Insanity

World Food Program, citing lack of funds, is cutting food aid to Yemen.  Only 30% of the pledged $100 million has been sent- and meanwhile, the US alone is sending $150 million in military aid.  I know that a hundred million bones is a lot of cheddar, but it isn't that much relative to how much we spend on national security.  I was hoping that this administration in particular would be aware of what seems like a mind-numbingly obvious fact by now: food aid, particularly in a country like Yemen, is part of national security.  We can wipe out as much of the leadership as we want, but a starving and desperate Yemen becomes a failed state, a real haven, and we'll get drawn in further.   And while I am in favor of military assistance, there is little more we can do in terms of negative propaganda than propping up an increasingly toxic and illegitimate government while letting bellies go empty.

Hot links!

Or, not that hot.  Nor very many.  Here's a few articles about problems in the south as we quickly approach Unity Day, as well as one about a reconciliation gesture.   I have a strange feeling that tomorrow is going to be relatively quiet, but am more than willing to admit that maybe I feel that way because it is muggy here and I don't feel like doing anything, so can't imagine why others would.

This here article is about business and energy- more of a press release, really, about a contract to build a huge power plant in Yemen.  I wish them the best of luck.  Few things bring down the popularity and legitimacy of services more than the failure to provide basic services.  I think a government can weather violent crackdowns better than being thought of as neglectful or incompetent.  Power is something it is easy to take for granted, but we saw just how much Iraqis lost all faith in us when we couldn't keep the lights on.

Also, Greg removed himself briefly from his monastic hideaway to blog at Waq al-Waq. 

Hostages Free

Not really a "news" story anymore, but the interesting blog Third World Goes Forth nicely deconstructs coverage of the rescue of the German girls. 

It also asks why there hasn't been more made of that fact that it was a Saudi team that rescued them, inside Yemeni borders.  The truth is, I don't really know what to make of it (and no, I am not narcissistic enough to imagine that I was being asked directly.  Close, though).   I think it is ironic that after years of bickering about the border and years spent in arguments about demarcation and enforcement, the line between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is becoming increasingly vague and meaningless.  Or, rather, reverting to its historical norm, before a fairly arbitrary line was drawn.

I think as Yemen disintegrates that arbitrary line will become less and less meaningful.  It might be akin to what you see in Russia's far east- the border between Russia and China is blurring, and political designations don't stand up to historic and cultural realities.   I am not trying to paint a total Kaplan-esque scenario, here, but I do think you're going to see these lines, which have been fought over, and for which and due to which people have died, lose their importance.  History has a way of ignoring temporal matters, and making jokes out of things which seemed momentarily so important.


(Also: Third World Goes Forth is a cool site, and you should read it.  I am waiting for its analysis of Paul Kagame, who I am fascinated by.  I don't think I was ever more let down by a political figure than I have been by him.  I can't decide if he got destroyed by power, if he still truly thinks that he can save his benighted land, or if the image of him I had earlier was false, and he was always a wolf.)

The Danger of Monomanical Obsession

Sullivan linked to this neat little map from informationisbeautiful.net.   It shows what every country in the world is Number 1 at, even if it is something as silly as Female Farmhands or Brazil Nuts (Bolivia, interestingly).  Needless to say, I looked first for Yemen- because I am obsessed- and it ranked first in "Khat Users".  Predictably, I suppose.  It was in red, though, which I was curious about, so I looked at the key.  Red means "crime"- other red labels are "serial killers" (USA) and "pirate software" (Armenia, of course). 

This caused me to say, out loud, "oh, come on!  Qat use isn't a crime in Yemen!"  I also thought about how absurd it was that it is a crime anywhere, given its mild qualities and how it is just an example of ignorance to think that if something is a crime in America it must be- nay should be- a crime anywhere else and blah blah blah. 

What a bore I am.  It is a fun map, with no harm intended, and certainly without any kind of agenda.  I wonder how many people are this defensive of a subject, willing to get angry over nothing.  I think blogging tends to add to that, which can be dangerous and bad for your mental health.  I am growing increasingly fond of it as a medium, but still need to watch out for the the bad tendencies it can create.  I think the ability to step back and breathe, to have a slight sense of humor, is what is needed here, and what separates most people from, say, Marty Peretz.

Absurd Follow-Up

Below, I talked about the Saudis donating 1013 tons of dates to the World Food Program in Yemen.  This is a good thing- Yemen's food shortage is reaching a crisis point, and foreign governments are not doing enough to help, something that is morally and strategically unbelievable.  My point in posting below, though, was because I was literally* gobsmacked at the enormous amount of dates.

Coincidentally, I was at the grocery store this afternoon and while in the produce section weighed out a pound of dates.  It came to about 18 dates to a pound.  I don't know if these were wholly representative of dates or not, but I'm going to assume they were.  I'm just going to be American-centric and assume it is a short ton.  So, 18 times 2000 times 1013 = 36,468,000 dates (margin of error: 4 dates). 

To put that in perspective, that is just an enormous amount of dates.


