What does it take for Europe to hear Yemenis’voice?

Rasha Almaqaleh


  Day after day, Yemenis have come to realize that they are suffering from one of their worst nightmares: foreign invasion, civil war, and global silence. They live in a total chaos and there is clearly no way out as they are stuck in their isolated faraway homeland. And with the removal of the Saudi-lead coalition from the United Nations annual child-killer list, the world has officially made it clear that no one really cares if Yemeni children suffer and die in Yemen.

  Living in Europe and watching the ‘civilized world’ hardheartedly turn its back on my people, I keep wondering:  What does it take for Yemenis to be seen and heard by Europe?! Does the term 'one world' exist only in FIFA World cup official songs and other world tournaments? Should Yemeni people give up on any hope for getting the attention they deserve? Or, instead of passively waiting, are they supposed to do something to in order for their voice to be heard?  

  Apparently, Europe is not going to care about the horrible ongoing conflict in Yemen unless huge numbers of Yemenis flee their destroyed country and make the journey to the European Union countries to seek asylum, just like influx of Syrian refugees. Otherwise, it seems impossible to get the ‘civilized world’ to even remember that Yemen exists on the world map. Once Yemenis find a way to escape their borders in huge numbers and arrive at Europe’s beaches , dead or alive , their voice will definitely be  heard. If those children cross the sea by rickety boats and drown, and the waves carry their soft bodies to the beaches of the ‘civilized world’, all the alarm bells will start ringing. Even though Europe will be shocked at first by the huge numbers of the newcomers, which will certainly be called a ‘crisis’, it will be the world’s crisis then and they will struggle to get a handle on it.    
         

European Union , EU, will call the state members for emergency meetings to discuss the urgent situation . They will sit together and talk about the reasons behind ‘influx of Yemeni refugees’ and they will work hard to come up with solutions. (Yay!)

  Their eyes will be WIDELY open to see how the Saudi-led coalition has completely destroyed what’s left of the Yemeni hardly-stable state using Western arms, and how the Saudi royal family is fueling the civil war and deepening Yemen’s problems. As a result, they will exert real pressure this time on the Saudi regime to stop their aggression against Yemen. Additionally, UN will ‘re-add’ Saudi Arabia to its black list and this time it will be for good! And with the arrival of the first thousand Yemeni refugees on the French territories, France will immediately stop distributing medals of Honor to Saudi war princes.

  In addition, European countries will decide to increase funding for border patrol operations in the Mediterranean Sea and they will come up with new approaches to fight migrant smuggling to stop the rising numbers of Yemeni refugees. Last but not least, EU will propose a new quota system for relocating the huge numbers of Yemeni asylum seekers among EU states and it will positively fail after all.

  Influx of Yemeni refugees will be the number-one headline in all world news outlets. The peoples of Europe will be divided; Some of them will have a welcoming attitude towards the newcomers, some will have doubts and concerns, and some will just take a refusing posture and set their minds and hearts on ‘hate mode’.  But all of that will be beside the point because the word ‘Yemen’ will be one of the most popular keywords on search engines and one of the trending stories.  People will search for more information about the escaped country and they will learn that the city capital of Yemen is called Sana’a and they will memorize the names of the Yemeni cities in which there are ongoing battles. Isn’t that just the punch line? (Ha Ha!)

  To put it briefly, as long as Yemenis stay in Yemen, Europe will continue to be unconcerned, unmoved, and unresponsive. But once Yemenis find a way to arrive on European territories in huge numbers, Europe will wake up and do its best to embrace them and to stabilize the ongoing unrest in their country, including embargo arms to Saudi Arabia. How ‘stylishly hypocrite’ and ‘brutally civilized’ is that?! (Wow!) 

My story with Qat - Part one

By Anis Albasha


  If you live in Yemen and you are invited to a casual friends’ gathering, you will have to chew Qat. If you are at a Yemeni wedding party, you are expected to chew Qat with the celebrating people. Even if you are going to pay a condolence at a funeral, you have to chew Qat with the comforters! The rule is, whenever there is a social gathering in Yemen, you can't skip chewing Qat. This plant, which originally came to Yemen from Africa, has become a major part of the Yemeni social/cultural life.

In fact, Yemeni people usually do all the socializing during Qat sessions which normally take place every day after lunch and last for 5 to 6 hours or sometimes even more. Under the influence of Qat, People tend to be chatty and they get into a very good mood or let's say into a 'dreamy' mood which makes them build a lot of castles in the air. During Qat gatherings, Yemenis can talk politics, economics or whatsoever. And if you want to enter their world, all what you have to do is to share their number-one daily activity, Qat chewing. Otherwise, you will be socially excluded and isolated.

