I’ve just come across this blog, via Bec Hamilton and your site. A good friend of mine from here in Beirut is currently enjoying SAIS in Bologna, so you guys might know him. In any case, I’m glad I came across your blog and this one.

But more importantly, someone with a face next to their article is supporting my Yemeni Stimulus Package! From the interview, “A Fraying Yemen’s Terrorism Problem” with a Carnegie scholar:

“Part of this will be improving and expanding the amount of foreign aid that goes into Yemen, that’s going to be improving and professionalizing the civil service, building capacity within the government to handle some of these issues.”
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“The way Yemenis look at international partners is, “How big is your checkbook? What are you doing for me?” They want to know what are you bringing to the table…For a number of years, Yemen received hardly any foreign aid from this country, and right now humanitarian assistance is like $20 million a year. That’s like a dollar per Yemeni, whereas Pakistan gets billions of dollars.”

See the whole interview here: http://www.cfr.org/publication/21082/fraying_yemens_terrorism_problem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+region%2Fmiddle_east+(CFR.org+-+Regions+-+Middle+East)

“And, briefly, qat- it isn’t really an addiction, and it is hardly a drug in the sense that we think of drugs. It isn’t dangerous, doesn’t make you more violent, is only a mild stimulant, and if anything helps to calm a population down. It is intrinsic to Yemen, and using “war on drugs” scare tactics to describe it inhibits understanding. The amount of water used is a problem, but it is neither here nor there when talking about terrorism.’” http://bit.ly/4KZSl4

Having been in Yemen, I can tell you there is almost nothing to do in Yemen for fun or relaxation other than qat. No dating, no movie theatres, no sports…nothing. You gotta have something to do in your free time, and there’s a lot worse things in the world than qat (like marijuana, which is big in Morocco and Egypt). The resource issue is another story, but Yemenis just waste water (among other things) in general. If the government just either a) rationed it appropriately or b) charged a price for it closer to its real value, rather than subsidizing it, (or c), both, my favorite) they would solve much of the water issue right there, regardless of its qat consumption.

Here’s what I think: Yemen is like an overleveraged bank that continues to take on debt selfishly ignorant of its impending doom, and then, when it inevitably collapses, we all get screwed. Did someone say Yemeni stimulus package?

Here’s a helpful hint: stop growing a crop that destroys your agricultural sector, soaks up what remains of your water supply, kills work productivity and has no export value whatsoever. Stop growing Qat!