I was at the home of our friend Baba Hussein, helping him with some garden pots, when two guys came running in, grabbed me, I tried to fight them off, Pamela, looking out of a window, was screaming at the top of her lungs:

“No, Mikael, no!”

They dragged me out to the narrow street, where a Mercedes Benz was waiting, I was pushed into the vehicle and we sat off with screeching wheels down the narrow lane of the Old City. 30 minutes later I was rescued, whilst sitting on a chair with both hands tied up behind my back, by a team of agents. A fight took place between the bad and good guys, but I was eventually saved and when I came out into the open, Pamela came running towards me happily and we cried and kissed!

The truth is, we were actors in a Yemeni movie for television!

That´s the thing with Yemen, you never know from one day to the other what is going to happen! It all started when Pamela was stopped by two guys a day earlier whilst strolling through the Old City, which is the base of her research and they asked her if she could be part of a news program about youth. She said yes, prepared meticulously as always, was even nervous and begged me to come with her for the interview, which we decided that Baba Hussein´s home would be perfect for. Once there, it all turned into an action movie!

The shelling, however, was a big scare. After the action movie, the actors drove us all the way to Hadda, where I wanted to met Jamal and Boushra, to persuade Jamal to see why I wanted Boushra to be a part in the documentary I am doing. She is a Yemeni photographer, a mother of four great girls and she has a foot in both the West and East. But Jamal is an extremely vital part of the government and was worried that Boushra´s part in the film would put him in danger with possible extremists in a future Yemeni government. This was also the day when President Abdullah Ali Saleh was supposed to sign the GCC agreement. According to Jamal that would happen next day and he was getting ready to set off to a meeting with the rest of the government. I had 30 minutes to get him onboard with my ideas. Jamal is a great human and I understood his worries, of course, but I was able to make him understand how important it was for me to get a woman’s view of life in Yemen in my film. Because, up until now, I have hardly seen a woman unveiled. I haven’t talked to more than a couple. The others have either been shooed away or kept out of my sight. Normally as quick as I enter a building, men accompanying me shout:

“Allah, Allah!”

Those shouts tell the women to get out of my sight. I am not judging here, just recording facts. Luckily Pamela has been able to get some good footage from one of the worlds of women, the kitchen. Otherwise I would possibly return back home with no female stories at all. That is how important Boushra is! Anyway, they´re both onboard the project, I am happy to say! This great family of 6 belongs to the brave one’s who stayed, when many left as the war broke out ten months ago. And I asked Jalal, what was the worst during this time and he answered:

“The shelling of the mortars. They’re terrifying!”

The next day after lunch I fully understood what he meant, when 6 mortars, viciously loud and scary, detonated above our heads, just a stone’s throw from our house. The shock when the first one detonated, it is hard to describe, I was on my way back with Eva from the play park near the Parliament when it detonated. I picked her up, quickly watched the surroundings, terrified grown ups, curious laughing almost expectant kids, and ran back to the house. Two more went off, Pam came back and than three others detonated so loud that it shook my bones.

“Don´t worry!” Patrick the American said, one of the students in the house, who has 4 trips as a soldier in Iraq in his backbone: “They´re just measuring for the next time, so they get it right. Mortars are not exact; you have to shoot off a few to get the exact position right. That is why they explode in the air like this. It is possibly general Ali Mohsen, who isn´t part of the peace agreement, who is measuring out the goals he wants to hit, if things doesn´t go his way.”

Patrick was thick with adrenalin. Eva just wanted to go out of the dark, enclosing building we live in and see what happened. Pamela was full of adrenalin. I just felt, kind of odd after awhile. I just wanted to show these freaks of nature, you don´t scare us. So we cooked dinner and ate it on the outside with a star filled sky above us. No more mortars in the evening. As this is Yemen, where the most amazing stories and hypothesis turn up daily, it is hard to know who it was setting the mortars off, but it seems as they came from the palace and where aimed at Hashaba. Which means it was the president’s son, Ali Ahmed, who was trying to get his mortars right and hit Al Ahmar´s in Hashaba.

This took place at the same time as the president was in Riyadh signing the peace agreement. Some say that maybe Ahmed Ali wasn´t happy and wanted to stage a coup de etát. All I know is that Saleh signed and that makes me very happy. As you know, I believe Yemen is so different from all other Arab states; they have a sort of democracy that they´ve had hundreds of years, they’re not extremist in any way and fundamentalists are not liked at all here. And most people want to keep them out of any government. I think that Yemen, no I believe Yemen, will set the course for the future for the rest of the Arab countries, as regards to how to run a country who is fair for as many inhabitants as possible. A role model to be. Even if there is so much work ahead!

I knew before most of the world that the signing would take place, since a very, very good friend of mine, is the guy the president, or former president right now, listens to more than any. He told me it would happen 10 days back and also told me that the main problem was that all attempts to get a deal so far, had been due to the involvement somehow with outsiders, e.g. non-Arabs and when Jamal Binomar turned up as the UN envoy, it was perfect, because he is from Morocco and everyone concerned and involved immediately talked the same language. It is just staggering to know that all this violence, tragedy and death has happened during such a long time, because the West demanded to be involved in the future solution! But, having been involved in this world of diplomacy and human beings to some degree, it doesn’t surprise me. It is the home of bureaucracy and far too much incompetence.