  Known scientifically as "Catha edulis", and being classified by Health World Organization WHO as “a drug of abuse that can produce mild-to-moderate psychological dependence (less than tobacco or alcohol”, Qat plays a pivotal role in Yemen. In fact, we can say that the life of 90% of Yemenis is revolving around this plant. They claim that Qat is not bad and it has magical effects. According to professional Qat chewers, it puts them in a state of ecstasy and gives them stimulation. Scientifically speaking, Qat leaves 'contain cathinones,  an active brain stimulant that is similar in structure and pharmacological activity to amphetamine which is used to treat some health problems.' 

In addition, Qat can cause a number of health troubles such as serious adverse neurological, psychiatric, cardiovascular, dental, gastrointestinal and genitourinary effects. From an agriculturally perspective, growing this hideous plant consumes a great amount of water, leaving people and important crops face severe shortage of water. Moreover, it is no secret that this daily habit of chewing Qat for long hours is an actual waste of peoples’ time and money. 

  The funny thing is that during the process of chewing Qat, Yemenis have illusions of finding sufficient solutions not only for their own problems, but for all the issues that plague the entire world! But after finishing chewing Qat, all those illusions fade away and the chewer find themselves in a depressed mode. Chewers have to struggle with the post-chewing symptoms which vary from one person to another. Some people feel frustrated and lost while many have a decreased appetite. Others may have insomnia and late wake up the next morning.

  Despite all those facts, Yemenis claim that life would be unbearable without Qat. They also argue that Qat gives them the energy and ability to stay focused which are two important factors to get things done. Workers would tell you that it gives them energy and helps them to accomplish their job perfectly. Similarly, students would say that Qat makes them study harder. However, when it comes to reality, the results are different. Most of the work in Yemen is not done perfectly and many Yemeni students cheat in order to pass exams even though they chew ‘harder’!

  So, as a non chewer who was born and raised in Yemen, how did I manage to live in a ‘Qat-chewers’ land? That is what I am going to talk about in ‘My story with Qat-part2’.

How they turn our children into bullies and braggers

Rasha Almaqaleh

We used not to allow our child to watch action cartoons where there is a lot of aggression and violence, even though they are considered ‘age-appropriate’. We thought that children don’t need such violent cartoons especially with all the violence that is actually going on around the world. Instead, they need to learn how to live in peace and harmony with each other. But then we have noticed that whenever our child played with other kids and they started to fight for some reason, he would be beaten and wouldn’t understand what was happening and what he was supposed to do to protect himself. Then, we found out that those kids watch those action cartoons and pretend to be those strong and violent cartoon characters. We started asking ourselves whether it was fair to prevent our child from watching such cartoons while most of the parents out there allow their kids to do so.  I was annoyed that kids learn from such cartoons that it is ok to use their physical strength against each other and how this could turn them into bullies at a very small age.

 And like many parents, when our child started going to kindergarten, we were so happy. Time elapsed and we were so proud to watch him grow, get adapted, and pick up a new language so fast. Then, we started noticing that our kid would come back every day from kindergarten asking us to buy him something he saw with other kids, like a Spiderman T-shirt, a Batman pair of shoes, or any other commercial stuff which companies fill the markets with to attract children and trick their parents to buy. So, we thought that we didn’t have to buy him things he really didn’t need. Therefore, we completely ignored his demands and kept telling him that he already had everything he needed.

One day I went to pick him up from kindergarten and as soon as one of the kids in his group saw me, he proudly said to me “I have a star-wars T-shirt!” I smiled at him and pretended to be impressed. A couple of minutes later, another kid, 3 year old, bragged that he had ten Euros! This immediately rang an alarm bell and on the way home, I kept thinking about all of my child’s repeated demands and whether it was not a good idea to turn a deaf ear to them. Then, we started observing this attitude among children and we figured out that kids boast and gloat all the time and how this affected our child’s confidence! Kids LOVE to brag about anything and everything and they tease the other kids for not having ‘cool stuff’, especially those stuff with cartoon figures.  I know that this happens in high school with teenagers but I didn’t expect that they acquire such attitude at this small age!

