from the gathering troubles that the Saleh regime augmented by their callous neglect. Saudi Arabia is more than happy to provide the occassional donation to prevent the bottom from falling out completely in Yemen and has recently announced being more than happy to replace Indonesian female house servants with Yemeni ones if that helps. It doesn’t get any more disgusting than that from our fellow Muslim neighbors. It is probably completely true that Saudi has pressured the remaining Mobarak loyalists still in power and Egypt to block an international enquiry into the murder of innocents over the last 3 days in Yemen. What possible other reason is there for Egypt to veto this humanitarian request?
All this would not have been possible without the complicit support of Yemeni politicians on both sides of the pro and anti saleh spectrum. The GCC innitiative serves one purpose only. It is a mechanism put in place to keep the Revolution corralled within the confines of one or two squares and it worked up until 3 days ago. Every time there is an escalation, the regime responds with murder, Ali Muhsin steps in as a defender of the revolution, and Saudi sends an envoy to sign a truce. This is the formula. This formula is based on a simple calculation: The Yemeni people will, sooner or later, exhaust themselves and submit to the Saudi dictat.Already there are families in Yemen, who have withdrawn children from schools and sent them to beg on the streets for food. This is what is masquerading as behind-the-scenes-diplomacy imposed by Saudi Arabia. It is not too disimiliar to watching a person be bullied and/or raped by someone you know as a friend or boss while a crowd of people silently pretend its not happening. This is how I feel when I watch the endless shots of corpses and body parts of people who remind me of my dad or my brothers or uncles. Domestic abuse.
I have found it numbing to follow the events in Yemen after the recents murders. As a person who no longer resides in Yemen, I find that it is not for me to advocate escalation, but as I write this it seems that the Yemeni street has, out of desperation, has decided it is time to move out of the play-pen straight into the paths of the RPGs and bullets awaiting them. Thank you for your support.
One of my earliest memories as a very small person was of running away from home, and it was something I did routinely. If I didn’t get what I wanted, I marched. I just picked a focal point and walked. Somewhere out there.. One of these marches I remember very well. I had been promised to be taken out in the car for the afternoon and for some reason it wasn’t going to happen. It was raining and I got stung by a bee. So I took off on a protest march. Hours later, a Jeep pulled up right next to me and I was painfully lifted off my feet by my hair: My very angry and distraught father. After a couple of cuffs behind the ear I was returned home to more cuffs by a hysterical mother. The adult talk around me and at me seemed peppered with the word Saudi. At that age and in our neighbourhood, The Saudi, was the bogeyman. It was the word used to instil the fear of God in any little hell-raiser and keep them within orbit. This was not just a fairytale to keep children well behaved, as wiki-leaks have shown in their latest revelations, this was a perverse reality as old as the nation of Saudi Arabia itself, if not longer…
Why I am writing this entry is because of a conversation I followed in the timeline a few days ago which I captured as an image and you can find it as one of the images on my twitter profile. It is of a Saudi who, every inch the gentleman, was letting us know just how much of a bargain Yemeni whores are. Why is time wasted on such a person? Because it matters. Not just because he is a piece of shit, that’s a given, but because he embodied in those few lines the essence of a certain Saudi view of Yemen. So instead of doing the whole I’m-bigger-than-this-so-I’ll-ignore-it routine, I want to argue that this goes to the heart of the matter why Saleh must go and that Saudi role in the Middle East has to be highlighted and discussed. I’ll start by telling a true story:
Samar was a neighbour and a childhood acquaintance. She used to babysit me when my parents went off to work. I remember she told me stories, played with me and yanked my hair a lot. the next time I saw Samar was under totally different circumstances.A little background: Samar dropped out of school because her parents divorced and she couldn’t fit in with her father’s new life. Her mother’s new life wasn’t accommodating either. She was sent off to her grandmother’s, our neighbour, along with her sisters. Without an education, she also was from a financially deprived background. It’s hard to remember what she was like as a person, but I do remember that her parents divorce broke something in her. When we moved neighbourhoods my mother maintained contact. I rarely saw her again. By the time I moved to England, I had all but forgotten my baby-sitter.
On my last visit to Yemen, an aunt asked me if I remember Samar. I had to be reminded. “She is not well and she wants to see you.” Me? Why me? I was told that she often remembers us and wanted to see me while I was in Yemen. It is also a wajib (duty) to visit the unwell in Islam. My mother told me that it was breast cancer in its terminal stages, and that if I didn’t want to go, I shouldn’t. In fact, my mother had been unable to continue the visits.She couldn’t handle it. Sometimes being too empathetic requires a little self preservation. I’ll be honest and say I went because I was asked to. I made a note of a few things to say and went with my aunt.
