As their efforts to spread awareness among Yemenis of the devastating harms of this evil plant continue, can these young men and women win in their WAR AGAINST QAT [Archives:1999/18/Reportage]
May 3 1999
It was like a breeze of fresh air blowing in. It brought with it new vigor and hope. The five young men and women who were invited to the Yemen Times premises to talk about their voluntary work in fighting qat carried with them an air of having a mission. It assured me Yemen still produces many noble-hearted young people.
I walked by them twice. They were in the waiting lounge. For some reason, I wanted to eye them from a distance before I make my approach.
It was possibly because I was scared that yet another of my hopes would be shattered. But my colleagues at the paper assured me the young men and women were the real mcCoy.
Once they were shown into the talk-room, I appeared up at the door. I started to fumble a few words of welcome. Then I expressed my feelings. “I am very proud of you,” I said. “The work you are doing has a lot of meaning for our nation and its future,” I added. Their faces beamed with happiness. They appreciated the respect and recognition they were getting. Apparently the admiration and respect was mutual. “It is good to finally meet you,” ventured one of the women.
Volunteerism is an old Yemeni tradition, though not structured or institutionalized. For many young men and women, voluntary activities as a public service to society is part of a rite of passage – a wobbly suspension bridge leading to maturity. It gives young men and women the satisfaction of chipping in, and of being accepted into the community. But for some people, the depth of the meaning and extent of contribution can be an enduring treasure.
This story is a case in point. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf It all started when a prominent community leader, Mr. Ahmed Jaber Afeef, former Minister of Education, and founder of Al-Afeef Cultural Institution, decided to take the first step in the long battle. A battle that is almost impossible to win. It is the battle to eliminate qat.
Fortunately, Mr. Afeef was not alone in his battle. A number of young Yemeni students, male and female, joined hands with Mr. Afeef, and volunteered to take the first steps along with him. They are now active members in the Al-Afeef’s Qat Combating Society. Today we can witness the small, yet effective, beginning of their campaign.
Part of their efforts is to spread awareness among Yemenis of the dangers of qat. For this purpose, the Qat Combating Society has issued a newspaper named “Yemen Without Qat”. The title in itself is somewhat a dream for now, but their ultimate goal is to achieve it. Can they do it?
To answer this question, we sat and talked with five young men and women from the Qat Combating Society.
We first asked them how the whole thing started.
Mr. Al-Zurqa added that the committee then developed into a society with the name “Qat Combating Society”. The main goal of the committee is to show people the harmful affects of qat on all facets of life.
Today, despite the committee’s call for local sponsors, nobody has shown us any sign of cooperation.
Ms. Bushra Al-Thahibi talked about the harms qat causes: “For instance, the economic harm of qat could be seen when a qat dealer sells qat to people, he is investing his money in damaging people’s wellbeing and health. When you ask me, what is the alternative for a person who stays home all afternoon chewing qat, I tell you that our society is not responsible to find substitutes. Any person who is asking for an alternative is in fact inventing excuses, for he is unable to quit chewing qat. One can imagine the glory Yemen would have had if Qat weren’t there. Believe me, Qat is the main reason why we are among the poorest nations in the world”
Mr. Bashir Al Ba’dani then explains: “We see that the national campaign against qat is quite success. The reaction it received from locals, schools, and institutions is so far favorable. The number of schools engaged in our qat combating campaign has reached 150. Our activities consist of distributing some posters and stickers.” Al-Ba’dani also stresses: “The committee’s main goal is to illuminate the students on the harmful effects of qat. The response we received from the students was quite encouraging. We know that if the the idea were driven home, they could pass it on to their own parents. The campaign for this year is restricted to the capital secretariate but we plans to launch similar campaigns in other major cities in Aden, Taiz, and Hadramout governorates.”On the government’s role in this campaign, Ms. Sawsen Ali Al-Jowfi said “The government was represented by a delegate from the Ministry of Social Affairs. The Ministry of Education also has been supportive. Other contacts have been made with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Religious Guidance, but unfortunately, there has been no response. The society intends to continue its campaign and there are many seasonal programs ahead.”
The society has succeeded in addressing this problem to the younger generations. A sign of this is the seriousness and will of the students to help in spreading awareness to others in the best ways they can.
Ms. Najla Al-Maqaleh said, “Since its start on 13th of April 99, our campaign was covered briefly by a number of official and independent newspapers. This campaign has just started and intends to continue until it fulfills its goal of eradicating this harmful habit of chewing qat.
