Yemeni British Relations: Horizons and Dimensions [Archives:2007/1013/Letters to the Editor]
Sami Sallam
[email protected]
Some people might think about England negatively because of the near history precisely when United Kingdom Government was given the delegation right by the United Nations in order to occupy Aden in 1839. They are not realistic enough to be able to grasp that it was in the past and buried and we live today life with their own private circumstances.
I have to say to those that the direction of Britain politics towards Yemen has been completely changed and you should go out of the empty circle which had been created during long time since 1948. We can find these changes obviously in the daily physical moments. For instance, the key role which was played by the British Embassy in arranging and hosting the Donors Conference which the president Ali Abdullah Salih attended on 13 November. This achievement reflects the wise diplomacy of the British Embassy in hastening one new step in considering Yemen of Gulf Council. In addition, we cannot ignore the financial and moral participation of the British Council, the cultural attache of British Embassy, in collaboration with Yemeni Ministry of Education programme of setting up English Language to be an obligatory subject in primary schools and in many awareness projects such as the climate change. Besides, the Embassy organises a yearly reception for members of the BYS, British Yemeni Society in London, opening up the opportunity of getting them together with members of the YBFA, Yemeni British Friendship Association in Sana'a. Consequently, one direct or in direct outcome of these efforts invites Yemeni and British businessmen for investment in Yemen. For example, Faiza AlBreriki is one businesswoman who is lately came from England and investing huge sum in qualifying youths and many other important issues. I really wonder from those who are still in that empty circle of enmity conception; however these above mentioned examples are obvious. A rational person must look attentively and focus on these enormous attitudes from the British part, and I am sure that he is going to confirm the sense of the obligation of exchanging them with similar horizons and dimensions that could be back to our homeland benefits. Finally, I would like to address this message particularly to youths who are against the idea of dealing with the west in general and the UK in particular. I invite these brothers to discuss this issue somewhere in Sana'a University or wherever.
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