18 May 2008 – Sunday night. 

Hey – those of you still with me – thank you for the responses of the last entry – it is lovely to turn this machine on and see notes from friends, you good friends. Keeps me from going more weird than I already am! When I come home I talk to Henry as if he were still here – and he is, in spirit. His many things are in every room; his stack of new books there beside his chair, waiting.

Ah well. The Terminix Man called the other day, left a message. When we connected the next day the first thing he said was, “I am so glad you left Mr. Cook’s voice on the answering machine, it was nice to hear his voice again.”

Later, I was in Wal-mart, my least favorite place, I stall and stall before I have to go there. While perusing the vegetables, trying to decide what I wanted to eat instead of buying what Henry had to eat, I heard a faint whistling, the tune - the hymn, All Creatures of Our God and King – we sang this at Henry’s Celebration. Here I was in Wal-mart, of all places, hearing it whistled with a good rhythm and up to tempo. (While learning this hymn, lo, many many years ago, Henry sat there in his chair reading, and finally he said, “you are not playing that as fast as it should be sung,” and then went right back to his paper. Seldom, as in never, did he ever comment on my practicing.) Since then, whenever I play this hymn for church, I - with Henry in mind - really push the tempo. Back to Wal-mart. I started searching, aisle by aisle, but the sound kept moving away. Finally found him – Doug Andrews – cheerfully whistling, riding the motorized cart, with his wife’s shopping list in hand, zooming up and down the aisles to the beat of the hymn! This just warmed my heart.

Actually – got a little side tracked, the idea tonight was to write some more about the Yemen Trip. The First Day:

The muezzin’s prayer call at 5 am, booming through the open windows, was very loud, very insistent, and not too musical. In my other life I always thought of the prayer call as lyrical. This was not. I understand that in Yemen the prayer calls are not recordings, but are “live” performances by men who physically climb the steps to the minaret. Good. The idea of turning on the stereo equipment and never actually being in the minaret does not seem proper. If everyone is awake and up for prayer, the muezzin should be in his appointed place.

After a quick breakfast of eggs and cheese and bread and jam in the cool and shady courtyard, we were off to our first appointment at 9 am. Again, the “heels and hose, jacket and tie”requirement. For casuals like me, the constant dressing up was a bit of a chore. I solved it by wearing the same thing on every day we met with ministers. After the first day, I never had to make another decision on what to wear.

Our first appointment: H.E. Dr. Abu Bakr Al-Qarbi, the Foreign Minister – Yemen’s counterpart to Condolezza Rice. We sat around a U-shaped conference table with Dr. Al-Qarbi at the head. In what became the pattern for meetings such as this, our director, Dr. Anthony, introduced the Yemeni minister – in this instance telling us Dr. Al-Qarbi is a medical doctor, his speciality, tropical medicine. He was trained in Britain, and taught at universities in Canada and in Yemen. He is the principle interface with the USA secretary of state. In every meeting Dr. Anthony gave a prelude speech about our group: that we come as bridge-builders, to seek understanding and knowledge, then he would summarize our business and teaching qualifications. I would sink deeper into my chair at this point of the introductions. However, I would remember one of my children, when I was lamenting my lack of expertise so apparent with this group of professors, saying to me – “Awh mom, don’t worry about it. You’ve got a Ph.D. in Life.” Thinking on this, I would sit up straight and depend on my grey hair to lend an aura of importance.

The Foreign Minister was ready for us – in his wonderful English he made a thirty minute presentation of facts and situations facing the Yemeni government, stating he wanted to speak candidly and with clarity. Could I summarize the ideas?

Here is a try, not in his words, but I hope to convey my understanding of his intent:

• He commended our courage to visit Yemen, despite the exaggerated USA state department travel advisory.
• The media has created a problem, with terrorist groups financing satellite TV stations and newspapers, making it difficult to define reality from truth.
• 1995 was the first incident of British terrorists in Yemen, the international community assumed this was just a Yemeni problem until the Cole incident, then the Nairobi incident; September 9-11 made people aware terrorism is a world wide problem.
• The Yemeni government fought terrorism with force, realized this did not work and put their priority in dialogue, education, and countering poverty. However, they found that terrorists are not always from the poorer classes.
• Once an extremist is considered rehabilitated, the problem was integrating them back into the community.
• Poverty is a Big Issue: Yemen’s success of the last seven years will be lost because of the enormous increase in food prices. The price of fertilizer will increase by 50 % because China stopped exporting to Yemen.
• Oil production has dropped 40% - this is not looking good. The high world price of oil is very good for them, if not for motorists in the States.
• Yemen has potential, but desperately needs donor assistance.
• There was quite an involved statement on Yemen-USA relations – and differences of opinion in dealing with terrorists. The way I heard it: The USA demands that Yemen hand over terrorists. The Yemeni government considers this idea a constitutional infringement, and therefore an impossibility. As well as dismissing their legal rights, Yemen feels the USA is ignoring their Tribal System, their terrain, the actual cost of fighting terrorism. As I listened, I could almost hear Henry saying: “these two countries are at a Mexican standoff.” Neither side will budge. The USA has suspended all aid programs in retribution because Yemen will not accede to American demands.
• The current government is countering internal troubles, i.e., political parties trying to discredit the government, while the USA does not understand the situation, and the media is reporting a rift between the two governments which they feel the media is creating.
• The Economic challenge of Yemen is Great: dwindling oil reserves, exploding population growth, drought and environmental changes and a severely dwindling water supply, poverty, education that needs reform. One major hope of economic turnaround is exporting a labor force to their Gulf Cooperative Council neighbors. In reality, the only country that would or could employ this huge Yemeni work force is Saudi Arabia. Thousands of Yemeni men were employed in Saudi until a political fallout in the 1980s. At that time the Saudi government, over the period of a month, deported thousands and thousands of Yemeni workers. This sudden halt of remittances was a devastating blow to the Yemeni economy. I heard several times during different meetings the political reasons for this huge deportation, but I am not confident in my knowledge to actually write this on the internet. However, I can pontificate about it now! Perhaps not accurately, though.
• There was considerable mention of the London Conference – this day and every subsequent day with every minister. I never actually understood this. What I understood was that at the conference donors signed agreements for 5 billion dollars (pounds?) for projects, and after two years nothing has been initiated. Much talk, many papers signed in great hope and good faith, and so far absolutely nothing has come of it. Some donors are waiting for a national reform agenda, i.e., combating corruption in the government, greater democratization, election laws, at least 15% of parliament seats to women.
• The wrap-up statement stressed a strong Yemeni commitment to their friend, the USA; they feel there are more issues that unite us than divide us.

After the minister’s opening statement, there was a spirited question and answer session concerning every point Dr. Al-Qarbi discussed. He was very candid and explicit and sometimes quite humorous. He is a most intelligent, sincere, concerned public servant who is working to solve monumental problems. I left there thinking, how does he face each day? The troubles he deals with are frustrating, overwhelming, desperate.

We left the foreign ministry and had time for a short trip to the souk in Old Sana’a. Until 1962 Sana’a was a town of only about 200,000 people, the town entirely enclosed by the city walls. Now the city has grown to 2 million surrounding the enclave of what is now know as Old Sana’a. Inside those old walls life is much as it has been for ages – the narrow winding alleys lined with shops, in catagories: the shoes, the luggage, the spices, the garlic, the raisins, the clothing, the brass, the jambiyahs, the mosque, the public water fountains with one cup for hundreds of people - you know, how souks are throughout this region. We saw a camel in a dark small space, walking in a circle, grinding sesame seeds. The owner loved that camel. At noon he kissed the camel on the nose and led him out into the alley for a lunch break in the sunlight. We often had to plaster our bodies against the walls as men came down the alleys pushing wide wheelbarrows, selling cucumbers or watermelons by the slice. Occasionally a car or truck just about as wide as the alley would make its way through the solid throng of people. It was a good trick, to keep from being run over.

We immediately found the money changer – are you surprised? Where DO Aramcons go first? The group followed. This was one time I was in my element. The shop is very small – well, money really does not take up much space. He sat up high, riffling through a stack of bills like a pit boss in a casino. Behind him were two large fabric hangings, one with Benjamin Franklin, that would be a hundred dollar bill, and one with the Queen of England, a twenty pound sterling bill. In his casement was a pile of Maria Teresa thalers, which are about the size of silver dollars. They all are stamped 1780 Austria, regardless of the year they were minted, and sometimes regardless of the country in which they were minted. The Maria Teresa thaler was the coin of the realm throughout North Africa, indeed all of Africa and much of India, and the Levant and the Middle East until after WWII. I saw them in the souk in Tripoli in the 1960s, didn’t buy them then, was sorry later, and didn’t buy some on this trip, and now, later, am sorry. The money changer was selling them for fourteen dollars a piece. Funny, I never thought to look for them in Kobar, they must have been there, as they were so prevelant for two hundred years. I heard on this trip, somewhere, that “they” may reintroduce the thaler as currency in the Middle East.