In conclusion, we can say that we are a nation famous for its wisdom. Today, Qat seems to have taken our wisdom away for good.”
On another level, a team from the Yemen Times visited Al-Afif Cultural Institution and talked to the man who is behind it all, Mr. Ahmed Jaber Afif, the founder of this respectable establishment :
On how the idea began, Mr. A. J. Afif says “Combating the devastating effects of Qat is in fact an old idea, but in 1992 there was an attempt to revive it. To this end, we organized a successful campaign for a public conference in which more than 90 intellectuals, writers and social dignitaries took part. A delegate from the Ministry of Insurance and Social affairs also attended the conference, which produced an administrative committee. I was elected Chairman of this committee and we soon started to think of relevant plans and programs. Unfortunately, the crushing political problems which the country experienced at that time hindered these plans and all of us fell victims to the pressure of the moment.
However, I tried some time later to communicate with the other members of the committee but I found that their enthusiasm for the idea had grown less for different reasons or, if I may say, excuses. In the meantime, an idea to seek the assistance of young college students came up and already I started to engage the interest of these students, who used to frequent Al-Afif Cultural Institution.
On how the press responded to the campaign, Mr. A. Jaber Afif says: “The Press response was positive and deserves thanks. In fact, all official and independent press interacted generously with the campaign. So did the official Radio and television stations to some extent. Our program is vitally important to the nation, and I don’t think there could be anyone opposing it. Even the President himself is aware of the depressing consequences of this phenomenon and we all heard him describing Qat chewing as a crime. In fact, I was very delighted to hear these words from the president and I sent him a letter expressing my gratitude for such a stand and encouraging him to continue it. Let me stress here that this problem is not mine, yours or someone else’s, for it is above all a moral commitment for anybody who really cares for the future of this country. What makes me extremely downhearted, is that at the gate of the new millennium, our entire life is shockingly wasted in consuming this tree in a way that can not even be compared to the near past, where the amount of money and the time spent on qat were insubstantial. At that time, qat chewing was exclusively practiced by a certain group of people, namely the middle age and the old men. Now qat is besieging everyone, male and female and at almost every age. Kids and women are shamelessly encouraged to do it. What a waste! What a shame!”Whether there is a long term plan for this campaign or not, he says, “No, we have no specific plan, but we have determination and hope to continue work in the same vein. Some pessimists would say that this problem is too rooted in our social life to be eradicated in the near future. We are fully aware that it’s hard to do away with a 600 hundred years old phenomenon in ten or even twenty years. But the overwhelming spread of Qat that has happened in the last ten years is too much for me to describe, and if we continue pretending that nothing has happened, God knows what will become of this country.
Therefore, let us do whatever we can and more importantly let us continue doing it. With time, results are certainly to show. On this occasion I find it propitious to address through the Yemen Times all honest writers and papers to join hands to at least check the scandalous spread of this phenomenon. I say scandalous because this tree has completely distorted our image before the whole world and I feel ashamed when I meet with foreign visitors and see the look of contempt and accusation in their eyes. I would also like to call on the state and every official in the government to open up their eyes to the problem of chewing qat and begin by an annual plan which aims at minimizing the spread of this tree. The future generations invite us to secure a better tomorrow and the sooner we do it, the better.”
On the geographical extent of this year’s campaign, Mr. Ahmed Jaber Afif says “This year’s campaign is restricted to the Capital Secretariat, and I feel indebted to Oxfam Organization which did a lot to finance this campaign. To this Organization I can only say thanks for your generous assistance. Next year we will be working to expand the campaign to cover other major cities in Aden, Taiz and Hadramout and every year the campaign will cover a number of governorates. Of course, we expect performance of the volunteering young people to improve and their techniques to be more dynamic than they are now. The time limit for this campaign is one month and so far, the response of the public is greater than we expected.
“Every non-qat-chewing Yemeni is a member of this society” said Mr. Afif. He has reached his eightees, and he added that as he is approaching death, he feels sorry to leave his country controlled by this serious problem. However, he summarizes the whole problem in one word: Faith. Once the community starts to believe that this situation can change “we shall eventually wake up to the day when Yemen has set itself completely free from this dangerous epidemic.” Mr. Afif says. He concludes by stating that a comprehensive report on qat’s negative effects will be published by the 13th of May.