My friend pushed hard for this kind of a lighter, middle way solution based on his knowledge of Yemen and it worked out exactly as he hoped. As it is now, first of all stop the violence, get Yemen back on track for a more equal and functioning society, this, and I agree, is the only way. Of course the extreme sides of the matter, like the young demonstrators in Change Square and all over the country, without whom this important move probably wouldn´t have happened, and as the religious fundamentalists and Al Ahmars and Ali Mohsens followers, sure they are not to happy at all for this agreement, but it is a middle way and the issue is moving forward a bit. However, of course, I wonder about the future as well and what will happen. I mean Ali Mohsen and Al Ahmar´s are still in the country. So is quite a big part of the Saleh Family who are still in charge of many important posts within the military and the government, and the question is, how to get them out of the game as well? Because I have learned one very important thing in my all too brief time in this great country, Yemenis love their land and want to die here. It won’t be easy to kick anyone of them out. And to where? Saudi Arabia? As one friend said:

“Who wants to live with those extremely religious salafis?I rather die in Yemen!”

Oh, yes, there’s a lot of work ahead! As regards to my great friend, who has agreed to let me film his daily life and talk about the meaning of life, I honestly believe he will run the country in a not to far off future. He is also a man with a foot in both worlds, he has travelled a lot, fought his way up to where he is today, restarted his life three times and he has stayed put throughout these hard times, even though he has been threatened badly, he has been offered big money to leave, he has to have body guards, his family have been moved abroad and he got seriously injured in the bomb who almost killed Abdullah Ali Saleh back in June. The guy in between my friend and Saleh died. My friend felt like he was given a second chance to live. And want to get Yemen back on track. I wrote an article about him the last time I was here, where I amazingly enough predicted a bit of what has happened to him. He is extra ordinarily inspiring and meeting him and listening to his dedication to his people and country, is a humbling experience. He is also the only guy in the country which at this moment can help me get a permit to do the first stage of my trip to cross Yemen by camel from the west to east. Because, as it is right now, we cannot even leave Sanaa. We are imprisoned like everybody else here!

But, talking about kidnappings, last week we met Hussein, a taxi driver from that part of the country, which if you talk to other Yemenis, they almost scream:

“They´re dangerous, they kidnap people, extortion is part of their behaviour and they’re heavily armed and crazy!”

We are talking about Khawlan. I want to try to get there as soon as possible for some days. It belongs to the tribal area and to understand Yemen, you have to understand their tribalism of the north as well. And next week I will tell you about two more extremely inspiring people. Abdulghani Al-Iryani and Jamila “Guevera” at Change Square.

That is if nothing else gets in the way!

Do visit the photo gallery of Yemen!

An involuntary adventurer in Yemen

by

Tanya Holm

“Dear adventurous daughter!”

That is how my dad begins his letters to me. He and friends say that I’m an adventurer. I disagree. An adventurer seeks adventures just as babies seek comfort and I seek only the latter. Adventures, however, seek me. That is as true as it is a cliché. I look for something far less exciting than things out of the ordinary. Thus I came to Yemen.

An autumn afternoon, two years ago, I changed the North European periphery for South Arabia. Here was no uprising, no thousands of wounded and shot dead protestors bleeding out on the asphalt and failed GCC signatures were no headlines. There was al-Qaeda, civil war and there were kidnappings, most of which did not end in execution and mutilation. Yemen, like any country, had its share of problems. But we live in a time where we better say the glass is half full. So I packed my bag and said Yemen has houses of gingerbread and the world’s kindest people. I had heard that Muhammad, the prophet, had said, “kindness belongs to the Yemenis” and I found it still stands. The three words all Yemenis know in English are:

I love you!

And they practice them with every bypassing foreigner.

As foreigners in Yemen we like to compliment the people, the way I just did.

- Yemenis are kind, we say.
– Very kind.
– They are generous.
– And they like to joke.
– Indeed they are funny!

Our compliments are sometimes insulting to the Yemenis. What did we expect to find in Yemen, rudeness? Most are kind here, sure. Others are not. Many joke, but some are horribly boring. They don’t laugh even when one is extraordinarily funny, and instead they share their own dull stories.

“A man asked to be taken to the angry imam who ruled the city. He promised to make the imam laugh. When he stood in front of the imam he pinched him. The imam did not laugh, he sent the man to his death.”

Yemenis are kind and funny, kind and funny, more or less all of them we say – also as to make amends for the negative and simplified image the Occident so often spreads. But, that is not the only bad joke in Yemen. The image of Saleh riding a donkey to the giant neighbor Saudi Arabia is not very funny. Yet I have seen hundreds of protestors laugh at it all through the Arab spring. And speaking of kindness I know a Yemeni who says, “fuck you” when he sees me. I tell him to fuck himself, and there is nothing pleasant over that conversation, yet it takes place every now and then in the ancient alleys of Sana’a.

I have nothing intelligent to say when speaking of Yemen. I have been a freelance correspondent for Swedish media for a bit more than two years. I have learnt only the following. Whatever one reports on Yemen, one must be sure to announce the opposite soon enough. My own country, I can hold her in my hands and say it is Sweden, but Yemen slips away. It is a much-complicated society.

Yemen is a country, but not yet a state. It is tribal, but has people who claim to be its citizens. Yemen has a few young men with dynamite anger and people who refuse to kill a bee.

- Haraam, they say when I, despite my vegetarianism, suggest they crush annoying bees with my plastic plate.

Yemen has youth within the age range between 15 and 60.

- We are all youth, an old man explained.

He spoke of the importance to get a chance in society and life. A chance that is just as necessary to the 75 percent that are under 25 as to the rest of the people.

Yemen has poverty.

- But we are the richest people in the world, Yemenis say.

They argue that one must also look to what people have in their hearts.

Yemeni women have this year been louder and more disobedient than anywhere, yet in Yemen women are silenced and held back in the most awful ways, according to gender gap studies.

Yemen has an ongoing uprising and yet the way it has been seems to be the way it shall be, at least for some time ahead.

Yemen has an awful luck.

Yemen has patience and eager. And no matter on which side of the political spectrum people are, they promise to continue the struggle for a New, Better and More Dignified society. But, with that said one must add that there are also people that gave up long ago here.

- Can I get a visa?, they ask.

No they cannot.

