Tawfeek al-Shara’abi
Yemen Times
It is quite certain that tourism has become a key resource leading to countries’ welfare. Many a country is highly aware of its importance and effectiveness in backing up its economy achieving the welfare of the societies concerned. It is more effective than oil as it has no negative consequences and outcomes left over. Some countries depend mainly on tourism as the main source of income. Through tourism the country as well as the people gains a lot. It can be safely generalized that all the individuals of a given society partake of their share of this wealth if it is utilized properly. It is a shame to say that a country like Yemen, distinguished for its great civilization deeply rooted in history, is not giving this issue its due attention.
I have had the chance to visit many cities and villages with tourists and friends, and every time I have felt a sense of pity. On all the occasions I have come to see great things admired and loved by tourists. However, all could not hide their sense of resentment of the kind of treatment they find while traveling at the checkpoints and later in the hands of soldiers who are engaged to escort them to the places they want to visit.
Bad security measures are the crucial reason that makes many tourists “hate” coming to Yemen despite their high esteem about the great civilization that Yemen once was. Some end their tour thanking God for being safe. Others say that they had “sweet but sour memories”.
A rough, rigid face is the first thing they have to encounter as they stop at the checkpoint. “janneb” meaning “pull over” is the very first sentence the soldier at the check-point articulates. Tourists, then, have to stay for hours waiting for an escort car that does nothing but intensifies their fears moving behind them or in front at a break-neck speed.
To add insult to injury, soon or all of a sudden this escort car disappears and tourists find themselves all alone. If this escort car is at all to accompany them, it reaches a specific place where it stops them and makes them wait for the other escort car that belongs to the next governorate. Thus, tourists sometimes have to wait for hours at places where there is almost nothing to see or no arrangements to protect them from the heat of the Sun. Can you believe that we spent eight hours driving from Sa’adah to Sana’a which would normally take three or at most four hours? The extra four hours were due to bad security measures as they forced us to wait for four hours waiting for the other escort car that belong to Amran governorate.
As a matter of fact, security men and measures working to protect tourists have proven utter failure. Those supposed to protect them and make them feel secure are the very ones who make them feel frightened. Hence, at the end of their tour, some tourists feel content to come out of this experience making up their minds not to come back again. I wonder if people in charge are at all aware of this!
Yemen is losing millions of dollars by this phenomenon and bad administration. Therefore, good administration and amicable treatment of tourists are a must to back up tourism industry in the country. Good treatment can never be achieved unless awareness promotion programs are launched to teach these “shrewd” and “brave” security men in checkpoints how to behave with tourists. The people have also to understand that tourism is good for them and that they get a lot out of it. Car drivers, antiquities sellers, restaurant owners, hotel owners etc. all are benefiting from tourists. An independent security made for the very purpose can be a good and effective alternative. Escort cars are to stop at places where public facilities are available and not in almost deserted places. The security authorities continuous’ negligence to such important little things cost Yemen and its people a lot. Besides, security men at checkpoints take it as a precedent to carry on with their unprincipled manners. Escorts cars and soldiers asking for money every now and then is a low practice that should be stopped right away if we want to reflect a good picture of our beloved country.
This might all vaporize in thin air, unless the authorities concerned take serious note of it. It is our duty to expose such foibles and pin hopes on the high officials to take this on board to save a deteriorating tourism industry in our country. The point is “Is anybody listening to me?”

COMMON SENSE
By: Hassan Al-Haifi
Perhaps one of the apparent traits of President William Clinton is that if he sets his mind on something, he will consider it a personal setback if he does not see it through. After eight years of seemingly endless unfruitful meetings, informal and non-formal chats, shuttle diplomacy and diplomatic get-togethers, it would seem that there is just no way that the quest for a final Middle East peace settlement can get out of the agendas of things to do for the Clinton Administration before packing its bags for the end of a successful Presidency, with many successful triumphs and accomplishments to garnish the “Clinton Legacy”. But anyone not used to feeling the itch of failure is bound to try to seek some way out of leaving the Middle East Peace process on hold for the next Administration to have to really start from scratch. That is probably what the Israelis were hopeful for anyway, believing at earlier stages that the Gore Lieberman Team would be just the right administration for such a termination of the most frustrating peace effort ever attempted.