Background from the Qat Combating Society
Qat is one of the old habits in Yemen that everybody sticks to. It does not mean that people chew qat only when they have some free time. Businessmen chew qat believing that these leaves could help them make good decisions. Students dramatically believe that qat can help them in comprehending their lessons and keep them awake. They ignore the fact that qat is only a temporary alarming herb, its effect goes as soon as they spit it from their mouths. The truth is qat is believed to be more or less another kind of drug.
Therefore we make a joint call for students, businessmen and to the whole nation: “the habit of chewing qat is incorrect, people should acknowledge that qat has a temporary and deadly affect on their minds and their bodies. A dangerous waste of money, whether for those with limited incomes or rich people.” All local newspapers, including Yemen Time,s appeal to the Yemeni people to stop this habit and think of the consequences.
Combating this habit that has passed from one generation to another is a difficult mission. It requires a lot of patience and determination. The following sources could be implemented to help in combating this tree:
-Media, especially TV, could participate in presenting reports to citizens inside the country and outside; especially about those who suffer from serious diseases caused by the harmful affect of qat.
-Providing efficient employment opportunities for the youths so they could fill their leisure times.
-Providing general libraries with different types of books, and also holding cultural competitions with prizes that might draw attention to books.
-Forbidding the import and use of insecticides that help in growing qat trees.
-Encouraging farmers to plant other beneficial crops such as coffee and fruits.
Qat’s negative effects are many, but we could brief them in the following:
Parents who spend many hours chewing qat neglect their children and family affairs, besides the money wasted on these leaves. Some types of qat that come from remote parts in Yemen such as Hajja, cost around YR. 70,000 for a bundle. Lower quality types of qat cost between YR 15,000 to 4000 per one bundle. Other types, with many names, come from such provinces as Dhamar. The price of this type of qat is between YR. 3,000 and 300 per bundle. Many people living in Sanaa prefer the qat brought from Rada’a City that comes in small bundles varying in price from YR. 10 to 50. Estimations indicate that the daily profit of qat in Dhammar province reaches YR. 20 to 40 millions. People waste all this money for this harmful tree, and besides money, they also waste most of their time. Studies indicate areas planted with qat reach 5.26% of the agricultural land and 7.2% of the currently used land and 73.6% of the total land planted with perennial products. The percentage of land planted with qat has increased during 1980-1990 to 77.7% at the expense of the plantation of coffee and other crops. Data indicate that the growing percentage of qat acres witnesses a 14% annual increase. The lands planted with qat equal two thirds of lands planted with coffee and tobacco together, and eight times more than the lands planted with cotton, while lands planted with other vegetables and fruits are less than half of the qat planted areas. Land allotted to qat is five times more than the land allotted to grapes and dates and 10 times more than banana planted areas.
The harms of qat are not limited to the economic and cultural aspects of life, but also affect life in general. Qat plantations exhaust most of the water resources in the country. It also occupies wide lands that could have been planted with other corps. What makes things worse is that qat irrigation depends on ground water sources, which are considered to be a significant reservoir that should only be used in cases of urgency. This unplanned consumption of water could lead to a catastrophe for a country that suffers from scarce water resources.
A study on qat requirements of water indicates that each hectare of qat in Sana’a area requires 12 cubic meters of water, according to the statistics of the Supreme Council of Water in 1992. This means that a land planted with qat needs to be irrigated to a depth of 1.3 meter during the growing season.
In the seventies, most qat plantations depended on rain, but these days qat farmers use water pumps to irrigate their plantations. These pumps suck up water from 4000 wells. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that qat plantation’s consume 800 million cubic meters of water annually.
Qat plantations supplant other products such as coffee and grains. The last few years witnessed a drastic increase of qat planting substituting other less profitable crops such as coffee and grains. Studies indicate that such a phenomenon is distinctively seen in the Haraz area, where coffee used to be the main product. However, today 90% of the terraces are planted with qat. In 1981, qat areas reached 40-45 thousand hectares including terraces used to be planted with other products. In the mid-eighties the area reached 60-85 thousands hectares.
In other areas in Yemen such as Haudh Sana’a, qat plantation reached 5% of the overall agricultural land. In Wadi Dhahar, the percentage is 8%. There is a visible indication that qat plantation is increasing dramatically in the nineties where the areas planted with qat reached 92 thousand hectares. In spite of all this, people still fool themselves into believing that qat is not a dangerous plant, and even say that it helps us in comprehending and understanding things better. Report by:
Khairiya Al-Shabibi
Yemen Times
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