Yemen has blue skies and deserts. And leopards, dolphins and women unions.

Yemen has an electricity minister and electricity bills but no electricity. So why are the government buildings still lit up?

Yemen has Yemenis and kind foreigners and rude foreigners and those that are a bit of both.

Islams, traditions, debates on secularism and Yemen has garbage. Although foreign journalists are not allowed to film it. Yemenis are ashamed of their country. And they are also very proud of it.

In a multicolored society life does not get dull, but rather adventurous and even so I am still here. Because apart from the I love yous, and fuck yous, the recent protests aside, along with the violence and death that looks just like in the movies, and all the things that can not be mentioned without appearing insensitive, without seeming like entertainment when they really are about injustices – lived by people who exist in their own damn right – Yemen has the ordinary life. It has days and nights and stray cats. And that is what I choose to write in my letters back home, the ones I sign “an involuntary adventurer”.

Dear,

Today I woke up before the first prayer call. The muezzin did a sound check.

– Allah, Allah, Allah, he called before he was ready to declare that God is great.

I’m fine, but this winter is cold to the Sana’anis. They complain and I too would catch a cold in their worn down plastic flip-flops and light clothes.

Today I will meet a prominent Yemeni Feminist. She will talk about boyhood, mother work, and the art of pushing for equal rights on the Arabian Peninsula. It is for an interview in a feminist newspaper.

These days many speak of violence. “There is a war in Taiz”, they say. It looks frightening. Do you hear any of it back home?

In Sana’a much still goes on the way it always has. People collect water in the mornings. The old women opposite my house sit in the sun. They wave to me to join. They ask me a thousand and one questions. It makes me uncomfortable that they walk around knowing what I had for breakfast. The children play and sing songs to me. Men chew qat.

– Yemeni Viagra, one guy said, to try to convince me to start chewing.

By the way, if there are any good movies running back home, tell me which. There are still no cinemas in the country, but we download movies illegally. There is no need to worry as the drones aren’t aimed at pirates.

Now I must be quick to send this, we have had electricity for about an hour, it will cut and return earliest after another twelve hours.

Jalla!

Tanya Holm is a Swedish freelance journalist based in Sanaa.

Waiting for a war

by

Siris Hartkorn

It is not often that you find yourself waiting for a war, but these days I do along with the rest of the Yemeni population. We are in a stand off caught in a power game far beyond our control. A game that involves a global and a regional superpower, two families and one tribe. Ourselves, no matter if human rights activist, protesters, Islamists, secessionists or just normal citizens trying to live our lives are nothing but pieces in a puzzle so complex that there is reason to fear it will not be solved anytime soon.

Copyright Melany Markham

A fragmented snapshot

If all actors in Yemen where to freeze in this exact moment and somebody take a snapshot of the country it would look like this: The president and most of the government is out of the country. They are in Saudi Arabia recovering from an inside attack on the presidential palace back in early June, killing seven and wounding 87, including the president himself. In their absence the vice president is officially ruling the country, but without much real power he is exercising a cautious balancing act from his office at the Ministry of Defense, under the protection of Ali Mohsin and 1. Armored Division. Ali Mohsin is an old alley to the president and origins from the same tribe, but turned his back on the president and joined the revolution after the killing of 51 youth protesters in Sana’a on March 18. He has taken half the military with him and Sana’a is currently divided between the checkpoints of 1. Armored Division and the Republican Guard still loyal to Saleh. While loyal to the revolution, Ali Mohsin and his soldiers remains on the payroll of the government, money they spent on giving military training to the peaceful youth protesters. The president’s son, Ahmed Saleh, has moved into the presidential palace from where he together with his cousins continues to exercise the real power – or at least the power the government has left. In the southern province of Abyan militant Islamists are fighting against the military and local tribesmen. The Islamists has seized control over the city Zinjibar and while the soldiers of the 25. Brigade fighting against the Islamists are no longer receiving salaries, most people believe that the Islamists are funded by the government to prove Saleh’s point; that without him as ruler Yemen will be consumed by chaos. USA has launched an extensive drone program in the south, a program which legal fundament remains questionable. North/east of the capital in al Jawf province Houthi rebels from Sa’ada are fighting against local tribes loyal to the opposition party Islah.

Not far from the fighting, at the revolutionary square in Sana’a, Houthis are sitting together with Islah party members, chewing qat and planning the revolution. A tribal alliance consisting of sheikhs from all of Yemen’s powerful tribes have announced that Saleh will not rule Yemen again, as long as they are alive. Yet splits exist within all tribes, especially the president’s own, and loyalty is divided. Just outside the capital in Arhab district the government is bombing local tribes, yet has not managed to defeat them. The government says the tribes of Arhab are trying to take over Sana’a International Airport and the strategically important Sama military base, while the opposition argues that the tribes are fighting to block Republican Guard soldiers from reaching the capital. The bombs can be heard in Sana’a and the airport is frequently closed for flights. Confused yet? Then it might not help to mention the interference from the regional superpower Saudi Arabia or the global, USA. Both remains deeply involved in the conflict, USA driven by a counter terrorism narrative and Saudi Arabia by a combination of concern for national security and domestic legitimacy. It is not in the interest of neither Saudi Arabia nor USA that Saleh returns, yet he is determined to do so. Saleh’s has openly stated his plan for Yemen; to leave the country as it was 33 years ago, when he resumed power, meaning a country fragmented by conflict and lack of a central state. Why would he want that? Would be a reasonable question, and the answer is as absurd as everything else in Yemeni politics; to prove that he, and only he, can rule a country where half the population owns a weapon, tribes are in de facto control most places and where the everyday life of the majority of the population, who remains the poorest in the Arab region, is dictated by a mixture of religion and consumption of the mildly narcotic plant qat. Half the population is illiterate and unemployed. Malnutrition levels are comparable to sub-Saharan countries and the country is running out of water as well as oil, the last making up 75 pct. of the state income. This was the statistics before the crisis started earlier this year, since then there has been an acute shortage in fuel, leading to an increase in prices on basic goods such as water, food, cooking gas and fuel reaching as high as 400 percent on some goods. How the regular Yemeni survives remains a mystery.

