Explorer Mikael Strandberg

Kyle Anthony Foster and me at a kat chew in Sanaa, Yemen. He is one of the biggest personalities I have met. And very knowledgeable of yemen. He speaks fluent Arabic, is married to a Yemeni from Mukalla and has at least one child.

Guest writer number 5 is Kyle Anthony Foster from Nebraska, who is currently living in Yemen, and have been doing so for the last ten years or more. He is one of the biggest personalities and characters I have come across, a true story teller, survivor, human being and adventurer of the old sorts. Everything happens to this guy! Not one boring second with him. He is married to a nice Yemeni from Mukalla and they have a lovely daughter together. He knows the ins and outs of Yemen. An important voice to listen to, these days of painting Yemen as one of the most dangerous countries in the world!

I am writing to you from a long, white sands beach under swaying palm
trees on the south coast of Arabia, 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.  I met Mikael here last year and we became
immediate friends; sharing a love of adventure and expanding our
horizons through travel.  It might surprise you to think of some of the world’s most pristine and beautiful beaches in Yemen.  It might also surprise you to know that the country is not a giant sand pit but a mountainous country, incredibly green in the rainy season, with incredible gorges and vistas throughout. So, when Mikael asked if I might write something about Yemen I grabbed paper and pen and headed straight for the beach.  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.

Rub Al-Khali - the biggest sand dune desert in the world....

Yemen has often been described by scholars as an ‘island’ surrounded by the Arabian /Indian Ocean 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 isolation has kept Yemen apart and misunderstood by the rest of the world since ancient times.  And 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 and 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 Saba (reported home of the Queen of Sheba) to benefit from the spice trade through taxes collected on the spice caravans travelling through her land.  Yemen was relatively little known to the outside world until the 1960s, when the secretive and feudal ‘Imam’ or king was overthrown for a republican government.

Yemen has remained little known and 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,’ ’the ancestral homeland of Osama Bin Laden,’  (So what???  He wasn’t born here and did not grow up here.) and a place of ‘widespread anti-American sentiment.’  Regarding the Bin Laden issue I pose this to readers.  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?

Yemenis, some of the friendliest and most peaceful people on earth.

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 and a booming population (up to 3.5% by international estimates), a severe water crises for which there is no easy solution, a severe lack of food security causing 50% or more of the country’s children to suffer from malnutrition and stunted growth and a struggling economy which relys heavily on imported trade and not enough on domestic production.  The literacy rate in the country hovers around 60% for men and women.

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 Mukella, the city behind me, bear the unmistakable stamp of the orient, brought back to Yemen by traders who ventured from India to Malaysia 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 this diverse mix of people, culture and their history may also  help to explain why the majority of Yemenis are surprisingly tolerant with a love of music,  art and dance all their own 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 an independence movement awakening in the south.  Political support and a degree of military support are welcome and probably necessary at this time.  However, the real need Yemen is facing is in development support and aid to help the nation through this period of economic change and population growth.  What’s needed is real development aid funding 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% of the population live.  A sincere effort at supporting development in this country is the only way we can hope to bring about the stability the nation needs through increased educational standards and outputs, increased access to health care, rising levels of nutritional intake and increased economic production leading to increased income levels for the poor and middle classes.  No amount of military assistance can bring about the development and change that the people of this nation seek and deserve.

Right now Yemen needs to be seen in the right light and needs the right assistance, according to the writer.

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

A wedding procession along the route. The bridegroom and his friends on the way to the bride to be.....

During these three days of Eid Al-Adha we did a tour to the north of the country, passing through a lot of small fishing villages along the coast dominated by a strong smell of dried fish and people on vacation. The villages where teeming with people! We really enjoyed this part of Oman and we realized what a great family gathering this important holiday is. Muscatis leave the capital en masse to visit their birthplace and their parents during Eid Al-Adha. We finally ended up in Sohar, formerly capital of the country and the birth place of two of the globally most famous Omanis, Sinbad the Sailor and Ahmed Ibn Majid. The real Oman is, of course, located outside of Muscat. During our trip we also passed through Sawaidi, the birth place of a famous Omani to be. Talib Omar, one of my best friends. I meet him every Thursday for some of the most enjoyable conversations. Last Thursday we had this talk:

“Yesterday I saw this little ant on my floor and my first thought was to kill it, but than I realized how amazing it was, this little life walking on my floor, with all its legs and body moving forward and I thought, woow, another of his great creations!” Talib said with great joy in his face and continued passionately: “Our prophet said that life is precious and that humankind shouldn´t kill anything. All life has the same value! The prophet Mohammed was fantastic!”

