BY: FAHMIA AL-FOTAIH
AND MOHAMMED ALMASANI
YEMEN TIMES STAFF
The richness of Arab heritage is something to be searched by Yemeni artists: creative people like Ms. Jenan Mohammed Jerjis, an Iraqi-born resident of Yemen who has known a love of art ever since she can remember. Since the age of 7, she had a small dream, one that has grown year after year, and now is going to see the light.
With a winning smile she received Fahmia Taha Al-Fotih of Yemen Times was received with a smile by Ms. Jenan at her office, which she has made like a museum showcasing civilizations from Africa, Yemen, Egypt and Iraq.
Among this romantic and historic atmosphere, she talked to us.

YT: Could you introduce yourself please?
Jenan: I am Jenan Mohammed Jerjis born in Baghdad, brought up in a family with most of its members as artists. My husband is also an author and critic and has artful taste. I have graduated from arts college artificial section. I studied paintings and I am interested in designing clothes for the theater and decoration as well. I like colors and everything that is old. I have had Qertaga prize for clothes and Al-montada prize for clothes also. Now I am MA student in Arwa university studying policy.

YT: How do you find Yemeni heritage and the its current state?
Jenan: On one hand, I consider the Yemeni culture is the mother of the other Arab cultures as Yemen is part of Arabia?s origin. I believe that there is a variety everywhere, however Yemeni culture is richly variable. On the other hand, I have visited the National Yemeni Museum and I find out that most of the Yemeni legacy is either lost and buried or ignored or sometimes in the hands which cannot appreciate its historical value.

YT: Do you think that there is a contradiction between art and policy?
Jenan: I think there is a relationship between them. The artist looks differently and deeply at things and produces something useful for the public as well as the politician.

YT: Could tell us about your project please?
Jenan: In fact, it is a big project and it needs governmental support. The idea is that we want to build and open ?Folklore Houseî in which we can gather Yemen history from the Sheba and Hymerits eras to the time now, of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In other words, join the past and the present in one place through which we can show our history in an honorable way to all people either Yemeni, Arab or foreigner.
In addition, this house is not only for show but also is considered to be responsible for spreading the history and the Yemeni tradition through TV, radio, and magazines and through festivals. We also want to make a limitation for the archeology in a book.
One of the functions of this house is to contain a factory in which one can see traditional clothes and try to recreate, renew and make them fashionable and suitable for the present. We can teach each other our history without giving any lecture. This can be done, for example, be drawing a jambia on a T-shirt, cup, or ashtray.
Actually, they?re many things we can achieve through this project and I would like to make a folklore house for not only for Yemen but also for the rest of the Arabs. In that way we can represent the Arab world in any cultural occasion outside. When we achieve this, Arabs can move inside the Arab world without passports, and thus we could somehow break the political barriers and create economic unity.

YT: What are the obstacles that you have faced?
Jenan: My project has been hampered for four years. It is a huge project and it needs great capital. However, this time the Kanan association and Yemeni businesswomen have adopted the project hoping that it sees the light.
YT: Do you take others opinion in consideration?
Jenan: I take the opinions of people closest to me and I usually take my husband's. But I care so much for my opinion.

BY ABDUL KADER BAGUNAID
FOR THE YEMEN TIMES
So, just how good is music in Yemen? Pretty darn good, according to local experts.
The author of the book “The Songs” mentions that Yemeni people refer to their singing as Alas Bin Zaid De-Gaden. He assumed that De-Gaden was the first one who had sung about Yemen and that he was one of its kings. He was titled De-Gaden for the beauty of his voice. In Yemen De-Gaden means the nice voice.
Yemen’s old singing is al-Hemyari. It means the music of the Hemyarids. Similarly, the latter means the music of the Hanafids.
“The Tunisian Songs” tells us that it is obvious that singing and music are regarded as the most important necessities.
They were always considering the Yemeni musicians and the Hadhramids singers as professional singers. The researcher Dr. Hussein Nassar says in his book “Arabic Popular Poetry” that Yemenis had provided the popular arts with an excellent immortal literature that was sung in each place wherever they settled before and after Islam.
The capable Yemeni poet, the late Abdullah al-Baraddouni identified al-Zamel, that it is from the current dailies of life through which the face of life mixes with the voice of man and that life develops with man as man develops with life.
Dr. Samah al-Kholly mentioned in the “Heritage of the International Music” which she had translated, that the primitive nations in the prehistoric ages had planted the seeds of which the high level of music in the East and the West came from.