When we asked our kid what kind of present he wanted us to get him for his birthday, his answer was “a Spider man  figure!” That was a toy he once saw in a toy store. Those companies will do anything to get to our pockets. First, they create attractive non-educational T.V. cartoons. Once the cartoon characters become popular and our children become attached to them, they flood the markets with those characters toys, puzzles, T-shirts, pants, under wares, shoes, belts, watches, etc.  I noticed that if we get our child, say, a T-shirt, which doesn’t have one of those figures, we will go through a battle to get him to wear it. Apparently, he doesn’t count it as a good piece of cloth and he doesn’t see anything special about it that is worth ‘showing off’.


                        
Against our better judgment, we ended up allowing our child to watch the kids’ cartoons which we once believed he would be better off without . And we had to give him many of the ‘cool stuff ‘he asked for and weren’t really necessary. We noticed that his confidence has increased and that he could compete with other kids. I’ve come to the conclusion that those companies are not only messing around with our money but more importantly with our children’s personalities and their way of thinking and judging. As parents, we should be aware of the huge influence of such cartoon characters on our children and we should try to reduce it. I know that we cannot completely avoid buying such stuff for our kids, but at least we can teach them that their self worth comes from who they are and what they can do not from those ‘cool stuff’ they have.                                             



There is a proverb in Arabic that says it best: “you cannot clap with one hand!” So, without the help of all the parents out there, it’s not possible to create a healthy environment for our kids to grow, and we won’t be able to raise them in the best way possible. We are simply allowing those commercial companies to mess with our children’s heads and turn them into bullies and braggers. We have to bear in mind that if we decide to do nothing about it, our children will eventually grow and those two horrible attitudes will grow with them, too.

Here is what we said about Yemen!

 Rasha Almaqaleh
 Anis Albasha

Being in touch with many Germans in Norderstedt, the city where we live, we came to realize that they knew very little about Yemen and about the ongoing conflict there.  So, we thought that we should do something to shed some light on our country and the current war. The staff of the Public library of Norderstedt helped us to establish an event under the title ‘Old Home, New Home. We agreed on the date, 28^th of May, and then a month ahead, the library staff prepared an announcement and distributed it wherever possible.






One of the local journalists read the announcement of the event and wrote an article titled ‘Yemen…the forgotten land’ in Hamburger Abendblatt.  In his Article, he quoted some parts of our article ‘who is burning Yemen?’  which we published in our blog, Drabzeen. At the end of his article,  he informed the readers of our upcoming event. Many of our German acquaintances and friends contacted us to tell us that they saw the article. A friend of us brought us a copy of the newspaper. We were glad that we could get people here to talk about Yemen.

The event took place on the 28^th of May, in the public library. We divided it into two parts; cultural and political. In the cultural part, we talked about the history and culture of Yemen and some of the differences we have to adapt with here in Germany. In the political part, we talked about our opinion on the current conflict and the reasons behind it.

The Cultural part

At first, we told them about the word ‘Mocha’ and its origin. This word is very well known around the world but nobody here knows where it originally came from. It is a name of a Yemeni port city which is located on the Red Sea coast. The story of Coffee being introduced to Europe and the whole world all started from this small port. Many people do not know that Yemen was a major coffee player in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the first exporter of coffee.  Mocha, the city’s name, has become somehow synonymous with the coffee beans themselves. We asked the audience to remember Yemen each time they drink a cup of ‘Mocha’ coffee!

Then, we gave them a quick overview of the history of Yemen and how it is considered to be one of the oldest civilizations in the region and the world. We mentioned the kingdom of Sheba which was established at the 9^th century BC and lasted until 275 AC. This ancient kingdom is mentioned in the Old Testament. It is also described in Quran as ‘the land of the two heavens’ . Due to its complicated irrigation system  along with the fertile soil, Romans of that time called it ‘Arabia Felix’ or ‘Happy Arabia’.

We also talked about the Jews of Yemen and how they were an essential part o the Yemeni history and how they had a great influence on the Yemeni culture. They had expertise in a wide range of trades such as silver-smiting, pottery, shoe making and tailoring. Most of the Jewish population was evacuated over a period of six months in 1950 to the newly established state in Palestine, ‘Israel’.

One of the major differences that we have to deal with here is the weather. Therefor, we had to talk about the weather in Yemen and how different it is from the weather in Germany. Unlike Germany, it’s sunny most of the year in Yemen. Surprisingly,  a sunny day in Germany is a happy day, while in Yemen it’s just a usual day! It also rains a lot in Germany while in Yemen the rainfall is limited and this makes a rainy day in Yemen a happy day while in Germany it’s just a usual day!