This snapshot is not just complex it is also pessimistic leaving little hope for Yemen’s prospect as a united country heading towards democracy and rule of law – the objectives of the youth revolution. Nobody knows what will happen next, but most seem to accept that full blown civil war is a likely scenario. But even with this accepted, the war remain a semi reality. It is not here yet, but it is still affecting our lives. It might never come, but we will only know for sure when it comes. It is a distant circumstance of our lives yet a very real part of our future. So while we are waiting for the war that might, might not, come, maybe tomorrow or maybe in a year, we continue to live our lives. And life in Yemen these day mainly consist of two activities; overcoming practical challenges and gathering in qat sessions discussing politics.

Enemies gather in the mafraj

The practical challenges might seem trivial compared to the bigger picture, yet they take up a lot of time, planning and resources. Take for example an easy task such as having a functional cell phone. There are three main cellphone providers in Yemen; Sabafon, MTN and Yemen Mobile. All three used to have their share of customers, but then the revolution came and with Sabafon owned by a key opposition figure and businessman, it was sabotaged by the government. Having Sabafon you can no longer call landlines or receive international calls. So the customers shifted to MTN, which in turn doesn’t have the capacity for that many active phones, resulting in poor coverage and frequent shut down of the network. That leaves Yemen Mobile. Having been unable to use my MTN phone for a couple of days, I decided to get out and buy a Yemen Mobile phone card. First step was to find a friend with fuel enough to take me to an ATM and then a teleshop. Having found a friend willing to help, next stop was an ATM. Yet my international visa card only works in one ATM in Sana’a and this happens to be a bank owned by the same opposition figure owning Sabafon. For the same reason the bank is short of cash, and to prevent people from withdrawing too much, they frequently turn of the power to the ATM. Simple solution, a lot of headache. It took me three days of going back and forth to the bank, until I finally had luck and managed to withdraw some cash. Right away my friend and I went out to buy the new phone card, only to find out that most teleshops where closed due to power outage. After a two hours search my friend and I found an open teleshop with a generator and I delivered the cash, a copy of my passport and my visa plus fingerprints and got a Yemeni Mobile phone card in return. Problem solved, until I got home and put my new phone card in my phone, only to learn that Yemen Mobile only works on certain phones and mine where not one of them. Next day’s project was then to repeat the procedure, but this time to buy a new phone. A trivial practical matter of getting a new phone card thus took me a week and the procedure would be the same for almost everything. With no electricity, fuel or gas moving around, making a photocopy, getting fresh food, cleaning, doing laundry, making a cup of coffee, checking your email and almost all other daily activities turn from routine to projects.

When not engaged in solving the challenges of everyday life people meet in qat sessions to exchange the latest rumors and discuss political ideas. The growing and transportation of qat demands a lot of water and fuel, yet the price on qat has gone down during the crisis. As most other things this is blamed on the government, not because people are very unsatisfied with the cheap qat, but because qat keeps people calm and thereby prevents the public protests from escalating. Yet qat also serves to keep the political discussions alive and bring together people from fighting fractions. It is not unusual to sit in a qat session where half the mafraj supports the president and the other half the opposition. Discussion can be heated, but after the initial hours of loud exchange of opinions the qat will kick in and bring people into more intimate and low conversations one to one. By the end of a qat session political enemies put their guns back in their belt, grab their flashlight and leave back out in the dark night where the sound of machineguns can be heard in the streets. In qat sessions without competing political interests among the attending the subject of debate will instead be the many rumors surrounding almost every event. In a country where free media has been interpreted as free fantasy depending on the political affiliation of the owners, nobody really trusts any media. Instead information flows through informal networks and personal contacts. In Yemen there is no such thing as one political reality or one truth. It is the rumors that shape peoples life and creates powerful imperatives. And they travel fast. You might hear a certain rumor in a qat session with politically connected and well educated Yemenis, only to hear the same rumor being retold by your illiterate neighbor later the same evening. When presented to a Western audience, most rumors would appear to be nothing but fantasy driven conspiracy theories. Yet in the history of Yemen there is no conspiracy theory unlikely enough to later turn out right. No matter the subject, there is always more to it than the official story which also is the reason, that international media tends to get Yemen wrong.

So is it all black everything? No, it’s neither black nor white. Yemen is neither going to turn into a new Somalia nor a new Saudi Arabia. Yemen needs to be taken for what it is, an ancient civilization with a long tradition of mediating conflict, managing competing power interests and overcoming crisis. A country currently facing the biggest political and financial problems in its history and therefore urgently needs the assistance of the international community, not to fight Al-Qaida, but to feed it’s children. A country so complex that nobody, not even the Yemenis, will ever be able to fully grasp it. And while the future looks everything but bright, we will continue to live our lives – in the vacuum waiting for the war, through the fighting and destruction during a war and in the new reality that will follow a war. Not because it is possible, but because giving up is impossible. And from what we hear, the war might never come.

Siris Hartkorn is currently working as a security consultant and political analyst. She is now permanently based in Yemen but it is her fifth time in Yemen since 2009, the other times she has been there to do research. In the fall she was based in Somalia and Kenya for DDG.

Please visit my sponsors Termo who are making it possible for me to write 2 blog reports per week. Just click the logo to find the best underwear on earth.

“We are worried. We have left everything behind in India and we have given our hearts to Oman” , Bainu Tomas said whilst we were eating breakfast together in his flat in Wattaya, “But this omanization just puts us in a limbo, not knowing what to do or expect. We accept it, but it is still kind of a shock that it will be implemented so fast. That is why my my wife is still working as a teacher, even though with a newly born child, we would need her at home here.”

