Middle of the night - 24 June - hey anybody out there still with me?

After the sidetrack with the pearls and gold story, here is the next installment on Yemen:

After the meeting with President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in the morning of the second day into the trip, I assumed all would be downhill from this event. Not so. Every hour, it seemed, just got better.

Within a few minutes of leaving President Saleh’s Residence, we met with the President of the Shura Council, H.E. Abdul Aziz Abdul Ghanni. Information of note: of the countries throughout the world, only Yemen, Oman, and Bahrain have Councils on the order of a Shura Council. This is a body of men - a woman occasionally - who are no longer serving in government positions. They are former ambassadors, governors, cabinet members, parliament members. This group of former public servants, instead of “retirement”, meet in council to debate, vote, and submit to President Saleh recommendations for action. Seems to me a good idea, these out of office public servants continuing to serve the public. My notes are scrambled here: I believe there are 111 members in the Shura Council, they form 13 committees in areas of education, agriculture, tourism, finance, environment…you get the picture. They also suggest candidates for the presidency, look into economic plans and international treaties. Someone asked if their meetings are in secret - no, meetings are open and televised so the public knows who votes for or against ideas and decisions.

The issues President Ghanni emphasized during our time with him were heard again and again in subsequent meetings with other ministers throughout this trip. Following is my listing of major issues facing Yemen, as I understood this discussion:

1. The economy. Sound familiar? (“it’s the economy, s…..”). The rising price of basic commodities, wheat, rice, oil, sugar, have affected Yemen desperately. If the government subsidizes foodstuffs, they fear, they know, corruption will follow. The Yemeni are very aware that their rich neighbors to the north and to the east are subsidizing food, which creates resentment, not only in Yemen, but in the Sudan, in Egypt. And, as we heard so often, they think America should do something about the food crisis. They lay much of the problem to our using grains, corn, and sugar cane for ethanol, causing food prices to rise throughout the world. Only three per cent of Yemen’s land is arable! This is an astounding figure. Only 3% of their land? Through the centuries they have terraced the mountain slopes, so that 25 percent of that three per cent is in terraces, and when it rains they do pretty well raising crops (on land they have left after planting qat.) Agriculture is totally dependent on rainfall. Now, they are gripped in a serious drought, which they lay directly to Greenhouse Warming, whether this be so or not, they believe it, and state that it is a situation not of their making. Food is very scarce. Mention was made of the starvation and famine in 1968, a violent and dark year in their history, and there is fear of a similar situation developing now.

2. The high birth rate is a serious crisis. These figures took a minute to sink in: 120,000 entrants into the labor market each year. The government can only employ 10,000. There is nowhere for the other 110,000 to find jobs. This problem compounds itself year after year. There has been a trend in the last fewyears toward technical education, but there is not much opportunity in Yemen for graduates in these fields. In the past Yemeni have gone to the Gulf countries for work, but can no longer compete with the Asians now being hired in the Gulf. President Ghanni made the point: “the devil has work for idle hands.” Now there is a universal statement - as kids, our Grandmother Leavitt often reminded us of this fact..

3. They feel they cannot take an effective stand against terrorism until the Yemeni labor market improves. They would like to ask the USA for help in getting work for their people.

4. They feel now Yemen has the best government available, with the unification of the North and South (although war is currently raging in the North and the Aden area feels like an unloved stepchild), and they are working on decentralization..

5. There is an increase in the education of women, allowing women to work, and allowing women the right of divorce - although some modern theologians in Yemen have much different views on this subject.

There was some good discussion about religion, religious leaders, and religious laws concerning inheritance, marriage, divorce, and business. I was just on the edge of this, not understanding the translator very well, so would not dare to make a synopsis of this most interesting subject. Sorry.

From Dr. Ghanni’s office we traveled straight to the Ministry of Planning and Development. This was turning into a heavy morning. We met with Dr. Motahahar al’Abassi. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Missouri. This cheerful man was friendly and funny, and serious about his government post. He apologized that his power point presentation would not run - something about the equipment. So he gave us a print out, and we discussed through it. Much of this you have heard, so will skip to:

1990 - 1994: unification of Yemen, with two different systems, somewhat like east and west Germany trying to form a unified State. The war in the north in 1994 was an alarming point for Yemen, but it was necessary to save the union. This was a time of adopting a free market, redefining the role of the State, and being the butt of Cold War politics from outside countries.

1995 - 2000: the government reviewed - what should we do next? During these five years the IMF and the World Bank considered Yemen a success story as inflation declined 200% to a single digit while the riyal was linked to the dollar.

2006 to the present: terrorism came to Yemen - the bombing of the Cole, along with much corruption, and lack of accountability in government. Now the dollar has fallen, Yemen has $600 per capita, and is in the bottom rank in the Third World. The numbers I have here in my journal cannot be accurate; as I read here, they numb the soul. Here are some other numbers I know I recorded accurately:

In 22 years the population will double.

