Yemen today and Europe yesterday [Archives:2002/25/Viewpoint]

My last trip to Europe left me quite concerned for my countrys future. I was given the chance to visit famous museums in Germany and I realized a very important fact. It seems that Yemen today is far worse than Europe a few centuries ago. Whether you agree with me or not, I cannot but share with you my impressions from what I saw in those museums. One of the photos that struck me the most, was a view of Berlin in the 19th century. I could see how organized the roads were with elegant street lamps on either side and the well ordered flow of vehicles moving steadily. The people were clean and the public parks were well structured. This was a general picture of one of the cities of Europe, and I am sure that most European cities looked similar by then.
Centuries before that, I can imagine that those cities did not look much different. In other words, the clean and organized view of the city would have still been present for centuries before that.
Now coming to Yemen, I dont want to compare the streets of those ancient days to streets of Sanaa today because that would be unjust towards Sanaa. I just want to compare the European streets with our most prestigious democratic institution, the parliament. I can recall seeing members of parliament, who are mostly illiterate, walking around in the hall with very little order. Many would come in laughing with untidy clothes and with little knowledge of how to speak respectfully to each other in such a prestigious place. Once they are together, you feel as if they were in a traditional market. Everyone talks at once, some are already hunting for qat to spend the rest of their day chewing. At the end of the night, all that is left are the remains of this plant on the floor.
I asked myself, does this mean that we are like Europe in the 10th century or so? Does this mean that we will have to wait for a thousand years or more to be as advanced as Europe?
I have realized that time is not the issue here. It is not time that we should take as a measure, otherwise the cannibals still living in caves in Africa or South America will be unjustified for staying in the same way until today.
Where is the problem then? I concluded that it is a matter of culture. Even though we are in the 21st century, we are still living with a mentality centuries old. With an illiteracy rate exceeding 60%, we are already out of any development race. The country has been isolated for a very long time, and even when it opened up to the world there was no structured mechanism to learn from others and try to build a society that can develop in full pace.
I would like to take the example of the United Arab Emirates. In a few years they have jumped from an extremely poor country consisting of tribes to one of the major commercial hubs in the world. Was time a factor here? I dont think so.
It is a matter of political will and not time. We should never try to convince ourselves that within a thousand years Yemen could be in better shape. That could surprisingly be the opposite if we continue living the way we are living today. We may go centuries backward.
One friend of mine once drew a cartoon explaining this in a perfect way. The cartoon illustrated three Yemenis riding donkeys in the early 19th century, each trying to be the first and chaotically trying to bypass the others to reach to the qat market. They would fight with jambiyas to be the first. Juxtaposed with that was another drawing of those same Yemenis in the 21st century driving fancy land cruisers each violating the traffic laws to arrive first at the qat market. Then another cartoon showed the same men with same filthy clothes and with the same mentality in the 23rd century piloting flying saucers each trying to be first to the cyber qat market.
This may be an exaggeration, but believe me, one thousand or even a million years will not change us if we dont want to accomplish change from inside. Unless people in this country develop their education, awareness, social values, etc. and move forward like the rest of the world, no matter what we do and how much time passes we will still be living with the mentality of the Stone Age.
Unless we change our mentalities and culture we will see our grandchildren fighting each other to reach the qat market first, even if they are flying technologically advanced flying saucers.

——
[archive-e:25-v:2002-y:2002-d:2002-06-17-p:./2002/iss25/view.htm]