Thomas Froese
Recently my wife and I have had wishes over the email for ‘peace and quiet’ and ‘safety and peace.’ Indeed, with the Internet, one can’t keep anything secret anymore. Online newspapers around the globe have reported recent activities in Yemen, specifically bombs sent by Sympathizers of al-Qaeda to warn some government officials.

When these things are reported in places like Canada, folks back home worry. But from this side of the ocean, one does learn to take these things in stride. Consider after the tragic attacks on America on Sept. 11, an embassy official in the region sent a no-nonsense email to Canadians to get out of Yemen without delay. Within 24 hours that changed to ‘please disregard the previous warning.’

Alerts
Alerts from other embassies also tend to be equally clear as mud. What’s more important is to keep in mind is this: most Yemeni realize Westerners among them are here to help. And it’s good to also remember that life is uncertain regardless of where one lives.

You or I might get hit by a truck while crossing the street for that matter, whether that be in Yemen, Canada, or at a penguin crossing in Antartica. Indeed, in Yemen, with 1,300 traffic deaths a year, an accident is a far more likely way to go than a bomb.

Accidents up in Third World
In the last 15 years, largely because of safer cars and the use of seat-belts, traffic deaths in many countries are down. Sadly, that’s not the case in the developing world where in the same time period, accidents are up: 40 per cent in Asia, 36 per cent in the Middle East, 26 per cent in Africa and 16 per cent in Latin America, according to the Transportation Research Laboratory, a body which monitors global traffic trends.

I got a kick out of reading one particular consular warning about driving here. It reads, in part, “within cities, mini-vans and small buses pick up and drop off passengers with little regard for other vehicles. Despite traffic lights and traffic police, each intersection requires an act of negotiation. Yemen has no laws governing turns on red lights, maintaining lanes, merging or right-of-way. Drivers commonly drive on the wrong side of the road.”

The warning continues, “Many underage drivers are on the roads. Many vehicles are in poor repair and lack functional turn signals, headlights, taillights, and brake lights. Pedestrians, especially children, and animals, constitute hazards. Major inter-city roads are paved and maintained in fair condition, but rural roads generally require four-wheel drives or vehicles with high clearance.”

They forgot to mention passengers hanging precariously from backs and sides of trucks, a practice that’s particularly treacherous on narrow mountain roads. Overloaded motorcycles with drivers and passengers wearing flip-flops are a precious sight. I always enjoy the windshields on cabs that are cracked like topographical maps. And let’s not forget the fumes.

No drunk drivers
The good news is that since alcohol is banned in Yemen. Unlike in North America or Europe, you’ll never get hit by a drunk driver here. Also, I’m encouraged to know that kidnappings on rural roads are down. Besides, even if one gets picked up, these fellows do have a reputation for treating their so-called guests very well. Don’t they?

I’m not trying to trivialize the importance of being safe. Nor am I suggesting Yemen is the most dangerous place in the world to drive. What I am saying is that short of getting around the planet on a flying carpet, life does have inherent risks. And most have nothing to do bombs going off.

Furthermore, when people try to get through life playing it safe, they actually only create more insecurity. And that is too bad, especially for people who have never visited the developing world. There is such a large need for more skilled people from around the world to offer their help here.

Some, of course, come regardless of what they hear. For example, as I write this, I have a friend visiting from Canada. He’s looking at donating some much-needed health care equipment and training. He had read about some of Yemen’s security concerns before his arrival. But he came anyway. That’s because, having traveled in other parts of the developing world, he could keep things in perspective.

You want security?
In the end, if it’s security in life that people want, as former American president Dwight Eisenhower said, there are ways to get it. Staying in prison is one. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing you don’t get is freedom.

Personally, I prefer life on the outside. It seems to me that it’s the best way to live. After a while, in fact, it becomes quite hard to get a good night’s rest anywhere else.

Thomas Froese, (140765@sympatico.ca), is an editor with the Yemen Times. He returns in September.