What we can do for our country [Archives:2006/916/Letters to the Editor]

Munib Althary
[email protected]
A United States President once said, “Ask what you can do for your country. Ask not what your country can do for you.” These are the words of former President John F. Kennedy quoting historical and respected Arab novelist Khalil Gibran.

This statement made me wonder. I am a student in the U.S. with dual citizenship. How can I help my country develop by being abroad? Like many Yemenis, the first thing we think about is building a house back home costing millions of riyals and hundreds of thousands of dollars. This obviously will not have a great impact on our economy. It is a good idea to invest in the Yemeni market, but without stability, it is risky business.

My question is how can we help our economy while at the same time secure funds we gather abroad? The answer is a more stable judicial system and law enforcement, which I'm sad to say are absent currently.

If there are people out there reading this letter, my cry to them is not to give up on our country. Yemenis living abroad are valued as much as Yemenis living in Yemen. Let us not only help the people to which we belong, but also build our children's future, so that someday they might have the opportunities in Yemen that we had abroad.
——
[archive-e:916-v:14-y:2006-d:2006-01-30-p:letters]