We had a nice but short introduction to the souk, our Guys with their Guns strolling along with us. Their presence caused some discussion as we made our way through the throng of people. It was a rush back to the YCMES courtyard for a quick lunch so as to be on time to meet with the American Ambassador to Yemen, Stephen Seche. I was in awe. Even though I saw the schedule, it just did not sink in until we drove though heavy security and into the American embassy compound.

The Ambassador was waiting, standing on the walk in front of his residence, so as to meet us each personally as we descended from the van. He shook each person’s hand, introduced himself and welcomed us to Yemen.

He is a thirty year career foreign service diplomat, has served in several South American countries, as well as in India, Syria, Lebanon. He completed intensive Arabic training in Tunis, and has been in Yemen almost a year. He was quite impressive. We were seated in a lovely reception room with our cookies and notebooks balanced on our laps. Paintings on the walls were of New England historical sites of an earlier era. So out of place in that Arab environment, at the same time, a comforting reminder of home, and just where we were – standing on a little bit of America. Several aides were present. The atmosphere was frosty. Despite the welcome, the ambassador was tight lipped and exasperated that we were in Yemen. He did his best to be civil and to present to us the situation as the American government views it. I felt he felt we were not too bright, arriving at this time, a month after all non-essential American personnel had been evacuated. The Ambassador spoke quickly and intensely, without notes. There was a free exchange of questions and his rapid fire answers. Here is my summary:

• Yemen is the crossroads – destabilize Yemen and there will be a ripple effect in the entire region.
• Yemen has a series of internal problems: terrorist attacks, no robust central government authority, great economic issues, extreme poverty and extreme instability.
• The political reforms of 2006 were successful with free elections, this was a milestone in history, but no consolidated gains from that success.
• He is working with an “austere” budget – and tries not to duplicate what other countries are doing in Yemen. USA aid goes to education, health, and focus on youth 13 to 25.
• Grave concern about the security situation – since March 18 there have been ten terrorist attacks in Yemen – with two attacks on the embassy compound when mortars fell in their courtyard during lunch - just two weeks ago. (this information put a personal note into the situation).
• A question was asked: where in the USA is the greatest source of support for Yemen? How can we quicken interest in the private sector?
• The answer pretty well summed up much of the trouble: there is no group in Congress interested in Yemen. There is a great deficit of understanding in the USA about Yemen. Congressional delegations are not attracted to visit Yemen and learn of conditions on the ground. There were five congressmen who visited – the first USA delegation in eighteen years.
• This is a sobering moment in history: even though Yemen was unified in 1992, and since has had two free presidential elections, the south feels like an occupied territory, there now is war in the north. Corruption is part of the problem, as is the dwindling oil supply, the great poverty, and Yemen a victim of the world wide food crisis. President Saleh is using methods that do not respond as they did thirty years ago.
• The USA and Yemen are in a wrestling match about the Cole terrorists, some who, while under “house arrest”, attacked oil facilities. There was some comment about the lack of aid to Yemen since there is a difference of opinion on how the terrorist should be dealt with – that Yemen needs to understand how the USA treats its friends, and those who do not act as friends.

Next, a discussion about gat and visas – we shall start with this most interesting subject in the next installment. Gat, synonymous with Yemen, a cultural icon, is destroying the country.

The ambassador had to hurry off to a meeting, his security people saw us to the door, with the admonition – Be safe, and don’t go to the souk!!!

Oops, we had just been there – and made about four more visits during our stay.

Hey, anybody who managed to read to the bottom of today’s posting – good for you!

Skimming is allowed, this did get lengthy.

It seemed to me, over the days of meetings, that the same five or six basic issues were discussed with every minister. The problems do not go away. There is lots of talk, lots of pushing paper around, but little or nothing really gets done – except, by the private sector. Those millionaires and billionaires we met at Chamber of Commerce luncheons in the next few days are the hope and soul of Yemen…

This is bye for now…much love from Bonnie and the Cook Family