Hodeidah’s tears [Archives:2006/931/Letters to the Editor]

Mohammed Ismail Al-Ansi
Hodeidah
Hodeidah is one of 21 governorates in the Republic of Yemen; however, Hodeidah is different. It is not like other governorates, as it is like a body without a soul. It looks like a ghost city because it is destroyed.

In the summer, temperatures rise above 40 degrees in Hodeidah and wet weather is more difficult than in other seasons. Imagine if the electricity goes off, especially while sleeping or at midnight. Can you guess how hot and sweaty the weather gets? But that's nothing compared to the electricity going off more than five times a day, which creates many problems like rotting food, breaking refrigerators and air conditioners and students failing their examinations. All these difficulties and more come out in the summer and their causes are due to only one thing: there is not enough money to buy other dynamos for Hodeidah.

There are other difficulties in Hodeidah; for example, broken roads, wastewater in streets and alleys, disease, joblessness and poverty. Each problem is linked to the other: wastewater is in streets and alleys due to broken roads, there are diseases because of the wastewater and there is poverty because of joblessness.

There is a very dangerous reflection in Hodeidah. That is, there are many beggars and starving people – both young and old – spread throughout Hodeidah. They knock on each door asking for money or some food to eat, creating different ways to ask. They sometimes ask for money to feed their children while the next day they ask for it to cure a relative. They bring their children or sheets of paper, enter mosques and stand up after they finish praying. They weep and swear by the Holy Qur'an that they need some money. People sometimes believe them or sometimes don't believe them at all. With all these problems, Hodeidah and its population look forward to a better future.
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