Yemen: a nation without addresses [Archives:2006/927/Reportage]
Hakim Almasmari
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“Go straight ahead for four minutes, then turn right and go for another three minutes. Mine is the white house you'll easily see on the way there.” Giving addresses this way is common among Yemenis, as no real street names are given, even to the country's main streets. Everyone encounters difficulty when trying to give the address of a place they want to go or meet someone. Streets are small, unorganized and unevenly paved with many remaining unnamed. Houses have no addresses, as if they never existed or are part of another country.
In countries worldwide, citizens can go from north to south of the country without fear or worry about getting lost. Roads are organized and street names are clear. In Yemen, it is common to change a street name simply because of an occurrence or incident, as no real importance is given to such issues.
“The capital's Siteen St. has so many names that we are now lost. It was called 60th St., then Mohammed Al-Dhurra St., then Yasser Arafat St. and now I see a new sign hanging across the street naming it Mohammed Jinnah St.,” Sana'a resident Dhu-Yazen Ali said.
Rural area streets do not even have names, as residents were so happy that roads finally were available, that they didn't care to name the streets. According to a local survey conducted in Sana'a, 95 percent of capital streets do not have a sign showing the street name. This in turn gives a wider picture of how the country is disorganized. In this situation, instead of addresses, locals give directions to others using stores, buildings or even signs of nature to assist them.
Another issue directly related to addresses is mail that could be received or sent to another person. No house mailing system exists throughout the country and the government has no intention of improving the situation in the near future.
Dr. Hamdan Dammag, a computer scientist recently returned from the UK, said, “In the early '80s, Sana'a was much smaller than it is now. It was easy for mail to be distributed to houses, as it was easy to locate where people lived. Now the city is expanding and nothing has been done in this regard.”
Nowadays, only post office box addresses are available, but they also are limited. With the absence of such requirements, it will take Yemen more than expected to develop into a modern country.
“The importance of having addresses is linked to many necessities in life. Unfortunately, Yemenis are so busy worrying about poverty and unemployment that they have no time for other issues,” said Ammar Abdul Aleem, born in Europe and currently visiting Yemen. “In Europe, life would break down if the mail system stopped. It has become a necessity of life,” he concluded.
The absence of clear addresses has many impacts on delivering vital services. For example, in his speech at last month's opening of the Islamic Relief Disaster Management training event, the Minister of Interior pointed out that lack of a clear address system in cities hinders efforts of fire brigade services in reaching homes quickly.
Normally, the government would begin organizing roads before people began construction in that area. However, Yemenis refer to hundreds of cases where a citizen who built a house more than 10 years ago is told that it is in the middle of a road and must be destructed.
Recently, Yemen's RAHA taxi service advertised rides from the airport to anywhere in the capital for YR 1,500 ($7). According to one of the company's drivers, the major reason for this was because the capital is unorganized and most streets remain unnamed.
How does Yemen expect to deal effectively with the rest of the world without organizing its address system? “The government must prove it is developing not only to the world, but also to itself and, most importantly, to its people,” said Yemeni-American visitor Abdullah Ali, saddened by Yemen's current unorganized system.
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