Bainu came 6 years ago from the state of Kerala, like many other Indian immigrants working in Oman, on an invitation from the government. Oman needed foreign workers to be able to construct a foundation of a country. Just like their neighbors in Saudi-Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In Dubai two-thirds of its population is made up by immigrants who are there to keep the country alive. In Oman they´re less, but the country still needs them. But Sultan Qaboos, the beloved ruler, wants Omanis in every position of the society, something I can understand, since I often wonder, what will happen if the poorly treated immigrants in Dubai would revolt against their masters? There is no doubt, that Oman is understanding the issue of keeping its Arab soul better than some of its neighbors. But, the question is, are they ready to run the country by themselves?

Muttrah by night - climate this time of the year is fantastic!

Since being involved myself in the tourist industry I have seen there´s still a lot of work and acclimatization before Oman can be run by its own people, because the service level amongst them is still low and prices heavily over flated. They still need their ex-pats and immigrants from all over the world. And being a traveller, one always feels like an immigrant, an outsider, so I do well understand them and nothing upsets me like the stories that come out from for example Dubai how badly treated some of the immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India are. But Bainu has been happy during his time here.

“Well, I belong to the educated immigrants who come here, not the laborers, and for this reason life has been good” , he said and smiled as always.

Bainu is religious and spends a fair amount of time in his local church all made up of Indians from Kerala, and he is therefore very easy going and gentle, and doesn´t judge anyone unfairly or complain about his own situation. But he does says he worries. He isn´t ready to return to India yet. Wages are not on the same level there. And he says that when they first came here, they could even save money and send back, but nowadays, even they almost work 6 days a week, long hours, both of them, they just about make it. But they´re doing well, the Tomas Family, there are other immigrants who are suffering. Please read this article about the situation in Dubai. Oman is different. And it feels good being back!

Abdullah - the driver which quit his job for the day to take us on a tour of Muttrah!

Since we stayed outside the more well to do parts of the time, we decided to take the small minibuses to travel around Muscat, when our friends didn´t come and pick us up, and this is really the way to see another, much more interesting part of Muscat and Oman. It is lively, demanding and you get a perspective how things are if you are not well to do in Oman. Everything takes more time and is more demanding. But you meet a lot of great people. One of them was Abdullah, who owns his own mini-taxi and when we met him and said we loved his country, who quit is job and instead took us on a tour of the city. We arrived back at our flat at 2 a.m. People are extraordinary friendly here.

But the reason we have come here this time is two very important lectures which will define the direction of the Expedition. Hold on, you will know in a few days…..this is the most important of all visits i have done to Oman. Judgement day.

In these years Dan has become very successful. He writes for the National Geographic and his latest book The Blue Zones has been a huge success, sold in 250 000 copies and he has been part of all the big talk shows like Oprah Winfrey and more and after reading his book, which I enjoyed a lot, I have realized, once again, that all seems to be meant, maybe, like the Arabs say, it is written in the stars. It was meant to be, him and me meeting. He gave me a nice perspective on certain things regarding the meaning of life. Dan seemed to enjoy every aspect of life, especially having time to be with his extended family. One of the ten commandments of how to get over 100 years old according to Dan and his Blue Zone project!

Visiting the great area where Dan had his mansion, also offered some nice winter days with son and less cold....

It was great meeting Dan during the Minneapolis visit. Otherwise a lot of my energy has been trying to figure out how the latest developments in Yemen will affect the Expedition. As it is now, the border between Saudi Arabia and Yemen is closed and I communicate excessively with my friends in this great country. Latest news comes from Brid Beeler, who is more updated than most people regarding the situation in Yemen, that not even the UN are getting through. So far, one of the better articles I have read about the situation comes from The Guardians Brian Whittaker here! This is of course, bad news, very bad news, so the question is, when will the border open up again? And do we need to re-route completely? That means we need more money and more time, which is not easy to acquire in these days of recession. Right now, the situation looks worse than ever and my big worry, is that it will develop even worse, that outside troops will move in and we will have a very serious situation. It smells Afghanistan and Somalia. And all borders will, of course, then be closed to Saudi-Arabia, the country the Expedition really needs and wants to pass through. Not possible, no Expedition. That is reality. We are returning to Oman at the end of the month to continue our work to put the Expedition on its feet. Until than, there are other worries….

And if I haven´t felt the global recession anything earlier, it is moving in everywhere. I get emails from colleagues all over the world who describes the situation more dire than ever. And it easy to see here in the US of A. The recession. It has, so far, been a very important and interesting visit, and the positive aspects of this great country is the multi-cultural society and the positive attitude of most people. I am in Philadelphia right now, and I really like its Afro-American population. On the negative side, this is not a place to be, the US, if things turn bad. No matter how often I have seen homeless people all over the world, it pains to see. I have taken one decision, if I ever, in shallah, become a father, Sweden is the place to be. I have re-evaluated my own country a lot during these last 6 months. I am beginning to feel full proud Swedish again. Especially after meeting all Americans with Swedish back ground in Minneapolis talking about the Old country.

William Penn´s beautiful City Hall in Philadelphia, a very interesting and livly East coast city.

By the way, if you have time to kill, why not come to see the Siberian lecture at Williams College in Williamstown on Friday? See http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=260366986429&index=1

Eyes That Speak:  Lifting the Veil of Yemen

By Tricia Nellessen

Lifting the veil of Yemen....

The day after Christmas 2009, I was surprised to find dozens of messages on my phone.  How nice, I thought.  People know that I’m home in the U.S. for Christmas.  I’d been away for many months, and I had not yet turned on the television.  I went about my daily routine intending to listen to the messages later.  I sat down in front of the TV and switched on CNN.  Suddenly all of the calls made sense.  Yemen was being discussed on every channel.  One, lone Nigerian man now had my country of temporary residence in the news because he had traveled to Yemen and then attempted to blow up an airliner.

