Yemen: Isolated and Misunderstood

I am writing to you from a long, white sand beach under swaying palm trees on the south coast of Arabia, in Yemen. Some of the most pristine and beautiful coastlands in the world are in Yemen. The sun is setting over the Arabian Sea in a blaze of orange and gold. These days my sun also rises in Yemen. In fact, Yemen has been the place I call home for most of the last ten years.

It may surprise you to know that the country is not merely a giant sand box but rather a mountainous country, incredibly green in the rainy season, with jaw-dropping vistas over canyons and terraced agricultural mountainsides.

But what makes Yemen unique is its connection to the sea. It is here, where the blue waters of the Arabian Sea meet the white beaches and rocky headlands of Arabia, that the story of Yemen and its people begin.

Yemen has often been described by scholars as an “island” surrounded by the Arabian sea to the south, the Red Sea to the west and the vast sands of the Rub al-Khali - the Great Arabian Desert - to the north. This geographical remoteness has kept Yemen isolated and has contributed to misunderstanding by the rest of the world since ancient times. It has also spurred the people of Yemen to look across seas and sands in search of trade and resources. The ancient Greeks called this place “Arabia Felix,” in the mistaken belief that Yemen, and not India or the Far East, was the source of spices. In fact, Yemen was the center of the spice route from the Far East and its geographical position allowed for the Kingdom of Sheba (legendary home of the Queen of Sheba) to benefit from the spice trade through taxes collected on the spice caravans traveling through her land. Yemen was relatively little known to the outside world until the 1960s, when the people of Yemen overthrew the secretive and feudal Imam for a republican government.

However, Yemen has remained misunderstood since the revolution. The recent barrage of international media attention Yemen has received is testament to the world’s lack of understanding regarding this country. The international media is currently in the habit of calling Yemen a “hotbed of terrorism,” and “the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden,” and a place of “widespread anti-American sentiment.”

So Osama bin Laden’s heritage is Yemeni. Is this really of importance?  He wasn’t born in Yemen nor did he grow up here. I am a citizen of the United States and I was born there. Ireland is my ancestral homeland. If I committed crimes against humanity, would the media report anything other than that I was a citizen of the United States?

Is Yemen a “hotbed of terrorism” or a place of widespread anti-American sentiment? There may be five-hundred al-Qaeda soldiers hiding out in the remote eastern mountains. But does that justify the international media repeatedly labeling, or libeling, the country as a hotbed of terrorism?

Yemen is, in fact, a place of moderate, tolerant Muslims, both Shia and Sunni, and a place where the great majority of the population strive for a better life for themselves and their families and a better future for Yemen.

Yes, there is a small (and I would call it very small) percentage of the population here for whom the words “anti-American,” “extremist,” or even “terrorist” apply. It would be naive to deny this. However, I am sure that the world could use a dose of reality right now concerning the real situation of Yemen and her people.

Yemen is a developing nation with many problems: a government struggling to cope with meager and dwindling oil resources, a booming population (with growth rates estimated at 3.5 percent), a severe water crisis for which there is no easy solution, a lack of food security causing roughly 50 percent of the country’s children to suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth, and a struggling economy which relies heavily on imports and not enough on domestic production. The literacy rate in the country hovers around 60 percent.

Yemen’s isolation has, since ancient times, caused her people to look abroad in search for resources and trade riches. The arches over the windows and the doors of buildings in Mukalla, the city behind me, bear the unmistakable stamp of the orient, brought back to Yemen by traders who ventured from here to India and the Far East over the Indian Ocean. The people of this country also bear the diverse characteristics of populations from the coast of East Africa, the interior of Arabia and all the way to the Far East. This diverse mix has made Yemen a place of a very unique and distinct culture and may also help to explain why the majority of Yemenis are surprisingly tolerant, with a love of music, art and dance, as well as a tolerance for, and interest in foreigners.

So what does Yemen need now? The country is facing political instability with a rebellion stirring in the north and a secessionist movement awakening in the south. Political support and a degree of military support are welcome and probably necessary at this time to

preserve stability. However, the real need in Yemen is for development support and aid, to help the nation through this period of economic change and population growth. This aid should fund government, international and local non-governmental development organizations focusing on education, food security and income generating projects and training - especially for rural areas, where 70 percent of the population live.

Sincere efforts at supporting development in this country is the only way the international community and the government of Yemen can hope to bring about the stability the nation needs, through increased educational standards and outputs, increased access to health care, rising nutrition standards and increased economic production. Raising standards of living is the solution. No amount of military assistance can bring about the development and change that the people of this nation seek and deserve.

Kyle Foster’s Arabian Notes: Regular updates from one of America’s wildest. High Arabian adventure including a few excerpts from his book in progress. fosterarabiannotes.blogspot.com