45% of the population are teenagers. Imagine! Building schools for this group.

Actually, Yemen is asking (someone, anyone) for 16 Billion $s to build schools and pay teachers. (It was fascinating to learn that the Japanese built and funded the faculty payroll for the University of Sana’a, for some years. After the Yemeni government did something (I cannot remember nor did I write down what the government did,) but the result is the funding has been withdrawn, and the university is languishing for want of funds.)

50% of the population is under 50 years old.

The challenge is creating jobs.

Unemployment of young men is 34%

Every sector is a challenge: water, electricity, cultural heritage, trade, changing climate, limited natural resources, health care, child care, education, security and terrorism.

They, as a government, are open to ideas.

Yemeni have immigrated to at least 150 countries.

This man was concise and intense and interesting.

After this meeting, we went to lunch - finally! It was late in the afternoon. We met with the Chamber of Commerce - more than 50 very prosperous, intelligent, and (as my dad would say, vociferous) businessmen. We were instructed not to sit by each other, but spread out and meet as many men as possible. This was the time of exchanging business cards, a custom that should not be underestimated. I did, under estimate this custom, until that moment. Without a business card, one has no identity in that culture. Should I ever be part of a trip like this again, I certainly will arrive armed with at least 300 cards. It is necessary to have a printed name, address, email, and a statement of “who you are” - I could invent something - Professional Grandmother?

I entered that banquet room with great trepidation, how could I talk to Yemeni businessmen? Need not have worried. They all spoke English, mostly, many were educated in the West, to a man they possessed impeccable social graces, and were wonderful conversationalists. They were intensely curious about who we are and what we thought about their beloved country, and anxious to tell us about themselves. and about their businesses. We were so busy talking there was hardly time to eat, and I was really hungry. The tables were loaded - how to impressed this upon you, dear reader? - those tables were piled with platters of hamur, shrimp, chicken, beef, salads, fruits, hummous and several culturally mysterious concoctions, and the huge rounds of hot bread piled in among the dishes of food. It was almost obscene, all this eating, in this parched and desperately poor land.

An example of men I met: a young man, educated in England, whose family is based in the Hadhramawt, runs a 150 year old family business - leather. They export to Europe, specifically Spain and Italy. Most of those “local” leather goods originate in Yemen! He gave me three sheets of leather paper. This is absolutely lovely, soft, pliable, goes through a standard printer, is used for vital documents and it is stable for more than 200 years. It will not tear, deteriorate, crumble, nor yellow. I should get a commission just for my enthusiasm. I was sold on this wonderful product.

A very young and most handsome man, his Ph.D from UCLA, the John Deere dealer for Yemen.

And Ahmed, the only man there in traditional Yemeni garb, which was elegant and obviously expensive. He was older than most of the young men recently returned from school in the West. He lives in a 400 year old house in Old Sana’a. He was most anxious for us to visit him and his family. Not getting there was the major failure of this trip - he put a time frame on the visit, we were scheduled with ministers every day during the times he said he would be receiving. I think we should have skipped a minister and visited Ahmed. He brought his twelve year old son with him, to mingle with prosperous businessmen and to met the Americans.

I was wearing down, after the three big meetings of the day and the lunch with the wonderful Yemeni businessmen. Still, one more stop, to the construction site for the YCMES buildings, the new classroom building and site for a library. Sabri has great dreams and wonderful plans for the College. This site is very close to the guesthouse where we were staying - his idea is an urban campus, the buildings scattered, but all within blocks of each other. What we toured was an old traditional house, over 100 years, that he is re-doing. It is the standard style - Google Yemen and see pictures of the houses (if you have not done that yet), There was activity on every floor, stone masons, plasters, hod carriers. They were setting in windows, building walls, putting in the beams across the ceilings. The workers were chewing qat as they worked, one side of their faces bulging out the six inches, at least. When they smiled at us as we tiptoed though and around all that mess of cement and gypsum and sloshy mud, their faces were so distended, they were comical, and sincerely friendly. I didn’t pay a lot of attention at first to the walls, just great irregular blocks of stone. But upon closer observation I realized the “plaster”, put on before the startling white gypsum layer, the plaster is a mixture of mud, straw and dung. Poop. Things are not much different from Old Testament times, I believe the Israelites used this same recipe when enslaved to the Egyptians. This compound dries hard as, and is better than, and costs less than, cement. Plus, these walls keep the building warm in the winter and cool in the summer, eliminating heating and air conditioning bills. Some of the old ways are still the best ways.

I thought it interesting that Sabri, at age about 50, is dedicating his working life to the college. He plans to have it “finished” in about five years, donate it to the government, and retire to the south of France, with his German wife who is an artist. Their three children were educated in Germany, and the older ones serving internships as political scientists - government positions - in Egypt I believe. Some families have a plan, and keep it all together. Good for them.

This is bye for now - and much love to the “hey I am still with you” folks. This account brings us only to the end of the second day - more to come! Bonnie and the Cook Family