*Not literally

(EDIT: First sentence originally said "pounds" instead of "tons".  Thanks to comment below for catching that.)

How Not To Write About Yemen: Right-Wing Edition

...and we're restoring equilibrium.

After yesterday's long, cathartic rant against self-proclaimed dissidents who patronizingly see everything bad in Yemen as being a product of US evil-mongering, it is refreshing to jump back to those who see everything bad happening in Yemen as a product of devious, Oriental, two-faced malice.  I think both points of view provide comfort: one sees the world's troubles as rational and planned, the other is able to pin-point all problems on one end of a simple black-and-white spectrum. Granted, the conspiracy-addled left also assigns absolute roles; but they needlessly complicate things with backroom plots (Believe me, I am also very aware of the addled, Trilateral Commission obsessed witches-brew mindset on the far right, but that doesn't come into play in this particular discussion of the Middle East).

That brings us today's FrontPage Magazine article on double-dealing allies in Yemen and Pakistan.  To me, and I would imagine to most people, this is: not news.  It takes a very peculiar mindset to imagine that in any country the wishes or imperatives of any ruling class or people are going to align perfectly with those of the United States.  Ideally, of course, they would, but that is not the world with which we are dealing, nor is it one that is remotely possible.  Instead, we have to deal with the world as it is, rather than how we want it to be.  I may make juvenile jokes, but I still think that the preceding sentence reflects an adult mindset.

Not everyone thinks that way.

Good date

From Zawya:

18 May 2010
Sana'a -- The Representative of the World Food Program (WFP) in Yemen, Gian Carlo Cirri received here today 1013 tons of dates provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in support of WFP activities in the fields of shelter and relief.

The dates were handed over by the Counselor at the Saudi Embassy in Yemen, Ahmed Al-Mohammadi.

To put that in perspective: that is a whole lot of fucking dates.  

How Not To Write About Yemen: Left-Wing Edition

There's a label on this blog called "Right-Wing Watch", which is one of the bigger non-Yemen ones (this isn't saying much, I admit).  So it is with a self-congratulatory sense of ecumenicalism that I introduce this post, which fisks a far-left view of what is happening Yemen.  I do this not (just) to make fun of people I don't know and feel like a big man, but to illustrate one of the most frustrating parts of analyzing US foreign policy: our parochialism, and almost knee-jerk instinct to view anything through narrow and self-serving partisan lenses. 

This article comes from Dissident Voice, "a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and justice."  Right off the bat, I am annoyed by this.  I don't like someone calling themselves a dissident when they are publishing safely in their name.  Maybe the town fathers will click their tongues at your non-conformity, but I think dissident needs to imply a danger to your physical safety and independence.  Havel was a dissident.  I looked through the site a bit and didn't see any mention of people being imprisoned or killed for their view.  When the biggest danger you incur is getting an STD from some free spirit you met at the co-op, you haven't really earned your right to being called a dissident.

That might be a bit over the top, but I get annoyed at self-righteousness (except my own, it seems).

A few more Yemen links

(Remember when I sometimes wrote about things other than Yemen on this?  Me neither.) 

Haley Sweetland Edwards has a good article on the southern problems in the LATimes, much better and more fact-based than my rambling post below. 

There is war talk along the southern Yemen coast and the flag of rebellion is painted on the stocks of guns. The separatists call this land South Arabia, and villagers say it's only a matter of time before insurgency erupts.

"We are ready to fight. All of us. Men, women and children," said Zahra Saleh Abdullah, a separatist leader, sitting in a living room with a dozen would-be rebels in Yafa, a restive tribal territory in the south. "Yemen is not our country. South Arabia is our country."

In economic news, the World Bank has released a report about the upturn and potential in Yemen's economy.  As I tend to fall into a deep and restful sleep reading economic reports, I am grateful for its summary.   The report is surprisingly optimistic, basing itself on an uptick in oil prices and the LNG pipeline.  This is good news, although I tend to think it is misleadingly rosy- prices went up again this year after correcting themselves last year, and it is a fools game to predict these things or to think they will remain stable.  Yemen's oil economy might be able to stay afloat, but it is clearly unsustainable and unsteady.  Perhaps Yemen-philes can keep their fingers crossed for more catastrophic spills in the Gulf of Mexico.  Here's hoping! 

In completely unrelated news, the Sox game today opened with Juan Pierre taking a walk and then Omar Vizquel getting a hit.  This is as close to a near-zero chance occurring, not just in baseball, but in the entire known universe.

Free album

Bizzaro musician Tim Fite has a new free album, Under the Table-Tennis, on his web-site.   If you like hard-left, folk-influenced, pastiche-ridden hip-hop, with strange musical twists and lyrics that range from the nearly-head-slapping obvious to the sublimely goofy, and ripe with frustrated anger and Chomsky-esque conspiracy theories, this is for you.   NSFW or anything.   Much, much further left than, say, me, but consistently interesting.   And a lot of fun as well.  He's one of the few guys that can be dead-serious but also funny. 

I'm not really good at talking about music ("I sure like the song"), but as this is free, I would check it out.