Faces of Yemen (Part II)

On March 1 our government made public the expansion of an effort already under way: training and equipping Yemenis in counter-terrorism. We have, at least on the surface, convinced Yemen’s President Saleh of this need. He, again apparently, has convinced some key tribal leaders. Result: Here come about 100 U.S. troops, mostly Special Forces.

As in Afghanistan, this low-scale infusion of high-skill warriors may have immediate benefit. Longer-term, as we’re learning from Afghanistan, the War on Terror will take more than warfare. It will also require development: social, economic and (least pressing) political. All of these, to complicate matters somewhat, must be Islam-friendly.

Yemen’s 18 million people put it tops in population among all Arabian Peninsular countries. Arguably, it also places first in terms of authentic nation-state reality. Consider the competition. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are basically Sinbad the Sailor ports whose importance will end with their oil. Vast Saudi Arabia, oil-richest of all, is essentially a no-man’s land. Even the special status of Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two most sacred cities, dates back fewer than 1500 years. Yemen, whose climate supports sedentary agriculture, has deeper roots in older civilizations. One mundane indication of legitimate national heritage: Yemeni airport customs officials check outgoing luggage … for antiquities. Oil is valuable, at least for now, but antiquity will always be priceless, in politics as well as in museums.

With less oil and more folks, Yemen also leads the peninsula in material poverty. Temperamentally Yemen may still be what the Romans called Happy Arabia, but ArabSat dishes now sit on Yemeni rooftops and viewers know that people live better – or at least richer – elsewhere.

That awareness breeds frustration, palpable last week on the pot-holed, rubbish-littered back streets of Aden. The economy of southern Yemen, once a British crown colony, stagnated under Marxist rule (1967-1990) and now suffers from neglect by a unified but northern-dominated government. Young, male Adenis have a choice: seek fortune elsewhere or stay put and seethe. Qat, the national narcotic, does much to gentle the mind … but not everybody’s. From Steamer Point, the fourth most active wharf in the world four decades ago, you can now get an uncluttered view of where the USS Cole was suicide bombed on Oct. 12, 2000. Three hundred FBI agents, many of them newcomers to exotic travel, descended on Aden. It was, by all accounts and on both sides, a culturally memorable experience. Key question: What else, besides inserting feds and commandos, can the United States do to minimize explosions? One answer is development.

Our annual development assistance to Yemen has recently run at $30 million to $35 million. Precise figures are hard to calculate because most aid comes in the form of commodities purchased from American farmers, given to the Yemeni government, and then sold at auction with proceeds going to fund worthy development enterprises. Guidelines for worthiness are set by a steering committee of Yemeni and American officials. Many of the useful programs resemble U.S. involvement elsewhere: health, education, road building, and de-mining.

Two U.S.-funded programs display genuine imagination and, with fuller publicity, can earn the United States some valuable goodwill. Both have to do with water, more plentiful in Yemen than elsewhere in Arabia, but still the ultimate scarce resource.

Rain, when it comes, can be torrential. Both Sana’a (the capital) and Aden are bisected by natural sluices which, when free of garbage, allow flood waters to pass without damage. Burgeoning populations and nonorganic rubbish have clogged these drainage ditches, called sahilas, and converted them into cross-town, open-air cesspools. Now the United States has funded a three-phase project to improve both hygiene and flood control – with traffic benefits to boot.

Just about half-finished, the project is striking in form as well as function. You go from unimproved (green slime mixed with rubber tires, AC carcasses, and all manner of that modern blessing-curse: non-biodegradable plastic) to underway (rubbish removed, contours shaped, concrete foundation laid) to completed (broad, paved roadway at the bottom, flanked by millions of hand-hewn stones with stylish staircases and overpasses). With Kabul in ruins, Old Sana’a is beyond doubt Islam’s most traditional, picturesque capital city. Our sahila project will help keep it that way and, without plastic, improve the life of every inhabitant.

Less immediately noticeable but even more appreciated in certain Islamic quarters is our effort to restore park-like city gardens (mashaqem) associated with mosques. These were deeded, decades or centuries ago, by private owners in the form of waqf or charitable trust whose proceeds aid mosque upkeep. Sadly, not all the gardens have themselves been kept up.

Last Thursday I stood at dusk on a rooftop in Old Sana’a. Even with the satellite dishes, it’s one of the world’s great skylines. (UNESCO agrees and has given its imprimatur … but can’t or won’t stand up to ArabSat.) Below me were two of these maqashem gardens: one restored by cleaning and watering, the other still a desiccated dump. The difference: U.S. input. The result: Proof positive, no matter how small, that the United States is not anti-Islam. There are two calls to prayer in late afternoon/early evening, and, while standing there and listening to them, I felt that one tiny fraction of my tax dollar was being extremely well spent.

We also invest in furthering what already are the Arabian Peninsula’s most vigorous democratic institutions. Here again, to be honest, there’s not much competition from the various kingdoms, emirates, and sheikhdoms. Yemen, however, is a republic with political parties (including an Islamist opposition movement, mercifully divided), a national assembly, and regional and local councils. These bodies are actually elective, in fact as well as in name. Small but significant U.S.-funded programs are helping to upgrade election awareness and procedure. Today, Yemen, tomorrow Florida.

How else to minimize explosions? Three place names occurred in virtually all my substantive conversations with Yemenis: Palestine, Israel, and now Saudi Arabia. The Yemenis, like Arabs and Muslims everywhere, are both mystified and offended by our profoundly uneven support of Israel at Palestinian expense. Some, while pleasant with me in person, are truly furious. Others, whom I did not meet, bombed the Cole and doubtless plan other bombs.

Now Crown Prince Abdullah, de facto leader of Islam’s spiritual homeland, has made a simple proposal: full Arab normalization of relations with Israel in return for full withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian lands. Land (as defined by U.N. Security Council resolutions) for peace (as defined by international diplomatic norms). Never before has such an offer come from such a source. Never before has the choice been so clear: to the Palestinians and their worldwide sympathizers, to the Israelis and their American enablers. Who will say what? Here are my guesses:

Despite some aggressive rhetoric from Hamas & Co., the Palestinians will say Yes. They want and deserve this deal. Ariel Sharon, who wants (still more) land and (only then) peace, will find some way to say No. If so, he will more than ever deserve the world’s contempt and his people’s dismissal.

What will we say? If we equivocate and hem and haw and let the moment pass – with no matter how many pious pronouncements on the need for further consultation and reflection – then you can forget about the potential for achievement of those 100 new U.S. troops in Yemen and of the sahila sluiceway construction and of the maqashem garden renewal. You can forget about the countless overtime hours spent by countless overworked officials in understaffed U.S. embassies such as ours in Sana’a. All this effort will lack moral credibility if its sponsor – the USA – has none.

America, like Yemen, has many faces. Which will we present?

Dr. Whitney Azoy, a cultural anthropologist and former U.S. diplomat in Kabul, has worked for 30 years with Afghanistan and the Muslim world.