Yemenis “Valid for use” [Archives:2001/13/Focus]

Crystal
By Mohamed Kadri
One can’t describe our people except as “valid for use!” Citizens continue to complain, suffer starvation, lack simplest medications, die of poverty, suffer unemployment ..etc. And while they are so, Yemenis are proven to be patient and optimistic. Their optimism, however, seems to be nothing but a sign of their weakness and despair!
Yes, Yemenis are really valid for use! Their demands are ignored and their mouths are shut! Years elapse and nothing to improve the nation’s living conditions is done. Poverty widens daily, unemployment of millions is left untreated, appearances of unknown infectious diseases are announced now and then, and people are seen lacking resistance to survive from the simplest sicknesses such as Influenza.
While Eid days were expected to be times of joy and cheerfulness, Yemenis had to spend those days in bed. Hospitals replaced gardens and entertainment centers and parties! Fathers failed to offer medication to hurting children, and mothers had to find their ways to goldsmitheries in Jamal Abdul Naser street to sell their golden accessories that they always kept since their marriage time, as assets to face black and disastrous times of an unexpected and unknown deceiving age!
To contemplate about the conditions faced by Yemenis during Eid days, in particular, one has nothing to recommend except refraining from paying the income tax at the rate of15%.
Can any one mention any type of service, aid, housing, or education in exchange for what he pays monthly? Nothing grows up and is promoted in Yemen except amounts of monthly bills due, like in food stuff prices and increases in housing rents. Regarding the varieties of fruits displayed on street corners, they are but exhibitions to show off while groceries waste barrels are found full at the end of the day! No wonder, then, Yemenis can’t resist diseases. Truly they are ‘valid for use’.

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