Since then, everyone has become an expert on Yemen.  I watch the news and smile as I imagine producers scurrying to find video footage that will capture the essence of the nation.  Usually this includes the ever-exotic photo of a fully veiled woman with only her eyes peering out from behind the black cloth.  As the images flash across the screen, journalists constantly stumble over names while interviewing experts who seem to have gotten much of their information from Wikipedia.  The facts are basic.  Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East.  It sits south of Saudi Arabia and has the highest percentage of detainees from any nation housed in Guantanamo Bay.  The gender roles are strictly segregated, and women veil their faces in public.  Al Qaeda is growing in the region.  Oh yes, and Osama Bin Laden’s father was from an area called Hadramawt (which somehow seems to be pronounced Had-ra-mat, as if it were a laundry, on the news).  These are the facts that keep being repeated.  These are the basics, not the humanity.

I was first introduced to Yemen a couple of years ago at 2am after a number of long flights.  I was a thirty-two year old American woman traveling alone.  After years as a journalist, I had returned to graduate school for my doctorate in anthropology.  Yemen was to be my field site and a perfect place for further language training.  As I stepped from the plane, I took a deep breath and wondered what to expect.  I climbed down the steep stairs from the 747 to the tarmac and walked across the pavement through the glass doors lined by soldiers with rifles slung over their shoulders.  The majority of travelers were Yemenis coming home from trips abroad and my exhausted brain tried to comprehend the foreign words I heard.  As I went through customs, the man sitting behind the desk smiled as I spoke to him in Arabic.  “You are here to study?” He asked.  “Yes”, I replied.  “Welcome to Yemen,” he stated in perfect English as he smiled and handed my passport back to me.  I walked through the next set of doors and into what would become one of the favorite times in my life.

Tricia with a young Yemeni girl. One of many fantastic Yemenis she continually comes across and falls in love with.

When I’m asked about Yemen, I struggle to explain the spirit of the people.  How do I say that I wore a burqa because I chose to?  No one would ever think of forcing me to do that there.  How do I explain that Hadramawt is a beautiful, historic area with a library filled with ancient documents and some of the world’s best honey and dates?  How can I explain to those that have never been there that not everyone identifies themselves as Al-Qaeda, and in actuality Yemen is a nation living in poverty and simply struggling to survive.  I’ve traveled around the country and lived with the people, and the only way that I can tell you about Yemen is to tell you of my friends.

I met Noor at a women’s party.  These afternoons lasted for hours and were filled with music, dancing, and lots of conversation.  We would take our black robes and veils off as soon as we entered the house.  Then, the women would drink tea and eat different types of cookies.  It was during one of these parties that I met Noor.  She was a petite woman close to my age.  She smiled sweetly and offered me a seat next to her on the long pillows lying on the floor around a rug in the middle filled with tin trays of food.  Noor only spoke Yemeni Arabic, and we struggled to communicate between her dialect and my American accent.  Still, we became friends.  Once the food was cleared and the music began, Noor pulled me to the middle of the rug.  She was the first woman in Yemen to teach me belly dancing.  We danced for hours and everyone tried to help my American hips learn the foreign rhythms as we laughed the evening away.

After many such gatherings, I finally learned Noor’s story.  We sat drinking sweet Yemeni tea as others danced and I asked her about her family.  She said that she had a daughter and her eyes lit with pride.  I was surprised to learn that her daughter was seventeen years old.  She must have seen my look of confusion, because she quickly explained.  Noor had come from a poor village far outside the city.  Her father arranged her marriage to a neighbor when she was eleven, and a few years later she gave birth to her daughter.  I sipped my sweet tea and digested this information.  I asked her delicately about her husband.  “He’s dead” was the quick reply.  Noor’s face hardened and I knew that the conversation was over.  Months later she told me that he was fifty years old when they were married.  A few years ago, he passed on.  Noor retained his wealth and now remains single.  She is proud and intelligent and amazingly independent.  She moved her family to the capital city of Sana’a and her daughter attends the university there.  Noor even hinted that she might remarry in the future, but this time it would be a man of her choosing.

The window of Yemen, Tricia looking out at life outside her room...

The capital city of Sana’a which hosts the university is a fascinating mix of old and new.  I love walking the streets past the ancient walls of Bab Al-Yemen.  Bab Al-Yemen literally translates to the “door of Yemen”, and indeed it once was truly this.  Two gigantic wooden doors rest eternally open in the middle of a tall stone wall.  The wall used to encompass the entire city of Sana’a, but now it only contains what is lovingly referred to as the Old City.  I have wandered Bab Al-Yemen for hours.  Sometimes I’ve worn the abaya (black robe) and niqab (face veil), and sometimes not.  It really depends on whether or not I want to be noticed as a foreigner.  When fully veiled, I can blend into the crowd.  Why might I not want to be seen as a foreigner?  It is certainly not out of fear, but rather because of all the shouts of “Welcome to Yemen” and “Hello, how are you?”  If I walk the streets as an American, the children run up and scream “soora, soora?” Soora means photo, and the children always want theirs taken.

On the street where I live in Sana’a, the children from the nearby houses run and play in front of my door.  I live on a side street running perpendicular to a main road.  The children of my neighborhood know me well.  When they are out of school, they play marbles and soccer on the cobblestoned alleyway between our buildings.  Mustafa is twelve and is the oldest.  He is respected by the others because of this, and sometimes brings his three year old baby brother out with him.  Mustafa and his brother were orphaned when their parents were killed in a car accident.  His grandfather is raising the boys on a cab driver’s salary.  Ahmed is ten and always full of spunk, ready to play soccer.  He saves bits of change that he finds and sometimes buys me plastic necklaces.  I wear them and he smiles and tells the other boys that I am his wife.  Nabil is ten as well and shares his fireworks with me whenever they have them.  We toss the little caps on the ground and laugh as they pop.  The children’s laughter and shouts are always present outside my door.