And of course we couldn’t talk about the Yemeni culture  without mentioning Jambiya, the Yemeni dagger whih is a major part of the Yemeni traditional clothes.  we had to explain its parts and its uses. After that, we talked about the beautiful and colorful traditional clothes of Yemeni women and how they don’t wear them anymore due to the increasing influence of the Wahabbi strict lifestyle that came to us from Saudi Arabia, the neighboring country.

After that we showed pictures of Yemeni cuisine. We had to mention ‘Saltah’, the national dish of Yemen which is served only in lunchtime. We explained its ingredients and we showed some pictures of the special pot in which Saltah has to be prepared and served.


We talked about another traditional dish which is called ‘Bint al-Sahn’. If we translated the name literally into English, it would be ‘Daughter of the plate’! It is a strange and funny name but we Yemenis really don’t know the reason behind it. Bint al Sahn is a dessert that is mainly served right after lunch and it’s made of layers of pastry. On the top of it, we add Nigella seeds and honey. 

After that, we had to shed some light on the Yemeni social life and the differences between Yemenis and Germans in socializing. Unlike Germany, men in Yemen don’t hang out with women and vice versa unless they are family. We showed some pictures of the typical sitting room of a Yemeni home, which is called ‘Diwan’ in the Yemeni dialect. It’s the place where Yemeni people gather to chew Qat. Even though Qat chewing is a very negative tradition, it has become a major part of the Yemeni social life. Qat is a plant which originally came to Yemen from Africa. Now Yemeni farmers grow it, cultivate it and sell it to the local markets. Every day, n the early afternoon, Yemeni men start chewing qat. They cut the leaves of the plant and stuff them inside their cheeks, forming a wad which could be as big as a tennis ball. Under the influence of Qat, people turn into a talkative mode. So, is Qat a drug or not? Actually, the world health organization, WHO, classified Qat as a “drug of abuse” which means “it causes mild to moderate psychological dependence but less than tobacco and alcohol”.  But wither Qat is a drug or not, Yemeni people don’t really care! If you don’t chew Qat in Yemen, you will be socially excluded and no one likes that!

We talked about Arabic Jasmine and how men and women wear a crown or a necklace of this scented flower in a variety of social occasions such as weddings. This flower was not native in Yemen. It came to the country probably from Southeast Asia.

We also talked about candles in the Western culture and how they use them for aesthetic purposes such as the nice view and the lovely scent. While candles are used in Germany to creat a warm and romantic ambience, they are used in Yemen basically for illumination because of the frequent electrical power failures.

Finally we drew the audience’s attention to a wrong common impression that most Western people have about Yemen; they think of Yemen as a desert. The truth is, unlike the Gulf countries which are full of sands, Yemen is mountainous country. It also enjoys a fertile soil and farmers can grow a large number of different crops.

The Political Part

We initiated the political part with the question ‘Who is burning Yemen?’
We first referred to the repercussions of what has become known as the "Arab Spring" which took place in Yemen in 2011. We explained how hundreds of thousands of Yemenis went on demonstrations in Sana'a and in other major cities calling on Saleh, president of Yemen for more than 33 years, to step down. We talked about the clashes which were erupted between the security forces and the demonstrators and how they left hundreds of people dead. Eventually, Saleh stepped down and Yemeni parties signed on what was called the GCC Initiative, an initiative presented by the Gulf countries and supported by the West. Saleh's vice president, Hadi, was picked by the international community to lead during a political transition of 2 years.

Then we talked about the National Dialogue Conference (NDC) which was launched on March 2013. The aim of the Conference was to draft a new constitution and to hold democratic elections in February 2014. However, instead of holding a new presidential election, the NDC extended Hadi's presidential term for another year under the justification that the transition period was not enough. In addition to that, during the NDC’s talks, there was a sudden shift to discuss a proposal of "federalism" which was, and still is highly provocative. 

The tension erupted again among the different effective parties in Yemen, especially in Sana’a. The situation was escalated with the advent of the Houthis, the new arising power which comes from the north.  Houthis entered Sana'a on September 21, 2014 and placed Hadi under house arrest. Hadi sent his resignation to the Parliament. Despite the turmoil, the U.N. mediated talks continued under the auspices of the U.N. Special Envoy Jamal Bin Omar. Mr. Benomar announced a breakthrough in the talks, saying parties agreed to form a new transitional council. Hadi fled to Aden and retracted his resignation. Houthis, aided by Yemeni military factions that still loyal to Former President Saleh, entered Aden and Hadi fled again, ending up in Saudi Arabia on March 25, 2015.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia announced a coalition of 10 countries and started a war against Yemen. And according to the UN Special Envoy, Yemeni political deal was close before Saudi airstrikes began!