But, perhaps Mr. Clinton’s perseverance, despite the stalling instigated by the Sharon visit to the Al-Haram Al-Sharif, subsequently leading to the latest Intifada, or civil protest by the Palestinians, is a sincere effort to insure that at least all the past years’ strides, if they may be called that, should not be thrown out the window, or to help facilitate the task somewhat for the incoming Bush Administration by at least setting a foundation stone from which the “final talks” could proceed accordingly. Thus, Mr. Clinton insisted on a last “pressure cooker” diplomatic effort to set the basis for the final settlement, based on some proposals worked out by the Clinton Administration, the terms of which are still publicly unclear, especially amidst the contradictory statements on these proposals coming out of both the Palestinian and the Israeli camps, none of which shed light on the full details of the proposals and what gains or concessions are to be perceived for both sides. In light of the short time span left for the Clinton Presidency and in view of the complexity of the issues involved, it would be difficult that any finale could be seen in the near horizon, especially as the statements coming from both sides have not shown any consistency of thought or feelings by many of the spokesmen who have aired their views about them.
As stated earlier, the Israelis are facing some very hard choices and maybe they are also confronted by some fundamental political developments that do not necessarily imply that the Israeli-American love affair has terminated, by any means, but surely is facing some serious groundwork for strategic planners on both the Arab and Israeli side. Of course, Israelis will be the quicker to realize this than their Arab counterparts. This entails the need for coping with new situations that may not be so favorable to the Israelis in the long run. This becomes evident, especially more so, when considering that the “Sharon visit” was based on the assumption that a Democratic Administration was to occupy the Executive Branch of the US Government, possibly with Joseph Lieberman well in line to be the next President of the United States, and thus providing greater support for any Israeli positions for at least the next eight years.
While no one expects a complete turnaround in the middle East policy of the United States in the Middle East by the Bush Administration, it is worth noting that the Bush Administration is under less pressure to accommodate the very strong Zionist lobby in the United States, especially as that lobby could not have been of any use to the Bush campaign, in the very edgy fight for the Presidential Office and may in fact have been very instrumental in coaxing the Al Gore Campaign to drag out the tough legal fight for the State of Florida Electors to the last minute decisive ruling of the US Supreme Court. Whatever the case may be, it is not hard to discern that the Bush Administration will carry on the Middle East policy with some variation to the theme, with Israel having to look for greater balancing support among the other institutions of American government through its faithful American Zionist lobby. But even that will be facing some difficulty, especially as the “Intifada” continues to tarnish the polished public media image, which the Israelis have long enjoyed in the Western Press, especially in the United States, where American public opinion has access now to wider channels of communications and coverage of the Middle East “crisis” and Israeli atrocities and arrogance have become standard news items, almost on a daily basis, most of which contradicts the heretofore David and Goliath myth and the image of the champion of human rights amidst hostile barbarians, by which the Arabs have been respectively characterized.
Therefore the Israelis are looking for some kind of a way out of the existing situation, which they created based on different arithmetic; i.e., the Intifada, but not really for a final settlement as Mr. Clinton might hope to reach. The Israelis want the Intifada to stop, by any means, but a final settlement is still far in the back of their minds, because they have yet to reach their final quest for the “Promised Land” of Eretz Israel, which they perceive to extend from the Nile to the Euphrates, if not beyond. That is why they have all those settlements dotted all over the West Bank and surely have no intention of abandoning, notwithstanding what might be jeopardized accordingly, unless they are literally compelled to do so by the United States – the only force that decisively can influence Israeli political or strategic decisions, as was the case in Sinai, during the Camp David accords and the 1956 Arab – Israeli (& British and French). For the Palestinians, a final settlement is, rightfully, a long sought quest, but how much more can a people give up, after having already lost so much and bore so much loss of life, agony, pride and whatever dignity was left after being victims of so many wars and occupations by so many different powers over the ages, none of which have reached the menacing ferocity and indiscriminate disregard for human rights, moral values and human dignity, as witnessed throughout the last century in the latest invasion by the Israelis, fostered and cradled by the very modern powers that claim to be the champions of human rights and civil liberties, namely Great Britain, as the initiator, and the United States, as the tireless sustainer and backer? Yet, given the present situation and the present global arena, and the poor policy and strategic thinking of the other Arab states and the lack of meaningful coordinated support of the latter, the Palestinians are also willing to assist the American Administrations, whether lame duck or just settling in office, as much as possible to realize their diplomatic successes, but how much can be compromised when you have to make decisions that are tied to emotional attachments, not just of Palestinians, but neighboring Arab States, and an entire World Moslem population, that has gone on record by declaring that sovereignty over Jerusalem is a decision that must be made, not just by the Palestine Liberation Organization, Chairman Yassir Arafat or even the Palestinians, but by a billion other Moslem and probably another billion Christian inhabitants of other parts of the Earth, who may not be keen on having the Holy City of Jerusalem under the sovereignty of a notorious vandalistic regime as the Zionist regime has proven to be so far.