Going back to my childhood neighbourhood where Samar still resided, showed me how education back then managed to pull my parents out of poverty to a very decent standard of living. Samar was still there. What was different now was more ramshackled buildings, more people, more poverty. Whatever words I had ready, I lost the moment I stepped into the living room. She was laid out on a mattress, surrounded by women hastily arranging their hijab. It just occurred to me that this wasnt just a person, this was my babysitter. The moment I saw her face, I remembered who she was to me. She fed me, combed my hair, and put up with my mischief as a little kid. She was also not more than 7 years older than me.
Over the course of this single visit, I got reacquainted with my baby-sitter and understood why my mother found it too hard to visit. I wish I never went. It was not all doom and gloom, I was surprised at the swift alternation from laughter to silence and tears. At some point all her guests left. My uncle, aunt, and I stayed behind. She wanted to talk. Her seven children present. The eldest was a beautiful girl of 16 far far older than her years, the youngest a beautiful girl of 1 and a half years. Samar and her sisters were married off at very early ages for one simple reason: a roof on their heads and a morsel of food in their mouths, its that simple. Its about survival. sometimes it works. sometimes it doesn’t. In Samar’s case, it didn’t. Samar’s husband was violent. He beat her black and blue. She said she sometimes walked the streets for hours for a little bit of peace from the beatings. Not only was he violent, he was also a substance abuser. The only reason Samar went back to her Grandmother’s house was she because she couldnt take the beatings and his ability to provide grew less and less.
Samar discovered her lump at an early stage and managed to get herself a sponsor for a scan which proved that she had breast cancer. She had every chance of beating this if it was treated earlier. There was talk of sending her to Egypt for the necessary treatments, but with estranged parents,a useless husband, and the wasta culture, she slipped through the net and the cancer spread everywhere. The rest of my holiday was spent on many visits to Sahar. Sometimes we carried her into the car for a drive. Sometimes to a cafe. Once we took her to the hospital when her pain was so intense, the ill-equipped hospital could only provide her with an oxygen mask. We bought her morphine, but they couldn’t even find a decent enough vein in her body to inject her some relief. In despair, the crying nurse turned to us and said: What can I do for her ya nas. It goes without saying this is not one of the private hospitals mushrooming all over Sanaa. This is outside of Sanaa, and there is a big difference between Sana’a and the rest of Yemen. Samar felt every shot of pain without so much as a paracetamol. A pain she described as shards of glass cutting her insides.
As she slipped in and out of conciousness she was moved to my Aunt’s house. It was more comfortable. We took some of the younger children with us. Her thoughts were with her children. Who will take care of them. Who will feed them. It was inevitable that they will be taken in by relatives but they would have to be broken up. none of them could take all seven. At that point I made a mistake, that I can not forget. We were talking about her kids, and I said to her, that I’ll take the little one in my suitcase and sneak her off to London because I was in love with her. She looked at me and said:” Can you do that? can you take Tahani with you?” I said yes. I don’t know why I said it. I even went further and said I’ll adopt her. I guess I just wanted to make her feel a little happy. a little less in despair. With every convulsion of pain, the women asked her to remember God. After a life of misery and pain, her reply was:” they say paradise is under the feet of mothers. Lets see if I will find paradise, or just earth and rocks.” I will never forget the pain with which she said that. She died 2 months after I returned to the UK.
But what is the Saudi connection to all of this? It’s very simple. The Saudis were on holiday in the neighbourhood. Samar’s eldest daughter had a ‘friend’. That friend was an older girl who was dying to ‘introduce’ her to a ‘Saudi’ friend with ‘good intentions’ and a lot of cash. I can not say for certain what was on the cards. She was flirtatious. She even flirted with me. After all I grew up in the West didn’t I? Presumably she expected me to be open minded. When I told my aunt of what I observed in her behaviour, she told me that there are rumours that Samar’s oldest daughter has female friends grooming her for the express purpose of introductions to Saudi tourists. Yes prostitution is everywhere and in every country. Even in Saudi Arabia itself. But at the very least be halfway decent about it and stick to brothels if you must. Yet this is not what I see. I see Saudis going BEYOND the limitations of brothels into the very homes of vulnerable people through a network of women out on the look out for ‘willing’ recruits. In essence, they are looking for whores without the whoredom. Something a little more clean and a little less used or blemished. In Ibb, without even snooping around, I came across stories of Saudi’s marrying these girls for the summer, and not all of them knew that this was what is called Jawaz al mut3a. The air is abuzz with stories of Saudis who up and disappear after their holiday leaving behind a very young bride to put the pieces together. Do I blame the Saudis and wonder what the Ka’aba in their homeland signifies to them? Do I blame the Yemeni villager who willingly or unwittingly, through poverty assumed the intentions were honourable? Do I blame Saleh for a government that abdicated its responsibility of government that allowed our borders to be so porous, that anybody and anything can walk in and do as they like? provided they stay in power? Do I blame the culture of corruption fostered by this same government that has allowed yemen to misdevelop to the point that men will give their daughters to strangers on the off-chance they might provide what they can’t? Do I blame the the Saudi Royal Family for turning a blind eye to what their citizens are doing in Yemen, which is extensive enough to be picked up by american cables and exposed by wikileaks? while at the same time doing their best to sabotage reform in Yemen?