We explained the supporting role of both the United States of America and the United Kingdom to the Saudi led-coalition. Saudi Arabia claimed that the war was waged to support the "legitimacy" represented in the fugitive President Hadi.We clarified that the Saudi allegation of supporting Hadi as a legitimate president has no legal base, simply because Hadi's presidency was legally over on February. Saudi Arabia claims that the war was waged to save the Yemenis, we told the audience that we would pretend to believe this claim and would try to see whether it is true or not through the actual events during a year of aggression against Yemen. 

By displaying statistics which have been released by some international sources, we clarified that Saudi led-coalition killed and wounded thousands of Yemeni civilians, including hundreds of children and women. The coalition bombed hundreds of houses, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and even dairy and poultry farms. The coalition also targeted more than 136 archaeological and tourist sites in Yemen. We talked about the use of internationally prohibited weapons by the Saudi-led coalition, such as cluster munitions. We also referred to the explosion that took place in Sana'a on the 20^th of May, 2015. According to nuclear weapons experts, that explosion is by very high probability a neutron bomb.

We talked about some of the massacres which were committed in Yemen by the Saudi led-coalition. We clarified how the Saudi jets brutally attacked residential units and neighborhoods, wedding halls, schools, and local markets.

We talked about the Saudi Arabia's support of terrorism in Yemen and how it is noted that, in addition to the human cost of the war in Yemen, the Saudi operation allowed al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula to gain more grounds in the south of Yemen. In addition, for the first time since the beginning of this war, ISIS has gained a foothold in Yemen. Throughout almost a year of heavy airstrikes by Saudi Arabia warplanes on various parts of Yemen, these warplanes did not target the areas controlled by either al-Qaeda or ISIS.  We talked about the Results of more than a year of Saudi aggression against Yemen. We cited an unpublished U.N. report which highlighted some of the main atrocities the coalition has committed since the start of the operation.

After all those atrocities and infrastructure destruction, it is hard to believe the Saudi intentions to save Yemen. We then posed a new question, 'why Saudi Arabia is doing this?'

The aggression of 2015 could be seen as the first 'military' intervention by Saudi Arabia in Yemen but Saudi Arabia has been interfering in Yemen since long decades in many different ways. We mentioned the famous story of the founder of Saudi Arabia Kingdom, Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who warned his sons (64 males and 38 females), while on his death bed, from a strong and unified Yemen. He recommended his sons to keep Yemen weak. We talked about what is known as 'the Special Committee' which was established by Saudi government in 1962. This Committee pays regular monthly salaries for a number of tribal and political figures in Yemen to guarantee their loyalty and to use them as fifth columns.

We mentioned the former Yemeni President Ibrahim al-Hamdi and how he tried to stop the Saudi influence and intervention in Yemen. He tried to establish a strong and independent state, but he was assassinated at the hands of some Yemeni parties with the support of Saudi Arabia.

Then we talked about the huge arms deals that Saudi Arabia gets from USA and Europe. We talked about the many demands of international organizations that call for a cessation of sales and transfers of all weapons and military-related equipment to parties to the conflict in Yemen. However, Saudi Arabia along with the other countries which participate in the war against Yemen are getting more and more arms.  It seems that the war in Yemen is a good opportunity to revive western economies.

We criticized the double standards policy adopted by western countries and how some European countries not only export arms to Saudi Arabia, but also honor its leaders! We gave an example when the French President handed the Legion of Honor to the Saudi crown prince in 2016!

We concluded the political part by saying that the situation in Yemen is far worse than other places such as Syria or Iraq, simply because nobody talks about it. According to the U.N., an astonishing 82% of the Yemeni population needs humanitarian assistance, 21.2 million people in Yemen, compared with 12.2 million in Syria!

We cited the statement made by the Head of the International Red Cross, Mr. Peter Maurer who said that "Five months of war in Yemen has wrought destruction similar to that seen in Syria after five years."

Unlike Syrians, Yemenis are stuck and besieged in Yemen. They cannot escape their country and look for a safer place. 

At the end of the event, the audience's reaction was positive. The attendees thanked us for shedding some lights on a country they had no idea about before.  We were content because that was the least we could do for our people.