Quit being Civilized [Archives:2001/09/Focus]

Crystal
by Mohamed Kadri
I gave up buying books! I sold exactly 454 books last year and intend to sell more of the 1000 plus books that compose my private library at home!

Excited and bored enough, I advise everyone residing in a rented residence in Sana’a to do the same. They will avoid exposing their books to crushing, tearing and loss. And after all, the books, which are usually a heavy weight to carry, require a special budget added to other expenses needed for shifting and transferring them to another place!

Instability and humiliation are our destiny, we, who reside the capital Sana’a. Though the residences we rent, which cost every one of us nearly 50-60% of our monthly salaries, house-owners behave as if there is a total absence of security and law. To them, tenants, especially employees wearing neck-ties, are weak, unsupported by tribals. It is easy to knock on their doors to shout at them or ask violently for a rent increase and threaten to throw their furniture into the streets!

Some of these landlords go beyond unreasonable behavior. They lock doors from the out-side in the absence of tenants and force them to leave the house immediately! To my knowledge, many of these poor tenants are forced to carry their furniture to their relatives’ places, or are compelled to distribute their furniture among their friends’ until finding suitable shelters for themselves!

Is Sana’a a wild place? Are the departments concerned aware of this ugly and horrible situation? Is the development and progress of Sana’a only measured by attractively built houses, luxurious cars in the streets and costly elections? Most urgent and important is the creation of the citizen’s trust, security, identity, respect and safety!

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