It’s not even just the child trafficking and the prostitution, I urge anyone to go on You tube and do a search for holiday videos made by Saudis visiting Yemen. You would think they are visiting a zoo. just type Yemen under search and eventually you’ll find it. Its an insight to the mentality. And before I get accused of generalising have a look at the ratio of videos that are respectful of Yemen to the ones that aren’t.
While their Royal Highnesses of Al-S3ood are repressing our revolution and their less than honourable citizens are abusing are poverty and mocking our backwardness, and slandering our women, its worth noting that Oman in the 70’s provided just as much trouble with their civil war. The only difference is Saudi Arabia resolved it by absorbing Oman into the GCC. The Saudis have no such intentions for Yemen. Their ideal situation for us is to “keep us hungry, but not quite starving” This is essentially what is at stake. I hope the National Council has issues like this in mind when dealing with the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia.
Is there ever a time when it becomes not only right, but patriotic, to admit that reforms have failed? That a once in a lifetime oppurtunity has been lost? That we have let down not just people who gave their lives or had it taken from them, but also condemned the lives of the next generation of Yemenis in order to maintain a status quo that can be judged by any amateur by its record of delivery over the last three decades? Dory Eryani took the brave step of saying what I am sure is in everybody’s mind and I want to add my voice to hers.
Removing all the ‘distractions’ and ‘complexities’, what is happening in the Middle East? We have seen revolutions rising to remove regimes that have mismanaged them. The template is almost identical: First move against the symbol, then after that the establishment that supported it and that is how it should be. It’s only logical. After all, its perfectly clear that these establishments are incapable or have no intention to self reform and if they are not going to self-reform, then they have lost the mandate to rule. None of the three countries that have toppled their regimes can claim success, but all three are on the right track there. They have toppled the symbol, and now are engaging with the bigger, harder step of dismantling the establishments. Whether they will succeed or not is anyone’s guess but all three countries revolutionaries have a clear understanding that an establishment that was part of the problem can not be part of the solution.
Watching the people of Libya in their moment of glory makes it even more painful to question what has happened to the Yemeni Revolution. Of all the Arab countries, and I say this not only because I am a Yemeni, it is the one that deserved it the most. If Yemen was a person it would be the most disadvantaged, side-lined, over-looked, marginalised, poverty stricken person ever. You can say what you like about Hosni, or Ben Ali, or even Gaddafi, but the fact of the matter is that all these countries standards surpass Yemen’s astronomically. I hate the family of Al Saoud with a passion for their betrayal of Yemen recently and for decades of foreign policy that have led Yemen to where it is today:The road sweeper of the Gulf, but haven’t they done well for their people? Look at Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and yes, even Bahrain.. yes they are dictators but haven’t they done well for their people? You will say they have the money to be able to buy their people’s silence. The equation in the Gulf States is very simple trade-off: you put up with us, and we will give you a standard of living other nations of the earth can only dream of. Free housing, free health care, free education.. a good life. I’m sure the average Gulf Arab, with the exception of certain Bahrainis, understands and approves this. In their perspective, They have what they need, the house, the food on the table, disposable income, education for their kids etc. Do I blame them? or think they are making a mistake? Of course not, because they are satisfied enough and ultimately that is what it’s about. What is most important to the voter in the most advanced democracy on Earth? Isn’t it economics? jobs? more disposable income? less tax?
Cynical about democracy? I will be honest. At this point after 8 months of watching, I am almost at the point of just wanting food on the table for Yemen, never mind democracy. Find even a benevolent tinpot dictator for Yemen who will help himself to even a little bit less and put some effing food on the table for Yemen, but even that is not an option. There is nothing benevolent in sight. The only chance we had was this revolution which started with the Youth.. These youth who took the chance, feeling their way blindly, with no experience, guided by their understanding that this was a golden opportunity that doesn’t come very often. They were not copying the neither the Egyptians, nor the Tunisians, or the Lybians. They saw a chance and took it.