“Oman is mainly Ibadi?” I asked him, my very good friend Tali Omar, during this, one of our many Thursday meetings, when we discuss everything from religion to football.

Talib goes up at 4.30 every morning to go to the mosque an pray....

“I don´t see myself belonging to any specific arm of Islam. I am sunni, shite, ibadi, all. I am a Muslim in all ways. It is simple really, it is just to follow the ten commandments of the Bible. I try to do as good as I can.”

Talib is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. He has been the big difference in many ways, regarding the success or failure to put the Expedition on it feet and his wisdom is plentiful. And he never talks bad about anyone, doesn´t pass judgement without knowing, he is well read and educated in life, he speaks with a soft voice, always in a non-aggressive way and he is never pushy, but always helpful, very generous and no matter how busy, bogged down with work, he always takes time to listen and help. Lately he has spent hours in his phone trying to help me find my way through the sign-free parts of Muscat. He is a devout Muslim which prays 5 times a day, he listens often to prayers on the radio or TV and he reads a lot on the same subject.

The five pillars of Islam is: Faith or belief in the Oneness of God and the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad; Establishment of the daily prayers; Concern for and almsgiving to the needy; Self-purification through fasting; and The pilgrimage to Mecca for those who are able.

“I prefer to read books by Western scholars when it comes to Islam” , he says, “They go deeper, question and are more neutral, which means you get a broader spectrum of Islam.”

“Why do you think Islam is so misunderstood in the West?”

“Well, it has become to politicized. Really from the beginning with the Ummiyads and up until today it is far to often based on political and not spiritual power. And when two Muslim sides are at war, like Iran or Iraq or like in Somalia, they blame each other for not being true believers. I guess, like Christianity, look at the catholics and protestants in Northern Ireland…..” I chip in with the former republic of Yugoslavia, “….they´re still not getting along even though they should be called educated people. Because one problem for Islam is that in many Muslim countries education is poor and if you get a bad Imam preaching in an uneducated area, we have a situation. Therefore, if it is a poor country with big divisions between rich and poor, than people will join the opposition whether they are fanatics or not! Education and a fair government is vital!”

“One thing I realized during my time in Yemen studying Arabic, was that in reality, like the Talibans in Afghanistan”  , I said, “These geezers don´t even speak or understand Arabic, how than can they than properly understand the Quran? They don´t even know what they are reading.”

“True. I haven´t thought about that.”

“What about the issue of women? I get a lot of questions from my readers about Islam and their views on women and then they, the readers, refer to some horrible article written about lashing or stoning woman. And add that some Muslims say that it is written in the Quran that the beating of women is a right.”

“The situation for women is not good. Indeed it is terrible. But that has to do with the old culture in this area, which was strong far before the arrival of Islam, and this ancient culture has unfortunately been applied to Islam. But that is not good, because it is a fact, that The Prophet loved women and he had some very strong women around himself and if people try to read his first sermon where he specifically said that society has to protect women and give them the same rights. I have a daughter myself, she plays football and I will give her every chance in life to choose what she wants to do in her life. And regarding beating woman, in Oman it is written in the law that it is forbidden, but it is still not easy to implement, because if a woman goes to court, she will pay a social prize of being evicted from the community. So we still have some time before it works perfectly.”

All throughout our conversation his mobile has rung, messages has poured in, it is Eid Al-adha, plus that Talib really never takes a day off work. Suddenly somebody very important calls and our time is up and we return in his Porsche to Al Ghubra where I live. He stops half way at a mosque for midday prayers. For me Talib is a role model of how a human being should be.

The shopping for Eid Al-Adha is hysterical right now!

Some of the most imposing mosques have elaborate design, like the Sultans Mosque in Muscat.....