Culture Page - Issue 24

24 - June 12th thru June 18th 2000, Vol X

European film festival- 2000
Voice of Love and Revolution

The Fourth Film Festival was organized from 4th to 13th June, 2000. Eight European diplomatic missions and cultural centers representing Germany, Poland, Turkey, Czech Republic, Netherlands, France, Italy and Britain, in cooperation with and under the auspices of the Yemeni Ministry of Culture and Tourism have already taken all the necessary preparatory steps for this great event of the Yemeni Capital cultural life. The European Film Festival has already become a tradition in Yemen. Its first edition was held in June, 1997, the second one in May,1998, the third one in June,1999 at the Yemeni Cultural Center, with participation of several European countries. Great interest showed by the Yemeni public opinion as well as the enthusiastic support and assistance provided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in organizing the festival brought the former participants to the conclusion that it served well the development of the Yemeni-European cultural relations and that it should be continued in the next years.
The Festival gives details of dates, times, and film titles together with the names of the producers and directors.

On 4 June, 2000.
A film from Germany entitled," Run Lola Run"The film deals with the issue of life, love and death. Lola and Manni are in their early 20s and lovers. It seems that Manni is involved in crooked dealing for a black-marketeer in cars. but everything goes wrong and Manni leaves the bag with 100,000 Marks lying in the underground. His boss wants to collect the money in twenty minutes. Then he phones Lola about it and Lola runs out into the street. She runs for her life, love and for Manni's life.

On 5 June, 2000
A film from Poland entitled," With Fire and Sword"The seventeenth century polish-Ukrainian borderland is torn by a Cossack uprising. A young Polish Colonel Skrzetuski on his way back from Russia meets beautiful Helena which he falls in love with her. Unfortunately, as a result of her Aunt's plot, Helena had been promised to a Ukrainian soldier in return for her resignation from the right to a family property. When Skrzetuski finds out about the plot, the Aunt agrees to give Helena to him. When Bohun the soldier learns about it, he run mad and burns the property down killing the Aunt's sons. Finally, Skrzetuski meets Helena and they announce their engagement and the colonel gets Bohum imprisoned. However, he lets Bohum free at last.

6 June, 2000
A film from Turkey entitled," Roots of Oleander" - My Childhood.
Muzo the son of a poor family lives in Adana with his big brother Sefa. Muzo is a sensitive imaginative boy. A couple moves into the house opposite of Muzo's. The man is old and rich and the woman is young. The old man always sends him to buy drinks giving him tips generously.. The young woman leaves home because the man keeps beating her. Ten years later, muzo meets the daughter of their new neighbor Cumali. They work together in the same cotton field and the father desires to marry his daughter to muzo but he can not marry her before he completes his education. Thus the father marries her to another man.

7 June, 2000
A film from Czech entitled," kolya"This Oscar winning film describes the everyday troubles of a peculiar old bachelor Louka who accepts a faked marriage with Russian woman Nadezda. After her emigration to the West, he unexpectedly becomes father of five years old Russian boy named kolya. After the political changes in Czechoslovakia, Kolya returns to his mother leaving the two couple to say good-bye to each other.

8 June,2000
A film from Holland entitled," Abel The flying liftboy"Abel, 11 years old, isn't getting on well in his school so the mother takes him away from the school and he gets a job as a lift boy in a department store. Abel likes the job very much. When a policeman comes to take him back to school, he pushes the green button and the lift shoots up like a rocket. that's how the adventure of Abel and the Flying Lift starts. The journey leads all those in the lift to New York and to the Latin America.

10 June,2000
A film from France entitled," Le Bossu"- ( The hunchback)
It will take 16 years for Lagardere to have revenge on treacherous Gonzague who murdered his friend, the Duke of Nevers. Sixteen years to make morals triumph, to save his honor and to find love.

12 June,2000
A film from Italy entitled," notes of Love"Angela is a woman of thirty, who in search of her love, challenges her phobias. She convinces herself that she found the man of her dreams. The only problem is that Marco, a teacher about forty, separated from his wife a father to a daughter of fifteen. On the other hand, he is in love with one of his young students, who in turn loves the wrong person just like Angela. Despite all the difficulties, destiny brings Angela closer to the man of her dreams.

13 June,2000
A film from Britain entitled," lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"The plot revolves around five likeable, rough diamond characters. They take part in a serious card game and believe that everything is under control. They don't realize that the table is rigged and consequently they find themselves owing twice the amount originally played for. A group of upper class hippies have cultivated a potent strain of cannabis which is turning into a profitable business venture. when the hippies' stash of money is stolen by a violent gang, chaos ensues as it transpires that the dope growers are working for another gang.