Yet, the Israelis are expected to try to hold on to whatever concessions they have squeezed out of the Palestinians to date and want these to be the starting point of the next efforts to reach a final peace settlement, rather than to start all over again, under a Bush Administration, which has gone on record and stated during the political campaign for the Presidency that it will work for a just and final peaceful settlement of the Middle East problem, was a lot less than the what the platform of their competitors vied for – continued and unquestioned support for the Zionist state, with the absence of the words, just, peaceful and final settlement in any of their speeches. Chances are that the tireless Mr. Clinton will have to do with the poor luck he had on the Middle East issue, but it is hoped that the American people will clearly realize now that, in the end, it was their spoiled friend that let them down, as usual, and not the Palestinian people who really have nothing else left to give up except their moral fiber and human dignity. The Israelis have already taken quite a lot of the latter.

Ali Yousef Al- sharif
Sana’a Yemen
The uniqueness of our beautiful Island of Socotra is fascinating in all aspects of nature and culture. Its tourism potential is remarkable but there is much work to be done to bring it to the standard of other cities in the country. The fruit of unification has spared no pains in giving all attention and care by building a new airport, roads, communication facilities, sports club and medical clinics. But as indicated earlier there are a lot more important tasks to be carried out on priority basis. As far as I know, the UNDP has undertaken an environmental conservation project, presumably on marine eco-system and has provided medical facilities including ambulances. The issue, which I wish to emphasize here, relates to the lack of protection of rare plants and trees.
It is a known fact that traditionally as a practice to meet domestic daily needs, the villagers including those who live in the city of Socotra use fire wood heavily as their dependable source of energy instead of butane gas. Yet it is only available in the city and too expensive for the common man. Consequently, a large number of trees are cut on a daily basis.
This unfortunate phenomenon indeed constitutes a threat to the existence of rare birds and would lead eventually to an extinction of wild animals and precious plants. The beauty of nature once destroyed, will remain destroyed forever. I simply cannot imagine the depth of the wound. We cannot simply let a slow-death situation go unprevented in this magnificent Island of Socotra.
In view of the above mentioned circumstances, I am of the opinion that the government should ensure that bottled butane gas are made available at the subsidized price in every corner of the Island as a part of a measure to embark on discouraging citizens from cutting trees to fulfill fuel requirements.
If at all this does not reflect in the policy of the state, the concerned authorities may approach UNDP and seek technical assistance, in training people of the area to use BioGas. This amazing method of obtaining energy through animal’s waste is being used in the Republic of Kenya, Pakistan and other developing countries and especially in rural areas. The nature of this project demands people to raise livestock in their environment or homes. Our brothers in Socotra perfectly meet these criteria. I am certain, this sustainable project once introduced villagers will embrace it, the nature of this project aims at minimizing the economic and social problems as well as negative environmental consequences. I believe women would not need trees to obtain fire for home use nor require so much time to fetch firewood in the forest, but rather spend more time at home. Evidently, the project will improve villagers’ living condition.
I must pen off now! I am running out of time but before quitting, would like to tell Mr. President that, if given the tools, I shall be able to implement the whole process of the environment program.