Speaking for myself, I was entirely swept up with the euphoria that something big was happening in Yemen. I was one of the fools who saw Ali Muhsin’s defection as the sign of someone who is cutting his losses and switching to the winning side. I was also one of the fools who thought the failed assassination attempt ,which has all the marks of an inter-establishment coup, was a further sign that Saleh was on his own. Even when rumours will swirling that Tawakol Karaman is nothing but the public face of Islah I still didn’t click, after all, what does it matter what party she belongs to, in the end she captured the national mood and articulated the case of the Yemeni Revolution very well. The first shadow I glimpsed was when Ali Muhsin made his first move against protestors intent on escalation. He arrested them and beat them. He was sending out a clear message. No escalation will be allowed. Of course the explanation given was that the protest had to stay within the the limits of Change Square in order to be able to protect the protesters from the snipers and regime. In effect, and im sure in intent, he succeeded in containing the Sana’a protest movement. Before Ali Muhsin’s move, It was easy to say who the revolutionaries were, and who the establishment were. After that move it was sensed by many that the lines were all of a sudden blurred. And regardless of what anyone said or tweeted, or wrote, that action went UNCHALLENGED. yes hindsight is a fine thing. I wonder now if that singular action succeeded in planting seeds of self-doubt..
The establishment that I grew up in the Yemen and left can be summarised in a famous Saleh pearl of wisdom, and it really is a pearl of wisdom: Let them do what they want to do, and we will do what we want to do.. This isn’t arrogance, It is confidence. The confidence that comes not from any super-human abilities, but from the smug knowledge that comes from creating a rigged democracy from scratch and taking 30 years to perfect it. Everything about the first democracy in the Arabian Gulf (as Saleh is fond of reminding you and me) has a mysterious way of working comfortably on his behalf for his interests. Saleh’s democracy works something like this: he was liberal enough within his establishment including the alleged opposition to let them help themselves to the cake. In fact, it was encouraged. It was never a hard life to be an opposition member of parliament, it was harder to be an independent. Help yourself and allow French TOTAL to grab yemeni gas at stupid prices, help yourself and allow other Arab/Non ARab countries to fish in Yemeni waters with dynamite and ships so huge while the average tihami yemeni takes his life in his hands on a rickety boat for left overs. Help yourself to dig any numbers of well.. Help yourself to other people’s lands and real estate. If you were a potential threat he allowed you to thrive. Wasn’t that the arrangement with certain business and tribal families? In the end everybody becomes so corrupted that no one has the moral high ground to say anything or do anything meaningful because he would have something against you. This culture is now everywhere in Yemen. You cant do anything without paying someone for a job they are supposed to do anyway. Bribery and corruption. Even to mention it is a cliche in its own right.
By the time the opposition took advantage of the power vacuum and Saleh went for his cosmetic procedure in Saudi, it was clear that ppl were starting to worry. What wasn’t clear was everything that came after that, but whatever it is, it ceased to be the Youth’s Revolution after that. Besides Ali Muhsin’s defect, there was the Ahmar’s, the tribes that came to defend him, The ‘surprise’ appearance of AQAP, and the smooth and ease with which the opposition took over as caretakers of the revolution. What people call the opposition, is really the third layer of yemen’s ruling establishment who are not so much moving against Saleh, but seizing the opportunity to move up a notch in the food chain.It is not an opposition it is an extension of the regime itself. Above the opposition is Saleh, and above Saleh is Saudi Arabia.
Most Saleh supporters are supporters of the lesser of two evils. Now I don’t know much about Islah or Zindani. In fact, I only know one thing about Zindani and its all I ever need to know: That he has (allegedly) invented the cure to HIV and is keeping it a secret from the world because of patent rights. This is not what I heard, this came from his own mouth. Presumably his Islamic sensibilities prevent him from sharing it with the rest of the world until he gets the patent sorted? Or maybe he is just a liar? It can’t be a publicity stunt surely. In any other country this would have discredited anybody, but not in Yemen. There are no other options out there. No one who isn’t in one way or another tainted by association.
It is also painfully clear now that there is no national narrative in Yemen. There is no all embracing Yemen like the Egypt the mother, that rallied all Egyptians. Everyone sees Yemen from their own bubble. Yes it maybe true that some would say that Libya is the same but the transitional council in Libya made a point of reaching out to all and including all groups like the Amazigh and uniting them against Gaddafi.. The national council barely made the effort to even look like it was being representative. Why? simple, they know that they will get away with it.. whos they? the careerist politicians, the opportunistic parties, thecultural Islamists the list goes on.. what no one is doing is taking a pause and say: Stop, can we afford this? Can we afford to let Yemen go on the path it is going on for even 10 more years? with all the inflation, the water and food shortages, the sky-rocketing population, the shrinking oil and gas reserves, the rising unemployment, the culture of corruption, the illiteracy, the poverty… It doesn’t matter what people say with their lips, the answer is in their actions. If the action of the National Council is anything to go by, then it is hardly a wonder that our revolution is all but over. we have gone full circle only to end up in the arms of the establishment again.. IF you’re not chewing Qat by now, you certainly will be by the time this revolution is through… We almost got rid of a dictator, only to hand the power back into the hands of his creation…