The Future of Yemen's Higher Education and Skills Training
The Value in the NGO Higher Education Conference

Abdullah A. Fadil
Lecturer of Management & Labour Relation in Canada
Consultant in International Development

The organizers of the NGO Higher Education Conference have set out for themselves and the conference a few modest yet ambitious goals and objectives:
- Improve the Higher Education System in Yemen, and formulate admission polices, according to labor market needs and the country's human development strategy.
- Upgrade curricula and teaching methods of Sciences and technology.
- Increase women's enrollment and participation in Higher Education.
- Enhance the meaning of the Technical and Vocational Training.
- Introduce financial alternatives to support Higher Education programs such as private Distance Education and Open Flexible education.
- Adopt and spread the concepts of Human Rights and Democracy through Higher Education programs.
These are lofty ideas, yet the fact that serious discussions are taking place points to the resoluteness of Yemenis to move forward in bettering their society. The first four of these objectives could be achieved in short to mid term time frames. The last two are in the long term range. Nonetheless, if these goals are to come to fruition, priorities will have to be decided. However, the commitment and the participation of leaders from all walks of life will be the key ingredient to any success. These leaders have to be on board and must be made to realize the importance of heavy investment in education and in expanded enrollment of studies of both genders and the link of these factors to the future economic growth and prosperity of Yemen.
Strengthening Higher Education:
University education in Yemen should remain wedded to what universities were intended to be, that is a place where long term views of development, research and soul searching take place. If universities are made to respond to the vagaries of the markets, then would we ever have graduates of arts, poetry, literature, anthropology and so forth? The self-evident question is not because there are no apparent demands from the market for these fields. Yet these areas of study are fundamental to the fabric of the Yemeni society and to its ability to know and learn from its history so as to shape it and protect it for future generations. Opening new universities and consequently spreading thin resources even more thinly may not be a desirable goal. Strengthening these already existing seven public universities and providing the needed infrastructure for the private ones while allowing for different universities to specialize in different areas may be a viable solution. I would not go so far as to put a moratorium on opening new universities, but quality rather than quantity should be the guiding principle. Some fields in university studies can also be made to respond to labor market demand but on a more long-term basis. The emphasized role of universities ought to remain twofold. In the short-run, universities should provide the necessary intellectual and analytical rigor required for a meaningful contribution to society. In the long-run, research should be the focal point of university's existence.
However, vocational, technical, as well colleges should be made to respond to the immediate needs and demands of the labor market. In this regard the involvement of the private sector is a key ingredient. The establishment of nation-wide public Technical Community Colleges would be one such response. Hence, a parallel University/College system which allows students to choose depending on their preferences and abilities seems to be in order. Private colleges should only fill any gap left by the publicly funded ones. With the economic means of most Yemenis, accessibility to higher education will prove to be a deciding factor for many.
Moreover, more and more women have also to be incorporated in the technical and vocational areas. To date, most Yemeni women graduates, regardless of area of study, hope to become at best executive secretaries. Why should the literacy rate of Yemeni women (illiteracy of women hovering around 70-80%) increase if they are ever doomed to being secretaries? The talents of Yemeni women can be better utilized by appreciating their expertise and capability of bearing responsibilities according to their education, skills, knowledge, ability, and dedication and not by the sole criterion of gender.
Benefits for Democracy and Human Rights:
Most rich countries are democratic and most democracies are rich. This clichŽ becomes even more true if we say that, most skilled nations are not only rich but also democratic. As people develop better skills, their earning potential increases. With higher incomes people will demand better education, health, and transparency of governmental institutions, namely more democratic institutions and society. Good examples of where this has taken place are the cases of South Korea and Indonesia. Of course, this pattern was long established in all of the now industrialized countries.
Bright Future Ahead:
Before Singapore became a small rich and highly skilled island, it was simply an underdeveloped, 'backward', and agrarian society. Within thirty years Singapore has become an economy and a nation to be reckoned with because leaders of that country have realized the importance of investing in education and technical skills training. The example of countries that fit this profile is numerous, including most of the so-called Asian Tiger countries. Yemen has always been a country that relied on its human rather natural resources. Investing in higher education and skills training will be the ticket to Yemen's future economic growth and social and political stability. It may not be far fetched to imagine that foreign investment will come to seek skilled, strategically located, and equally important, cheap source of labor where a major part of the region's products and eventually services can be produced ..i.e. a hub of Arabian peninsula where Yemen becomes within the next 20 years a Low Skilled Equilibrium country, where products of lower quality and lower cost are produced. This within itself will be a giant step forward and a bit ambitious, but nonetheless achievable.