Across the street from my house is a café set into a thick mud brick wall.  Its pink, metal doors beckon you in for kabob (fried meat balls) and fool (bean soup).  Ramsey runs the place and is sits by the door to welcome you.  When water became scarce in the countryside, he moved to the city to earn money for his family.  Ramsey is the father of six.  His wife and children still live on the farm, about four hours away.  He works for a month or more before being able to travel the distance to see them.  He doesn’t own a car, and the business needs him in order to stay open.   I always ask him how his family is, and he’ll pull out his cell phone and show me pictures.

"The capital city of Sana’a which hosts the university is a fascinating mix of old and new. I love walking the streets past the ancient walls of Bab Al-Yemen."

So, you see, as the exotic images of Yemen appear on television screens across the world, I can only think of my friends.  There are so many other stories that I could tell which would humanize the stark photos being shown across the world of the tiny little country that no one knew of but that now is in all the headlines.  The scenes the news agencies show are from streets that I have walked dozens of times.  As others see only mysteriously veiled women and foreign landscapes, I see my friends and paths full of memories.  It is true that Al-Qaeda exists in Yemen, but it is also true that the majority of people are simply trying to make a living in a country which was forgotten until this Christmas when one man suddenly brought the spotlight of the world to bear.  Yemen has faced Al-Qaeda attacks for years.  It sits on the brink of civil war as the South threatens to secede once again, and rebels to the north of Sana’a continue to fight the government forces.  Amidst all of this, Yemen is projected to become the first country in the world to suffer a complete lack of groundwater as its aquifers drain and the rains move away from the Arabian Peninsula.  Yemen and its people have been, and will continue to be, facing serious challenges.

I sat in Sana’a sipping tea with Michael a few months ago and he asked me what it was like to be a woman living in Yemen.  I remember telling him tales of my friends and experiences.  Michael understood, as explorers do, that societies are complex and varied.  To truly understand a people, one has to delve beneath the obvious and experience the everyday and mundane.  To me, the veil has yet to be lifted from Yemen in the eyes of the world.  Rather, the information coming out of Yemen from the outside media is vague and unsubstantial because of lack of attention in previous years and the newly escalating security situation with Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.  It is my hope, as days move forward, that a distinction will be made between the people and the destructive elements driving Yemen towards becoming a failed state.

Tricia can be contacted here!

The old hajji....

“Isn’t it still expensive to do a pilgrimage to Mecca? My teacher told me yesterday it is still very expensive and for most people, if it is possible at all, that once in a life time is an achievement, a dream.” I said, remembering Rashad telling me that he hoped to do a pilgrimage, but that it would take him many years to save the money needed, “He said it would cost him at least half a million rials (approximately 2500 dollars) to do a proper pilgrimage, since he had to go through a travel agent here in Sana’a specialising in pilgrimage tours to Mecca. About 25 days including hotels, transport, air tickets, a visit to the prophet’s grave in Medina and so on. And he said that the Saudis only allowed a certain amount of pilgrims per country a year.”

The giant mosque built by the president Abdullah Saleh

“The Saudis….” , the old hajji said with a grim face, “…charge you for everything including breathing.”

A very good friend of mine, one of few Muslim explorers on earth, a true Ibn Batutta of today, said that he flew from Afghanistan to Mecca to do his first pilgrimage and was treated like shit until he showed his American passport. He wasn’t too fond of the Saudis in Mecca either. I have to say, they don’t seem to have the best reputation in the world, neither among ex pats or other gulf Arabs. Than again I have heard a lot of opposing views. That the Saudis are amongst the friendliest and best people on earth. The idea seems to be to avoid Jeddah, Riyadh and Mecca/Medina. The reason I bring Saudi Arabia up is that it is a country everyone continuously talks about in these parts of the world. In Yemen every day. The Saudis are in many ways very influential and powerful players in the global economy of not only the Gulf, but in the rest of the world as well. I look forward to travelling through Saudi-Arabia a lot!

Inside the mosque which seats 20000 devotees....

“So you are contemplating to travel by camel?” the old man said more as a statement than a question and than added: “It is the best way to travel! Just treat them well and they will be your best friends forever!”

It was Mohammed, Hussein’s employee and best friend, who had set me up meeting this old man, who’s first name was Abdullah and came from the same village as Mohammed. They had the same second name, Al Mawari. Many people’s second names in the Arab World also tell a visitor the geographical background of a person. And ever since I was given a great gift from my great best friend Pamela, see last report, a zannah (ankle long white robe), a silver belt with an expensive jambiyyah with a Bedu background and a turban or head cloth, sharh,  with a colour and pattern which makes locals sometimes call me Palestinian, I have honorary been given the name Ahmed Al-Hamdani. Basically due to the way Hussein made up my turban, just like a Bedu from the Hamdani region. Even Abdullah called me a Hamdani, even though Mohammed had to translate. I have to say I still somewhat surprised how honoured and happy the locals are when you are dressed like them. This I have never seen anywhere else, well, maybe Oman.

Hussein, Ahmed Al-Hamdani and Mohammed outside the presidents mosque...

“So you stopped using and working with camels as long back as 30 years ago, what do you miss the most regarding these fantastic animals and do you have any advice to me to bring on my journey?” I asked him, because I had earlier asked Hussein if he could find a Yemeni who had travelled to Mecca by camel and could tell me which route they had taken, since I would like to stick to the traditional pilgrimage route from Sana’a to Mecca.

