Letters to the Editor [Archives:2001/12/Letters to the Editor]
Dear Editor,
I am a Yemeni immigrant in the USA. I read your paper every week. It is the best paper for me and I really enjoy reading it. I thank you for the good and honest work you do. I feel that your paper connects me with my beloved country Yemen.
Regarding those people who are getting smuggled to our country from The continent of Africa, there are a lot more than the three hundred which is what we heard from some African embassies in the USA. The truth is that thousands of them have been smuggled to Yemen through the sea.
This problem has been going on for a very long time, probably since the Imam time. Yemen is the gate for all Africans, especially to the Arab world and then to the whole world in general. They find that Yemen is an easy way for them to leave poverty in their homeland and start new lives in Yemen or elsewhere. They also found Yemen an easy gate for them because they think that the Yemeni Government does not have the capability to control its boundaries in an effective way, due to the lack of enough money to do so and because Yemenis who are responsible for this job are either busy chewing Qat or doing something else for the family.
We desperately need faithful people to take care of our boundaries and our country in general. Yemen is full of illegal people from all over Africa and maybe from other parts of the world. Unfortunately those people obtain Yemeni Identification Cards and after that passports, by money and bribery.
We need a good system to trace these people and ship them back to where they belong, and we need faithful Yemenis to handle all these things so that we can keep our country Yemen clean of these criminals, so that we can avoid what happened to many innocents Yemenis and some Yemeni girls at Sana’a University.
I thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.
Walid Bajebril
Dear Editor,
I discovered your site (www.yementimes.com) and found it to be very interesting; I hope it is available for a long time to come. It aids me in educating myself about your country and the Arab World in general. I am an American, living in Baton Rouge, La. My father is employed in Saudi Arabia, and lives and works near Jeddah. I found your commentary on the actions of the Taliban militia in Afghanistan to be particularly refreshing. They have inflicted needless suffering on their people, who already have withstood much since 1979. The mistreatment of women and the recent destruction of ancient statues is symbolic of a group of people who desire to inflict Puritanism, as it was called in this country, upon all the people. I have respect for Islam, and would like to study it, but frankly don’t know where to begin because there are so many factions and interpreters of Islam. If you would have any opinion on my comments I would welcome them. Thank you for this service and I will be a regular visitor.
Joseph Michael Henry
[email protected]
A Letter of Appeal To US Ambassador
I had a brother living in the US 22 years ago. His name was Ahmad Mohammed Sa’eed al-Hubaishi. He worked in the Marriot Hotel for 21 years as a public relations officer and was well commended for his job. On 1.12.1999 he was savagely murdered in the United States in his apartment in Los Angeles, California. The US government announced $25,000 as a reward for whoever gave evidence leading to the arrest of his murderers.
Four months after hearing the bad news, I started organizing my passport and tickets in order to leave for the US to check the case of my brother. I applied for the US Embassy to get a visa and I had all the medical documents that proved the case by 9.4.2000. However, Mr. Daved, the consul, refused to endorse my visa. Then, I came three months later with a recommendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the consulate section, to cooperate with me and help check my brother’s case. However, the US consul refused again. After a further six months, in accordance with US laws, I came with documents which were sent from the US proving my brother’s case and with other documents endorsed by the Yemeni Justice Ministry. However, for the third time Mr. Daved refused to give me an entry visa.
I do appeal to you, the US Ambassador, to re-consider my case and appreciate the circumstances I am in after the tragic death of my brother. I am pinning high hopes on the US ambassador to endorse my visa to the US to follow my brother’s case.
Sa’eed Mohammed Sa’eed al-Hubaishi Passport No. 0045524
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