Al-Sahwa [Archives:2006/1002/Press Review]
23 Nov.2006
Main headlines
– Sheikh al-Ahmar: Arab countries participate in the blockade against the Palestinian people
– Islah party secretary general meets with delegation of the European Commission
– Dr al-Zindani chairs Arab parliamentary committee to Darfur
– Considering European assistance to Yemen as a risk, director of the European Commission confirms the necessity of correcting electoral legislations
– Local council members file lawsuit against Abu Ras
– Al-Thawri newspaper editor in chief tell of attempted assassination as the cause of his seeking political asylum in London
Writer Zaid al-Shami says in an article the donors at London conference have offered around $ 5 billion to be paid in installments. The donors have not reached yet to the stage of confidence in Yemen's ability to properly use that aid. We have rather heard from them severe advices making us ask them that they should themselves implement development projects in our country so that to assure them that the hand of corruption will not be able to touch what they would pay. That acknowledgement, though it is an expression of transparency, it does not honor us to be in such a position that we have put ourselves in. this should rather push us to lead a comprehensive revolution against corruption and incompetence.
Yemen's budget this year amounted to more than $ 8 billion including what has been spent of differences in oil prices. This is an amount of money that should have helped us against asking others to give us. Therefore our problem does not lie in scarcity of resources but rather in the mismanagement of them. Is it believable that $ 2 billion revenues resulting from oil prices differences to go in vain and comes in the form of an additional corrupting in chapters of the state budget and repeated expenditures? That amount could have been towards infrastructures. For instance half of the additional appropriation could have been spent on generating double the amount of electric power that we have now and thus we can solve our electricity problem for the coming ten years.
There are failures that are difficult to deny and unclear priorities and we have not felt seriousness on part of the authority of the corrupt. Unemployment is increasing, incomes are getting less and the space of poverty is expanding while our country is experiencing circumstances in which we can come out of the bottleneck and to build a strong economy to depend upon. Assistance cannot create the aspired for renascence. From its name assistance can help but not carry out development and construction instead of the country's sons. There cannot be an example of a country in the world that managed to stand up again and got rid of its backwardness without depending on its own capabilities, resources and sons. The assistance of others comes as complementary.
If totalitarian policies, admiration of ones opinion, marginalizing talents and stopping energies and thinking only of winning elections continue no loans and grants will give any benefit.
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