Yemen, from the Perpective of Hussein Kanji

     WAISers have reported on Saudi Arabia in the most divergent ways. One asked in what capacity Jaqui White was there. Her husband, an American physician, was a professor at Abha University. She likes local color, whether it be in Saudi Arabia or in her beloved Mexico. Others are more concerned with the hard sociological realities, the warts on the face.
     Today I got a different perspective from Hussein Kanji, a devout Muslim born in New York of parents from Kenya; the family originally came from India. A specialist in symbolic systems (a basis for computer research), he spent a year at the Arab Language School in San'a, the capital of Yemen. He chose it because the Arabic of Yemen is closest to classical Arabic. The number of students had declined sharply, following the capture of sixteen foreign tourists by mutinous tribesmen, who killed four; the army rescued the rest.
     Hussein's description of Yemen was bleak. A once relatively prosperous country because of its excellent coffee, it is now one of the world´s poorest. Coffee has been replaced by more profitable qat, which is even grown by the government, and the populace has become apathetic. The whole country is filthy, even though both San'a and Ta'izz have historic buildings. UNESCO has proclaimed all San'a part of the patrimony of humanity. Al Mukha (Mocha) is colorful but miserable. Aden, once well-run by the British, is in a similar plight. Everyone expresses the wish that the British or even the Russians would return to clean the place up.
     Hussein traveled widely in the Arab world, even though in Saudi Arabia, as an American, he was restricted to Mecca and Medina. It is hard to realize that Yemen has more population (some four million) than Saudi Arabia (three million). Hussein stressed the equality which is preached by Islam. He has little respect for the Saudi royal family, whose religion is purely formal, and who frequent the pleasure spots of Europe. Because of Israel, the people are resentful of the United States (with which they lump the British), and angry because the Saudi monarchy agreed to pay all the costs of Desert Storm.
     Everywhere there are angry young men, angry because there are no jobs. While Hussein regrets the cruelty of the Algerian Islamist Party, he says that its protest was justified because the Army, as guardians of Western liberalism, nullified the election which the Islamist Party had won by an overwhelming vote.
     Throughout the Islamic world, Hussein stresses the movement toward equality rather than the need for a Western lifestyle. As for the complaints about the abuse of women, he simply says that is not in accord with true Islam. He thinks that Islam, the world's fastest-growing religion, strongly represented in countries like the U.S. and Britain, will win. I did not ask him how that would affect the supply of red wine, which has been my worldwide protection against intestinal bugs.

Ronald Hilton - 10/27/99