“I used to travel from Sana’a to Al Hudaydah (link to Yemeni map) on the west coast, and back, bringing food for people and animal, it used to take eight days and we travelled 16 hours per day”, he recounted with passion, “And what do I miss? I miss the freedom and the evenings in front of the fire. And I miss the camels. If you treat them with love, you will always have a loyal friend.”

Praying at the mosque....

“Which route did your dad take to Mecca?” I asked again, because our conversation was on and off disturbed by other locals in the room teasing and laughing at the old man, just because he used to work camels and right now was a quite hard line Muslim belonging to the Shia arm of Islam. All others Yemenis in the room were Sunni. The war in the north, between the government and the Al Houthi could in some ways be called a religious one. A war between Sunni (government) and Shia (al Houthi).

The "birthday" cake from my friends....the inscription reads Mikael - the sheikh of the Bedu

“Quiet!” he hissed at his teasers, who laughed back and teased him a bit more, but he continued: “Well, the pilgrims and hajjis to be, always set out from Saada and from there travelled to Mecca via Baqim, Zahran, Haraja, Khamis Mushayt, Abha and down to the Saudi coast and from there on to Jeddah and Mecca.”

Amazingly enough exactly the route I had planned just by looking at the map geographically 3 months back and searching for the existence of valleys, plains, paths and roads. However, my Expedition is still far off in time, in shallah, if all goes well, we will set off in January next year, but, this fact apart, yesterday I was also given an especially made cake by Pamela, Hussein and Mohammed, thick and tasty and its chocolate decorated with a white camel and the words:

“Mikael – the sheikh of the Bedu”.

After the party we went to the souk after midnight to eat some kebabs at this place....

People here in Yemen, my friends, are the best of the best. Warm, generous, funny, smart and they all love life. I still don’t know what we were celebrating, but it filled me with great joy! On top of that I was given a full Sanaani outfit including the most macho of all male symbols in Sanaa, a jambiyya, and together with Pamela, Hussein and Mohammed we took a taxi –this was another “birthday” surprise organised by Pamela for me- and we ended up at the spectacular Presidents Mosque. Its main hall is so big so that it can seat 20 000 devotees facing Mecca in prayer! We weren’t the only foreigners there, me, Ahmed Al Hamdani, and Pam dressed as a Sanaani woman, then named Pamela Al-Sanaani to make it easier to get in during prayer. There were many Indonesians and Malaysians amongst the devotees. Security was hard, but Hussein got us through everywhere with his kindness, humour, baton and peculiar ideas. It beats the Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Muscat. It is grander.

“The cost to build this mosque equalled ten hospitals”, Mohammed commented with his down-to-earth wisdom:” I think most people wanted hospitals, but the president wanted to be remembered.”

Hussein, Pamela and Mohammed outside the Presidents Mosque.

I have also realised that most local people don’t really appreciate the war against the Houthis, which many see as their brethren and fellow Moslems. The war planes are still leaving Sana’a in great numbers. It is still a very unnerving feeling. Thank God for friends like Mohammed, Hussein and Pamela!

Kasim the taxi driver

Kasim, the taxi driver, well, his answer was so typical Yemeni. They´re easily among the friendliest people I have ever met, but I think amongst the most amazing thing I have encountered is their attitude not to down talk other people. Now, for me, coming from a continent where we have newspapers like the awful tabloids, sit coms full of people hired to talk crap about others and reality shows like Big Brother where people thrive a bad talking others, Yemen is so refreshing!

We just stopped Kasim outside our living quarters in a tiny alley in the old city of Sanaa, on our way to visit a new friend of mine, a power station of sorts, Brid from Ireland, and it turns out that Kasim speaks pretty much perfect English. Part of his family, which is the case with many Yemeni, are living abroad. He has spent more than five years in Saudi Arabia himself, working and collecting funds for his big family, did well and returned and runs a taxi company amongst other things. And the only negative word I could get out of him, on the way back from Brid and her great husband Richard, was that the Saudis where maybe a bit to strict. Both Richard and Brid had also lived and worked in Saudi Arabia.

However, that half an hour it took us to leave the Old City and make our way through heavy traffic to the new part of time, as many taxi drivers world wide, it turns out Kasim was a wealth of information and full of opinions of his own country. Now, since the country is in some kind of a dire situation, which according to Kasim is similar to Somalia a bunch of years ago, which threw the country into a continues series of internal wars and poverty, Kasim was of the very astute opinion that only words and conversation could solve the growing problems the country are facing. For more info on the situation, see local opinion from Yemen Times and on the international side, see BBC.

It wasn´t easy to find our way to Brid and Richard, but Kasim took it as a quest of life and eventually we ended up on the carpet in their home eating and drinking and discussing Yemen.

“Why we choose to move to Yemen instead of Oman? Well, the thing is that Oman isn´t much different to the West. You have to put in 80 hours a week to survive and the demand is as hard and we have had enough of that. But, as important is, Oman is becoming more like Dubai and the West and moving away from the real Arabia. And after years in the Arab world, we want to stay close to the true soul of Arabia.”

Richard and Brid

It was actually this Irish powerhouse who persuaded me to come to Yemen instead of Damascus or Cairo and I don´t regret that for a second. Even though I have only been here two weeks, it is a high light of my life. And I remember something a good friend of mine said, he´s living in Oman, a Brit, Marc, when we were discussing foreigners (expats) living abroad and in the Gulf area, why it is such a major difference between the quality of the expats. I have personally found the best, friendliest and funniest expats in the most difficult and demanding of countries and the truth is probably as Mark said:

“You go to Saudi to make money, but you choose to work and live in Oman, Yemen and Kenya because you want to live there.”

For me, a personality will always be preferred to a copy of the rest of us humans, because when you meet personalities not only do you have a good laugh, but you learn enormously much and you leave them with a very positive attitude o life. Just like living Brid and Richard. Who will help me a lot whilst I am here. Great people!